The Conversation

From Jewish summer camp to gospel to Chabad, Bob Dylan’s faith doesn’t fit in a box − but he’s long had a connection to Israel

Written by Shalom Goldman, Professor of Religion, Middlebury

Bob Dylan gives his first concert in Israel in 1987 in Tel Aviv, playing with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.AP Photo/Anat Givon

James Mangold’s film “A Complete Unknown,” nominated for eight Oscars, captures the elusive, enigmatic quality of Bob Dylan in the early 1960s: the years he emerged as a major musical and cultural...

Can the president really kill off the penny – and should he?

Written by Jay L. Zagorsky, Associate Professor Questrom School of Business, Boston University

In the middle of Super Bowl LIX, President Donald Trump posted on social media that he was getting rid of the penny. Since the lowly penny in 2024 cost about 3.7 cents to make – meaning the government loses money on every coin – the announcement might seem practical at first glance. But does the president have the power to kill off the...

Syria’s mass graves: Accounting for the dead and disappeared is crucial for the nation to heal

Written by Stefan Schmitt, Project Lead for International Technical Forensic Services Global Forensic Justice Center, Florida International University

Shortly after the fall of Bashar Assad in Syria in December 2024, reports emerged of mass graves being uncovered in liberated areas.

Grim as such discoveries are, they should come as little surprise. The scale of the regime’s torture and killings in its detention facilities became evident years earlier, when in January 2014 a forensic...

Trump and Maduro refresh a complex relationship governed by self-interest and tainted by Venezuela election fraud

Written by Paul Webster Hare, Master Lecturer and Interim Director of Latin American Studies, Boston University

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro with Richard Grenell, President Donald Trump's special envoy, in Caracas, Venezuela, on Jan. 31, 2025. Venezuela's presidential press office, via AP

In 2019, President Donald Trump recognized then-Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó as the country’s interim leader over Nicolás Maduro, who...

Inflation is heating up again, putting pressure on Trump to cool it on tariffs

Written by Jason Reed, Associate Teaching Professor of Finance, University of Notre Dame

Inflation is building again; but the housing industry may find it harder to do so as a result of Trump tariffs. Win McNamee/Getty Images

Inflation figures released on Feb. 12, 2025, will come as a disappointment to Americans who hoped President Donald Trump would be true to his word on bringing down prices “on Day One.” It will also put...

How Valentine’s Day was transformed by the Industrial Revolution and ‘manufactured intimacy’

Written by Christopher Ferguson, Associate Professor of History, Auburn University

A popular Victorian-era Valentine Day's card.Valentine Card by Jonathan King,1860-1880, London Museum., CC BY

When we think of Valentine’s Day, chubby Cupids, hearts and roses generally come to mind, not industrial processes like mass production and the division of labor. Yet the latter were essential to the holiday’s history.

As a...

Why federal courts are unlikely to save democracy from Trump’s and Musk’s attacks

Written by Maya Sen, Professor of Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School

Many people may look to federal courts as a bulwark of the U.S. Constitution.Jose Luis Pelaez/Stone via Getty Images

State governments, community groups, advocacy nonprofits and regular Americans have filed a large and growing number of federal lawsuits opposing President Donald Trump’s barrage of executive orders and policy statements. Some...

How much does scientific progress cost? Without government dollars for research infrastructure, breakthroughs become improbable

Written by Aliasger K. Salem, Bighley Chair and Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Iowa

America may not maintain its position as a global leader in biomedical research without federal support.Sean Gladwell/Moment via Getty Images

Biomedical research in the U.S. is world-class in part because of a long-standing partnership between universities and the federal government.

On Feb. 7, 2025, the U.S. National Institutes of Health issued a...

In spite of anti-DEI pressures, top corporations continued to diversify in 2024: new research

Written by Richie Zweigenhaft, Professor of Psychology, Emeritus, Guilford College

Despite the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision banning affirmative action in college admissions, and mounting pressure on corporations to eliminate their diversity, equity and inclusion programs, the top 50 Fortune 500 companies continued to diversify their boards in 2024.

As a social psychologist, I’ve been tracking diversity on...

China flexes its media muscle in Africa – encouraging positive headlines as part of a soft power agenda

Written by Mitchell Gallagher, Ph.D Candidate in Political Science, Wayne State University

An African journalist films President Xi Jinping delivering an opening ceremony speech for the China-Africa forum in Beijing in September 2024.AP Photo/Andy Wong

Every year, China’s minister of foreign affairs embarks on what has now become a customary odyssey across Africa. The tradition began in the late 1980s and sees Beijing’s top...