Ana Celia Zentella, Lang Visiting Professor of Social Change, is a recognized leader in building appreciation for language diversity and respect for language rights. Her research shows that fluency in Spanish and English is both a product and facilitator for students who spend years living and studying on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. It is also the most visible cultural marker of the identity of students who frequently travel between San Diego and Tijuana. Interviews in Spanish and English with eighty transfronterizo college students indicate that, despite their proficient bilingualism, many struggle with language and identity conflicts. The cultural and social obstacles transfronterizos encounter in ESL programs, including criticisms of their Spanish by Mexican citizens and feelings of shame about their Spanish-accented English may undermine their avowed commitment to Spanish. Her research has led her to advocate for educational and governmental language policies in the USA and Mexico that build on the principles of anthro-political linguistics.

The idea that we will play, work and live our social lives within computer-driven "virtual worlds" has been a staple in cyberpunk science-fiction for some time. Recent news stories may suggest that this is close to becoming reality. Corporations and institutions have been setting up virtual offices or branches in the virtual world known as Second Life.  Low-wage sweatshops where employees collect resources within the game World of Warcraft which are then sold for U.S. dollars to American and European players have been spreading in southeastern China. In the game EVE Online, thousands of players are engaged in an ongoing war which has sometimes spilled out into other online media that are not directly associated with the game.

Professor of History Tim Burke explores the evolution and implications of massively-multiplayer online computer games. The media hype about virtual worlds has often been excessive, but they are both an interesting media form that has exciting creative possibilities and a novel opportunity to study and think about the way that human societies form, organize, and become richly complex.

For more on the pervasiveness and changing nature of gaming culture, check out Second Skin, a documentary written and produced by Victor Piñeiro '00. The film is touted as one of the best docs of 2008.

Now that the next U.S. President is known, what are some options for people who want major change in national policies both domestic and foreign, in the direction of justice, peace, and environmental sustainability?

Visiting Lang Professor George Lakey presents a multi-dimensional strategic framework for change.  Based on research but guided by vision, the framework offers meaningful actions for the next four years for people with diverse gifts and backgrounds seeking unity of collective strength.

Professor Tyrene White describes the regulatory framework within which China's NGO's have begun to operate and the strategies sometimes used to be allowed to
register. It challenges the standard typology that divides NGO's into those that are government-organized NGO's (or GONGOs), and those that are genuinely non-governmental.  Using the case of the Amity Foundation, one of China's leading and most successful social service NGO's, she shows the difficulty of completely disentangling state and society NGO origins.

Assistant Professor Ben Berger examines democracy’s history and looks at its future. Too many contemporary theories of democracy are premised on a widespread yearning for more politics, more deliberation, more activism.

But those theories, while well-intentioned, fit poorly with empirical evidence of most citizens’ expressed preferences. Not only now, but since the days of ancient Greece, democracies have struggled to keep citizens’ attention and energies focused on political affairs. Even Alexis de Tocqueville, widely (but wrongly) considered to be an unqualified optimist for American “civic engagement” in the Jacksonian era, worries about the elusiveness of citizens’ attention and energy.

So while popular governance has almost always been a story of “attention deficit democracy,” Tocqueville gives us strategies for engaging citizens more effectively. Berger closes by examining the 2008 presidential election and asking whether Barack Obama’s charismatic appeal will be only a temporary stimulant or an opportunity to re-engage citizens with political institutions and each other.