The Conversation

Tit-for-tat gerrymandering wars won’t end soon – what happens in Texas and California doesn’t stay there

Written by Gibbs Knotts, Professor of Political Science, Coastal Carolina University

Texas state Rep. Gene Wu, D-Houston, during debate over a redrawn U.S. congressional map, Aug. 20, 2025, in Austin. AP Photo/Eric Gay

Congressional redistricting – the process of drawing electoral districts to account for population changes – was conceived by the Founding Fathers as a once-per-decade redrawing of district lines...

Wildfire disasters are increasingly in the news, yet less land is burning globally – here’s why

Written by Mojtaba Sadegh, Associate Professor of Civil Engineering; Senior Fellow at the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health, Boise State University

Residents try to put out flames as a wildfire threatens homes in Quito, Ecuador, in September 2024.AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa

Worldwide, an estimated 440 million people were exposed to a wildfire encroaching on their home at some point between 2002 and 2021, new research shows. That’s roughly equivalent to the entire population of the European...

By ‘focusing on the family,’ James Dobson helped propel US evangelicals back into politics – making the Religious Right into the cultural force it is today

Written by Richard Flory, Executive Director, Center for Religion and Civic Culture, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, participates in the National Day of Prayer ceremony at the White House on May 3, 2007.Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

For decades, one name was ubiquitous in American evangelical homes: Focus on the Family. A media empire with millions of listeners and readers, its messages about parenting, marriage and...

Parenting strategies are shifting as neuroscience brings the developing brain into clearer focus

Written by Nancy L. Weaver, Professor of Behavioral Science, Saint Louis University

Grocery stores are a common source of tantrums and meltdowns.Cavan Images/Cavan via Getty Images

A friend offhandedly told me recently, “It’s so easy to get my daughter to behave after her birthday – there are so many new toys to take away when she’s bad!”

While there is certainly an appeal to such a powerful parenting...

‘These people do it naturally’: President Trump’s views on immigrant farmworkers reflect a long history of how farming has been idealized and practiced in America

Written by Doug Sackman, Professor of History, University of Puget Sound

Farmworkers harvest celery on March 9, 2024, in Yuma, Ariz.John Moore/Getty Images

The Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign has not spared the U.S. agricultural industry, with agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement frequently raiding farms across the country in search of undocumented workers.

Now, farmers are facing a cris...

Studying philosophy does make people better thinkers, according to new research on more than 600,000 college grads

Written by Michael Vazquez, Teaching Assistant Professor of Philosophy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Students take a philosophy test in Strasbourg, France, on June 18, 2024.Frederick Florin/AFP via Getty Images

Philosophy majors rank higher than all other majors on verbal and logical reasoning, according to our new study published in the Journal of the American Philosophical Association. They also tend to display more intellectual virtues such as...

Why America still needs public schools

Written by Sidney Shapiro, Professor of Law, Wake Forest University

While the White House’s fight with elite universities such as Columbia and Harvard has recently dominated the headlines, the feud overshadows the broader and more far-reaching assault on K-12 public education by the Trump administration and many states.

The Trump administration has gutted the Department of Education, imperiling efforts to prot...

Hulk Hogan’s daughter can’t write herself out of the wrestler’s will – but she can refuse to take his money

Written by Reid Kress Weisbord, Distinguished Professor of Law and Judge Norma Shapiro Scholar, Rutgers University - Newark

The outspoken wrestler attends a news conference in 2014.Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images

When professional wrestler and former reality TV star Hulk Hogan died on July 24, 2025, he left behind a grieving widow, two ex-wives, two children, two grandchildren he reportedly never met and a US$25 million fortune. He was 71 years old and died after...

State Department layoffs could hurt US companies’ ability to compete globally – an economist explains why

Written by Carey Durkin Treado, Associate Teaching Professor of Economics, University of Pittsburgh

When more than 1,300 people at the U.S. State Department lost their jobs in a mass firing this summer, most headlines focused on what it meant for American diplomacy. But the layoffs are about more than embassies and foreign policy – they could also make it harder for U.S. companies to compete in global markets.

The July layoffs – part...

Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Born to Run’ still speaks to a nation vacillating between hope and despair

Written by Louis P. Masur, Distinguished Professor of American Studies and History, Rutgers University

Bruce Springsteen performs in Atlanta on Aug. 22, 1975, during the 'Born to Run' tour. Tom Hill/WireImage via Getty Images

I was 18 when Bruce Springsteen’s third album, “Born to Run,” was released 50 years ago, and it couldn’t have come at a better time.

I’d just finished my freshman year in college, and I was lost....