What makes someone else's behavior so embarrassing? The answer lies in our expectations of how people should act.

Greek and Roman physicians used bodily waste to treat illness. The disgust it inspired may have been part of the appeal.

Why studying literature and philosophy remains essential in a world increasingly focused on career-ready skills.

Before Disneyland, Fantasia brought imagineering to life through an ambitious experiment in animation. Fantasia is an early ...

Advertising tells us a lot about the way companies want consumers to look at their products. A car might be sold as fun to drive, or safe and reliable, or flashy and envy-inspiring. So what do ads for ...

The Christian observance of Lent and the Muslim holy month of Ramadan overlapped from March 22 to April 6 this year, and many people around the world engaged in some type of religious self-denial.

A collection of Texas directories from 1913 to 1959 shows how phone books—and the people who used them—helped invent ...

Once a key site of Cold War arms production, Rocky Flats is now a wildlife refuge. What happened to its troubled past?

I teach first-year academic writing courses in the University of Georgia English Department. Lately, I have been using JSTOR to help my students see research differently through an activity I call ...

In 1982, the American Library Association established Banned Books Week in response to the increase in challenges to books in libraries, classrooms, and school libraries. Of course, censorship and ...

What do spinning on a merry-go-round, dancing by a campfire, and being hit with a paddle as part of a fraternity initiation have in common? Folklorist Jay Mechling argues that they’re forms of play ...