Mallards

Nature Fakers and Real Naturalists

John Burroughs, supported by Theodore Roosevelt, castigated popular nature writers for being too sentimental. They responded by calling Roosevelt a sham naturalist.
Aimé Césaire, Conference on Negritude, Ethnicity and Afro Cultures in the Americas

Négritude’s Enduring Legacy: Black Lives Matter

Today's anti-racist activism builds on the work of Black Francophone writers who founded the Pan-African Négritude movement in the 1930s.
Illustration from Le Roman du Renard

What Makes Foxes So Fantastic?

In stories from around the world, foxes offer rewards or punishments to humans, play tricks on their fellow animals, and sometimes transform into foxy ladies.
Iron Man

The MCU: A Tale of American Exceptionalism

Evolving from a hated weapons manufacturer into a technocratic solution to the War on Terror, Iron Man epitomizes a militarized, defensive America.
A cover of Frauen Liebe, 1928

Publishing Queer Berlin

Weimar Germany was an improbably safe space for newspapers and magazines by and for lesbians.
An Americanization Campaign image

Reading Between the Lines of an “Americanization” Campaign

Manuals used to teach “American” ways of homemaking in California c. 1915–1920 offer a rare opportunity to hear the voices of Mexican immigrant women.
Hippopotamus sleep at Taronga Western Plains Zoo on November 06, 2021 in Dubbo, Australia. T

Hippos, Flies, and Queer Love Stories

Well-researched stories from Literary Hub, Vox, and other great publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.
Mausoleum of Augustus

Fascist Architecture in Rome

In Mussolini's Rome, the built environment struck a balance between the romance of the ancient past and the rationalism of avant-garde modernism.
Euglandina rosea

A Slimy Story: Snail Mucus

Land snails, mostly hermaphroditic, follow slime trails to find their mates. Others, including predatory Rosy Wolf Snails, follow the mucus to find their meals.
Road travelling horses being accustomised to motor cars, c. 1904

An Uncertain Energy Transition a Century Ago

When it came to the transport of goods within local areas, it took decades for the competition among horses, electric vehicles, and gas trucks to shake out.