W.E.B. Du Bois Fought “Scientific” Racism
Early 20th century intellectual W.E.B. DuBois countered the then-popular idea that African-Americans could be scientifically proven to be inferior.
The History of African-American Casting in Ballet
Ballet has been slow to accept African-American dancers in major companies, and those who make it tend to be offered limited roles.
The Free People of Color of Pre-Civil War New Orleans
Before American concepts of race took hold in the newly-acquired Louisiana, early 19th-century New Orleans had large population of free people of color.
Scientists Are Putting Mosquitoes on Human Diet Drugs
Humans and mosquitoes share a surprising amount of genes and have similar hunger controls.
Whitewashing American History
One of the National Park Service's first historic preservation projects, the Colonial National Monument, wrote people of color completely out of the story.
Can Wildlife Adapt to Heat Waves?
Heatwaves have led to widespread deaths of animals like big-eyed tarsiers and flying foxes. Is there hope for species like this as temperatures rise?
Love, Obsession, and Sophie Calle
The conceptual artist Sophie Calle creates art that urges us to ask, is attention the same as love?
James Joyce’s NSFW Love Letters
The often explicit letters James Joyce wrote to Nora Barnacle contain the same mass of contradictions as his famous literary works, like Ulysses.
Media Representation and Interracial Couples
Recent years have seen increases in both interracial adolescent romances and portrayals of young interracial relationships. What's the connection?
The Physical Pleasures of Jane Austen’s Persuasion
Smoldering glances? Romantic letters? Forbidden love? Why Persuasion may be the most seductive of Jane Austen's novels.