Fresh voices from new kids on the block: TWU scholars instantly enrich public debate

The Texas Woman’s University division of our Public Voices Fellowship program, launched merely two weeks ago today, has already given rise to numerous powerful new public voices.

TWU scholar Ellen Magnis, for one, published two pieces within the same week, both of which provided a sobering and thought-provoking perspective on the Jerry Sandusky child abuse scandal, a case so frequently featured yet only superficially analyzed in most news media outlets.

In the Huffington Post article Monsters, Bad Guys and Perps, Ellen’s second op-ed, she shows that she is not afraid to confront the complexities of child abuse by pointing out that rather than doing the easy thing and labeling the perpetrator as a monster who exists totally outside of humanity, we should actually try to understand the real motives and causes behind these acts of sexual abuse. A step in the true road to recovery is to recognize that the perpetrator is a human being, and to see his/her hurtful acts as stemming from preventable causes.

Here is a powerful excerpt from that article:

“There are no easy answers here. We don’t really understand exactly why sexually deviant behavior occurs in our population. Humans are complicated beings with unique sets of brain chemistry and experiences. According to Dr. Jim Tanner, who studies sex offenders as part of his life’s work, perpetrators can be blocked, angry, delusional, deviant or anti-social. Tanner says it is far easier for us to demonize someone when we don’t understand their behavior. Otherwise, we have to accept that we, as human beings, have the potential to do something equally vile.”

So congratulations, Ellen, for having the courage and insight to provide this much-needed new perspective on an age-old issue! You are a real inspiration!

In other child-related issues, PVF scholar Anna M Clark published her first op-ed in the Guardian yesterday, Is pink milk the new pink slime, an exposé on the poor nutritional standards in our public school cafeterias. In this enlightening article, Anna points out that rather than serve “pink milk”–artificially flavored, super sugary beverages that barely meet federal regulations, our public schools should treat school meal nutrition as a top priority, and develop rigorous nutritional standards for that which they serve.

Anna’s vision extends beyond non-pink milk at the cafeteria. She envisions an improved cafeteria diet as the first step to transforming America into a healthier, smarter and more productive nation:

“At a time when America is expanding its waistline while slipping in educational rankings, could elevating nutrition in schools be a lever for societal transformation? Yes, and it’s already happening.”

We applaud you, Anna, for both the concrete solutions you provide and the hopes and aspirations you generate in this article for an America with healthier bodies and minds.

Other successes from our TWU fellows include:

Katie Pedigo’s Trafficking Victims Protection Act deserves passage

Patricia Davis’s Backpage in Our Backyard

and the very first TWU article published, Ellen Magnis’s The Jerry Sandusky trial and child sexual abuse’s walking-wounded

Congratulations to Ellen, Katie, Patricia and Anna for your amazing voices, as well as to Rose, Chloe and Katie O. for such a fruitful first convening!

-Xueli, PVF Intern

Participate in a Seminar and Have Your Op-Ed Edited by a Mentor-Editor!

OpEd Project mentor-editor and seminar leader (as well as journalist, author and professor) Michele Weldon expresses in the following video why she dedicates time and effort to the OEP. I interviewed Michele, who shared valuable advice on getting one’s voice heard and not letting laundry or criticism slow one down.

 

What are some tangible effects of an op-ed (that you wrote or edited)?

 

I wrote a piece, “Keeping Predators Away from Young Athletes,” about Jerry Sandusky for The Chicago Tribune a few days after the charges. The conversation in the media was all about the impacts of the scandal on coach Joe Paterno and what it was like for Penn state to have to deal with that legacy. As the mother of three sons, I wrote about how this child abuse case affects the children and how as parents we need to shift the conversation. The Chicago Tribune was one of the first large media outlets to respond to the scandal in a way that didn’t focus on the football program. I don’t feel fully responsible for directing subsequent conversation but am really proud that I was one of the first people to write about what happened in a way that focused on children; I was also the only person to write about the scandal as the mother of athletes. I feel really gratified by the comments posted on The Chicago Tribune’s website, on twitter and on Facebook in response to my article. It got people talking about the boys and about necessary regulations and screening.

 

Another example of an op-ed that yielded tangible results is an article I edited by PVF scholar Jenna Davis, about the need for global indoor plumbing. After the article was published on CNN, she was contacted by the World Bank to be on a panel.

 

Do you feel like certain aspects of your personality have helped you make your voice heard publicly and challenge participants at seminars effectively?

 

You have to have tough skin. I’ve published pieces that are more personal in nature. I write about raising my sons without a father present and reference other parts of my personal life; this tends to invite some vicious personal attacks that are unrelated to the content. I’ve learned that this abdication isn’t ever going to deter me from the process of truth telling. You have to view these comments as making no more sense than a pit-bull barking at you as you pass by.

 

I’m also able to channel my energies in different ways, modeling for scholars and seminar participants that you can be really effective with your time even if your time is minimal. I work full-time as a university professor and am a single parent with three children but I still go to events and am on volunteer boards. I make the time to also insert my voice in public places where I feel I can make a meaningful contribution. It’s not about multitasking; it’s about prioritizing. I choose to write an op-ed for three hours, not go out to lunch three times a week. I try to show participants how not to let the business of everyday life silence your voice in the public sphere. I think a lot of people have difficulty with that but busy people need to see that they must make time for their important voices.

 

As a journalism professor, from which platform would you encourage people to broadcast their opinions?

 

I wouldn’t limit oneself to any particular platform. I’d try to engage in various social media outlets to open up available avenues. I just did two TED-Ed lessons, which I think are crazy cool. I’m learning and expanding in all different areas. I’m traditionally a print person but do audio and video work as well. It’s important to be flexible and nimble in getting one’s voice out in the world.

 

-Anna Meixler

 

Why Michele Weldon is an OEP Mentor-Editor

Michele Weldon, author, journalist, and OpEd Project seminar leader, as well as one of the leaders of our fellowship program at Princeton University is the author of three  books, numerous chapters and essays, and is also a storyteller at the Moth GrandSlam Chicago. Here she weighs in from Chicago on why she mentors for The OpEd Project.

Dangerous Cultures and Warm Communities: a Sampler of Op-Eds Published in June in Conjunction with the OEP

In “‘Breaking Pionte’ and the Price of Perfection,” Chloe Angyal and Courtney E. Martin comment on the universality of themes shown in the CW network’s “Breaking Pointe.” This Los Angeles Times piece expresses that one’s desire to achieve ultimate perfection while maintaining an aura of effortlessness exists not only in the world of ballet but also in the lives of many high-achieving women. While the show explores the rare lives of ballerinas, it asserts that these dancers are just like us; Angyal and Martin challenge us to re-examine ourselves for signs of a ballerina’s dangerous struggle for effortless perfection. The piece carps on the show’s glamorization of the pursuit of perfection, and instead encourages women to find fulfillment by taking pride in the hard work required for success.

Ellen Magnis also wrote recently about dangerous cultural trends. The piece, ”The Jerry Sandusky Trial and Child Sexual Abuse’s Walking-wounded,” which appeared in The Guardian, exposes the horrible silence to which many victims of assault, including Magnis, have turned. Magnis challenges readers to listen to stories of abuse, no matter how difficult it is to do so, creating open forums in which our most vulnerable members of society can seek help. She writes about the shame, confusion, and self-blame experienced by child victims, utilizing the Sandusky trial as a way to encourage the public to look for changes in child behavior and never shy from painful truths. Magnis’s piece opens a discussion greater than the Penn State scandal, making readers understand just why it’s so difficult for children to come forward with stories of abuse, despite new advocacy centers, urging us not to wait for another scandal to be proactive and sensitive to issues of child abuse.

On a different note, Cassandra Jackson wrote about the positive culture surrounding hair straightening within the black community. Her piece, “Is Natural Hair the End of Black Beauty Culture?,” which appeared in The Huffington Post explores the trade-off faced by black women who choose to participate in today’s natural hair revolution. While doing so may have political implications, wearing one’s hair naturally can yield greater self-acceptance, health, and feelings of freedom. Jackson, who wears her hair naturally, acknowledges that doing so excludes her from black beauty culture and salons. She writes that hair treatments unify women, who share stories and time while tending to one another’s locks. She highlights the trust, love, conversation, and laughter that abound from such salons, showing readers that there is power both in wearing one’s hair naturally and in partaking in a culture that celebrates women’s lives while straightening hair.

Thank you and congratulations to Chloe, Courtney, Ellen, Cassandra, and everyone else who was recently published! Your unique insights and ideas are invaluable.

-Anna Meixler

Fordham PVF Reflections

Hello all,

As the Public Voices intern, I have been transcribing interviews featuring our wonderful PVF fellows over at Fordham, conducted during our third Public Voices convening back in May. In these interviews, the scholars reflect on the impact the Public Voices seminars have had on re-framing their academic work to be more accessible and relevant to the public, as well as on opening the door to having a passionate, compelling, and opinionated public voice. These interviews are some truly insightful and heartening feedback on our year of hard work, and shed a great deal of light on the concrete and substantive result our Public Voices Fellowship program yields, not only in improving the quality and diversity of public thought leadership, but also in generating interest and enthusiasm in using academic scholarship to provide solutions to real life problems.

Here are some excerpts from a few of them. Take a look:

Christinana Peppard (Assistant Professor in Systematic Theology):

“The Public Voices Fellowship was an explicit invitation to live into the self whom I had always imagined and understood myself to be, and it really has set the tone for considering my work, the context in which I do it, and thinking about who and how I want to become in this profession and for whose benefit. I think that this project has been an amazing invitation to cultivate my voice for the public good. It’s been extraordinary.”

Christina Greer (Assistant Professor in Political Science):

“The value of the program has been enormous in the sense that before I joined, I would give a few interviews here and there for some news outlets, and I never thought of my quote that appeared in the NY Times, the AM NY or the Metro, which is the local newspaper that people read on the subway, as anything of importance or significance—it’s just a quote that I gave about a local election, or a controller or a city council member. And now, as a member of the OpEd project, to really realize that it’s not just about writing longer pieces, which is definitely a goal and a very important aspect of the program, but to really think of myself as a thought leader. So when my students or miscellaneous people say ‘I saw your name in the Metro on my way to work, I really liked your quote,’ I realize now that my little words here or my five minutes on a news program really does contribute to helping someone understand the American political process, and that’s why I got my PhD in the first place.”

Dawn Lerman (Area Chair and Associate Professor of Marketing):

“The value has been absolutely enormous. One of the things it’s done for me is help me to translate what I do in an academic sense and make it real and useful to a nonacademic audience, and it’s inspired me to actually use my research, my interest, my expertise in the exact what that I just described, which is: for public good.”

Gregory Acevedo (Associate Professor in Graduate School of Social Service):

“[My last op-ed] was a piece that I had been dying to write for the longest time…But scholarly writing gets so bogged down in the evidence, the facts, telling the longer story. Working with Abby was amazing: trying to get all of this complexity and nuance into two pages, the number of rewrites. I found a whole completely different voice, one that was very distinct from the scholarly voice I had, and it was actually a voice that I felt I was more empowered in, in some ways, compared to my scholarly voice: to not have to extinguish or dampen down the passion, or what my opinion or position was, to just do that openly, with the evidence—a healthy respect for evidence—but not to have to play this game of ‘I’m neutral,’ ‘I’m objective,’ no, I’ll tell you what I think. I think that was liberating to me.”

Hope your souls have been invigorated by these genuine responses.

Signing off for the day,

Xueli

PVF Intern

Writing To Change The World

My second day at The OpEd Project differed greatly from my first.  Yesterday, 22 participants and I gathered at the New York office to exercise our minds with the incredible leadership of Katie Orenstein, Martha Southgate, and E.J. Graff. The seminar leaders alternated speaking, each bringing her unique background and insights to the OEP exercises. One of the first activities entailed declaring oneself an expert, and explaining one’s credibility. As a recent high school graduate, I don’t often think of myself as an “expert,” but felt comfortable announcing an area of expertise to a supportive room of fellow experts- people involved in volunteering, politics, academia, teaching, researching, writing, journalism, activism, technology, and entrepreneurship.

The room had a palpable energy that radiated from the diverse array of voices present. As each participant announced an idea for an opinions piece, I grew increasingly excited to read their work. Throughout the day, however, we discussed far more than the op-eds that we outlined. The seminar covered topics that ranged from thought leadership to creatively framing and expanding one’s area of expertise to the social change we envision. Shortly after 5 PM, the seminar ended and the newly minted alums headed out for drinks and discussion, knowing that sharing their knowledge with others is a socially responsible, vital action.

Katie Orenstein, encouraging participants to expand their perceived fields of expertise.

Martha Southgate

NYC alums

-Anna Meixler

Greetings from …

Greetings from the new social media intern:

Hello!

My name is Anna Meixler and I’m excited to be working with Anaam Butt as the social media intern this summer at The OpEd Project. As an obsessive reader and journalism fanatic, I’ve become increasingly aware of the homogeneity of the voices in news sources. A quick visit to The OpEd Project’s website showed me that the imbalance of male/female and Caucasian/minority writers publishing opinions pieces is far more severe than I thought. Wanting to dedicate my strong interests in writing, research and social action to efforts towards equitable and diverse opinions sections, I applied to intern at The OpEd Project.

I am a rising freshman at Yale University, where I plan to major in Political Science or Global Affairs. I live in White Plains, New York, though most of my summer is spent in Manhattan. In addition to blogging for the OEP this summer, I intern at the Abrons Art Center of The Henry Street Settlement, where I’ll be helping with grant research, upcoming exhibitions, and children’s art classes. I also do freelance work for the Somaly Mam Foundation, researching and writing about international human trafficking.

Most of my free time was, until recently, consumed by a research project. I spent a week in south Tel Aviv, Israel, finding out more about the Eritrean, Darfuri, and South Sudanese asylum seekers living within Israel’s borders. I interviewed asylum seekers, Israeli volunteers at refugee aid organizations, employees at the UN, municipal workers, and others involved in providing services to the asylum seeker community. I channeled my interviews and research findings into a blog, southtelaviv.tumblr.com, on which I also post artwork inspired by my learnings.

As I work to communicate my own thoughts on global and local issues, I hope to help the OEP expand opportunities for others, enriching our sources of information and equalizing our work forces. I’m excited to be spending a summer with inspiring mentors, and look forward to great conversations and impactful projects.

“That’s Ridiculous!” Or, Why I Am An Expert — in Boston with The OpEd Project

Claire Tighe (the blog author), Seminar Leader Zeba Khan, and WAM! Executive Director, Jaclyn Friedman

It was the “expert” exercise that got me. Each seminar participant had to claim themselves as an expert in something they had experience in and knowledge about. An expert? Who, me? How could I possibly be an expert in anything? Especially while sitting in a room full of doctors (whether or not they used the title), CEOs, academics and journalists. I was just a student/an intern/a young person. I listened to the other women in the room speak; they completely inspired me. Amongst us were experts in pediatrics, modern quilt-making and Islamic law, to name just a few. Thanks to our seminar leader, Zeba Khan, I quickly realized that I, too, was an expert. It didn’t matter my age, profession, or course of study. In fact, my experience as a young person interested in gender and the environment was exactly what made my expertise and viewpoint unique.

Rosina Lucibello from Emerge Massachusetts and LaDonna Christian from Simmons College test out their arguments

As the workshop went on, I reflected on where this doubt in my own expertise came from. Was it the idea of owning power? Claiming that I knew something very well? Maybe I was just plain afraid. Maybe it was the realization that my whole life, I had been taught to doubt myself because of my age, gender, or experience. “That’s ridiculous!,” we would say in the seminar. In fact, my voice matters quite a bit, because I have something to say. And I have the power to influence other young people, business leaders, and maybe even the legislature (at the least)!

So, what inspires me? What pisses me off? I’m so glad you asked.

– By Claire Tighe, Intern at WAM! Women, Action & the Media

Our new Boston alums

San Francisco Writes to Change the World- June 16th!

Today The OpEd Project visited Northern California’s ACLU to train today’s female leaders to Write to Change the World! The group, whose expertise varied from cricket sex to preventive foot care, bonded over OpEd favorites like making an effective argument, pitching the heck out of your stories, and writing a powerful “to be sure” statement. Two of OpEd’s fiercest leaders taught the session: Katherine Lanpher, and Courtney E. Martin. Mentor-Editors Joe Loya and Rose Aguilar made guest appearances!

Texas Woman’s University Public Voices Thought Leadership Institute- First Convening!

Today was a very exciting day for those of us here at The OpEd Project! The Texas Woman’s University Public Voices Thought Leadership Institute, Sponsored by the Cecilia & Garrett Boone Family Fund at the Dallas Women’s Foundation, the Embrey Family Foundation Donor Advised Fund at the Dallas Women’s Foundation, and the Boone Family Foundation, began this morning. The 2 day kick-off event will continue tomorrow with more on pitching, expertise, and making an effective argument!