The Conversation

California needs to rethink urban fire risk, starting with where it builds houses

Written by Max Moritz, Cooperative Extension Specialist, Wildland Fire, University of California, Santa Barbara

This fire season has been particularly damaging to urban areas.AP Photo/Reed Saxon

Wildfires raging across southern California are causing evacuations of many communities and have destroyed hundreds of structures this month.

These fires follow the wind-driven Tubbs fire earlier this fall that blasted through densely urbanized neighborhoods in...

Will China's crackdown on 'foreign garbage' force wealthy countries to recycle more of their own waste?

Written by Kate O'Neill, Associate Professor, Global Environmental Politics, University of California, Berkeley

Imported laptop housings, Guiyu, China.Basel Action Network, CC BY-ND

With holidays approaching, many of us are mindful of the need to collect and recycle all the additional plastic, paper and other waste that we are about to generate. This year, however, there are questions about where that waste will end up. China, the world’s largest...

What 'Last Tango in Paris' teaches my students about sexual ethics

Written by Richard Gunderman, Chancellor's Professor of Medicine, Liberal Arts, and Philanthropy, Indiana University

Director Bernardo Bertolucci, left, discusses a scene from "Last Tango in Paris" with leading actor Marlon Brando and actress Maria Schneider.AP Photo

Today’s news is awash with accounts of behind-the-scenes sexual assaults involving such prominent figures as producer Harvey Weinstein, director Brett Ratner and actor Kevin Spacey. In some...

Study reveals racial inequality in Mexico, disproving its 'race-blind' rhetoric

Written by Daniel Zizumbo-Colunga, Assistant Professor of Drug Policy, Centro de Investigación y Docencia (CIDE) and Research Assistant Professor, Vanderbilt University

For centuries, the United States has been engaged in a thorny, stop-and-go conversation about race and inequality in American society. And from Black Lives Matter demonstrations to NFL players protesting police violence, public discussions on racism continue in full force today.

That’s not the case in Mexico. Mexicans have divergent ancestry,...

Gold rush opportunists, hippie goat ladies, Latino newcomers: California entrepreneurs dream of cheese

Written by Heather Paxson, Professor of Anthropology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Humboldt Fog chèvre, born in a dream.T.Depaepe, CC BY-ND

The idea for Humboldt Fog goat’s milk cheese first came to Mary Keehn in a dream. She fell asleep on an airplane and awoke with a vivid picture in her mind of how the cheese looked. And then she set out to realize her vision – in the process, helping to launch a...

3 myths about the poor that Republicans are using to support slashing US safety net

Written by Michele Gilman, Venable Professor of Law, University of Baltimore

Sen. Chuck Grassley recently seemed to suggest some poor people spend all their money on "booze or women or movies."AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall

Republicans continue to use long-debunked myths about the poor as they defend lower taxes for the rich and deep cuts to the social safety net to pay for them. In so doing, they are essentially expressing...

Can college 'promise' programs deliver?

Written by Laura Perna, Professor of Higher Education, University of Pennsylvania

Researchers are taking a close look at "college promise" programs to see if they actually help more students obtain a college educationCalvste / Shutterstock.com

In one of her first public acts as the new mayor of Seattle, Jenny Durkan signed an executive order last month to phase in a free college tuition program. The program promises up to two...

Design is key in college 'promise' programs

Written by Laura Perna, Professor of Higher Education, University of Pennsylvania

Researchers are taking a close look at "college promise" programs to see if they actually help more students obtain a college educationCalvste / Shutterstock.com

In one of her first public acts as the new mayor of Seattle, Jenny Durkan signed an executive order last month to phase in a free college tuition program. The program promises up to two...

How parenthood has changed the way I read ancient stories of Joseph and Mary's relationship with Jesus

Written by Christopher A. Frilingos, Associate Professor in the Department of Religious Studies, Michigan State University

Hanging church courtyard tile mural showing holy family traveling.Daniel Mayer (Own work), via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

As Christmas approaches, many Christians will reflect on the Nativity, or birth of Jesus. The Christian Bible includes two different stories of the birth of Jesus, found in the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke. But...

How parenthood has changed the way I read ancient childhood stories about Jesus, Mary and Joseph

Written by Christopher A. Frilingos, Associate Professor in the Department of Religious Studies, Michigan State University

Hanging church courtyard tile mural showing holy family traveling.Daniel Mayer (Own work), via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA