Civic Lens

American law draws the line between childhood and adulthood in very different places—with consequences that can last a lifetime.Professor Cohen recommends: When They Us, Adolescence, and The Rage of Innocence by Kristen Henning. In re Gault, Roper v. Simmons, Graham v. Florida, Miller v. Alabama, and Jones v. Mississippi.

Bowdoin College's Andrew Rudalevige on how the presidency become so powerful and what it means for American democracy. Rudalevige is the author of By Executive Order: Bureaucratic Management and the Limits of Presidential Power and The New Imperial Presidency: Renewing Presidential Power after Watergate.Rudalevige recommends: Presidential Power and the Modern Presidents: The Politics of Leadership from Roosevelt to Reagan, The Hardest Job in the World: The American Presidency, The Development of the American Presidency, and the podcasts Presidential and Can He Do That? (now known as Sidebar).

SMU's Matthew Wilson on how religious beliefs shape politics - even for people who rarely think about religion. Wilson is the co-author of Politics and Religion in the United States and From pews to polling places : faith and politics in the American religious mosaic. Wilson recommends: America's God: From Jonathan Edwards to Abraham Lincoln,

Chris Cooper on how the South has become more urban, diverse, and connected to the rest of America, yet its identity as Southern still matters. Cooper is the author of: Anatomy of a Purple State: A North Carolina Politics Primer and co-author with Gibbs Knotts of The Resilience of Southern Identity: Why the South Still Matters in the Minds of Its People.Cooper recommends: Southern Politics in State and Nation (Key), Movers and Stayers: The Partisan Transformation of 21st Century Southern Politics (Irwin), Insecure Majorities: Congress and the Perpetual Campaign (Lee), Rural Republican Realignment in the Modern South: The Untold Story (Hood and McKee), and An American Problem: How the Country Built—and the Supreme Court Broke—the Voting Rights Act (Miller and Morris)

Scott Huffmon (The Winthrop Poll⁠) of Winthrop University and Director of the Winthrop Poll discusses how migration has changed the South, evolving views on the Confederate Flag, polarization, and the Trump effect on South Carolina and Southern politics. Huffmon recommends: The Long Southern Strategy, American Experience on PBS - Civil Rights, and "Jail, No Bail"

Amy Hanauer of ITEP asks "When profitable corporations pay little or nothing in taxes, who makes up the difference?"Hanauer recommnds: Why Corporations Must Pay More, ITEP State Policy, The Price of Democracy: The Revolutionary Power of Taxation in American History, and Paper Girl: A Memoir of Home and Family in a Fractured America

Christopher Sebastian Parker asks what happens when people fight for democracy abroad but are denied its promises at home. Parker is the author of: Fighting for Democracy: Black Veterans and the Struggle Against White Supremacy in the Postwar South and Change They Can't Believe In: The Tea Party and Reactionary Politics in America.Parker recommends: Divisions: A New History of Racism and Resistance in America's World War II Military, Freedom Struggles: African Americans and World War I, Strength for the Fight: A History of Black Americans in the Military"Close Ranks",

Cornell historian, Larry Glickman, explains that capitalism isn't a fixed system, but an idea that Americans have continually reinvented. Glickman is the author of Free Enterprise: An American History  and Buying Power: A History of Consumer Activism in America. Glickman recommends: The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism by Edward Baptist, The Incorporation of America, by Alan Trachtenberg, The Submerged State: How Invisible Government Policies Undermine American Democracy, by Suzanne Mettler, "Why I Am Not a Conservative" by F.A. Hayek, The Marketplace of RevolutionHow Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence by T.H. Breen, and Plantation Goods: A Material History of American Slavery by Seth Rockman.

John Dinan (The American State Constitutional Tradition⁠) of Wake Forest University, explains why so many of the decisions that shape our daily lives happen in state capitals instead of Washington.

Boris Heersink (⁠Republican Party Politics and the American South, 1865–1968⁠ and ⁠National Party Organizations and Party Brands in American Politics: The Democratic and Republican National Committees, 1912-2016⁠)tells us why party brands are so useful to voters and how Trump's hold on the GOP has shaped that party's brand. Heersink recommends: Learning from Loss: The Democrats, 2016–2020 and The Elephants in the Room: How Trump Voters Seized the Party from Republican Leaders, both by Seth Masket, and The Nationalization of American Political Parties, 1880–1896 by Daniel Klinghard and Presidential Party Building: Dwight D. Eisenhower to George W. Bush by Daniel J. Galvin

Michael Kang of Northwestern University's Pritzker School of Law, and co-author of Free to Judge: The Power of Campaign Money in Judicial Elections discusses the changing role of money in legislative and judicial elections. Kang recommends: Brennan Center for Justice and The Brave New World of Judicial Election by Charles Geyh.

Arin Dube, of UMass Amherst, and author of The Wage Standard: What's Wrong in the Labor Market and How to Fix It, speaks on the minimum wage, labor markets, and economic inequality. He was featured in The New Yorker, An Economist’s Quest to Solve America’s Wage Problem, and maintains a Substack.

Teri Incampo from the University of Mississippi on the value of theater as an artistic medium, her latest research, and how we can all become more thoughtful consumers of film and theater. Incampo recommends: Is God Is?, Seven Methods of Killing Kylie Jenner, Keke Palmer, Darkology: Blackface and the American Way of Entertainment by Rhae Lynn Barnes, Bodies in DissentSpectacular Performances of Race and Freedom, 1850–1910 by Daphne A. Brooks, and Cracking Up: Black Feminist Comedy in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Century United States by Katelyn Hale Wood.

University of Michigan sociologist Elizabeth Armstrong, author of Paying for the Party: How College Maintains Inequality discusses emerging research on workplace experiences, where many college-educated women continue to encounter barriers to advancement even in professional careers.Armstrong recommends: Gender Flashpoints: The Power of Dialogue by Abigail C. Saguy

Chris Berry (Property Tax Fairness⁠), William J. and Alicia Townsend Friedman Professor at the Harris School of Public Policy, University of Chicago, and author of ⁠Imperfect Union: Representation and Taxation in Multilevel Governments⁠, explains how property values are determined, but also how this widely used system suffers from a perpetual bias against lower-valued properties.Berry recommends: Plundered: How Racist Policies Undermine Black Homeownership in America by Bernadette Atuahene

Matt Mitten, Professor of Law and Executive Director, National Sports Law Institute; WADA Prohibited List; USADA; World Anti-Doping Code

Fordham Professor Christina Greer, author of How to Build a Democracy: From Fannie Lou Hamer and Barbara Jordan to Stacey Abrams, and Black Ethnics: Race, Immigration, and the Pursuit of the American Dream,. Greer recommends: Racial and Ethnic Politics in American Suburbs, Deed Theft, and Jesse Jackson's 1969 interview in Playboy and The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson.

S⁠⁠eth Masket⁠⁠, University of Denver Professor of Political Science is on Substack at the @smotus report, and is the author of The Elephants in the Room: How Trump Voters Seized the Party from Republican Leaders⁠, Learning from Loss: The Democrats, 2016-2020,⁠ and ⁠The Inevitable Party: Why Attempts to Kill the Party System Fail and How they Weaken Democracy⁠. Masket recommends: Furious Minds: The Making of the MAGA New Right and How the Tea Party Captured the GOP: Insurgent Factions in American Politics.

David S. Meyer, Professor of Sociology, Political Science, and Urban Planning and Policy at the University of California, Irvine is the author or co-author of The Politics of Protest, The Resistance: The Dawn of the Anti-Trump Opposition Movement, and How Social Movements (Sometimes) Matter.Meyer recommends: The Children and Occupy Los Angeles

Patrick Henry, Associate AD for Women's Basketball at the University of Mississippi tells us what it takes to be an elite athletics administrator.

University of Mississippi Title IX Coordinator Jordan Cohen explains how a Title IX office operates in a higher education environment.

Western New England Law Professor Erin Buzuvis provides a detailed examination of how the important changes that have resulted from Title IX, but also how the law still falls short of its authors' intentions. Buzuvis recommends: Getting in the Game: Title IX and the Women's Sports Revolution by Deborah Brake, and 50 Years of Title IX: We’re Not Done Yet by the Women's Sports Foundation.

Kathy Thelen is the Ford Professor of Political Science at MIT. Among her many publications, the former president of the American Political Science Association is the author of Attention, Shoppers! American Retail Capitalism and the Origins of the Amazon Economy; "Off-Balance: How US Courts Privilege Conservative Policy Outcomes," with Brian Highsmith and Maya Sen; and co-editor of The American Political Economy: Politics, Markets, and Power, with Jacob S. Hacker, Alexander Hertel-Fernandez, and Paul Pierson.

Barry Lam, author of Fewer Rules, Better People: The Case for Discretion, and host of Hi-Phi Nation, discusses how America's penchant for legalistic rule-making makes us all worse off. Lam recommends: : Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of the Individual in Public Service⁠, The Score: How to Stop Playing Somebody Else's Game

Dr. Hannah Allen-King is the Executive Director of the William Magee Institute for Student Well-being and Assistant Professor of Public Health at The University of Mississippi. She discusses the need for more research into problem gambling, especially for college students, and why it is considered a public health issue. Allen-King recommends: Collegegambling.org, National Council on Problem Gambling, and International Problem Gambling and Gaming Certification Organization

Ron Rychlak, "⁠Current State of College Athletics After House v. NCAA⁠", Distinguished Professor of Law and Jamie L. Whitten Chair of Law and Government at the University of Mississippi School of Law Rychlak recommends: ⁠Berry and Lust's College Sports Law in a Nutshell, ⁠Extra PointsO'Bannon v. NCAA , NCAA v. Alston

Chuck Ross, Professor of History and African American Studies at The University of Mississippi, discusses the important roles played by Marvin Miller, Curt Flood, and how free agency came to be.Ross recommends: John Helyar's The Lords of The Realm: The Real History of Baseball