Higher education is not immune to this current onslaught of censorship — but not in the way that right-wing media claims. As they speak out of one side of their mouth about “cancel culture” on campus, they use the other side to implement egregious policies and laws that actually impede the rights of students, staff, and faculty at these institutions.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) has been a right-wing target over the last several years, and that has shown up in spades with book banning related to books written, published, or studied for/by those under the age of 18. So-called “Critical Race Theory” books, alongside books deemed as “Social Emotional Learning” or “Comprehensive Sexuality [sic] Education,” have been pulled in schools and public libraries nationwide amid the manufactured fervor.

But as much as the rhetoric has been about “protecting the kids,” it is very much not about the kids at all. If it were, then DEI departments or programs at public universities — where students are near-universally no longer minors — would not need to be disbanded. Texas outlawed DEI programs at all public universities, as did several other states. In Florida, the dismantling of higher education has an incubator program at New College. Last year, the state’s governor implemented new leadership at the public liberal arts school, which included installing completely unqualified political agitators to the institution’s advisory board. Students and faculty reported on the chaos happening in the school to begin the 2023-24 academic year, and even more recently, the institution saw sanctions leveraged against it by the American Association of University Professors for standards violations. Only 12 other institutions have ever been given these sanctions over the last 30 years.

Winter might be coming to an end, and the sun might be shining for longer, but believe me when I say March is about to get dark. This month’s horror novels are probably the creepiest of 2024 so far. Whether you’re in the mood for short stories, novels, or horror manga, March’s new horror releases are sure to fulfill your need for chills and thrills.

Get ready for a new take on Frankenstein, one of the first horror novels ever, set in a near-future version of America. Prepare yourselves for a short story manga collection featuring bone-chilling illustrations from Junji Ito. March is also bringing you a highly-anticipated horror sequel you’re not going to want to miss. And if you love a good haunting, March is full of haunted villas, haunted roads, haunted woods, haunted hills, and even full towns that are just straight-up, all-the-way haunted.

Serial killers, ghosts, scary body parts that move on their own. Readers, beware. March is going to be a scary month. And honestly, would we want it any other way? Here are ten books coming out this month that will have you scared no matter what time of day you read them. But you’ll be glad the sun is staying out a little bit longer.

Chicano Frankenstein by Daniel A. Olivas (Forest Avenue Press, March 5) March kicks off with an exciting contemporary adaptation of Mary Shelley’s classic horror novel Frankenstein. Against the backdrop of a United States politicizing the reanimation process, an unnamed paralegal is brought back to life. All memories of his life pre-reanimation have been lost, and as he searches for answers for the life he left behind, he falls in love with a lawyer named Faustina Godínez and comes to terms with a world that would rather he didn’t exist.

The Haunting of Velkwood by Gwendolyn Kiste (S&S/Saga Press, March 5) The Haunting of Velkwood is the perfect horror novel for Yellowjackets fans. Twenty years ago, Velkwood Street and everyone who lived there disappeared overnight. The only ones who survived were three best friends. They watched their homes and their loved ones disappear behind a near-impenetrable veil that’s now known as the Velkwood Vicinity. But what happened all those years ago? Now that a researcher is tracking down the survivors, will they finally be able to get answers?

7 min read

Who was the First Female Councillor in Oxford?

International Women’s Day (8 March) is a time to reflect on and promote women’s political participation. In Oxford, the City Council bucks the national trend with equal numbers of female and male councillors, in a wider context in England where only 36% of local councillors are female compared to 64% male.[1] But we know that has not always been the case, and there was a time when there were not only structural and social barriers but legal barriers preventing women’s democratic participation in local government. So who was the first female councillor in Oxford and what do we know about her?

Women were only legally allowed to stand in local elections after the Qualification of Women (County and Borough Councils) Act received Royal Assent on 28 August 1907.[2] The Act removed the disqualification of women from sitting on public bodies for which they were entitled to vote.[3] It provided that a woman shall not be disqualified by sex or marriage for election as a councillor or alderman of a county council or borough council (including metropolitan boroughs).[4] It meant that women could finally stand for election of town and city councils including in Oxford.

In November 1907 elections were to be held three months after the Bill was passed. Outside London seventeen candidates stood for election including Miss Mary Sophia Merivale in Oxford.[5]

Miss Merivale held a campaign meeting at SS Philip and James’ infant schools shortly before the election. On her candidacy she said she was standing because “quite simply a woman was wanted and other better qualified women were not able to come forward and so she had accepted the invitation”. She added that “…there were among the business of the city council… matters more intimately connected with women and children which had to be dealt with, and a woman’s knowledge and practical detail ought to be helpful in dealing with them”. She stressed that she “had come forward as a representative of no political party” and noted that she “had never taken part in the agitation for women’s suffrage and always had consistently denied to sign any petition either for or against it”.[6]

Speakers at the event supported Miss Merivale’s bid for election. One stated it “as a means to promote efficiency…there was great gain in having women brought into places for which they had both knowledge and experience.” Another speaker described Merviale’s candidacy as “a new experiment” and she was “a most excellent and competent candidate”. A third observed that while she was the “women’s candidate” he preferred to think of her as the “children’s candidate” because if children’s interests were to be represented, they must be represented by people who cared for them”.[7]

The weather is getting warmer, and the flowers are blooming, which makes March a great month for reading outside (though if you have allergies like me, maybe pack a box of tissues with you!). I often bring along a children’s book on our outdoor excursions, and there are lots of March children’s book releases to choose from.

While March always has a lot of book releases, this March has just SO MANY. I know I say this every month, but because of the unusually high number of March children’s book releases, I had an extra hard time narrowing this list down to ten books. All this to say, if you want to read my reviews of even more awesome March children’s book releases, you should subscribe to Book Riot’s kidlit newsletter. Several books I review this month are inspired by the author’s experiences or the author’s family’s experiences, whether it’s about growing up Deaf, housing Korean War refugees, or grappling with mental illness in middle school. Several of these March children’s book releases made me cry, and just as many (and sometimes even the same ones) made me smile and laugh out loud. I include historical fiction, fantasy, novels-in-verse, funny read-alouds, and more.

There’s something for every reader! I hope you enjoy these March children’s book releases as much as I did.

Butterfly on the Wind by Adam Pottle & Ziyue Chen (March 12; Roaring Brook Press) This beautiful and imaginative picture book is written and illustrated by Deaf creators and depicts the experiences of a Deaf child living with a hearing family. It opens with the child Aurora nervously practicing her signs for a school talent show. When she spies a butterfly, she beats her hands to create the butterfly’s wind, which sends a pink butterfly into the air, where it finds another Deaf child far away who creates another butterfly. The butterflies travel on the wind from house to house, multiplying as they meet more Deaf children and their families. When they return to Aurora, who is waiting for the talent show outside of her school, she feels a joyful calm knowing she is not alone. Back matter includes an author’s note about growing up Deaf in a hearing family and his inspiration for the story as well as the ASL alphabet. The luminous illustrations perfectly capture the movement and sparkling joy of the butterflies and the people they visit. It’s a fantastic, metaphoric book about community and belonging.

In archive BBC interviews activists look back at the fight for their rights

A lonely queen. An orphan girl. A poet. A soldier fallen from honor. They hold a terrible secret. Can they save the kingdom of Ugarit from a mad pretender and hordes of the dispossessed? Only friendship can knit the bonds that will hold firm against the tide of evil.

I’m a big reader of historical fiction, but I have a soft spot for books that go way way back in time. Reading books set in ancient worlds is often purely escapist, but also brings me a specific kind of comfort. This might not make sense to some since the thing about ancient civilizations is that they tend to sort of…collapse. But reading about people living, loving, losing, and ultimately persisting in antiquity helps me make sense of the world I live in now. It reminds me that the problems of my own life mostly aren’t new and that, in general, they too shall pass.

You may be wondering what “ancient worlds” means, exactly. This is where I’ll confess that I’d written half of this post when I second-guessed whether my picks technically made sense or if I’d really just run with “set a long-ass time ago.” The answer is a little bit fluid, but generally, ancient civilization “refers specifically to the first settled and stable communities that became the basis for later states, nations, and empires,” beginning with the invention of writing about 3100 BCE and lasting for more than 35 centuries. And while this definition makes sense since writing made historical record-keeping possible, humans, of course, existed long before writing did.

There are thus many, many ancient civilizations in our global history (this Britannica list is almost 90 entries long ), and it turns out my “long-ass time ago” rubric aligns pretty well with reality. Huzzah! The books I present you with below range from mythology retellings to history-inspired fantasy. They will whisk you off to ancient India, Greece, and Egypt, to the Pre-Columbian Americas, to ancient China, Pompeii, and more.