Rebecca Schewe and colleague publish analysis on the USDA
Rebecca Schewe and colleague publish analysis on the USDA
Rebecca Schewe, associate professor of sociology at Syracuse University and part of the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, recently published an analysis of recent USDA policies with her colleague Bernie Kluger. Titled “USDA Staffing Cuts Reduce Local Presence in Communities Nationwide,” the paper explains the depth and breadth of the ongoing USDA staffing crisis using previously unpublished data on Farm Service Agency (FSA) County employee cuts, as well as updates on previously reported nationwide cuts to staff across other USDA agencies. Federal personnel data from the US Office of Personnel Management confirms widespread headcount reductions across all USDA agencies, with the exception of staffing increases in the immediate office of the Agriculture Secretary.
Gene Theodori, Associate Provost for Academic & Research Administration at Lamar University, was recently selected for the American Association of State Colleges and University’s Becoming a Provost Academy. He was one of 37 people selected for this year’s cohort. The program provides participants with targeted preparation in the key areas that define effective academic leadership. It is geared toward experienced deans, associate and assistant provosts, and other academic administrators, and focuses on building the capacity required to succeed as a chief academic officer. Cohort members gain a deeper understanding of institutional priorities while also strengthening their ability to lead in a rapidly changing higher education landscape. Participants engage in peer learning, share perspectives, and build lasting relationships that extend beyond the yearlong program.
Tim Slack, professor of sociology at Louisiana State University, was recently quoted in a Newsweek article titled “Trump’s Approval Rating With Rural Voters Has Plunged by Double Digits—Poll.” Slack’s expertise was consulted on why the president’s approval rating has fallen in rural areas. In the article, he notes that the economy is central to Trump’s declining approval rating among rural Americans, who already tend to have lower incomes than urbanites. As prices have climbed, especially for fuel and food, rural residents have been at a disadvantage. As Slack says in the article, “Rural Americans are hurting economically and have been for decades. President Trump promised to lower prices on day one. Instead, prices have continued to climb.”
Edith-Marie Green, PhD candidate in Population Health at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, was recently selected for a Fulbright Open Study/Research Award. She will be spending 10 months in Potsdam and Berlin, Germany conducting field research on the social networks of older adults and how cultural variations in loneliness and social connection influence dementia risk. Green will be working with Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and the Survey of Health, Aging, and Retirement in Europe during her time in Germany.
Erin Gaede, PhD candidate in Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, recently published a commentary in The Conversation titled “When private equity firms buy mobile home parks, rent increases leave residents with few affordable options in rural area.” Gaede discusses the nuances of mobile homes and other manufactured homes and how they impact low-income residents, who are often priced out of their homes. Gaede draws on qualitative interview data in her commentary and also links the history of single-room occupancy units to the current crisis.
RSS President Lisa Pruitt, Brigitte Bodenheimer Research Scholar and Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of California, Davis, recently published an article titled “Rurality and Redistricting: California’s Proposition 50, Rural Identity, and Democratic Legitimacy” in the Maine Law Review. The article offers a ruralist critique of the hyper-partisan redistricting phenomenon initiated in mid-2025. The article focuses more specifically on how this redistricting has impacted rural communities in northern California. Pruitt calls for greater attention to—and protection of—rural places as communities of interest in redistricting practice.
Florence Becot, Nationwide Insurance Early Career Professor and Agricultural Safety and Health Program Lead at Pennsylvania State University, was recently a speaker on a panel with the Northeast Center for Occupational Health and Safety called “Triple Burden on Women in Ag.” Other speakers on the panel included Christina Day, Farm Services Navigator at the New York Center for Agricultural Medicine and Health, and Destiny Trombley, Research Coordinator at the Northeast Center + New York Center for Agricultural Medicine and Health. Becot’s research focuses on understanding and supporting farm families’ ability to meet their needs with an emphasis on their health, safety, well-being, and economic viability.
Tim Slack, professor of sociology at Louisiana State University, was recently featured on the Newell Normand Show, which is from WWL, a radio station based in New Orleans, LA. Slack spoke about community and state-level population change in the state of Louisiana. Slack’s research coalesces around the areas of social stratification and social demography, with an emphasis on comparisons across geographic space and the rural-urban continuum.
Loka Ashwood, professor of community and environmental sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Michael Bell, Chair and Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor of Community and Environmental Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, recently published a book through the University of Chicago Press with colleague Jay Orne. Titled “Our Blood: The Social Experience of Heritas,” the book describes the central importance of our sense not just of our heritage, but our embodied heritage: that our past is in our bodies and runs in our blood, and that our embodied past is central to our futures. The authors argue that greater awareness of heritas’s social origins and social selectivity can help us cultivate a wider sense of mutual care and ease the divisiveness of our time.
Florence Becot, Nationwide Insurance Early Career Professor and Agricultural Safety and Health Program Lead at Pennsylvania State University’s Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, was recently featured on a webinar with the Council for Agricultural Science and Technology. Titled “Supporting the Mental Health and Economic Viability of Agricultural Communities,” the webinar focused on the mental health challenges facing farm families, what structural and social factors drive them, and what responses — from peer support to policy change — are showing real results. The session included a substantive Q&A covering help-seeking barriers, stigma, regional differences, and what policymakers should prioritize.