Skip to content
Black and white headshot of author Livia Gershon

Livia Gershon

Livia Gershon is a freelance writer in Nashua, New Hampshire. Her writing has appeared in publications including Salon, Aeon Magazine and the Good Men Project. Contact her on Twitter @liviagershon.

A crowd holding up American flags in front of the U.S. Capitol Building
Politics & Government

Is Negative Political Campaigning Really So Bad?

The conventional wisdom about negative political campaigning is that it's ugly and destructive. But is it effective?
zookeeper operating on a monkey
Education & Society

What Makes Work Meaningful? Ask a Zookeeper

In interviews with zookeepers, researchers found that good feelings about work ran deeper than a standard survey metric like job satisfaction could capture.
A teacher calls on a student who has raised her hand
Education & Society

Teaching White Kids Anti-Racism

Teachers can take a step toward helping white kids overcome racial prejudice simply by addressing historical examples of racism.
A woman in a hospital gown sitting on a hospital bed with a doctor behind her
Politics & History

What Mid-20th Century Gynecologists Were Taught About Female Sexuality

Gynecologists of the past would be shocked by today's insights on female sexuality.
A row of telephone poles alongside a street
Science & Technology

Before Broadband, Seeking Universal Access to the Telephone

Today's debates about low-income subsidizes for broadband echo early fights for universal access to telephone lines.
Japanese students
Education & Society

Japan, the U.S, and the Perils of International Education Comparisons

Current comparisons of U.S. and Chinese educational systems echo earlier comparisons to Japan.
A black and white photograph of a 1590's housewife speaking to a salesman at her door
Business

“Uber for Sales” and Door-to-Door Vacuum Salesmen

The independent contractor model employed by Uber was used in the vacuum cleaner companies.
Older black and white photograph of the all female staff at Bryn Mawr summer school
Politics & History

Class, Feminism and the Bryn Mawr Summer School for Women Workers

A paper for Pennsylvania History looked at the way elite & working-class feminists worked together to create the Bryn Mawr Summer School for Women Workers.
An older prison door lock
Politics & History

Debtors’ Prisons, Class, and Patriotism in 18th Century Ireland

In a paper for Eighteenth-Century Ireland, Martyn J. Powell discusses the politics that seem to have limited the use of debtors' prisons in Ireland.
An individual scans a card key
Education & Society

Safe Rooms, Fear, and the Limits of Rational Thinking

Do safe rooms realistically protect people from outside threats?
Scattered paper money in various denominations
Arts & Culture

The Grateful Dead, Tape Trading, and the Music Industry

What the difference between tape trading and bootlegging in rock music?
Children dancing in a playroom
Education & Society

Why Did Kindergarten Become Just Another Grade?

How and when kindergarten shifted from play-based to academic based.
A doctor standing in front of the Cuban flag
Health

Cuba’s Medical Revolution

What can other countries learn from medical advances in Cuba.
A large classroom with students all faced towards the chalkboard at the front of the room.
Education & Society

Can Summer School Be More than a Punishment?

A Colorado high school teacher studies the benefits of summer school.
Business workers in an all glass high-rise
Business & Economics

Corporate Power, National Sovereignty, and the New “Free Trade” Deals

3 papers in the American Society of International Law's Proceedings of the Annual Meeting in the early 2000s explain international free trade topics
Scattered paper money in various denominations
Politics & Government

Two Hundred Thirty-Nine Years of Money in Politics

A brief history of money in politics and the ethics of political campaign spending.
A kitchen table full of chopped vegetables and spices
Politics & History

A Plan to Get the Poor to Eat Healthy Food—in the 1890s

Early efforts to get Americans to eat healthy food started with targeting poor citizens.
Upwards looking shot of city skyscrapers
Politics & Government

Why Antitrust Progressives Didn’t Curb the Power of Big Business

The limits of Progressive ideology in curbing antitrust practices in the U.S.
Education & Society

The Story of the First High School LGBT Group

The first high school LGBT group started in the 1970s.
A child playing with a caretaker
Business & Economics

When Migrant Workers are ‘Family’

Migrant workers and "moral economy"
Close up of a hand filling out a multiple choice exam
Education & Society

A Short History of Standardized Tests

The origins of standardized tests.
A mother working on a laptop while holding her toddler
Business & Economics

Reproductive Technology, Motherhood, and Feminism

Would advanced reproductive technology advance professional opportunities for women? Early feminist thinkers debate.
Students looking happily up from smart phones and tablets
Education & Society

Should Education Be Efficient?

What do education leaders mean by "efficient" schools?
Traffic ticket
Politics & Government

Could Day Fines Improve the U.S. Justice System?

Are day fines a possible solution for the U.S. criminal justice system?
A row of houses in San Francisco
Business & Economics

The Biggest US Housing Subsidy is For The Rich

The National Tax Journal looked at how significant the US housing subsidy is and what the effects of repealing or altering it would be.

Support JSTOR Daily

Help us keep publishing stories that provide scholarly context to the news.