Class, Race, and the Discourse of “College for All.” A Response to “Schooling for Democracy”

We critique the “college for all” discourse by unveiling its relationship to the politics of education, the broader economic and political contexts, and the class and race structures embedded in society and schooling, including higher education. We analyze the current and future labor markets to demonstrate the ways that the “college for all” discourse overstates the need for math and science knowledge and skills within the workforce, and we analyze the debt burdens associated with college attendance and completion to demonstrate that the promised benefits of “college for all” are often illusory for low-income, racially, culturally, and linguistically diverse students. Thus, we argue that “college for all”—just like “no child left behind” and the “race to the top”—functions as an ideological velvet to soften education policy talk, talk that actually carries big sticks that punish the very students proclaimed to be the beneficiaries of the proposed changes in schooling. The results of schooling practices articulated by the “college for all” discourse are (a) the reinforcement of material barriers to the stated aims of educational access and equity, and (b) the fortification of the class and race status quo. We examine the ways that the transformation of schooling must be linked to the establishment of just social, economic, and political institutions, and to the formation of a citizenry prepared to engage in the struggles for these institutions

Pesquisa colaborativa e construção de movimento multi-questão para a justiça educacional: Reflexões sobre a Urban Research Based Action Network (URBAN)

Two long-time scholar-activists reflect on a distinctive approach to research that they call collaborative research for justice, research that is conducted with community leaders and education activists to advance equity and social justice. They argue that by linking research directly with action this kind of research has the power to speak directly to the current crises not only in education, but also in the other institutions of civil society. Drawing on decades of experience in public research universities, local community based organizations, inter/national disciplinary research organizations, and distributed informal networks of engaged scholars, social justice activists, and community leaders, they reflect specifically on the more recent formation of the Urban Research Based Action Network (URBAN), a national network of people enacting a variety of forms of collaborative research for justice, now with more than 1500 members. They outline lessons that might contribute to building the multi-issue movement for educational justice that they believe is required to transform public schools to make them serve the needs of the most disadvantaged, aggrieved, and inequitably treated communities. In its short history URBAN has already impacted the academy through the gatherings and meetings it has hosted as well as through a rigorous publishing agenda, including a special issue of EPAA in which this article appears. Dos académicos-activistas reflexionan sobre un enfoque distinto a la investigación que llaman investigación colaborativa para la justicia, investigación que se dirige con líderes comunitarios y activistas de la educación para promover la equidad y la justicia social. Los autores argumentan que al vincular la investigación directamente a la acción, ese tipo de investigación tiene el poder de hablar directamente a las crisis actuales, no sólo en la educación, sino también en las otras instituciones de la sociedad civil. Con base en décadas de experiencia, reflejan específicamente la formación más reciente de la Urban Research Based Action Network (URBAN), una red nacional de personas que promueven diversas formas de investigación colaborativa para la justicia, ahora con más de 1500 miembros. Describen lecciones que pueden contribuir a la construcción de un movimiento por la justicia educativa, que creen necesario para transformar las escuelas públicas y ayudarlas a satisfacer las necesidades de las comunidades más desfavorecidas, perjudicadas e injustamente tratadas. En su corta historia, el URBAN ya impactó la academia a través de los encuentros y reuniones que organizó, así como por medio de una agenda editorial rigurosa.Dois acadêmicos-ativistas refletem sobre uma abordagem distinta à pesquisa que chamam de pesquisa colaborativa para a justiça, pesquisa que é conduzida com líderes comunitários e ativistas da educação para promover a equidade e a justiça social. Eles argumentam que ao vincular a pesquisa diretamente à ação, esse tipo de pesquisa tem o poder de falar diretamente às crises atuais, não apenas na educação, mas também nas outras instituições da sociedade civil. Com base em décadas de experiência, eles refletem especificamente a formação mais recente da Urban Research Based Action Network (URBAN), uma rede nacional de pessoas que promovem diversas formas de pesquisa colaborativa para a justiça, agora com mais de 1500 membros. Eles descrevem lições que podem contribuir para a construção de um movimento pela justiça educacional, que eles acreditam ser necessário para transformar as escolas públicas e ajudá-las a atender às necessidades das comunidades mais desfavorecidas, prejudicadas e injustamente tratadas. Em sua curta história, o URBAN já impactou a academia por meio dos encontros e reuniões que organizou, bem como por meio de uma agenda editorial rigorosa

Collaborative Research for Justice and Multi-Issue Movement Building: Challenging Discriminatory Policing, School Closures, and Youth Unemployment

This special issue engages ethical, epistemic, political, and institutional issues in projects of collaborative research for justice that were designed with movements contesting policing, school closures, and youth disinvestment and unemployment. Three of the articles were collaboratively written by activists and scholars who drew from movements that deployed research for community-driven progressive change. The movements and the research are thus situated at the intersection of struggles against a resurgent anti-immigrant white supremacy, gentrification, a punitive carceral state, low pay and lack of meaningful employment opportunities, and the privatization of the public sector. These articles build upon and are in conversation with a set of related articles published in the spring 2018 special issue of Urban Education (Warren et al, 2018) that also addressed ethical, epistemic, political, and institutional tensions in collaborative research for justice. This EPAA special issue aims to advance the discussion through deep reflection within the context of focal ‘cases’ and within efforts to open space within universities for modes of engaged scholarship that can respond to the challenges of the current moment, as described in the articles that bookend the cases. Taken all together, this special issue demonstrates how scholars, educators, teachers, activists, community leaders, and policy makers can use the production and mobilization of knowledge as a force for building, supporting, sustaining, and advancing multi-issue movements for justice not just in schools and the academy but also in communities of color and others aggrieved by current inequities

“We Are About Life-Changing Research”: Community Partner Perspectives on Community-Engaged Research Collaborations

This study examines the ethics and politics of knowledge across 15 distinctive community-engaged research projects. We focus our analysis on interviews with community partners and consider their perceptions of research, academic research partners, motivations for partnering, and the benefits and challenges of community-engaged research. We highlight three themes: Community partners’ (1) motivations to know better and more systematically what they already know, (2) interests in legitimating community-based knowledge (i.e., knowledge produced beyond the academy), and (3) efforts to navigate often inflexible university timelines and budgetary processes. Our findings highlight concerns at various ethical, political, and epistemic intersections and connect to the possibilities and limits of equity-oriented collaborative research methodologies for redressing epistemic and social injustices. We suggest that these challenges need systematized attention if the field of community-engaged research is to achieve the epistemological and social justice missions that are often articulated as the aspirations of such partnerships

CCR5 deficiency increases risk of symptomatic West Nile virus infection

West Nile virus (WNV) is a reemerging pathogen that causes fatal encephalitis in several species, including mouse and human. Recently, we showed that the chemokine receptor CCR5 is critical for survival of mice infected with WNV, acting at the level of leukocyte trafficking to the brain. To test whether this receptor is also protective in man, we determined the frequency of CCR5Δ32, a defective CCR5 allele found predominantly in Caucasians, in two independent cohorts of patients, one from Arizona and the other from Colorado, who had laboratory-confirmed, symptomatic WNV infection. The distribution of CCR5Δ32 in a control population of healthy United States Caucasian random blood donors was in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium and CCR5Δ32 homozygotes represented 1.0% of the total group (n = 1,318). In contrast, CCR5Δ32 homozygotes represented 4.2% of Caucasians in the Arizona cohort (odds ratios [OR] = 4.4 [95% confidence interval [CI], 1.6–11.8], P = 0.0013) and 8.3% of Caucasians in the Colorado cohort (OR = 9.1 [95% CI, 3.4–24.8], P < 0.0001). CCR5Δ32 homozygosity was significantly associated with fatal outcome in the Arizona cohort (OR = 13.2 [95% CI, 1.9–89.9], P = 0.03). We conclude that CCR5 mediates resistance to symptomatic WNV infection. Because CCR5 is also the major HIV coreceptor, these findings have important implications for the safety of CCR5-blocking agents under development for HIV/AIDS

Tissue damage drives co-localization of NF-kappa B, Smad3, and Nrf2 to direct Rev-erb sensitive wound repair in mouse macrophages

Although macrophages can be polarized to distinct phenotypes in vitro with individual ligands, in vivo they encounter multiple signals that control their varied functions in homeostasis, immunity, and disease. Here, we identify roles of Rev-erb nuclear receptors in regulating responses of mouse macrophages to complex tissue damage signals and wound repair. Rather than reinforcing a specific program of macrophage polarization, Rev-erbs repress subsets of genes that are activated by TLR ligands, IL4, TGF beta, and damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPS). Unexpectedly, a complex damage signal promotes co-localization of NF-kappa B, Smad3, and Nrf2 at Rev-erb-sensitive enhancers and drives expression of genes characteristic of multiple polarization states in the same cells. Rev-erb-sensitive enhancers thereby integrate multiple damage-activated signaling pathways to promote a wound repair phenotype

Gene expression and chromatin conformation of microglia in virally suppressed people with HIV

The presence of HIV in sequestered reservoirs is a central impediment to a functional cure, allowing HIV to persist despite life-long antiretroviral therapy (ART), and driving a variety of comorbid conditions. Our understanding of the latent HIV reservoir in the central nervous system is incomplete, because of difficulties in accessing human central nervous system tissues. Microglia contribute to HIV reservoirs, but the molecular phenotype of HIV-infected microglia is poorly understood. We leveraged the unique "Last Gift" rapid autopsy program, in which people with HIV are closely followed until days or even hours before death. Microglial populations were heterogeneous regarding their gene expression profiles but showed similar chromatin accessibility landscapes. Despite ART, we detected occasional microglia containing cell-associated HIV RNA and HIV DNA integrated into open regions of the host's genome (∼0.005%). Microglia with detectable HIV RNA showed an inflammatory phenotype. These results demonstrate a distinct myeloid cell reservoir in the brains of people with HIV despite suppressive ART. Strategies for curing HIV and neurocognitive impairment will need to consider the myeloid compartment to be successful

Measurement of the cosmic ray spectrum above 4×10184{\times}10^{18} eV using inclined events detected with the Pierre Auger Observatory

A measurement of the cosmic-ray spectrum for energies exceeding $4{\times}10^{18}$ eV is presented, which is based on the analysis of showers with zenith angles greater than $60^{\circ}$ detected with the Pierre Auger Observatory between 1 January 2004 and 31 December 2013. The measured spectrum confirms a flux suppression at the highest energies. Above $5.3{\times}10^{18}$ eV, the "ankle", the flux can be described by a power law $E^{-\gamma}$ with index $\gamma=2.70 \pm 0.02 \,\text{(stat)} \pm 0.1\,\text{(sys)}$ followed by a smooth suppression region. For the energy ($E_\text{s}$) at which the spectral flux has fallen to one-half of its extrapolated value in the absence of suppression, we find $E_\text{s}=(5.12\pm0.25\,\text{(stat)}^{+1.0}_{-1.2}\,\text{(sys)}){\times}10^{19}$ eV.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO