Liberation on the Dance Floor

Motown’s foray into gay liberation music may have been short-lived, but it made an outsized impact on queer culture.
From Sexualpathologie by Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, 1921

Visualizing Trans Identities

Photography played an important role in determining gender categories and presentations for both scientists and trans individuals in interwar Germany.
Onlookers watch as people dance at a memorial site for George Floyd outside Cup Foods June 5, 2020 in Minneapolis, Minnesota

What is Dance Activism?

An aesthetic of resistance and a form of protest against racist ideologies, dance activism has become a meaningful part of the Black Lives Matter movement.
A Kentucky Wildcats cheerleader performs in th first half against the Florida Gators during the Championship game of the 2014 Men's SEC Basketball Tournament

When Men Join Cheer

What happens when former football players, accustomed to practicing and playing in all-male environments, join gender-integrated cheerleading squads?
Photograph: German strongman Eugene Sandow lifting weights and dumbbells, c. 1890

Buff Boys of America: Eugen Sandow and Jesus

Under the influence of Muscular Christianity, Jesus transformed into a muscle-bound Aryan, saving souls through strength and masculinity.
Fifteen puzzle

Square Space

Not so fast, Wordle. The Fifteen Puzzle, a challenge that inspired poetry, has obsessed fans for more than a century.
Women's Christian Temperance Union lecturing in a crowded bar in Pasadena, CA., 1947

The Forgotten Temperance Movement of the 1950s

Despite the repeal of Prohibition, alcohol consumption was an enormous political issue for many white American Protestants.
Early morning sunlight bathing an inlet on Florida's Emerald Coast

Microbots, Swamps, and the “Chitlin Circuit”

Well-researched stories from Knowable Magazine, Slate, and other great publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.
A collection of objects from the civil war

Patriotism and Consumerism in the Civil War

For a burgeoning consumer society, store-bought flags and bonnets offered proof that commercialism could go hand in hand with heartfelt emotion.
Florestine Perrault Collins

Challenging Race and Gender Roles, One Photo at a Time

Florestine Perrault Collins escaped the bounds of prescribed gender roles and racial segregation to run a successful photography studio in 1920s New Orleans.