Social Studies
MN

Discoveries

New and exciting research from CLA researchers.

Driven To Want the Tough Conversations

Psychologist Richard Lee says parents have the tendency to sit back and wait for their children to bring up issues of race and ethnicity when they’re older, but kids can sense that hesitancy, and the conversations can happen too late or not at all.

Discovery: Gender-based Violence against Men in Darfur

U of M sociologist Gabrielle Ferrales and alumni Hollie Nyseth Brehm and Suzy McElrath author new study on sexual violence against men and boys in the Rwandan genocide. “Although this violence is in some ways about physical domination, it is primarily meant to symbolically dominate and denigrate both the victims and surviving community members,” writes J. Sigru Wahutu.

Effects of Gender and Ethnicity on Workplace Charitable Giving

A collaborative study between the Center for the Study of the Individual and Society and the Carlson School of Management considers the links between workplace diversity and efforts toward corporate social responsibility.

There's Research on That! Refugees and Social Instability

A research roundup of social science on the motives and meanings of migration highlights work from U of M sociologist Cawo Abdi.

Does Africa Need a New Green Revolution to Fight Hunger?

“Green Revolution” is the label for concerted initiatives to increase agricultural production and prevent hunger and starvation in major regions of the world. Earlier efforts transformed agriculture in Mexico, India, and the Philippines – by facilitating the use of new technologies and commercial seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides to produce high-yield cereal grains. In 2006 two of the world’s largest foundations, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation, joined forces to launch the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa.

How Climate Change Is Influencing Birth Weight in Africa

In the United States, we know everything about our domestic agriculture thanks to the USDA and agricultural monitoring. But not all countries have the luxury of these programs, which is a challenge for Assistant Professor Kathryn Grace, who studies how varying climates impact poor women and families in Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso, Africa. She…

Same-Sex, Different Attitudes

In a now-classic white paper, sociologist Kathy Hull asks how and why American public opinion about marriage equality evolved so quickly: “It’s not a case of older people with more conservative beliefs dying out and being replaced by younger, more liberal generations. Rather, this kind of rapid shift suggests some individuals are changing their minds on the issue.”