The Conversation

Biden nominates Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court: 7 questions answered

Written by Alexis Karteron, Associate Professor of Law, Rutgers University - Newark

Ketanji Brown Jackson at her Senate Judiciary Committee hearing as a nominee to be a U.S. Circuit Judge for the District of Columbia Circuit, on April 28, 2021.Tom Williams-Pool/Getty Images)

President Joe Biden made good on his promise to nominate the first Black female justice to the Supreme Court when he announced that Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson...

Beyond NATO, new alliances could defend democracy and counter Putin

Written by John Davenport, Professor of Philosophy and Peace & Justice Studies, Fordham University

NATO has struggled to remain unified in recent years.NATO via Flickr

Russian aggression toward Ukraine continues. The nations of the world, and their current alliances, have so far proved ineffective at curbing Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ambitions.

Right now at the United Nations, dictators and theocratic rulers get an equal voice with...

Transgender youth on puberty blockers and gender-affirming hormones have lower rates of depression and suicidal thoughts, a new study finds

Written by Diana Tordoff, PhD Candidate in Epidemiology, University of Washington

Gender-affirming care and social support can help trans youth thrive.Jonathan Kirn/The Image Bank via Getty Images

Recent studies estimate that 1.8% to 2.7% – or approximately 750,000 to 1.1 million – adolescents in the U.S. identify as transgender or nonbinary. Many of these trans youth experience high levels of negative mental health...

Russian invasion of Ukraine and resulting US sanctions threaten the future of the International Space Station

Written by Wendy Whitman Cobb, Professor of Strategy and Security Studies, Air University

The International Space Station is run collectively by the U.S., Russia, the European Space Agency, Japan and Canada.NASA Marshall Spaceflight Center/Flickr, CC BY-NC-SA

New U.S. sanctions on Russia will encompass Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, according to a speech U.S. President Joe Biden gave on Feb. 24, 2022.

In response to these...

Can churches be protectors of public health?

Written by Andrew Gardner, Visiting Faculty Associate of American Religious History, Hartford International University for Religion and Peace

The relationship between public health and faith is far older than the COVID-19 pandemic.Fred de Noyelle/Godong/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Over the past two years of living with COVID-19, many churches have had to think in new ways. Congregations across the country are experimenting with practices such as virtual worship and Bible...

A second look at the blue-eyes, brown-eyes experiment that taught third-graders about racism

Written by Stephen G. Bloom, Professor of Journalism, University of Iowa

In this 1998 photograph, former Iowa teacher Jane Elliott, center, speaks with two Augsburg University students about the problems of racism. Jerry Holt/Star Tribune via Getty Images

The killing of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, was a seismic event, a turning point that compelled many Americans to do something and do it with urgency. Many educators...

International law says Putin's war against Ukraine is illegal. Does that matter?

Written by Hurst Hannum, Professor of International Law, Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy, Tufts University

People protest in front of Ukraine's embassy to Romania in Bucharest on Feb. 24, 2022. Daniel Mihailescu/AFP via Getty Images

Both international law and the United Nations Charter say that countries should not invade each other. But who has the ability to enforce those rules?

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres put them to the test on...

Digital sound archives can bring extinct birds (briefly) back to life

Written by Hannah Hunter, PhD Candidate in Geography and Planning, Queen's University, Ontario

Colorized version of a 1935 photo of a male ivory-billed woodpecker, now believed to be extinct. Photographed by Arthur A. Allen.Forestry Images/Wikipedia, CC BY

When people think of extinct animals, they may picture taxidermy, skeletons, 19th-century illustrations or perhaps grainy black-and-white photographs. Until very recently, these were our...

How a Black writer in 19th-century America used humor to combat white supremacy

Written by Rodney Taylor, Postdoctoral Fellow in African American Studies, University of South Carolina

Charles Chesnutt was one of the first widely read Black fiction writers in the U.S.RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post via Getty Images

Any writer has to struggle with the dilemma of staying true to their vision or giving editors and readers what they want. A number of factors might influence the latter: the market, trends and sensibilities.

But in the...

How long does protective immunity against COVID-19 last after infection or vaccination? Two immunologists explain

Written by Prakash Nagarkatti, Professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, University of South Carolina

Researchers are working to develop vaccines that provide long-term immune protection from COVID-19. Marko Geber/Digital Vision via Getty Images

As the omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 took hold across the globe in late 2021, it became readily apparent that the pandemic had entered a new phase. Having experienced a previous COVID-19 infection or being...