When Death Was Women’s Business
In the 19th century, women called "watchers" tended to the dying and the dead.
The Ladylike Language of Letters
Letters reveal how language changes. They also offer a peek into the way people--especially women--have always constructed their private and public selves.
When Dancing Plagues Struck Medieval Europe
The tarantella is named for a peasant woman from southern Italy whose tarantula bite started a contagious dancing fever!
What Reformers Learned When They Visited 1830s Brothels
Middle class members of the New York Female Moral Reform Society visited brothels to save women from sin. What they actually encountered surprised them.
The Many Metaphors of Brexit
How do metaphors shape political perceptions? And what do they mean for the future of Europe?
Was Modernism Meant to Keep the Working Classes Out?
In the 19th century, more working class readers started partaking in contemporary fiction. Modernist literature, however, was specifically not for them.
Give These Adorable Seals More Privacy!
When viewing boats come too close, seals and their pups stampede into the water. Scientists say it exhausts the animals.
Animal Actors, Kids’ Jokes, and Pickup Artists
Well-researched stories from Vox, NPR, and other great publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.
Our Sinking Cities
From Venice to Tehran to Shanghai, many cities are steadily sinking into the earth. There might not be any way to stop it.
When Buddhism Came to America
Buddhism was embraced by the Beats of 1950s America. But some Buddhists felt these converts were engaging with the practice in a shallow way.