Roundup

Working With Death: The Experience of Feeling in the Archive

by Ruth Lawlor

A researcher of sexual assault against women by American troops in World War II confronted the problem that the archive captures only a traumatic event and leaves the human being affected in the shadows. 

The Pandemic is Traumatic for Kids Like Mine. I Have No Idea How to Help Them

by David Perry

Adults' failure to handle the COVID pandemic will have profound effects on a generation of children, even those who seem do be doing OK with virtual schools and social isolation. 

The Humanities [Are Everywhere] in American Life

by Karin Wulf

A new report indicates that Americans both value and use the humanities. 

College Cuts in the Green Mountain State

by Dan Chiasson

"Data-driven" decisions to cut programs in the humanities are based in unstated assumptions of value that point to a troubling direction in higher education. 

Shut the Door on Trump by Ending the Electoral College

by Peniel E. Joseph

The electoral college has long worked hand in hand with Black disenfranchisement to distort the American political process. It's time to abolish it in favor of a system where every vote counts. 

The Republican Party Now Has More in Common with the Southern Minority of 1860

by Jeremy Tewell

Abraham Lincoln's first inaugural address warned of "the rule of a minority, as a permanent arrangement" as a path to ruin; the party he led to prominence is now embodying his warning. 

What Obama Gets Wrong on 'Defund the Police'

by Austin McCoy

"If political budgets are moral documents, then divesting heavily from institutions that have the capacity to perpetuate harms is the moral thing to do."

What Americans Don’t Know about Latino History Could Fill a Museum

by Stephen Pitti

"[Senator Mike] Lee’s exaggerations sidestepped every available fact about Latinos in the United States. They caricatured the views of the museum’s supporters, including historians, museum professionals, community leaders and business executives."

The Founder of Johns Hopkins Owned Enslaved People. Our University Must Face a Reckoning

by Martha S. Jones

"This year, so many of us at Johns Hopkins have taken pride in being affiliated with our colleagues in medicine and public health who have brilliantly confronted the coronavirus pandemic. That pride, for me, now mixes with bitterness."

That Op-Ed About Jill Biden Was Sexist. But the Real Problem Lies Deeper

by Allison Miller

Beyond its sexism and disregard for expertise, the notorious Wall Street Journal op ed highlights a culture of deference to hierarchy that limits the prospects of women and minorities in academic work.

Abolition is Not Complete

by Eric Foner

The exception included in the 13th Amendment allowing involuntary labor on conviction of a crime was a holdover from prior laws; its authors certainly never intended to enable a system of prison labor, and the amendment should be amended. 

Referring to Female PhDs as ‘Dr.’ Promotes Equal Treatment and Values Women’s Work

by Anya Jabour

The author of a book on progressive-era reformers Sophonisba Breckenridge and Edith Abbott argues that the women's self-directed professional paths after earning doctorates demonstrates the kind of devaling of women's scholarly expertise that continues today. 

Caste Does Not Explain Race

by Charisse Burden-Stelly

A reviewer takes Isabel Wilkerson's book "Caste" to task for failure to examine the connections between racism and economic exploitation. 

Pandemic Lessons for the Rest of Us, Or: Vaccine Thinking Applied to All of American Life

by Liz Theoharis

The quick and much-welcomed development of a coronavirus vaccine is highlighting what Martin Luther King, Jr. observed in 1967: that American abandonment amid abundance is a question of political choice, not the society's capacity to create humane solutions to large problems. 

What Really Saved the Republic From Trump?

by Tim Wu

The apparent success of the electoral process in 2020 is not a tribute to the Constitutional separation of powers, which has largely failed. A different set of institutional norms prevented Trump from abusing executive power to subvert the will of the voters, but Americans should not be confident that this will hold in the future. 

When My College Attacked Me, Professional Insurance Saved My Bacon

by L.D. Burnett

Today, when social media creates exposure to outrage campaigns and potential liability for faculty, professional insurance is a very good idea. 

The Christmas Spirit is Powerful, Even in 2020

by Nicole Hemmer

Anglo-American Christmas "traditions" date to the 19th century, when Germanic pagan customs of feasting and gift-giving were adopted as part of an effort to create a festival of abundance amid the gross inequalities of the industrial age. That's why so many Christmas stories, from Scrooge to the Grinch, speak to the current moment.

What Attacks on Science Get Wrong

by Andrew Jewett

Reductive diagnoses of a "war on science" ignore the specific political and cultural stakes of controversies around vaccination, climate, or creationism. 

Terror in the City Too Busy to Hate: How the English Avenue School Bombing Challenged Atlanta’s Popular Myth of Racial Progress

by Max Blau and Todd Michney

Months before Atlanta’s public schools desegregated, someone bombed an all-Black school on the city’s Westside. On the 60th anniversary of that incident, Max Blau and Todd Michney revisit the forces that led to the attack and reflect on its legacy.

A Rare Moment of Unity

by Matt Reed

Nothing has united fractious academics like dunking on Joseph Epstein's snide and condescending Wall Street Journal essay suggesting Dr. Jill Biden refrain from using the honorific, says a community college dean.