The Conversation

Amid growth in AI writing tools, this course teaches future lawyers and other professionals to become better editors

Written by Patrick Barry, Clinical Assistant Professor and Director of Digital Academic Initiatives (University of Michigan Law School) | Visiting Lecturer (University of Chicago Law School) | Visiting Lecturer (UCLA School of Law), University of Michigan

Even the best paragraphs may have room for improvement.PhonlamaiPhoto via Getty Images

Uncommon Courses is an occasional series from The Conversation U.S. highlighting unconventional approaches to teaching.

Title of Course:

“Editing and Advocacy”

What prompted the idea for the course?

In part, I wanted to improve the career prospects of the...

Children experience more injuries, stress and even burnout when they specialize in one sport

Written by Nirav Pandya, Associate Professor, Pediatric Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine, University of California, San Francisco

Along with ankle injuries, kids focusing on one sport tend to have more shoulder and knee issues, including ACL injuries.LSOphoto/iStock via Getty Images Plus

From football to baseball, gymnastics to tennis, more young athletes are becoming sports specialists. They join expensive sports clubs or youth leagues and devote themselves to a single sport...

Free school meals for all may reduce childhood obesity, while easing financial and logistical burdens for families and schools

Written by Anna Localio, Ph.D. Candidate in Health Services, University of Washington

School meal waivers that started with the COVID-19 pandemic stopped with the end of the public health emergency.Jonathan Wiggs/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

School meals are critical to child health. Research has shown that school meals can be more nutritious than meals from other sources, such as meals brought from home.

A recent study that...

Biden and Trump, though old, are both likely to survive to the end of the next president’s term, demographers explain

Written by Dudley L. Poston Jr., Professor of Sociology, Texas A&M University

Both Joe Biden and Donald Trump are nearly twice the median age of the U.S. population.AP Photo

In a recent poll, 67% of Americans surveyed believe that President Joe Biden, 81, is too old to serve another term as president. But only 41% of respondents said they feel that way about former President Donald Trump, who is 77. Both men have stumbled...

Why Fani Willis was allowed to stay on as prosecutor of criminal case against Trump in Georgia – and what happens next

Written by Ronald S. Sullivan Jr., Professor of Law, Harvard University

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis listens to final arguments in her disqualification hearing on March 1, 2024, in Atlanta, Ga. Alex Slitz/AFP via Getty Images

In an unexpected decision, a Georgia judge ruled that the conspiracy to commit election intereference case against Donald Trump and several associates can continue if Fulton County...

Is TikTok’s parent company an agent of the Chinese state? In China Inc., it’s a little more complicated

Written by Shaomin Li, Eminent Scholar and Professor of International Business, Old Dominion University

Some U.S. lawmakers have grown concerned about TikTok.Greg Baker/AFP via Getty Images.

Does the Chinese government have officials inside TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, pulling the strings? And does the storing of data from the popular social media app outside of China protect Americans?

These questions appear to dominate the current...

‘Gross negligence’: why a parent like James Crumbley can be found guilty for their child’s crimes

Written by Thaddeus Hoffmeister, Professor of Law, University of Dayton

James Crumbley appears in court on March 13, 2024, during his trial on charges of involuntary manslaughter. Bill Pugliano/Getty Images

In a case of what prosecutors described as “gross negligence,” a Michigan jury convicted James Crumbley on charges of involuntary manslaughter for his role in his son’s deadly rampage at Oxford...

How ‘Dune’ became a beacon for the fledgling environmental movement − and a rallying cry for the new science of ecology

Written by Devin Griffiths, Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

Oregon's Umpqua Dunes inspired the desert planet Arrakis in Frank Herbert's 'Dune.'VWPics/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

“Dune,” widely considered one of the best sci-fi novels of all time, continues to influence how writers, artists and inventors envision the future.

Of course, there are Denis Villeneuve’s visually...

Trump wouldn’t be the first presidential candidate to campaign from a prison cell

Written by Thomas Doherty, Professor of American Studies, Brandeis University

Eugene Debs, center, imprisoned at the Atlanta Federal Prison, was notified of his nomination for the presidency on the socialist ticket by a delegation of leading socialists who came from New York to Atlanta.George Rinhart/Corbis via Getty Images

The first trial ever of a former president, the so-called “hush money” case against former...

What is the ‘great replacement theory’? A scholar of race relations explains

Written by Rodney Coates, Professor of Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, Miami University

Members of a white supremacist group demonstrate near the National Archives in Washington on Jan. 21, 2022.AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana

The “great replacement theory,” whose origins date back to the late 19th century, argues that Jews and some Western elites are conspiring to replace white Americans and Europeans with people of...