Lightning and animals June 21, 2022 June 19–25, 2022 is Lightning Safety Awareness Week—an annual public safety campaign of the National Weather Service. The campaign was initiated in 2001 to highlight the fact that lightning has killed more Americans than any other weather factor. Read More
When Animals Dream June 20, 2022 Are humans the only dreamers on Earth? What goes on in the minds of animals when they sleep? When Animals Dream brings together behavioral and neuroscientific research on animal sleep with philosophical theories of dreaming. Read More
It’s time to end systemic racism in faculty hiring June 20, 2022 The United States is amid a reckoning; it is being judged by its citizens for the world to see. Its institutions and organizations, which have been touting their commitment to racial and ethnic diversity, have been confronted overtly. Read More
The complex origins, development, and meanings of human rights June 14, 2022 In 2015, a young girl and her father crossed into the United States from the border with Mexico. Astrid and Arturo, K’iche’ Indians from Guatemala, were fleeing the systematic discrimination and violence their people have suffered for decades. Read More
Seamus Heaney, pseudonym ‘Incertus’ June 13, 2022 When he first began to publish poems, Seamus Heaney’s chosen pseudonym was ‘Incertus’, meaning ‘not sure of himself’. Characteristically, this was a subtle irony. Read More
Why I hoard words June 09, 2022 I took an Old English module on a whim during my first year at university. I came across it at a foreign language informational session, and having never seen or heard Old English before, I was astonished to learn that my own mother tongue could be considered ‘foreign’ to me. Read More
PUP Speaks: Marybeth Gasman on poor faculty diversity June 08, 2022 The diversification of the academy will not be achieved under within the current academic environment. In this video, PUP Speaks author Marybeth Gasman explains what must change for equity to be achieved. Read More
Book Club Pick: The Golden Rhinoceros June 08, 2022 From the birth of Islam in the seventh century to the voyages of European exploration in the fifteenth, Africa was at the center of a vibrant exchange of goods and ideas. Read More
Bottom line up front June 02, 2022 Anyone receiving a bachelor’s or master’s degree has learned how to produce a lengthy paper on a complex topic. But that’s not the only writing skill needed in the workplace. Read More
Listen in: Translating Myself and Others June 01, 2022 Translating Myself and Others is a collection of candid and disarmingly personal essays by Pulitzer Prize–winning author Jhumpa Lahiri, who reflects on her emerging identity as a translator as well as a writer in two languages. Read More
Life-changing doubt, the Internet, and a crisis of authority June 01, 2022 Yisroel was an earnestly pious boy growing up Hasidic in Brooklyn, New York. With his side curls grazing his shoulders, thick plastic glasses, and big black velvet yarmulke, he looked like all the other boys in his yeshiva, where he studied the Torah and its commentaries from early in the morning until late at night. Read More
The Wordhord: Daily Life in Old English May 24, 2022 Old English is the language you think you know until you actually hear or see it. Unlike Shakespearean English or even Chaucer’s Middle English, Old English—the language of Beowulf—defies comprehension by untrained modern readers. Read More
Hal Weitzman on What’s the Matter with Delaware? May 24, 2022 The legal home to over a million companies, Delaware has more registered businesses than residents. Why do virtually all of the biggest corporations in the United States register there? Why do so many small companies choose to set up in Delaware rather than their home states? Read More
Exploring London’s past through mudlarking May 24, 2022 For millennia, objects have found their way into the River Thames as it flows through London. Household rubbish has been dumped into it, personal possessions accidentally lost, cargoes spilt, offerings made to gods, and coins tossed in for luck. Read More
Aristotle on how to write a story May 18, 2022 Back when I was a first-year college student and thought I knew everything already, I remember my English composition professor telling us that Aristotle’s Poetics contained everything we needed to know about becoming great writers. Read More