A series of four blue pictograms in front of a light yellow background. Three pictograms are disability access symbols, for wheelchair accessibility, sign language interpretation, and low vision access. The fourth pictogram is of a brain, and is meant to symbolize cognitive impairment accommodations.

Disability Studies: Foundations & Key Concepts

This non-exhaustive reading list highlights some of the key debates and conceptual shifts in disability studies.
A woman's face lit up in a dark room

People with Depression Use Language Differently

New research shows that people with depression use absolute words, such as "always," "nothing," or "completely," more often than others.
A Polynesian rat

Down the Research Rat Hole

While writing her forthcoming book about Polynesia, the author discovered the work of Teuira Henry, a scholar and folklorist who studied ancient Tahiti.
Jack Halberstam, Afsaneh Najmabadi-Evaz and bell hooks

Gender Studies: Foundations and Key Concepts

Gender studies developed alongside and emerged out of Women’s Studies. This non-exhaustive list introduces readers to scholarship in the field.
A nurse helping an elderly patient

How Second Wave Feminism Almost Killed Nursing

An expert wonders if the waning number of women interested in nursing was the unintended consequence of the women’s rights movement of the 1970’s.
mesoamerican ballgame

A Mesoamerican Ball Game Returns

An ancient ball game called Ulama is making a comeback in Mexico. What do we know about the earlier iteration of the game?
econophysics

Sociophysics and Econophysics, the Future of Social Science?

Can empirical data about human behavior make the “soft” sciences more like the “hard” ones? New interdisciplinary fields are voting yes.
The two halves of a medical model of a human brain.

Does Psychology have a Liberal Bias?

Conventional wisdom holds that conservatives are ill-suited to or uninterested in a career in personality and social psychology. Is this just liberal bias?
Jars of peach jam on table

The Nostalgic Pleasure of Preserves

Home canning was once a necessity, but even then the process was often defined by sensory pleasures and a deep sense of satisfaction.
Nelson, New Zealand - March 05, 2012. Close-Up of Iconic Papa & Rangi Sculpture at Arts Unique, next to the enterance to the Abel Tasman National Park, Marahau, Tasman Region, New Zealand.

Reversing the Trade of Māori Tattooed Heads

Preserved heads decorated with tā moko, or facial tattoos, were sacred objects to New Zealand's Māori. Then Europeans started collecting them.