The tennis shoes of William and Ernest Renshaw, 1880

The Dawn of Kicks

Invented for a faddish game in the 1880s, tennis shoes became fashionable when manufacturers, fearing the tennis boom would go bust, pushed them off the lawn.
Sacred Grove, Ayyanar temple at Oorappatti near Pudukkottai, Tamil Nadu.

Sacred Groves, Medieval Babies, and Army Ants

Well-researched stories from Hakai Magazine, The Conversation, and other great publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.
Zaha Hadid, 2013

The Evolution of Zaha Hadid, Architect

An unconventional architect who started her career as an outsider, Hadid became a leading figure in architecture and design in the twenty-first century.
Dora Barrios, Frances Silva, and Lorena Encinas held in the Los Angeles County Jail during the 1943 Sleepy Lagoon Trial

Pachuca Rebels in 1940s Los Angeles

Like their zoot suit-wearing male counterparts, young Mexican American women rebelled against white, mainstream culture through bold fashion choices.
Marie Bashkirtseff, 1878

Marie Bashkirtseff’s Diary

The art student died young, but her diary lived on to inspire future writers, including Anaïs Nin, Katherine Mansfield, and Mary MacLane.
Bessie Smith poses for a portrait circa 1924.

The Flood Behind Bessie Smith’s “Back-Water Blues”

The Mississippi River flood that Smith allegedly memorialized happened weeks after she'd written and released her song. Where was the real “Back Water”?
L'Envoûteuse (The Sorceress) by Georges Merle, 1883

Radical Theology: A Syllabus

Radical theology aims to construct revolutionary understandings of myth, ritual, and scripture that speak to the dearth of meaning in our contemporary moment.
From Mundus Subterraneous by Athanasius Kircher, 1641

Where Does Water Come From?

And what does the early modern search for the answer to this question tell us about the “scientific method” we colloquially accept today?
Watercolor painting of the earth by Martin Eklund

Planetary Health: Foundations and Key Concepts

The groundwork for the field of planetary health was laid by a range of disciplines and movements, including medicine, ecology, health, and feminism.
An advertising poster for Brauerei Hölle (Hell Brewery), Radolfzell

What is a Symbol?

A symbol can be any object, character, color, or even shape that represents an abstract concept without explanatory text. But wait, there's more!