Higher education plays a significant role in shaping our cultural identity. Yet, in this ever-changing world, it's important to consider what adjustments American universities are making-or need to make-to meet the dynamic societal requirements.

Change is often challenging for large institutions, and academia is no different. The contributors to this issue of The Annals take a hard look at current changes in higher education and propose further modification for the American university in the coming decades.

The issue opens with a blueprint for change that looks at the...

Higher education plays a significant role in shaping our cultural identity. Yet, in this ever-changing world, it's important to consider what adjustments American universities are making-or need to make-to meet the dynamic societal requirements.

Change is often challenging for large institutions, and academia is no different. The contributors to this issue of The Annals take a hard look at current changes in higher education and propose further modification for the American university in the coming decades.

The issue opens with a blueprint for change that looks at the...

With the end of the Cold War, the American political establishment perceived Islam as the new enemy. The 1993 explosion at the World Trade Center, the 1998 bombing of the American embassies in Africa, and the events of 9/11 - all culminated in substantiating this perception.

The War on Terrorism has raised several complicated issues surrounding the relationship between the United States and Islam. With America's increasing involvement in the Middle East, it is imperative for Muslims to understand America; but at the same time, Americans must learn to understand Islam. The progress...

With the end of the Cold War, the American political establishment perceived Islam as the new enemy. The 1993 explosion at the World Trade Center, the 1998 bombing of the American embassies in Africa, and the events of 9/11 - all culminated in substantiating this perception.

The War on Terrorism has raised several complicated issues surrounding the relationship between the United States and Islam. With America's increasing involvement in the Middle East, it is imperative for Muslims to understand America; but at the same time, Americans must learn to understand Islam. The progress...

Research evidence can and should have an important role in shaping public policy. Just as much of the medical community has embraced the concept of "evidence-based medicine," increasing numbers of social scientists and government agencies are calling for an evidence-based approach to determine which social programs work and which ones don't. It is an irony not lost on the social scientists writing for the September volume of The Annals that the first use of experimental methods in medicine (to test the effects of Streptomycin on tuberculosis in the late 1940s) was actually conducted...

How can we promote the mental health of adolescents? Although there have been decades of work focusing on eliminating or reducing psychological problems in children and adolescents through psychopathology, clinical psychology, and psychiatry, isn't the ultimate goal for children to be safe, healthy, happy, moral, and fully engaged in life?

The papers in this special issue of The ANNALS depart from the tradition of a disease-based model, where well-being is defined by the absence of distress and disorder. Although the authors recognize that decreasing negative aspects is an...

Hope is a powerful yet complex phenomenon. Can hope be harnessed for positive social change? What does it mean for a society to "hope well?" How do institutions abuse individual hope?

This issue of The Annals delves into the complicated notions of hope and how it can be encouraged and nurtured on several levels. The contributors to this issue explore institutions of hope in operation and explain how those institutions can function effectively.

Divided into two parts, the first set of articles define institutions of hope as "sets of rules, norms, and practices that...

Hope is a powerful yet complex phenomenon. Can hope be harnessed for positive social change? What does it mean for a society to "hope well?" How do institutions abuse individual hope?

This issue of The Annals delves into the complicated notions of hope and how it can be encouraged and nurtured on several levels. The contributors to this issue explore institutions of hope in operation and explain how those institutions can function effectively.

Divided into two parts, the first set of articles define institutions of hope as "sets of rules, norms, and practices that...

When the issue of racial profiling by police departments came to light, it became a hot topic for criminology researchers. The conspicuous role of the American police touches a nerve, and often puts politics in the driver's seat of research in this area.

However, learning more about police operations is important from both a scientific and policy analytic standpoint as well. As the social and political environment changes and new investigative and prevention technologies appear, it is critical to understand the impact these external influences have on the efficiency, effectiveness...

As U.S. cities compete for economic resources, many city leaders adopt business-friendly policies, which boost opportunities for big businesses and institutions in their area. This progrowth strategy proposes to generate jobs for residents and higher tax revenues for local government. As a result, according to the logic of progrowth, economic benefits will trickle down to improve the living conditions in working-class and impoverished neighborhoods.

In spite of this strategy, poverty rates among urban Latinos and Blacks is staggering, even in cities that have pursued neoliberal...