Working Class Histories

Do you know the history under your feet? At Old Dominion University, students are collecting the untold stories of Lambert’s Point, a historically black neighborhood partially destroyed to make way for the ODU campus. Avi Santo and Tom Chapman are leading the project to recover Norfolk’s black history from the 1900s to today.

In 2010 the small, mostly black community of Fulton, just outside of Richmond, Virginia, was shocked to learn a black mountain of 85,000 cubic yards of toxic coal ash had been deposited at the edge of a landfill half a mile from the town center. Jason Sawyer says low income communities are often targeted by industrial polluters, looking for the cheapest and easiest way to dispose of toxic materials.

There’s a lot of misinformation about homelessness—what causes it, what perpetuates it, and how to solve it. Sociologist Debra Schleef says that learning the truths about homelessness can change the way we think about these vulnerable people.

Kevin Rockmann has found that having a number of people work off-site has negative side effects on the folks who come into the office every day.

Have you had a colleague who is destructive or ruthless? Rachel Frieder is part of a study that looks for ways to control these workplace saboteurs.

There can be a dark side to creativity. Gayle Dow looks at malevolently creative people who are constantly thinking of new ways to do us harm.