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November 11, 2025

How number systems shape our thinking, and what this means for learning, language and culture

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Jean-Charles Pelland, Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Psychosocial Science, University of Bergen

Most of us have little trouble working out how many millilitres are in 2.4 litres of water (it’s 2,400). But the same can’t be said when we’re asked how many minutes are in 2.4 hours (it’s 144).

That’s because the Indo-Arabic numerals we often use to represent numbers are base-10, while the system we often use to measure time is base-60.

Expressing time in decimal notation leads to an interaction between these two bases, which can have implications at both the cognitive and cultural level.

Such base interactions and their consequences are among the important topics covered in a new issue of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society journal, which I co-edited with colleagues Andrea Bender (University of Bergen), Mary Walworth (French National Centre for Scientific Research) and Simon J. Greenhill (University of Auckland).

The themed issue brings together work from anthropology, linguistics, philosophy and psychology to examine how humans conceptualize numbers and the numeral systems we build around them.

What are bases, and why do they matter?

Despite using numeral bases on a daily basis, few of us have reflected on the nature of these cognitive tools. As I explain in my contribution to the issue, bases are special numbers in the numeral systems we use.

Because our memories aren’t unlimited, we can’t represent each number with its own unique label. Instead, we use a small set of numerals to build larger ones, like “three hundred forty-two.”

That’s why most numeral systems are structured around a compositional anchor — a special number with a name that serves as a building block to form names for other numbers. Bases are anchors that exploit powers of a special number to form complex numerical expressions.

The English language, for example, uses a decimal system, meaning it uses the powers of 10 to compose numerals. So we compose “three hundred and forty-two” using three times the second power of 10 (100), four times the first power of 10 (10) and two times the zeroth power of 10 (one).

This base structure allows us to represent numbers of all sizes without overloading our cognitive resources.

Languages affect how we count

Despite the abstract nature of numbers, the degree to which numeral systems transparently reflect their bases has very concrete implications — and not just when we tell time. Languages with less transparent rules will take longer to learn, longer to process and can lead to more calculation and dictation errors.

Take French numerals, for example. While languages like French, English and Mandarin all share the same base of 10, most dialects of French have what could politely be called a quirky way of representing numbers in the 70-99 range.

Seventy is soixante-dix in French, meaning “six times 10 plus 10,” while 80 uses 20 as an anchor and becomes quatre-vingts, meaning “four twenties” (or “four twenty,” depending on the context). And 90 is quatre vingt dix, meaning “four twenty ten.”

French is far from being alone in being quirky with its numerals. In German, numbers from 10 to 99 are expressed with the ones before the tens, but numbers over 100 switch back to saying the largest unit first.

Even in English, the fact that “twelve” is said instead of “ten two” hides the decimal rules at play. Such irregularities spread far beyond languages.

How bases shape learning and thought

Base-related oddities are spread out across the globe and have very real implications for how easily children learn what numbers are and how they interact with objects such as blocks, and for how efficiently adults manipulate notations.

For example, one study found that lack of base transparency slows down the acquisition of some numerical abilities in children, while another found similar negative effects on how quickly they learn how to count.

Another study found that children from base-transparent languages were quicker to use large blocks worth 10 units to represent larger numbers (for example, expressing 32 using three large blocs and two small ones) than children with base-related irregularities.

While Mandarin’s perfectly transparent decimal structure can simplify learning, a new research method suggests that children may find it easier to learn what numbers are if they are exposed to systems with compositional anchors that are smaller than 10.

In general, how we represent bases has very concrete cognitive implications, including how easily we can learn number systems and which types of systems will tend to be used in which contexts.

A group of people in white protective suits and head protectors stand in front of a robotic spacecraft — Technicians lower the Mars Climate Orbiter onto its work stand in the Spacecraft Assembly and Encapsulation Facility-2 in 1998.
(NASA)

At a cultural level, base representation influences our ability to collaborate with scientists across disciplines and across cultures. This was starkly illustrated by the infamous Mars Climate Orbiter incident, when a mix-up between metric and imperial units caused a $327 million spacecraft to crash into Mars in 1999.

Why understanding bases matters

Numeracy — the ability to understand and use numbers — is a crucial part of our modern lives. It has implications for our quality of life and for our ability to make informed decisions in domains like health and finances.

For example, being more familiar with numbers will influence how easily we can choose between retirement plans, how we consider trade-offs between side-effects and benefits when choosing between medications or how well we understand how probabilities apply to our investments.

And yet many struggle to learn what numbers are, with millions suffering from math anxiety. Developing better methods for helping people learn how to manipulate numbers can therefore help millions of people improve their lives.

Research on the cognitive and cultural implications of bases collected in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society journal can help make progress towards our understanding of how we think about numbers, marking an important step towards making numbers more accessible to everyone.

Jean-Charles Pelland’s work has been made possible by financial support from the ‘QUANTA: Evolution of Cognitive Tools for Quantification’ project, which has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 951388).

– ref. How number systems shape our thinking, and what this means for learning, language and culture – https://theconversation.com/how-number-systems-shape-our-thinking-and-what-this-means-for-learning-language-and-culture-268168

November 11, 2025

To survive today’s economy, university students are using circus-like tactics

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Alison Taylor, Professor, Department of Educational Studies, University of British Columbia

The skills “every student needs” for the 21st century include competencies in technology, problem solving and communication — and character qualities like adaptability and grit.

This is according to the World Economic Forum, but by now, we should be familiar with this kind of rhetoric. Think tanks, employers and policymakers amplify similar ideas around what graduates need to get good jobs and contribute to economic growth.

Such discourse and policy put pressure on universities to be more responsive to a labour market that is more precarious than the one faced by previous generations.

In turn, university students feel pressure to make the best decisions. It’s small wonder that more students are adjusting their study and career plans in efforts to secure their futures.

My recent book, Juggling Rhythms, frames university students’ diverse tactics (and survival skills) as “circus arts.” This way of examining student experiences is deeply informed by what I heard in interviews with students, and reveals aspects of their experiences that would not otherwise be apparent.

Working while studying full-time

I gained insight into these questions during a research study that I led between 2018 and 2023, which focused on undergraduate students who work while studying full-time at two research-intensive universities in Canada.

We approached this research aware of the plethora of advice for students to make themselves employable. We wondered: What do students themselves think? How are they feeling about their future careers — excited and eager, anxious and pessimistic or somewhere in between?

More than half of undergraduates engage in term-time work while studying and many pursue other forms of work-integrated learning as well.

Undergraduates are recognizing the importance of 21st century “circus arts” as they labour to learn in today’s economy, characterized by extreme wealth inequality, globalization and the dominance of multinational corporations.

Circus arts metaphors

The “circus arts” metaphors were sparked by qualitative research with 57 students at one university between 2020 and 2022. Our methods included focus group interviews, life maps, audio diaries and one-on-one follow-up interviews.

Of these 57 students, 39 identified as female, 40 were racialized, 16 were international and 17 were first-generation Canadian. They were enrolled in a range of programs across campus, many in the largest faculties of arts and science.

In my book, I consider how students are concerned with:

• How to manipulate different “objects” (juggling)

• How to adjust and recalibrate their activities and expectations (high-wire walking)

• How to learn their limits and bend in ways that don’t compromise care for self and others (contortion); and

• How to expend energy instrumentally and avoid burnout (sword swallowing).

Varying degrees of freedom and ease

Different students take up these “circus arts” in varied ways and degrees of freedom and ease. For instance, many students juggle more than paid work and studies.

Women are more likely to juggle volunteer work required for admission into feminized professional programs as well as care work in families. International students add the labour of acclimatizating to a new country with employment to offset disproportionately high tuition.

I observe that the art of high-wire walking tends to be less challenging for students who enter university with varied experiences and who have strong safety nets provided by families.

In contrast, financially insecure students, especially those who are racialized or live with disabilities, navigate more cautiously as they try to anticipate obstacles.

For example, one interviewee, Lucy, relayed how her disability required her to adjust studies and work when she was close to the point of burning out. First-generation student, Michael, had little room for error as he lived “paycheque to paycheque” on earnings from his retail job while pursuing full-time studies.

Costs of contortion and competition

Dominant discourses frame youth as autonomous, independent decision-makers who exhibit Gumby-like capacities to stretch and compress themselves into education and employment systems.

However, I observe that the “art of contortion” also involves discovering the costs of hyper-flexibility and limits on the ability to stretch in different directions.

For example, Kay came “pretty close to dropping out” because of mental health issues that were exacerbated by the competitive climate on campus. Fortunately, support from her parents and a sympathetic employer on campus helped her persevere.

Similarly, Janice, a racialized international student, compared her cohort to a “herd of lions trying to kill each other.” Her perception of steep competition for work placements coupled with her challenges to “fit in” to Canadian systems led to her realization that “there’s only so much we can take” and “you don’t have to take the path that every other person takes.”

Sword swallowing

Students learn their limits as they bump up against the rigidity of demanding education and employment systems and as they navigate family expectations.

Pressure to take on too much can be irresistible in a context where a bachelor’s credential is no longer seen as sufficient and the smorgasbord of extra-credential activities is dizzying.

The dangers of sword swallowing — which involves suppressing one’s natural defence mechanisms — are reflected in students’ comments about burnout, exhaustion and poor mental health.

For example, Helena’s disability meant that she was always playing “catch up” despite the long hours she put into her studies. When combined with a retail employer who wasn’t accommodating, she reflected, “my mental health isn’t that great” and “my personal battery is dead.”

Erosion of familiar pathways

Participants in the study perceived an imperative to be planful, employable and productive (what I call “PEP talk”) because of the erosion of familiar institutional pathways and institutional safety nets coupled with the uncertain value of university credentials.

What could universities do to reduce the time pressure on students who experience the most precarity? There are calls to tie universities even more closely to job markets: mandating work-integrated learning, adding micro-credentials and packing more into programs.

I’m not convinced these approaches will do the trick. Instead, I think we need to move away from universities trying to meet the demands of constantly shifting global labour markets by producing graduates who can “hit the ground running.”

Paradigm shift needed

A paradigm shift is needed for three main reasons. First, the timescale of universities is (and should be) longer than the economic quarter. Innovation and responsiveness to communities does not mean reacting to every report on business.

Second, everything is not up to universities. Employers must take more responsibility for creating rewarding and sustainable entry-level positions with training. This does not mean adding more unpaid internships.

Finally, more institutional supports are needed to create the space and time for students to decide who they aspire to be, explore possible directions for work and career and discover what they value (including things beyond economic returns on educational investments.

This could mean lower tuition, more financial support for financially insecure students and the equitable distribution of work opportunities on campus.

It also means instructors and researchers modelling the kind of patient and careful scholarship that will help us see our way forward in a complex and crisis-prone world.

Alison Taylor received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

– ref. To survive today’s economy, university students are using circus-like tactics – https://theconversation.com/to-survive-todays-economy-university-students-are-using-circus-like-tactics-264839

November 11, 2025

Why has Sudan descended into mass slaughter? The answer goes far beyond simple ethnic conflict

Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Justin Willis, Professor of History, Durham University

The recent capture of the western Sudanese city of El Fasher by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has been followed by allegations of appalling war crimes: massacres, looting and rapes.

There is much reason to believe the allegations from Sudan are credible. UN leaders and experts, most western governments and the International Criminal Court have acknowledged reports of the atrocities and condemned the killing of civilians as a potential war crimes.

Formerly a government-sponsored militia, since April 2023 the RSF has been at war with its former allies in the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF). Throughout its existence the RSF has been notorious for violence, and every RSF military success has been accompanied by gross violations of human rights.

Less credible are the claims of the RSF leader, Muhammad Hamdan Dagalo – better known in Sudan as Hemedti – who has promised to punish any of his followers found to be responsible for any of these atrocities.

Recent reporting of these terrible abuses has presented them as part of an ethnic conflict, with the RSF portrayed as an Arab militia murdering non-Arabs. There is much truth in this. But there are other drivers of the continuing violence in Sudan.

The RSF itself is the terrible creation of a history of state-driven violence, exclusion and opportunism in Sudan. Its origins are usually traced to the infamous Janjaweed, a militia drawn from Arab communities that was armed by the then president of Sudan, Omar al-Bashir, to suppress an insurgency in the region early in the 21st century.

In raising the Janjaweed, Bahir’s regime exploited tensions between Arabs and other communities in Darfur, a large region of western Sudan region of which El Fasher is the historical capital.

It was therefore tempting for audiences in North America and Europe to see the conflict – like the long-running war in what was then southern Sudan (now the independent country of South Sudan) in simple racial terms: Arabs against Africans. That narrative has given strength to the international campaign to end the violence in Darfur.

But that narrative was always a simplification, and certainly does not explain the current war. The RSF also has other origins.

It exploited a long-term sense of economic and political exclusion felt by people in Darfur – both Arabs and non-Arabs. It fed off and was partly funded by an international trade in livestock, gold and mercenaries that has thrived on the margins of a state whose leaders have ruthlessly used office to prey on their people.

And it arose in a political system that has rewarded those who seize office by violence, partly thanks to the meddling of external powers who seek political or economic gain by supporting rivals for power in Sudan.

Rise of Hemedti

Hemedti was a relatively minor figure in the Janjaweed. But Bashir created the RSF in 2013, under his leadership, as part of a complicated balancing of multiple militias and security agencies. These competing forces violently repressed challenges to the regime while keeping one another in check through their rivalry.

In 2019, that system broke down in the face of popular unrest in the regime’s political heartland, in central riverain Sudan – the area stretching along the Nile, roughly from Atbara, north of Khartoum to Wad Medani, about 85 miles to the southeast. This has been the economic centre of Sudan since colonial rule began.

Map of Sudan showing regions. — Sudan: power has traditionally been focused on the central region aroiund the Nile.
Peter Fitzgerald via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY

Bashir was toppled in a military coup and, after internal army power struggles, Lt Gen Abdel Fattah Burhan emerged as leader and named Hemedti as his deputy. The pair were key figures in the “transitional” government that was supposed to take Sudan back to civilian rule.

But they represented very different constituencies, in a way that demonstrates that Arab identity can take many forms. Affluent urban Arabs from Khartoum have often looked down on the nomadic lifestyle of the communities Hemedti and the RSF have mobilised and sometimes belittle them as “Chadian” on account of their ties to the wider Sahelian region.

Arabs from Darfur, such as Hemedti, can see themselves as long-term victims of what they call the “1956 state”. This is the political and economic system inherited from colonial rule, which favoured the riverain centre.

Both Hemedti and Burhan insist that they are fighting for all Sudan, and all Sudanese. Yet both have been entirely willing to appeal to ethnic and religious sentiment when it suits them. That has repeatedly added an extra, vicious dynamic to the conflict – from the recent massacres in El Fasher to the reported violence against people from South Sudan in Khartoum when SAF recaptured the city in March 2025.

The real reasons for the conflict

Ethnicity is not the basis of the conflict. This instead lies in an embedded culture of political violence, complicated by a shifting power balance between central and western Sudan and by international meddling.

Some Arab nations – particularly Egypt and Saudi Arabia – back the army. While the UAE’s enabling of RSF violence has been widely publicised, prominent African governments have also maintained ties with Hemedti.

Hemedti has also made alliances of convenience with groups such as SPLM-North Hilu, which principally draws support from the non-Arab communities in the southern Sudanese region of South Kordofan and, like Hemedti, aims to dismantle the “1956 state”.

For Sudanese observers, the tension between central and western Sudan is more recognisable. Both before and after his role in the 2023 ransacking of Khartoum, Hemedti has been compared with the Khalifa – the western Sudanese successor to Muhammad Ahmad al-Mahdi. It was al-Mahdi who defeated the British and the Egyptians to found the Mahdist state in the late 19th century.

Since the 1950s, those seeking to seize control of the Sudanese state have repeatedly mobilised support among disaffected groups in western Sudan – sometimes combining Arab and non-Arab communities, sometimes turning them against one another. Hemedti’s claims to represent the marginalised communities of the west are opportunistic and mendacious, but far from unprecedented.

This war is not a simple Arab-African conflict. But its viciousness reflects the willingness of both RSF and SAF to turn multiple societal fault lines into tools for mobilisation. They have created a context in which ethnic polarisation has been driven by wars for control of the state – rather than vice versa.

Justin Willis has previously received funding from the UK government, via the Rift Valley Institute, for research on elections in Sudan.

Willow Berridge receives funding from Peace and Conflict Resolution Evidence Platform (PeaceRep), funded by UK International Development from the UK government.

– ref. Why has Sudan descended into mass slaughter? The answer goes far beyond simple ethnic conflict – https://theconversation.com/why-has-sudan-descended-into-mass-slaughter-the-answer-goes-far-beyond-simple-ethnic-conflict-269293

November 11, 2025

Star-shaped cells make a molecule that can ‘rewire’ the brains of mice with Down syndrome – understanding how could lead to new treatments

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Ashley Brandebura, Assistant Professor of Neuroscience, University of Virginia

Astrocytes (red) are vital to forming neural connections. Jeffrey C. Smith Lab, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke/NIH

Delivering a connection-building protein to star-shaped cells in the brain could reverse changes to neural circuits seen in Down syndrome, according to new research my colleagues and I published in the journal Cell Reports.

Down syndrome is caused by an error in cell division during development. Individuals receive three copies of chromosome 21 instead of the typical two copies, resulting in duplicates of the genes encoded on chromosome 21. This trisomy leads to a multitude of changes to heart and immune function as well as neurodevelopmental impairments.

Changes to the structure of neurons in people with Down syndrome alter how they connect with each other. One major type of brain cell called astrocytes helps form connections between neurons. These star-shaped cells have many thin arms that extend into the spaces between neurons. They also secrete various proteins that are vital to forming the proper neural connections necessary for brain function.

Researchers have found that mouse models of several neurodevelopmental disorders, including Down syndrome, have altered levels of astrocyte proteins during development. My colleagues and I hypothesized that these changes might contribute to the changes in neural connections seen in Down syndrome. Could restoring the proper levels of some of these astrocyte proteins “rewire” the brain?

Identifying an astrocyte protein

First, we needed to pick a candidate astrocyte protein to test our hypothesis. A previous study had identified a list of astrocyte proteins that were altered in a mouse model of Down syndrome. We focused on proteins present in lower levels in Down syndrome astrocytes compared to astrocytes without the condition. We thought there might not be enough of these proteins available to help form neural connections.

Among the top 10 proteins we identified was a molecule called pleiotrophin, or Ptn. This protein is known to help guide axons – long extensions that neurons use to send information to each other – to their targets during development. So it made sense that it might also help neurons form the branching arms they use to receive information.

We found that mice unable to produce Ptn had neurons with fewer branching arms, similar to what we saw in mice with Down syndrome. This correlation implies that proper Ptn levels are necessary to affect neuron branching during brain development.

Restoring neurons in Down syndrome

Next, we wanted to know if delivering Ptn to astrocytes changes neural connections in mice with Down syndrome.

To answer that question, we packaged the gene for Ptn into a small virus with its replication genes removed. Called adeno-associated viruses, these tools allow researchers to deliver genetic material to specific targets in the body and are used for applications like gene therapy. We delivered the Ptn gene into astrocytes throughout the entire brain of adult mice with Down syndrome so we could evaluate its effects.

We focused on the visual cortex and the hippocampus, areas of the brain involved in vision and memory that are both critically affected in Down syndrome. After enhancing the ability of astrocytes to produce Ptn, we found that both regions recovered levels of neural branching density similar to those of mice without Down syndrome.

Two children sitting at a table coloring, one holding glasses aloft — Down syndrome can cause visual impairment.
yacobchuk/iStock via Getty Images Plus

Finally, we wanted to see if we could actually restore electrical activity levels in the hippocampus by increasing astrocyte Ptn levels. Measuring electrical activity can indicate whether neurons are functioning properly. After delivering the Ptn gene to the astrocytes of mice with Down syndrome, we found the electrical activity of their hippocampus restored to levels no different from mice without Down syndrome.

Together, our findings show that delivering Ptn to the astrocytes of mice can reverse changes to neuron structure and function seen in Down syndrome. While our findings are far from ready to be used in the clinic, more research could help us understand whether and how Ptn could help improve the health of human patients.

Rewiring the brain

More broadly, our findings suggest that astrocyte proteins have the potential to rewire the brain in other neurodevelopmental conditions.

Typically, adult brains have low plasticity, meaning they have a decreased capacity to form new connections between neurons. This means it can be difficult to change neural circuits in adults. Our hope is that further exploration on how astrocyte proteins can alter the adult brain could lead to new treatments for neurodevelopmental disorders like Fragile X syndrome or Rett syndrome, or to neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s disease.

Ashley Brandebura receives funding from NIH NINDS and NIA.

– ref. Star-shaped cells make a molecule that can ‘rewire’ the brains of mice with Down syndrome – understanding how could lead to new treatments – https://theconversation.com/star-shaped-cells-make-a-molecule-that-can-rewire-the-brains-of-mice-with-down-syndrome-understanding-how-could-lead-to-new-treatments-268739

November 11, 2025

Students of color are at greater risk for reading difficulties – even in kindergarten

Source: The Conversation – USA (3) – By Paul L. Morgan, Director, Institute for Social and Health Equity, University at Albany, State University of New York

The achievement gap for young readers is stark, even in kindergarten. andresr/E+ via Getty Images

Black, Hispanic and Native American students are more likely than white or Asian students to struggle with reading – and that gap emerges early, according to our new research. During kindergarten, they are more likely to score in the lowest 10% on assessments measuring skills such as letter recognition, vocabulary and recognizing common sight words. Large racial and ethnic differences in the risks for reading difficulties continue as students move through elementary school – a pattern largely explained by family income and early academic skills.

Our study, published online in November 2025 in the Journal of School Psychology, finds that about 15% of Black, Hispanic and Native American kindergartners score in the lowest 10% of reading scores, compared to 6% and 8% of white and Asian students, respectively. By fifth grade, 18%, 16% and 10% of Black, Hispanic and Native American students are struggling. The contrasting rate for white and Asian students is about 5%.

We analyzed data collected by the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics from 2010-2016. This data includes direct academic assessments as well as surveys of the students and their parents, teachers and school administrators.

We used standard statistical methods to explore how a wide range of factors across homes and schools – measured during kindergarten – helped explain whether students later experienced reading difficulties. A key factor, according to our analysis, is the family’s socioeconomic status: a measure including household income and parental education levels and occupations.

Kindergartners who struggled with initial reading, math and science skills, as well as more general learning abilities such as working memory, were also at higher risk for reading difficulties throughout elementary school.

Why it matters

U.S. elementary students’ reading achievement has been declining in recent years. The gap between the highest- and lowest-scoring readers is increasing too.

Supporting these children is important. Students who wrestle with reading are more likely to later experience anxiety and depression. Adults with reading difficulties are also more likely to be incarcerated and unemployed. In one study, for example, about half of Texas prisoners were poor readers.

Because our findings suggest Black, Hispanic and Native American students are at higher risk for reading difficulties by kindergarten, students from these groups may have greater needs for early reading interventions that provide extra help with phonics, vocabulary and reading fluency. Some of these students may also have unrecognized learning disabilities.

Yet students of color are less likely to be identified with disabilities, including dyslexia – even when the students are experiencing early and significant reading difficulties.

What still isn’t known

How economic and educational policies and practices can best help lower the risks of reading difficulties is poorly understood. There is some evidence that cash transfers to financially struggling families may increase children’s later reading achievement. Poverty is also associated with lower exposure to age-appropriate books and other early literacy materials and fewer opportunities to acquire a larger vocabulary.

Our longitudinal research adds to the very limited understanding of the early economic, environmental, cognitive, academic and behavioral factors that help shape elementary students’ reading abilities. Most other studies have focused on a single grade and examined a limited set of specific skills – such as how children process sounds – instead of multiple grades and a more general set of risk factors.

More research is needed to identify the full range of reasons why elementary students begin to struggle in reading and what can be done to best help them.

The Research Brief is a short take on interesting academic work.

Paul L. Morgan receives funding from the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and the Institute of Education Sciences.

Eric Hengyu Hu does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Students of color are at greater risk for reading difficulties – even in kindergarten – https://theconversation.com/students-of-color-are-at-greater-risk-for-reading-difficulties-even-in-kindergarten-249429

November 11, 2025

Remembrance Day: How the Canadian Armed Forces could help solve the youth employment crisis

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Ilona Dougherty, Managing Director, Youth & Innovation Project, University of Waterloo

Every year on Remembrance Day, I think about my grandfathers — my American grandfather who flew his Stinson L-5 along the coast of Burma and my Hungarian grandfather who fought in the Second World War.

I also reflect upon my grandmothers, one of whom used her language skills to translate for army officers and the other who suffered the loss of her first child while her husband was overseas.

These stories are often shared in our family as remembrances of young people who served and sacrificed during difficult times.

Buried deep in the Liberal government’s recently released 2025 budget is a line that is worth paying attention to: “Modernizing the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) enhances opportunities for youth to serve and lead.” With that one sentence, the federal government connected the dots between Canadian sovereignty, youth employment and youth service.

But if Canada hopes to see its current generation of young people thrive, it must ensure that youth employment and youth service programs are expanded.

The only way this will happen, given the investments outlined in the federal government’s budget, is if organizations dedicated to youth employment issues and youth service work closely together to ensure the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) figures out how to recruit and meaningfully retain young Canadians.

Paltry investments

As outlined in the budget, there is a clear commitment from Mark Carney’s Liberals to rebuild and reinvest in the CAF to protect Canadians and lead internationally. This commitment includes an investment of more than $9 billion in 2025-2026.

An important part of this rebuilding will require recruiting and retaining new members, which is being facilitated by a significant pay increase for the lowest paid recruits.

But as young people in Canada face the worst job market in more than a decade, which is only projected to worsen with the widespread adoption of AI, it was troubling that funding related to tackling youth unemployment was limited in this year’s budget.

The investment in Canada Summer Job placements, while up from the investment made in the 2024, was only brought back to pre-pandemic funding levels, not actually increased.

The Youth Employment and Skills Strategy investment in the budget was up slightly from 2025-2026, but down significantly from 2024-2025 and far below investments made in 2019-2020.

The only significant increase came with the investment in the Student Work Placement Program, which increased by more than $100 million per year.

The most generous read of investments in youth employment-related programs in the 2025 budget would suggest the government is investing approximately $220 million more per year. But this pales in comparison to the $20.4 billion over five years that the government has committed to investing in recruiting and retaining “a strong fighting force” for the CAF.

When it comes to youth service, supporting young people who are struggling to enter the job market — and providing them with opportunities to serve their communities — can be achieved in part through the Youth Climate Corps and the Canada Service Corps. Combined, their budgets represent a moderate increase in spending of about $20 million per year.

But it’s unclear whether the Canada Service Corps will receive additional funding in the future, parallel to the Youth Climate Corps funding, or whether it will be phased out and replaced.

Despite it being touted as a budget containing generational investments, the government has made minimal investments to seriously tackle the youth employment crisis in the 2025 budget.

Recruitment challenges

It’s no secret that recruiting and retaining new members is a significant challenge for the CAF. A 2025 Auditor General of Canada’s report outlines how the CAF is not recruiting and training enough candidates to meet its operational needs.

To make matters worse, even when a recruit does join, a recently leaked internal report suggests that many leave in frustration shortly after joining due to their inability to get trained and to secure roles within the CAF that they’re interested in.

Adding to this is the CAF’s well-documented issues with radicalization and hate speech, racial discrimination and sexual harassment. As an external monitor outlined in a recent report, “a culture that is largely misogynistic has created an environment that allows and sometime encourages unprofessional conduct to persist.”

Despite recent apologies and signs that things are changing for the better within the CAF, these issues make the institution unattractive for young Canadians even if they don’t feel as though they have any other employment options.

There is also the perception that joining the army means going into active combat. Around 65.2 per cent of CAF members ever deploy — and deploying doesn’t necessarily mean active combat. In fact, it can very often mean humanitarian missions either domestically or internationally.

Making the CAF attractive to youth

All of this presents a unique opportunity for Canadian policymakers.

There are many organizations in Canada working to tackle youth employment — and the CAF has just been given what can actually be called a generational investment. That investment could significantly enhance existing government initiatives aimed at addressing the youth employment crisis and preparing young people for the future of work.

For this to happen, youth employment and service organizations must leverage the government’s investment in the CAF to expand their impact. At the same time, the CAF will need to engage with civilian organizations that specialize in recruiting and supporting young people. CAF recruiters should adopt best practices in youth-focused recruitment, training and retention to ensure meaningful participation and long-term success.

Young people will only be attracted to and stay in the CAF if they feel valued, if they’re offered meaningful opportunities to contribute and if intergenerational collaboration is prioritized.

In a time of multiples crises, none of them can be viewed in isolation. Disparate groups need to work together to address their unique challenges.
Canadian young people have a lot to offer — they’re the most educated generation in Canadian history, they have the desire to make a difference, their brains are wired to be bold problem solvers and they have diverse and relevant lived experiences.

This is a generation Canada can’t afford to leave on the sidelines of its economy or in the fight for Canadian sovereignty.

Ilona Dougherty does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Remembrance Day: How the Canadian Armed Forces could help solve the youth employment crisis – https://theconversation.com/remembrance-day-how-the-canadian-armed-forces-could-help-solve-the-youth-employment-crisis-268433

November 11, 2025

Feel like you can’t get a job? You’re not alone — but here’s how to work around it

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Jason Walker, Program Director & Associate Professor Master of Psychology Health and Wellness & Master of Industrial-Organizational Psychology, Adler University

You did everything they told you to do. You earned the credentials, spent hours on your resume and revised multiple cover letters. You worked side gigs, volunteered, learned new software and perfected your LinkedIn profile. Yet, you can’t get a callback for an interview.

It’s as if your application vanished into the abyss of a company database, and the “thank you for applying” emails are piling up. So-called entry-level jobs now need years of experience, and junior roles expect postgraduate degrees.

You are likely wondering what you’re missing, but it’s not you — it’s the system. Across the United States, Canada and United Kingdom, automation now does the screening before a human ever has a look. Companies say they can’t find talent, yet many have stopped training people.

On paper, the labour market looks healthy, but in practice, it feels impossible to navigate. However, there are ways through it, backed by data and success stories. Here’s how to outsmart a system that seems to have forgotten the people part of hiring.

No one’s 20s and 30s look the same. You might be saving for a mortgage or just struggling to pay rent. You could be swiping dating apps, or trying to understand childcare. No matter your current challenges, our Quarter Life series has articles to share in the group chat, or just to remind you that you’re not alone.

Read more from Quarter Life:

A generation struggling to find work

Whether you’re in London, New York or Toronto, the pattern is the same: a generation of qualified people blocked from the job market, and companies insisting they can’t find talent.

In Canada, job vacancies have dropped by half from approximately 984,000 in 2022 to roughly 505,000 by mid-2025. Unemployment has skyrocketed to 7.1 per cent, the highest in the last four years.

In the U.S., a similar story rings true. Unemployment hovers around 4.1 per cent — what economists call “full employment,” but the reality behind the statistics is less than stable. Job openings have fallen dramatically since the post-pandemic peak from 12 million in 2022 to about 8.8 million this year. That means fewer employment opportunities and more qualified candidates competing for the same positions.

Among younger workers, unemployment stands at approximately 8.5 per cent, nearly double the national average. Over one-third of graduates are employed in jobs that don’t require their degree.

Across the Atlantic, approximately 12.5 per cent of young people in the U.K. are currently not in education, employment or training — the highest rate in more than a decade. The unemployment rate holds at 4.8 per cent.

The International Labour Organization estimates 262 million young people — nearly one in four — are outside both work and education. The jobs exist, but the access and opportunity don’t.

Entry-level jobs no longer exist

If it feels like getting hired is impossible, there’s a reason for that. The “entry-level job” is effectively dead — the bridge between education and work has literally vanished.

In the U.S., more than 65 per cent of employers are expecting “prior experience” for entry-level roles. Meanwhile, the OECD reports that corporate spending on education and training has stagnated across almost all advanced economies.

Employers want it all — the education, the certifications and the experience — but rarely invest in developing it. As I wrote recently in Forbes: “We’ve built a work culture that glorifies resilience while quietly producing exhaustion.”

That pressure now starts long before people even get an interview. Candidates are somehow expected to be flexible, adaptable and endlessly qualified even before they’ve earned their first paycheque.

The math doesn’t add up.

Automation has also made things worse. A recent Harvard Business School study found that 80 per cent of resumes are filtered out automatically before being read.

The National Bureau of Economic Research notes that time-to-hire has doubled since 2010, with most delays happening before human review. In other words, most candidates have lost before they ever enter the race.

5 ways to beat the modern job market

The new hiring landscape rewards strategy, not volume. Here are five evidence-based approaches that will increase your odds of breaking through the job search barriers:

1. Stop applying to everything, and start applying smarter.

Sending 100 resumes isn’t a strategy, nor is it productive. Refocus on 10 to 15 roles that align with your skills and expertise. Customization still matters: one study found tailored applications triple response rates.

2. Build proof, not promises.

Applications that provide real-world work examples are twice as likely to receive a callback for an interview, even if they don’t quite have all the competencies being asked for. You can achieve this by building a visible portfolio: think of a dashboard, a writing sample or anything that demonstrates what you can do.

3. Make the algorithm work for you.

Pay attention to the job descriptions, use the exact keywords, avoid columns and keep it simple — remember, AI isn’t looking for how fancy your resume looks. The same Harvard Business School report showed that formatting alone disqualifies thousands of strong applicants every day.

4. Bypass AI and talk to humans.

Your network will typically save you. Sixty to 70 per cent of hires happen through networking and direct referrals. Get on people’s radars by reaching out to peers and building your network.

5. Reframe career gaps.

Career breaks are not a risk nor an indicator of someone’s performance, but that’s often how employers see it. Flip the narrative by talking about the skills you gained during gaps, like a new certification or volunteering. Interestingly, non-linear career paths are the norm, not the exception, in every major economy today.

If you’re an employer, the way forward is also data-driven: start reinvesting in training, invest in mentorship and rethink what you need from a new employee.

OECD data shows that organizations offering early-career development gain measurable returns in productivity and retention within two years. The solution isn’t finding ready-made talent — it’s creating it.

We need to get back to being human. Many organizations are demanding to “do more with less” and complaining about lack of talent, but we have to remember that talent, like a fine wine, takes time.

The bottom line

The old rules — get the degree, work hard and wait your turn — no longer apply. Today, what actually matters isn’t how many jobs you apply to, but how clearly you can show your value and connect with people.

If you’re job hunting in 2025, don’t wait for a system to discover you. Instead, make it impossible to be ignored. Show your worth publicly, tangibly and confidently. Remember, although the screening process may be automated, hiring decisions are still made by humans.

The problem isn’t a lack of talent. It’s a lack of vision — from the systems that stopped looking for potential and started chasing perfection.

Jason Walker does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Feel like you can’t get a job? You’re not alone — but here’s how to work around it – https://theconversation.com/feel-like-you-cant-get-a-job-youre-not-alone-but-heres-how-to-work-around-it-268355

November 11, 2025

Under Ron DeSantis’ leadership, Florida leads the nation in executions in 2025

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Austin Sarat, William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science, Amherst College

Florida has executed 15 prisoners in 2025 so far, with two more executions scheduled for November. MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle via Getty Images

After years of steady decline in the number of people executed in the United States, there has been a sharp reversal in 2025.

So far this year, 41 people have been killed in 11 states, with five more executions scheduled before the end of the year.

If all the scheduled executions are carried out, that would make 2025 the year with the most executions since 2010, when 46 inmates were put to death. That year, Texas led the way with 17 executions, while Florida carried out only one.

But this year, the Sunshine State is leading the charge. Florida has executed 15 prisoners in 2025 – the most ever in a single year since 1976, when a brief national moratorium on the death penalty was lifted. Two of the five remaining executions scheduled for 2025 are set to happen in Florida. Texas and Alabama are tied for a distant second, with five executions each.

As someone who has studied the death penalty for decades, what is happening in Florida right now seems to me to be especially important. While in some ways the state is distinctive, in many others it is a microcosm of America’s death penalty system.

The history of the death penalty in Florida

According to the Death Penalty Information Center, Florida carried out its first execution in 1827, 18 years before it became a state.

Almost 100 years later, in 1923, Florida replaced hanging with the electric chair as its method of execution. After a brief pause in the use of capital punishment in the 1970s, it was one of the first states to get back in the death penalty business.

In the 1990s, the state had several gruesome botched electrocutions. In three cases, the condemned man caught on fire before dying in the chair. To this day, the electric chair remains legal in Florida, though in 2000 the state Legislature enacted a law whereby prisoners may choose between the electric chair and lethal injection.

Over the years, the U.S. Supreme Court has taken the state to task for various constitutional defects in its death penalty laws and practices. In its 1982 decision in Enmund v. Florida, the court ruled that Florida could not use the death penalty to punish people who were minor participants in a crime that led to a murder. And in 2014, the Supreme Court found that Florida was unconstitutionally denying the kind of intellectual disability claims by people with low IQ scores that made them ineligible to be given death sentences.

But these rulings have not stopped the state from continuing to go its own way in death penalty cases. In 2020, the Florida Supreme Court ended the practice of having a court review capital sentences. This review was meant to ensure that those sentences met the U.S. Constitution’s requirements that they be meted out only in cases that truly warrant them and that they be proportional. To determine proportionality, the court undertaking such a review would compare the case in front of them with similar cases in the same jurisdiction in which the death penalty had been imposed.

Then in 2023, Florida enacted legislation ending the requirement of jury unanimity in death cases. Now, it takes only eight out of 12 jurors to send someone to death row. Only three other death penalty states do not require jury unanimity. In Missouri and Indiana, a judge may decide if the jury’s decision isn’t unanimous, and in Alabama, a 10-2 decision is sufficient.

Racial inequality on death row

As in the rest of the country, racial discrimination has long been a feature of Florida’s death penalty system.

Thirty-five percent of the 278 people currently on Florida’s death row are Black. But Black people make up only about 17% of Florida’s overall population.

This is actually lower than the approximately 40% of inmates on death row who are Black nationwide, despite the fact that Black people make up just 14% of the U.S. population.

Across the nation, 13 of the 41 inmates executed so far in 2025 have been Black or Latino men.

Florida leads the nation in the number of people – 30 – who have been sentenced to death only to be exonerated later. Of those, 57% were Black.

A record-setting year

Today, Florida has the second-largest death row population in the United States, with 256 inmates awaiting executions. Only California has more, with 580 inmates on death row, but it has had a moratorium on executions since 2006.

As Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis is responsible for issuing death warrants. In 2025, he has signed a record-setting 15 so far. That’s the most death warrants in the state in a single year since 2014, when Gov. Rick Scott signed off on putting eight people to death.

Though he is Catholic, DeSantis does not subscribe to the church’s staunch opposition to the death penalty. The Florida Catholic Conference of Bishops has been outspoken in taking him to task for his position on capital punishment and for presiding over an execution spree. But that has not stopped him.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis standing on stage in front of a crowd of thousands — Critics of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, seen here speaking during the 2024 Republican National Convention, allege that his record-setting number of executions in 2025 is a bid for attention on the national political stage.
Matt Rourke/AP Photo

Indeed, on Nov. 3, 2025, the governor said that capital punishment is “an appropriate punishment for the worst offenders.” He added that it could be a “strong deterrent” if the state carried out executions more quickly.

DeSantis has served as governor since 2019, and prior to 2025, he had signed nine death warrants. He says that he was focused on other priorities early in his term and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The governor, who is term limited, is in his second and last term. DeSantis’ critics allege that the recent uptick in executions is an attempt to garner attention and prove his tough-on-crime bona fides to a national audience.

Florida: Setting the trend, or bucking it?

The total number of executions in the U.S. went from a high of 98 executions in 1999 to a low of 11 in 2021. But that number has increased every year since.

While only one state, Indiana, has resumed executions after a long hiatus, no other state has increased its use of the death penalty as quickly as Florida has. Elsewhere, the common pattern of allowing people to languish on death row for decades, and in some states seemingly permanently, has held.

And although the problems that have long plagued Florida’s death penalty system remain unaddressed, it now stands alone in dramatically escalating its own pace of executions and is leading America to its own 2025 execution revival.

Read more stories from The Conversation about Florida.

Austin Sarat does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Under Ron DeSantis’ leadership, Florida leads the nation in executions in 2025 – https://theconversation.com/under-ron-desantis-leadership-florida-leads-the-nation-in-executions-in-2025-269125

November 11, 2025

David Szalay’s Flesh wins the Booker prize – a deeply affecting novel about masculinity

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Tory Young, Associate Professor in Department of English Literature, Anglia Ruskin University

Canadian-born, Hungarian-British writer David Szalay has won the Booker prize for his novel, Flesh. It follows the eventful life of one Hungarian, István, from his teen years to middle age.

The novel begins when István, aged 15, and his mother move to a new town – “it’s not an easy age to do that”. Although he struggles to make friends, he hangs out with “another solitary individual” who asks him if he’s “ever done it”. This new friend sets him up with “a girl” but nothing happens. István is confused by this and his blank passivity sets the tone for the novel and his life.

Within only a few pages, an older woman neighbour for whom he’s undertaking chores at the behest of his mother, grooms him into a sexual relationship. It ends in tragedy when he falls in love with her and pushes her husband down the stairs, to his death.

Put crudely, István is motivated by sex and acts with violence. But this misrepresents the novel and its power. Rather than presenting a cliché of brute manhood, Szalay portrays a man who is simply responsive to the world around him. István’s emotions and tragedies are often left out of the third-person storytelling, as if they cannot be explained. Other men in the novel are equally uncommunicative.

It’s a propulsive novel that’s quite quick to read because sparse dialogue is interspersed with István’s blank thoughts. He responds to declarations of love and desire with a mere “OK” or acknowledgement that: “He hadn’t actually known what he was about to say.” This is what is so singular about the storytelling of Flesh; it is spare rather than voluptuous, trimmed to the bone rather than fleshy.

There are jumps between chapters. We don’t hear about István’s time in a young offenders’ institution or anything at all about his father, for example. But we learn during an exit interview from the army that he’s “a brave man” and it’s clear that he is attractive to women, who perhaps perceive his taciturnity as masculine. We don’t hear what they think either.

David Szalay wins the Booker prize 2025.

Flesh wouldn’t pass the Bechdel test – a criteria for films that stipulates they should feature at least two named women who have a conversation about something other than a man. The novel is entirely focused on István’s point of view and all the women, apart from his mother, are those he chances upon – other men’s wives, the nanny employed by the family he works for – and then has a sexual relationship with. Sex comes his way; women try and fail to get him to talk.

Good fortune arrives along with the tragedies. István moves to London, working as a bouncer until, in another chance encounter and moment of fearlessness, he helps a man who wishes to repay this act. He offers to employ him in his private security agency. Like the women in the novel, men are also eager to exploit István’s physicality. This man grooms him for “higher-end work”, by paying for expensive suits and the necessary training courses, which István finds populated half by “foreigners, mainly from Eastern Europe”. It’s the start of his ascent into wealthy, sometimes corrupt, London society.

“Flesh” then refers to the way István is seen, as only a body, a member of the new working classes whose lives are defined by precarity. Kept outside, overhearing only his bare responses – “OK” – readers become complicit in this failure to consider all that man is. And it is precisely this innovative, spare narration that makes the novel so deeply affecting.

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This article features references to books that have been included for editorial reasons, and may contain links to bookshop.org. If you click on one of the links and go on to buy something from bookshop.org The Conversation UK may earn a commission.

Tory Young does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. David Szalay’s Flesh wins the Booker prize – a deeply affecting novel about masculinity – https://theconversation.com/david-szalays-flesh-wins-the-booker-prize-a-deeply-affecting-novel-about-masculinity-269523

November 11, 2025

Jane Austen perfected the love story – but kept her own independence

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Anna Walker, Senior Arts + Culture Editor, The Conversation

Jane Austen’s Paper Trail is a podcast from The Conversation celebrating 250 years since Jane Austen’s birth. In each episode, we’ll be investigating a different aspect of Austen’s personality by interrogating one of her novels with leading Austen researchers. Along the way we’ll visit locations important to Austen to uncover a particular aspect of her life and the times she lived in. In episode 2, we look at Jane the romantic, through the pages of Pride and Prejudice.

Every heroine in a Jane Austen novel ends up married. It is the bow on the end of every story that ties up all the loose threads – seemingly the ultimate happy ending. However, while marriage is an conclusion she chose for her characters, it is not one she chose for herself.

Austen did have suitors – most famously the dashing Irishman Thomas Lefroy, with whom she had a brief but intense flirtation. There were even proposals, notably one in 1802 from Harris Bigg-Wither, the wealthy brother of a friend, which she accepted only to promptly break off the very next morning.

It seems likely that Austen chose singledom, even though she was clearly preoccupied with romance and marriage. Many readers consider her one of history’s greatest writers of romance.

That her novels centre on love and marriage has sometimes led critics to dismiss them as light or frivolous. But beneath every courtship and proposal lies a sharp commentary on class, money, morality and the limited choices available to women in Georgian England.

Austen’s heroines are smart, capable women – often more so than the men in their lives, many of whom have made choices that have left their families in financial straits. But these middle-class women are unable to work and so must pursue the only option really available to them, marriage.

Nowhere is this tension clearer than in Austen’s second novel, Pride and Prejudice. Published in 1813, it follows Elizabeth Bennet – bright, outspoken, and sceptical of society’s conventions. Unluckily for her, she has a mother who is obsessed with securing suitable marriages for her and her four sisters – an obsession that is sent into overdrive when the eligible Mr Bingley moves into the neighbourhood, bringing his arrogant but equally eligible friend Mr Darcy with him.

In the second episode of Jane Austen’s Paper Trail, as we explore romance in the world of Jane Austen, Naomi Joseph visits a Regency ball at the Grand Assembly Rooms in York with Meg Kobza. An expert in the Georgian social calendar, at Newcastle University, Kobza has produced similar recreations at the Bath Assembly Rooms – where Austen attended balls and was courted by several men.

As dancers in all manner of Regency dress attempt a minuet in the soft candlelight of the main ballroom, Kobza helps us understand the complicated relationship Austen had with romance.

Over the course of Pride and Prejudice, Lizzie, and the other women in her life, must navigate their feelings on the whole institution of marriage. There are marriages of convenience, potentially socially ruinous unions, hasty weddings, quiet passions and, of course, love matches – and Austen seems to have opinions on them all.

“Jane herself was dependent on her father and then later her brothers for financial security. And we see in many of her novels financial security is driving a lot of her heroines to opt for or against certain matches,” says Kobza. “If you didn’t get married at all, you became a spinster, you’re a burden to your family.”

Later on in the episode, Anna Walker takes a deeper dive into Austen’s view of romance in Pride and Prejudice with two more experts. Octavia Cox is a lecturer in 18th and 19th century literature at the University of Oxford, and founder of the popular YouTube channel All Things Classic Literature. Joining her round the table is Adam J. Smith, an associate professor in English literature at York, St. John University who researches satire and the gothic, romantic and sentimental genres.

As Cox explains, Pride and Prejudice is “a joyful love story in that the two central characters, Darcy and Lizzie talk about and value happiness and how to achieve happiness. But there’s a lot more going on too.” Smith agrees: “The more I read Austen, the more I feel that all of the books are really about how to read and understand and interpret the world.”

Listen to episode 2 of Jane Austen’s Paper Trail wherever you get your podcasts. If you’re craving more Austen, check out our Jane Austen 250 page for more expert articles celebrating the anniversary.

Disclosure statement:

Meg Kobza recieved funding from the Leverhulme Trust and the British Academy and the Society of Antiquaries funded the Bath fancy dress pop up ball and exhibition.

Adam J Smith sits on the Senate of the British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, which is a registered charity.

Octavia Cox does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Jane Austen’s Paper Trail is hosted by Anna Walker with reporting from Jane Wright and Naomi Joseph. Senior producer and sound designer is Eloise Stevens and the executive producer is Gemma Ware. Artwork by Alice Mason and Naomi Joseph.

Listen to The Conversation Weekly via any of the apps listed above, download it directly via our RSS feed or find out how else to listen here.

– ref. Jane Austen perfected the love story – but kept her own independence – https://theconversation.com/jane-austen-perfected-the-love-story-but-kept-her-own-independence-269048