Author: TheConversation

By Nicole S. Maskiell, Assistant Professor of History Peter and Bonnie McCausland Fellow of History, University of South Carolina Alexander Hamilton has received a resurgence of interest in recent years on the back of the smash Broadway musical bearing his name. But alongside tales of his role in the Revolutionary War and in forging the early United States, the spotlight has also fallen on a less savory aspect of his life: his apparent complicity in the institution of slavery. Despite being a founding member of the New York Manumission Society, which sought gradual emancipation of New York’s enslaved population,...

By Dudley L. Poston Jr., Professor of Sociology, Texas A&M University New data from the 2020 U.S. census released April 26, 2021, indicates that starting in 2023, after the next congressional elections, seven states will have fewer seats in Congress than they do now, and six will have more. These calculations and changes are the primary purpose of the government’s efforts every 10 years to count all the people who live in the United States. It’s written into the U.S. Constitution. In addition, the number of House seats a state has helps determine the size of its delegation to...

By Mandy Coles, Clinical Associate Professor of Pediatrics and co-director of the Child and Adolescent Trans/Gender Center for Health, Boston University When Charlie, a 10-year-old boy, came in for his first visit, he did not look at me or my colleague. Angry and crying, he insisted to us that he was cisgender, that he was a boy and had been born male. A few months before Charlie came into our office, he handed a note to his mother with four simple words, “I am a boy.” Up until that point Charlie had been living in the world as female...

By Chris Knoester, Associate Professor of Sociology, The Ohio State University; Richard J. Petts, Professor of Sociology, Ball State University; and Joya Misra, Professor of Sociology & Public Policy, University of Massachusetts Amherst The United States is the only wealthy nation that does not guarantee paid leave to mothers after they give birth or adopt a child. The vast majority of Americans would like to see that change. According to a YouGov poll of 21,000 people conducted between March 25 and April 1, 2021, 82% of Americans think employees should be able to take paid maternity leave, including for...

By Derek H. Alderman, Professor of Geography, University of Tennessee; and Joshua F.J. Inwood, Associate Professor of Geography and Senior Research Associate in the Rock Ethics Institute, Penn State The work of the Black Panther Party, a 1960s- and 1970s-era Black political group featured in a new movie and a documentary. It helps illustrate how cartography, the practice of making and using maps, can illuminate injustice. As these films show, the Black Panthers focused on African American empowerment and community survival, running a diverse array of programming that ranged from free school breakfasts to armed self-defense. Cartography is a...