The Conversation

A dismantled post office destroys more than mail service

Written by Patty Heyda, Associate Professor of Urban Design and Architecture, Washington University in St Louis

The J.W. Westcott II is the country's only floating ZIP code.cactuspinecone/flickr, CC BY

The U.S. Postal Service is under threat of collapse and privatization. This comes after years of federal political maneuvering that has effectively depleted revenues and staffing – issues now amplified by new cuts to overtime worker pay and slowed...

Kids are bigger coronavirus spreaders than many doctors realized – here’s how schools can lower the risk

Written by Phyllis Sharps, Professor of Nursing, Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing

Students and parents at California's Hollywood High School go through temperature checks before picking up laptops for online learning. Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images

The first U.S. schools have reopened with in-person classes, and they are already setting off alarm bells about how quickly the coronavirus can spread.

Georgia’s Cherokee County...

Oleandrin is a deadly plant poison, not a COVID-19 cure

Written by Cassandra Quave, Assistant Professor of Dermatology and Human Health; Herbarium Curator, Emory University

The oleander plant is beautiful but deadly because of a toxic chemical called oleadrin.Alvesgaspar/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

With COVID-19 cases and deaths rising in the U.S. and globally, identifying new therapies to prevent and combat the virus is a top priority. Natural products from plants are an attractive option in the search for a cure....

Nature and nurture both contribute to gender inequality in leadership – but that doesn't mean patriarchy is forever

Written by Christopher von Rueden, Associate Professor of Leadership Studies, University of Richmond

Who gets a seat at the table?H. Armstrong Roberts/ClassicStock via Getty Images

Gender expectations can make it harder for women to achieve positions of leadership.Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

Kamala Harris’ candidacy as vice president of the United States provoked familiar criticism, based in part on her identity as a woman. Critics find...

Hagia Sophia has been converted back into a mosque, but the veiling of its figural icons is not a Muslim tradition

Written by Christiane Gruber, Professor of Islamic Art, University of Michigan

People pray inside the Byzantine-era Hagia Sophia, with sail-like drapes covering mosaic figures of the Virgin Mary and Jesus.AP Photo/Yasin Akgul

Ever since the reversion of Hagia Sophia back into a mosque, the Muslim call to prayer has been resounding from its minarets.

Originally built as a Christian Orthodox church and serving that purpose for...

Black and Latino essential workers experience greater safety concerns than their white counterparts

Written by Jasmine Kerrissey, Assistant Professor of Sociology and Labor Studies, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Black and Latino essential workers are more likely to experience food, child care and housing insecurities than their white co-workers, in addition to safety concerns.Jumping Rocks/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work.

The big idea

Black and Latino essential...

Amid partisan fight over Postal Service's future, its past reveals a common bond that helped stamp an identity on America

Written by Amy Werbel, Professor of the History of Art, Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT)

USPS mailbox in downtown Danville, Pennsylvania. Paul Weaver/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images

House representatives are set to be recalled to Washington, D.C., amid an ongoing pandemic and fiercely-contested election season. The impetus for this emergency session is a foundational element of American life: the United States Postal Service....

'Historic' Israel deal won't likely bring peace to the Middle East

Written by Dov Waxman, Director of the UCLA Y&S Nazarian Center for Israel Studies and The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation Chair in Israel Studies, University of California, Los Angeles

These Palestinians aren't happy with Trump's Israel deal, which required Israel to make no territorial concessions. Gaza, Aug. 16, 2020.Mahmoud Issa/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

The heralded recent agreement to normalize relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates may not be the grand achievement it was made out to be.

The...

Pandemic alters political conventions – which have always changed with the times

Written by Daniel Klinghard, Professor of Political Science, College of the Holy Cross

The spectacle at the 2016 Republican National Convention will not be repeated in 2020.AP Photo/Matt Rourke

Politics, like everything else in American life, is being reshaped by the pandemic and by technology. Democrats will hold almost all of their 2020 nominating convention virtually. Republicans have not moved their convention online – deleg...

3 ways to get kids to tune in and pay attention when schools go virtual

Written by Eric M. Anderman, Professor of Educational Psychology and Quantitative Research, Evaluation, and Measurement, The Ohio State University

This is what the school day currently looks like in many parts of the U.S.AP Photo/Jessica Hill

When nearly all U.S. brick-and-mortar schools suddenly closed in March 2020 and went online, large numbers of students simply didn’t log into class. Even if they did show up, many more weren’t paying much attention or doing their schoolwork....