Crime and Due Process: Two Scenes Connected in the Dylann Roof Case
Dave Gillespie — On June 17, 2015 Dylann Roof murdered nine African American parishioners at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South [...]
Culture and Society
Inequality of Disclosure: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Tony Platt — In 2010, Rebecca Skloot was a little known science journalist on the faculty at the University of Memphis when her first book The Immortal Life of [...]
A Christian Border Patrol Agent’s Reflection on The Border Wall
Ellin Jimmerson — Now that Donald Trump has been elected president, immigration as a topic of Christian concern has re-surfaced—or, in some cases, simply surfaced. My [...]
Bring Back the Buckaroo: Or “Shane, Shane, Come Back!”
Charles Cottle — When I was young there were heroes. They were on TV, in the comic books, and at the movies. It was the 1950’s, the heyday of the cowboy western. [...]
Reflections on Fake News
Jeff Berger — Recently I read an article by Sharon Noguchi in my local newspaper, the San Jose Mercury, about teachers helping students to distinguish between fake news [...]
The Sheriff of the Park
Les Guliasi — Point Isabel is the largest off-leash dog park in the country. The two sections of the 53 acre park are divided by Hoffman channel and connected by a [...]
Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City
Bob Bates — Sociologist Matthew Desmond’s widely acclaimed book Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City (2016), a study of the city of Milwaukee, pounds [...]
My Day on Jury Duty for a Death Penalty Case
Jeff Berger — Last October I was called to jury duty. When the judge announced what the case was about, I felt a chill go down my spine. It was a well-known [...]
The Dylann Roof Trial: First-Hand Reflections and Assessment
Dave Gillespie — The verdict came in around mid-afternoon Thursday, December 15, just a couple of hours after the lawyers completed their closing statements and the [...]
America’s Four Gods
Ron Berger — Cross-national studies indicate that Americans report one of the highest levels of belief in God in the world. A recent Gallup Poll conducted in May-June [...]
Those Neighbors
DeWitt Clinton — Most people I see I don’t know. I can sit down on a public bench and not say a word to the guy sitting next to me, as he’s busy scrolling or [...]
Policing, Profiling, and Crime
Ron Berger and Marvin Free — In the current presidential campaign, Donald Trump has positioned himself as the “law and order” candidate and an advocate of [...]
What Research Says about Immigration and Crime
Ron Berger — In July 2015 the murder of Kate Steinle in San Francisco by illegal immigrant Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez reignited political discussions about the link [...]
Disability in Society: Four Public Agendas
Ron Berger — I am a sociologist by training and have been thinking about and studying disability as a social phenomenon, not just as an individual experience, for many [...]
Dining with the Colonel – No. 39
Charles Cottle — Snow was falling and I was tired. I was returning home to Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin after a day of teaching at the university. It was 5:30 in the [...]
The Emperor Has No Balls: Are the Trump Statues Body Shaming or Legitimate Political Commentary?
Ellin Jimmerson — Last Thursday, something unusual happened in America. In a country uncomfortable with both political discussions and art which is not decorative, we [...]
Twenty-five Selfies in the Raphael Room
David Gillespie — It was Monday, June 20. This year. Celebrating a milestone wedding anniversary, we were in Rome. This would be a day for touring the Vatican under the [...]
Reflections on Elie Wiesel and the Legacy of Holocaust Survivors
Ron Berger — Last month Elie Wiesel passed away at the age of 87 years. The death of the author of Night, one of the most widely read memoirs of the Holocaust, as well [...]
Mexican Immigrant Rights in California
Jeff Berger — Outside of California, I don’t think people are aware of the progress the state is making on immigration reform. Recently the Santa Cruz Sentinel [...]
