New & Noteworthy

Our latest Discovery, summarizing recent academic article publications, by Emma Goldstein highlights a recent study by Annika Pinch and colleagues which found that while BeReal initially encouraged authenticity through time-limited, unedited photo sharing, users gradually began to game the system by delaying posts and retaking images to appear more curated.

This week’s Clippings from Mallory Harrington includes:

• Tom Juravich examines how the residential construction industry has undergone a “race-to-the-bottom” since the Great Recession, with contractors increasingly offloading work to subcontractors and misclassifying employees to cut costs in a recent The New York Times piece.
• Christian Smith argues that traditional religion in America hasn’t just declined—it’s become culturally obsolete. In his new book Why Religion Went Obsolete, Smith explores how shifts in social life have rendered organized faith less relevant, even as some individuals continue to find it personally meaningful, featured in Religion News Service, and picked up by The Salt Lake Tribune.
• Paul Starr and Nancy Foner analyze Trump’s historically high support among Hispanic voters, arguing that some Hispanics identify with the white mainstream and are drawn to conservative cultural values, in a recent The New York Times opinion piece.
• Justin Farrell in GQ explored how the ultra-wealthy are remaking the American West by purchasing rural land and building exclusive ski clubs, all while adopting the aesthetics of working-class life.
• Arlie Russell Hochschild in Nonviolence Radio maps an “anti-shaming ritual” at the heart of Trump’s appeal, where public transgressions are followed by backlash, victimization, and emotional identification from his supporters.

From the Archives

• As the Trump Administration continues intentions to slash education funding, this 2013 piece from the Scholars Strategy Network archives underscores how financial investment in schools directly shapes outcomes—especially for the most marginalized students.

• Prices of a variety of grocery items are expected to increase if President Trump’s proposed 10% tariffs are implemented. In 2019, Allison Nobles surveyed the state of the research and found that poor Americans tend to spend a greater portion of their income on essentials like housing and food.

• RFK reported that the government has launched a research effort to identify the cause of “the autism epidemic,” with the goal of eliminating the “exposures” he believes are behind the condition in a short timeline. This piece from 2019 covers research on the social factors that contribute to increased recognition and diagnosis of autism, as well as the ways autism is differently understood across cultures.

More from our Partners & Community Pages

Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies

• Fort Snelling and the Long History of Deportations from Minnesota by Joe Eggers provides context around the detention of a U of M student by ICE and the ongoing legacy of deportation at Fort Snelling, a site historically tied to the forced removal of Dakota people of Minnesota.

Council on Contemporary Families

• Leave Laws Support Equity by Jeff Hayes and H. Elizabeth Peters write on how aid family and medical leave policies reduce inequality and support working caregivers, but access remains uneven, especially for low-wage workers, people of color, and those needing eldercare.