The Conversation

A Trump-Xi trade deal would do little to fix the real problems US companies face in China

Written by Allen Morrison, Professor of Global Management, Arizona State University

When U.S. President Donald Trump meets Chinese leader Xi Jinping at the G-20 economic summit in Japan, hopes aren’t all that high that they will conclude with a comprehensive trade deal.

Nonetheless, most U.S. business leaders and investors are optimistic that the two countries will eventually reach a trade agreement – and when they...

Trademark scholar says FUCT's victory at Supreme Court is a win for free speech

Written by Megan M. Carpenter, Dean, University of New Hampshire

Erik Brunetti had good reason to be optimistic after the court heard his case in April.AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

When is a brand too scandalous to register as a trademark? According to the Supreme Court, there may be no such thing.

In a case that tested the constitutional limits of free speech, the high court struck down a ban on registering...

Visiting national parks could change your thinking about patriotism

Written by Jennifer Ladino, Associate Professor of English, University of Idaho

Entry to Mount Rushmore along the Avenue of Flags.Xiao Fang/Wikimedia, CC BY

When I took a post-college job as a seasonal ranger at Grand Teton National Park 23 years ago, I noticed right away that my “Smokey Bear” hat carried some serious emotional baggage. As I later wrote in my book, “Reclaiming Nostalgia: Longing for Nature in...

Ebola in Uganda, and the dynamics of a new and different outbreak

Written by Steven Hatch, Associate Professor of Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School

The author, Dr. Steven Hatch, with members of a church in Gbanga, Liberia, in October 2014. Steven Hatch, CC BY-NC-SA

The 2018 Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo(DRC), has been a very different kind of outbreak than the massive West African outbreak that occurred in 2014 and 2015. For starters, it is much smaller, with just over...

Gates launches lobbying arm – higher education on agenda

Written by Nicholas Tampio, Professor of Political Science, Fordham University

Bill Gates looks to his wife Melinda as they are interviewed in Kirkland, Washington, in February 2019. Elaine Thompson/AP

Bill and Melinda Gates have launched a lobbying group in part to drive their agenda on education.

The move comes as Congress is negotiating a reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, the main federal law concerning student...

Thousands of recently discovered photographs document life in Uganda during Idi Amin's reign

Written by Derek R. Peterson, Professor of History and African Studies, University of Michigan

Idi Amin at a press conference in Jjaja Marina, Uganda in July 1975.Courtesy of the Uganda Broadcasting Corporation, Author provided

In 2015, researchers working in the storeroom at the Uganda Broadcasting Corporation forced open the lock on an unremarkable filing cabinet.

Inside were thousands of small wax envelopes, neatly arranged in rows, each...

The guts of an Apple iPhone show exactly what Trump gets wrong about trade

Written by Jason Dedrick, Professor of Information Studies, Syracuse University

The components of an iPhone add up to a different cost than the phone itself.Poravute Siriphiroon/Shutterstock.com

Crack open an iPhone and you’ll begin to see why President Donald Trump’s ongoing trade war with China doesn’t make sense.

On paper, imports of the popular smartphone and other goods from China look like a big loss to...

'Unskilled' immigrants help to ease the pain of dying Americans

Written by Cati Coe, Professor of Anthropology, Rutgers University

More older Americans are opting to die at home, often with the emotional support of a home care worker.Alexander Raths/shutterstock.com

President Trump wants the U.S. immigration system to shift away from family-based to skills-based migration.

This move would prioritize bringing in those who are highly educated and skilled, to the exclusion of...

Can parks help cities fight crime?

Written by Lincoln Larson, Assistant Professor, North Carolina State University

Contact with nature reduces stress and aggression, one reason scholars say urban green space may reduce violence.Shutterstock

The relationship between parks and crime remains the subject of debate.

Some scholars say parks and other urban green spaces prevent violence. When vacant lots and deteriorating urban spaces are transformed into more...

Detecting deepfakes by looking closely reveals a way to protect against them

Written by Siwei Lyu, Professor of Computer Science; Director, Computer Vision and Machine Learning Lab, University at Albany, State University of New York

Are any of these faces real?meyer_solutions/Shutterstock.com

Deepfake videos are hard for untrained eyes to detect because they can be quite realistic. Whether used as personal weapons of revenge, to manipulate financial markets or to destabilize international relations, videos depicting people doing and saying things they never did or said are a...