Japanese swordswoman in a duel, 1845

Onna-Bugeisha, the Female Samurai Warriors of Feudal Japan

In 1868 a group of female samurai took part in the fierce Battle of Aizu for the very soul of Japan.
People gather in protest against the death of Mahsa Amini along the streets on September 19, 2022 in Tehran, Iran.

Iran’s Protest Culture

A succession of authoritarian regimes birthed a strong tradition of collective action.
A newspaper vendor reads an edition of the sports colum of a newspaper printed in Russian July 31, 2001 in downtown Baku, Azerbaijan. In accordance with a decree issued by President Heydar Aliyev last June, Azerbaijan had to change all its Azeric writing, including books, newspapers, and street signs from the old Soviet-era Cyrillic to Latin script on August 1.

Alpha. Bravo. Cyrillic.

Free from Russian dictates over language usage and education, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan prepare to embrace Latin lettering. It’s the latest chapter in the region’s fraught history of alphabet reform.
A rendering of Van Gogh's Sunflowers vandalized with an orange liquid

Masterpiece Theater

Climate activist attacks on works by van Gogh, Vermeer, and other art world titans are the latest in a tradition of destruction that hearkens to the early Christian zealots.
Johnny Cash at San Quentin State Prison, 1969

Far From Folsom Prison: More to Music Inside

Johnny Cash wasn't the only superstar to play in prisons. Music, initially allowed as worship, came to be seen as a rockin' tool of rehabilitation.

This Revolution Will Be Amplified

From Lil Nas X to Valerie June to Darius Rucker, Black musicians are staking their claim in country music. Francesca T. Royster explains.
two people knee before a white cross and flowers at a makeshift memorial for the five people killed by a gunman during a mass shooting at Club Q in Colorado

Red Flag Laws and the Colorado LGBTQ Club Shooting

What are red flag laws? Could they have prevented the killing at Club Q?
The cover of the September, 1990 issue of The Angolite

Cold War Flames on US Soil: The Oakdale Prison Riot

In the 1980s, Cold War tensions led to thousands of Cubans languishing in American prisons, unable to be released or repatriated. Uprisings followed.
On June 16, 1883, 183 children were killed because of a human crush in Victoria Hall in Sunderland, UK.

Death by Crowding

In the aftermath of tragedies, it's easy to focus on the assignation of blame. But how well do we understand the causes of crushing crowds?
Phillip Vance Smith, II surrounded by covers of Nash News

What’s It Like to Be an Editor of a Prison Newspaper?

The incarcerated editor of The Nash News in North Carolina shares about the power of higher ed and his work at the prison newspaper.