Scientists still don't fully understand why and how insomnia strikes. But how we talk about the condition may be found in the works of those who first wrestled with the disorder frankly and openly: the poets of England's Romantic era.

As mass demonstrations continue to erupt across Iran after the death of Mahsa Amini, 19th-century journals of Iranian women reveal a 'hidden resistance' to authority. Safaneh Mohaghegh Neyshabouri studied these journals and observed how small acts of resistance can give root to massive social upheaval.

Sexual assault victims in Medieval England faced some of the same types of challenges as they would today, says a researcher who studied 28 rape trials from 800 years ago. 

Retired army captain Cheng Xu left his 10 year military career to seek answers to a vexing question: how is it that some insurgencies turn violent and spiral into seemingly chaotic and unending horror, while others achieve their objectives and resolve with relative peace and speed?

It's a relic deemed so taboo, the Vatican threatened excommunication to anyone who spoke of it. But for nearly 1,000 years before that, the 'holy foreskin' of Jesus Christ was widely considered to be the holiest of relics. IDEAS examines the story of an unlikely object of devotion.

The prison system amplifies and perpetuates the systemic disadvantages that incarcerated women are up against, argues University of Ottawa PhD student Rachel Fayter. She was incarcerated for more than three years and draws from her experience in jail to inform her ‘groundbreaking’ research into the resilience of criminalized women.

York University PhD student and master fencer, Aaron Miedema has been researching over 300 cases of duels from the 16th and 17th century. Turns out there are lessons for us from 500 years ago which may prove useful in today's climate of public blaming and shaming.

Under the eyes of the law, animals that live in our homes or on a farm are ‘property.' But there's a growing movement to grant some animals like chimpanzees, elephants and dolphins 'non-human persons' status. Harvard Law School doctoral candidate Jessica Eisen thinks the law could do even better than that.

PhD graduate Laura Hare taught herself Biblical Hebrew so she could analyze male and female speech patterns in the original text of the Hebrew Bible (or Old Testament). She found the women characters consistently using language that shows deference to men. The only female biblical character who fully speaks ‘like a man’ also became an archetype of evil — Queen Jezebel.

PhD student Mei Lan Fang's parents survived the Cultural Revolution and immigrated to Canada with dreams of settling in a country where human rights are protected and social mobility is possible. After years of financial struggle in Vancouver, the family verged on homelessness. Mei uses her family's own experience of migration from China to help her understand the life struggles of Vancouver's marginalized seniors in a virtually impossible housing market.

Call out for submissions. We want to turn your PhD research into a 54-minute Ideas episode. It would be part of our regular feature on the program called "Ideas from the Trenches."

Canada's history of suppressing Black activism is coming to light like never before, thanks to researchers like PhD student Wendell Adjetey. Wendell's historical research uncovers evidence of clandestine government surveillance in the 20th century, while also bringing to life overlooked parts of this history.

There’s a purity to music. It takes us into its own world, far removed from frustrations and challenges of daily life. But hidden within those innocent-sounding musical flourishes, there often lies a history of passionate disagreement.

Canada’s celebration of its 150th birthday has provoked a lot of mixed feelings. When Canada was created, the government was committed to eradicating the First Nations people who occupied the land for thousands of years—a fact we now acknowledge but have barely begun to reckon with.

Lorena Fontaine is battling to revive aboriginal languages -- languages that have been quashed and brought to the brink of extinction by Canada's residential school system. She is completing her PhD at the University of Manitoba, and argues that Canadian Indigenous communities have a legal right to the survival of language. For her, it's a race against time that must not be lost.