Boston University

Public Policy

Photo of Jessica Silbey standing in a courtyard with stone arches. A middle-aged woman with shoulder length brown hair wears a black suit ensemble and stands with arms crossed.

Law & Innovation

How Copyrights, Patents, and Trademarks May Stifle Creativity and Progress

August 16, 2022

Photo of Mayank Varia, associate professor in the Faculty of Computing & Data Sciences, posing for a photo in front of a whiteboard filled with various equations. A middle-aged man stands in dark room and holds a white cell phone up. He, the phone, and the whiteboard background are lit up by light blue neon light.

Cryptography

Can WhatsApp Messages Be Secure and Encrypted—but Traceable at the Same Time?

August 10, 2022

Portrait of Dr. Nahid Bhadelia leaning against a brick building. A tan woman with long black hair wearing a light blu pantsuit ensemble leans against a brick wall

COVID-19

BU’s Nahid Bhadelia Joins White House COVID Response Team

July 13, 2022

Photo of people of various ages and genders holding signs at a rally at Union Square in New York City, NY June 23, 2022 after the Supreme Court of the United States ruling on gun laws in New York. An AAPI woman with long, wavy blonde hair wears a pink shirt that says "it's the fucking guns" and a button that says "i love new york." A white woman next to her wears a shirt that says "Disarm hate" and holds a sign that reads "Supreme court no to guns everywhere." Behind her, a white man in a red t-shirt holds a sign that reads "Clarence Thomas wants HIS court to be Gun-Free-Zone but thinks our subways should be open targets." Older white women at right hold orange signs that read "we can end gun violence"

Voices & Opinion

POV: As a Nation, Where Are We Now on Gun Policy?

July 12, 2022

Close up photo of a young white woman calculating menstrual cycle using a generic mobile app and holding reusable menstrual cup cup on her other hand.

Reproductive Rights

POV: End of Roe v. Wade and Right to Abortion Will Impact Research, Says ENG Professor

July 6, 2022

Photo of Ukrainian refugees awaiting entry into the US. They sit and lay on blankets on a patch of grass. Many wearing sweatshirts and jeans and look away from the camera towards a gray tent and wall. The refugees sit amongst their suitcases and there is a mix of families and groups of young people.

Refugees

America the Miserly: How Our Refugee System Fails Desperate People

June 27, 2022

Photo of, at center, a White man with sunglasses, a beard, and wearing a green hat with a military style vest and rifle. He stands amidst a crowd of people and American flags and also has a military style headset. A man at right who is partially seen seems to be wearing similar combat style gear. Children and families can be seen in the ground.

SCOTUS

Supreme Court Overturns New York’s Concealed Carry Gun Law

June 23, 2022

Image: Vector isometric illustration of the USA map made up of many people in a large crowd shape. People are made up of various colors and a few stragglers are seen outside the shape here and there.

Antiracism

Data Gaps for Race and Ethnicity Are Holding Back Antiracism Efforts, New Report Says

June 22, 2022

Photo of Pamela Templer (center), Shawn Jones (left), and Yasmin Romitti. From left, a tall Black man with glasses, a dark grey blazer, purpled collared shirt and black pants stands next to a shorter white woman with arms crossed wearing black blouse and pants and red cardigan, and on right a younger, shorter white woman wearing a black and white polka dot shirt and jeans. They all stand, pose, and smile next to each other.

Climate Change

Building a Diverse, Strong Climate Workforce

June 10, 2022

Photo of the members of the community of Uvalde, Tex., mourning after a deadly school shooting at Robb Elementary School. In the photo, four women presumably Latinx women are seen, mostly from the side. One woman hugs another, her face is filled with tears. She has blonde hair and wears glasses.

School Shootings

How Should Teachers and Parents Talk about the Uvalde School Shooting with Their Children?

May 25, 2022

Image of a map of the lower 48 states of the United States in tan. Overlaid are a serious of red dots indicating the number of gun violence deaths in 2022 so far. The dots are concentrated around the coasts, but no state is without dots.

Voices & Opinion

POV: The Killing We Continue to Fail to Stop

May 25, 2022

Law enforcement personnel stand outside Robb Elementary School following a shooting, Tuesday, May 24, 2022, in Uvalde, Texas. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)

Public Safety

The Long, Failed History of Gun Control Legislation

May 25, 2022

Photo of three American flags at the base of the Washington Monument flying at half staff. President Biden ordered flags to fly at half-mast through next Monday as the nation passes the 1 million mark of COVID deaths. The sky in the background is cloudy and gray, and the top of the white, capital building is seen in the background at bottom.

COVID-19 Deaths

COVID-19 Death Toll Could Be 20 Percent Higher than Official Tally

May 13, 2022

Photo of Tess Ravick (ENG’22), back, and Trevor Melsheimer (ENG’22), front work on their senior design project April 29. The device harvests water from the air. Ravick has light brown skin, wears a t-shirt, a white face mask, and their hair in a bun. Melsheimer, who has light skin and a beard and wears a gray sweater, adjusts a level of the black device on the table in front of them.

Watch Now

Water, Water, Everywhere—They Hope

May 4, 2022

Downtown Stockton, California at night

Urban Problems

Majority of US Mayors Worried about the Racial Wealth Gap in Their Cities

March 22, 2022

Photo of activists holding cardboard cutouts of President Joe Biden, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi protest outside of the International Monetary Fund headquarters during the World Bank/IMF Annual Meetings in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2021.

International Relations

Why the World Monetary System Needs a New Set of Rules

February 28, 2022

Photo of Ketanji Brown Jackson, a middle aged Black woman in a black blazer, purple blouse, and glasses, smiling as she speaks at a podium during an event in the Cross Hall of the White House February 25, 2022 in Washington, DC. Blurred in the background, president Biden is seen looking on and smiling. Behind him is an American flag.

Supreme Court

LAW Dean’s Letter Urges Confirmation of Biden’s Historic SCOTUS Pick, Ketanji Brown Jackson

February 25, 2022

Photo on a sunny day of the exterior of US Supreme Court building. Shows an old, white Roman style building with large pillars and many steps.

US Supreme Court

Guns, God, Abortion, Affirmative Action: US Supreme Court’s Historic 2022

February 16, 2022

photo of Assistant professor Jessica Simes, a deeply tanned woman with curly dark brown hair and blue oval glasses, sits in her office and faces the camera. Her new book, Punishing Places, is seen on the bookshelf behind her.

Mass Incarceration

Sociologist Jessica Simes’ New Book Explores the Toll of Mass Incarceration and Its Racial Disparities

February 1, 2022

Photo of the tents of a homeless camp lining the sidewalk in area commonly known as Mass and Cass in Boston. A dark blue and light blue tent are placed together as people and bikes stand around them.

Politics

US Mayors Say Homelessness Crisis Falls to Them, but They Lack Support and Funding

January 20, 2022

US Mayors Say Homelessness Crisis Falls to Them, but They Lack Support and Funding