The Conversation

A short history of black women and police violence

Written by Keisha N. Blain, Associate Professor of History, University of Pittsburgh

A protester holds up a sign with Breonna Taylor's name. Taylor was killed by police officers on March 13.Brett Carlsen/Getty Images

Just after midnight on March 13, 2020, Breonna Taylor, an EMT in Louisville, Kentucky, was shot and killed by police officers who raided her home.

The officers had entered her home without warning as part of a drug...

Am I immune to COVID-19 if I have antibodies?

Written by William Petri, Professor of Medicine, University of Virginia

For those who have suffered from COVID-19, do their antibodies guarantee immunity from subsequent disease?SEBASTIAN KAULITZKI / Getty Images

Perhaps the most important question now about COVID-19 is the degree to which a prior infection protects from a second infection by the new coronavirus. This affects vaccine development and herd immunity and...

High-tech surveillance amplifies police bias and overreach

Written by Andrew Guthrie Ferguson, Professor of Law, American University

Police forces have a wide range of options for monitoring individuals and crowds.Nicholas Kaeser/Flickr, CC BY-NC

Video of police in riot gear clashing with unarmed protesters in the wake of the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin has filled social media feeds. Meanwhile, police surveillance of protesters has...

Students demand removal of 'mild racist' from Georgia landscape

Written by Kathy Roberts Forde, Associate Professor, Journalism Department, University of Massachusetts Amherst

People raise their fists outside Atlanta City Hall during a protest over the death of George Floyd on June 6, 2020. Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images

Following the lead of African American activists, a coalition of young people has taken to the streets to protest police brutality and systemic racism across the country. Protesters in the South have...

China's efforts to win hearts and minds with aid and investment may make all the difference if there's a cold war with the US

Written by Nader Habibi, Henry J. Leir Professor of Practice in Economics of the Middle East, Brandeis University

Venezuela Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza, center, greets the arrival of medical specialists and supplies from China in March.AP Photo/Matias Delacroix

U.S.-China relations are the worst they’ve been in decades – at least since the Tiananmen Square crackdown in June 1989, which led to almost complete international isolation of China.

Some...

How DC Mayor Bowser used graffiti to protect public space

Written by Rebekah Modrak, Professor, University of Michigan

Volunteers helped city workers paint 'Black Lives Matter' on the street near the White House.Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

When President Donald Trump sent heavily armed federal law enforcement officers and unidentified officers in riot gear into Washington, D.C. during the height of protests recently, Mayor Muriel E. Bowser responded by painting...

More people eat frog legs than you think – and humans are harvesting frogs at unsustainable rates

Written by H. Resit Akcakaya, Professor of Ecology and Evolution, Stony Brook University (The State University of New York)

Anatolian water frogs (_Pelophylax spp_) could become locally extinct in parts of Turkey due to over-harvesting as food. Kerim Çiçek, CC BY-ND

Amphibians such as frogs, toads, newts and salamanders, are the world’s most threatened group of vertebrates. Of the 6,800 species assessed by the International Union for the Conservation...

What colleges and universities can do to improve police-community relations

Written by Brian N. Williams, Associate Professor of Public Policy, University of Virginia

Uriah Davis, left, a graduate student at Oklahoma State University, spoke to Police Chief Jeff Watts outside the Stillwater Police Department in Stillwater, Oklahoma, on June 3, 2020.AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki

In the wake of the death of George Floyd – and the protests that it has sparked around the world – public attention is focused on...

Could China's strategic pork reserve be a model for the US?

Written by David L. Ortega, Associate Professor of Food and Agricultural Economics, Michigan State University

The coronavirus has created a meat shortage in the United States.Sezeryadigar/Getty Images

During the height of the coronavirus pandemic, we became accustomed to face-masked shoppers, social distancing and one-way aisles at the grocery store. But most shocking was the scene at the supermarket meat case.

Some meat processing plants closed or reduced...

How 'Karen' went from a popular baby name to a stand-in for white entitlement

Written by Robin Queen, Professor of Linguistics, English Language and Literatures and Germanic Languages and Literatures, University of Michigan

Watch out, Karen coming through.Edward Berthelot/Getty Images

When I read about Amy Cooper, the woman in Central Park who called the police on a black birder because he’d asked her to leash her out-of-control dog, I was horrified.

But, as a sociolinguist who studies and writes about language and discrimination, I was also struck by the name...