The Conversation

'Stolen' elections open wounds that may never heal

Written by Sarah Burns, Associate Professor of Political Science, Rochester Institute of Technology

Election fraud is not usually as obvious as this.Victor Moussa/Shutterstock.com

Allegations are flying left and right about potential – or actual – efforts to unfairly and secretly influence the outcome of the 2020 election. It’s a time when political scientists and constitutional scholars like to look back on other times when the...

Hundreds of county jails detained immigrants for ICE

Written by Emily Ryo, Professor of Law and Sociology, University of Southern California

Theo Lacy Facility in Orange, California. Emily Ryo, CC BY-SA

Hundreds of county jails in the U.S. are paid by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to detain immigrants facing removal proceedings.

On a typical day in 2017, for instance, Theo Lacy Facility in Orange, California, operated by the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, held...

Why sequencing the human genome failed to produce big breakthroughs in disease

Written by Ari Berkowitz, Presidential Professor of Biology; Director, Cellular & Behavioral Neurobiology Graduate Program, University of Oklahoma

Early proponents of genome sequencing made misleading predictions about its potential in medicine.Natali_ Mis/Shutterstock.com

An emergency room physician, initially unable to diagnose a disoriented patient, finds on the patient a wallet-sized card providing access to his genome, or all his DNA. The physician quickly searches the genome, diagnoses...

The opioid crisis is a big issue in New Hampshire – 5 questions answered on what voters want the candidates to do

Written by Amanda Latimore, Assistant Scientist, Johns Hopkins University

At the New Hampshire primary debate, America's opioid crisis came up as an issue.Elise Amendola/AP Photo

America’s opioid crisis has hit New Hampshire hard, creating an epidemic of overdoses and addiction-related health issues in the early primary state.

We asked Amanda Latimore, an opioid and behavioral health expert at Johns Hopkins...

The history of 'coming out,' from secret gay code to popular political protest

Written by Abigail C. Saguy, Professor of Sociology, University of California, Los Angeles

Protesters in Manchester, U.K., 1988.Mirrorpix via Getty

You probably know what it means to “come out” as gay. You may even have heard the expression used in relation to other kinds of identity, such as being undocumented.

But do you know where the term comes from? Or that its meaning has changed over time?

In my new book, “Come...

A college president's advice to college students of the future: Don't borrow

Written by Walter V. Wendler, President, West Texas A&M University

West Texas A&M University Walter V. Wendler stands alongside the SUV he drove on a speaking tour to urge Texas high school students not to borrow too much for college.Author provided

Back in 2017, I started regularly leaving my office at West Texas A&M University in Canyon, Texas, to speak to high school students in the Texas Panhandle....

Lynching preachers: How black pastors resisted Jim Crow and white pastors incited racial violence

Written by Malcolm Brian Foley, PhD Candidate in Religion - Historical Studies, Baylor University

A funeral held in July 1945 for two victims of the Ku Klux Klan, George Dorsey and his sister, Dorothy Dorsey Malcolm, of Walton County, Georgia, held at the Mt. Perry Baptist Church Sunday. Bettman via Getty

White lynch mobs in America murdered at least 4,467 people between 1883 and 1941, hanging, burning, dismembering, garroting and blowtorching...

How a Native American coming-of-age ritual is making a comeback

Written by Rosalyn R. LaPier, Associate Professor of Environmental Studies, The University of Montana

Ojibwe women conduct a year-long ritual for their girls when they start menstruation.Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

The Ojibwe, one of the largest indigenous groups in North America, with communities from Quebec to Montana, are revitalizing the “berry fast,” a coming-of-age ritual for girls.

Ojibwe women...

A Nazi drug's US resurgence: How meth is making a disturbing reappearance

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

A drug addict smoking crystal meth on Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles.AP photo/Jae C. Hong

Although I am teaching a course at Indiana University this semester on the opioid epidemic, I can’t get meth out of my mind.

A colleague of mine was recently carjacked. He was forced to drive at extreme speed throughout the city and escaped with his...

Potential gene therapy to combat cocaine addiction

Written by Rachel Patton McCord, Assistant Professor of Biochemistry & Cellular and Molecular Biology, University of Tennessee

More than 1 million people in the U.S. are addicted to cocaine.Orawan Pattarawimonchai/Shutterstock.com

Have you ever slipped when trying to avoid sugar, quit smoking, or break another habit or addiction? Usually that one piece of cake or one cigarette won’t ruin your whole plan, but for people struggling with cocaine addiction, one slip can...