Year: 2019

World Wide (Conversation) – Multitasking has traditionally been perceived as a woman’s domain. A woman, particularly one with children, will routinely be juggling a job and running a household – in itself a frantic mix of kids’ lunch boxes, housework, and organising appointments and social arrangements. But a new study, published today in PLOS One, shows women are actually no better at multitasking than men. The study tested whether women were better at switching between tasks and juggling multiple tasks at the same time. The results showed women’s brains are…

Read More

United States (Conversation) – In 1970, only three countries – Italy, Japan and Mauritius – banned corporal punishment in schools. By 2016, more than 100 countries banned the practice, which allows teachers to legally hit, paddle or spank students for misbehavior. The dramatic increase in bans on corporal punishment in schools is documented in an analysis that we conducted recently to learn more about the forces behind the trend. The analysis is available as a working paper. In order to figure out what circumstances led to bans, we looked at…

Read More

India (Conversation) – The Kashmir conflict, referred to as a “territorial dispute,” has been central to tense relations in Asia for more than 70 years, particularly between the two nuclear powers of India and Pakistan. Tensions have escalated between the countries many times in the past and have sometimes resulted in military confrontation. Kashmiris are an Indigenous people living under colonial occupation who have been fighting for their right to practise sovereignty through self-determination and self-government. Multiple colonial borders run through the Kashmiri peoples’ territories (Indian, Pakistani and Chinese), separating families…

Read More

United States (Conversation) – US President Donald Trump is engaged in a deliberate and insidious campaign to undermine freedom of expression in the US – essentially declaring war on the First Amendment. In a “normal” political climate, this threat to one of America’s most fundamental freedoms would warrant the intense and sustained attention of the media and the public. But these aren’t “normal” times – and this threat to democracy, like so many others, is largely ignored as the collective attention of the public shifts from one outrageous incident to…

Read More

United States (Conversation) – The United States is a world leader in mass shootings. In less than 24 hours, two mass shootings by single individuals, have left dozens of people dead. Meanwhile, ongoing gun violence in cities such as Chicago over the same weekend saw seven people shot and killed and 46 wounded. Much of the attention within the US and globally has now centered on the mass shooting in El Paso, Texas. There, a lone white gunman killed 22 people and wounded more than 20 more. Both incidents have…

Read More

World Wide (Conversation) – Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s decision to wear a headscarf following the Christchurch mosque attacks in March has earned her worldwide praise. But in an online backlash, critics pointed out that women in conservative Muslim countries have no choice and risk public rebuke, fines or even arrest if they don’t cover up. This is a longstanding controversy around the Muslim veil. Is it a tool for oppressing women or can it also carry other meanings? Our explorative research, based on interviews with young Muslim women living in…

Read More

Australia (Conversation) – How does a woman feel when a man wolf-whistles at her from across the street? Or when a male coworker gives her body a fleeting once-over before looking her in the eye? These examples may seem relatively innocent to some, but our research has found they can have negative consequences for women’s emotional well-being. We asked women to record any incidents of sexual objectification on a smartphone app, alongside rating their feelings several times each day for a week. When women experienced sexual objectification, in many cases…

Read More

Texas, United States (TexasTribune) – For about a decade, two of Texas’ top universities have pushed dueling plans to protect the Houston-Galveston region from hurricanes. A concept championed by Texas A&M University at Galveston appears to be winning out as the federal and state governments pursue a plan similar to one proposed by A&M oceanographer Bill Merrell in early 2009, months after Hurricane Ike smashed ashore at Galveston Island. But that project by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Texas General Land Office, which calls for the installation of beachfront…

Read More

United States (CJ) – The other day the reliably disgusting Samantha Bee tweeted an invitation to Democratic presidential hopeful Marianne Williamson to come “drop out” of the race on her show, which Williamson playfully declined from the green room of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Establishment narrative managers like Bee have been smearing Williamson with steadily increasing urgency lately, which is always a great way to pique the interest of people like me. I’m not seeing much written about  Williamson besides snarky smear articles and “Hurr hurr I hyper-meta-ironically think the magic crystal lady is awesome” joke pieces, so with the next round of…

Read More

New York, United States (Conversation) – Iris, a high school student in New York City, took a course aimed at preparing public school students for college. As part of the course, she visited the Park Slope Food Coop, among the oldest member-owned businesses in the United States. Members work monthly shifts in return for access to affordable, ethically sourced food and goods. Students enrolled in the course — called Community Roots — investigated the larger social, political and historical issues of food and place while gardening and learning about food-related…

Read More