Departments

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Roundup

  • SOURCE: New York Times
    9/20/2021

    Fights over Tenure Aren't About Tenure

    by Molly Worthen

    "The fight over tenure is not really about tenure. It’s a proxy for a larger debate about the meaning of academic freedom and the priorities of higher education." If academics want to successfully protect tenure, they must engage the culture war battle, too. 

  • SOURCE: CNN
    9/17/2021

    The Complex Politics of Vaccine Resistance

    by Nicole Hemmer

    Despite the fact that no major religion forbids vaccination, vaccine resisters often leverage religious exemptions to gain moral authority for what are often political or conspiracy-based views. Public health advocates need to recognize that exemption claims are a tool, not a belief.

  • SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
    9/17/2021

    The Hard Seltzer Trend Echoes the 19th Century Craze for Lager

    "Lagers were introduced by a wave of German immigrants pouring in from Europe. To uninitiated Americans, lager was simply weird. But for Germans-turned-German-Americans, the beer was inseparable from the culture of its consumption."

  • SOURCE: Washington Monthly
    9/17/2021

    Adjunct Professors Need a Better Ground Game

    by Mia Brett

    If universities aren’t going to invest in tenure track teaching lines, then we need to make sure that they participate in and support the professionalization of adjuncts. Statewide adjunct unionization may be the way to make that happen. 

  • SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
    9/15/2021

    Dosing Arkansas Prisoners with Ivermectin Just Latest Incident of Medical Abuse

    by Lydia Crafts

    "News that an Arkansas prison doctor deceived inmates to take Ivermectin as a COVID preventative shows that nonconsensual research and the experimental use of drugs on vulnerable people remain common — despite evidence of its danger and laws designed to prevent it."

  • SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
    9/16/2021

    Politicians, not Migrants, are Fueling the Pandemic's Resurgence

    by Randa Tawil

    At the height of colonialism, European governments rejected calls for quarantine to keep global commerce humming, and blamed supposedly unsanitary local populations for the inevitable spread of cholera. Governors in some US states are repeating this mistake today. 

  • SOURCE: The Atlantic
    9/15/2021

    Martin Luther King Knew: Fighting Racism Meant Fighting Police Brutality

    by Jeanne Theoharis

    Despite contemporary efforts to portray contemporary movements like Black Lives Matter and radical groups like the Black Panther Party as deviators from the "respectable" movement led by MLK, the SCLC leader insisted on the need to combat police brutality despite the unpopularity of that position,

  • SOURCE: New York Times
    9/10/2021

    The Limits of My Empathy for Covid Deniers

    by Tressie McMillan Cottom

    "This is a social problem with big structural issues. That does not absolve me of my responsibility for seeing the humanity in people I vehemently disagree with, but it does make me feel less guilty about being unable to save them."

  • SOURCE: TomDispatch
    9/12/2021

    The Winner in Afghanistan? China

    by Alfred McCoy

    While the similarities between the American exits from Vietnam and Afghanistan are superficially obvious, the differences are more significant, and signal a steep decline in America's ability to influence world affairs. 

  • SOURCE: New York Times
    9/13/2021

    There’s a Very Good Reason ‘Washington Slept Here’

    by Nathaniel Philbrick

    "Today the phrase 'Washington slept here' is a historical joke, but during the two years of intermittent travel at the beginning of his presidency, all those nights spent in taverns and homes across the country were essential to establishing an enduring Union."

  • SOURCE: The Atlantic
    9/8/2021

    After 9/11, the U.S. Got Almost Everything Wrong

    by Garrett M. Graff

    "The events of September 11, 2001, became the hinge on which all of recent American history would turn, rewriting global alliances, reorganizing the U.S. government, and even changing the feel of daily life."

  • SOURCE: The Bulwark
    9/9/2021

    The Conspiracy Theorists Are Coming for Your Schools

    by Thomas Lecaque

    "Over the past year, as the conspiracy theorists have come together under one big apocalyptic tent we have seen organized campaigns of harassment, threats of violence, attempts to harm members of school administrations, and physical altercations at school board meetings when masks are mandated."

  • SOURCE: Black Perspectives
    9/15/2021

    The Significance of Yasuke, the Black Samurai

    by Warren A. Stanislaus

    "While media coverage of Afro-Japanese encounters overwhelmingly focuses on incidents of racism or misunderstandings, Yasuke’s interaction with Japan has helped illuminate a rich but overlooked history of Afro-Japanese connectivity." 

  • SOURCE: The Baffler
    9/15/2021

    On the Eve of Destruction: Breaking the Double-Bind of the Nuclear Arms Race

    by Richard Rhodes

    Politicians and defense contractors who wanted American nuclear supremacy won out over scientists seeking international effort to contain the extinction-level threat posed by thermonuclear weapons, even to the point of denying the planet-destroying power of the H-bomb. 

  • SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
    9/15/2021

    The 70s are Back, But Not How You Think

    by Lauren Rebecca Sklaroff

    "In the coronavirus era, disco themes resonate. People long for community and wonder if leaders have our backs. Social media offers some of the trappings that defined disco — from the clothes to the allure of being seen in a new way."