February 2024

African American religions and the voodoo label

By Danielle N. Boaz

In 1932, an African American man named Robert Harris killed his tenant on a makeshift altar in the back of his home in Detroit, Michigan. Harris, who was allegedly part of Detroit’s burgeoning Black Muslim community, described the murder as a human sacrifice to Allah. Harris was put on trial for murder; however, following some bizarre courtroom rants during which he referred to himself as a “king” and the murder as a “crucifixion,” Harris was declared insane and sent to an asylum.

The musician’s journey: preparing our students as entrepreneurs

By Jill Timmons

Today, our college and university music students are facing a rapidly changing global market place. There are new technologies, career options, virtual education, and so forth. As educators, we continue to focus on the highest standards of pedagogy. Nevertheless, we need to also expand our curricula to include the necessary preparatory training for skills that will transcend a dizzying rate of change.

Late winter etymology gleanings and a few little-known idioms

By Anatoly Liberman

Ms. Melissa Mizel found my post for July 29, 2009, on the ethnic slur Sheeny “Jew” and sent me her idea about the etymology of this ugly word.

Faith in God, themselves, and the people: Black religious activist-educators

By Almeda M. Wright

I started my first seminar on Radical Pedagogy, reflecting with students on a provocative blog entitled “10 Reasons Septima Clark was a Badass Teacher.” Beyond the shock value of using badass in a divinity school setting, the students were curious about why I started with this lesser known (if not completely unknown) figure from the 1950s Civil Rights era.

The first women’s shelter in Europe? Radegund’s Holy Cross

By E.T. Dailey

‘With the passion of a focused mind, I considered how to advance other women so that—the Lord willing—my own desires might prove beneficial for others. […] I established a monastery for girls in the city of Poitiers. After its foundation, I endowed the monastery with however much wealth I had received from the generosity of the king.’

Analysis of the Nuclear Risk Reduction Agenda

By Benoît Pelopidas and Kjølv Egeland

In a context of intensifying great power competition and deep divergences of view between nuclear and non-nuclear powers on the urgency of nuclear abolition, ‘nuclear risk reduction’ has gained renewed attention as a pragmatic framework for managing and reducing nuclear dangers.

Of language, brain health, and global inequities

By Adolfo M. García

One of the greatest public health challenges of our century lies in the growth of neurodegenerative disorders. Conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and frontotemporal dementia stand as major contributors to disability and mortality in affluent and under-resourced nations alike.

A four-forked etymology: curfew

By Anatoly Liberman

It appears that the etymology of curfew has been solved. In any case, all modern dictionaries say the same. The English word surfaced in texts in the early fourteenth century, but a signal to people to extinguish their fires is much older.

The need for expertise in quality improvement at every stage of a healthcare worker’s career

By Peter Lachman

The quality improvement in healthcare movement has been around for the past 25 years with variable degrees of success.

Cosmopolitan, cad, or closeted Catholic?

By Dr. Johanna Luthman

Having just arrived via ferry to the Dutch town of Sluis in mid-May 1611, William Cecil, Lord Roos (1591-1618), promptly exposed his “privy member” (penis) to what one assumes were rather surprised townsfolk.

Brighter than a trillion suns: an intense X-rated drama

By Nicholas Mee

You may be unaware of the celestial wonder known as OJ 287 but, as you will see, it is one of the most outlandish objects in the cosmos.

The third sister: beauty, and why the aesthetic matters

By George Levine

In the current critical/political atmosphere, the “aesthetic” has come to be regarded as the province of dandies and their descendants, not to do with the enormous difficulties of the here and now.

“Indian summer” and other curious idioms

By Anatoly Liberman

The Internet is full of information about the origin of the phrase Indian summer. Everything said there about this idiom, its use, the puzzling reference to Indian, as well as about a desired replacement of Indian by a word devoid of ethnic connotations and about the synonyms for the phrase in the languages of the world, is correct.

Aleph-AI: an organizing force or creative destruction in the artificial era?

By Gissel Velarde

The Aleph is a blazing space of about an inch diameter containing the cosmos, tells us Jorge Luis Borges in 1945, after being invited to see it in the basement of a house. The Aleph deeply disrupted him, revealing millions of delightful and awful scenes, simultaneously.

Intractable words

By Anatoly Liberman

In my correspondence with the journalist who was curious about the origin of caucus, I wrote that we might never discover where that word came from.

Cover of Love and the Working Class: The Inner Worlds of Nineteenth Century Americans by Karen Lystra

Exploring different facets of love in eight history books [reading list]

By OUP History

As Valentine’s Day approaches, we’ve curated a special reading list that considers the complexities of love, society, and human interaction. These recent history titles promise to captivate heart and mind and offer a journey through time that goes beyond roses and chocolates.

What was the crime that led to gangster Al Capone's prison sentence in 1931?