The Conversation

Gun control and March for Our Lives: 4 essential reads

Written by Naomi Schalit, Senior Editor, Politics + Society, The Conversation US

Editor’s note: The following is a roundup of stories from The Conversation’s archive.

Students from across the country will march in Washington, D.C., on Saturday. Similar marches will take place elsewhere in the U.S. Organized by survivors of the Parkland school shooting in Florida, the protesters want Congress to pass gun control...

March for Our Lives awakens the spirit of student and media activism of the 1960s

Written by Errol Salamon, Postdoctoral Researcher and Visting Scholar in Communication, University of Pennsylvania

Students rally in front of the White House in Washington, March 14, 2018.AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster

A student movement against gun violence is receiving sustained news coverage.

Students are using social and news media to build momentum and advocate for legislation in the wake of a Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland,...

'Big Tech' isn't one big monopoly – it's 5 companies all in different businesses

Written by Amanda Lotz, Professor of Media Studies, University of Michigan

It may seem convenient to think of technology companies as similar, but they're really not.The Conversation, CC BY-NC

Public concern about Facebook’s power in society – and in politics – has skyrocketed in the wake of revelations that users’ data was analyzed by a U.K.-based marketing firm and used to construct highly...

Why Trump will weather Stormy

Written by Monika L. McDermott, Professor of Political Science, Fordham University

Donald Trump’s opponents have long been waiting for some sort of scandal to bring him down, and they may think they have finally found it in pornographic film star Stormy Daniels.

Daniels alleges she had an extramarital affair with Donald Trump in 2006 and was subsequently paid off by a Trump lawyer to stay silent during the presidential...

Why community and not confinement will end TB

Written by Eric Friedman, Researcher, Georgetown University

A prisoner looks out a window on March 26, 2015, from Zhdanivskaya prison in Ukraine, were TB is rampant.AP Photo/Mstyslav Chernov

The global response to tuberculosis has saved millions of lives; TB treatment saved 53 million lives between 2000 and 2016. Yet each year millions still suffer, and often die, from this preventable, treatable and...

Archbishop Oscar Romero was gunned down inside his own church 38 years ago. Soon he'll become El Salvador's first saint

Written by Michael E. Lee, Associate Professor of Theology and Latin American Studies, Fordham University

On March 24, 1980, the archbishop of San Salvador was shot inside his own church in a deliberate, cold-blooded murder that shocked the world.

Now, almost 40 years later, the Catholic Church is preparing to make the slain religious leader a saint. In early March, Pope Francis approved a miracle attributed to Monsignor Oscar Arnulfo Romero –...

Inching closer to a world without polio

Written by Christine Crudo Blackburn, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Scowcroft Institute of International Affairs, Bush School of Government and Public Service, Texas A&M University

What will it take to finish polio off in the last three countries where it persists?AP Photo/B.K. Bangash

At its height in the 1940s and ‘50s, polio paralyzed more than 35,000 Americans every year. But thanks to vaccines as well as good hygiene and sanitation practices, polio has largely been forgotten in the developed world.

Now, even in...

Federal employees work for both Democrats and Republicans – even Kellyanne Conway

Written by Matthew May, Research Associate, Boise State University

Federal ethics lawyers determined earlier this month that White House adviser Kellyanne Conway violated the Hatch Act, which prohibits a variety of political activities by federal employees. During two television appearances last year, Conway, a Republican, had encouraged Alabama voters to vote against the Democratic senate candidate in a special...

Don't quit Facebook, but don't trust it, either

Written by Denise Anthony, Professor of Sociology, Dartmouth College

What is this man doing with your data?AP Photo/Jeff Roberson

Is it time to give up on social media? Many people are thinking about that in the wake of revelations regarding Cambridge Analytica’s questionable use of personal data from over 50 million Facebook users to support the Trump campaign. Not to mention the troubles with data theft, trol...

La esterilización forzada perjudicó a miles en California, especialmente a las mujeres latinas

Written by Nicole L. Novak, Postdoctoral Research Scholar, University of Iowa

Tarjeta postal del Hospital Estatal de Napa en Napa, California, alrededor de 1905. Más de 1.900 californianos fueron recomendados para la esterilización mientras los pacientes estaban aquí.La colección de Alex Wellerstein

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Iris López tenía 18 años cuando en 1942 comenzó a...