Official Macron portrait

Louis XIV, Napoleon, and Macron: The Choreography of Portraits

Official portraits have been a means of communicating intention and creating image throughout history. Consider three of France's iconic leaders.
Cast of Transparent

What Does Jesus Christ Superstar Have to Do With the Show Transparent ?

Jesus Christ Superstar is a global phenomenon, and with Transparent’s recent use of and even reboot of the rock opera, its fanbase is sure to keep growing.
uncomfortable chairs

Character-Building With Uncomfortable Chairs

Chairs were a subject of much debate as far back as the nineteenth century, pitting health and technology against propriety and aesthetics.
Electric eel

5 Shocking Facts about Electric Eels

First things first: eels are fish.
Bonnie Nardi avatar

Bonnie Nardi

Welcome to Ask a Professor, our series that offers an insider’s view of life in academia. This month we interviewed Bonnie Nardi.
Martin Shkreli

Is a Fair Trial Possible in the Age of Social Media?

Is it possible to have a fair trial or an impartial jury in an age when anyone is just a viral tweet or a Facebook search away?
Dance hall illustration

Jane Addams’s Crusade Against Victorian “Dancing Girls”

Jane Addams, a leading Victorian-era reformer, believed dance halls were “one of the great pitfalls of the city.”
Richard Thaler

Richard H. Thaler

Richard H. Thaler was awarded the 2017 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. More on his theory that when it comes to money, people are irrational.
EJI Slavery Museum

Bryan Stevenson and America’s First Slavery Museum

The Equal Justice Initiative's new museum seeks to lead a more “honest conversation about racial and economic justice."
Mummified cats

How Ancient Peoples Fed the Dead

4,000 years ago in what is now Jerusalem, someone was buried with a jar of headless toads. In fact, many ancient graves included food for the afterlife.