Author: TheConversation

By Bridget Marshall, Associate Professor of English, University of Massachusetts Lowell “When powerful white men used words like lynching and witch hunt to describe their perceived persecutions, it’s because there are no historical analogues to white male persecution. There’s no term for it because historically, there’s no such thing.” – Tom Lorenzo “Witch hunt” – it’s a refrain used to deride everything from impeachment inquiries and sexual assault investigations to allegations of corruption. When powerful men cry witch, they’re generally not talking about green-faced women wearing pointy hats. They are, presumably, referring to the Salem witch trials, when 19...

By W. Scott Poole, Professor of History, College of Charleston The unquiet spirits, vampires and the omnipresent zombies that take over American streets every October 31 may think Halloween is all about spooky fun. But what Halloween masqueraders may not realize is that in the early 1970s and well into the next decade, real fear took over. The media, police departments and politicians began to tell a new kind of Halloween horror story – about poisoned candy. No actual events explained this fear: It was driven by social and cultural anxieties. And there is a lesson in that about...

By Morgan Marietta, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Massachusetts Lowell A movement for religious rights is transforming the place of religion in American public life. From the 1960s until very recently, liberals successfully argued at the Supreme Court that the tyranny of the majority cannot define the lives and experiences of secular citizens. For decades, the court regularly ruled that laws imposed by local majorities enforcing school prayer or religious displays on government property violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, which has been interpreted to mean the government is prohibited from endorsing religion or favoring...

By Richard Briffault, Joseph P. Chamberlain Professor of Legislation, Columbia University With the 2020 campaign season upon us, “dark money” is again in the news. Yet most voters remain uninformed about what exactly it is and why the shadow funding is considered such a problem. As a law professor who studies campaign finance, I’d like to answer those questions and explain how improved disclosure laws could shed some light on dark money. 1. What is ‘dark money’? Election campaigns run on money. Money pays for salaries, travel – and especially advertising. Candidates who are not personally wealthy depend on...

By David Lindsay Roberts, Adjunct Professor of Mathematics, Prince George’s Community College The U.S. Constitution requires that a population count be conducted at the beginning of every decade. This census has always been charged with political significance, and continues to be. That’s clear from the controversy over the conduct of the upcoming 2020 census. But it is less widely known how important the census has been in developing the U.S. computer industry, a story that I tell in my new book, “Republic of Numbers: Unexpected Stories of Mathematical Americans through History.” Population growth The only use of the census...

By Libby Richards, Associate professor of nursing, Purdue University Flu vaccination prevents millions of flu-related illnesses and deaths annually, but vaccination rates are low for many reasons. During the 2018-2019 flu season, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that about 45% of U.S. adults received the flu vaccine. While this is an increase of 8% from 2017-2018, it falls way below the national goal of 70% of American adults receiving a flu shot. One of the common myths that leads people to avoid the flu shot is that they think the shot will give them the flu....