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

Politics & History

Guns in America: Foundations and Key Concepts

This non-exhaustive list of readings on the role of guns in US history and society introduces the field as a subject of scholarly inquiry.

Politics & History

American as Apple Pie

How marketing made guns a fundamental element of contemporary boyhood.

Politics & History

“I Have A Dream”: Annotated

Martin Luther King, Jr.'s iconic speech, annotated with relevant scholarship on the literary, political, and religious roots of his words.

Politics & History

When Uptown Chicago was “Hillbilly Heaven”

In the 1960s, white Appalachian workers attempted to put down roots in Chicago by building an integrated model neighborhood called Hank Williams Village.

Science & Technology

Who Wants the Metaverse?

What exactly is the “metaverse,” and what could it be, beyond an overused, hyper-trendy prompt in marketing copy?

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

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