In a Western Mass News stories on mass shootings in the U.S., 2017 PEP Fellow, Erica Sharrer, responds to politicians who blame violent video games saying it is impossible to trace a link between video games and mass shootings. She also says that other countries consume the same video games as the U.S. and don’t have the same rate of mass shootings.
A local weather reporter from WWLP TV notes that Western Massachusetts experienced the sixth warmest July on record and quoted Michael A. Rawlins, 2015 PEP Fellow, saying Amherst tied with last year as the eighth warmest July on record with an average temperature of 74.2 degrees.
Jonathan R. Wynn, 2017 PEP Fellow, is interviewed on the local public affairs program Connecting Point about gentrification. He says while it can be disruptive for some neighborhoods, especially for low-income people, in other places it improves local housing and can bring added value to homes owned by low-income residents.
2018 PEP Fellow, Donald T. Tomaskovic-Devey, and colleague write an essay in The Conversation where they look at why promoting white racial resentment is an effective political strategy for President Donald J. Trump, but it does little to address the issues of low wages and job insecurity that are the sources of tension. They say economic factors that are used to divide people by race have negative effects on all low-wage workers. Reprinted in the Houston Chronicle, Chicago Tribune and Honolulu Civic Beat.
In a new project funded by the Commonwealth, 2018 PEP Fellow, Timothy Randhir is developing a planning tool to support and improve community and agency decisions in the Connecticut River watershed. It will provide a broad look at possible future effects of climate change on urban and rural areas that include storm water flooding, drought, disrupted water supply, heat waves, soil erosion and loss, groundwater depletion, soil deterioration, and variable rainfall and temperature patterns. The work is supported by an 18-month, $82,000 grant from the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation; Randhir hopes to deliver a prototype of the decision tool in the fall. Read more here.
2018 PEP Fellow, Elizabeth Evans, is among scientists at a dozen institutions nationwide that will form the Justice Community Opioid Innovation Network (JCOIN), an ambitious, $155 million effort to improve opioid addiction treatment in criminal justice settings, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced. Evans, and a colleague at the UMass Medical School-Baystate will receive a $10 million grant from the NIH’s National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to examine a pilot opioid treatment program for jail detainees in seven Massachusetts counties. The treatment program, including community-based follow-up care after detainees’ release from jail, was mandated by the Massachusetts Legislature. Story covered on Medicine Newsline, Phys.org, Daily Hampshire Gazette, Associated Press, Western Mass News, Boston.com, WFXT-TV Fox 25 Boston, NECN, WWLP-TV and News Office release.
Toussaint Losier, 2019 PEP Fellow, will speak at the opening event of the 2019 Green Party Annual National Meeting on in Salem. The Green Rainbow Party of Massachusetts will be hosting the Green Party for its Annual Meeting which will feature panels, workshops, and meetings of the Green Party National committee. Read more here.
2019 PEP Fellow, Elizabeth Schmidt, writes in The Conversation that consumers, investors and workers are changing corporate behavior by demanding that companies act more responsibly . She explains that most Americans are no longer comfortable with companies' profit-driven single-mindedness, and workers are increasingly looking to work for companies that share their values. She concludes that, " The shareholder value doctrine is not dead, but we are beginning to see major cracks in its armor. And as long as investors, customers and employees continue to push for more responsible behavior, you should expect to see those cracks grow." Reprinted in The Houston Chronicle.
A Daily Hampshire Gazette story about predictions of the effects of climate change quotes Michael Rawlins, 2015 PEP Fellow. Rawlins says the temperature predicted on this week’s hottest day could be reached on 27 days of the year by the end of the century if there is not a decline in greenhouse gas emissions.
PEP Co-Director, Linda Tropp, has been named the 2019 recipient of the Nevitt Sanford Award from the International Society of Political Psychology (ISPP), in recognition of professional contributions to political psychology. Recipients of the award are “engaged in the practical application of political psychological principles, or creating knowledge that is accessible and used by practitioners to make a positive difference in the way politics is carried out.” Read more here.