The University of Massachusetts Amherst

Category: Social inequality & justice

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Faculty Research Social inequality & justice

CPPA to Offer Online Course on Social Movements and Public Policy

Long before the Tea Party and Occupy dominated headlines and airwaves, protest was a fixed feature of American political and social life. Although social movements are often conceived as political outsiders, they play an influential role in the policy process and have increasingly become a common vehicle for social change. You can learn about how social movements influence public policy in a new online course offered this summer by the Center for Public Policy and Administration.

The course, “Social Movements and Public Policy,” will examine the dynamics of social movements by analyzing the conditions that shape their development and by exploring the ultimate impact that they have on politics and American society. It will be taught by Steven Boutcher, assistant professor of sociology and public policy.

“Social Movements and Public Policy” offers graduate and undergraduate students alike — plus continuing education students from any walk of life — the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the world in which we live, in a flexible and convenient online format. Boutcher has been researching social movements for almost a decade, giving particular attention to low-wage worker organizing campaigns and the mobilization of gay and lesbian rights advocates.

The course runs from July 8 to August 16. Enrollment opens March 18.

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Faculty Research Social inequality & justice

CPPA to Offer Online LGBT Policy Issues Course This Summer

As more and more states are legalizing gay marriage and the Supreme Court prepares to weigh in on the Defense of Marriage Act, the Center for Public Policy and Administration (CPPA) will offer this summer an innovative and timely online course about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender social science, public policy and law.

The course, “LGBT Social Science and Public Policy Issues,” is designed for those who want to learn about cutting-edge research and how it’s used in the policy world. It will be taught by CPPA Director M.V. Lee Badgett, an internationally recognized expert on the economics of same-sex marriage and other LGBT policy issues.

Badgett’s course will explore research from economics, psychology, political science, public health and sociology that relates to employment discrimination against LGBT people, LGBT parenting, the legal recognition of same-sex couples, and the process of social and policy change. She will also compare countries’ approaches to public policy and to collecting data on sexual orientation and gender identity. Research and policies studied will come from a variety of countries, including Canada, the Netherlands, France, Sweden, Norway, the United Kingdom and the U.S.

This distance learning course through the University of Massachusetts Amherst is an exciting and creative option for graduate and undergraduate students, as well as career professionals who are interested in studying laws and regulations having to do with LGBT issues. In particular, the three-credit course could be a great fit for:

  • Public policy students who want a specialized course in LGBT policy.
  • Advocates and activists who want access to the latest research and knowledge about how to use it.
  • Social science scholars and graduate students who want to see how research can affect public policy.
  • Lawyers and law students who want to understand the basics of social science research in this field.
  • Advanced undergraduates with backgrounds in the social sciences who are thinking about graduate studies related to law or public policy.

In addition to directing CPPA, Badgett is a professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and is the research director of the Williams Institute for Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy at UCLA. Her most recent book, When Gay People Get Married: What Happens When Societies Legalize Same-Sex Marriage, focuses on the U.S. and European experiences with marriage equality for same-sex couples. Badgett has testified on her work before Congress and many state legislatures, and she was an expert witness in California’s Prop 8 trial.

The course runs from May 20 to June 28. Enrollment opens March 18.

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Faculty Research Social inequality & justice

Badgett Participates in Same-Sex Marriage Talks Hosted by Vietnamese Government

Nations on every continent are considering whether to let same-sex couples marry or to have some other form of legal recognition. Vietnam is the most recent country to take up the issue. Last month, Vietnam’s Ministry of Justice and the United Nations Development Program invited CPPA Director Lee Badgett to Hanoi to give a keynote address at a workshop.

Badgett reports on her visit:
Formally, the ministry of justice is considering proposals for revisions of the country’s family and marriage laws, and they have a long list of topics they are considering. Somewhat to the surprise of many observers, same-sex couples are on the list.

The workshop was designed to bring together members of the local LGBT communities along with experts with knowledge of international human rights law and the international experience of countries that already recognize same sex couples. The Ministry of Justice explicitly wanted an evidence-based approach to thinking about the needs of same-sex couples and the consequences of legal recognition.

I spoke first on the harms of denying recognition to same sex couples, presenting evidence mainly from the United States. But that evidence was corroborated by the Vietnamese same-sex couples who spoke movingly about their relationships and the legal and practical challenges they faced. I also reported on the research that other scholars and I have done that shows that granting legal recognition has many positive effects on same-sex couples, such as greater feelings of social inclusion, health, and relationship commitment. No harm to the institution of marriage has been documented, and heterosexual couples continue to marry and have babies (an explicit concern of some attendees of the workshop).

The Ministry will make a proposal about recognizing same-sex couples to the National Assembly later this year.

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Care policy Grants Social inequality & justice

CPPA Faculty and Staff to Work on Collaborative Youth Sexual Justice Project

The Ford Foundation has just approved funding for a two-year $500,000 collaborative project, “Hear Our Stories: Diasporic Youth for Sexual Rights and Justice,” based at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and led by Aline Gubrium in the School of Public Health and Health Sciences and Elizabeth Krause in the Department of Anthropology. The competitive proposal was submitted in response to the Ford Foundation’s Sexuality Research Initiative, “Sexuality, Health and Rights Among Youth in the United States: Transforming Public Policy and Public Understanding Through Social Science Research.”

Gubrium was a participant in the Center for Public Policy and Administration’s 2009-2010 grants workshop, an interdisciplinary fellowship program aimed at helping social sciences and public policy faculty develop effective grant proposals. Krause is a CPPA faculty associate, and CPPA Director M.V. Lee Badgett and Associate Director for Communications Michal Lumsden will sit on the “Hear Our Stories” advisory board.

“Hear Our Stories” involves six local, state and national partners, including the Care Center in Holyoke, the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, the Center for Digital Storytelling, the Massachusetts Alliance on Teen Pregnancy, the Mauricio Gaston Institute for Latino Community Development and Public Policy at UMass Boston, and the Civil Liberties and Public Policy Program at Hampshire College.

The project uses new media and sensory ethnography to reveal how diasporic youth experience and negotiate sexual health disparities, and prioritizes uprooted young parenting Latinas, whose material conditions and cultural worlds have placed them in tenuous positions, both socially constructed and experientially embodied. The aim is to transform assumptions about young parenting Latinas through the novel use of digital storytelling to recalibrate the conversation on young motherhood and sexuality, health, and rights across generations.

Research, training and strategic communication components are included. Four Ford Ph.D. fellows, four masters-level students, and youth participants will all have opportunities to participate in these components toward the goal of using social science research methods and collaborating with partners to analyze and transform the problem-oriented, stigmatizing discourse on young motherhood and youth sexuality.

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Events Social inequality & justice

Bluestone to Talk about Equity and Economics

Barry Bluestone, director of the Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy at Northeastern University, will present a talk titled “Economy and Equity: Strategies for Cities and Massachusetts” on Tuesday, October 16, 2012, at 4:30 p.m. in Gordon Hall 302-304.

Bluestone is the dean of Northeastern’s School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs. He co-founded the Economic Policy Institute and currently writes a blog called “Economy and Equity” for Boston.com. Along with the late Bennett Harrison, Bluestone is the author of The Deindustrialization of America; The Great U-Turn: Corporate Restructuring and the Polarizing of America; and Growing Prosperity: The Battle for Growth with Equity in the Twenty-First Century. In 1995, he served as a special policy advisor to then House Democratic Leader Richard Gephardt.

Since the early 1970s, Bluestone has researched, taught and written about the political economy, labor economics, urban studies and labor relations. His blog aims to make readers think about the connections between the economy and public policy in Massachusetts and beyond.

This event is hosted by the Center for Public Policy and Administration, the hub of interdisciplinary public policy research, teaching and engagement at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The CPPA program is the 2011 recipient of the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration’s Social Equity Award, created to honor a public administration, affairs or policy program with a comprehensive approach to integrating social equity into its academic and practical work.

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Events Social inequality & justice

Feminist Majority’s Gandy to Serve as Fall 2012 Five College Social Justice Policy Resident

Later this month, long-time women’s rights advocate Kim Gandy will serve as the Five College Public Policy Initiative’s Fall 2012 Social Justice Practitioner-in-Residence. During her stay from Oct. 22 through Nov. 2, Gandy will participate in several public events throughout the Five College community.

Gandy is currently vice president and general counsel of the Feminist Majority Foundation and served as president of the National Organization for Women (NOW) from 2001 to 2009. During her presidency, she led NOW’s campaigns on issues ranging from Supreme Court nominations to the rights of women and caregivers, and from Social Security reform to ending the war in Iraq. In the legislative arena, Gandy helped draft two groundbreaking federal laws: the Civil Rights Act of 1991, which gave women the right to a jury trial in sex discrimination and harassment cases; and the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act.

Her residency this fall marks the second of the Social Justice Practitioner-in-Residence Program. This collaborative Five College project is housed administratively at the Center for Public Policy and Administration. It was created to offer Five College students and faculty opportunities to engage with and learn from individuals who have hands-on policymaking experience. By offering occasions to interact with those who have chosen lives of service, the residency program helps students imagine careers of their own that might advance the common good.

In addition to the public events listed below, Gandy will speak at several classes and participate in some informal workshops during her residency. For a full list of Gandy’s events that are open to the public, click here.

The Five College Public Policy Initiative aims to enhance collaboration among Five College faculty and students who are interested in curricula, research and outreach related to public policy. The residency program was made possible by a generous grant from Five Colleges, Incorporated.

CPPA is the hub of interdisciplinary public policy research, teaching and engagement at UMass Amherst. Its faculty and alumni are effective policy leaders, from the local to the global levels, in addressing topics such as family and care policy, environmental issues, emerging technologies, social inequalities and governance. The CPPA program is the 2011 recipient of the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration’s Social Equity Award, created to honor a public administration, affairs or policy program with a comprehensive approach to integrating social equity into its academic and practical work.

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Environmental policy Events Social inequality & justice

Van Jones to Speak about Social, Environmental and Economic Justice

Van Jones, a prominent environmental advocate and civil rights activist, will speak at the University of Massachusetts Amherst on Thursday, October 18, at 7:30 p.m. in Mahar Auditorium.

His talk will focus on his new book, Rebuild the Dream, and will be followed by a book signing. This event is free and open to the public, but seating is limited, so tickets are required. For ticket information, click here.

In 2009 President Barack Obama appointed Jones as the green jobs advisor to the White House. While there, Jones helped to oversee $80 billion in green energy recovery spending. He had also been instrumental in the passage of the Green Jobs Act, signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2007.

Jones is currently the president and co-founder of Rebuild the Dream, a platform for bottom-up, people- powered innovations to help fix the U.S. economy. In Rolling Stone magazine, he was recently named one of 12 Leaders Who Get Things Done.

Jones’ visit to UMass was initiated by Dr. Andrea Kandel, a UMass alumna who now directs the National Conference for Community and Justice (NCCJ), a nonprofit that fights bias, bigotry and racism in the U.S. According to Kandel, “NCCJ has long wanted to bring Van Jones to this area. His ability to energize young people around issues of social justice is incredible.”

Ezra Small, director of the UMass Campus Sustainability Initiative and another organizer of the event, notes that Van Jones “is a globally recognized pioneer when it comes to a clean energy economy. I’m excited that the Five College community has the chance to hear him speak.”

Other co-sponsors of the talk are Hampshire College, Mount Holyoke College, Five Colleges, Inc., and at UMass, the Department of Economics, the Department of Political Science, the Labor Center, the Political Economy Research Institute, Social Thought and Political Economy, Workplace Learning and Development, and the Center for Public Policy and Administration.

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Events Social inequality & justice

Badgett to Speak on LGBT Diversity Policies in U.S. Workplaces

M.V. Lee Badgett will kick off the Five College Queer and Sexuality Studies Lecture Series on Tuesday, September 25 at 4:30 p.m. She will present a talk titled “Assessing the Case for Diversity: The Value for LGBT Workers and for Employers.” The lecture will take place at the UMass Stonewall Center, located in Crampton Hall.

Badgett, director of the Center for Public Policy and Administration and professor of economics, is an internationally recognized authority on civil rights protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. Last June she testified before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in favor of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. Using research and statistics, Badgett showed that lesbian, gay and bisexual people are nearly as likely to file discrimination complaints as those already protected by federal anti-bias laws.

In her lecture next week, Badgett will make the case for diversity policies related to LGBT workers in the United States by considering perspectives from two different groups: employers and employees. More specifically, she will explore whether policies that promote diversity help the corporate bottom line and how such policies affect employees.

This lecture series marks the launch of the Five College Queer and Sexuality Studies undergraduate certificate program.

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Events Social inequality & justice

The Honorable Madeleine Kunin to Speak about Next Phase of Women’s Progress

UMass alumna Madeleine M. Kunin (’56) will speak about her latest book, The New Feminist Agenda: Defining the Next Revolution for Women, Work and Family, on Sept. 18 at 5 p.m. in Gordon Hall 302-304.

Kunin served as governor of Vermont from 1985 to 1991, and during the Clinton administration was deputy secretary of education, then ambassador to Switzerland and Lichtenstein. She is now a Marsh professor of political science at the University of Vermont and is a commentator on Vermont Public Radio.

In The New Feminist Agenda, Kunin highlights the advancements that feminists made in the 1960s and 1970s and shows how those have allowed for improved rights and freedom for women in the United States today: Women now comprise nearly 60 percent of college undergraduates and half of all medical and law students. Most women today work outside the home, and families with two wage earners are the norm. While women have changed, though, social structures surrounding work and family have remained static. Affordable, high-quality childcare, paid family leave, and equal pay for equal work are still out of reach for most women.

Kunin — the first woman governor of Vermont and the only female in U.S. history to be elected governor three times — believes it’s time to usher in a new social revolution that will make it possible for all women to move forward. By examining five decades of women’s history in the United States and the current state of women’s rights in other countries, Kunin looks ahead at what will be possible when women and men together demand government and workplace reforms that will improve the lives of women and their families.

A reception and book signing will follow Kunin’s talk.

This event is hosted by the Center for Public Policy and Administration (CPPA) and co-sponsored by the Center for Research on Families; the Five College Women’s Studies Research Center; Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies at UMass Amherst; and MotherWoman.

CPPA is the hub of interdisciplinary public policy research, teaching and engagement at UMass Amherst. Its faculty and alumni are effective policy leaders, from the local to the global levels, in addressing topics such as family and care policy, environmental issues, emerging technologies, social inequalities and governance. The CPPA program is the 2011 recipient of the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration’s Social Equity Award, created to honor a public administration, affairs or policy program with a comprehensive approach to integrating social equity into its academic and practical work.

Categories
Faculty Research Social inequality & justice

Badgett Testifies in Favor of Federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act

Badgett with Democratic Sen. Merkley of Oregon.

CPPA Director M.V. Lee Badgett told the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee today that Congress should pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act because lesbian, gay and bisexual people are nearly as likely to file discrimination complaints as those already protected by federal anti-bias laws.

Badgett was one of five witnesses who provided the Senate committee with testimony related to the proposed bill, which would ban discrimination in hiring and other employment decisions based on sexual orientation and gender identity. During her testimony, Badgett cited multiple reports and statistics showing that “sexual orientation discrimination results in economic harm to LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender] people, reducing their earnings by thousands of dollars.”

She pointed to a 2008 study examining workplace discrimination complaints filed between 1999 and 2007 in the 20 states that prohibit employment discrimination based on sexual orientation. In the study, Badgett and her co-authors showed that 4.7 per 10,000 lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) people in those states filed workplace discrimination complaints, while 5.4 per 10,000 women and 6.5 per 10,000 people of color filed complaints.

“In other words, LGB people are about as likely to file discrimination complaints as are people in groups that are currently protected against discrimination under federal law,” Badgett said.

She also countered a common critique of nondiscrimination legislation by arguing that policies prohibiting workplace bias can actually benefit the company. When employees feel more comfortable and valued at work, Badgett said, they are more likely to be fully invested in their jobs, will generally have less anxiety and therefore will be more productive. In fact, 86 percent of the Fortune 500 companies have nondiscrimination policies that include sexual orientation.

In addition to Badgett’s roles at UMass, she serves as research director at the Williams Institute of Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy at UCLA. She was an expert witness during California’s Proposition 8 trial, which examined the constitutionality of that state’s 2008 ballot initiative banning same-sex marriage.