Groundbreaking University of Maryland Physicist Wins Princeton Presidential Postdoctoral Fellowship to Bring Her Mathematical Skills to PPPL

From Newswise: Elizabeth Paul, developer of a groundbreaking method for optimizing magnetic confinement stellarator fusion facilities, has won a Princeton University Presidential Postdoctoral Research Fellowship to advance the method at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL). https://bit.ly/3dVObpi

The Athenian Plague, a Cautionary Tale of Democracy’s Fragility

From The New Yorker: Princeton’s  Gary Bass writes, “For anyone hopeful that democracy is the best system for coping with the current coronavirus pandemic, the Athenian disaster stands as a chilling admonition. As Plato knew, political regimes are as fragile as any other human structure, and all fall in time.”https://bit.ly/3huc9uf

Don’t Cut Off Unemployment Benefits Now

From The Wall Street Journal: In his opinion piece, Princeton’s Alan S. Blinder writes, “On July 31, the economy will likely still be struggling to crawl out of a depression-size abyss, with massive numbers of Americans out of work. Under such circumstances, past Congresses have always extended unemployment benefits, not reduced them.”https://on.wsj.com/3hnk4JK

Students Help Local Businesses Adjust to the “New Normal”

From Town Topics: Recent graduate Sunny Singh Sandhu has maintained ties to the Princeton business community, where he and two classmates founded Tigers for Nassau a few months ago, to help local restaurants have a stronger digital presence during the COVID-19 crisis.https://bit.ly/2C5rn8N

Related from The Daily Princetonian: ‘The Nassau we all love’: Student group aims to help keep town businesses afloat amid COVID-19

Princeton Faculty Voices:

Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor: How Do We Change America? (The New Yorker)

Imani Perry: ‘Justice Now: A BET Town Hall’ Featuring Stacey Abrams, Brittany Packnett And More (BET)

Omar Wasow: 

Eddie Glaude:

Douglas Massey: “Go Back to the Neighborhood Where You Belong” (Slate)

Julian Zelizer: Why protesting isn’t enough (CNN) and For 48 hours, the nation’s capital was gripped by chaos. Then everything changed. (The Washington Post)

Naomi Murakawa: Calls to reform, defund, dismantle and abolish the police, explained. (NBC News)

Ellora Derenoncourt: What A 1968 Report Tells Us About The Persistence Of Racial Inequality NPR)

Monica Ponce de Leon: Princeton’s Monica Ponce de Leon: To overcome injustice in architecture, licensure should be “eliminated or radically transformed” (Archinect)

Letter of solidarity from Princeton students

From The Daily Princetonian: “As students, activists, and proponents of a better world, it is our duty to stand up against injustice and fight for the equal treatment of all. We pledge to fight against people and systems that marginalize and mistreat people on the basis of race or any other characteristic. We will continue to be agents of change in promoting justice and equality, both through our academic work and our community interactions, locally and globally.”https://bit.ly/37qV1Rk

Anthropology Professor Laurence Ralph Examines Police Violence

Princeton Alumni Weekly: Fifteen years ago, Laurence Ralph began volunteering with local community groups “to get a break from grad school” at the University of Chicago, not as an academic pursuit, he said.  Soon, he was drawn into the African American community’s concerns, particularly police violence. Ralph’s latest book, The Torture Letters: Reckoning with Police Violence (University of Chicago Press), grapples with that legacy of violence. https://bit.ly/2UFFsQx

Together, Princeton Professors ‘Humanize the Data On Policing’

From Princeton Alumni Weekly: Anthropology professor Laurence Ralph and American studies professor Aisha M. Beliso-De Jesús both study policing, but from different angles. Ralph has written about gang and police violence in Chicago, while Beliso-De Jesús studies the criminalization and policing of African diaspora religions like Santeria. Since 2018 the pair have run the Center on Transnational Policing (CTP), a research hub for scholars concerned with race, policing, social justice, and related issues.https://bit.ly/2B7NdaT

Race in the COVID Era: What America’s History of Racism and Xenophobia Means for Today

As COVID-19 has swept across the United States, it has unmasked and amplified existing racial inequities. Rampant fear and misinformation has provoked a wave of discrimination, harassment, and hate targeting those of Chinese and Asian descent. The disease has also had a disproportionate toll on historically marginalized populations, including African Americans and Native Americans, due to unequal access to health care, residential segregation, poverty, and incarceration. This conversation situates these developments within the long history of racism, exclusion, and scapegoating in the United States. Panelists will discuss strategies to address marginalization and empower impacted communities.https://bit.ly/30B2cVC