Roundup: July 29, 2022
Recent Publications
Jessica D. Ulrich-Schad (Sociology & Anthropology, Utah State), Paul M. Jakus (Applied Economics, Utah State), Malieka Bordigioni (Economics, Nevada), and Don E. Albrecht (Western Rural Development Center, Utah State) recently published Preferences for Economic and Environmental Goals in Rural Community Development in the Western United States. This piece discusses how understanding and accounting for local preferences is a step towards more effective and equitable community development.
Mario Reinaldo Machado (Gund Institute for Environment, Vermont) just released a discussion of Cuba’s agroecological transition in Smallholder Farming for Sustainable Development: Lessons on Public Policy from Cuban Agroecological Transition.
“You’re Poor, so you’re Not Going to Do Anything:” Socioeconomic Status and Capital Accumulation as a Means to Access Higher Education for Rural Youth by Phillip D. Grant (Leadership, Research, and School Improvement, West Georgia) and J. Kessa Roberts (Education and Human Services, Utah State), provides a qualitative study aimed at understanding rural students’ college-going decisions.
Sherally Munshi (Georgetown Law) recently released, Dispossession: An American Property Law Tradition that discusses how dispossession is a useful concept for challenging existing property arrangements.
Conner Bailey and Ryan Thomson (both of the Auburn University’s Agricultural Economics & Rural Sociology Department) use critical race theory to examine the involuntary loss of land and homes among Black residents of the southeastern United States in Heirs Property, Critical Race Theory, and Reparations.
Miranda H. Mockrin (USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station), Hillary K. Fishler (Center for Advanced Energy Studies, Idaho National Laboratory), H. Anu Kramer, Volker C. Radeloff, and Susan I. Stewart (all three of Wisconsin’s Department of Forest & Wildlife Ecology), recently published A Tale of Two Fires: Retreat and Rebound After Wildfires in California and South Carolina discussing the implications of post-fire recovery programming and the need for longitudinal research as the world faces increasing wildfire losses.
Gabe Schwartzman (Geography, Environment, & Society, Minnesota) uses Appalachian coalfields as a vantage point in Climate Reinterism After Coal: Forests, Carbon Offsets, and Post-Coal Politics in the Appalachian Coalfields to examine the emerging dynamics of climate change and rentier capitalism in the rural Global North.
News & Commentary
Alyssa Schukar of the New York Times profiles Monowi, Nebraska, and its last remaining resident, an 88-year old woman who runs a tavern that has been in her family since 1971. Read more on the impact of shifting farm sizes on rural Nebraskan towns here.
Lisa Pruitt (UC Davis Law) published a Politico article discussing the divide between working-class and rural whites. This piece was inspired by JD Vance’s controversial book Hillbilly Elegy. This commentary is another stepping stone in Pruitt’s academic pursuit of understanding class in America, read more of her work in The Geography of the Class Culture Wars and on the Legal Ruralism blog.
Taylor Brorby has a recently published book, Boys and Oil: Growing Up Gay in a Fractured Land, that you can read more about it in this New York Times article.
Ever think about biking cross-country? Sarah Melotte of The Daily Yonder discusses how the completion of the Great American Rail-Trail, a cross-country bike trail in old railroad corridors, could add nearly a quarter-billion dollars a year to local economies. Read all about it in this article.
DC Benincasa of the Missouri Business Alert sheds light on the recent trend of four-day school weeks in rural Missouri communities in this article.
UC Davis creates a new pathway to medical school that starts in community college in an effort to boost the number of doctors in rural areas. Read more about this new pathway, known as Avenue M (the M is for Medicine) here.
Policy Resources
Rural Community Assistance Corporation (RCAC) and Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) have launched the 2022 Water Leadership Institute for communities in the Tule Subbasin of California to gain skills and knowledge to make informed, innovative, and equitable water decisions. Learn more about this program.
The Army Corps of Engineers has published its proposed regulations for their program to help repair unsafe dams. This program will help provide funding for more than 92,000 structures across the U.S., most of which are privately owned. See more in the Corps’ National Inventory of Dams.
McKinsey & Company recently launched this interactive tool aims to help governments, agencies, and other stakeholders determine who can qualify for federal funding being released as part of Biden’s Infrastructure Bill. Read more about the tool from Kristi Eaton’s Daily Yonder article.
Events & Recordings
Listen to the UC Davis Law podcast where they host UC Davis Law Professor Lisa Pruitt to discuss her ongoing research in rural lawyer shortages. This is the fifth episode in a series called “Justice Defined.” Read more about this episode and the podcast here.
Tune into an NPR episode featuring a rural singer-songwriter, Margo Cilker, to discuss how rural backgrounds can be identified through music and the meaning behind Cilker’s musical efforts. Click here to listen and read more.
The National Summit on Journalism in Rural America discussed in the Project’s last Roundup took place in early June and shed light onto the frightening current state of rural newspapers in America even further affecting the information gap of rural residents. Researchers from Northwestern University report more than 360 U.S. newspapers closed between late 2019 through May 2022. The Washington Post also discussed the phenomenon in Margaret Sullivan’s article titled “Every week, two more newspapers close – and ‘news deserts’ grow larger.”
Finally, don’t forget the Project, along with Hannah Haaksgard at USD, is hosting a Fall 2022 Law & Rurality Workshop on October 21, 2022. Submissions due August 22, 2022, and all details on our program page, here.