The Conversation

What we know about MIS-C, a rare but dangerous illness striking children weeks after they get COVID-19

Written by Ritu Banerjee, Associate Professor, Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Vanderbilt University

The view through an electron microscope shows the spikes that create the 'corona' effect on the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases, CC BY-ND

While most children who get COVID-19 develop little more than a mild illness, several hundred have ended up in hospital intensive care units with alarming symptoms...

The largest contemporary Muslim pilgrimage isn't the hajj to Mecca, it's the Shiite pilgrimage to Karbala in Iraq

Written by Edith Szanto, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, University of Alabama

Shiite Muslims attend a mourning ritual during the Islamic month of Muharram, in the central shrine city of Karbala.Photo by Mohammed SAWAF / AFP) (Photo by MOHAMMED SAWAF/AFP via Getty Images

Every year, Shiite Muslims mark the death of Prophet Muhammad’s grandson Hussain with a mourning period that lasts a total of 50 days.

Ashura, the...

MIS-C is a rare but dangerous illness striking children weeks after they get COVID-19 – here's what we know about it

Written by Ritu Banerjee, Associate Professor, Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Vanderbilt University

The view through an electron microscope shows the spikes that create the 'corona' effect on the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases, CC BY-ND

While most children who get COVID-19 develop little more than a mild illness, several hundred have ended up in hospital intensive care units with alarming symptoms...

5 things to look for on a college campus that benefit mental health

Written by Carly Drake, Assistant Professor of Marketing, North Central College

Colleges with "green spaces" can contribute to improved mental health for students. FatCamera/E+ via Getty Images

Researchers have studied college students’ mental health for decades. Even in the 1920s, it was clear that the many stresses of higher education – like academic demands, post-graduation plans and financial concerns –...

George Washington was silent, but Trump tweets regularly – running for president has changed over the years

Written by Sarah Burns, Associate Professor of Political Science, Rochester Institute of Technology

President Donald Trump works on a smartphone, a common tool in his political communication efforts.AP Photo/Alex Brandon

Presidential campaigns haven’t always looked the way they do in 2020 – or the way they did in 2016, before the coronavirus pandemic changed everything about conventions, political outreach and voting.

The requirements...

As concerns mount over integrity of US elections, so does support for international poll monitors

Written by Timothy Rich, Associate Professor of Political Science, Western Kentucky University

International observers from Canada, India and Jamaica tour the Utah County election facilities on Nov. 6, 2018 in Provo, Utah.George Frey/Getty Images

With the U.S. presidential election approaching, Americans face a daunting set of challenges as they prepare to vote.

Many voters fear the coronavirus will force them to risk their lives at the polls...

Trump’s law-and-order campaign relies on a historic American tradition of racist and anti-immigrant politics

Written by Austin Sarat, Associate Provost and Associate Dean of the Faculty and Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science, Amherst College

President Trump stressed law and order on a recent trip to Kenosha, Wisconsin.Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

The Republican Party made it clear in its national convention that it intends to make restoring “law and order” central to this fall’s presidential campaign.

As he did when he first ran in 2016, President Donald Trump hig...

Portland and Kenosha violence was predictable – and preventable

Written by Cynthia Miller-Idriss, Professor of Education and Sociology, American University

Portland police hold back Chandler Pappas, who was with the victim, in the wake of a fatal shooting on Aug. 29, 2020.Nathan Howard/Getty Images

The U.S. reached a deadly moment in protests over racial injustice, as back-to-back shootings in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and Portland, Oregon, on Aug. 25 and 29 took the lives of three people and seriously...

Dangerous bacteria is showing up in school water systems, reminding all buildings reopening amid COVID-19 to check the pipes

Written by Caitlin R. Proctor, Lillian Gilbreth Postdoctoral Fellow, Purdue University

Schools in Ohio and Pennsylvania have already found Legionella, the bacteria that causes Legionnaires' disease, in their water systems.Andrew Whelton/Purdue University, CC BY-ND

As schools cautiously reopen for the fall semester, several have discovered potentially harmful bacteria in their water systems. Parents are likely concerned about what...

Business liability shield is holding up another coronavirus bailout – a legal scholar explains why immunity is unnecessary and even harmful

Written by Timothy D. Lytton, Distinguished University Professor & Professor of Law, Georgia State University

Reasonable precautions like advising customers to wear masks can be enough to prevent successful lawsuits. Erik McGregor/LightRocket via Getty Images

Senate Republicans’ push to grant companies sweeping immunity from civil liability for failure to adequately protect workers and customers from infection has been one of the key sticking points...