The Conversation

I went on a Voodoo pilgrimage in Haiti

Written by Guilberly Louissaint, Anthropology Ph.d Student, University of California, Irvine

Haiti's black saint known as Grann Sainte Anne Charitable in her European Catholic form and Ti Saint Anne, in Vodoo form.Guilberly Louissaint, CC BY

In July, hundreds of pilgrims will make their way to an isolated town in the northwest of Haiti, called Anse-à-Foleur or Ansafolè. The journey celebrates a black saint known as Gran'n...

Ack! I need chocolate! The science of PMS food cravings

Written by Sara Twogood, Assistant Professor of Obstetrics & Gynecology, University of Southern California

What makes chips and chocolate so appealing at certain times of the month?Ken Tannenbaum/Shutterstock.com

Premenstrual food cravings are the punchline of endless jokes. Like most good jokes, they’re funny because they’re true.

Certain parts of a woman’s menstrual cycle do seem to go hand in hand with the desire for chocolate ice...

After Supreme Court decision, gerrymandering fix is up to voters

Written by John Rennie Short, Professor, School of Public Policy, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

The Supreme Court is empty days before the justices vote to on the U.S. gerrymandering case.AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

In a 5-4 decision the Supreme Court has ruled that partisan gerrymandering is not unconstitutional.

The majority ruled that gerrymandering is outside the scope and power of the federal courts to adjudicate. The issue is a...

Supreme Court says gerrymandering fix up to voters, not judges

Written by John Rennie Short, Professor, School of Public Policy, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

The Supreme Court is empty days before the justices vote to on the U.S. gerrymandering case.AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

In a 5-4 decision the Supreme Court has ruled that partisan gerrymandering is not unconstitutional.

The majority ruled that gerrymandering is outside the scope and power of the federal courts to adjudicate. The issue is a...

The Flores settlement: A 1985 case that sets the rules for how government can treat migrant children

Written by Kevin Johnson, Dean and Professor of Public Interest Law and Chicana/o Studies, University of California, Davis

Migrant children outside a temporary shelter for unaccompanied children in Florida, May 2019.AP/Wilfredo Lee

What are the basic rules that determine how immigrant children are treated in U.S. immigration detention?

The Trump administration’s detention of migrant children in poor conditions along the U.S./Mexico border has repeatedly raised...

Why lead is dangerous, and the damage it does

Written by Christopher P. Holstege, Professor of Emergency Medicine and Pediatrics, University of Virginia

Two house painters in hazmat suits remove lead paint from an old house. Jamie Hooper/Shutterstock.com

Everything is a toxin, or has the potential to be, in the field of toxicology. In the 1500s, Swiss physician Paracelsus, the father of toxicology, coined his famous dictum: “What is there that is not poison? All things are poison and nothing...

I've started acknowledging the people who lived on this land first – and you should too

Written by Chip Colwell, Lecturer on Anthropology, University of Colorado Denver

It's unlikely your ancestors were the first to set foot here.Fred Harvey, Kansas City/ Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division

In Toronto, before singing “O Canada,” students and teachers in public schools begin their day by acknowledging that they are on the traditional lands of the Anishinaabe, Haundenosaunee Confederacy...

How the Flint water crisis set students back

Written by Marilynne R Wood, Professor, University of Toledo

When the Flint water crisis took place in 2014 and 2015, one of my graduate nursing students decided to get involved.

Having already worked with me in the Greater Toledo area to screen children at risk for lead poisoning, my student helped conduct blood lead level screenings of the children exposed to the water. Test results later showed that the...

Should you be tested for HIV? Why June 27 is a good day to do it

Written by Jodi Sutherland, Clinical assistant professor, Binghamton University, State University of New York

A woman whose blood is being drawn to test for HIV.U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development/flickr

June 27 is National HIV Testing Day. Have you been tested?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that of the estimated 1.1 million people in the United States who have the HIV infection, 1 in 7 don’t know their status.

That is...

Should Southern Baptist women be preachers? A centuries old controversy finds new life

Written by Susan M. Shaw, Professor of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Oregon State University

Members at the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in 2017, in PhoenixAP Photo/Ross D. Franklin

Southern Baptists are arguing again over the role women should play in the church.

Following a tweet from popular Southern Baptist speaker, teacher and writer Beth Moore that suggested she was preaching at a Southern Baptist church, many Baptist...