Playing with Consciousness
Out-of-the-ordinary mental states are the goal of many religious rituals, but they’re also important in “playful” situations like kids’ games and fraternal hazing.
Bread, Circuses, Baths: Bathing in Rome, the Public Way
By the fourth century CE, Rome had some 856 privately owned public baths, the grounds of which served as civic gardens adorned with sculptures.
Greening Philly’s Neglected Lots
Spearheaded by the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, an urban beautification program transformed neighborhoods in the city of brotherly love.
Ideal Missing Persons
Overrepresented as victims, missing white women and girls drive ratings and clicks for traditional and internet media.
The First Futurists and the World They Built
From Saint-Simon to Silicon Valley, the urge to forecast the future has always masked a struggle over who gets to define it.
The Hidden History of Women Game Designers
Nineteenth-century women turned music lessons into interactive entertainment, complete with spinning wheels and ivory counters.
Potluck Nation
Food in America is a living archive of exchange and adaptation, where “ethnic” cuisines blend and redefine what national identity tastes like.
We Descend from the River
Public spaces are often sites of commemoration of events in the nation’s history. But which public is represented in and served by those spatialized celebrations?
Thanksgiving Stories
Turkey or Tofurkey? Stuffing or dressing? Whatever the controversy, these Thanksgiving stories will slake your appetite!