The fight over polling policy: Making it easier to vote does not threaten election integrity
By Douglas R. Hess, Assistant Professor of Political Science/Policy Studies, Grinnell College As state legislators consider hundreds of bills on election policies this spring, false claims of voter fraud are being repeated as justification for proposals to claw back...
Emil Kapaun’s spiritual heroism: Vatican advances Korean War chaplain closer to Sainthood
By Joanne M. Pierce, Professor of Religious Studies, College of the Holy Cross At the end of a small cemetery on the campus of the College of the Holy Cross, the Jesuit college where I teach, is the grave of Joseph O’Callahan, former professor of mathematics....
Jacob Blake files federal civil lawsuit against the Kenosha police officer who shot him in the back
Jacob Blake, the Black man who was shot seven times in the back last summer by a Kenosha police officer, has filed a federal civil lawsuit against the officer. Kenosha County District Attorney Michael Graveley announced in January he wouldn’t charge any of the...
Proposed overhaul of immigration laws would finally reunite families divided by deportation
By Robert McKee Irwin, Deputy Director, Global Migration Center, University of California, Davis Hundreds of thousands of immigrant families have been separated by deportation from the United States, in many cases with a parent on one side of the border and children...
A tool for social change: How photography demonstrated the dignity of the Black experience
By Samantha Hill, 2019 – 2021 Joyce Bock Fellow at the William L. Clements Library at the University of Michigan and current graduate student at U-M School of Information, University of Michigan; and Janette Greenwood, Professor of History, Clark University...
New documents reveal meatpacking industry fought against implementing minimal COVID-19 safeguards
Documents obtained from the United States Department of Agriculture by the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen and published on March 4 reveal how leading players in the meatpacking industry, one of the hardest-hit by the coronavirus pandemic, fought the minimal...
The Broken American Dream: Less upward mobility and a ladder of opportunity that is much harder to climb
The United States has long prided itself as being an exceptionally fluid society with respect to social class and economic mobility. The American Dream holds that anyone who works hard can achieve economic success – perhaps even rise from rags to riches. Underlying...
“Going to Hell” for more than 200 years: Every generation has been pessimistic about America’s future
By Maurizio Valsania, Professor of American History, Università di Torino Pessimism looms large in America today. It is not just because of Donald Trump’s legacy as the vicar of fear and violence. It is COVID-19, a faltering economy, racial tensions, the growing...
Seeking Justice: History shows that civility is an ineffective tool to end racism
During his inauguration address on Jan. 21, 2021, Joe Biden pledged to end the country’s “uncivil war,” which had been raging during the four years of Trump’s presidency. Especially when it came to race, the theme of Biden’s winning campaign, “Redeem the Soul of the...
Awareness campaign highlights domestic violence programs designed to help vulnerable communities
By Edgar Mendez • Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service Domestic violence incidents in Milwaukee and elsewhere have spiked during the pandemic, spurred in part by increased stress levels and by lockdown measures that trapped victims at home with their abusers. Some seek...
Leaving despair behind: Why holding on to hope is hard even with the end of the pandemic in sight
By Rachel Hadas, Professor of English, Rutgers University – Newark As we begin to glimpse what might be the beginning of the end of the pandemic, what does hope mean? It’s hard not to sense the presence of hope, but how do we think of it? Hope is fragile but...
Food Apartheid: How urban planning helped create institutionalized food insecurity for people of color
By Julian Agyeman, Professor of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning, Tufts University Hunger is not evenly spread across the U.S., nor within its cities. Even in the the richest parts of urban America there are pockets of deep food insecurity, and more often...
