Openly
gay retiree pioneers
In a March 2 feature about the changes to retirement that the openly
gay population may make, Professor of Gerontology Brian de Vries told
the Southern Voice "This is a pioneering population, in that we're
about to witness the first group of out older lesbians and gay men. Right
now social systems for older adults are not really well set up to support
and work around friend caregivers. They're well set up to work around
spouses and children. Once you're outside that social structure, social
systems don't know quite how to deal with that."
Hip-hop in the academy
Shawn Ginwright, associate professor of ethnic studies, and Antwi
Akom,
assistant professor of ethnic studies, were among the scholars quoted
in a March 5 San Francisco Chronicle feature about academic study of
hip-hop. Akom said, "Our hip-hop class at San Francisco State
University began in an effort to close the gap between theory and practice,
academics and activists, 'descent and street.'" Ginwright said, "Hip-hop
forces those in the academy to examine a people's culture, so to study
it, you have to be among the people. You can't look at scholarship
in the typical way."
Safe programming
Rick Houlberg, professor of broadcast and electronic communication arts,
commented on radio consolidation for a March 5 Associated Press article
that ran in several papers across the country. "No one is programming
locally anymore," he said. "The people who do the programming
for these large corporate giants in many cases are very unsophisticated
about it. They don't know the market so they go with what is safest."
Mentoring
African American men
In a March 6 Chicago Tribune feature on African American mentors, Shawn
Ginwright, associate professor of ethnic studies, said "The first
step is to get African American men prepared to enter college. The
problem is the schools where most African American children go don't
provide college-preparatory courses. A lot of times African American
men, when they go off to college campuses, they leave their community
and support network behind. Sometimes, if they don't have a strong
enough base, they lose themselves."
Preserving culture
On the March 8 broadcast of "Artery" on KALW Radio, Philip
Klasky, lecturer of American Indian studies, discussed his field work
with the Cultural Conservancy's Storyscape Project. Speaking about the
repatriation of ethnographer Guy Tyler's recordings of the songs, stories
and languages of more than 50 American Indian tribes in the U.S., he
noted: "Most people don't realize that during the late 1800s and
early 1900s, Native Americans could be thrown in jail for speaking their
language or practicing their culture. When a language is gone, a culture
disappears. We're scrambling to record and preserve these languages and
songs so that these cultures will remain."
Bridging belief and action
Philosophy Professor Jacob Needleman discussed his new book "Why
Can't We Be Good?" on the March 14 edition of KQED-FM's "Forum," hosted
by English Professor Michael Krasny. In the interview,
Krasny brought up the idea, from Socrates, of thinking together. "This
is the thing I discovered right in front of my nose in class," Needleman said. "The
bridge between what we know and how we act -- what we feel to be good
and how we behave -- the bridge is missing. ... This bridge you can begin
to discover it in your classroom when you see what it means to listen
to the other's point of view."
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