When mass protests erupted in Kazakhstan last week, and the country’s largest city and former capital, Almaty, suddenly turned violent, the uprising caught the government there – and the world – by surprise.
What do we mean when we use the term “systemic racism," and how does it differ from individual prejudice and legal discrimination? Do we oversimplify societal challenges by attributing all inequities to racism?
Have you ever thought about the amount of single-use plastic cutlery disposed of daily on the ASU Tempe campus? How about in a semester? Or a year?
It can be argued that activists often don't have time to adequately process what they've experienced and learned before considering their next steps. But the knowledge and ideas they develop are essential to solving problems in the community.
The holidays are often a time when greeting cards and emails arrive from friends and family near and far. But this year, one holiday email was particularly poignant for Laura Smalarz, an Arizona State University assistant professor of psychology .
The message began, “This year, I am celebrating my first holiday season as a truly free man in more than 10 years. In 2010, I was arrested for a crime I didn’t commit and later sentenced to life in prison.” It was signed, “Lydell Grant.”
Listen to processional drumming
Extremophile: An organism that lives under extreme environmental conditions, such as temperature, acidity, alkalinity or chemical concentration where most others would perish, according to its dictionary definition.
Social workers often help young people navigate through poverty, mental health and substance use disorders, sexual risk-taking, criminal justice involvement and family violence issues, to name a few.
A lesser-known challenge that may not come up in many conversations about youth, however, is problem gambling.
The summer of 2020 gave way to the largest protests for racial justice and civil rights in the U.S. during the 21st century. Realizing the need to stand in solidarity with human-rights protesters who took to the streets and the desire to implement effective and meaningful change to actively fight against racism, the School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies at Arizona State University created the Anti-Racism Committee.
Editor's note: This story is part of a series of profiles of notable fall 2021 graduates.
Being a person who contributes to positive change in the world is important to ASU graduate Kaitlyn Begay.
Climate change is linked to melting glaciers, hotter deserts, food shortages and threatened water supplies. But social workers are learning it has another effect: how environmental changes create challenges for vulnerable populations.
Concerns about these effects have ushered in a new area of the profession, environmental social work, which has begun to be called “eco-social work” and “green social work.”
