Thanks to Anne Sills for connecting some of us Evanston food & farm folks to a new food security initiative in Evanston that’s just getting started. The initiative (still to be decided and fleshed out) involves one of the local Rotary clubs and a cohort of Northwestern University students in SESP’s Civic Engagement Certificate program […]
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In my lifelong search for women’s public authority, I’ve been studying the gift economy, especially the maternal roots, as facilitated by scholar/philanthropist Genevieve Vaughan and many other women. Vaughan’s websites are filled with resources featuring scholars from around the world: articles, videos, event proceedings, etc.— Original website Gift Economy— Newer Maternal Gift Economy Movement A new anthology […]
Last Friday night, the beginning of the Jewish sabbath, was Christmas Eve. Being neither Christian or a religious Jew, I nevertheless appreciated a certain numinous atmosphere that develops every Friday night and holiday eve. I settled in for a quiet evening, deepened by the worsening COVID pandemic, by the puzzling lack of camraderie in my […]
This is the story of how I became a raging feminist before I was an hour old, how I lived with it for years (without knowing the source), and how I came to know it 55 years later. I offer this personal story not because it’s especially dramatic (it’s not) or as a role model […]
A recent podcast on gender identity, women’s public authority, and related issues led to a strange Twitter exchange between me and the guest, an attorney. The guest was one of the first in the U.S. (along with a co-author) to publicly alert the United Nations to the dangers for women and girls of substituting “gender” […]
Like many high schools and communities around the world, the high school in my hometown is dealing with a set of interlocking crises and confusions that most of us (a) didn’t see coming, or (b) if we did see the complex set of issues coming, we were not well prepared for it. A recent open […]
Being 70 years old, I have observed or participated in many discussions in mixed company over the years, especially about public issues and philosophical questions. Such discussions take place in classrooms, meetings, parties, family gatherings, as well as on TV, radio, and social media. Over the years, in too many of those conversations I ended […]
So, a Tweet has gone viral reporting on a poll that asked academics why they remain in academia. Davis Kedrosky, who writes a newsletter on Economic History Research, posted the results of the poll (no link, context, or credit). People in his replies identified it as a Sept. 24, 2021 Twitter poll originating from Prof. William […]