Boy or Girl: Who Gets to Decide: Gender-Nonconforming Children in Child Custody Cases

Transgender youth, especially those in families that express rejecting behavior, are at great risk for physical and psychological harms that can be alleviated by the support of family. However, when separated parents disagree about whether to support their gender-nonconforming children in their felt genders, especially as more transgender youth come out at earlier ages, disagreements between the parents leads to harm for the child as well as renewed custody challenges. This disagreement was adjudicated in the custody dispute Smith v. Smith. This Article analyzes Smith and applies to cases involving gender-nonconforming children, regardless of a court\u27s finding of gender identity disorder in children since court may erroneously conclude that a child fails to meet the diagnostic criteria for gender identity disorder in children. In the Article, the author suggests that advocates should educate trial and appellate court judges to improve the judges\u27 understanding of the issues facing transgender children, including appropriate treatment recognized by mainstream medical institutions

Boy or Girl: Who Gets to Decide? Gender-Nonconforming Children in Child Custody Cases

Transgender youth, especially those in families that express rejecting behavior, are at great risk for physical and psychological harms. These harms can be alleviated by families expressing accepting behavior and by support their children\u27s transition. However, when separated parents disagree about whether to support their gender-nonconforming children in their felt genders, especially as more transgender youth come out at earlier ages, disagreements between the parents leads to harm for the child as well as renewed custody challenges. This disagreement was adjudicated in the custody dispute Smith v. Smith. This Article analyzes Smith and applies to cases involving gender-nonconforming children, regardless of a court\u27s finding of gender identity disorder in children since court may erroneously conclude that a child fails to meet the diagnostic criteria for gender identity disorder in children. Mr. Perkiss argues that presenting evidence in favor of supporting a gender-nonconforming child\u27s felt gender identity and debunking evidence rejecting it is of utmost importance and suggests that attorneys should be careful when advocating for the best interest of gendernonconforming children, and should provide expert testimony that includes a clear gender identity disorder diagnosis and recognizes appropriate medical treatment. Additionally, he suggests that advocates should educate trial and appellate court judges to improve the judges\u27 understanding of the issues facing trans gender children, including appropriate treatment recognized by mainstream medical institutions. Finally, this Article suggests that advocates should also show judges that they should give less weight to expert testimony advocating rejection of a child\u27s nonconforming gender identity

Advancing sustainability education in business studies through digital service learning

To support the development of a society that is attuned to the challenges presented by sustainable development, it is vital that higher education business students understand the value of sustainability, and act in a way that is consistent with these values. This paper explores a sustainability-focused experiential learning activity through investigating the utility of an emerging form of service learning in the digital space for developing global citizens. The paper presents an international case study of educators who employed digital service learning in various business education contexts. The research reports on the perceptions of higher education students in relation to their awareness, critical thinking and action for sustainability. The paper has practical contributions in identifying an opportunity for implementing sustainability curriculum into higher education for business

An exploration of student learning for sustainability through the WikiRate student engagement project

The launch of the UN Global Compact\u27s Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME1) in 2007 can be seen as a widespread acknowledgement that students of business and management need a form of education that enables them to make a positive contribution to both business and society. PRME\u27s aim of realising the United Nations\u27 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through responsible management education is built on six guiding Principles, designed to encourage business schools and universities to recognise their role as change agents and champions of sustainable development. Consequently over 700 signatories to PRME have committed to adapt their institutional strategies, curricula, research agendas, and external engagement activities to develop the capabilities of students to be future generators of sustainable value for business and society at large and to work for an inclusive and sustainable global economy (PRME, Principle 12)

Disclosure and reporting against the sustainable development goals: Connecting new stakeholders to sustainability data

This case study focuses on the disclosures of thirty seven companies and a unique research approach to making their corporate sustainability performance more open, comparable and engaging. A group of 40 students at the University of Wollongong worked in a structured way to aggregate comparable data on corporate sustainability on a selection of metrics related to the SDGs. This report offers an in depth look at one example of the kind of projects that WikiRate and the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) have been running since 2016, involving more than 2,000 students. For this case study, WikiRate staff reviewed and verified the data collected by the student group on a sub-set of 22 of the Metrics they had been researching. This data covered the 37 companies’ public disclosures across two years of reporting. This report aims to give insight into the needs of researchers and other disregarded corporate sustainability data stakeholders, and to provide recommendations for ways in which reporting can be transformed to improve accessibility and engagement. In addition, the newly opened data sets provide the basis for analysis and interpretation of corporate disclosures against the Sustainable Development Goals, and a glimpse into the current landscape of open ESG information

Staring Out to Sea

In January 2013, Abigail Perkiss, assistant professor of history at Kean University in Union, New Jersey, began work with six undergraduate students to develop an oral history project to document Hurricane Sandy and its aftermath. For several months, these students worked to set the parameters and scope of the project, while at the same time studying the work of oral history and preparing themselves to go into the field to recruit participants and conduct interviews. For a number of these students, themselves impacted by the storm, the project took them into their own communities to capture the stories of their neighbors and friends. The students gained new insights into their own agency in the world; they turned their own feelings of victimization after the storm into a sense of ownership and control during the recovery process; and they felt empowered as both historians and as historical actors to effect change in the world around them. This essay traces the transformative impact of the Staring Out to Sea Oral History Project on these undergraduates

Turning to Easter eggs to get through these dark times? Here's the bitter truth about chocolate

The coronavirus might make Easter celebrations a little subdued this year, but that doesn’t mean going without chocolate eggs. In fact, South Australia’s chief public health officer Nicola Spurrier reportedly said people should partake in the Easter treats “to cheer ourselves up … I’ve certainly got a good supply of chocolate eggs already”. But before you fill your shopping trolley (online or virtual) with chocolate, we urge you to think twice about whether it’s ethically produced. Most chocolate consumed globally, including in Australia, comes from the Ivory Coast and Ghana in West Africa - which together account for about 60% of global cocoa supply. Cocoa farming is a major driver of deforestation in the region. Despite growing global demand for chocolate, farmers live in poverty, and child labour continues to plague the industry

Staring Out to Sea and the Transformative Power of Oral History for Undergraduate Interviewers

In January 2013, Abigail Perkiss, assistant professor of history at Kean University in Union, New Jersey, began work with six undergraduate students to develop an oral history project to document Hurricane Sandy and its aftermath. For several months, these students worked to set the parameters and scope of the project, while at the same time studying the work of oral history and preparing themselves to go into the field to recruit participants and conduct interviews. For a number of these students, themselves impacted by the storm, the project took them into their own communities to capture the stories of their neighbors and friends. The students gained new insights into their own agency in the world; they turned their own feelings of victimization after the storm into a sense of ownership and control during the recovery process; and they felt empowered as both historians and as historical actors to effect change in the world around them. This essay traces the transformative impact of the Staring Out to Sea Oral History Project on these undergraduates