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Farah Mohammed

Farahnaz Mohammed is a nomadic journalist, based wherever there’s an internet connection. Her writing has appeared in The Huffington Post, The Guardian, The Women’s Media Center and others, and her work has been referenced by Quartz, The Washington Post and El Colombiano. Farah holds a Masters of Science in Journalism from Northwestern University and a Masters in Spanish and English Literature from The University of Edinburgh. You can find her on twitter @FarahColette, or at www.farahmohammed.com.

Robots working on a production line.

Questions for the Age of Automation

Back in the 1960s, scholars were making predictions about what the Age of Automation would look like. Where they right?
A bandaged hand

People Who Can’t Feel Pain

While exceptionally rare, congenital analgesia, or a total insensitivity to pain, is a real condition that can be quite dangerous.
The dedication ceremony of the Statue of Unity in Gujarat, India.

The New Meaning of Monuments

Huge monuments to national pride are regaining popularity. One scholar suggests this might also indicate a larger cultural shift.
A person in distress, from graffiti in Finland

Pathologizing Distress

One bioethics scholar wonders if modern medicine is in danger of pathologizing what are painful, but normal, human experiences.
U.S. President Donald Trump (left) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (right) meet in Hamburg, Germany in July 2017.

Can the US and China Avoid the Thucydides Trap?

The "Thucydides trap" refers to the theory that when a rising power threatens a ruling power, the result is often war. Are the US and China headed there?
Digital illustration of connected cities

Do Sister Cities Matter?

Sister cities may seem like mere symbolic pairings, but many actually share meaningful ties that are deliberately instituted and sustained.
office email anthropology

The Anthropology of the Office Email

Researchers learn a lot from studying office workers' email. But the question remains: do they learn more about the people, or about the medium itself?
scary diseases

Epidemics as Entertainment

Plagues capture the public imagination in ways that other less terrifying--but more deadly--diseases don't.
Serena Williams in 2015

What Sports Reveal about Society

Sociologists find that sports are inextricably intertwined with the people, countries, and politics surrounding them.
Many pills and tablets with bottle isolated on black background.

What Complicates Addiction Treatment

Treating addiction can have a toll on doctors, who may find themselves confused and challenged by the addicts' behavior.
Charles Dickens in 1858 writing at a desk

Charles Dickens and Fame vs. Celebrity

Many of our current celebrities are famous for being famous. Charles Dickens, the first self-made global media star, would've had a lot to say about this.
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?
Cropped hands of person making heart shape against red background

Do Dating Apps Cheapen Love?

Dating apps and services have been accused of cheapening the dominant Western conception of love. One scholar begs to differ.
indigenous people brazil

Preserving South America’s Uncontacted Tribes

There are still tribes living in the Amazon rain forest who carry on their traditional way of life and rebuff attempts at contact.
popularity rankings

What’s in a Popularity Rating?

A leader's popularity usually has more to do with the market, the economy, and other external factors than with the leader's personality.
Therapist communicating with man while sitting by book shelf at home office

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.
Bart Roberts pirate

The Pirate Creed

Examining the 18th-century social contract of Captain Bartholomew Roberts and his men shows just how organized and codified pirate societies could be.
Soldiers training in the Israeli Defense Forces

Is Mandatory Military Service Good for a Country?

A prescribed period of civic service may offer benefits, promoting active citizenship across the socioeconomic divide and creating strong social ties.
entrepreneurs

Entrepreneur Personality Test

A study of successful entrepreneurs finds a high level of emotional intelligence and sociability, along with a marked need to dominate.
Cynthia Nixon

Why Sex and The City is Still in Style

Sex and the City was on television from 1998-2004, and still holds cultural cachet today. But does the actual programming still hold up?
soccer football in the stadium crowd

Soccer and European Identity

Throughout Europe, soccer matches like the FIFA World Cup have become deeply significant, in part because that continent's identity is so complex.
tattoo mom

How Tattoos Became Middle Class

In the 1990s, middle class clientele used legitimization techniques to "to frame their desires for tattoos within mainstream definitions of success."
Barack Obama Nobel Peace Prize

Did Barack Obama Deserve the Nobel Prize?

Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009. He took the award not as a reward for accomplishments but as a "call to action."
Adults reading comics

Why Adults Love Comic Books

There's more to comic books than bright colors, gratiutious violence, and whimsy. Comics tells stories that are deeply significant to their readers.
Rotten Tomatoes film industry

How Rotten Tomatoes Changed the Film Industry

In 2008, a panel of film critics gathered to talk about the future of film reviewing as a profession in the age of the internet.