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have youth opinions of race changed?

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Los Angeles Public Radio station 89.33 KPCC interviewed to me last Thursday on the topic, “Are young people’s views on race really that different from their parents?” I emphasized that young people are demographically more diverse than their predecessors; about 40% of 18-29s are now people of color, and rising fast. I also think that some issues that were once contested (e.g., de jure segregation, interracial marriage) have been settled for the younger generation. However, de facto segregation is actually worse than it was when I was a kid. To be precise, there are more racially diverse schools–ones that enroll people from many racial/ethnic groups–yet a larger proportion of Whites attend overwhelmingly White schools. Meanwhile, in some polls, an outright majority of young Whites believe that discrimination is worse against Whites than against African Americans.

I now offer a Free Graph of the Day. The American National Election Studies have asked people to agree or disagree that “Generations of slavery and discrimination have created conditions that make it difficult for blacks to work their way out of the lower class.” (I wouldn’t phrase the question that way, for several reasons, but it provides a trend over time.) Below I show results for Whites between the ages of 18 and 29. The pattern seems to be a general decline from 1986, when the question was first asked, until 2012, followed by some recovery in 2016–possibly in response to Black Lives Matter and related activism? About the same proportion–just under half–of White Xers in the 1980s and Millennials in the 2000s have agreed with this statement.

American National Election Studies, analyzed by Peter Levine

My takeaway is that it’s a mistake to depend on generational change to improve racial equity in the US, although the increasing number of people of color helps, and Millennials certainly have an opportunity to promote justice if they work at it.

See also: who is segregated?; a snapshot of Millennials; interracial tolerance among the young and White racial resentment and the 2016 election

come work with us: new senior research position at CIRCLE

Senior Researcher: The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning & Engagement (CIRCLE), Tisch College. Apply here.

Description

The Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life prepares students in all fields of study for lifetimes of active citizenship, promotes new knowledge in the field, educates Tufts students and beyond for a life of active citizenship, and applies our research to evidence-based practice in our programs, community partnerships, and advocacy efforts. Tisch College’s work is central to Tufts University’s mission. Tisch College offers several opportunities to engage Tufts students in meaningful community building and and other civic and political experiences, explore personal commitments to civic participation, and take on active and effective roles in public life and to engage faculty in expanded active citizenship research and teaching. Tisch College also seeks to influence higher education in the US and abroad to embrace active citizenship maintly through its work via Institute for Democracy in Higher Education. CIRCLE (The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement) is a research-base think tank that studies how young peole in the United States learn to become active participants in our democracy, and studies a broad range of topics, from K-12 civic education, youth organizing, youth and civic media, to community characteristics that promote civic development. Although CIRCLE studies civic development and engagement of all youth, the central focus of its work is on expanding access to civic learning and engaement opportunities especially for marginalized youth from various backgrounds. CIRCLE is an influential force and a premier source of information —facts, trends, assessments, and practices—related to youth civic engagement. CIRCLE reaches both academic and practitioners audiences through both academic and popular media, including a large number of features in major news outlets. Founded in 2001, CIRCLE has been part of Tisch College since 2008 and CIRCLE staff are fully integrated into the organizational life of Tisch College and Tufts University, offering CIRCLE staff a number of opportunities to develop skills in and outside of research.

CIRCLE (The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement) is a research center that studies young Americans’ civic development. CIRCLE is seeking a Senior Researcher with deep backgrounds in quantitative research methodologies, and varied experience in planning and executing research projects of various scales, independently and as part of a professional team. The Senior Researcher will be a Tufts University employee and will work in the main CIRCLE office on the Tufts campus in Medford/Somerville, Massachusetts. Responsibilities include serving as the lead quantitative researcher on a range of research projects that may include secondary data-analysis, large dataset creation/analysis, literature reviews, field experiments, and original surveys. The Senior Researcher’s tasks include producing analytic plans, methodology documentations, datasets, reports, fact sheets, formal and informal research briefs and press releases on timely and relevant topics, often in close collaboration with CIRCLE colleagues. The Senior Researcher will assist research grant proposals writing especially with the methodology sections, and occasionally represent CIRCLE at a wide range of events including research conferences, practitioner forums, press events and other public events. The Senior Researcher will work alongside colleagues, including a current Senior Researcher, Director of Impact, and Researcher, and provide inputs and peer training to other CIRCLE staff who produce research (quantitative and qualitative). All CIRCLE staff report directly to Director of CIRCLE, who reports to Associate Dean of Research at Tisch College.

Qualifications

Basic Requirements:

  • Minimum 5 years’ experience.
  • Master’s degree in a discipline related to social science.
  • Knowledge of statistical package, such as SPSS and STAT.
  • Because of CIRCLE’s explicit focus on improving civic education and engagement for young people of color and other underserved youth, and because of Tisch College and Tufts University’s foundational commitments to diversity and inclusion, candidates with diverse backgrounds and experiences, broadly defined, are especially encouraged to apply.

Preferred Qualifications:

  • Research experience in a professional setting in which quick deadlines and collaborative team work were common.
  • Comfort with multiple projects and delegating and receiving tasks, and making decisions about research and analytic design choices with minimal guidance.
  • Experience with multivariate statistical techniques, evaluation methods, and psychometric analysis.
  • Experience with developing and executing surveys.
  • Ability to communicate effectively with practitioners, reporters, scholars, and young people through writing, speech, and graphs.
  • Ability to produce reliable, accurate, and readable research products on short deadlines.
  • Ability to work collaboratively with CIRCLE colleagues from varied backgrounds and to interact with practitioners of diverse backgrounds, views, and positions.
  • Ability to teach research methods to colleagues and student/workers.
  • Concern for youth civic engagement is necessary; however, prior research in this specific area is not required.
  • An employee in this position must complete all appropriate background checks at the time of hire, promotion, or transfer.

Equal Opportunity Employer – minority/females/veterans/disability/sexual orientation/gender identity.

Primary Location: United States-Massachusetts-Medford/Somerville

Ukraine means borderland

This isn’t a travel blog, and my photos aren’t very good, but here are some images that hint at Ukraine’s history as a borderland (which is its very meaning).

For instance, a minbar (the staircase a preacher ascends in a mosque) is preserved inside the rococo church of St Nicholas in Kamyanets-Podilsky.

The same city’s cathedral preserves a minaret. The Ottomans had built towers all around this building, as at Aya Sofya in Istanbul. When the Poles regained the city, they removed the other minarets but had to retain this one for structural reasons. They surmounted it with a gold Madonna.

At Khoytn, the border is symbolized by a massive fortress, built and partially leveled in sequence by Christian, Muslim, Christian, and modern totalitarian armies.


In Chernivtsi, while it was still Austro-Hungarian Czernowitz, each “nation” had a handsome cultural house of its own: the Romanians, the Ukrainians, the Germans, the Poles, the Jews. The Ukrainian house made space for the first international Yiddish conference in 1908, because the city’s Jewish leadership favored German and Hebrew.

Today, the former Jewish People’s House still sports Atlas-type sculptural figures, two of whom are unusual in that they look upward.

In the old auditorium on the third floor, where the stair-rail still shows a Star of David, the stage was set with a cross when I wandered in. The building is understandably used for various community functions today, in a city that is overwhelmingly Christian. This sight was nevertheless a bit disconcerting. (I suspect the Nazis smashed the other Jewish symbols in this room.)

But downstairs is a fine museum celebrating and mourning the annihilated Bukovinian Jewish community, including this mass-produced Hebrew typewriter from the interwar period.

Here is a raffish Art Nouveau/Orientalist building called the “Sorbonne,” in the University area of Chernivisti. I saw it at dusk, when the sunflower’s face had sagged.

That could be an elegy for the faded elegance of Austria-Hungary. But the sunflower must have turned upward again the next morning, because there’s always a dawn. Half a century after the “Sorbonne” opened, Chernivtsi’s now-Soviet citizens could take off from their space-age airport under a frieze of Sputniks and ICBMs.

History didn’t stop then, either. Since I was last in Chernivtsi in 2015, a cheerful new 24/7 pharmacy has opened across the street from the “Sorbonne.”

civics road trip: from Philadelphia to Ukraine

I’m in Philadelphia for the Action Civics Initiative Summer Convening, a gathering of students, educators, and NGO leaders who are working to make civic education more action-oriented. From the closing plenary tomorrow, I’m heading to Ukraine to participate in the third annual European Institute of Civic Studies, this year at the Chernivtsi National University. The Institute draws practitioners, scholars, and activists involved with strengthening democracy in Ukraine and its neighbors. On my way home, I’ll stop in Kiev to talk with civic educators who work at the high-school level.

I predict some consistent themes (polarized societies, fragile democratic norms, inequalities of power and agency) as well as some important differences. I plan to blog periodically as I travel, or at least on my return.

See also: action civics goes mainstream and gets controversial, lessons from a large youth service program, creating good citizens, and the European Summer Institute of Civic Studies.

job opening: the Newhouse Professor of Civic Studies

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The Department of Political Science and the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life at Tufts University invite applications for the Newhouse Professor of Civic Studies in Arts & Sciences. Civic Studies encompass civic engagement, political participation, social capital, civil society, citizenship, civic virtue, the public sphere, and related topics. The Newhouse Professorship is a joint appointment between the School of Arts & Sciences and the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life at Tufts University. The Newhouse Professorship will promote the intellectual inquiry into civic life necessary to fulfill the University’s mission to shape students into active and engaged citizens. Teaching responsibilities will focus on the undergraduate level.

From the perspective of Tisch College: this is one of a small set of senior faculty positions that we are filling across the University. The new professors will form the nucleus of an intellectual community here that is dedicated to understanding civic life in all of its aspects. They will also connect to numerous existing Tufts scholars and students who study relevant topics. Our goal is to develop new approaches to defining, investigating, and improving civic engagement in the US and around the world.

QUALIFICATIONS
The position requires a Ph.D. in Political Science or a related field, and a record of excellence in scholarship and teaching. Current rank of Full Professor or advanced Associate Professor is required. The position is open with respect to subfield and methodological approaches.

APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS
All application materials must be submitted via Interfolio at: https://apply.interfolio.com/43187. Applicants should submit a cover letter describing their research and teaching, a curriculum vitae, two representative scholarly works, and contact information for three references. References will only be contacted with prior candidate approval. Review of applications will begin on September 15, 2017, and will continue until the position is filled. Please contact Peter Morency, Administrative Assistant, at peter.morency@tufts.edu with any questions.