"Pharmacy workers at CVS or Walgreens have been saddled with this exacerbation of workplace duties without a corollary growth of staffing," says Gretchen Purser, associate professor of sociology. "They feel very overwhelmed, very overburdened, very overworked. And none of that has come along with increased wages, either."

In his two-part essay on the Build Public Renewables Act (BPRA), Professor of Geography and the Environment Matthew Huber examines the labor question and assesses dubious campaign claims that BPRA is a climate victory.

“We are entering contentious electoral cycles on both sides of the border, with voters going to the ballot box in June 2024 in Mexico and November 2024 for the U.S. The scourge of drug trafficking and ineffective government responses to organized crime will figure prominently in stump speeches,” writes Gladys McCormick, Jay and Debe Moskowitz Endowed Chair in Mexico-U.S. Relations.

 “To Know Is To Act? Revisiting the Impact of Government Transparency on Corruption,” authored by Sabina Schnell, assistant professor of public administration and international affairs, was published in Public Administration and Development.

"So many of the calls come to them [mothers], even though they're in kind of very demanding jobs [and] they've told the schools to call their children's fathers," says Kristy Buzard, associate professor of economics.

“As the world prepares for COP28, the onus is on global leaders, corporations and individuals to rise to the occasion and champion the cause of climate justice. Wealthy nations must start putting real funding towards loss and damage, while ramping up their mitigation and adaptation efforts, and reining in the influence of the fossil fuel industry in climate policies,” Farhana Sultana, professor of geography and the environment, writes in The Guardian.

Matthew Huber, professor of geography and the environment, calls the outcome of the strike a huge victory for the United Auto Workers and its workers. “It shows that when workers harness their collective power through strikes, they can force employers to give in to workers’ ambitious demands,” he says.

If the (Biden) administration does not incentivize an electric transition, it means the U.S. will cede EV [electric vehicle] leadership to China," says Tod Rutherford, professor of geography and the environment. "The Europeans are very alarmed by this and especially the German manufacturers are scrambling to catch up."

“There is a very different kind of spirit right now” in the UAW, Tod Rutherford, professor of geography and the environment, tells Christian Science Monitor. “People are just saying, ‘That’s enough. We’ve got to do something, make a stand.’”

Prema Kurien and Janet M. Wilmoth received awards, and several faculty colleagues were elected to roles in the American Sociological Association. 

"Rather than tackling the problem of who owns and controls fossil-fuel based production (a relative minority of society), carbon behaviouralism aims its sights on the “irresponsible” choices of millions of consumers of all classes," writes Matt Huber, professor of geography and the environment.

She is part of a three-member team that received a $157,065 grant from the Women in Economics and Mathematics Research Consortium.

When automakers faced bankruptcy in 2008, auto workers faced a tough decision: lose jobs or agree to contract changes that would help the companies get a federal bailout. The union chose the latter. “This was a concession they had to make in order to sustain the bailouts and have some kind of recovery,” says Tod Rutherford, professor of geography and the environment.

“The UAW…strike action is ultimately trying to realize one of the Biden Administration’s core policy goals and political selling points: you can have good, family-sustaining union jobs alongside climate action. The problem is the automakers see EV production as a way to trim labor costs and shift production to non-union plants,” says Matt Huber, professor of geography and the environment.

"Action anthropology and public policy change: Lead poisoning in Syracuse, NY," co-authored by Distinguished Professor of Anthropology Robert Rubinstein, was published in the Annals of Anthropological Practice.

Brian Taylor, professor of political science, says that he believes Prigozhin is dead and he agrees with Biden. "Putin made clear at the time he saw the mutiny as 'treason' and 'a stab in the back,' which he was unlikely to forget or forgive," he says.

"Does Community-Based Adaptation Enhance Social Capital? Evidence from Senegal and Mali," co-authored by Hannah Patnaik, managing director of the Maxwell X Lab, and John McPeak, professor of public administration and international affairs, was published in the Journal of Development Studies.

The professor of political science will focus on historical trends of intrastate and interstate battles since the 18th century. 

"Sanctions: Greater Congressional Oversight Needed for Costly, Ineffective "Go-To" Policy," co-authored by Kristen Patel, Donald P. and Margaret Curry Gregg Professor of Practice in Korean and East Asian Affairs, was published in the Syracuse Law Review.

One of 15 geographers from 11 states and the West Indies, Farhana Sultana, professor of geography and the environment, will focus on climate and society.