Review: Making Sustainability Work by Marc J. Epstein

Making Sustainability Work: Best Practices in Managing and Measuring Corporate Social, Environmental, and Economic Impacts by Marc J. Epstein with Forwards by John Elkington and  Herman B. “Dutch” Leonard (2008) (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 288 pp., hardcover, ISBN: 1576754863) . 

This book really helps practitioners “do sustainability.”  The book is practical and readable.  It would be a welcome addition to any manager in the corporate world, but also a welcome read to sustainability advocates.  Too often sustainability takes one of two paths: environmentalist or academic.  That unfortunate dichotomy leaves out the important middle ground–business.  How do we engage in practices that produce sustainability?  What practices work best?  How do we put theories to work?  These are the questions that Making Sustaibility Work answers. 

So often the business world is full of theories and sloppy metaphors that it’s a wonder anything gets done.  The practice of business is often maligned in the literature in favor of the theories behind practice.  Epstein does an admirable job of turning that phenomenon on its ear.  This work should serve as a blueprint for executives seeking to make their companies sustainable.  It provides the practical advice, from a qualified expert, that we all need and desire. 

This book is an admirable addition to the broad body of scholarship on sustainability.  It combines the rigors of academic excellence with the practicallity of how-to manual.

The Evolution of Street Knowledge: Hip Hop’s Influence on Law and Culture

The West Virginia University College of Law proudly presents a progressive exploration into the real and burgeoning impact that hip hop music and culture is having on U.S. law and on global culture. The Sports and Entertainment Law Society, together with the West Virginia University Festival of Ideas, the WVU Center for Black Culture and Research, the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy, the WVU Office of Social Justice, the WVU Black Law Student Association and Wolters Kluwer/Aspen Publishers join with the College of Law in assembling and presenting one of the most accomplished and diverse groups of academics and thinkers ever assembled to debate the profound global impact that hip hop culture is demonstrating for both good and ill. We are proud to present: The Evolution of Street Knowledge: Hip Hop’s Influence on Law and Culture. Keynote addresses for this event will be provided by Cornel West and Talib Kweli. We invite you to join us on February 12th and 13th, 2009, in beautiful Morgantown, WV, in the Marlyn E. Lugar Courtroom on the campus of the West Virginia University Law Center. We look forward to providing and stimulating, insightful, forward-looking discussion and debate.

If you need information or have questions or comments about the conference, please feel free to contact one of the conference organizers at West Virginia University:

Conference Chairperson:
andré douglas pond cummings
Professor of Law
West Virginia University College of Law

Conference Directors:
Bethany Swaton
Symposium Director
President, Sports and Entertainment Law Society
3L, West Virginia University College of Law

Robert Dixon
Executive Vice-President, Sports and Entertainment Law Society
3L, West Virginia University College of Law

Judging college debate at the Naval Academy

This weekend I was judging college debate at the U.S. Naval Academy.  It was absolutely great except for the long hours and uncomfortable holiday inn beds. 

Debate tournaments are always exciting places to see students and coaches grapple with complex ideas.  It’s not every day that most of contemplate nuclear war rhetoric, Baudrillard, of that famous Khalilizad in ‘95 evidence.  Perhaps we should.  There’s probably a lot most folks could learn from debate. 

Here’s a list of some of them…

1) Know the qualifications of your authors.  How often do you hear people saying they heard something from TMZ or read it in US Weekly and thought it had to be absolutely true.  Debate teaches that you must understand the strengths and weaknesses of the people you cite. 

2) Take risks.  The Great Debaters was a really neat movie, but Rocket Science is a much more accurate depiction of policy debate today.  Sometimes its necessary to go out on a limb to make a point.  Debate teaches the power of personal politics, something that’s lacking in even the most evolved democracies. 

3) It’s okay to dress how you want.  Maybe I’m wiser than my years, but I don’t associate custom-tailored suits with intelligence.  There’s more to the Gobstopper than the outer candy shell.  College debate is an interesting place where people of all shapes, sizes, backgrounds, and persuasions discuss important political and philosophical ideas.  It’s just as fun in pajamas as it is in slacks. 

Thank you to the debaters who read Baudrillard, Capitalism K’s, eco-fem, and other arguments that make me think and make me even more sure that debate is providing an important co-curricular experience to college students.

Editing a law review article

As I edit a recent article for the final time before publication, I’m excited to have written somewhat out of my comfort zone. I usually write on the post-world (not cereal). Postmodernism, postmodern jurisprudence, poststructuralism, etc. I write on race, class, and gender with a keen interest in the legal and socio-political conditions that make the world we live in interesting.

This article develops a new way of thinking about law–a fact-centric approach. I’ve always believed that facts make the difference and that unfortunately, most people don’t investigate beyond the bare essentials. When reading a court case, one is often struck by the incomplete picture crafted in Justice X’s statement of the case.

I hope that scholars take my ideas to heart. We must look beyond our textbooks and journals to the world we seek to characterize in these tomes. Wouldn’t it just be horrible if we humynized the law?

Call for Papers: Independence and Decolonization – Institute for Historical Studies at the University of Texas at Austin

Call for Papers

The Institute for Historical Studies at the University of Texas at Austin will host a symposium, Independence and Decolonization, April 15-17, 2010. Inspired by the upcoming bicentenary of Mexican independence, the symposium aims to generate dialogue among scholars from a variety of disciplines working on processes of independence, decolonization, and the reconfiguration of territorial and social borders that such processes generate. We encourage proposals that adopt an explicitly synoptic approach to the interactions between metropolitan powers and colonial/nationalist societies. We welcome proposals from scholars working on the following broad problem areas: 1. Global and local dynamics of “first wave” independence movements and decolonization in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries (e.g. United States, Haiti, Spanish America); 2. Nineteenth century decolonization (e.g. Ottoman successor states, Brazil, Cuba); 3. National liberation movements and decolonization in the twentieth century. We are interested in bringing into dialogue a variety of approaches and themes which might include ethnic identities and anti-colonial movements, postcolonial state formation, and economic development of postcolonial states.

Interested scholars should submit an abstract of 200-500 words and a one-page CV to Professor Susan Deans-Smith, sdsmith@mail.utexas.edu by March 1, 2009. Participants will be reimbursed for travel and lodging expenses. For further information about the Institute for Historical Studies, its programs, and fellowships see: www.utexas.edu/cola/insts/historicalstudies/. 

Professor Susan Deans-Smith
History Department
University of Texas at Austin
1 Univ Sta B7000
Austin, Texas 78712-0220
Email: sdsmith@mail.utexas.edu
Visit the website at http://www.utexas.edu/cola/insts/historicalstudies/

Review: Steaks on South

Because life’s not all about critical race theory, postmodernism, and relatively obscure philosophies about the evils of the state, I decided to review a restaurant. 

This past week, I was in suburban Philadelphia and sampled a new cheese steak venue: Steaks on South (SOS).  It wasn’t Pat’s or Geno’s or Jim’s, but it was good, really good.  I had it with whiz and no onions.  That steak sandwhich was a gastronomical delight.  Cheese steaks are really one of the most important regional foods in the United States.  A significant part of culture is foodways and there are certain foods that mark different regions.  Next time you’re travelling, shy away from McDonald’s and Applebee’s and think regional cuisine

Where’s Black or Arab Jesus?

This question comes up every winter and never seems to be answered.  No matter your opinion on Jesus, or if you even acknowledge that he existed, Jesus is centrally important to the celebration of Christmas.  Of course, Santa Claus and his friends Tickle-Me Elmo, Wii, and Hannah Montana are becoming for better or worse just as important.  This is not so much a discussion of religion as it is a discussion of ethnicity and geography. 

The proceeding discussion utilizes an important assumption–that Jesus was an historical person.  Jesus came from the Middle East.  The Middle East’s original residents were darker skinned and even today the majority of Middle Easterners have darker skin.  He traveled extensively, wearing ,little more than a flowing robe.  He was a carpenter by trade, and although the meaning of “carpenter” has been challenged and may in fact have meant “shipwright” or any number of ofther manual laborers, he would have worked for long hours outside in dirt, dust, and sun. 

Why is Jesus so White in the vast majority of his representations?  Every winter I see a few representations of Jesus as being darker in complexion, but this year I saw none and that did not sit well. 

I understand that Jesus’s pasty-white complexion denotes purity, because of course everything white is pure (sarcasm).  I understand that purity is an important part of many religions and that such purity is particularly important for leaders, the revered, of various religions.  But would Jesus be less credible to Christians if he were to be represented with a darker pigmentation? 

Does it matter what skin color Jesus had?  No.  But it matters when we fail to accurately represent history.  The rejoinder to the “Jesus was not White” argument is usually that to make him any other color, other than White, is to engage in revisionist history.  I’m inclined to believe that the revision was already made.