Bringing it all together

In the 2021-22 school year, RWU Law co-sponsored, along with the City University of New York School of Law and Jurist, an ongoing Integrating Doctrine & Diversity Speaker Series.

The American Library Association responds to the Department of Education's dismissal of complaints about censorship and discrimination: the "effort to terminate protections... advances the demonstrably false claim that book bans are not real."

A Sarah Jessica Parker-produced documentary on the brave librarians fighting a wave of rightwing book bans has sparked conversation at Sundance

Analyses of death records over the two decades in the United States reported greater mortality from infectious and parasitic diseases, injuries and respiratory and cardiovascular diseases associated with exposures to flooding events, particularly floods caused by tropical cyclones and heavy rain.

President Trump took office Monday, marking the beginning of a new era in Washington. The changing of the guard was, perhaps, marked most significantly by sweeping new executive actions that will h…

Two major U.S. state bar associations have pushed back after President Donald Trump took aim at efforts to promote more diversity in the legal profession.

The orders require drafting strategies to enforce the gender binary (within 30 days) and meetings on fighting DEI and environmental justice (monthly).

As Donald Trump returns to the White House, a newly emboldened anti-DEI bloc has gained powerful allies.

While top brass in conservative circles aim to curtail DEI, college students are optimistic about diversity, according to a new survey.

Libraries are now reporting more aggressive, targeted, and organized First Amendment audits than in years past.

Challenges to nonbook materials -- such as displays, social media posts, reading lists, and programs -- are on the rise. What should libraries do in the face of these attacks?

This Q&A offers strategies and resources for preparing your library to approach community concerns as well as reaction to potentially controversial programs, events, and speakers.

They are "the original sharing economy," "early warning systems for broad cultural phenomena," offering tai chi lessons, advice, social services, and, yes, books, a whole lot of books.

As our organization grows larger and more diverse, we work to expand the language we use to tell our story.

Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice ...

We speak a different language in my grandmother’s house.

Meehan and colleagues study access to running water in large US cities since 1970, finding that the 2008 financial crisis worsened household ‘plumbing poverty’ in many cities. This disproportionately impacted households of color and generally squeezed lower-income households into more precarious living situations.

More than 20,000 residents do not have access to running water in five of the top 15 biggest cities, a study revealed.

The University of Arizona partners with the city of Tucson to shed light on challenges in Tucson when it comes to poverty. Several U of A undergraduate students displayed their findings on poverty.

According to the National Foster Youth Institute less than 5% of foster care youth obtain a bachelor's degree.

"The president's power to pardon federal crimes is immense, with roots in ancient notions of mercy and amnesty. However, this power, seemingly boundless under the Constitution, lacks clear constraints, inviting concerns about abuse. Recent discussions in the U.S. Supreme Court have raised alarms about the potential for presidential abuse of pardons, highlighting the need for accountability within the pardon system to uphold the foundational premise that no one is above the law."--

"In her work as an appellate judge, Justice Ginsburg translated this devotion into a jurisprudence focused on 'We the People,' substantively and procedurally. Substantively, Justice Ginsburg insisted that faithfully employed, the words of the Constitution supported an expansive understanding of who was included in 'We the People,' despite the framers' narrow understanding of the phrase when it appeared in the preamble to the Constitution. Expressed also as a jurisprudence of equality and opportunity, Justice Ginsburg believed that the phrase promised equal dignity for people despite their gender, gender identity, race, or disability. Procedurally, 'We the People' shaped Justice Ginsburg's approach to the process of deciding cases, guiding every step of her judicial process-the way she read the Constitution and statutes, approached voting issues, and analyzed the demands of the separation of powers, for example. While the substantive contours of 'We the People' have received the most attention, the full sweep of her jurisprudence appears also in the process she used in analyzing all issues. Justice Ginsburg's jurisprudence of 'We the People' became the ordering principle of this book, explaining both the book's title and its topics. Instead of a general survey of Justice Ginsburg's work, the book tells the story of an advocate and a jurist committed to increasing in material ways the bundle of rights we all carry around with us as Americans. As Linda Greenhouse explained in the Foreword, the story begins with Justice Ginsburg's commitment to an America that enables people with diverse experiences to live together in civic harmony. Justice Ginsburg believed that because the American experience involved living in community, the religious expression of some of us had to yield when the expression oppressed others of us in ways endangering that harmony"--

America is facing an epidemic of loneliness and isolation, with troubling effects on our mental and physical health. We live in one of the most divisive times in our history, one in which we tend to work, play, and associate only with people who think as we do. How do we create spaces for people to come together--to open our minds, understand our differences, and exchange ideas? Shamichael Hallman argues that the public library may be our best hope for bridging these divides and creating strong, inclusive communities. While public libraries have long been thought of as a place for a select few, increasingly they are playing an essential role in building social cohesion, promoting civic renewal, and advancing the ideals of a healthy democracy. Many are reimagining themselves in new and innovative ways, actively reaching out to the communities they serve. Today, libraries are becoming essential institutions for repairing society. Libraries have a unique opportunity to bridge socioeconomic divides and rebuild trust. But in order to do so, they must be truly welcoming to all. They and their communities must work collaboratively to bridge socioeconomic divides through innovative and productive partnerships. Drawing from his experience at the Memphis Public Library and his extensive research and interviews across the country, Hallman presents a rich argument for seeing libraries as one of the nation's greatest assets. He includes examples from libraries large and small--such as the Iowa's North Liberty Library's Lighthouse in the Library program to bring people together to discuss important topics in a safe and supportive space, to Cambridge Cooks, an initiative of the Cambridge MA Public Library that fosters social connection by bringing people together over shared interest in food. As an institution that is increasingly under attack for creating a place where diverse audiences can see themselves, public libraries are under more scrutiny than ever. Meet Me at the Library offers us a revealing look at one of our most important civic institutions and the social and civic impact they must play if we are to heal our divided nation. --

A federal judge has struck down key parts of an Arkansas law that would have allowed criminal charges against librarians and booksellers for providing so-called “harmful” materials to minors.

The Republicans take issue with ABA's Standard 206, which they say requires law schools to emphasize race-based admissions and hiring processes.

Widespread global uncertainty in the form of the COVID-19 pandemic, ongoing wars, social uprisings, and rising inflation have led individuals to feel less of a sense of personal control. New research finds that this lack of control can drive employees to seek similarity in coworkers, forming homogenous teams that stifle diversity and innovation. Research involving over 90,000 participants across multiple studies revealed that individuals with reduced control gravitate toward those similar in race, religion, or values, reinforcing predictability but fostering segregation and limiting collaboration. Leaders can mitigate this effect by taking the following steps: 1) Foster psychological safety, 2) establish predictable work routines, 3) encourage cross-functional teams, 4) develop responsive feedback systems, and 5) cultivate individual autonomy.

"A sitting federal judge's recounting of six cases, to make the argument for revisiting overly punitive sentences"--

"Revisits the world of social epidemics first explored in Gladwell's 2000 book "The tipping point," this time taking a closer look at the dark side of social engineering. Twenty-five years after the publication of his groundbreaking first book, Malcolm Gladwell returns with a brand-new volume that reframes the lessons of The Tipping Point in a startling and revealing light. Why is Miami... Miami? What does the heartbreaking fate of the cheetah tell us about the way we raise our children? Why do Ivy League schools care so much about sports? What is the Magic Third, and what does it mean for racial harmony? In this provocative new work, Malcolm Gladwell returns for the first time in twenty-five years to the subject of social epidemics and tipping points, this time with the aim of explaining the dark side of contagious phenomena. Through a series of riveting stories, Gladwell traces the rise of a new and troubling form of social engineering. He takes us to the streets of Los Angeles to meet the world's most successful bank robbers, rediscovers a forgotten television show from the 1970s that changed the world, visits the site of a historic experiment on a tiny cul-de-sac in northern California, and offers an alternate history of two of the biggest epidemics of our day: COVID and the opioid crisis. Revenge of the Tipping Point is Gladwell's most personal book yet. With his characteristic mix of storytelling and social science, he offers a guide to making sense of the contagions of modern world. It's time we took tipping points seriously"--