Author: TheConversation

By Arash Javanbakht, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Wayne State University Tribalism has become a signature of America within and without since the election of President Trump. The nation has parted ways with international allies, left the rest of the world in their effort to fight the climate change, and most recently the pandemic, by leaving the World Health Organization. Even the pandemic was not a serious issue of importance to our leaders. We did not care much about what was happening in the rest of the world, as opposed to the time of previous pandemics when we were on...

By Elizabeth J. West, Professor of English, Georgia State University Though we often discuss World War I through the lens of history, we occasionally do it through literature. But almost never involving African-American literature. Discussions about literary influences from that era invariably go to the famous trilogy of Hemingway, Faulkner, and Fitzgerald – the authors most representative of America’s iconic Lost Generation. Their work is said to reflect a mood that emerged from the ashes of a war that, with its trail of carnage, left survivors around the world with a despairing vision of life, self and nation. The...

By Tom Mould, Professor of Anthropology and Folklore, Butler University When Americans talk about people receiving public assistance – food stamps, disability, unemployment payments and other government help – they often have stereotypes and inaccurate perceptions of who those people are and what their lives are like. Statistics can help clarify the picture by challenging false stereotypes of undeserving people gaming the system, but people’s stories about their own experiences can be more memorable and therefore more effective in changing minds. As an anthropologist and folklorist seeking to better understand life on public assistance, I have worked with a...