Several entries in the Miss Teen Vietnam pageant attend the closing night awards gala for the 8th annual Asian World Film Festival at Saban Theatre on November 18, 2022 in Beverly Hills, California.

What Does It Take to Be Crowned Miss Vietnam USA?

Beauty pageants, a familiar part of post-war diasporic Vietnamese culture, help participants and viewers forge new identities amid forces of globalization.
A Kākāpō in New Zealand

New Zealand’s Quest to Save Its Rotund, Flightless Parrots

DNA sequencing, GPS tracking and tailored diets are slowly restoring the endangered kākāpō.
Monrovia, Liberia, 1910

Poland’s Colonial Dreams

With the resurrection of a Polish state in the aftermath of World War I, Poland seriously flirted with colonialism—in Liberia.
Kudzu taking over forest

Coming Up Kudzu

Employed as a symbol of the American South or used as shorthand for unchecked growth, kudzu has demonstrated a tenacity beyond all imagination.
Undated broadsheet, Printed Ephemera Collection, Portfolio 23, Folder 11, Library of Congress, Washington, DC. ht

The Rise of Anti-Societies

In the early 1800s, Americans formed all sorts of anti-vice societies, triggering jokes and serious resistance to reform through a wave of anti-societies.
An artist's rendering of a black hole

Ancient Black Hole Challenges Our Understanding of the Early Universe

The Big Bang theory is not threatened, but astrophysicists have some explaining to do.
Dublin Castle, 1830

Weaponizing Homophobia in Ireland

One of the arguments of Irish nationalism was that English rule was morally corrupting. There was no better example of this than same-sex desire.
A cattle roundup in Nevada, 1973, with a photoshopped UFO in the sky

Editors’ Picks of 2023

Alien pastures, football in prison, and the Prairie School: a collection of this year’s greatest hits from JSTOR Daily.
Woman pushing shopping trolley on red background, smiling, portrait

Free Wheeling: Shopping Carts and Culture

The invention of the shopping cart changed our purchasing patterns, but the way we use it also reflects how we live life on the streets.
The covers of Partition by Saadat Hasan Manto, Palo Alto by Malcolm Harris, The Flew by Carlos Eire, Running While Black by Alison Mariella Désir, Living the Beatles Legend by Kenneth Womack, and The Gospel of Loki by Joanne M. Harris

What We’re Reading 2023

Enjoy a fresh batch of year-end book reports from all of the readers, writers, and editors at JSTOR Daily!