Humanities & Society

If Florida’s action to strip Walt Disney World of its status as a special tax district is indeed retaliatory against the company for its opposition to the state’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law, then Florida has plainly violated the First Amendment, says a constitutional law expert at Washington University in St. Louis.

Using Gallup survey data from 2000-2019 spanning across four presidential administrations, political scientists in Arts & Sciences find anxiety about crime, race and the president’s political party influence whether Americans hold presidents accountable for crime.

Analyzing more than 200 years of conflicts, David Carter in Arts & Sciences finds revisionist states — like Russia — have made territorial claims when the great powers that dominate the international system are embroiled in crisis.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin recently declared that their nations’ friendship had “no limits.” But that partnership has been sorely tested by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, argues Washington University’s Zhao Ma.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine took much of the world by surprise. On March 9, a group of WashU faculty will attempt to sort through the roots of the conflict, as well as the latest developments, in the virtual panel discussion “Crisis in Ukraine.”

Mike Yochim spent his final months writing a book about the effects of climate change on national parks. Bill Lowry, professor emeritus of political science in Arts & Sciences, ensured his friend’s final words would be heard.

An analysis of television ads from the 2016 presidential election shows messages that are centrist and consistent with the candidate’s primary messages lead to increased online word of mouth chatter and higher daily poll ratings.

If President Joe Biden follows through on his promise to nominate a Black woman to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, longer-term change to the court is possible, based on voting patterns of Black female judges versus white male judges, suggests new research from Washington University in St. Louis.

A voting rights filibuster “carve-out” — or making an exception to the 60-vote threshold to overcome a legislative filibuster — would help to preserve the core democratic principle of majority rule, says an expert on constitutional law at Washington University in St. Louis.

January 6, 2022, marks the one-year anniversary of the attack on the U.S. Capitol building by supporters of president Donald Trump. Here, university experts in political science and law offer their thoughts on what the attack means.