College of Social Science and Humanities Archives

Can Roe v. Wade be saved? She’s among a group making a case to the Supreme Court.

A prominent Northeastern University legal scholar joined the fight to preserve access to abortions this week, filing a brief that urges the Supreme Court to uphold Roe v. Wade amid growing conservative momentum to upend the 1973 ruling.

by Hillary Chabot September 23, 2021

Labor trafficking impacts vulnerable US citizens who often suffer in silence

U.S. citizens face intimidation, sexual harassment, and and other forms of exploitation from their employers, says Amy Farrell, director and professor of criminology and criminal justice at Northeastern. Farrell, who conducted a rare study on labor abuses of U.S. citizens, found that a majority of those offenses go unreported, however.

by Hillary Chabot September 21, 2021

pro-choice protesters in austin yelling and raising their firsts while wearing orange and white shirts that say

What the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to allow Texas’ abortion law means for Roe v. Wade

The US Supreme Court, which now has a majority of conservative justices, declined to block a sweeping Texas law that bans abortion after six weeks. Daniel Urman, a legal scholar at Northeastern, discusses the Texas law and its implications for legal abortions across the nation.

by Hillary Chabot September 3, 2021

Firefighters search for survivors inside a collapsed building, after Saturday´s 7.2 magnitude earthquake in Les Cayes, Haiti. AP Photo/Joseph Odelyn

Earthquake that rocked Haiti could trigger COVID-19 spike as assistance rushes in

Haitians, facing structural and political instability after the Aug. 14 earthquake, could face a deadly COVID-19 surge due to low vaccination rates and potential exposure from outside agencies, say Northeastern experts.

by Hillary Chabot August 17, 2021

Ornami founder Yewande Masi, who earned her criminal justice degree at Northeastern in 2009, says she found happiness through a process of elimination—cutting toxic ingredients from her skincare and toxic relationships from her life. Photo courtesy of Yewande Masi

How a boost from Beyoncé helped sustain her skin care business

Yewande Masi, who earned her criminal justice degree at Northeastern in 2009, wanted to sell a mango-butter infused homemade lotion that she originally created for her ex-boyfriend. The all-natural product launched in April 2020, just as the pandemic struck, but her focus on e-commerce and self-care resonated with customers. The $10,000 grant Masi received from ‘Single Ladies’ singer Beyoncé last October didn’t hurt, either.

by Hillary Chabot July 8, 2021

Boston Microgreens co-founder Oliver Homberg inspects the variety of microgreens growing at their South Boston location. Photo by Alyssa Stone/Northeastern University

A sprouting subscription service kept this microgreens farmer growing during the pandemic

Northeastern graduate Oliver Homberg had just collected his first paycheck from Boston Microgreens, a company he started in 2018, when the COVID-19 pandemic shriveled his customer base. A slim operating budget and help from a community of fellow farmers helped him grow again.

by Hillary Chabot July 7, 2021

Philonise Floyd, Attorney Ben Crump and the Rev. Al Sharpton courtroom celebrate Chauvin verdict.

Derek Chauvin’s guilty verdict is a step toward justice and police reform–but it’s not the end of racism in the US

Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer who knelt on George Floyd’s neck until he died, was found guilty of all three counts related to Floyd’s murder on Tuesday, in a case that “bucks up against 200 years of history in a way that is enormously refreshing but also deeply informative,” said Margaret Burnham, university distinguished professor of law at Northeastern.

by Molly Callahan April 20, 2021

The magnolia centered banner chosen on Sept. 2, 2020 by the Mississippi State Flag Commission flies outside the Old State Capitol Museum in downtown Jackson, Miss. The nine member committee voted to recommend a design with the state flower. That design will go on the November ballot for voters consideration and if approved, it will become the new state flag. AP Photo by Rogelio V. Solis

‘This could serve as a source of empowerment for African Americans’

On Election Day, Mississippi became the final state to dissociate from the Confederate emblem, an enduring symbol of slavery in the southern U.S. This symbolic change could have lasting impact, says Patricia Davis, an associate professor at Northeastern who studies public memory, identity, race, gender, and representation.

by Ian Thomsen November 10, 2020

College of Social Science and Humanities