From the poster for Black Girl by Ousmane Sembène, 1966

Ousmane Sembène: Feminism in African Francophone Cinema

Known as “the grandfather of African cinema,” Sembène created powerful female characters who challenged Western notions of gender and sexuality.
An orangutan attacks a woman and pulls her hair in an illustration for the murder scene in Edgar Allan Poe's short story 'The Murders in the Rue Morgue,' early 1840s. A victim lies on the floor, and a witness watches through a window.

“The Murders in the Rue Morgue” by Edgar Allan Poe: Annotated

Poe's 1841 story, arguably the first detective fiction, contains many tropes now considered standard to the genre, including a brilliant, amateur detective.
"Spirit" photograph, supposedly taken during a seance, actually a double exposure or composite of superimposed cut-outs, showing woman with portraits of men and women around her head

How Spirit Photography Made Heaven Literal

Are the departed watching over us, and if so, what are they wearing? Victorian spiritualists believed that ghosts could be captured on film.
A woman writing a letter at a table

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.
Leonid Pasternak - The Passion of Creation

7 Pieces of Expert Writing Advice

Great fiction-writing advice and commiseration from novelists that we dug out of the JSTOR vaults for you procrastinating, er, research pleasure.
Oxford spires

Old English Has a Serious Image Problem

Although studying the language known as “Anglo-Saxon” helped women advance in the academy, the subject is fraught with racist associations.
Dandy pickpockets, diving published in The caricature magazine, or Hudibrastic mirror, by G.M. Woodward, vol. 5, Folio 75

Bowie, Wilde, and the Fin de Siècle Dandies

Exploring the David Bowie/Oscar Wilde/French bohemian dandies connection.
"Carleton College Aerial" by Dogs1337 - Own work. Licensed under CC0 via <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Carleton_College_Aerial.jpg#/media/File:Carleton_College_Aerial.jpg" target="_blank">Wikimedia Commons</a>

College Ratings and the Idea of the Liberal Arts

Many political and economic elites view liberal arts degrees as frivolous and want college to focus strictly on preparing graduates to make money.