The Conversation

We may be safer now from coronavirus than we were three months ago, but we're not totally safe

Written by Ryan Malosh, Assistant Research Scientist, University of Michigan

A woman eats ice cream at Gantry Plaza State Park, Long Island City on May 30, 2020 in New York City. All 50 states have begun to reopen after weeks of stay-at-home measures.Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images

With social distancing guidelines and mandates mostly lifted, people have begun to head back to beaches, parks and restaurants in many parts of the...

A justification for unrest? Look no further than the Bible and the Founding Fathers

Written by Samira Mehta, Assistant Professor of Women and Gender Studies & Jewish Studies, University of Colorado Boulder

Protesters smash the window of a Chase bank during protests in OaklandAP Photo/Philip Pacheco

The civil unrest seen across the United States following the killing of George Floyd brings to the fore the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous observation that “a riot is the language of the unheard.”

Taken from his 1968 speech “The...

How to protest during a pandemic and still keep everyone safe from coronavirus: 6 questions answered

Written by Thomas A. Russo, Professor and Chief, Infectious Disease, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York

The death of George Floyd when a police officer kneeled on his neck sparked days of protests in cities across the U.S. Lauren A. Little/MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle via Getty

“WE ARE STILL IN A PANDEMIC,” Denver Black Lives Matter activist Tay Anderson shouted in capital letters on Twitter as he urged everyone who has protested police...

Why Hong Kong's untold history of protecting refugee rights matters now in its struggle with China

Written by Jana Lipman, Associate Professor of History, Tulane University

Protesters in Hong Kong during demonstrations against China's draft bill to impose national security laws on the semi-autonomous territory. Ivan Abreu/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

New national security measures proposed by China would significantly undermine the rule of law in Hong Kong, limiting freedom of speech, restricting the right...

Stripping voting rights from felons is about politics, not punishment

Written by Austin Sarat, Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science, Amherst College

Gerald Dent, left, is joined by James Featherstone and Niles Ringgold at a rally for felon voting rights, in Baltimore, Maryland, on March 10, 2020.Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post via Getty Images

In 2018 Florida voters approved a constitutional amendment ending the disenfranchisement of ex-convicts. Though it excluded people convicted of...

Where are the African American leaders?

Written by Vincent Adejumo, Senior Lecturer of African American Studies, University of Florida

A protester raises a fist in New York's Washington Square Park during a June 2, 2020 demonstration.Ira L. Black/Corbis via Getty Images

As protests rock the country in the wake of the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, there is a notable absence in the national public discourse: African American community leaders.

Fannie Lou...

COVID-19, smell and taste – how is COVID-19 different from other respiratory diseases?

Written by John E Hayes, Associate Professor of Food Science, Pennsylvania State University

A health worker carries out an olfactory test to monitor smell loss to a resident 65 km from Buenos Aires city, on May 24, 2020, amid the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.ALEJANDRO PAGNI/AFP via Getty Images

In March 2020, Google searches for phrases like “can’t taste food” or “why can’t I smell” spiked around the...

Here's a new way to do study abroad during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond

Written by William G. Durden, Joint Appointment Professor (research), School of Education, JHU; Presdient Emeritus, Dickinson College, Johns Hopkins University

Professors overseas can teach US students about perspectives in other countries. Horacio Villalobos#Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images

With the U.S. and much of the world engulfed in the COVID-19 pandemic, travel restrictions and health risks have threatened to make study abroad difficult, if not impossible.

But that doesn’t mean students...

Scientists tap the world's most powerful computers in the race to understand and stop the coronavirus

Written by Jeremy Smith, Governor's Chair, Biophysics, University of Tennessee

It takes a tremendous amount of computing power to simulate all the components and behaviors of viruses and cells.Thomas Splettstoesser scistyle.com, CC BY-ND

In “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” by Douglas Adams, the haughty supercomputer Deep Thought is asked whether he can find the answer to the ultimate question...

It can't happen here – and then it did

Written by Joe Saltzman, Professor of Journalism and Communication, University of Southern California, Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism

There have already been at least 100 instances of journalists being assaulted or harassed while covering recent protests.Nick Lehr/The Conversation, CC BY

When Americans think of journalists attacked, arrested or imprisoned while doing their job, they think of it happening in distant lands – in places like Russia, Syria, Afghanistan, El...