Opinion + Voices

Professor Alain Mabanckou writes that the recent police killings of Michael Brown and Eric Garner show that much work remains to create an America worthy of the vision of African American artists and leaders of generations ago.

Anthropology professor Alan Page Fiske writes in an op-ed that the ‘Charlie Hebdo’ attackers, like so many people who use violence, probably thought they were acting righteously.

A UCLA psychologist and her sister explain why Disney struck billion-dollar gold with Elsa, Anna and ‘Let It Go.’

Olga Kagan says that offering language classes tailored for heritage speakers, who speak a language other than English at home but may not be able to read it, would have significant advantages for society.

UCLA’s Laure Murat writes that for at least several centuries people have ascribed acts of terror to madness, often to advance political agendas.

Eric Avila says it’s fitting that recent protests against police killing unarmed African American men disrupted traffic on freeways, which have a legacy of devastation to urban African American communities.

Eugene Volokh says that two relevant legal precedents undermine Sony’s demand that media cease distributing leaked information.

UCLA’s Bill Parent, director of the Center for Civil Society at the Luskin School of Public Affairs, writes that L.A.-area residents’ stinginess jeopardizes society’s safety net, which depends significantly on private donations.

History professor James Gelvin writes that the chances for negotiating a settlement in Syria might increase if the different players stopped examining the conflict in isolation.

Alan Rubin, the associate curator of the UCLA Meteorite Gallery and unofficial “cosmic killjoy,” regularly has to tell people the answer is no. But he'll also tell you where meteorites actually come from.

Two UCLA School of Law professors say the recently announced agreement between China and the United States to cut pollution could be a game changer.

Dr. Jeremy M. Blumberg, an assistant professor in the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and surgical director of renal transplantation at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, reminisces about a past Thanksgiving when he was asked to recover the organs of an infant who had drowned.

UCLA history professor Valerie J. Matsumoto looks at the social clubs that gave Japanese-Americans a chance to socialize, develop leadership skills and participate in community service.

Cardiologist Leigh Reardon’s experiences as a child open-heart surgery patient taught him an empathy that creates a uniquely open relationship with his patients.

An Army veteran working on his Ph.D. at UCLA says a new approach is needed to match veterans and their skills with private sector employers.

The deans of the UCLA School of Nursing and the David Geffen School of Medicine write in an op-ed that making Westwood Boulevard more bike-and pedestrian-friendly would improve air quality, safety and business.

On the 25th anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Dr. Jody Heymann, dean of the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health and founding director of the WORLD Policy Analysis Center, and co-authors Kristen Savage and Aleta Sprague examine the progress made toward securing children’s rights around the world.

That most people have never heard of Hatshepsut — a pharaoh of ancient Egypt, who was the greatest female ruler of the ancient world — is emblematic of the challenges women have always faced in politics, writes UCLA Egyptologist Kara Cooney.

UCLA professor Lynn Vavreck writes in The New York Times that if the Democrats lose the Senate, it would follow recent electoral history for the party of an unpopular president. Also, watch a video of Vavreck speaking about political TV ads.

UCLA linguist Pamela Munro writes about the nearly forgotten language of the Gabrielino-Tongva Indians and her efforts to revive it for descendants of Southern California’s Tongva people.

Two UCLA pediatricians write about the societal risks that result from working- and middle-class parents being forced to choose between paying for their children’s medical expenses and household bills.

Public policy professor John Villasenor calls for a thorough reexamining of safety measures and recommends more rigorous training protocols to protect those charged with treating people who are sick.

Economist Lee Ohanian makes the case that income inequality is not nearly so rampant as reports suggest and that a better indicator of well-being is consumption.

In the 18th century, two teams of scientists set out to answer whether the earth was shaped more like a tomato or a Japanese eggplant?

For American cities to usher in a European-style bike renaissance, society will need to shift toward a more even distribution of child-rearing duties between women and men, say UCLA researchers.