James McWilliams

Bipartisan legislation in the Senate and House of Representatives would make prisoners eligible for Pell Grants, reversing a clause in the 1994 crime bill that stripped such eligibility.

The course, offered at the University of Washington, teaches that the proliferation of algorithms and data is making misinformation more widespread.

The University of California's boycott of academic-publishing giant Elsevier has open-access advocates pleased. Others have concerns about transparency.

Multitasking can be damaging to your brain, and online students are bearing the brunt.

The secretary of education's plans threaten to make it more difficult for victims of sexual discrimination to seek justice, and might in turn hinder her goal of strengthening due process.

What's behind academia's revolving door?

By resorting to satire, did Portland State University professor Peter Boghossian violate basic professional and ethical standards?

A public policy non-profit has put together some guidelines to help universities prepare for future free speech controversies.

What should higher education expect from the new Senate Finance Committee chair?

Nike's new $250 shoe that makes a faster runner might be cause for celebration, but it plays into a long-running debate over the deeper meaning of the marathon and who should participate in it.

A new survey finds that just 8 percent of schools have concrete bathroom policies. That lackadaisical approach can have serious health consequences for students.

By many measures, pot is far safer than alcohol. But that doesn't necessarily mean it's good for you, some public-health experts say.

A new study questions the place of meritocracy in higher education.

Gun advocates are arguing that the controversial law is keeping students safer, but there's little evidence to back those claims.

A growing endowment generates wealth. A small part of that wealth is invested to bolster an administration tasked with generating prestige, and, as students rush to take out federal loans, raising tuition and fees.

As Americans' faith in higher education reacts to rising costs, mounting debts, and the growing sense that preparation for the workforce need not take a four-year degree, the post-World War II ambitions of higher education may prove to be a noble failure.

A growing body of research suggests our food choices are guided by hidden biases.

Working toward a shared goal can help bond ethnic cultures together.

Through his attacks on those government expenditures he deems frivolous, the Arizona senator exposes the counterproductive nature of his own belt-tightening mission.

Podcasters, rather than the conventional media or education establishment, are in a position to shape the tone and content of public discourse.

There's a chance the sexual culture being cultivated by Millennials can diminish the environment of harassment and assault that's plagued so many workplaces.

A systemic review presents damning evidence that journalists are overselling research.

One study suggests it's possible but not feasible.

A new book argues that American democracy depends on an unlikely source: the English department.

An influential conservative online ecosystem targets teachers whose expressed opinions question the dominance of white men.

A new book explores the racial implications of the algorithms that structure our lives.

Could the objective assurance in correct answers mandated in mathematics education teach students to be similarly calculating and assured when it comes to daily moral conundrums?

A protest in Petaluma, California, prompts the question: Do we have a right to help farm animals that are suffering?

The perp walk scratches a satisfying itch for retribution, but it also gives alleged assailants the opportunity to co-opt what should be a somber moment for their own self-aggrandizement.

Do overblown fears of the First Amendment's demise undermine healthy debate?

On the question of whether preventing employers from asking about criminal history really leads to more equitable hiring practices, the evidence is disturbingly mixed.

In a new era of protest and de-platforming, conservatives have defensively invested the First Amendment with a transcendent power and moral authority it does not warrant. What happens when equality and free speech are in direct opposition?

A new study suggests the answer is yes.

Through a series of essays, Miller reminds us what it's like to feel a sense of awe when confronted with nature's beauty.

Inside the legendary ultra challenge, which reminds us why it's good for runners to face defeat every once in a while.

Ranchers on BLM land have 94 percent of their grazing costs covered by taxpayers. And they target wild horses for removal in order to preserve the rangeland that makes this financial windfall possible.

It's true that much of the scholarship that professors in the humanities produce is micro-focused and barely relevant to larger social concerns. But those academics would also be best served by ignoring that critique.

Insects are poised to reinvent industrial animal agriculture.

Historian Nancy MacLean's off-the-cuff remarks earlier this month may have mischaracterized libertarianism, but they totally distorted autism.

As the art of close reading has declined, a cohort of experts has emerged to reverse the trend and encourage stronger reading habits.

One might expect an industry that prioritizes empathy for others to also be a friendly workplace environment for women. But that's not always the case.

An interview with Harvard University-trained public defense lawyer Bryan Stevenson on racial trauma, segregation, and listening to marginalized voices.

There are no available statistics on how many men discreetly remove their condoms during sex, an act known informally as stealthing.

If there's an upside to the government's failure to promote legitimate sex education, it's been the convergent rise of the local sex shop and the university seminar as two venues for frank and meaningful discussion.

Doug Metzger's Literature and History podcast—a comprehensive historical overview of the literature of the Anglophone world—has already garnered 500,000 downloads. Does his podcast provide a blueprint to intellectualizing our populace?

Some fear that, by offering deaf people access to sound, so-called bionic ears could spell the end of the culture built around ASL.

Re-assessing how much food we throw out.

The poultry industry's secret weapon? Uniquely skilled workers who can identify a chick's gender in the blink of an eye.

What chimpanzees on the hunt can tell us about human behavior.

Maybe think twice about it.