The Woman Who Refused to Leave a Whites-Only Streetcar
In 1854, Elizabeth Jennings rode the streetcar of her choice, in an early civil rights protest that led to desegregating public transportation in NYC.
The Future of Forgiveness Is Online
When our flame wars, insensitive Facebook comments, and rude texts are catalogued online indefinitely, can we still forgive and forget?
When Harriet Beecher Stowe and George Eliot Were Penpals
These 19th-century novelists might seem to have little in common. But for 11 years they wrote each other letters, forging an unusual literary friendship.
The Legendary Language of the Appalachian “Holler”
Is the unique Appalachian dialect the preserved language of Elizabethan England? Left over from Scots-Irish immigrants? Or something else altogether?
How a Beloved Musical Became a Cold War Weapon
The 1962 film The Music Man was seen as so all-American that some hoped it would help win the Cold War by transmitting American values abroad.
Friendship, Stonehenge, and Making it to College
Well-researched stories from the Guardian, the Conversation, and other great publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.
How Storytelling Heals
Illness can challenge the notion of the self and disrupt patients' narratives about their own lives. Some scholars suggest that storytelling can help.
Meat Allergies, McCarthyism, and World Leadership
Well-researched stories from the Conversation, Atlas Obscura, and other great publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.
What Exactly Is Jane Austen’s Sanditon?
An unfinished, fragmentary Austen novel is being adapted for television. Can we ever know what Austen meant for this book to eventually become?
Maroon Societies, Down Syndrome, and Food Justice
New books and scholarship from academic publishers.