California’s Mono Lake, pictured in August 2014. BY KAREN PIPERProfessor of postcolonial studies in English and adjunct professor in geography at the University of Missouri The solution to California’s drought is simple: stop shipping water to China. Farmers, who use 80% of the state’s water, ship crops containing “virtual water” (the water used to grow … More On California’s Water-Free Future
Simplican, pictured here with her brother, discusses the range of diversity in people with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). BY STACY CLIFFORD SIMPLICANPostdoctoral fellow, Michigan State University Today is World Autism Awareness and Acceptance Day. The organization Autism Speaks is promoting a “Light It Up Blue” campaign to encourage individuals and whole cities to go “blue” … More Autism Awareness Day 2015: Adding "acceptance" and "alliance" into conversations about autism.
Two men in handshake during San Francisco Marriage March with banner, “We all deserve the freedom to marry.” Photo from Creative Commons. BY AMY L. STONEAssistant professor of sociology at Trinity University in San Antonio For about six months I’ve considered writing an update to Gay Rights at the Ballot Box, my book on the … More Goodbye, Marriage Bans. Hello, Duggars.
What if the movement for climate change joined forceswith the movement for a nuclear-free planet?Image via Flickr/public domain license. BY SHAMPA BISWASPaul Garrett Professor of Political Science at Whitman College A recent opinion piece in the New York Times made an interesting observation by juxtaposing two prominent social movements of our times. The piece pointed … More A sustainable planet is a nuclear-free planet.
BY RYAN R. THORESON In October 1994, a group of U.S. activists led by Rodney Wilson, a teacher in Missouri, created LGBT History Month. Adopting a strategy pioneered with Black History Month in the 1970s and Women’s History Month in the 1980s, the activists launched the project as a way to ensure the varied and … More LGBT History Month: A look at behind-the-scenes groundwork that leads to the headline-grabbing victories.
Click here to download the graphic version of this article. This week is World Water Week in Stockholm, where more than 200 organizations are convening to discuss global water and development issues. In light of this event, we wanted to take the opportunity to feature a new book that responds to these same issues and … More Explore the frightening landscape where water and thirst are political, and drought is a business opportunity.
BY DAVID NAGUIB PELLOWAuthor of Total Liberation and professor and Don A. Martindale Endowed Chair of Sociology at the University of Minnesota The concept of total liberation stems from a determination to understand and combat all forms of inequality and oppression. It is comprised of four pillars: an ethic of justice and anti-oppression inclusive of … More Understanding inequality—across ecosystems, species, and human populations.
Lisa Leitz was one of approximately 300 members of Military Families Speak Out in attendance at a September 24, 2005, protest in Washington, D.C., organized by United for Peace and Justice and ANSWER. The groups estimate that up to 500,000 protesters were in attendance. BY LISA LEITZAssistant professor of sociology and director of Project Pericles … More For military families, the battle for inner peace during deployment is hard-fought.
President Jimmy Carter with Walter Mondale before departing for Guadalupeon Jan. 4, 1979. Photo from the National Archives and Records Administration. The University of Minnesota Press has released in a new paperback edition The Good Fight: A Life in Liberal Politics, by former U.S. senator from Minnesota and former vice president of the United States, … More "This is not, perhaps, the homily that most Americans will expect from me." —Walter Mondale
Photograph by the author. BY ANNIKA HINZEAssistant professor of political science at Fordham University Identity is an incredibly complex concept. Each and every one of us is shaped by a myriad of different identities—individual and personal identities, such as the sports and foods that we like, and group identities, which can be related to different … More Space, identity, and Turkish Berlin
