The Conversation

DACA heads to the Supreme Court: 6 essential reads

Written by Aviva Rutkin, Data Editor

People rally outside the Supreme Court as oral arguments are heard in the DACA case on Nov. 12.AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin

The future remains uncertain for a group of young people who were brought from other countries to the U.S. as children without legal authorization.

Currently, these young people are protected by the Deferred Action for Childhood...

To stop police shootings of people with mental health disabilities, I asked them what cops – and everyone – could do to help

Written by Jennifer Sarrett, Lecturer, Center for Study of Human Health, Emory University

Darren Spencer at a memorial for his childhood friend Saheed Vassell, a 34-year-old father of a teenage son, fatally shot by police in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, April 5, 2018. AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews

After Shukri Ali Said left her house during a mental health crisis on April 23, 2018, her sister called 911 for help....

What Ukrainians think about Trump and his 'quid pro quo' in 3 charts

Written by Erik C. Nisbet, Associate Professor of Communication, Political Science and Environmental Policy and Co-Director of the Eurasian Security and Governance Program, The Ohio State University

Ukrainians don't agree on how their president should have handled Trump's request.Andreas Wolochow/Shutterstock.com

As Americans turn their attention to the first public hearings in the House impeachment investigation, there is another country that has been affected by the scandal that’s fueling the investigation: Ukraine.

What do the...

Ukrainians are divided over Trump's 'quid pro quo'

Written by Erik C. Nisbet, Associate Professor of Communication, Political Science and Environmental Policy and Co-Director of the Eurasian Security and Governance Program, The Ohio State University

Ukrainians don't agree on how their president should have handled Trump's request.Andreas Wolochow/Shutterstock.com

What do the Ukrainian people think of the impeachment controversy?

The congressional investigation centers on Trump’s attempts to pressure Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy into opening a corruption investigation into...

Law-and-order or conspiracy? How political parties frame the impeachment battle will help decide Trump's fate

Written by Jennifer Mercieca, Author of the forthcoming book Demagogue for President: The Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump (Texas A&M University Press). Associate Professor of Communication, Texas A&M University

Tallies are displayed as House members vote on a resolution on impeachment procedure on Oct. 31, 2019. AP/Andrew Harnik

The presidential impeachment battle moves to a new stage on Wednesday, when the House will conduct the first public, televised testimony.

The nation is divided: Although a majority of Americans believe that Trump should cooperate...

Apollo 12: Fifty years ago, a passionate scientist's keen eye led to the first pinpoint landing on the Moon

Written by Timothy Swindle, Professor of Planetary Sciences and Geosciences, University of Arizona

Astronaut Alan L. Bean, Apollo 12, walks on the Moon's surface. Commander Charles Conrad Jr. is reflected in Bean's helmet visor. NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI

When Apollo 11 landed on the Moon, it was a giant leap for mankind and a huge success for American engineering, but there was one aspect of the mission that hadn’t really gone as planned. When Neil...

Can the Paris Agreement on climate change succeed without the US? 4 questions answered

Written by Henrik Selin, Associate Professor in the Frederick S Pardee School of Global Studies, Boston University

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres addresses the Climate Summit in the U.N. General Assembly, Sept. 23, 2019. AP Photo/Jason DeCrow

Editor’s note: On Nov. 4, the Trump administration formally notified the United Nations that it planned to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Agreement on climate change, which 196 countries adopted in 2015. The...

Data science could help Californians battle future wildfires

Written by David Wild, Associate Professor of Informatics, Computing and Engineering, Indiana University

A firefighter walks along a containment line while battling a 2018 wildfire in Redding, California.AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez

A major wildfire spread through Colorado, and I spent long hours locating shelters, identifying evacuation routes and piecing together satellite imagery.

As the Fourmile Canyon Fire devastated areas to the west of Boulder,...

Why tyranny could be the inevitable outcome of democracy

Written by Lawrence Torcello, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Rochester Institute of Technology

At the dawn of democracy, Plato foresaw an unfortunate end.vangelis aragiannis/Shutterstock.com

Plato, one of the earliest thinkers and writers about democracy, predicted that letting people govern themselves would eventually lead the masses to support the rule of tyrants.

When I tell my college-level philosophy students that in about 380 B.C. he...

30 years after the Berlin Wall came down, East and West Germany are still divided

Written by Nathan Stoltzfus, Dorothy and Jonathan Rintels Professor of Holocaust Studies, Florida State University

The Berlin Wall in October 1988.360b/Shutterstock.com

Thirty years ago, on November 9, with a sense of momentous events palpable in Berlin’s famous air, East Germans began streaming through the Berlin Wall, two-stroke East German cars putt-putted past major symbols of capitalism like the KaDeWe department store, and it appeared that the...