Category: Uncategorized

Massachusetts saw an alarming rise in antisemitic incidents in 2022, a surge that outpaced increases in both New England and the United States, placing the state among the top six for antisemitic activity in the country, according to a new report by the Anti-Defamation League.

This week, The Wall Street Journal published a survey showing steep declines since 1998 in the shares of Americans who said patriotism and religion were very important to them. There were also big declines in the value placed on having children and being involved in the community.

In America, the demographic circumstances of a child’s birth substantially shape academic success. Sociologists have spent decades studying how factors beyond students’ control – including the race, wealth and ZIP code of their parents – affect their educational opportunities and achievement.

With the unprecedented threat to reproductive care posed by Justice Samuel Alito’s draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, more and more women, particularly those from low-income backgrounds, could find themselves having to put their educations on pause to provide for a child.

I spend a lot of time thinking about the future of higher education and the future of religion. Many people—and for a long time, I was one of them—see these as separate entities. In non-sectarian universities like Tulane, it is acceptable to teach students about different religious traditions (commonly via a comparative religion course), or to engage with religion in spaces like Hillel or the Catholic Center, but it seems less appropriate for professors to talk with students about how their religious perspectives influence their educational experiences more broadly. However, my research on American teenagers and their families tells me that it is often difficult to separate learning and religion, especially in the classroom. In fact, when we try to separate them, we are doing a disservice to students and to higher education institutions. We’re also ignoring how people learn.

American men are dropping out of college in alarming numbers. A slew of articles over the past year depict a generation of men who feel lost, detached and lacking in male role models. This sense of despair is especially acute among working-class men, fewer than one in five of whom completes college.

Educational attainment has begun to divide our society, distinguishing those who can anticipate long, healthy lives from those who cannot. Americans with a bachelor’s degree have more job opportunities, more economic security, better health, and longer lives. Because our education system is deeply stratified by social class (i.e., socioeconomic status [SES]), it is clear that not everyone has an equal chance of enjoying the benefits that come from attending college. Here is just one example of how much social class matters: People from the top SES quartile are about four times as likely to obtain a bachelor’s degree as people from the bottom SES quartile (62% vs. 13%).

With birthday celebrations being downsized, religious services moving back online and indoor playdates getting canceled, millions of Americans are having fewer social interactions because of persistently high case numbers and high rates of transmission.

The anti-abortion movement is feeling hopeful in the wake of Texas’s abortion ban and the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the ban. But what seems like a resounding victory for pro-life advocates will have an unintended consequence: derailing the educational plans of millions of Americans—women and men. Reproductive rights and educational attainment go hand in hand. Cutting off access to safe abortions will limit college-going opportunities for millions of Americans—especially those who are poor and who benefit the most from a college degree.

Most doctoral students don’t think they have much in common with entrepreneurs. That’s a shame. Getting a Ph.D. is a lot more rewarding if you stop trying to be a good student and start acting like you are running your own business. Of course, your business venture is not centered around profit-generating products. Instead, think of yourself as an entrepreneur of ideas.

The unparalleled increase in life expectancy in the United
States in the 20th century is a major humanitarian achievement. In just 100 years, American life expectancy from birth lengthened from 47 to 78 years. However, measuring success through average life expectancy alone paints an overly rosy portrait. The length and the quality of life varies substantially across subgroups of Americans, and this variability is not due to luck or chance. Rather, structural and institutional practices systematically advantage some groups over others throughout life. Race is a key factor that influences who reaps and who is excluded from the benefits of longevity.

Many academics have a blind spot about the integral role of religion in America. Until fairly recently, I did, too. I didn’t think of the United States as a particularly religious country, probably because I spent most of my life living on the coasts, where religion wasn’t overt.