Piranesi, maker of books October 27, 2020 One of the central ideas that we explore in Piranesi Unbound is how a book comes together as the product of collaboration. As an artist, Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720–1778) worked in many forms and materials. Read More
By Design | Setting A Series of Fortunate Events in motion October 26, 2020 In a world governed by chance, one book peers into the randomness of existence. From cosmic collisions and tectonic shifts to the infinitesimal accidents of biology, Sean B. Carroll’s A Series of Fortunate Events ranges across time and space, showing how chance occurrences brought us to where we are, fashioned us as we are, and contributed to all the beauty and diversity we see around us. Read More
Democracy counts: On sacred and debased numbers October 22, 2020 Democracy depends on numbers. This was recognized from the founding of the American republic. The US Constitution defined terms for periodic elections and for the reapportionment of representatives among the states as their populations grew. Read More
How to be content: The contemporary lessons of an ancient poet October 20, 2020 The poet Horace (65-8 BCE) is one of the most celebrated writers of Latin literature. His work has been copied and preserved over the centuries for both its sparkling form and its enlightened content. Read More
Sean B. Carroll on The Serengeti Rules October 12, 2020 “The Serengeti Rules” won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Nature Documentary during the 41st annual News and Documentary Awards ceremony on September 22 and was nominated as a finalist for best cinematography. In the fields of biological and environmental studies, Sean B. Carroll has made a name for himself not only as a scientist, writer, and educator, but as a storyteller. Read More
COVID and experts: A microcosm of democracy today October 09, 2020 The COVID pandemic has spotlighted one of the most polarizing features of American democracy: the growing importance of experts in making policy decisions. Government decisions to lock down households and businesses, close schools and beaches, and require citizens to wear masks have been driven by expert advice. Read More
On horses, goats, and writing October 02, 2020 My mother swears my first word was ‘horsie’. When other little girls were playing with dolls, I was snipping pictures of horses from newspapers and magazines, pasting them on poster board, and taping them to my bedroom walls. Read More
Spinoza’s guide to life and death October 01, 2020 How should we face our mortality? Whether death is—as we all hope—a far off eventuality or, through age or illness, imminent, what is the proper attitude to take? Should we fear death? Read More
Judith Herrin on Ravenna September 29, 2020 At the end of the fourth century, as the power of Rome faded and Constantinople became the seat of empire, a new capital city was rising in the West. Here, in Ravenna on the coast of Italy, Arian Goths and Catholic Romans competed to produce an unrivaled concentration of buildings and astonishing mosaics. Read More
Notes on masks September 28, 2020 Last week I was about to enter a coffee shop in Berkeley, when a person came rushing out, mask-less and shouting. For a second I thought I could see her voice, showering the insidious droplets I have learned too much about. Read More
Bob Dylan’s rowdy ways and American voice September 25, 2020 One of the great ironies surrounding Bob Dylan’s 2016 reception of the Nobel Prize for Literature is that, at the time of the prize, the great songwriter had just released a pair of recordings that featured no compositions of his own. Read More
Campus racism and how history can inform college leaders today September 24, 2020 College presidents have described the uncertainty within higher education due to the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent economic downturn as “uncharted territory.” Read More
A virtual guide to Leaving Academia September 23, 2020 Two distinct challenges stood in my way when I began to consider leaving academia. The first was psychological. By that point in 2015, my entire identity was bound up in my scholarly work. Read More
A long afternoon: Opposition, enmity, and Egyptian hieroglyphs September 18, 2020 In the summer of 1828, the natural scientist and physician Thomas Young spent an afternoon with Jean-François Champollion, the scholar who, six years earlier, had announced a system for reading Egyptian hieroglyphs, considerably complicating Young’s preceding efforts to do the same thing. Read More
Marc Levinson on Outside the Box September 14, 2020 Globalization has profoundly shaped the world we live in, yet its rise was neither inevitable nor planned. It is also one of the most contentious issues of our time. Read More
