The Conversation

G-20 leaders descend on Buenos Aires as host Argentina battles worst economic crisis in a decade

Written by Robert H. Scott III, Professor of Economics & Finance, Monmouth University

Protesters carry a banner that reads in Spanish, 'Property of the G20? Who chose?'AP Photo/Sebastian Pani

Leaders of the world’s biggest economies have gathered in Buenos Aires for the annual Group of 20 Summit to discuss some of the most important issues facing the global economy, from the future of work and food security to U.S. President...

Dorothy Day -- 'a saint for our times'

Written by Sandra Yocum, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, University of Dayton

Dorothy Day, founder of the Catholic Worker Movement, back to camera, speaks with black and white southerners about the problems of segregation during a radio show.AP Photo/H.B. Littell

Dorothy Day died 38 years ago. Her life followed an unorthodox path – moving from rejecting religion in favor of activism to embracing Catholicism and...

How mainstream media helps weaponize far-right conspiracy theories

Written by Heather Woods, Assistant Professor of Rhetoric and Technology, Kansas State University

Are there invisible forces at work in the world?Grzegorz Zdziarski/Shutterstock.com

Once an anti-Semitic rumor moved from fringe to the mainstream, it took less than two weeks for violence to erupt. The false allegation that liberal philanthropist George Soros was funding or supporting a caravan of Honduran refugees heading to the U.S. spread...

AIDS treatment has progressed, but without a vaccine, suffering still abounds

Written by Maureen Miller, Professor, Columbia University Medical Center

I mentioned to a friend, a gay man nearing 60, that World AIDS Day, which has been observed on Dec. 1 since 1988, was almost upon us. He had no idea that World AIDS Day still exists.

This lack of knowledge is a testament to the great accomplishments that have occurred since World AIDS Day was created 30 years ago. It is also due to an accident in...

López Obrador takes power in Mexico after an unstable transition and broken campaign promises

Written by Luis Gómez Romero, Senior Lecturer in Human Rights, Constitutional Law and Legal Theory, University of Wollongong

Five months after he won a landslide victory in Mexico’s 2018 presidential election on promises to “transform” the country, leftist Andrés Manuel López Obrador will be sworn into office on Dec. 1.

The prolonged transition period – currently one of the the world’s lengthiest – has given Mexicans a...

Most caregivers of people with dementia are family members, and they need help

Written by Alan Stevens, Professor of Medicine; Director, Center for Applied Health Research, Texas A&M University

Daily tasks such as cooking and cleaning are out of the reach of many seniors.Nancy Beijersbergen/Shutterstock.com

Family care of an older adult has emerged as an essential element of the U.S. health care system, with 83 percent of long-term care provided to older adults coming from family members or other unpaid helpers. As the population of older...

Betsy DeVos has little to show after 2 years in office

Written by Dustin Hornbeck, Ph.D. Candidate in Educational Leadership and Policy, Miami University

Many of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos' policy proposals have failed.Matt Rourke/AP

Despite widespread fear that U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos would dismantle the public system of education, she has failed to accomplish much of what she set out to do.

That is my assessment as an educational policy researcher who has followed Secretary DeVos s...

Climate change is making soils saltier, forcing many farmers to find new livelihoods

Written by Joyce J. Chen, Associate Professor of Development Economics, The Ohio State University

Experimental field of a salt-tolerant rice variety in Bangladesh. IRRI, CC BY-NC-SA

Salt is essential for cooking, but too much salt in soil can ruin crops and render fields useless. According to legend, Roman general Scipio Aemilianus Africanus sowed the soils of Carthage with salt after conquering the city during the Punic Wars. And after...

America's dark history of organized anti-Semitism re-emerges in today's far-right groups

Written by Bradley W. Hart, Assistant Professor of Media, Communications and Journalism, California State University, Fresno

A memorial outside Pittsburgh's Tree of Life Synagogue on Oct. 29, 2018, erected after a gunman killed 11 worshippers at the temple.AP/Gene J. Puskar)

Hours after Robert Bowers allegedly walked into a Pittsburgh synagogue and killed 11 people, investigators told the media that Bowers appeared to have acted alone and fit what experts call the...

The surprising way plastics could actually help fight climate change

Written by Joseph Rollin, Postdoctoral Researcher in Bioenergy, National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Over 99 percent of today's plastics come from oil, but new bio-based options are becoming available.Icons by Vectors Market, Freepik and srip, CC BY

What do your car, phone, soda bottle and shoes have in common? They’re all largely made from petroleum. This nonrenewable resource gets processed into a versatile set of chemicals called polymers...