Julie A. Phillips on The Lives of Seaweeds November 17, 2023 Our understanding of the evolution of seaweeds and other algae is undergoing a revolution. Over the last five decades, numerous scientific studies have generated a wealth of new data and a new classification scheme that assigns various algal species to four of the six kingdoms of life on Earth—an unprecedented phenomenon in the living world! Read More
PUP Speaks on boosting author voices from page to stage November 15, 2023 In the summer of 2022, I joined Princeton University Press in the second cohort of its annual Publishing Fellowship, a year-long position explicitly intended for individuals with no industry experience. Read More
The long history of the chapter book November 14, 2023 Very few adult readers are likely to remember it, but imagine, if you will, your first experience reading a book divided into chapters. What confronted you was a story that unexpectedly stuttered. Read More
Robert Wuthnow on Faith Communities and the Fight for Racial Justice November 14, 2023 Have progressive religious organizations been missing in action in recent struggles for racial justice? Robert Wuthnow shows that, contrary to activists’ accusations of complacency, Black and White faith leaders have fought steadily for racial and social justice since the end of the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Read More
Winning isn’t everything, especially in democracy November 08, 2023 Trump responded to his loss in the 2020 election by being the epitome of a “sore loser”: by denying that he had lost and doubling down on baseless conspiracy theories of electoral fraud. He is not alone. There are multiple examples of sore losers in US politics today. Read More
Approaching 2024: A perspective on opposition and democracy from Indian history November 08, 2023 Next year, the world’s largest democracy will head to the polls. Narendra Modi’s dominant ethnomajoritarian Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies will seek to win a third straight victory in India’s General Election. At this crucial crossroads, it is worth reflecting upon the history of one opposition party during the original era of one-party dominance. Read More
In Dialogue: The future of diversity on campus in the wake of the affirmative action ruling November 02, 2023 With the first round of early decision deadlines happening this month, it’s a good time to reflect on the realm of higher education and its evolving dynamics, including the multifaceted nature of equitable and inclusive education. Read More
How life evolved the power to choose October 27, 2023 In recent years, more threats to our notions of agency and free will have sprung up, from diverse areas of science. If we come prewired in ways that influence our decision-making, how free can we really be? Read More
Lingering, longing at dawn October 23, 2023 In a mountain town whose name I’ve forgotten, about fifty miles from Marrakech, I remembered an old woman sitting alone in a field. She had lost her home. Read More
A conversation with Kimberly Kay Hoang, author of the 2023 PROSE Awards R.R. Hawkins Award Winner Spiderweb Capitalism: How Global Elites Exploit Frontier Markets October 20, 2023 Kimberly Kay Hoang is an award-winning scholar, author, teacher, current Professor of Sociology and the College and the Director of Global Studies at the University of Chicago, and the author of two books: Spiderweb Capitalism and Dealing in Desire. Read More
Beyond the ivory tower: Real world guidance on education, skills, and careers October 20, 2023 The story of how a particular set of ideas eventually turns into a book can sometimes be a tale all its own. The creation of my new book has been a matter of poking and prodding a set of assumptions about education and careers over time. Read More
What makes it so difficult for colleges to control costs? October 14, 2023 The fate of cumulative increases in college costs is playing out as predicted. Everyone agrees that it can’t continue to go on like this—and not just students and families. Read More
Simon West on Prickly Moses October 13, 2023 An uncanny blend of the external and the intimate has been a hallmark of Simon West’s poetry for nearly twenty years. In this new collection, the Australian poet and Italianist delights in the transforming and endlessly varied powers of naming and speaking. Read More
The cascading consequences of a Child Protective Services call October 13, 2023 CPS intervention has ballooned in recent decades, such that state and county CPS agencies now investigate the families of more than three million U.S. children each year. These investigations carry profound costs for the families subject to them, even in cases when the agency promptly closes out after investigating, as is typical. Read More
Aristotle and ecology October 12, 2023 Aristotle urges us to study animals closely for what they reveal about the larger world around us, including ourselves. Read More
