Low angle view of Ferris wheel against clear blue sky

The Big Wheel

The Ferris wheel may not have been a new idea, but the revolving structure offered fun—from the fairgrounds to the classroom.
Ezra Stiles, 1770

Yale’s Lost Indian Museum

The (now lost) collection of Native American artifacts at Yale College reveals the mechanics and high cost of the settler-colonialist nation-building project.
From the cover of Olivia by Dorothy Bussy

Olivia: An Oft-Overlooked Lesbian Novel

It took some fifteen years to bring Dorothy Strachey Bussy’s remarkable roman à clef to print, thanks to André Gide’s lukewarm reception.
Two Peranakan women at a tin factory in Pulau Singkep, Riau Islands.

Keeping the Baba-Nyonya Culture of Penang Alive

Identity consciousness among Malaysian Chinese Peranakans is on the rise as the Babas and Nyonyas seek to celebrate and preserve their unique heritage.
Rakhine farmers harvest in a rice paddy near Pa Rein village, Myauk Oo township on October 29, 2012 in Rakhine state, Myanmar.

The Challenges of Regulating Rice in Myanmar

The Myanmar government has regulated its agricultural and export industry through one specific crop: rice. What are the future prospects of the rice economy?
A study of facial expression and gesture, 1823

How Upper Lips Got Stiff

The truism that “boys don’t cry” is a Western social convention. Colonialism and imperialism made sure it spread East.
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.