The Conversation

The seeds of the alt-right, America's emergent right-wing populist movement

Written by George Michael, Professor of Criminal Justice, Westfield State University

Clockwise, from left: White nationalist William Pence, domestic terrorist Timothy McVeigh, white nationalist Richard Spencer, British journalist Milo Yiannopoulos, professor Kevin MacDonald, and Breitbart News founder Andrew Breitbart.Nick Lehr/The Conversation, CC BY-NC-SA

In recent months, far-right activists – which some have labeled the...

What's the history of sanctuary spaces and why do they matter?

Written by Elizabeth Allen, Associate Professor of English, University of California, Irvine

In the wake of the election of Donald Trump as president, faculty, students and alumni across the country are pressuring their administrations to declare “sanctuary campuses” for undocumented students, workers and their families.

Trump has said he would repeal the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA). Under the program,...

Why the Democrats won't win the House in 2018

Written by Anthony McGann, Professor of Government and Public Policy, Strathclyde University

The result of the presidential election may have taken some people by surprise, but the fact that Republicans retained control of the House of Representatives was completely predictable.

Republicans would have retained the House almost regardless of who voters supported for president, barring an improbable landslide. As we argue in our book “G...

Why kids younger than 12 don't need OTC cough and cold remedies

Written by Edward Bell, Professor of Pharmacy Practice, Drake University

Little boy with a cold. From www.shutterstock.com

The common cold season is here, and if you have children, you will likely feel their suffering from these annoying upper respiratory tract viral infections. Children experience more colds, about six to 10 annually, than adults. With each cold producing symptoms of nasal congestion, runny nose, cough...

With waning US leadership on climate, nonstate actors to play outsize role

Written by Kenneth Shockley, Associate Professor and Holmes Rolston III Professor of Environmental Ethics and Philosophy, Colorado State University

Civil society and other groups, such as academics and businesses, stand to play a bigger role in how the countries of the world address climate change.Photo by IISD/ENB | Liz Rubin

Until recently, the international climate negotiation process revolved strictly around high-level conversations between nation states. However, this is changing in a way...

How much should air traffic controllers trust new flight management systems?

Written by Tannaz Mirchi, Human Factors Engineer, Lecturer in Psychology, California State University, Long Beach

With airfares at their lowest point in seven years and airlines adding capacity, this year’s Thanksgiving air travel is slated to be 2.5 percent busier than last year. Between Nov. 18 and 29, 27.3 million Americans are expected to take to the skies.

The system we use to coordinate all those flights carrying all those Thanksgiving travelers...

The two men who almost derailed New England's first colonies

Written by Peter C. Mancall, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of the Humanities, University of Southern California – Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

Jennie A. Brownscombe's 'The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth' (1914).Wikimedia Commons

There is no holiday more American than Thanksgiving – and perhaps none with origins so shrouded in comforting myths.

The story is simple enough. In 1620 a group of English Protestant dissenters known as Pilgrims arrived in what’s now Massachusetts to...

It wasn't just 'fake news' presenting a fake Hillary Clinton

Written by Leigh Gilmore, Distinguished Visiting Professor of Women's and Gender Studies, Wellesley College

Did we hold Clinton to an unreasonably high standard?AP Photo/Matt Rourke

Despite Hillary Clinton’s long and demonstrable commitment to public service and liberal reform, many voters in the 2016 presidential election were persuaded that she was corrupt, mercenary and even murderous. A sinister Hillary Clinton dominated conservative media, but...

Trump may reverse US climate policy but will have trouble dismantling EPA

Written by Sarah Anderson, Associate Professor of Environmental Politics, University of California, Santa Barbara

EPA personnel collect water samples along the Louisiana coast after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spillEric Vance, US EPA/Flickr

During the Republican primary debates, President-elect Trump threatened to gut the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), saying, “We are going to get rid of it in almost every form. We’re going to have...

Confirmation bias: A psychological phenomenon that helps explain why pundits got it wrong

Written by Ray Nickerson, Research Professor of Psychology, Tufts University

Like wearing psychological blinders.Horse image via www.shutterstock.com.

As post mortems of the 2016 presidential election began to roll in, fingers started pointing to what psychologists call the confirmation bias as one reason many of the polls and pundits were wrong in their predictions of which candidate would end up victorious.

Confirmation...