The past is present
Fifty years after the 1976 Soweto Uprising, many of the questions raised by student resistance remain unresolved. Recent movements like #RhodesMustFall and #FeesMustFall draw from broader historical struggles for liberation in South Africa.
Historical commissions function as state-sponsored public history initiatives that negotiate contested national pasts.
Fifty years ago, Laverne & Shirley debuted as the first blue-collar "single-girl" sitcom. The series’ anniversary provides an opportunity to discuss its contribution to the genre and how it reflected a particular moment in American history.
Ethical access to digital archives includes issues of privacy, sensitive content, and ethical representation of marginalized communities. This piece examines nine digital archives and their attempts to navigate ethical issues.
Today’s activists know what those in the Black freedom movement knew: Jail, No Bail was a critique of not just bail, but of an entire system of unjust laws and courts. Then and now, activists understand that power concedes nothing–not desegregation, not pre-trial freedom—without a fight.
Ryan Coogler's Sinners forces audiences to confront much larger themes in Black American history such as debates over conflicting visions of liberation and various interpretations of Black American religious experience.
The United States must confront the truth about its history in classrooms and in public—parks, museums, and government websites.
Mayor Mamdani’s use of a Quran from Schomburg’s collection [...] embraces the Afro-diasporic history and identity that Arturo Schomburg strove to create through his archive-building and auto/biographical writing.
Iran’s late 2025 protests, triggered by economic collapse, were met with mass killing and an internet blackout that made casualty verification a central political struggle. This “politics of counting” is situated in a recurring post-1979 pattern rooted in the regime’s institutional dualism and coercive capacity.
This month marks the 50th anniversary of Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver. Like many Vietnam War-era films, Taxi Driver contains historical truths but also reinforces deeply problematic myths about veterans, homecoming, and trauma.
Clio and the Contemporary 