Oprah and Obamas

How Oprah Became a Cultural Icon

The idea of a President Oprah has sparked excitement rather than ridicule. Americans value symbolism as much as political experience; while Oprah has little of the latter, she is practically made of the former.
Norma Jean the Termite Queen

A Forgotten Feminist Novel About the Creative Power of Rage

Remembering history helps us to parse the present, and it follows that women struggling to process these "decades of pent-up anger" can find apt reading material in the feminist fiction of the 1970s.
Fifty Shades affective labor

Fifty Shades of Affective Labor for Capital

Fifty Shades of Grey sells an absurd fantasy version of a romantic relationship—as between man and woman, so between capitalism and female workers.
Karen Blixen

The Writer Behind Out of Africa

For Karen Blixen, the Danish author of "Out of Africa," role, purpose, fate and destiny are intertwined
Crown-of-thorns starfish crown of thorns

When Crown-of-Thorns Starfish Attack

Australia's iconic Great Barrier Reef is facing a threat from a massive outbreak of crown-of-thorns starfish.
Met viewers

Can Art Help People Develop Empathy?

A new Center for Empathy and the Visual Arts has made people wonder whether empathy can be taught? And, if so, how can the arts help with this process?
JSTOR Daily Suggested Readings

Suggested Readings: Preschool Teachers, 11-Dimensional Space, and Sex Robots

Well-researched stories from around the web that bridge the gap between news and scholarship. Brought to you each Tuesday from the editors of JSTOR Daily.
Warsaw Ghetto

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and Jewish Identity

How do identity politics work in extremis? The resistance in the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising had to both suppress and amplify their Jewishness.
Woodrow and Edith Wilson

Could the Twenty-Fifth Amendment Spark a National Crisis?

One scholar's opinion: the Twenty-Fifth Amendment is a Pandora's Box.
Flu hospital 1918

The Flu Pandemic of 1918, As Reported in 1918

The Spanish Influenza pandemic 100 years ago was the most lethal global disease outbreak since the Black Death. What were people thinking at the time?