Of Plagues and Papers: COVID-19, the Media, and the Construction of American Disease History

In their attempts to make sense of the novel coronavirus, media outlets frequently invoke the past, comparing COVID-19 to the Black Death, the "Great Influenza" of 1918-19, and other historical disease outbreaks. The act of connecting "then" and "now" has produced two countervailing historical narratives: one that emphasizes medical progress over time, and another that highlights America's failure to learn the lessons of past pandemics.

May 1, 2020 0

No Valentines for Women’s Rights: Why No Man Should Marry a Suffragist

Life Magazine Promises “$300 to the Winner” Throughout the fall and winter of 1910, Life magazine called upon readers to submit three hundred-word manuscripts to their New York office. Each issue of the magazine would contain a selection of the best submissions and, in early 1911, the editors would declare a winner. That author would receive $300—equivalent... Continue Reading →

February 13, 2020 0

Suffrage Pie, Honest Watergate Salad, and (Im)Peach-Mint Crumb Cake: Food, Recipes, and Humor as Political Commentary

Although social media enables political food puns to go viral, they are rooted in a long tradition of journalists, activists, and average citizens combining food and humor to poke fun at political opponents. This article examines three such moment: (Im)Peach-Mint Crumb Cake and President Trump, The Watergate Cookbook and President Nixon, and Suffrage Pie For the Doubting Husband from the women's suffrage movement.

October 12, 2019 1

The Gendering of Human Rights: A Brief History and Today’s Challenges

The Trump administration has been making efforts to redefine human rights. The history of human rights examined through a gendered lens helps explain why those efforts are so controversial - and dangerous.

September 27, 2019 0

What the Media Overlooks: The 1936 Roots of the Current UAW-GM Strike

The current UAW-GM strike has been in the news recently. But the historical roots of the current strike extend back over eighty years to the Flint Sit-Down strike of 1936.

September 27, 2019 0

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