- The Washington Post ran an article on older adults with cognitive impairment or dementia who live alone in the United States. Elena Portacolone (Professor at the Institute for Health and Aging at the University of California at San Francisco) describes that the health-care system assumes that these older adults have family caregivers. “I realized this is a largely invisible population [that is] destined to fall through the cracks,” she said.
- Matthew Desmond (Professor of Sociology at Princeton University) wrote an article for the New York Review describing steps the next presidential administration can take to solve the housing crisis in the United States. Desmond argues for prioritizing programs that provide immediate relief to homeless individuals and people with precarious housing. Next, the administration can work to restore existing dilapidated housing, reform restrictive zoning laws, and build new housing.
- Research from Sanné Mestrom (Senior Lecturer in Visual Arts at Sydney College of the Arts) and Indigo Willing (Visiting Fellow in the Sydney Social Sciences and Humanities Advanced Research Centre at the University of Sydney) examines how public art and skateboarding culture can come together in the form of skatable structures to encourage urban play and create welcoming public spaces. “If you think about the contemporary urban sport infrastructure that exists today, what comes to mind may be something quite brutalist and intimidating in form; for example, a concrete playground with no colour, garden or areas for parents to sit,” Willing said. “Our research shows that well-designed public spaces can promote opportunity and act as a bridge between diverse cultures and perspectives.” This story was covered by Arts Hub and the University of Sydney News.
- Ilana M. Horwitz (Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies at Tulane University) wrote an article for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency on Jewish Americans’ varied responses to and support of the Black Lives Matter movement. Horwitz describes that Jewish Americans with different political and religious affiliations had differing views of issues of race and discrimination in the U.S., as well as different conceptions of fairness and justice.
- New research from Ángel Escamilla García (Assistant Professor of Sociology at Yale University) illuminates the difficult choices young migrants from Central America to the United States make to minimize their chances of deportation. Escamilla García found that young migrants learn about U.S. immigration law through conversations with other migrants, consultations with lawyers at migrant shelters, and through social media. “They would assess how they thought the laws would affect their cases, which led them to make decisions that were risky but aimed at enhancing their chances of gaining legal status in the United States,” Escamilla García explained. This story was covered by Yale News.
