Politics and Social Change Commons^™

Red Drops For A Rainbow, Zakiya A. Brown

SURGE

Splashes of pool water licked my ankles, scenting my coffee-colored toes with chlorine. Bareback guardians, robed in red, hovered high as flocks of fleshy tangible innocence skipped jubilantly across the pool deck and disappeared into a wet square pocket of sapphire. [excerpt of poem]

Fearless: Professor Janet Powers And Linnea Goebel, Janet M. Powers, Linnea C. Goebel

SURGE

This week we would like to recognize Professor Janet Powers and recent graduate Linnea Goebel ’13 for their work in Bosnia this summer helping to set up a group of female embroiderers with an Amazon Marketplace account to sell their wares on the internet. [excerpt]

Take My People To The Top, Nadejiah Z. Towns

SURGE

“…but what I really want to do is help the black people, especially the young black girls…” Did she just say that? Wait, can she say that? Is she wrong for feeling that way? I wonder how other people would feel it they knew she felt this way? So many questions began to run through my mind, but my reaction? I just sat there, nodding. Her body language told me even she knew there was something controversial about what she was saying. Not to mention that she whispered it, you know, the old hand over the mouth gesture. [excerpt …

The Scholars' Initiative, Charles Ingrao

Purdue Policy Research Institute (PPRI) Policy Briefs

The Scholars’ Initiative addresses the need to break the cycle of nationalist discourse that perpetuates divisions between ethnic groups by (1) creating a common narrative that discredits proprietary myths, while validating “inconvenient facts” that must be acknowledged before mutual recognition and reconciliation can begin, and (2) enlisting regional media and political leaders to acknowledge (and hopefully) endorse) the existence of a common account co-authored by their own scholars.

Support Strategies For Asian American Women Leaders In Massachusetts, Lisa Wong

Support Strategies for Asian American Women Leaders in Massachusetts

The election and appointment of Asian American women to positions in Massachusetts and on the federal level suggest that the face of public leadership is changing. Recent successes for Asian American women in electoral politics provide a unique opportunity to build the pipeline of Asian American women in Massachusetts politics. This research project aimed to identify strategies to increase the number of Asian American women elected to political office in Massachusetts.

Civically Engaged Mothers Of Color And The Challenges Of Political Leadership, Sheneal Parker

Civically Engaged Mothers of Color and the Challenges of Political Leadership

While the ranks of women serving in public office and other political leadership positions are growing, women of color continue to represent a relatively small proportion of elected and other public officials in the United States. Sheneal centered her study on civically engaged mothers of color given that there is limited scholarship available on women of color who are mothers and politically active in their communities. Sheneal wanted to deepen our understanding of the barriers mothers of color face in entering and sustaining a political career.

Her study sought to better understand and analyze:

• How civically engaged mothers of color …

Civically Engaged Mothers Of Color And The Challenges Of Political Leadership [Presentation], Sheneal Parker

Civically Engaged Mothers of Color and the Challenges of Political Leadership

While the ranks of women serving in public office and other political leadership positions are growing, women of color continue to represent a relatively small proportion of elected and other public officials in the United States. Sheneal centered her study on civically engaged mothers of color given that there is limited scholarship available on women of color who are mothers and politically active in their communities. Sheneal wanted to deepen our understanding of the barriers mothers of color face in entering and sustaining a political career.

This is a presentation by Parker on her research process and project findings.

Latina Pathways To Political Leadership In Massachusetts [Presentation], Elizabeth Cardona

Latina Pathways to Political Leadership

Elizabeth’s research aimed to explore pathways to leadership for Latinas who are change agents residing in Western Massachusetts. Recognizing the significance of culture, family and community in her own personal journey, Elizabeth wanted to document and analyze key factors that helped Latina leaders find a voice and play a political role in their communities.

This is a presentation by Cardona on her research process and project findings.

Western Massachusetts And Campaigns: Women Of Color Running For Office [Presentation], Gladys Lebrón-Martínez

Western Massachusetts and Campaigns: Women of Color Running for Office

While attending a Women’s Pipeline for Change event in Boston during the summer of 2011, Gladys was inspired by the large number of women of color who came out to support other women of color in politics. This prompted her to document and analyze the resources that exist and are utilized by women of color, especially Latinas, running for elected office in Western Massachusetts.

This is a presentation by Lebrón-Martínez on her research process and project findings.

Political Motivations Of Women Of Color Leaders: Existing Challenges, Martina Cruz

Political Motivations of Women of Color Leaders: Existing Challenges

Women of color are underrepresented in political office at multiple levels of government, from school committees to governorships nationwide. Women of color who are active in their communities have important qualities, perspectives, and experiences that are necessary in public policymaking settings that affect their communities. Yet many women of color who are well-known and respected in their communities do not seek elective office.

Martina sought to better understand factors that discourage women of color leaders from running for political office. Her project is important as it seeks to inform strategies to encourage more women of color in Massachusetts to run …

Dynamics Of Civil Resistance In Oceania, Thomas Dick, Jason Mcleod, Luke Johnston

Thomas Dick

The Dynamics of Civil Resistance (DOCR), is a not-for-profit popular education and cultural development programme in Oceania. We work in collaboration with churches, human rights organisations, traditional leaders, women leaders, youth and student groups and community organisations to establish a network of indigenous educators who can resource nonviolent social movements and democratic transitions.

DOCR has developed out of programs that originated in 2005, in response to requests from Papuan human rights activists (Rayfield and Morello 2012). The purpose of the Project is to build their capacity of activists and artists working nonviolently for a just and sustainable peace in the …

Western Massachusetts And Campaigns: Women Of Color Running For Office, Gladys Lebrón-Martínez

Western Massachusetts and Campaigns: Women of Color Running for Office

While attending a Women’s Pipeline for Change event in Boston during the summer of 2011, Gladys was inspired by the large number of women of color who came out to support other women of color in politics. This prompted her to document and analyze the resources that exist and are utilized by women of color, especially Latinas, running for elected office in Western Massachusetts.

Latina Pathways To Political Leadership, Elizabeth Cardona

Latina Pathways to Political Leadership

Elizabeth’s research aimed to explore pathways to leadership for Latinas who are change agents residing in Western Massachusetts. Recognizing the significance of culture, family and community in her own personal journey, Elizabeth wanted to document and analyze key factors that helped Latina leaders find a voice and play a political role in their communities.

Political Motivations Of Women Of Color Leaders: Existing Challenges [Presentation], Martina Cruz

Political Motivations of Women of Color Leaders: Existing Challenges

Women of color are underrepresented in political office at multiple levels of government, from school committees to governorships nationwide. Women of color who are active in their communities have important qualities, perspectives, and experiences that are necessary in public policymaking settings that affect their communities. Yet many women of color who are well-known and respected in their communities do not seek elective office.

Martina sought to better understand factors that discourage women of color leaders from running for political office. Her project is important as it seeks to inform strategies to encourage more women of color in Massachusetts to run …

Who We Are: Incarcerated Students And The New Prison Literature, 1995-2010, Reilly Hannah N. Lorastein

Honors Projects

This project focuses on American prison writings from the late 1990s to the 2000s. Much has been written about American prison intellectuals such as Malcolm X, George Jackson, Eldridge Cleaver, and Angela Davis, who wrote as active participants in black and brown freedom movements in the United States. However the new prison literature that has emerged over the past two decades through higher education programs within prisons has received little to no attention. This study provides a more nuanced view of the steadily growing silent population in the United States through close readings of Openline, an inter-disciplinary journal featuring …

Journalism In A Pr World, Michael I. Niman Ph.D.

Michael I Niman Ph.D.

Mike Niman discusses the future of journalism in a PR-dominated communication environment. In particular, he examines the migration of talent from journalism to the PR industry, the collapse of mainstream journalism and the role of an emergent alternative media as American journalism goes through metamorphosis from what it was to what it could become. Journalism is a social good that should equip people to understand and resist spin. Niman argues that mainstream American journalism, rather than rising to this challenge, has transparently succumbed to serving as an arm of the corporate PR industry, thus laying the groundwork for its own …

Journalism In A Pr World, Michael I. Niman Ph.D.

Michael I Niman Ph.D.

Mike Niman discusses the future of journalism in a PR-dominated communication environment. In particular, he examines the migration of talent from journalism to the PR industry, the collapse of mainstream journalism and the role of an emergent alternative media as American journalism goes through metamorphosis from what it was to what it could become. Journalism is a social good that should equip people to understand and resist spin. Niman argues that mainstream American journalism, rather than rising to this challenge, has transparently succumbed to serving as an arm of the corporate PR industry, thus laying the groundwork for its own …

Slaves To Contradictions: 13 Myths That Sustained Slavery, Wilson Huhn

Akron Law Faculty Publications

People have a fundamental need to think of themselves as “good people.” To achieve this we tell each other stories – we create myths – about ourselves and our society. These myths may be true or they may be false. The more discordant a myth is with reality, the more difficult it is to convince people to embrace it. In such cases to sustain the illusion of truth it may be necessary to develop an entire mythology – an integrated web of mutually supporting stories. This paper explores the system of myths that sustained the institution of slavery in the …

Slaves To Contradictions: 13 Myths That Sustained Slavery, Wilson Huhn

Wilson R. Huhn

People have a fundamental need to think of themselves as “good people.” To achieve this we tell each other stories – we create myths – about ourselves and our society. These myths may be true or they may be false. The more discordant a myth is with reality, the more difficult it is to convince people to embrace it. In such cases to sustain the illusion of truth it may be necessary to develop an entire mythology – an integrated web of mutually supporting stories. This paper explores the system of myths that sustained the institution of slavery in the …