Three Truths About Intersex Medicine—And Why We Must Rethink It Iain Morland
Intersex medicine continues to mandate irreversible genital surgeries on children, a practice rooted in outdated 1950s psychology that equates anatomy with gender. The author argues that doctors and parents are not powerless; they actively decide to operate, often causing scars, complications, and nerve damage. He also separates intersex rights from identity, insisting that bodily autonomy should extend to anyone with intersex traits, regardless of self‑labeling. Finally, he warns that focusing on “necessary” versus “unnecessary” procedures keeps the medical establishment in control, hindering true demedicalization of intersex bodies.
Queer Lives and the Ideas That Shape Them Books for Pride Month 2026
A curated Pride Month 2026 reading list spotlights new scholarship that bridges personal narrative and political analysis across gender history, law, and culture. Titles such as *Napoleon’s Closet*, *The Lavender Bans*, and *By the Power Vested in Me* unpack the...
Robert Radin on The Man Who Would Be Man Enough for Betty Velasquez
Robert Radin’s new novel, *The Man Who Would Be Man Enough for Betty Velasquez*, satirizes romance while delivering a genuine love story. He credits his mother’s habit of devouring roughly 200 paperback romances a year for his early exposure to...
Andreas Kaplan on The Virtual Universe
Andreas Kaplan, professor of digital transformation and author of *The Virtual Universe*, discusses the evolution of virtual worlds and the Metaverse, emphasizing a holistic view that blends business models, ethics, and technology. He argues immersive environments can transform higher‑education teaching...
The Elusive Challenge of Climate Justice Rebecca Marwege, Nikhar Gaikwad, and Joerg Schaefer
The newly edited volume *Climate Justice Now* gathers scholars from the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities to map the multifaceted challenge of climate justice. It argues that equitable climate action requires more than technical fixes, highlighting the ethical and...
Racing to Unify All of Humankind Kelly Oliver
Kelly Oliver’s essay reflects on how iconic space imagery—from Apollo’s Blue Marble to Artemis II—has repeatedly sparked a paradoxical mix of planetary unity and competitive ambition. The Apollo era framed the Earth as a fragile, shared home, fueling the early environmental...
Why Multidisciplinary Climate Modeling Matters Mara Freilich, Irmak Turan, Jessica Varner, and Lizzie Yarina
The newly released volume *Climate Changed: Models and the Built World* brings together climate scientists, designers, historians, and urban planners to examine how climate models intersect with the built environment. Editors Mara Freilich, Irmak Turan, Jessica Varner, and Lizzie Yarina explain that models...
Fifteen Must-Read Books for Earth Month 2026
The article presents a curated list of fifteen books released for Earth Month 2026, each addressing a different facet of climate change. The selection covers climate advocacy, scientific modeling, conservation of biodiversity, and disaster risk management, reflecting this year’s renewable‑energy‑focused...
10 Must-Read Books for National Poetry Month 2026
The Academy of American Poets marks the 30th anniversary of National Poetry Month with a curated list of ten books that explore poetry’s intersections with labor, logic, digital community, public life, and climate change. Titles range from Kristin Grogan’s "Stitch, Unstitch,"...
Listening to the Earth Radical Romanticism for a Time of Ecological Crisis Mark S. Cladis
Mark S. Cladis’s new book *Radical Romanticism* re‑examines the Romantic tradition as an ethical imagination that intertwines democracy, religion, and ecological concern. By juxtaposing European Romantics such as Wordsworth and Shelley with Black and Indigenous thinkers like Du Bois, Hurston, and...
Kristin Grogan on Stitch, Unstitch
Kristin Grogan’s new book *Stitch, Unstitch: Modernist Poetry and the World of Work* examines how early‑twentieth‑century modernist poets grappled with the meaning of labor amid radical social upheaval. Using a Marxist‑feminist framework, she analyzes five poets—Ezra Pound, Lola Ridge, Langston...
A New Reptile Is Discovered, and Ten Poachers Book Flights To. . . Craig Stanford
A tiny mud turtle, now named the Vallarta mud turtle, was formally described in 2018 and is estimated to number only a few hundred individuals in the swamps of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Within days of the scientific announcement, poachers descended...
Nicole M. Morris Johnson on The Souths in Her
Nicole M. Morris Johnson’s new book *The Souths in Her* examines how Black women writers and choreographers across the United States, Caribbean, and West Africa forged innovative expressive forms. The title, drawn from Ntozake Shange, pluralizes “South” to capture both geographic...
Dorian Rhea Debussy on Women, Queer People, and the National Security State
Author Dorian Rhea Debussy’s new book, The Lavender Bans, chronicles a century of anti‑LGBTQ+ policies in the U.S. military and intelligence community, weaving personal anecdotes with archival research. The narrative spotlights figures such as fashion executive Dorothy Shaver, CIA‑denied contractor...
If the European Novel Thinks Like a Person, the African Novel Thinks Like a World Ainehi Edoro
The essay contrasts Virginia Woolf’s individual‑centric narrative model with a distinctly African approach that treats the novel as a thinking world. It argues that African fiction distributes agency across ecosystems, ancestors, and material forces rather than anchoring meaning in a...