Social Sciences
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An African strontium map sheds light on the origins of enslaved people
Anthropology Professor Vicky Oelze and colleagues spent more than a decade amassing nearly 900 environmental samples from 24 African countries and combined those measurements with other published data to create a strontium map of sub-Saharan Africa and have demonstrated how it can be used to shed light on the transatlantic slave trade.
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Lures that attract seed-dispersing bats could aid tropical reforestation
Environmental Studies Professor Karen Holl commented on new research, saying that reforestation impacts from attracting seed dispersing bats will depend upon whether or not the dispersed seeds actually germinate and contribute a lot to forest regrowth. Instead of bat lures, Holl recommends planting forest islands, which offer habitat and attract seed dispersing animals over time, contributing…
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Union Popularity Hits 70%, But Trump’s NLRB Move Threatens Labor
New evidence suggests younger workers are more attuned to the benefits of unionization. Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz did a deep dive in their January 2025 "Union-Curious Young Workers in Santa Cruz County" — the first in a planned series of reports — which reported 44% of young workers in Santa Cruz…
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AI and jobs in India
Distinguished Professor of Economics Nirvikar Singh wrote an opinion article about how acceleration of advances in AI demonstrates that the range of productive jobs and the skills needed for them in the future is much broader than what has fueled India’s growth so far.
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Inside Trump’s Yearslong War With A Fish
“He’s seen an opportunity to weigh in on an issue where cities, by and large, have one strong opinion, and rural regions have a different one,” said Brent Haddad, a professor of environmental studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. “In California, the cities are mostly Democratic voters. In the rural regions are mostly…
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Should Los Angeles be in such a rush to rebuild after the devastating wildfires?
Miriam Greenberg, sociologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the co-director of the Center for Critical Urban and Environmental Studies at UC Santa Cruz, is currently leading a research project called Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) Research for Resilience: Addressing California’s Climate, Conservation and Housing Crises. "What we often see in the aftermath of…
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The perfect storm: why did LA’s wildfires explode out of control?
Sociology Professor Miriam Greenberg explained the housing affordability pressures that are driving people to live in areas with rising fire risk as the climate changes. “Living in dense urban areas – which are safer in relation to fire and many other climate hazards – has become out of reach for many people, so they’re moving…
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As Los Angeles burns, Santa Cruz County officials urge wildfire prep — and not just in the mountains
Santa Cruz Local shared information about an upcoming wildfire preparedness event co-hosted by UC Santa Cruz's Center for Critical Urban and Environmental Studies.
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Debunking 5 claims about the California wildfires
Brent Haddad, a professor of environmental studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz, corrected President-elect Trump's false claims about water for firefighting efforts in the Los Angeles area. "No water restoration declaration was put before Gov. Newsom," Hadded told ABC News in an email.
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Why the legacy media suddenly sound like Bernie Sanders
Nolan Higdon, a lecturer at Merrill College and the Education Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz, argues in this op-ed that the results of the 2024 election forced a reckoning in legacy media, where they had to confront the fact that they were wrong and Bernie Sanders was right, when it came to…
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Cycling through Kansas, I've found people working across divisions
Jenny Reardon, a professor of sociology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, has spent a few weeks bicycling through her home state of Kansas every year since 2017. In this op-ed, she shares some of her observations and notes that Kansans are working on finding common ground.
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Fact check: As wildfires rage, Trump lashes out with false claims about FEMA and California water policy
Brent Haddad, an environmental studies professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, clarified that “there was never a ‘water restoration declaration’ in California that the Governor refused to sign,” and “there is no connection between environmental protection in northern California and low-flow fire hydrants in Pacific Palisades.” Haddad was also quoted on this topic in a wide…