Austin Allen

Austin Allen is a poet, essayist, and lecturer in the Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars. His essays have been featured by the Poetry Foundation, Big Think, Open Letters Monthly, and other outlets. He lives in Baltimore.

Education & Society

Chess Grandmastery: Nature, Gender, and the Genius of Judit Polgár

László Polgár raised all three of his daughters to become chess prodigies.

Editors' Picks

Arts & Culture

Cultivating the Art of Slow Looking

When we examine the subject, foreground, and background of an image separately, the nuances of the scene emerge.

Arts & Culture

So You Plan to Teach Moby Dick

The study of Melville’s novel is enhanced by contextualizing it with primary and secondary sources related to the American sperm whaling industry.

Education & Society

Institutionalized Racism: A Syllabus

How can we help students understand George Floyd's death in the context of institutionalized racism?

Politics & History

The Voting Rights Act 1965: Annotated

The passing of the Voting Rights Act in August 1965 prohibited the use of Jim Crow laws and discriminatory tests to disenfranchise Black voters.

Education & Society

On Drugs and Harm Reduction with Maia Szalavitz

Author of Undoing Drugs and NYT columnist Szalavitz talks history, science, media shifts, politics, and how the US might mitigate its overdose crisis.

Chess Grandmastery: Nature, Gender, and the Genius of Judit Polgár

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