The Conversation - Slavery was women's business too

How DEI rollbacks at colleges and universities set back learning

JT Torres, Washington and Lee University

DEI programs bolster college students’ sense of identity and belonging. Without these programs, they stand to miss out on crucial learning and career opportunities.

The warming ocean is leaving coastal economies in hot water

Charles Colgan, Middlebury Institute of International Studies

Global ocean temperatures have been at record highs almost daily for over a year, and economies are feeling the heat.

How much do you need to know about how your spouse spends money? Maybe less than you think

Scott Rick, University of Michigan

A researcher explains how couples can create a sense of ‘our money’ while keeping a sense of financial autonomy.

The Indian election was awash in deepfakes – but AI was a net positive for democracy

Vandinika Shukla, Harvard Kennedy School; Bruce Schneier, Harvard Kennedy School

Campaigns used deepfakes to connect with voters rather than deception, and AI also helped them break through language barriers.

How do you build tunnels and bridges underwater? A geotechnical engineer explains the construction tricks

Ari Perez, Quinnipiac University

Underwater construction is a complex and difficult task, but engineers have developed several ways to build underwater … mostly by not building underwater at all.

NASA’s asteroid sample mission gave scientists around the world the rare opportunity to study an artificial meteor

Brian Elbing, Oklahoma State University; Elizabeth A. Silber, Sandia National Laboratories

Scientists don’t often have the time to get all their equipment set up to study incoming meteors from space. Instead, they can study capsules from space missions as ‘artificial meteors.’

EU parliament election sees shaken centre hold – but far right now has chances to show its strength

Amelia Hadfield, University of Surrey

Enviroment policies and executive roles now in the spotlight – while France faces a potentially divisive national election.

Snap elections in France: a political scientist lays out what’s at stake

Julien Robin, Université de Montréal

Julien Robin, a specialist in French parliamentary life, looks at what the surprise dissolution means for French politics.

Why is it so hard to know how many independent voters there are?

Thom Reilly, Arizona State University

Increasingly, the media, pollsters and pundits are focusing on independent voters and their effects on election outcomes.

2020’s ‘fake elector’ schemes will be harder to try in 2024 – but not impossible

Derek T. Muller, University of Notre Dame

In the 2020 presidential election, groups of self-appointed electors in seven states met to cast votes for Donald Trump, even though Joe Biden had carried their states. Could that happen again?

Getting services to people in need often relies on partnerships between government and nonprofits, but reporting requirements can be too onerous

David C. Campbell, University of California, Davis

By relying heavily on privately run organizations to deliver social services, the government employs fewer people, reducing the size of its bureaucracy. But these partnerships can flounder.

Records of Pompeii’s survivors have been found – and archaeologists are starting to understand how they rebuilt their lives

Is collapse of the Atlantic Ocean circulation really imminent? Icebergs’ history reveals some clues

Trump’s prosecution is unprecedented in US – but other countries have prosecuted former leaders