The Conversation

Tutoring kids who don't need it is a booming business in affluent areas where parents want to stack the deck

Written by Pawan Dhingra, Professor of Sociology and American Studies, Amherst College

Many families shell out $200 monthly on private 'learning centers.'Beanosity, CC BY-SA

Many relatively well-off parents drive their kids to special activities after school. On top of trips to soccer practices and games or piano lessons and recitals, they increasingly make one more stop: a trip to their local after-school tutoring center.

In most...

A brief history of invisibility on screen

Written by Marc Longenecker, Assistant Professor of the Practice in Film Studies, Wesleyan University

Elisabeth Moss stars in the latest adaptation of H.G. Wells' novel.Universal Pictures

What would you do if you could be invisible? Would this newfound power bring out the best in you, instilling you with the courage to discreetly sabotage the efforts of evildoers? Or would the ability to slip in and out of rooms unnoticed tap into darker impulses?

Th...

US successfully planned for the 'endless frontier' of science research in 1945 – now it’s time to plan the next 75 years

Written by Marc Zimmer, Professor of Chemistry, Connecticut College

It's time to forge a new path forward. yangyang/Moment via Getty Images

The U.S. has been the most productive country for science and technology for decades. Many of the basic policy tenets that supported American prowess date back 75 years, to a document called “Science: The Endless Frontier.” Released by the first U.S. presidential...

Black women prefer hair products marketed with them in mind

Written by Yewande O. Addie, Doctoral Candidate, College of Journalism and Communication, University of Florida

Black female consumers outpace other consumer groups in a number of spending categories, notably personal care and hair products, but feel unappreciated by top brands.Peathegee Inc/Getty Images

The Research Brief is a short take on interesting academic work.

The big idea

Marketing reports indicate that black consumers long to feel authentically...

Librarians could be jailed and fined under a proposed censorship law

Written by Nicole Cooke, Associate Professor of Library and Information Science, University of South Carolina

A sign of the timesGeraldine Wilkins/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

A bill pending in Missouri’s legislature takes aim at libraries and librarians who are making “age-inappropriate sexual material” available to children.

The measure, championed by Ben Baker, a Republican lawmaker, calls for establishing review boards who would...

The problem with health care price transparency: We don't have cost transparency

Written by Michael Williams, Associate Chief Medical Officer for Clinical Integration; Associate Professor of Surgery and Director of the UVA Center for Health Policy, University of Virginia

In the U.S. health care industry, price and cost are often conflated.Getty Images / Johnny Greig

US$2.4 million. $1.5 million. $2.28 million. These are the amounts of money the health system where I work, teach and receive health care spent purchasing a PET scanner, a CT scanner and a three-month supply of pembrolizumab, a drug that treats a...

How one man fought South Carolina Democrats to end whites-only primaries – and why that matters now

Written by Bobby J. Donaldson, Associate Professor of History; Director Center for Civil Rights History and Research, University of South Carolina

George and Laura Elmore (left) voting after wining a landmark case ending white-only primaries in South CarolinaUniversity of South Carolina Civil Rights Center, CC BY

A rusting chain-link fence represents a “color line” for the dead in Columbia, South Carolina. In Randolph Cemetery, separated by the barrier from the well-manicured lawn...

Why federal judges with life tenure don't need to fear political attacks from Trump or anyone else

Written by Amy Steigerwalt, Professor of Political Science, Georgia State University

President Donald Trump, left, and federal Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, right.Trump, AP/Steve Helber and Jackson, Wikipedia

Editor’s note: President Donald Trump has mounted attacks on the Justice Department and its various branches, on prosecutions he’s interested in and the judges presiding over those cases. He’s complained that...

Video of 6-year-old girl's arrest shows the perils of putting police in primary schools

Written by F. Chris Curran, Associate Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy, University of Florida

Orlando police officer Dennis Turner leads a 6-year-old girl away in handcuffs after her arrest for kicking and punching staff at her school.Orlando Police Department/Orlando Sentinel via AP

When states like Florida pass laws to put more police officers in schools, the idea is to keep kids safe.

The recent release of body camera footage from the...

¿Cómo prepararnos para el coronavirus? 3 preguntas y respuestas

Written by Aubree Gordon, Professor of Public Health, University of Michigan

Alex Azar, el secretario de salud pública en Estados Unidos, presenta en el Senado sobre el coronavirus, 25 de febrero, 2020. AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

Nota del editor: Las autoridades de Salud Pública en los Estados Unidos han advertido que el coronavirus, que se ha propagado en distintas partes de los Estados Unidos, se avecina y...