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More than half of the journalists, communicators and influencers surveyed said they had received threats or been intimidated online, while 46 percent reported that they had already suffered hacking attempts on social media profiles

Jennifer Huddleston


As headlines have gotten the attention of parents and policymakers, a new Surgeon General's report has raised concerns about children's and teens' time on social media. Some states, including Utah, Arkansas, and California, have introduced bills that claim to "protect children," but these bills would carry significant consequences for speech and privacy. Many parents and policymakers are wondering what could be done to help keep kids safer online without taking such a restrictive —and likely unconstitutional — approach.
The issue of keeping children and teens safe online is as unique as each individual child and family. The best answers for these concerns are not one‐​size‐​fits‐​all and thus will emerge from a variety of market and civil society forces that can respond to these unique needs. In my latest policy brief, I highlight some ways that policymakers who want to support parents and families navigating these questions could do so without the problems for speech, privacy, and parental choice.
Many great resources exist already, from parental controls to resources for having conversations about technology with children and teens, but parents are often unsure of what parental controls are available, how to have conversations with their children about technology, or where to look for guidance. Policymakers could help empower parents by collating existing resources or engaging in other educational opportunities so families can choose the right solutions for their concerns. These resources need not be developed by the government, as a wide array of both industry and civil society groups have already developed such resources.
Second, further research is needed to understand the underlying concerns around issues like teenage mental health and social media. It should not be presumed that technology is always to blame, and how technology can help with these same issues should also be explored. Not only should further research and conversations include scientific and social science research, but policymakers and trusted adults like parents, caregivers, and teachers should also ask children and teenagers why they prefer to spend time online and discuss the value they find in online communities.
Finally, many states already have a digital or computer literacy component in their curriculums. However, many of these curriculums and standards were developed before social media gained popularity. This year, Florida passed a law to include updated online safety and media literacy around social media in a way that allows schools and parents to be aware of and choose the curriculum. This flexible approach does not dictate to children and teenagers what choices they should make, but instead prepares them to both make responsible choices and understand the risks and benefits of using technology.
In short, it is understandable that many parents are concerned about what they hear about children, teenagers, and social media. It is not uncommon for these concerns to arise with technology or in popular culture. Similar concerns have played out over everything from the novel to video games.
Despite these concerns, many children and teens have found valuable online communities, educational opportunities, or new passions online. Rather than rushing to regulate or take away technology from teenagers, parents, and policymakers should look at the tools available to empower and educate all users on how to have a beneficial online experience.

How much First Amendment freedom do social media platforms have to define and control their online speech communities?
The post Moderating Speech on Social Media Platforms: A Matter of Private Editorial Discretion, Not Government Compulsion appeared first on American Enterprise Institute - AEI.

Haarscharf ist der Quasi-Exitus der Extremismusprävention in Deutschland abgewandt worden. Die Ausgabesperre, die angesichts der unsicheren Haushaltslage im Dezember 2023 verhängt wurde, hat große Befürchtungen geschürt und strukturelle Missstände von Förderlogiken sozialer Projekte in Deutschland offengelegt. Ausbleibende Zahlungen in Folge politischer Komplikationen oder aufgrund fehlender Folgeförderungen schweben permanent als Damoklesschwert über der Extremismuspräventionslandschaft in Deutschland. Dieser Zustand gefährdet die nachhaltige Zusammenarbeit von Forschung und Praxis.
Author information





Lars Wiegold



Lars Wiegold ist wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter in den Projekten RadiGaMe und RADIS. Seine Forschungsschwerpunkte liegen auf der Erforschung von radikalen und extremistischen Online-Milieus, insbesondere in digitalen Spiele-Communitys. // Lars Wiegold is a research associate in the RadiGaMe and RADIS projects. His research focuses on radical and extremist online milieus, particularly in digital gaming communities.

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Der Beitrag Forschung ohne Praxis?! Ein Überblick aktueller Entwicklungen und ein "Was wäre, wenn?"-Gedankenspiel erschien zuerst auf PRIF BLOG.

Dr. Mia-Marie Hammarlin, Senior Lecturer in Media and Communication at Lund University, shares her research on vaccine hesitancy in Sweden. We discuss the major themes of coronavirus vaccine skepticism on the Swedish online forum Flashback, as well as Dr. Hammarlin’s ethnographic research meeting with vaccine hesitant communities. Here are links to Dr. Hammarlin’s research mentioned...
The post #165: Covid Vaccine Hesitancy in Sweden, with Dr. Mia-Marie Hammarlin appeared first on Social Media and Politics.

Navigating challenging and complex civic spaces is nothing new for local organizations working to advance the rights and inclusion of LGBTI communities. Join NDI Senior Program Officer for Citizen Participation for a conversation with three partners from across the globe working to sustain their advocacy for equality and inclusion, while tackling some of the unprecedented challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Find us on: SoundCloud | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSS | Google Play
Whitney Pfeifer: Navigating challenging and complex civic spaces is nothing new for local organizations working to advance the rights and inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex communities. Regardless of the levels of tolerance and legal protection in a country, these groups know how to quickly adapt and utilize innovative approaches to maintaining their work and advocating for change.
Although the COVID-19 pandemic has forced organizations to cancel Pride events, training, and in-person advocacy efforts, LGBTI organizations have been quick to respond and adjust, playing an integral role in meeting the basic needs of LGBTI individuals while utilizing online creativity to stay connected and sustain LGBTI community building.
Today, we are joined by three partners from across the globe, each working to sustain their advocacy for equality and inclusion, while tackling some of the unprecedented challenges posed by the pandemic.
We'll be speaking to each of these local partners to discover how they have successfully built digital communities that achieved real-life results. Welcome to DemWorks.
In Panama, Fundación Iguales is working to shift social attitudes towards greater respect and acceptance of LGBTI communities. Part of this process includes collecting stories of how LGBTI communities are being impacted by COVID-19 and its response, demonstrating that as humans, we are all impacted by the pandemic, regardless of how we identify. We spoke with Ivan to learn more. Ivan, thank you for joining us.
Ivan: Thank you.
WP: Could you tell us a little bit more about the LGBTI community in Panama and the types of challenges LGBTI individuals face in building and maintaining a community?
I: We are a country between Costa Rica, who just last month legalized civil marriage for same sex couples, and Colombia, a country with equal marriage since April 2016. We're a part of that less of the 30% of Latin Americans who live in a territory where marriage equality is prohibited. Moreover, are known for public policies that takes into consideration LGBTI persons.
The challenges, there are many. As a gay person, for example, I'm not protected by any non-discrimination law, or the gender identity of the trans community is not part of what is respected by the government. There is unfortunately still a lot of stigma and discrimination for being queer.
We're a small country where there's a strong control from conservatives and religious groups, but what are the good news, I guess? The civil society is finally organized, and organizations like Fundación Iguales are doing a marvelous work promoting the respect of our human rights, creating community, helping the LGBTIQ community to be more visible, and therefore more respected by the general public.
We start a legal process to have marriage equality in Panama since 2016. We are very optimistic we will conquer in the courts and in the public opinion, by strategic innovative and emphatic messages of equality.
WP: You alluded briefly to how Fundación is contributing to building and strengthening the community in Panama. Could you discuss the facts a little bit more about how Fundación is contributing to and strengthening during these uncertain times?
I: First of all, with positive messages and with a clear presence in national conversations about the measures during the pandemic, highlighting the reality of LGBTI persons. We have had a very tough situation with restriction based on sex to restrain mobility of people here in Panama, and that had impacted dramatically the trans community and the nonbinary community of Panama, in some cases affecting their access to food and medicines. Yes, to be able to even go to the supermarket and buy bread and milk.
We decided to join forces with other organizations, specifically with an organization called Hombres Trans Panamá. It's an organization conformed by trans men to create a solidarity network. The network was created for two main activities. The first one, it is to assist directly trans and non binary people who register for humanitarian assistance. We already covered 120 people who were in need of food and medicines.
The second part of that program is an online survey to register discrimination cases for the trans community during the quarantine time. We have already had the report of 26 cases, mostly of trans person who were restricted to enter supermarkets to buy food because their gender identity or expression did not match what the police "expect" from them that day. That report was sent to the government, to regional organizations that monitor human rights, and we hope that impact possibly their lives.
For other programs that Fundación Iguales is promoting during this times of pandemic, one that is very important is a series of podcasts called Panademia LGBTIQ+, a program of Fundación Iguales with [foreign language 00:06:20], which is an independent group of journalists to highlight stories of LGBTI persons during these times, telling their stories, especially the trans community.
WP: That sounds like a lot of excellent work and strengthening the collaboration between groups has been really effective, I think, in this COVID pandemic situation.
I: Indeed.
WP: You alluded briefly to these podcasts. Are there other forms of technology that Fundación is using to continue the work that you're doing?
I: Yes, and that's very interesting because we have to reinvent our work, basically. Just before COVID, we finished a super nice, unprecedented program going through the different provinces of Panama that we call the human rights tour, with the idea to be more democratic on the contents of human rights, specifically talking about Inter-American Court of Human Rights decision on equal marriage and gender identity, the Advisory Opinion 24. It was such a success and we planned to right away continue around the whole country. With this situation we have, being confined at home with mobility restrictions, we have to change all that, but we were lucky to have a strong presence in social media with a robust content that we were able to share and build from it. Also, our capacity of doing initiatives jointly with other NGOs like I mentioned before and you highlight, were also key to show the work that we were doing on respecting human rights.
That coordination and collaborations, like the podcast example, the solidarity network, the level of infographic videos and social media interactions of Fundación Iguales are very solid. Since we dedicate an important part of our work to be present in national and international platforms for political participation, that allowed us to be more visible and not to be forget during these complicated times,
WP: It sounds that you've been able to pivot pretty smoothly and quickly, despite I'm sure what have appeared to be challenges that we're all facing during the pandemic.
Would you be willing to talk about kind of the role and benefits of partnering with international organizations such as NDI in your work?
I: When I started Fundación Iguales, I was very privileged to know that working with international organizations like NDI was essential. I lived almost eight years in Washington, D.C., And before that I studied in New York City, and I worked for almost eight years in multilateral organizations. That experience gave me a different look to understand how, and how specifically a country like Panama, a country with so many challenges, with the lack of the government support and local support, I would say, organizations and enterprises and so on ... so for me, it was very important to know that a key part of my work was to knock some doors abroad because it's essential to boost the work that we do here. Definitely, without the help, assistance, donations and more important, the moral support of embassies and organizations like NDI, our work would have been way more difficult than what actually is.
WP: As NDI, we like to partner and collaborate with our partners and recognize you as the experts and provide the technical assistance and guidance as needed. So it's good to hear that this has been beneficial for Fundación. My last question is about what's next for Fundación?
I: We're very focused that we want a social change for our country in a social change for good. We want a Panama where all persons will be respected and where they can all be happy. We want Panama to join the club of countries where same sex couples can have the support and protection of the government, and more importantly, where society in general welcomes their families. We're trans persons can fully live and decide about their dreams and lives. And we're going to conquer that by strategic campaigns, with messages, with empathy.
WP: Thank you, Ivan, for taking the time to speak with us. We look forward to seeing what Fundación is able to do in creating a safer and more equal space for LGBTI communities in Panama.
I: Thank you, it's been a pleasure.
WP: For more than 35 years, NDI has been honored to work with thousands of courageous and committed democratic activists around the world to help countries develop the institution's practices and skills necessary for democracy's success. For more information, please visit our website at www.ndi.org.
You've heard about how an organization is engaging with communities and collecting stories to plan for future advocacy efforts from Fundación Iguales. But what happens when you are in the middle of a project, when things get disrupted? LGBTI communities in Romania successfully organized to prevent an amendment to the constitution that would ban same sex marriage that was put to a referendum in 2018. In the aftermath of these efforts, there was a need to establish priorities moving forward and create space for dialogue within the community about the next steps for the overall movement. Mosaic organized different segments of the LGBTI community, including transgender communities, LGBTI, Roma, women, and older people to build consensus around an advocacy agenda moving forward.
In the midst of these community outreach efforts, COVID-19 happened. Vlad Viski, executive director of MosaiQ is with us. Vlad, thanks for joining us.
Vlad Viski: Thank you for having me.
WP: Can you tell us a little bit more about your project?
VV: Between 2015 and 2018, in Romania, there was a national campaign to change the constitution and ban gay marriages, initiatives which were supported by conservative groups and a large share of the political party. For three years, in Romania, society has been talking, probably for the first time in a very serious manner, about LGBTI rights, about the place for the LGBT community in society. This conservative effort ended with a failure at the polls for the referendum to change the constitution, only 20% of Romanians actually casting the vote for this issue when the minimum threshold of votation, of turnout, was 30%.
This was possible with quite a successful campaign coming not from not only from MosaiQ but from other LGBTI organizations in Romania throughout the country. We all kind of went on the boycott strategy, we're actually asking people to boycott the referendum because human rights cannot be subject to a popular vote.
Once the referendum in 2018 failed in Romania, there was a question in the community. What should we do next? How should our agenda look like for the next couple of years? We at Mosaic, we really tried to focus and we really thought the issue of intersectionality as being extremely important. This is how the idea of this project started, Engage and Empower was the name of the project. It focused on six groups within the LGBT community: transgender people, LBTQ women, elderly, people living with HIV, Roma LGBT people, and sex workers.
WP: Could you talk a little bit more about how the organization is trying to maintain momentum in this community building efforts, despite what's going on with the pandemic?
VV: We at MosaiQ, we had to reimagine some of the projects that we were involved in, so that included canceling events or postponing them or rescheduling for the fall. But the problem is also that we don't really know the timeline for this story or when it will end. We've had issues related to personal issues of people in the community. People living with HIV were not getting their treatment due to the fact that hospitals were closed except for the coronavirus. Then we've had issues related to sex workers not being able to work anymore. The issue of poverty has been quite an important issue. A lot of people have been laid off, a lot of people were not able to pay rent, a lot of people were either in unemployment benefits, and so on.
At the personal level for us and as an organization, all of a sudden we got a lot more messages from people asking for help. We've tried to help them on a case by case basis. We are not a social health kind of organization, but we've tried to fix as many problems as we were able to. Then throughout this, and actually talking about issue of intersectionality and the issue of the project and the way we work with the Roma LGBT community, what we've witnessed throughout this pandemic and the lockdowns, especially, was an increase in violence, against Roma people from the police. So together with colleagues from civil society, especially Roma groups, we had to monitor hate speech in the media, monitor cases of abuse and violence from the police, and also make statements and letters to official institution, to the president and the prime minister and so on. So for us, it was an issue of also solidarity with other groups affected by the pandemic.
WP: I believe that you've had to move some of your activities online, correct?
VV: That was another part, which we kind of tried to make the best out of the situation. We felt that there were a lot of young kids, for example, who, because schools were closed, they had to go back and live with their homophobic parents. A lot of organizations, LGBT organizations in Romania were not able to have the Zoom meetings with their volunteers because they were living with homophobic or transphobic parents so they could not reveal what they were doing or who they were talking to. So the issue of depression and psychological pressure that comes on people being locked down, people trying to survive throughout this pandemic, we decided to have a campaign online, which was called MosaiQ Quarantine, and that included parties online in order to support queer artists who were not able to earn any money because there were no gigs. We organized these online parties and we paid them and we supported their work.
Then we had the zoom talks with, or like talks online, with all of the organizations and groups in Romania, LGBT groups, to kind of better see the situation on the ground in different cities in Romania. That was for us extremely important because we felt like there was a need to have this dialogue within the community.
Then we had the all sorts of posts on social media and different kinds of events. We also talked with organizations from the region, from the US, from Moldova, from Russia, to kind of see what the feeling also over there.
So for us, it was quite an exercise to take advantage of the fact that using social media and using online tools, we were able to reach out to people who otherwise would not have been able to participate in our events, being so far away.
WP: It sounds like Mosaic has certainly stepped up to the challenges. Could you just briefly talk about what NDI support has meant to Mosaic?
VV: I think the project funded by NDI was extremely important, both for the community ... right now, we have an active Roma LGBT group. We have all of these, the issue of intersectionality being put on the agenda. We have the [inaudible 00:19:36] sports, which is a sports club run by women who is also trying to grow based also on the support that Mosaic has offered through NDI. We've had, at the Pride last season, the first Roma LGBT contingent putting the issue on the agenda. So for us, in many regards, this project kind of focused us more on this intersectional approach to activism and the need to include all voices within the community. The trust that they had in us was very important.
WP: I'm glad to hear that it's been a fruitful partnership, both for NDI and Mosaic. Vlad, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us.
VV: Oh, that's it.
WP: We'll be back after this short message.
To hear more from democracy heroes and why inclusion is critical to democracy, listen to our DemWorks podcast, available on iTunes and SoundCloud.
Before the break we heard from two partners using digital platforms to create and support communities. But how are groups sustaining their online networks and communities once created? Rainbow Rights trained paralegals in the Philippines on legal issues related to sexual orientation and gender identity and how to support LGBTI communities. Through Google Classroom, these paralegals formed an online network to help communities facing discrimination and violence. Eljay, welcome to our podcast. Could you tell us a little bit more about the paralegal support project?
Eljay: Yeah. One of the main components of our community paralegal program is to create a national online platform wherein all of the trained paralegals of our organization will be able to share their experiences, their cases, and they could also refer some of the difficult cases to us. So that's the main idea. It's just that it gained a deeper significance in this COVID-19 pandemic that we're experiencing because a lot of legal organizations hurried to do to do what we had been doing in the past year, which is to create an online platform.
Right now, even though there's a lot of problems in the Philippines barring the central autocracy, we have been maintaining the platform. People are still referring cases to us and we are working on those cases. Part of the deeper significance that it has is in the Philippines, human rights violations have increased because of the lockdown. So it became a source of reporting documentation for these human rights violations during the lockdown. We did not expect that it will evolve that way but we're happy that it has, and despite some connectivity issues in the Philippines, it has been reaping as well.
WP: So when you're talking about the program, there've been increased human rights reports, is that generally more broad human rights abuses? Or are we talking specifically to the LGBTI community?
E: Yeah, we accept every report on numerous violations, but we take on the LGBTI human rights violations specifically. When we receive human rights violations that is not really in our lane, so to speak, we refer them to bigger organizations. We have seen increased numerous violation against the LGBTQI community here.
WP: You had mentioned that Rainbow Rights fortunately had organized the training for the paralegals before the pandemic hit and already have a plan in place to use online platforms, which was Google Classroom, to create this network across the country. You've briefly referenced what the current situation is like now, but could you go a little deeper into that? What kind of challenges is Rainbow Rights facing in continuing to engage with the community?
E: As I have mentioned, maybe a bigger challenge is the connectivity issues in the Philippines. We don't have good internet here, and that's a challenge. It's also challenged to keep the interest level of our paralegals and keep them engaged. That is also challenged because they have bigger problems now. Because of the pandemic, they're thinking of their health, they're thinking of their livelihoods, and that is a challenge during these times.
However, before the pandemic, we also saw that we had to be creative at the level of interest, so that's a challenge. The situation, it's working. Overall situation's working. We have referrals, we continue to share modules in our platform, refreshing their memory on the training. We also try to be light. There are some light moments so that they be so that they keep themselves also, the interest level is high and that they see us and they trust us in maintaining this platform.
WP: You alluded to the fact that it's often difficult to maintain interest of your paralegals when engaging online.
E: Basically, we had a two-pronged approach on this. One is to find the people who has a genuine interest to serve the community. So in our selection process, we have chosen people who have track records of service in their communities. The other side of the approach is to build on the spirit of camaraderie, friendship, and community solidarity between us. So even before the pandemic, we have been setting up calls and checking on them, even adding them on Facebook and Twitter just to continually engage with them. I think that's a big part of our strategies. We're also looking to ... I think in my personal view, I think a lot of what they do is labor, so I think in the future, we will be able to compensate them for their efforts in their community and we're looking into that as well.
WP: That's really interesting. Could you speak a little bit more to the role and benefits of partnering with international organizations such as NDI in your work and as well as helping to sustain this national network?
E: Yeah. I think it's invaluable. Foreign support, foreign funding support such as the NDI had been really great for us. We have been envisioning this project for a long time and NDI gave us the opportunity to really implement it. They also gave us a level of freedom in how to execute the program because there's a recognition that we in the ground know how to solve our problems. But there's also a lot of technical support aside from the funding. Like in digital security, NDI has given us a lot of resources, even given us a training for this and how to secure our online platforms. They also provided a lot of coalition building resources. So there, and I think we are also sharing what our experience with NDI to our other funders, because I think with NDI, we had a lot of freedom and we had a lot of support because you guys always check on us, so that's great.
WP: Well, I'm glad to hear that NDI is taking care of our partners. Thinking about how June is Pride Month for a lot of communities around the world, and Pride is often equated to the community of LGBTI people around the world how would you say Rainbow Rights efforts have contributed to strengthening the community in the light of the violence and the discrimination that LGBTI people face on a daily basis in the Philippines?
E: Since 2005, Rainbow Rights has been doing this approach wherein we come ... a top down approach at the policy level, but we also complement it with from the grassroots, bottom up approach. We make sure that whatever we bring at the policy level, it is informed by our grassroots services. I think that's one of our biggest contribution, is to really complement policy with experience on the ground. Most of the policies that we've pushed for is really coming from what our experiences and what are the real needs of the people that we serve in the communities. I think that's one of our biggest contributions in our approach. We're not just the legal, we don't just bring cases to court. We don't just bring legal expertise, but we also inform it with community level approaches and grassroots approaches.
WP: Well, thank you LJ again for taking the time to speak with us and telling us a little bit more about how Rainbow Rights is contributing to a holistic support system to the LGBTI community in the Philippines.
E: Thank you so much for this opportunity.
WP: Thank you to Ivan, Vlad, and Eljay for sharing their experiences and for the work you're doing to advance LGBTI equality and inclusion, and thank you to our listeners. To learn more about NDI or to listen to other DemWorks podcasts, please visit us at ndi.org

Rainbow Rights Paralegal Training



A Conversation With LGBTI Activists on Community-Building

Democracy (General), Podcast Listen LGBTI Pride National Democratic Institute NDICountries: All Regions

Its become almost cliche to say that we are now somehow living in an age of identity politics. Controversies ostensibly belonging to that term seem to be piling up at a ferocious rate. Whether it be to do with toxic masculinity in online gaming communities, the tearing down of confederate statues in southern American states, the campaign access to transgender bathrooms, the failure of Hillary Clinton's election campaign to recognize that gender is not a category that excludes the working class, or the right to freedom of speech of members of the so-called 'intellectual dark web,' it seems we're just awash with this intense and rapidly proliferating series of disputes over how we regulate speech and symbolic acts, in the public sphere. Clearly, we do think these debates are important — after all, as any politically-active user on Twitter and Facebook will tell you — we can spend vast amounts of time in arguments about these issues. And we continue to engage in them, even tho they don't seem to change anyone's minds (and reports suggest they are actually not very good for our mental health!).

But how did we get here? What made us suddenly so aware of identity, and why do we feel the need to argue about it? Is there anything redeeming about identity politics, and how — or to what extent — should the left be engaging in it? To discuss these questions and more, our guest for this episode is Marie Moran. Marie is a lecturer in Equality Studies at the School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice, in UCD, in Dublin, and she has a piece in the latest issue of Historical Materialism, called 'Identity and Identity Politics'. Based on some pretty compelling research, she lays out an argument in the piece that identity is actually a very new concept in the analysis of social life, and that we need to exercise much greater care in our approach to distinguishing what it is, and what isn't.

As you'll hear in the interview, Marie isn't necessarily opposed to identity politics. Not by any means. But she does believe that we may have taken a wrong turn in our grasp of its political significance. Thus, while we might find it hard not to be put off by the toxicity of today's "call out culture," Moran would remind us that the Black Power Movements who first embraced the concept of identity in the 1960s, did not have an essentializing approach to it. That is, that they didn't see their struggle to secure recognition for their groups in the public sphere as an end in itself (EDIT: Marie has since written me an email asking me to clarify that her position is that identity is "invariably" essentializing "and by definition does" essentialize. I hope the listener/reader will understand my point here, however, which is to follow Marie's own argument that not all identity struggles are carried out for the sake of identity, only). So, this is going to be one of the big topics in the interview you're about to hear — what it means to essentialize identity, and the linkages between today's identity mania, and capitalism's culture of self. Towards the end, we get into a good discussion of the similarities and differences between Marie's approach to the topic, and those presented by Asad Haider in his new book, 'Mistaken Identity' (we posted on this, last week). There's been a lot of controversy about the book online, but I think you'll find Marie's take to be pretty thoughtful.

On a final note, I just want to apologize for the poor audio quality in this interview — due to unforeseen circumstances, we ended up having to record this interview in Skype. I've done my best to clean it up, but you'll definitely hear some echo on the line. Its a shame, but stick with us - this is a really fascinating interview. Marie is a very careful and precise scholar. And I think you'll agree that she's making an important contribution to this debate.

Last month, CEGA held its ninth annual Measuring Development (MeasureDev) conference on "Mitigating the Risks and Impacts of Climate Change," in partnership with the World Bank's Development Impact Evaluation (DIME) Department, Data Analytics and Tools Unit (DECAT), and the University of Chicago's Development Innovation Lab (DIL). Speakers showcased innovative approaches for measuring and tracking climate-related risk, developing effective responses, and evaluating outcomes in data-sparse environments. Sean Luna McAdams, CEGA's Data Science for Development Program Manager, shares key insights from the event here.Climate change is disrupting weather patterns around the world. Look no further than the unhealthy levels of smoke in the Northeast's skies last week. The impacts on human activity require urgent investments in mitigation and resilience for those most vulnerable. Last month, CEGA, DIL, and the World Bank brought together some of the most innovative social and natural scientists working on this existential challenge to share how they are pushing the frontiers of data collection, for example by using remote sensing technologies, engaging in participatory data collection, and effectively (and meaningfully) integrating different data streams.University of Chicago's Rachel Glennester emphasized the importance of measurement to help diagnose, mitigate, and adapt to climate change, particularly to incentivize green investments in LMICs. Credit: World Bank.A Call for Better Measurement"Mitigation is one of the true global public goods," noted the University of Chicago's Rachel Glennester in her keynote address. Indeed, the efforts by one country or group of countries to reduce carbon emissions will have benefits that are felt worldwide. Recognizing that low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) — who have historically contributed little to climate change — nevertheless face growing opportunities to mitigate emissions for the whole planet, Rachel suggested high-income countries could fund highly costeffective mitigation efforts in LMICs. These payments should not be considered aid as they benefit the world and offset high income countries' damage to the atmosphere. To do this effectively we need scalable approaches to measuring emissions, among many other critical indicators.Cost-Effective Measurement with Remote SensingMany speakers addressed the challenge of cost-effective measurement through the use of remote sensing. CEGA Affiliate Tamma Carleton highlighted the promise of satellite imagery and machine learning (SIML) to improve climate management. Her own work on MOSAIKS demonstrates the potential for these data and predictive models to increase the spatial coverage and resolution of survey and administrative georeferenced data, while lowering barriers to access for decision-makers in low-resource settings. Similarly, Dieter Wang showcased how higher resolution and frequency satellite imagery alongside cloud-penetrating sensors can improve estimates of how well conservation policies in the Brazilian Amazon are preventing deforestation. Better measurement in this case makes it possible to reward governments through bonds whose rates are tied to mitigation performance. Kangogo Sogomo discussed a novel approach that leverages satellite imagery to predict maize yields at a finer scale with less computational resources.Since 2010, new satellites have come online that increase both sensor resolution and cloud-free revisit rate. These advances provide researchers with more granular and frequent imagery data to incorporate into their analyses. Credit: Burke et al, Science 2021.Of course, remote sensing is not just limited to satellites and can inform adaptation and resilience alongside mitigation. Samuel Seo, for example, compared measurement strategies for methane emissions from a large, unmanaged landfill in Dakar, Senegal by collecting data using human enumerators, drones, and satellites. Across the board, these measurements suggest that current approaches used by the IPCC underestimate total emissions from these sites by more than half. Bridget Hoffman instead used low-cost air pollution sensors along bus routes and within buses in Dakar to understand the effects of an infrastructure project on air quality. Drones, stationary sensors, and other instruments can all provide rich data at scale to improve the evaluation and monitoring of climate mitigation and adaptation strategies.The Role of Participatory Data CollectionResearchers and climate practitioners not only think creatively about the sensors they use to collect data, they also innovate data collection and its infrastructure to make it more participatory. Kangogo Sogomo noted increasing mobile phone use and internet penetration across the global South suggesting, "climate action is urgent… there is still an opportunity for having participatory methods [for data collection]." Tom Bewick, for example, has trained indigenous communities in Africa and Latin America how to collect georeferenced data on planted trees to improve the monitoring of their growth and local collective governance. Similarly, Kenneth Mubea, who works to conserve mangrove forests, discussed how his research assembled teams of students to work with local communities to collect georeferenced data. Participatory approaches can extend to model validation, as with the case of Alejandra Mortarini. She worked with organizations that have long-standing relationships with communities living in informal settlements in Honduras to help validate the outputs of the predictive model and calibrate it to improve its performance. By incorporating local actors into data collection efforts, we can increase its frequency, provide greater access, and contribute to a local culture of evidence-use.New Approaches to Data IntegrationA third strategy to make data collection cheaper and more effective relies on exploiting efficiencies generated by integrating different data streams. The World Bank's Stéphane Hallegatte stressed the opportunity of integrating different data sources in his remarks."We have all this fantastic progress in measurement with remote sensing and big data, we have these household surveys that are playing an absolutely critical role to measure what we are doing and to prioritize," said Hallegatte. "One of the big challenges is to make them completely interlinked and to flow smoothly from the spatial to household surveys, and have household surveys that can be more flexible when there is a shock that can use data coming from satellites to maybe focus and do dedicated surveys in places that have been affected by a shock."In particular, Hallegatte stressed that traditional measures of vulnerability may lead us to miss some individuals who may be critically underprepared to face the "long tails" of climate shocks. Adaptive research designs can help us understand which interventions work best in particular contexts and communities, improving our understanding of how climate systems affect those who are socioeconomically and environmentally most vulnerable and how we may build resilience together.Hallegatte stressed how different metrics of climate vulnerability can lead policy makers to prioritize different areas. Here we see how four different risk indicators — annual asset risk, annual consumption poverty increase, socioeconomic resilience, and annual well-being risk — map onto the Philippines. Source: Hallegatte 2023.Paola Agostini, Mohammed Basheer, and Erwin Knippenberg simulated physical and social systems in their research designs. These simulations enabled each of them to estimate new quantities of interest, like the decision-space of negotiations for potential dam designs in the Nile River Basin, the cost-per-benefit of different land restoration interventions in Tajikistan, or the percentage of the population at risk of falling into poverty due to weather shocks in Afghanistan. Ben Brunckhorst showed how the incorporation of weather predictions unlocks the possibility of anticipatory cash transfers with demonstrable effects on household resilience to flooding in Bangladesh.Through better measurement we can improve our collective efforts to meet the challenge of climate change. As Hallegatte reminded us in his keynote remarks, how we construct these measures of impact fundamentally affects what regions, communities, and interventions we prioritize. A critical part of this effort will be to leverage measurement strategies highlighted during MeasureDev 2023 to channel resources to the places and communities where interventions to mitigate and adapt to climate change will have the greatest impact. In so doing, measurement can contribute to a more equitable future by incentivizing green investments in LMICs.How does Measurement Contribute to a Habitable Planet for All? was originally published in CEGA on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Jeffrey A. Singer


Minnesota Governor Tim Walz signed Senate File 2974, the Omnibus Human Services appropriations bill into law on Wednesday, May 24. Among the most notable features of the spending bill is that it appropriates $55.49 million in one‐​time grants in 2024 for:
[O]rganizations to establish safe recovery sites that offer harm reduction services and supplies, including but not limited to safe injection spaces; sterile needle exchange; naloxone rescue kits; fentanyl and other drug testing; street outreach; educational and referral services; health, safety, and wellness services; and access to hygiene and sanitation. (emphasis added)

In a recent Cato briefing paper, I reported there are currently 147 government‐​sanctioned Overdose Prevention Centers (OPCs)—called "safe injection spaces" by Minnesota lawmakers—saving lives in 91 locations in 16 countries. Switzerland, home of the first sanctioned OPC in Bern in 1986, has 14 of them. Germany has 25. Canada has 38.
The first two government‐​sanctioned OPCs in the United States began operating on November 30, 2021, after the City of New York authorized OnPointNYC, a non‐​profit harm reduction organization, to operate them in East Harlem and Washington Heights in Manhattan. At a Cato online policy forum in March, Kailin See, the development and implementation lead for those OPCs, told us that during the first year of operation, the 2 OPCs reversed 750 overdoses—those are 750 people who would otherwise be dead.
Rhode Island lawmakers authorized privately funded OPCs in August 2021. Two Rhode Island harm reduction organizations have partnered to open the state's first OPC in early 2024.
OPCs are federally illegal under 21 U.S.C. Section 856, also known as the "crack house statute." On March 1, 2023, I provided testimony to the Subcommittee on Crime and Government Surveillance of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, in which I called on lawmakers to repeal the statute to remove federal obstacles to harm reduction organizations seeking to save lives in their communities.
I did not advocate that taxpayer funds go toward establishing or operating OPCs. Plenty of private non‐​profit organizations are eager to establish OPCs if only the government would get out of the way.
Among the policy recommendations in my briefing paper, I stated:
Finally, if Congress cannot repeal the "crack house" statute, it should at an absolute minimum amend existing federal law so harm‐​reduction organizations can establish and run OPCs.

So now we have New York City, Rhode Island, and Minnesota disobeying federal law. If more state and local governments continue defying federal law by authorizing OPCs, it will hopefully pressure Congress to remove the federal ban.

This article was co-published with the Guardian.Top Republican donor and TikTok investor Jeff Yass is connected to over $16 million in funding to anti-Muslim and pro-Israel groups that have advocated for a U.S. war with Iran and other militaristic policies in the Middle East, according to an investigation by the Guardian and Responsible Statecraft.Media reports on Yass, the billionaire co-founder of Susquehanna International Group, a trading and technology firm, have focused on his outsized role in the Republican Party, to which he is now the largest political donor in the 2024 election cycle, contributing more than $46 million thus far.Yass has also emerged as the biggest funder of a group targeting progressive representative Summer Lee (Pa.) in her primary race, suggesting an interest in influencing Democratic primary outcomes, not just in boosting Republicans.But little has been reported about his involvement in funding groups advocating a pro-Israel U.S. foreign policy, hawkish U.S. policies in the Middle East and support for theorists whom experts described as extreme anti-Muslim conspiracists.Leading Yass's philanthropy in the foreign policy space is $7.9 million contributed to Jerusalem Online University between 2014 and 2019 by a grant-making group at which he once served as one of three directors.A Jewish Daily Forward investigation into the group in 2011 found that the website promotes itself as a source of educational materials about the Middle East and Israel, but the website's actual message is far more biased, the Forward found."On its website and its promotional materials, Jerusalem Online U hardly portrays itself as a center for neutral academic inquiry," the Forward wrote. "In fact, it boasts an explicitly pro-Israel mission that seems distinctly at odds with academic principles. In one advertisement for its services, the Jerusalem Online U site's blog features a video of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu telling Congress last May that 'Israel is what is right' about the Middle East. The words 'Be a Part of What's Right' appear on screen as he speaks."The contributions came from the Claws Foundation, an entity at which Yass served as a director alongside Arthur Dantchik, a co-founder of Susquehanna and attorney Alan P Dye. Dye did not return calls for comment. The Kids Connect Charitable Fund — which does not list Yass or Dantchik as directors but listed the Claws Foundation as a "related tax-exempt organization" in an IRS filing and was identified as an arm of both men's philanthropy by Haaretz — contributed another $3.48 million to Jerusalem Online University's parent organization, Imagination Productions.The Claws Foundation also issued a $10,000 grant to Friends of the Israel Defense Forces in 2011 and $35,000 in grants, between 2010 and 2011, to the Center for Security Policy, an anti-Muslim and conspiracy theory-promoting group founded by Frank Gaffney, whom the Southern Policy Law Center describes as "one of America's most notorious Islamophobes" and the Anti-Defamation League describes as a chief promulgator of the conspiracy theory "that the US government has been infiltrated by the Muslim Brotherhood and that a number of political figures have actual ties to the group." The Center for Security Policy vice-president, Clare Lopez, has said: "When Muslims follow their doctrine they become jihadists."In 2013 to 2014, the Claws Foundation sent $250,000 to the David Horowitz Freedom Center, another central promoter of anti-Muslim conspiracy theories. Horowitz, whom the group is named after and who serves as its president, once complained that Muslims are a "protected species in this country" and said he's "wait[ing] for the day when the good Muslims step forward," at a Brooklyn College event in 2011."The fact Yass is donating to Gaffney and Horowitz's organizations shows how extreme his politics are," said Tommy Vietor, former National Security Council spokesperson under President Obama. "They are beyond Trump. They are OG conspiracy theorists. Gaffney in particular."The Claws Foundation also donated $100,000 to the Central Fund of Israel in 2014, a group that the New York Times described as a "clearinghouse" for settlement development in the Israeli-occupied West Bank."The Claws Foundation has contributed more than $300 million, overwhelmingly to children's hospitals, adult healthcare, education and the arts in the United States, and has never sought to influence U.S. foreign policy," said a spokesperson for Yass and Dantchik. "Moreover, $31 million of Claws contributions went to the Shalom Hartman Institute, one of whose important apolitical initiatives is building bridges between Jewish and Muslim communities. Focusing on a few de minimis contributions promotes a false narrative that fits a biased agenda."Yass's philanthropy also appears to bring Yass into close contact with efforts to influence U.S.-Israel and U.S.-Iran relations via advocacy and lobbying campaigns. A non-profit group, QXZ Inc, is the largest identifiable source of funding for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's (AIPAC) efforts to obstruct the White House's nuclear diplomacy with Iran during Barack Obama's second presidential term.In 2015, QXZ Inc contributed $1.5 million to Citizens for a Nuclear Free Iran, AIPAC's advocacy group opposing the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), an agreement between the five permanent members of the U.N. Security council plus Germany and Iran to impose restrictions on Iran's nuclear program in exchange for Iran receiving some relief from nuclear-related sanctions.Vietor was dismissive of AIPAC's work opposing the Obama-era JCPOA but suggested that electing and influencing Trump became a goal of some Iran-deal opponents."[Funders of the anti-JCPOA campaign] lit that money on fire in 2015. They were incapable of beating Obama politically in terms of defeating the JCPOA in Congress so they changed tactics and went all in for Trump," said Vietor. "Trump chose to pull out of the JCPOA despite many of his advisers saying it would be a disaster and it has been. Iran is closer than ever to getting a nuclear weapon."Yass's ties to a group providing significant financial support to AIPAC's effort were unreported until now. QXZ's links to Yass were revealed when Strong Economy for Growth, a Massachusetts-based group, spent $1.2 million supporting a failed 2016 ballot question regarding lifting caps on charter schools. State campaign finance officials required the group to disclose the identity of its donors. Yass, via QXZ, was the largest funder of Strong Economy for Growth.QXZ's involvement in well-concealed funding of foreign policy advocacy continued in 2015 with a $250,000 contribution to neoconservative pundit Bill Kristol's Emergency Committee for Israel (ECI), a group that ran ads attacking Obama as "caving to Iran" with the JCPOA.The New Yorker's Connie Bruck profiled the group's strategies and reported that the ECI "sought to intimidate critics of Netanyahu, and Israel's most powerful American backers, for the escalating drive to war with Iran, and to damage Obama."Underscoring QXZ's commitment to the most militaristic and pro-Israel wings of the Republican party, the group contributed $1.05 million between 2018 and 2019 to the Republican Jewish Coalition, a club of hawkishly pro-Israel megadonors.A spokesperson for Yass did not comment on Yass's ties to QXZ but denied Yass's involvement in donations to the Emergency Committee for Israel, the Republican Jewish Coalition or Citizens for a Nuclear Free Iran."Jeff Yass has never directed QXZ to fund any such groups and any statement otherwise is false," said the spokesperson.Yass has said nothing about his foreign policy agenda in public remarks but the timeline of his meeting with Trump and Trump's subsequent reversal of his position on banning TikTok offers an early indication that Yass may already be an influential figure for the Republican nominee for the presidency.Trump has a track record of shifting positions on Israel and Iran to align with political megadonors. Only after securing the nomination in 2016 did Trump pivot to more militaristic positions in the Middle East — committing to withdrawing the U.S. from the JCPOA, moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and supporting an unconditionally pro-Israel U.S. approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — positions in lockstep with his biggest political patrons in the general election, the late Sheldon Adelson and his wife, Miriam.Yass's spokesperson denied that Yass seeks influence with Trump on foreign policy matters."Jeff Yass has never discussed foreign policy with Donald Trump, has never contributed to Mr. Trump and has no plans to do so," said the spokesperson. "Mr. Yass's philanthropy is largely focused on school choice and has nothing to do with foreign policy.""As a libertarian, Jeff generally opposes American involvement in foreign affairs as evidenced by his support for Rand Paul and Thomas Massie," the spokesperson said.

 Yesterday, I participated in a roundtable on gender discrimination in security studies at the annual conference of the European Initiative on Security Studies [EISS].  EISS is a relatively new network of European security scholars.  This is, I believe, my third time attending, as I have been seeking to build connections between the CDSN and Europe.  It doesn't hurt, of course, that the EISS conferences have been in Paris, Berlin, and now Barcelona.  I presented my very preliminary work on the next project--variations in what Defense Agencies (DoD, MoD, etc) do, receiving lots of very helpful comments during that panel and the lunch that preceded it.  A couple of months ago, Hugo Meijer, the Director of EISS, asked me if I would be willing to join a panel on gender discrimination.  I had some hesistancy as I am not an expert--as I told the room yesterday, I am a feminist but my work does not take feminist approach to international relations and I don't study gender.  That last bit is not as true as it used to be, as I am involved in a project that has surveyed Canadian security scholars about their experiences, focusing on gender discrimination.  But I agreed to speak since I have seen a lot of problems over the years and was going to be the most experienced (oldest) person on the panel.  Plus I was the only one to give a North American perspective.  I was joined by fellow civ-mil scholar and super kind Chiara Ruffa of Science Po as well as two feminist scholars who were online: Annick Wibben of Swedish Defence University, and Vanessa Newby, Leiden University. We were asked two questions: when did we first notice gender problems in the field and what is some advice we have for handling this stuff?  The first question was pretty easy: almost immediately as there was a case of sexual harassment in my grad program.  I then discussed that two of the places that I worked had toxic environments thanks to male profs preying upon grad students, as well as citation patterns and hiring stuff.  That men have often reported that women get all of the jobs, which is strange since there are still plenty of men in the discipline.  I didn't have time to get into the love of old boys networks by some senior scholars or how some post-doc funders tended to only give to men back in the day.  In short, lots of problems which I have discussed here from time to time.  Chiara, Annick, and Vanessa had much more to say on this, alas.  For the second question, I cautioned that I can't really tell women how to behave--not my role--but I had some ideas for making some improvements--building from my CDSN experience--to be deliberate about panel organization--no manels, deny platforms to those who are known to be predators or otherwise assholes, find or found organizations that seek to elevate and mentor women and work with them, as we have with WIIS-Canada, WCAPS-Canada, as well as Out in National Security such as WIIS Europe.  In the following Q&A, folks raised questions about the pace of change and what can we do in the face of structural problems.  I mentioned this meme:  But then I noted an earlier presentation that day invoked structuration theory (something I wrote about in my very first IR theory class in grad school, taught be the gone too soon John Ruggie)--that agent and structure shape each other.   So, we need to act individually and collectively to change the norms, the institutions, and the social structures that, well, maintain patriarchy.  I pointed out that when I started, the room would have been almost entirely male, and that EISS and CDSN are efforts to foster more diverse defence/security communities.  These folks have a right to be impatient, but we ought not be too pessimistic or deterred--we can make a difference and improve things.   It was a good and important conversation to have, and I hope it spurs further conversations.  It was strange to be discussing this stuff on a day where the US Supreme Court made things worse for women, for LGBTQ2S+, and for other historically excluded groups... but definitely much needed.

Colleen Hroncich


Denisha Merriweather Allen says her life would be very different today if not for school choice. She grew up in an impoverished community in Jacksonville, Florida. Her family had lived in poverty there for at least four generations. They were well‐​known in the community and in the local schools. "She's a Merriweather," teachers would say, with the implication being not to expect anything from her.
Not surprisingly, Denisha's behavior reflected these expectations the adults had of her. "I remember days when I would walk into the classroom and everyone would sigh, including my teacher," she shared with The 74. "I grew disheartened. To hide my hurt, I often lashed out in physical fights with my classmates. The principal's office became my new classroom, and I got used to being suspended. D's and F's filled my report cards." Denisha failed 3rd grade twice because she couldn't read.
As she entered 6th grade, Denisha's life changed. She began living with her godmother, who used a tax credit scholarship to send Denisha to Esprit de Corps Center for Learning, a private school her church had started. "The nurturing environment at Esprit de Corps made a huge difference," says Denisha. "They didn't just see me as a person who came to school with a lot of baggage and not the best outlook. I was a challenging student and spent a lot of time in in‐​school suspension. But they were so nurturing and consistent that it changed my attitude. They encouraged me to use my voice and gave me ways to channel my strengths. I went from making D's and F's to graduating with honors, going to college, and getting a master's degree. I don't think that would have been possible if I hadn't been given a different opportunity."
Denisha became a school choice advocate because she witnessed first‐​hand the tremendous impact it had on her own life. Fast forward to 2020. The country is in the midst of social unrest after the killing of George Floyd. "The entire country was looking at our systems and thinking about how we can become more equitable," says Denisha. "But I was frustrated that there wasn't enough focus on the inequities in our education system and the reforms that really could make a difference in the lives of students and especially Black students. The academic outcomes for Black students nationwide according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress are really dismal."
But Denisha didn't just complain about the situation or sit back and hope someone else would do something. She created Black Minds Matter, a national movement to celebrate black minds, support excellence, and promote the development of high‐​quality school options for black students. "There's a lot of research that shows when Black students have choice in education, their academic outcomes improve drastically. And not just academics—even crime and teen pregnancy rates improve when students have school choice," Denisha points out.
Black Minds Matter works to "encourage and empower elected officials, community members and families to be innovative, demand excellence in education, and increase the number of schools founded by Black individuals." A key piece of this effort is a Black‐​Owned School directory, which is the first online directory to promote schools founded by African Americans and currently includes 416 schools.
Last week, Denisha hosted the second annual Black Minds Matter Summit. It gave parents, students, teachers, school leaders, education reformers, and lawmakers a chance to connect with and inspire each other in their efforts to transform education for black students. The participants included founders of homeschool co‐​ops, microschools, charter schools, and traditional private schools. Students from a local black‐​owned school surprised the audience with a lesson on financial literacy. And former school choice beneficiaries shared their stories along with ways to activate and engage communities.
Prior to this year's summit, Black Minds Matter partnered with the State Policy Network to host a mini launchpad with black school founders who are looking to expand. It was a great opportunity for the founders to receive feedback and tips from a diverse group of entrepreneurs, innovators, and education reformers.
In her journey from school choice beneficiary to advocate, Denisha has been an inspiration to countless people. But she's also been inspired herself—by the parents who are finding better options for their children, the students who are working to improve their futures, the school founders who are creating new opportunities for those students, and the lawmakers who are willing to face strong opposition when they pass school choice programs that help disadvantaged kids escape bad environments. Through Black Minds Matter, she's created a way to help cultivate and sustain a growing movement centered around ensuring every black student has access to a high‐​quality education they've chosen.

Key Takeaways from the Africa Evidence Summit CIDR PanelAt the 2023 Africa Evidence Summit, panelists Jeanine Condo (Chief Executive Officer, The Centre for Impact, Innovation and Capacity building for Health Information Systems and Nutrition), Rose Oronje (Director of Public Policy and Knowledge Translation, and Head of Kenya Office, AFIDEP), Aurelia Munene (Founder of Eider Africa), and Constantine Manda (Assistant Professor of Political Science, UC Irvine) joined moderator Daniel Posner (Professor of International Development, UCLA) to explore the varied incentives for African scholars to publish. Amy Shipow (Project Manager, CEGA Global Networks) and Maya Ranganath (Associate Director, CEGA Global Networks and Inclusion) synthesize the discussion to shed light on the publication gap and generate insights on how barriers can be alleviated to allow African scholars to participate fully in scholarly publication.Jeanine Condo speaks on the panel at the 2023 Africa Evidence Summit | Luft Ventures"The research infrastructure on the [African] continent remains very low. Few publications are a reflection of the limited investments governments are putting into research […] There are biases in journals. As a PhD student studying in the US, I was told that I should have my Western professor as a co-author to get published." — Rose Oronje, Director of Public Policy and Knowledge Translation, and Head of Kenya Office, AFIDEP.The Collaboration for Inclusive Development Research (CIDR), co-led by CEGA and the Network for Impact Evaluation Researchers in Africa (NIERA), aims to shift norms in global development research towards a more inclusive ecosystem. At the 2023 Africa Evidence Summit in Nairobi, we organized a panel to discuss how differing incentives and resources contribute to publishing disparities between researchers from high income countries (HIC) and those from low- and -middle-income countries (LMICs). The panel also probed the role of journals, universities, and researchers in HICs in exacerbating (or mitigating) this problem.We present the major themes of the discussion below, which shed light on the barriers and opportunities that African scholars face along the education to evidence-use pipeline.Co-authorship with scholars from HICs can serve as a helpful career stepping stone; however, it is only a small step in changing the research ecosystem to produce more African scholarship.Dr. Condo shared that working with and publishing together with CEGA affiliated professor Paul Gertler was an important lever for her career. Yet, African scholars often face internalized pressure (due to external biases) towards co-authoring with scholars from HICs. When Dr. Oronje asked the nearly 500 Summit attendees, "How many African scholars here are first authors when you submit a publication?," hardly anyone raised their hand, leading her to share that not even she submits academic publications as a first author.Panelists shared the structural obstacles African researchers face to conduct their own rigorous social science research.Since most African universities are "teaching" institutions and prioritize this over research, scholars are left with limited time to pursue their own research agendas. Moreover, faculty are rarely trained to mentor or share resources with their students — challenges that are further exacerbated by the significant time constraints they face. Access to scholars with experience publishing at top-tier universities is also privileged for HIC students, who can more easily build subject-matter expertise simply by attending office hours and speaking with other students and faculty. Without this similar exposure to the most relevant literature and resources, African students instead spend more self-directed time finding, reading, and engaging with a variety of potentially less relevant work."Last year, I was challenging the Vice Chancellor of the University of Rwanda — I am breastfeeding but I am expected to publish three papers. How can I have more space and time to be an equal competitor?" — Jeanine CondoFemale scholars face additional barriers to publishing, even at the highest levels of academia.Dr. Condo recently published a paper on gender inequities in publishing, which outlined that in papers from sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), men comprised 61% of first authors, 65% of last authors, and 66% of single authors. A recent survey of over 200 alumni of SSA STEM PhD programs confirmed that women obtain less university and external funding for graduate studies than their male counterparts. Female panelists shared that they had to push back against senior leadership with regard to career expectations in the face of reproductive and domestic responsibilities; they are expected to achieve the same results as their male counterparts but are constrained by additional, invisibilized labor.Given these constraints to African-led authorship, what are the potential solutions to incentivize and support publishing?"Money is the problem and the solution," Dr. Manda shared. Existing funds should be leveraged to support and nurture African researchers so that journals will be eager to publish their work. Dr. Condo recently wrote a grant to research the effects of providing monetary incentives for researchers to publish, instead of accepting small consultancies, where their contributions were less likely to be recognized by name. Preliminary results suggest that this is an effective incentive for SSA researchers. Similarly, panelists cited the dedicated research and pilot funding that CEGA provides to African scholars helps them pursue their own research interests.Investing in the quality of African journals is essential, and can be accomplished through different mechanisms.Panelists urged researchers to publish important work in African journals, which can signal the quality of the journal, can make findings more accessible, and uphold the ethical responsibility to share results with the communities of study. Dr. Oronje also emphasized the need for African scholars to sit on the editorial boards of such journals.Concurrently, HIC journals are making strides to improve geographic equity; for example, PLOS recently announced a policy that authors conducting research outside of their country of origin will be asked to complete a questionnaire that details the ethical, cultural, and scientific considerations taken to uphold inclusivity in their research, including if local authors are included among the authorship list. Making journals open access was another solution proposed by the panel. Initiatives like the Northwestern Research Feedback Project provides LMIC scholars, who have a desk-rejected paper from the Journal of Development Economics (JDE), the opportunity to be matched with a HIC scholar for feedback. While the author is not reconsidered for JDE, it is hoped that the paper can be improved for other submissions.Both Africa-based and HIC-based non-governmental organizations can complement African universities by offering dedicated mentorship to African scholars.Through her work as the founder of Eider Africa, panelist Aurelia Munene is striving to decrease the sense of isolation researchers experience, especially among recent graduates looking to publish. Her organization offers mentorship on essential research and writing skills as well as supports enhancing curricula at African universities. Additionally, panelists mentioned the importance of identifying resources (such as Afrobarometer, the Harvard Dataverse, or datasets of published papers) and training students to use them.While the panel began with discussion about differing incentives to publish, the conversation evolved to mirror CIDR's fundamental goals: how can we best support African researchers so that journals will actively seek out African scholars to publish their research and policymakers will hasten to apply their results?If you are working in this space, we invite you to let us know what you think! We will soon launch an online survey for students, faculty, research professionals, journal editors, and funders to share their thoughts on the current state of inclusion in the evidence ecosystem and ways to improve it. Please watch for the official announcement of this online survey later this month. The results of the survey and other CIDR research will be released in 2024.It Takes a Village to Raise a Researcher was originally published in CEGA on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Die Meldungen über das zivilgesellschaftliche Engagement der Bürger:innen in Polen und Deutschland angesichts des russischen Angriffskriegs in der Ukraine und der Hilfeleistungen für Schutzsuchende Ukrainer:innen sind zahlreich. Die Hilfsbereitschaft in den unmittelbaren Nachbarstaaten ist überwältigend und in ganz Europa groß. In verschiedensten Bereichen der Gesellschaft führen die vorhandenen Verflechtungen zu unterschiedlichen Ausprägungen von Solidarisierung. Wie positionieren sich die maßgeblichen wissenschaftlichen Akteure und Organisationen? Der nachfolgende Beitrag richtet seinen Blick auf die Anteilnahme und Reaktionen der wissenschaftlicher communities in Polen und Deutschland.Polnisch-ukrainische VerflechtungenDie polnisch-ukrainischen Beziehungen entwickelten sich nach der politischen und wirtschaftlichen Transformationsphase beider Staaten überwiegend positiv. Als Beispiel dafür gilt unter anderem der Personaltransfer polnischer Wirtschaftseliten in die Ukraine.[1] Auch die zunehmende Erwerbsmigration aus der Ukraine in die Republik Polen wird oft als Zeugnis harmonisch verlaufender Nachbarschaftsbeziehungen und Motor sich intensivierender zwischengesellschaftlicher Verflechtungen gesehen. Tatsächlich kommen die meisten Arbeitsmigrant:innen in Polen aus der Ukraine – auf sie entfallen etwa 70 Prozent aller erteilten Arbeitsgenehmigungen. Viele Hochschulen bemühen sich erfolgreich um junge Ukrainer:innen als Studierende, denen der anschließende Eintritt in den Arbeitsmarkt oft nicht schwerfällt. Doch so, wie die fehlende Integrationspolitik zu gesamtgesellschaftlichen Problemen und vereinzelt auch zu Gewalt gegen Migrant:innen führt, so gibt es auch in Bildung und Wissenschaft kaum verhohlene Ressentiments, etwa bei der Konkurrenz um gute Ergebnisse bei den Aufnahmeprüfungen für die Hochschulen.[2] Insgesamt gesehen profitieren aber bisher beide Seiten von der Wissenschaftsbeziehung, im Lauf der Jahre wurden eine Vielzahl von bilateralen Initiativen und Projekten gestartet, Stipendien- sowie studentische Austauschprogramme aufgelegt.[3]Zwischen Boykott für die einen und Unterstützung für die anderen: Stellungnahmen und Hilfsangebote der Wissenschaft in Polen …Die russische Invasion in die Ukraine am 24. Februar 2022 wird als historische Zäsur betrachtet. In der Folge des Angriffs positionierten sich zahlreiche polnische wissenschaftliche Institutionen mit und ohne Ukrainebezug. Neben dem grundlegenden Solidaritätsaufruf der Polnischen Akademie der Wissenschaften verfassten am 2. März 2022 Wissenschaftler:innen aus der Zweigstelle der Akademie in Kiew einen Appell an die "akademischen Kreise und intellektuelle Eliten"[4] Polens. Darin forderten sie den Adressat:innenkreis auf "alle Maßnahmen zu ergreifen, um die eskalierende militärische Aggression in der Ukraine friedlich zu beenden."[5] Die Unterzeichner rufen zum Boykott staatstreuer Wissenschaftsinstitutionen auf, die den Angriffskrieg befürworten. Zugleich zollen sie denjenigen, die innerhalb Russlands Widerstand gegen die Aggression leisten und für den Frieden demonstrieren, ihren Respekt, und sagen ihnen Unterstützung zu. Immerhin waren es sehr schnell mehr als 7.500 russische Wissenschaftler:innen, die in einem öffentlichen Appell den Krieg verurteilt hatten, bevor das Schreiben online unzugänglich gemacht wurde. Das von der Polnischen Akademie der Wissenschaften umgehend eingerichtete Förderinstrument zur Unterstützung von gefährdeten ukrainischen Wissenschaftler:innen wurde so gut angenommen, dass es bereits Anfang März erschöpft war. Während an neuen Möglichkeiten gearbeitet wird, bemüht sich die Akademie auch darum, weitere Informationen zu Hilfsprogramm aus anderen Ländern verfügbar zu machen, von der Central European University über die österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften bis hin zur Academia Sinica aus Taiwan.[6]Mit der Einrichtung einer Hotline für Geflüchtete, die sich über die Möglichkeiten der Fortsetzung ihres Studiums informieren möchten, leistet die polnische Nationale Agentur für Akademischen Austausch des Ministeriums für Wissenschaft und Hochschulbildung einen helfenden Beitrag (Telefon +48 508 188 189). Das reguläre Angebot der Agentur stellt ohnehin einen großen Teil der Informationen nicht nur auf Englisch, sondern auch auf Ukrainisch bereit und richtet sich explizit an Ukrainer:innen, was den Geflüchteten zugutekommt.[7]Das Adam Mickiewicz-Institut, das vom polnischen Kulturministerium für die Förderung der polnischen Kultur im Ausland gegründet wurde, informiert auf seiner breit rezipierten Plattform Culture.pl über die Auswirkungen, die der Krieg in der Ukraine auf die Kultur hat. Eine fotografische Dokumentation der Lage in Kiew, Augenzeugenberichte und Kommentare von Kulturschaffenden aus der Ukraine sowie Berichte über die Zerstörung kulturellen Erbes sind genauso Thema wie literarische und szenische Annäherungen an das Thema Krieg allgemein. Das Portal ist dreisprachig Polnisch-Englisch-Russisch konzipiert. Die russische Redaktion wendet sich an die Leser:innen mit einem deutlichen Bekenntnis zum Brückenbau "zwischen Ländern und Nationen" und plädiert für den Widerstand gegen die russische Staatsführung.[8]Auch die Universitäten Polens bieten Unterstützung an und können oft die diesbezüglichen Informationen auf Ukrainisch bereitstellen: Der eigens eingerichtete Krisenstab der Warschauer Universität hat auf der Universitätsseite ein Maßnahmenprogramm für ukrainische Studierende und Doktoranden veröffentlicht, u. a. mit finanziellen Hilfen in Form von Gebührenbefreiung, Soforthilfen und Übernahme von Wohnkosten.[9] Die Krakauer Jagiellonen-Universität gewährt ukrainischen Studierenden und Doktoranden umfassende Finanzhilfe und ruft zu Spenden auf.[10] Ähnliche Programme gibt es an vielen polnischen Hochschulen wie in Gleiwitz, Thorn oder Lodz, auch gibt es teilweise kostenlose Polnisch-Sprachkurse und psychologische Hilfen.Einen Überblick über einen Teil der Programme und Einzelangebote bietet die internationale Plattform Science for Ukraine,[11] die von ehrenamtlichen Studierenden und Wissenschaftler:innen betrieben wird. Es finden sich zahlreiche Offerten in Polen, Deutschland und vielen anderen Ländern – u. a. Stipendien, aber auch viele bezahlte Langzeitpraktika in Projekten oder Laboren. In Polen gibt es viele Ausschreibungen für reguläre längerfristige Mitarbeiter:innenstellen, die auch und besonders für ukrainische Bewerber:innen geeignet sind und jetzt inseriert werden. Institutionen, die selbst noch weitere Unterstützung bieten oder ihr Hilfsangebot bekannter machen möchten, finden hier ebenfalls Informationen. … und in Deutschland …Auf der Seite bekommt man auch einen ersten Eindruck von den Möglichkeiten, die es für Verbindungen zwischen ukrainischen und deutschen Wissenschaftler:innen und Institutionen gibt. Auch hier gibt es zahlreichen Möglichkeiten zur Beantragung eigener Projekte, zur Mitarbeit oder zur Bewerbung auf ein Stipendium mit sofortigem Beginn, wie am Leibniz-Institut für Europäische Geschichte in Mainz oder am Historischen Seminar der LMU München, der Forschungsstelle Osteuropa Bremen u. a.[12] Die Professur für Ukrainische Kulturwissenschaft, mit dem jährlich in Kooperation mit dem Alfried Krupp Wissenschaftskolleg stattfindenden Ukrainicum bietet neben Gastaufenthalten an der Universität Greifswald psychologische Beratung für Menschen, die durch den Krieg belastet sind. Die meisten Universitäten machen Unterstützungsangebote, teilweise wurden die Einschreibfristen für das Sommersemester verlängert. So legt auch die Uni Hamburg neben anderen Leistungen viel Wert auf psychologische Hilfen und informiert über die Möglichkeiten des Programms "Scholars at Risk".[13] An der Universität Tübingen werden konzertiert ganz unterschiedliche Hilfen geleistet, von Forschungsstipendien über Housing bis hin zu einem eigenen Buddy-Programm für ukrainische Geflüchtete. Auch weiterführende Informationen für Geflüchtete werden hier gebündelt.[14]Die Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) weitet als Zeichen an diejenigen, die wegen des Angriffskriegs auf die Ukraine fliehen mussten, ihr Walter-Benjamin-Programm aus, das bei der Integration in das deutsche Wissenschaftssystem mit der Förderung eigener Forschungsvorhaben unterstützt. Zugleich sorgte die DFG für Diskussionen in den communities, weil sie am 2. März verkündete, sie setze "mit sofortiger Wirkung alle von ihr geförderten Forschungsprojekte zwischen Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftlern aus Deutschland und Russland aus".[15] Auch die Allianz der Wissenschaftsorganisationen, der u. a. die DFG, der Deutsche Akademische Auslandsdienst (DAAD), die Max-Planck-Gesellschaft und die Alexander-von-Humboldt-Stiftung angehören, sprach sich für Solidarität mit der Ukraine aus. Russischen Wissenschaftler:innen, die infolge der Aggression das Land verlassen mussten, wird ebenfalls generell Unterstützung zugesagt. Zugleich "wird jedoch empfohlen, dass wissenschaftliche Kooperationen mit staatlichen Institutionen und Wirtschaftsunternehmen in Russland mit sofortiger Wirkung bis auf weiteres" einzufrieren.[16] Unter anderem der DAAD räumt ein, "dass dieser Schritt auch Ungerechtigkeiten schafft und zahlreiche Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftler sowie Studierende trifft, die sich für friedliche und rechtsstaatliche Verhältnisse sowie gutnachbarschaftliche Beziehungen einsetzen", sieht aber im Angesicht des Angriffskriegs keine andere Möglichkeit, wobei die Maßnahmen künftig laufend angepasst werden sollen. So sollen die Zugangswege des DAAD nach Deutschland sollen allerdings geöffnet bleiben, Stipendienprogramme für Studierende und Forschende aus Russland werden fortgeführt. Die Deutsche Gesellschaft für Osteuropakunde argumentiert anders als die Allianz der Wissenschaftsorganisationen und bekennt sich in einem Offenen Brief explizit zur Solidarität mit ukrainischen und russischen regimekritischen Wissenschaftler:innen gleichermaßen.[17] Auch in einigen anderen Staaten wie z. B. Großbritannien raten zentrale Organisationen eher zur individuellen Beurteilung von Kooperationsprojekten durch die wissenschaftlichen Träger, während in den USA breit zur Aufkündigung jeglicher Partnerschaften aufgerufen wird.[18]Angesichts des Leids von inzwischen Millionen Geflüchteten und den Nachrichten über Kriegsverbrechen erscheinen Wissenschaftskontakte nicht als zentrales Thema. Aber es bleibt zu hoffen, dass jede Form von Solidarität zählt und dass in möglichst naher Zukunft auch jeder Kontakt zwischen ukrainischen und anderen Wissenschaftler:innen, aber auch nach Russland, der der Zerstörung standgehalten hat, wieder weiteres Gute nach sich ziehen und die verbindende Dimension der Wissenschaft Europa bei der Bewältigung künftiger Aufgaben helfen wird.Überblicksseiten über Hilfsangebote für ukrainische Wissenschaftler:innen und Studierende:Überblick des DAAD –Unterstützungsangebote für ukrainische Studierende, Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftler:https://www.daad.de/de/der-daad/ukraine/hilfsangebote/ Gemeinschaft für studentischen Austausch in Mittel- und Osteuropa (GFPS) e. V. – Informationsseite, auch mit vielen nichtakademischen Infos:https://padlet.com/svenjaros/vl0105hx3igusfic "Important links for scientists from Ukraine" – umfassende Seite der Nationale Forschungsdaten Infrastruktur nfdi:https://www.nfdi.de/important-links-for-scientists-from-ukraine/?lang=en Liste mit aktuell mehr als 300 Laboren, die Unterstützung leisten: https://twitter.com/dbasanta/status/1497769311108272131?s=20&t=yHXkTu6ocW-VUXfzRlP4Ng Hilfsprogramm der PAN (Polnische Akademie der Wissenschaft) für ukrainischer Wissenschaftler:innen in polnischer und ukrainischer Sprache:https://informacje.pan.pl/informacje/materialy-dla-prasy/3534-pobyty-naukowcow-z-ukrainy-w-pan?fbclid=IwAR0Ig-UbJKg7xS48h_FN0UFYv6n6UjJnct5OmPSfdGllXTr60EoVTfLhz-M Hotline und Hilfsangebot der NAWA (Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange) hinsichtlich der Fortsetzung des Studiums in Polen:https://nawa.gov.pl/en/ukraina Informationsangebot des polnischen Ministeriums für Bildung und Wissenschaft:https://www.gov.pl/web/edukacja-i-nauka/informacja-dla-studentow-i-naukowcow-przybywajacych-z-ukrainy
[1] Marek Wilczyński: Nachbarschaft. Polnisch-ukrainische Beziehungen, in: Dialog 137 (3/2021), S. 80–82.


[2] Agata Czarnacka: Migration, Patriotismus und kollektiver Narzissmus. Polen und die Herausforderungen der Vielfalt, in: Jahrbuch Polen 2022 Widersprüche, S. 29–39, hier S. 33f.


[3] Vgl. Agnieszka Łada: Ukrainian students in Poland. Motivations, benefits, challenges (Hg.), Instytut Spraw Publicznych, Warszawa 2018 [pl, eng].


[4] Apel do środowisk akademickich i elit intelektualnych w związku z agresją Rosji na Ukrainę, URL: https://kijow.pan.pl/?p=1147 (10.3.2022).


[5] Ebenda.


[6] https://institution.pan.pl/?option=com_content&view=article&id=757 (15.3.2022)


[7] Program stypendialny im. Stefana Banacha: https://nawa.gov.pl/ukraina (10.3.2022).


[8] Portal culture.pl, Statement der russischen Redaktion: https://culture.pl/pl/artykul/oswiadczenie-sekcji-rosyjskiej-culturepl (10.3.2022).


[9] https://www.uw.edu.pl/informacja-dla-studentow-i-doktorantow-z-ukrainy (15.3.2022).


[10] https://www.uj.edu.pl/wsparcie-ukrainy/-/journal_content/56_INSTANCE_xrbBNRAqjVfJ/10172/150060577 (15.3.2022).


[11] https://scienceforukraine.eu/ und https://twitter.com/sci_for_ukraine (15.3.2022).


[12] https://www.geschichts-und-kunstwissenschaften.uni-muenchen.de/ua_aktuell/index.html (15.3.2022).


[13] https://www.uni-hamburg.de/internationales/mitarbeitende/mitarbeitende-wissenschaft/gefaehrdete-forschende/funding.html.
[14] https://uni-tuebingen.de/international/universitaet/solidaritaet-mit-der-ukraine/#c1536184 (15.3.2022).


[15] https://www.dfg.de/foerderung/info_wissenschaft/2022/info_wissenschaft_22_22/index.html (15.3.2022).


[16] Allianz der Wissenschaftsorganisationen: Solidarität mit Partnern in der Ukraine – Konsequenzen für die Wissenschaft. Stellungnahme vom 25. Februar 2022 (16.3.2022).


[17] Deutsche Gesellschaft für Osteuropakunde: Solidarität mit Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftlern in der Ukraine und Russland. Offener Brief vom 4. März 2022, https://dgo-online.org/neuigkeiten/aktuelles/offene-briefe-gegen-den-krieg-in-der-ukraine/ (16.3.2022).


[18] Vgl. generell zu internationalen Haltungen Richard Stone: Western nations cut ties with Russian science, even as some projects try to remain neutral, in: science.org vom 8. März 2022, https://www.science.org/content/article/western-nations-cut-ties-russian-science-even-some-projects-try-remain-neutral (15.3.2022); Dennis Overbye: Russian Scientists Face Isolation Following Invasion of Ukraine, in: The New York Times vom 12. März 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/12/science/physics-cern-russia.html (15.3.2022).

Gene Healy


"The library looms as the next big confrontation in the culture war," the Atlantic reports, and President Biden, our Culture‐​Warrior‐​in‐​Chief, is itching for the fight. "The president signaled a new approach in his late‐​April announcement video, when he cited book bans as evidence for his accusation that Republicans in the Donald Trump era are targeting Americans' 'personal freedom.'"
Not today, Satan—not on Joe Biden's watch. "We're taking on these civil rights violations, because that's what they are," Biden told the crowd at the White House Pride Celebration in June: "book bans may violate the federal civil rights laws when they target LGBTQ students or students of color and create hostile classroom environments."
When that happens, local school districts will face the wrath of the new federal Czar of the Middle‐​School Library. "Students have a right to learn free from discrimination," the president's top domestic policy advisor, Neera Tanden, explains, but "across the country, our nation faces a dangerous spike in book bans [targeting] LGBTQI+ communities." Accordingly, the administration is appointing a new "coordinator" in the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights who'll bring the full force of the federal government to bear in this fight.
I wrote recently that Biden's new Title IX edicts make him "Commander‐​in‐​Chief of the Girls' Room"; with this latest move, he can add "Boss of the Bookmobile" to his collection of extraconstitutional titles. It's an absurd power‐​grab based on the flimsiest of pretexts—and it's certain to make America's cultural conflicts worse.







The White House, like much of the press, has been cagey and duplicitious when it comes to what the "book‐​banning" controversy is really about. In Biden's reelection video, for example, while the president rails against "MAGA extremists… banning books," the camera shows a stack of titles including Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man and Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird.
Atticus Finch in the dock? Maybe in a few notorious MAGA strongholds like, er, Los Angeles and Seattle, where Lee's novel has been pulled from the curriculum for its insensitive "white‐​savior" storyline. But the real school‐​library fight centers on a quite different class of books.
In both the PEN America and American Library Association "most banned" lists, number one by a wide margin is Maia Kobabe's Gender Queer, a "graphic novel" that's decidedly Not Safe For Work and—arguably!—inappropriate for a grammar‐​school library.
Others in the ALA's top 10 include:
All Boys Aren't Blue (#2), (depictions of underage cousin‐​incest)
Lawn Boy (#7), "which describes 10‐​year‐​old boys performing oral sex on each other"; and
This Book Is Gay (#10), which includes advice on mutual masturbation—"something they don't teach you in school"(!)—and "instructions on how to use Grindr to find sex partners.")
The ACLU and former president Barack Obama have recently encouraged public‐​spirited Americans to start Banned Books clubs. I'd love to see the face of any earnest suburban liberal who signs up expecting a refresher course in Vonnegut and Steinbeck. In any event, if you'd like a clearer picture of what some parents are objecting to, in their new study, "The Book Ban Mirage," AEI's Max Eden and Heritage's Jay P. Greene and Madison Marino helpfully screenshot many of the offending passages.
As for the supposed "dangerous spike in book bans," Eden, Greene, and Marino show that activists are playing fast and loose with the term "banned." PEN America's definition is broad enough to include "any action taken against a book" that leads to "restricted" or "diminished" access for any period of time. Temporarily removed then reshelved after review? "Banned." Moved from the middle‐​school library to the high‐​school shelves? "Banned." Removed from a recommended reading list but still on the library shelves? "Banned."
In fact, when Eden et al. decided to check online school library catalogs against the PEN index of "banned" books, they found that:
"74 percent of the books that PEN America lists as banned are listed as available in the same districts from which PEN America says those books were banned."

Still, the authors managed to find a few localities where kids can no longer check out some of the spicier tomes on PEN's List. So what? There are over 13,000 school districts in the United States; are we supposed to think Our Democracy is imperiled because a couple dozen of them took Gender Queer off their library shelves?
Reports of a wave of book‐​banning Babbittry have been greatly exaggerated. But to be fair to PEN America, the organization does document some serious cases of legislative overreach by Red‐​state politicians claiming to speak for concerned parents. Last year, for example, Missouri made it a misdemeanor offense, carrying possible jail time, for librarians to provide "explicit sexual material" to students. That's nutty: decisions about what goes on school‐​library shelves should be made at the local level, not forcibly dictated from the state house.
Still less should those decisions be dictated from Washington, D.C.: if the taxpayers in a local school district don't want Gender Queer or This Book Is Gay in their kids' library, it's none of Joe Biden's business.
That's not how Biden sees things, unfortunately; in the president's view, it's his right and duty to make a federal case out of how school libraries stock their shelves.
In January, according to the Washington Post, the Biden administration embarked on its "first test of a new legal argument that failing to represent students in school books can constitute discrimination."
In early 2022, the Granbury Independent School District in North Texas removed multiple LGBTQ‐​focused books from its libraries for review, ultimately deciding to return most of them to the shelves. Only three books, including This Book Is Gay (the one "that teaches kids about anal sex, oral sex, and hookup apps"), were permanently removed. The ACLU hit back with a federal civil rights complaint charging that the district had "actively facilitated discrimination and hateful rhetoric" in violation of Title IX. As the Post noted:
"If the government finds in the ACLU's favor, the determination could have implications for schools nationwide, experts said, forcing libraries to stock more books about LGBTQ individuals and… ensur[e] student access to books that some Americans, especially right‐​leaning parents, deem unacceptable.

The Granbury investigation is still in progress, but in May, OCR reached a settlement in a similar case involving a suburban Atlanta school system. Here, the Biden administration advanced the novel theory that, even if the school district itself doesn't discriminate, it can be held accountable for a "hostile environment" created by parents' comments at a school board meeting.
The Forsyth County School District's trouble started in January 2022, when it temporarily removed eight books following parent complaints. After review, they returned seven of eight to the library shelves, excluding only one, the aforementioned All Boys Aren't Blue. FCS soon found itself subject to a federal civil rights investigation into whether the removal of those books created a "racially and sexually hostile environment for students."
In its May 19 letter announcing the resolution of that case, the Office for Civil Rights admits that Forsyth County wasn't engaged in an anti‐​gay book purge: it had "limited its book screening process to sexually explicit material." "Nonetheless," OCR chides, "communications at board meetings conveyed the impression that books were being screened to exclude diverse authors and characters, including people who are LGBTQI+ and authors who are not white, leading to increased fears and possibly harassment." OCR found it troubling that during a February 15 board meeting:
"some [parents'] comments focused on removing books for reasons related to gender identity or sexual orientation. Also some parents made negative comments about diversity and inclusion or critical race theory."

The OCR letter doesn't specify what those comments were, but according to press coverage of the Board meeting, they included statements like
"Do you think it's healthy for 8‑year‐​olds to be exposed to books which encourage transgenderism, sexualization and masturbation?"

and
"CRT, DEI, SEL, or any other name you give it is not harmless…. No more lies, such as 'DEI's purpose is to teach children that there are different cultures that eat different foods. Really?"

Scandalous wrongthink—and in the presence of children, no less! According to OCR, parents' statements at the board meeting contributed to a potential "racially and sexually hostile environment," which the district failed to adequately address with "supportive measures" for afflicted students.
To get the feds off their back, Forsyth County Schools had to agree to a number of humiliating terms. Per the Resolution Agreement, FCS must:
Publicly Pledge Fealty to DEI Thought: "in locations readily available to the District's middle and high school students," FCS shall post a statement affirming that "the District strives to provide a global perspective and promote diversity by including in school libraries materials about and by authors and illustrators of all cultures";
Help Aggrieved Students Sic the Feds on Their School: that statement will also provide "any student who feels impacted by the environment surrounding the removal of books" with "information about how to file a complaint about discrimination or harassment" under Title IX and Title VI;
Take a Long, Hard Look in the Mirror: "The District will administer a school climate survey" on the prevalence of book‐​related and other harassment in its middle and high schools; and "assess whether any additional student or other training is needed to further improve the climate." Look, this is a wealthy school district with plenty of tax dollars to go around: why shouldn't the DEI‐​consultant industry get a taste?
…all this because school officials took a book featuring underage cousin‐​incest off their middle‐​school library shelves.
As the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression notes, OCR's strong‐​arm tactics succeeded here despite the fact that
"there is no legal authority that [says] failure to 'promote diversity' violates federal anti‐​discrimination law. If OCR thinks it can require schools to affirmatively 'promote diversity'— a term left undefined — what else does the agency think it can get away with?"

I suppose we'll find out as Biden's new school‐​library czar gets to work.