Author: TheConversation

By Dudley L. Poston, Jr., Professor of Sociology, Texas A&M University The U.S. has just entered the new decade of the 2020s. What does our country look like today, and what will it look like 10 years from now, on Jan. 1, 2030? Which demographic groups in the U.S. will grow the most, and which groups will not grow as much, or maybe even decline in the next 10 years? I am a demographer and I have examined population data from the U.S. Census Bureau and from the Population Division of the United Nations. Projections show that whites will...

By Marty Swanbrow Becker, Associate Professor, Florida State University When college students seek help for a mental health issue on campus, something they are doing more often, the place they usually go is the college counseling center. But while the stigma of seeking mental health support has gone down, it has created a new problem: College counseling centers are now struggling to meet the increased demand. As a researcher who examines problems faced by college students in distress, I see a way to better support students’ mental health. In addition to offering individual counseling, colleges should also focus on...

By Klaus W. Larres, Richard M. Krasno Distinguished Professor; Adjunct Professor of the Curriculum in Peace, War and Defense, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill President Donald Trump’s policy toward Iran is in deep crisis. The president’s approach has the support neither of America’s allies nor of its strategic rivals, China and Russia. And his policy – made even more confrontational by the shooting of a high-ranking Iranian official – has boxed him into a situation where, short of dramatic reversal, Washington and Tehran are edging close to war. By failing to forge policies in cooperation with allies,...

By Brad R. Fulton, Assistant Professor, O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University The U.S. is becoming more racially diverse. Since 2010, 96% of all U.S. counties registered an increase in their percentage of nonwhite residents. Yet the people who lead nonprofits in the U.S. remain disproportionately white. This mismatch can make it difficult for such organizations to understand and address racial inequality in their community and throughout the country. As a scholar of diversity, I know most nonprofits want to become more racially diverse. However, many struggle to achieve this goal. While researchers, funders and community...

By Christine Leibbrand, Acting Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of Washington Where someone grows up is profoundly important for their life chances. It influences things like the schools they attend, the jobs, parks and community resources they have access to and the peers they interact with. Because of this comprehensive influence, one might conclude that where you grow up affects your ability to move up the residential ladder and into a better neighborhood than the one you grew up in. In a new study, my co-authors and I show that for many children, where they grow up is profoundly...

By Gordon Adams, Professor Emeritus, American University School of International Service The Washington Post has, after more than two years of investigation, revealed that senior foreign policy officials in the White House, State and Defense departments have known for some time that the U.S. intervention in Afghanistan was failing. Interview transcripts from the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, obtained by the Post after many lawsuits, show that for 18 years these same officials have told the public the intervention was succeeding. In other words, government officials have been lying. Few people are shocked. That’s a stark contrast to...