King James Bible

How the King James Bible Influenced American Literature

The King James Bible, the most popular version read worldwide, had a lasting influence on the American literary canon.
Leonardo da Vinci

What Beards Said About Renaissance Masculinity

The role beards played in defining masculinity during the Renaissance.
Halloween pumpkins

Trick or Treat Sadists: A Halloween Urban Legend

Are there a group of trick or treat sadists poisoning the candy they distribute on Halloween?
Front of Nobel Prize medal

On The Cultural Logic of Prizes

Prizes and awards are forms of cultural capital in prestige-making projects.
Svetlana Alexievich, a Belarusian investigative journalist and prose writer, Nobel laureate in Literature 2015

Read Work From 2015 Nobel Prize Winner in Literature Svetlana Alexievich

Read an excerpt from "War's Womanly Face," a book by the winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize Svetlana Alexievich about female Russian soldiers in World War II.
Mary Poppins

How Mary Poppins Softened the Image of the Suffragette

We examine the portrayal of the British suffragettes in the iconic film, Mary Poppins.
Portrait of William Shakespeare

Linguistic Anarchy! It’s all Pun and Games Until Somebody Loses a Sign

The pun is in an interesting bind: it is both ubiquitous and reviled. We try to understand why.
Photo Credit: AP Photo/St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Robert Cohen

#allhandsondeck: The Art of Political Posters

Did posters help to raise spirits in Ferguson? Learn about the transformative political posters of Damon Davis and Robbie Conal.
Collage of cosplay

Unpacking the World of Cosplay

We go into the world of cosplay, where men and women dress up and role-play as their favorite fictional characters.
Four young men in trendy clothes take a selfie while out partying

More Hipster Than Thou: Is Vintage Language Back in Vogue?

A look at the recent boon in archaic terms and its relationship to "hipster" culture.