IAS Professor Dan Berger in the Washington Post on Senator Raphael Warnock's re-election in Georgia. The article, published in the Post's Made by History section, relates Warnock's victory to a different campaign from Georgia's history: that of civil rights activist Julian Bond, elected in 1965 but prevented from taking his seat for a year. Berger writes about the Atlanta Project of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, which organized not only for Bond's re-election but to fulfill his campaign promises.

"The danger of offering facile encouragement to 'outvote' voter suppression is that it separates governing from politics, campaigns from meaningful democracy," . "But they are inextricably linked. If Democrats hope to exercise power in the long-term, they will need to learn from Julian Bond and SNCC’s Atlanta Project that politics can provide destitute people a way out of bondage."

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56�Թ��� professor and economics expert, S. Charusheela was the featured guest at the annual Mirror Stage Activism Brunch in North Seattle this past weekend. During the eye-opening discussion, she explored the many facets of income inequality and how it is related to politics, culture, and business. The complete discussion is available to watch on the .

The brunch also included a sneak peek of Expand Upon: Income Inequality and the Wage Gap, featuring two newly-commissioned plays by Nelle Tankus and Mary Fields. Mirror Stage Managing Artistic Director, and 56�Թ��� Bothell graduate, Suzanne M. Cohen says the new plays explore, “the wide-ranging impact, and offer a glimpse into what role we each play in supporting and maintaining the status quo, and the detrimental effects on us all.” The plays will be performed live online at on October 15, 16, 22, and 23. Each showing will be followed by an online group discussion. It will be a unique experience for the playwrights and actors to hear directly from the audience.

Mirror Stage is a nonprofit arts organization that uses the power of storytelling to challenge assumptions, bias, and prejudice, increasing equity and inclusion while encouraging more thoughtful reflection on today’s issues. With the goal of increasing empathy and social justice, Mirror Stage connects people more deeply to perspectives and experiences other than their own while amplifying historically excluded stories, voices, and faces- bringing us to a place of common understanding. Mirror Stage is theatre that gets people talking, as well as thinking. To learn more about the upcoming events, sign up for the .

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IAS faculty member Melanie Malone, 56�Թ��� Seattle colleagues, and community partners from the Duwamish River Community Coalition (DRCC) and the Duwamish Tribe received notification that their Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Science to Achieve Results (STAR) Climate Change and Environmental Justice Grant is being recommended for funding.

The project centers community voice to identify health risks in the Lower Duwamish Superfund Site that have yet to be identified and adequately addressed by regulatory authorities. Final notification of the award is anticipated in the next couple of months.

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IAS faculty member Melanie Malone, 56�Թ��� Seattle colleagues, and community partners received $200,000 from the for a research project entitled "Linking practice to policy change in urban community gardens".

The project will help to answer community generated questions about the differences between contamination in community garden produce and grocery store produce. It will also seek to understand what would make gardeners feel safe, and will identify interventions on local and regulatory levels that center community feedback, which could mitigate exposure to contaminants in urban community gardens.

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IAS faculty member Charlie Collins, along with IAS alumni Jeanne Macbeth, Allison R. Morgan, andTaylor M. Kenney, is co-author of a new article in the Journal of Community Psychology titled: “.”

Abstract

As White activists are growing the racial justice movement, their antiracism frequently disrupts the racial hierarchy, which features whiteness in a dominant role, especially in interpersonal relationships. We investigate how White antiracists disrupt whiteness in interpersonal relationships. We interviewed 16 White antiracists who had experienced significant relationship distance due to their antiracism. We conducted thematic analyses to understand the conflicts that emerged between antiracists and their White counterparts as activists challenged White racial dominance. Antiracists disrupted whiteness by exercising social power to punish racist offenders. In response, their White counterparts resisted these challenges by exerting their instruments of power to sanction antiracists. The conflict with White people led antiracists to build greater personal and social capacity for antiracist activism. This study illustrates how conflicts can emerge during social change efforts even at the microlevel as parties exercise power to contest or support the status quo.

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IAS alum Melissa Watkinson-Schutten (B.A. in Global Studies and Society, Ethics & Human Behavior; minor in Human Rights; M.A in Policy Studies) has published the article article, “Decolonizing Climate Adaptation by Reacquiring Fractionated Tribal Lands,” in the prestigious Oxford Handbook of Indigenous Sociology, based on research she began while in IAS.

From the artcile’s abstract:

Coastal tribes are experiencing loss ofland due to the cumulative effects of climate change. However, decolonizati Q the form of reacquiring tribal lands can be used as a tool for adapting to climate change impacts. Guided by an Indigenous worldview and in partnership with a coastal tribe in Washington State, spatial analyses and interviews were conducted to determine the effectiveness ofreacquiring fractionated land, such as through the Land Buy-Back (LBB) program, on tribes’ ability to adapt to climate impacts. Reacquiring and consolidating fractionated land through the LBB program can increase the adaptive capacity for tribes impacted by climate change. Additional programs and funding for land and consolidation should be made available to tribes as a tool for climate adaptation.

Watkinson-Schutten is currently Equity and Environmental Justice Manager at Puget Sound Partnership.

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IAS faculty member Margaret Redsteer is a coauthor of “Native American Communities and Climate Change,” a chapter in the new (2022) introductory volume of the Handbook of North American Indians published by the Smithsonian Institution.

The chapter gives an overview of the challenges that Native people face from climate change impacts. Redsteer’s coauthors, Igor Krupnik and Julie Maldonado, help broaden the discussion, adding additional geographical context to Redsteer’s work in the Northern Great Plains and Southwest.

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IAS faculty member Jin-Kyu Jung led an one-day workshop on “Qualitative GIS and geo-visualization” for the Ph.D. course, “” at Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management at University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.

He also gave a public lecture on “Critical GIS and geo-visualization,” which highlighted ongoing critical-creative innovations of qualitative research with digital spatial platforms as new ways of transcending disciplines, methodologies, and practices.

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IAS alum, Kyra Laughlin (Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies and Society, Ethics & Human Behavior ’18, Master of Arts in Policy Studies ’19), has successfully partnered with the community-based organization to implement .

Laughlin, who now works as the Violence Prevention Coordinator for Virginia Mason Franciscan Health (VMFH), first identified the need for this service when she made the transition to her new role with VMFH. After graduating in 2019, she worked with the Providence Intervention Center for Assault and Abuse as a hospital victim advocate where she responded to all five emergency departments in Snohomish County for cases involving sexual violence, child abuse, and vulnerable adult abuse. As an advocate she provided emotional support during forensic exams, advocated for patients’ self-identified needs, made referrals to support services, co-developed safety and self-care plans alongside patients, and assisted with systems navigation such as reporting to law enforcement.

In her first week with VMFH, she connected with various clinical staff at VMFH’s St. Francis hospital in Federal Way to learn what resources and services were being provided to individuals impacted by various forms of violence. It was during a conversation with a sexual assault nurse examiner (SANE) that she learned that patients who had experienced sexual assault at King County facilities were being given a one-page handout with a single hotline number on it. Although SANEs would offer to connect their patients with an advocate over the phone, most patients would decline. This was in stark contrast to Laughlin’s experience as an in-person advocate where patients rarely declined services.

Meanwhile, less than 10 miles away, Rebuilding Hope, the community sexual assault program for Pierce County, has been providing in-person medical advocacy to victim-survivors for decades – similar to the services Laughlin provided in Snohomish County. Rebuilding Hope is able to provide services through state funding, however, these grants restrict sexual assault programs to provide services only within the counties they reside. During their first conversation, Rebuilding Hope’s advocacy manager shared with Laughlin that both SANEs and St. Francis staff had occasionally called to get advocacy services for their patients, but due to funding restrictions, they were not able to go out to the hospital because it’s located in King County. This prompted Laughlin to ask what additional funding or resources it would take for their advocates to respond to cases at St. Francis.

After a month of crunching numbers and reviewing staff capacity, the Rebuilding Hope team came back with an estimate – for just a few thousand dollars, they would be able to provide advocacy and case management services for an entire year. VMFH’s violence prevention team provided the first year of funding through their mini-grant program and alternative funding sources will be explored moving forward. Laughlin and Rebuilding Hope’s team collaborated on developing the advocate call-out procedure and educating hospital staff on these new services. Advocates began responding to St. Francis in December of 2021, and in less than 24 hours of the service launching, they responded to two sexual assault cases.

While Laughlin views this as a meaningful step forward in getting victim-survivors connected to the supports they deserve, she hopes other hospitals will explore creative solutions to get advocates through their doors and that in the next few years, every hospital in King County will have in-person medical advocacy available.

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“All of the change I pushed for in the environmental world was tied to policy, so I needed that background to carry out the change I advocated for,” says Master of Arts in Policy Studies alum Megan Dunn.

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