The Conversation

3 ways to improve education about slavery in the US

Written by Tiffany Mitchell Patterson, Assistant Professor of Secondary Social Studies, West Virginia University

Textbooks often do a poor job when it comes to teaching students about slavery in the U.S.Dusan Pavlic from www.shutterstock.com

When it comes to teaching students about slavery in the United States, teachers often stumble through the topic. In the worst cases, they use poorly conceived lessons that end up inflaming students, parents and...

Why Muslim women wear a hijab: 3 essential reads

Written by Kalpana Jain, Senior Religion + Ethics Editor

A student on the campus of the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, trying out the hijab on World Hijab Day, 2017.AP Photo/Russell Contreras

In 2013, Nazma Khan – who immigrated to the United States from Bangladesh at age of 11 – started World Hijab Day. Growing up in the Bronx, New York, Khan experienced discrimination because of...

Who’s smoking now, and why it matters

Written by Kenneth E. Warner, Professor Emeritus of Public Health, University of Michigan

A man at a recovery center in Youngstown, Ohio, smokes a cigarette, June 15, 2017.David Dermer/AP Photo

Suppose you were told that there is something responsible for nearly 1 of every 5 deaths of Americans, and that it is completely avoidable. Would you believe – today – that “something” is cigarette smoking?

If...

Odds of military coup in Venezuela rise every day Maduro stays in office

Written by Clayton Besaw, Political Science Researcher, University of Central Florida

It would be reasonable to expect the worst for Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s embattled president.

Two weeks after Maduro’s re-inauguration, opposition leader Juan Gauidó has declared himself the country’s rightful president. The power struggle follows a failed military mutiny against Maduro, whose easy re-election in...

Facebook is a persuasion platform that's changing the advertising rulebook

Written by Saleem Alhabash, Associate Professor of Advertising + Public Relations, Michigan State University

Doesn't take much thought to tap in those 'likes.'sitthiphong/Shutterstock.com

Facebook – the social network that started in a Harvard dorm room 15 years ago – has evolved into a media and advertising giant. It’s helped create a new age of precise consumer insights. With over 2 billion users worldwide, Facebook can offer granular...

The Fed changed its strategy on interest rates – here's what it means

Written by Thomas Gilbert, Associate Professor of Finance and Business Economics, University of Washington

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell speaks at a news conference.AP Photo/Alex Brandon

The Federal Reserve just took the monetary policy equivalent of a sharp 90-degree turn.

On Jan. 30, the U.S. central bank signaled that it was done raising benchmark interest rates after two years of aggressive rate hikes. As such, the Fed held its target rate...

Protecting the world's wetlands: 5 essential reads

Written by Jennifer Weeks, Environment + Energy Editor, The Conversation

Marshes at Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge on Maryland's Eastern Shore.Ataraxy22/Wikimedia, CC BY-SA

World Wetlands Day on Feb. 2 marks the date when 18 nations signed the Convention on Wetlands in 1971, in the Iranian city of Ramsar on the shores of the Caspian Sea. Since that time, scientists have shown that wetlands provide many valuable...

Capturing carbon to fight climate change is dividing environmentalists

Written by Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Georgetown University

Environmental activists are teaming up with fresh faces in Congress to advocate for a Green New Deal, a bundle of policies that would fight climate change while creating new jobs and reducing inequality. Not all of the activists agree on what those policies ought to be.

Some 626 environmental groups, including Greenpeace, the Center for Biological...

Facebook at 15: It's not all bad, but now it must be good

Written by Bhaskar Chakravorti, Dean of Global Business, The Fletcher School, Tufts University

Doth the CEO protest too much?AP Photo/Andrew Harnik

It is almost too easy to bash Facebook these days. Nearly a third of Americans feel the country’s most popular social media platform is bad for society. As the company approaches its 15th birthday, Americans rate its social benefit as better than Marlboro cigarettes, but worse than...

First private spacecraft shoots for the moon

Written by John Horack, Neil Armstrong Chair and Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, The Ohio State University

Artist's concept of Beresheet on the lunar surface.Oshratsl / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

“Moon of Israel” is an epic 1924 film from the golden era of silent movies, and helped launch the directing career of Michael Curtiz, of “Casablanca” fame. Sequels seldom live up to the original. But if Israel’s plans to put a...