Police officers gather as the body of NYPD officer Wilbert Mora is transferred in an ambulance from NYU Langone Hospital to a Medical Examiner's office at the same location on January 25, 2022 in New York City.

Crime Waves and Moral Panics

From train robberies to organized retail theft to murder, are we really gripped by a crime wave?
J.P. Ball's Great Daguerrian Gallery of the West

Introducing “Archives Unbound”

In her new column, Dorothy Berry offers an inside look at the work of the digital archivist, while highlighting forgotten figures in Black print culture and public life.
Mary Ritter Beard

Mary Beard and the Beginning of Women’s History

She was one half of a powerhouse academic couple and an influential historian in her own right. But she's still often overlooked.
An illustration of four people standing and wearing masks

Choosing Love over Eugenics

Some writers see contagion as a metaphor for community—proof that we exist within an interdependent network and not as autonomous disconnected islands.
Indian migrant workers walk on a bridge after they were stopped by police while returning to their native places, as the country relaxed its lockdown restriction on May 14, 2020 in New Delhi, India

India’s Coronavirus Migration Crisis

Widespread market failure and unemployment triggered by the coronavirus pandemic have set off a crisis of domestic migration in India.
Voting stickers on a table

Would Formerly Incarcerated People Vote Democratic?

Conventional wisdom says that Republicans don't want to give ex-felons voting rights because they'll end up voting for Democrats. But is this true?
A woman in the kitchen in front of a Christmas tree

The Gendering of Holiday Labor

Women in heterosexual relationships still do most of the domestic work. During the holiday season, the tasks multiply.
Stale bread

The Ancient Art of Brewing with Stale Bread

Brewers are once again making beer from things that typically end up in one’s household trash, a 7,000-year-old custom.
Two women speaking beside a water cooler in an office

Streaming Television Might Just Bring Us Together After All

A look at TV watching as a social activity, from the "water cooler" network shows of yore to today's "second screen" live-tweets.
Hortense Powdermaker

When Hortense Powdermaker Studied Hollywood

This anthropologist's research on contemporary American society probes the tensions between business and art in the film world.