Tag Archives: history

From clickbait to transcendent meaning

Posted on 22 July 2022 by Laura Akers, Ph.D.

This evening the weather was perfect for reading outside, and that’s what we were doing, enjoying the rustling leaves overhead, the trickle of water from our little fountain, and the antics of four of our cats, when my phone gave … Continue reading →

Posted in history, salience markers | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Every voice counts

Posted on 4 February 2022 by Laura Akers, Ph.D.

I heard a fascinating talk today by Martha Bayless, who is one of our university’s folklore professors, and whose CV is full of awesome things, like medieval humor and games, food, and magic. She also curated the ongoing exhibit on … Continue reading →

Posted in history, US politics | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Why we keep hanging onto the past – and what that costs us

Posted on 10 December 2021 by Laura Akers, Ph.D.

For a couple days this week, I found myself highly motivated to hold my head relatively still, so as not to aggravate the massive headache that had wrapped itself relentlessly around it. I needed a fairly mindless way to pass … Continue reading →

Posted in history, US politics | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

“Happily ever after!” The new GOP storyline

Posted on 27 June 2021 by Laura Akers, Ph.D.

On the one hand, it’s heartening that Republicans recently voted to make Juneteenth a new federal holiday. On the other hand, with all the Lost Cause handwringing during the Trump years, one wonders why. In a recent Slate interview, historian … Continue reading →

Posted in narrative science, US politics | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

A thousand years of grievance? Here???

Posted on 6 March 2021 by Laura Akers, Ph.D.

When I write about speeches that get people really riled up – as part of our research team’s ongoing study of genocide – one of my favorite examples is Slobodan Milošević’s Gazimestan speech. About a million Serbs showed up to … Continue reading →

Posted in history, narrative science, US politics | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Whose Law? Whose Order?

Posted on 8 January 2021 by Laura Akers, Ph.D.

The shocking, yet not at all surprising, events in the U.S. Capitol this week revitalized a question I’ve been asking myself lately: How do we reconcile a president’s repeated call for “law and order” with his obvious delight in sheer, … Continue reading →

Posted in US politics | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

The burden of George R.R. Martin – and what suspense and its resolution mean for us in the real world

Posted on 22 November 2020 by Laura Akers, Ph.D.

I can still picture the display in our local university bookstore, sometime around 1999 – a major new fantasy series, with at least two books in print: A Game of Thrones, and A Clash of Kings. It looked medieval, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

The story of Dido, Aeneas, a gender-queer Sorceress, and the fate of… England?

Posted on 17 November 2020 by Laura Akers, Ph.D.

This past weekend I had the good fortune to see a most unusual opera. I confess, I’m not actually an opera fan, not in the conventional sense – as of yet I have no interest in Verdi, Puccini, et al. … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

The “Nixon-to-China” theory of change

Posted on 8 November 2020 by Laura Akers, Ph.D.

For my friends who’d rather have had Bernie for president… don’t lose hope. Here’s why I think the Biden presidency may be just what we need. In the early 1970s, mainland China was still recovering from the Cultural Revolution, a … Continue reading →

Posted in US politics | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Our enduring debt to the 300 Spartans

Posted on 30 September 2020 by Laura Akers, Ph.D.

Has it been 2,500 years already? It was in August or September of 480 B.C. that King Leonidas of Sparta and his 300 elite soldiers (with some allies) held off more than 100,000 Persian soldiers for three days at Thermopylae, … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | 4 Comments