The University of Massachusetts Amherst
Categories
Events Social inequality & justice

Panel Discussion: Integrating Social Justice Work into Careers

On Monday, March 28th, the CPPA Diversity & Social Justice Committee hosted a special panel discussion on integrating social justice work into careers in public policy and administration. The event started at noon and took place in Thompson 620.

The panel members represented a variety of interests in both the nonprofit and public sectors. Among them were the following:

  • Emily Mew, CPPA alumna ’09, Program and Development Coordinator, Hogar Luceros del Amanecer, The Sunrise Foundation, Camoapa, Nicaragua. Ms. Mew has experience applying CPPA training in community-based nonprofit international work. Her current organization focuses on working with disadvantaged children.
  • Laura Valdiviezo, Ed.D, Assistant Professor, School of Education, UMass. Professor Valdiviezo conducts work on reforming schools as loci of change for social justice, especially through multicultural education and diversity, and the political role of educators in informing policy making.
  • Jen Berman, Executive Director, Maverick Lloyd Foundation. Ms. Berman has seventeen years experience in social change and public policy advocacy work. She currently leads an organization in collaborative efforts for policy change in renewable energy and death penalty abolition.

This panel was designed to assist all UMass students thinking about careers related to social justice work, and was especially relevant for first-year students enrolled in this year’s Professional Development Seminar, led by Satu Zoller and Rachel Trafford ’11.

This was a brown bag lunch event and was open to the public.

Categories
Faculty Research

Five Colleges, Inc., Grant Launches New Policy Practitioner Residency Program

A grant from the Five Colleges consortium will establish a residency program that brings in experienced public policy practitioners over the next two years to support the learning and research goals of Five College students and faculty. A group of 22 collaborating faculty from UMass, Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke and Smith colleges developed the successful proposal. The award will be centrally administered by the UMass Center for Public Policy and Administration (CPPA).

“I am excited by the opportunities this grant presents,” notes CPPA director M.V. Lee Badgett. “Public policy is an important focus in over 300 Five College courses. Visiting residents—nationally-recognized experts from government, think tanks, NGOs—will bring experience that touches many area faculty and students.”

According to the group’s proposal, another goal of the residency program is to help establish long-term collaborations among Five College public policy faculty, “develop[ing] the kinds of shared goals and working relationships that have launched other successful Five College committees, councils, and programs.”

Beginning with the fall of 2011, the new program will support one policy practitioner per semester who spends up to two weeks in the Pioneer Valley giving public talks, meeting with students, working with faculty on curricular issues, assisting with new research initiatives, or helping to develop new internship opportunities for students.

A steering committee composed of faculty from all five colleges will help to identify and select the residents, soliciting nominations from area colleagues and others. Residents might include current legislators or directors of national or international nonprofits, policymakers who have recently retired or left public office, and alumni who have distinguished themselves through public service.

Practitioners who are expert in many areas of public policy—ranging from environmental policy to economic policies related to the recent fiscal crisis—will be considered as potential residents, but all those considered will have an interest in advancing social justice through their policy work.

For updates about the new Five College policy practitioner-in-residence program, visit www.masspolicy.org.

Categories
Events Faculty Research Policy Viewpoints

Mednicoff Interviewed on Libya, Speaks on International Democracy

Assistant professor of public policy and acting director of the Social Thought and Political Economy program David Mednicoff is interviewed by The Republican and by WWLP-TV 22 News on the conflict in Libya.

Mednicoff says accusations that Moammar Gadhafi ordered the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988 fit in with his generally unpredictable behavior over the years, and that Gadhafi justified his rule over Libya based on anti-western and anti-colonial sentiments. “If the regime falls, I think we are going to see a lot more very specific evidence of what happened,” he said.

In addition to his comments on Libya and the general unrest in the area, Mednicoff was a guest on the public affairs television show “CrossTalk” on February 12th. He and the other guests discussed efforts by the U.S. government to promote democracy in other countries and why this sometimes produces negative policy outcomes. Check out the video at Russia Today.

Categories
Faculty Research Policy Viewpoints Social inequality & justice

Budig Interviewed About Paid Maternity Leave

Michelle Budig, professor of sociology and CPPA faculty associate, comments in a story about efforts to pass legislation that would grant federal workers four weeks of paid leave to care for newly born children. Researchers say the U.S. is one of just three nations out of 181 that don’t have such a benefit. Budig says a significant reason for earnings gaps between men and women is this lack of maternity leave.

Check out the article at Bloomberg.com and Bloomberg Businessweek.

Categories
Policy Viewpoints

Folbre Writes on Ethics in Economics, Italian Feminism

Nancy Folbre, UMass professor of economics and CPPA faculty associate, recently discussed the need for economists to maintain a high level of ethics when commenting on the current economic situation and to avoid situations where they fail to reveal conflicts of interest. Folbre also writes a column in the Economix blog about the protests in Italy of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s personal behavior and news of his dalliance with an underage young woman. She says those who protest this behavior are standing up for women’s dignity and the credibility of their country’s future prospects.

Listen to Folbre’s commentary on ethics in economics at Marketplace (NPR), and read her column on the empowerment of Italian women here.

Categories
Events Science, technology & society

Philip Howard Talks on “The Digital Origins of Democracy”

Phil Howard, associate professor of communication at the University of Washington, will speak about “The Digital Origins of Democracy: Information Technology and Political Islam” on Friday, March 25, at 12:00 p.m. in Gordon Hall 303-304. The talk is open to the public and is cosponsored by the Department of Political Science; the Science, Technology, and Society Initiative; the Law, Societies and Global Justice Initiative; and the Center for Public Policy and Administration.

Howard’s talk will draw on fieldwork that he conducted in Egypt, Tajikistan and Tanzania to better understand how new information technologies are shaping democratization in countries with large Muslim populations. According to Howard, one in ten Internet users today is a Muslim living in a populous Muslim community, and many young people are developing their political identities—including a transnational Muslim identity—online.

Although technologies such as mobile phones and the World Wide Web are increasingly prevalent in Muslim countries, have they significantly advanced democratization there? Howard will address this important question through his research findings, and also talk about the potential of technology diffusion for producing rapid future democratization.

Phil Howard directs the World Information Access Project and the Project on Information Technology and Political Islam. His book, The Digital Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy, was released by Oxford University Press in 2010. His 2006 book, New Media Campaigns and the Managed Citizen (Cambridge University Press), about the use of digital technologies to manipulate U.S. public opinion, was awarded the 2007 CITASA Best Book prize from the American Sociological Association and the 2008 Best Book prize from the International Communication Association.

Howard has been a Fellow at the Pew Internet and American Life Project in Washington, D.C., the Stanhope Centre for Communications Policy Research in London, and the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences in Palo Alto, CA. He earned a master’s degree from the London School of Economics and his doctorate from Northwestern University.

For additional or updated information about this event, please visit News and Events at www.umass.edu/polsci or www.masspolicy.org.

Categories
Public Engagement Project

Public Engagement Website Launched!

A new website offering resources for faculty interested in greater public engagement is now available at www.masspolicy.org/pep. The site, parts of which are still under construction, currently includes information about the Public Engagement Project’s mission and steering committee, “pearls of wisdom” from previous workshops and panels, and an upcoming events calendar. Additional resources for faculty who want their research to make a difference in the world will be added in the coming months.

The Public Engagement Project is jointly sponsored by the Center for Research on Families (CRF), the Center for Public Policy and Administration (CPPA), the Department of Sociology, and the Psychology of Peace and Violence Program in the Department of
Psychology.

Content for the website is being developed by a steering committee composed of faculty and staff from these programs. Luke Johnson, a dual MBA/MPPA student at UMass who is assisting with the Public Engagement Project, designed and currently maintains the site. Jessica Lee, an undergraduate work study student at CPPA, provided technical support during the website’s launch.

Please visit the Public Engagement Project website frequently for updates, including information about the next PEP event on April 14 (a panel titled “In the Heat of the Moment: Staying on Message Amidst Controversy”) and a half-day workshop on effective public engagement preceding the 15th Berkshire Conference on the History of Women on June 9.

Categories
Uncategorized

Jesse Rhodes to Discuss Intersections Between Social Policy and Parental Involvement

Jesse Rhodes, assistant professor of political science, will discuss “Do Social Policies Shape Parental Behavior? Receipt of Means-Tested Social Policies and Parental Involvement in Education,” on Monday, March 7, at 12:00 p.m. in Thompson Hall 620.  The talk is part of the Center for Public Policy and Administration’s 2011 Spring Faculty Colloquium and is open to the public.

Rhodes’ talk will draw on his recent research concerning parents who receive food stamps, participate in programs such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), or have children enrolled in Head Start.  Rhodes is interested in whether and how participation in these means-tested programs affects parents’ involvement in their children’s education.

Rhodes joined the UMass faculty after receiving his doctorate from the University of Virginia in 2008.  His major scholarly interest is social policy, and he currently is completing a book on the political development of educational policy in the U.S. since the 1980s (forthcoming, Cornell University Press).

In addition to his research on parental involvement in means-tested social programs, Rhodes’ launched another project recently that draws on nationally representative survey data to investigate how education accountability policies affect citizenship.

Rhodes also has completed research on political parties and the American presidency, and teaches courses on these subjects as well as on American social policy in comparative perspective.  He was a Pi Sigma Alpha Distinguished Professor of the Year in 2009-2010.

For additional or updated information about this event, please visit www.masspolicy.org.

Categories
Faculty Research Policy Viewpoints Public Engagement Project

Badgett Featured at Brown University Forum on Same-Sex Marriage

CPPA director M.V. Lee Badgett drew laughs when she opened her remarks at a recent debate on legalizing same-sex marriage in Rhode Island, noting “I’ve been outed as an economist.”  Extending marriage privileges to gay and lesbian couples is currently an important policy issue in Rhode Island.  For additional information about the debate, please see the article in the February 20, 2011, issue of The Providence Journal by Edward Fitzpatrick.

Categories
Events

Educate!’s Eric Glustrom to speak on founding an African NGO

Eric Glustrom, founder and executive director of Educate!, will discuss “Changing Lives, Transforming Communities: On Founding an African NGO,” on Tuesday, March 1, at 4:00 p.m. on Gordon Hall’s 3rd floor. The talk is sponsored by the UMass Center for Public Policy and Administration and is open to the public.

Educate!, an organization that helps to empower the youth of Uganda to create change in their own communities, has its origins in a trip Glustrom made to Africa in 2002 when he was a high school junior. Recognizing the critical educational needs of Ugandans his own age, he launched a scholarship program that supported recipients to attend high school.

Educate! has now grown to include a two-year social enterprise program that equips high school students to create financially sustainable enterprises that support the common good. Recently, the government of Uganda and the United Nations International Labour Organization (ILO) asked Educate! to create a social entrepreneurship curriculum that will reach 100,000 high school students throughout the country.

In this talk, Glustrom will discuss his experience founding and directing a socially progressive nonprofit in one of the world’s poorest countries, and how he developed an effective model that combines classroom experience with external mentoring, leadership development, and the creation of social enterprises.

Eric Glustrom graduated from Amherst College in 2007 with a degree in biochemistry and is also a “Do Something” award winner. For more information about Glustrom and Educate!, visit their website or view this YouTube video.