An abstract spectrum of colored dots on a black background that cohere together to represent sound waves or a music equalizer.

How to Hear Images and See Sounds

Artists Shannon Finnegan and Andy Slater talk accessibility, transdimensional hearing, alt-text as poetry, sound descriptions, and Instagram captions for McSweeney’s Audio Issue.
Olivia Rodrigo performs onstage during the 2021 MTV Video Music Awards at Barclays Center on September 12, 2021

Thank You, Tweens, for Your Pop Music Icons

Olivia Rodrigo is only the latest star to emerge from the wonderful world of Disney.
Handout for a 1776 performance of Oroonoko

Science and Slavery in Aphra Behn’s Oroonoko

In one of the first novels written in English, a West African prince, fascinated with navigation, boards a ship for a fateful journey.
Mario Montez

How Latin Camp Rocked the New York Underground

Puerto Rican queers produced theater and film that made them mainstays of the New York underground arts movement of the 1950s and ’60s.
Photograph: Still from  "Only Murders in the Building"

Source: Hulu

Why Mystery Fiction Is So Engaging

Tracking down the killer appeal of the hit show Only Murders in the Building.
Scholar Reclining and Watching Rising Clouds, an illustration of a poem by Wang Wei

Wang Wei, Poet of Buddhist Emptiness

Focusing almost exclusively on nature, the Tang Dynasty poet Wang Wei expressed the philosophy of the Chan school.
A reliquary shrine attributed to Jean de Touyl, ca. 1325-50

What’s in the Box? The Art of Reliquaries

The cult of relics dates back to the second and third centuries, when Christian martyrs were often killed in ways that fragmented the body.
A young girl in a fairy costume

A Very JSTOR Daily Costume Guide

Get inspired for Halloween with these hand-curated historical images from JSTOR's Open Community Collections!
A poster for Tango!, 1933

How Women Singers Subverted Tango’s Masculinity

In the hands of performers known as cancionistas, the genre known for its machismo was transformed.
A Star Wars artwork

Is Star Wars Cultural Appropriation?

Orientalism is alive and well in the wildly popular franchise, argues one scholar.