The Conversation

Will there be a monument to the COVID-19 pandemic?

Written by Emily Godbey, Associate Professor, Art and Visual Culture, Iowa State University

Editor’s Note: Dr. Emily Godbey is a professor of art and visual culture at Iowa State University. In this interview, she discusses how plague monuments were used to commemorate victims of past disease outbreaks, temporary memorials for COVID-19 and why plague memorials are not as prolific as war memorials.

A short history of plague monuments....

Janet Yellen and Kamala Harris keep shattering glass ceilings – but global elite boys club remains

Written by Kevin L. Young, Associate Professor of Economics, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Yellen with a few of the boys. AP Photo/Annie Rice

Janet Yellen may soon become the first woman to lead the Treasury Department, about six years after shattering another glass ceiling at the top of the Federal Reserve.

She’s not alone in breaking down barriers in President-elect Joe Biden’s proposed new Cabinet. Michele Flournoy is the...

Poland's anti-abortion push highlights pandemic risks to democracy

Written by Brian Grodsky, Professor of Political Science, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

The push to tighten Poland's restrictive abortion laws has proved a lightning bolt moment for protesters. Wojtek Raadwanski/AFP via Getty Images

Hundreds of thousands of Poles have taken to the streets since late October, defying bans on mass gatherings and risks from the COVID-19 pandemic to protest the government.

An immediate concern for...

California vetoed ethnic studies requirements for public high school students, but the movement grows

Written by Wayne Au, Professor of Education, University of Washington, Bothell

A mural outside La Chiquita Grocery in Santa Ana, Calif. honors the military service of nearly 200 local Mexican Americans.Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

California Gov. Gavin Newsom surprised many supporters in his state earlier this fall when he vetoed a bill that would have required public high school students to take ethnic...

It's not just ABCs – preschool parents worry their kids are missing out on critical social skills during the pandemic

Written by Michele L. Stites, Assistant Professor of Early Childhood Education, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Preschool is an opportunity to develop important social skills like taking turns, working in groups and making friends. John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

As COVID-19 cases once again spike across the country, parents in school districts like New York City and Detroit face another weeks long stretch of remote learning. This often...

Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is cheaper than Pfizer's and Moderna's and doesn't require supercold temperature

Written by Sanjay Mishra, Project Coordinator & Staff Scientist, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Vanderbilt University

Now there is a third possible vaccine for fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images

The biopharmaceutical company AstraZeneca has released data on what is now the third promising vaccine candidate against COVID-19 – and it has several advantages over those of its competitors, Pfizer and Moderna.

On Monday,...

Testing sewage can give school districts, campuses and businesses a heads-up on the spread of COVID-19

Written by Charles Gerba, Professor of Virology, University of Arizona

There's valuable data on the spread of COVID-19 in this wastewater.Montgomery County Planning Commission, CC BY-SA

November has brought encouraging news about several COVID-19 vaccines. But members of the general public will probably not be vaccinated before the spring or summer of 2021 at the earliest. Americans will be living with this pandemic...

How Biden and Kerry could rebuild America's global climate leadership

Written by Dolf Gielen, Payne Institute Fellow, Colorado School of Mines

President-elect Joe Biden picked former Secretary of State John Kerry, shown with him in 2015, to be U.S. climate envoy in the next administration.AP Photo/Andrew Harnik

John Kerry helped bring the world into the Paris climate agreement and expanded America’s reputation as a climate leader. That reputation is now in tatters, and...

'My vote will be Black' – A wave of Afro-Brazilian women ran for office in 2020 but found glass ceiling hard to break

Written by Gladys Mitchell-Walthour, Associate Professor of Public Policy & Political Economy, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Messages urging Afro-Brazilians to support Black candidates filled social media in the days before Brazil’s Nov. 15, 2020 elections.

“Do not forget your masks, your identification, a pen and that you are BLACK!!!”

“This Sunday my vote will be Black.”

A Facebook post before Brazil’s election promising, ‘This...

School suspensions don't just unfairly penalize Black students – they lead to lower grades and 'Black flight'

Written by Charles Bell, Assistant Professor, Illinois State University

Suspensions have continued throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, while children are attending remotely from their homes. Marie-Claude Lemay/iStock/Getty Images Plus

School suspensions are intended to deter violence and punish students who demonstrate problematic behavior.

Yet, when I interviewed 30 Black high school students in southeast Michigan who...