Water treatment is a vital public service that ensures that our water supply is safe to drink. However, issues regarding water treatment generally attract public attention only when the safety of water for consumption or recreation is called into question. A questioning of water safety often prompts a response, governmental or humanitarian; however such responses sometimes not only fail to solve problems, they exacerbate those problems. In the 1970s, humanitarian groups in Bangladesh installed deep tube wells to prevent waterborne illnesses caused by drinking surface water.

​Almost everyone that watches television in 2016 knows that reality shows feature an unscripted and non-actor cast. What Jane Feuer, Professor of English and Film Studies at the University of Pittsburgh, points out, however, is that the ongoing narrative of reality television is much more complicated than just handing over a show to non-actors.

“Children and Reality Television-Young Lives on the Big Screen”

Clickbait often gets a bad rap because of the sensationalized nature of the headlines and those stories' lack of substantive content. However, this does not necessarily hold true for all clickbait.

“Clickbait vs. Journalism”

When I was younger, I pestered my mom to tell me how to say things in Pashto (our family language) and Urdu, the national language of Pakistan. As I grew older, I sought to learn more about Urdu, and my efforts led me toward poetry and Indian Bollywood movies, which I thought to be only in Hindi. While watching, however, I noticed characters using Urdu words like khuda and bahar, which mean “god” and “spring,” respectively, of which the Hindi words are bhagavaan and vasanta. My assumption was that Urdu is a Pakistani language and that Hindi is an Indian language.

J.R.R. Tolkien’s 1947 essay “On Fairy Stories” explores the nature of fairy-stories as a genre. Tolkien is best known for his fantasy novel (published as a trilogy), The Lord of the Rings, but he wrote “On Fairy Stories,” first delivered as a lecture in 1939, several years earlier as part of the Andrew Lang lecture series. In typical philological fashion, Tolkien discusses the definition of fairy-stories, their origins, and their purpose in order to capture their true value.

“The lyricism of marginality may find inspiration in the image of the 'outlaw,' the great social nomad, who prowls on the confines of a docile, frightened order.” – Michel Foucault

Dickinson’s poetry is filled with moments of ambiguous meaning because she focuses on topics that do not have a definitive interpretation, such as lightning, truth, and the infinite. Nevertheless, Dickinson explores these subjects, not for the purpose of seeking an answer, but for the sake of exploring them. It is because these subjects cannot be defined that Dickinson finds their exploration so essential and focuses on them in her poetry.

Through the diminutive and traditional world of local cultures in nineteenth century rural Louisiana, the intermingling of Cajun and Creole cultures manifests in Kate Chopin’s works. In At the ‘Cadien Ball and The Storm, Chopin juxtaposes the restraint on sexuality and gender and the restrictions imposed by religion and class through the cultural constraints of the time.

It is tempting to read Walter Pater as a lifeless figure who transcends not only the conditions of the Victorian era he lived in, but also of life itself. It is true that when we sift through the details of his public life we find a man, as Arthur Symons describes, “rarely quite at ease” (102). Denis Donoghue tells us that “in company he was often silent, withdrawn, and when he consented to speak he spoke hesitantly, with long pauses between the words, as if he found conversation at regular speed and vivacity an effort” (54).