Academic disciplines commonly researched for English 11's Professional Communities Unit are listed below, with prominent scholarly associations, and some suggested topics for research.

American Anthropological Association
http://www.aaanet.org/

Society for American Archeology
http://www.saa.org

Issues:

• To “repatriate” museum collections or not (for example, the British Museum's ancient Greek and Egyptian holdings).
• Native American burial grounds: what takes precedence, the need to study the human remains of civilizations to better understand them or the need to respect the sacredness of the burial grounds?
• An anthropologist studies a particular culture through ethnographic fieldwork, where the ethnographer closely examines a culture as both participant and observer. What ethical rules should guide ethnographers? When might these guidelines conflict with the need for accurate fieldwork?
• What effect does tourism have on native cultures? Does bringing in outsiders create more tolerance and understanding, or does it dilute or commodify the uniqueness of the culture? (for examples, Amish communities in Pennsylvania or native Caribbean cultures)

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College Art Association
http://www.collegeart.org

Issues:

• If and how should works of art be restored, updated, or preserved? Do preservation techniques maintain works of art for future generations or alter the works fundamentally? (for example, Michelangelo's David)
• Whose responsibility is it to preserve cultural artifacts during times of war? (see the College Art Association's alert regarding the looting and destruction of Iraq's National Museum and National Library.)
• Is it censorship or fiscal and moral responsibility when a government sponsor refuses to fund artwork it deems obscene or pornographic? Recently, see the Brooklyn Museum of Art’s conflict with Former Mayor Giuliani over a 1999 exhibit of Chris Ofili's Holy Virgin Mary.

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Biomedical Engineering Society
http://www.bmes.org/

International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering
http://www.ifmbe.org/

Issues:

• Should embryonic stem cell research be expanded to include more cell lines?
• What is the current progress in developing organs grown outside the body using stem cells? Is organ regeneration possible in the near future?
• How can the engineering and design of current knee- and/or hip-replacements be improved?
• The growing use of robotics in surgery promise more safe and effective operations: is it hype or a genuine improvement over human hands?
• What potential medical uses are possible with nanotechnology?

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American Institute of Biological Sciences
http://www.aibs.org/core

American Society for Microbiology
http://www.asm.org

Issues:

• Publishing bioterror-related research after 9/11
• Teaching evolution in schools (see AIBS's symposium on Evolutionary Science and Society: Educating a New Generation)
• Invasive, introduced species such as kudzu in the American South or cane toads in Australia.
• What plans of action should be in place in case of a bioterror attack?

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American Chemical Society
http://www.chemcenter.org/

Issues:

• Protecting pharmaceutical products from counterfeiting, tampering, and theft
• Gasoline additives such as ethanol, MBTE: more harm than good?
• How does combinatorial chemistry work to create new pharmaceuticals, and is it the most effective and efficient method?
• Recently, scientists, using a cyclotron, created two new elements with the atomic numbers 113 and 115. How big can an atom get, and is there a limit to how far the periodic table can go?
  

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American Planning Association
http://www.planning.org/

Issues:

• How can towns and neighborhoods be designed to encourage more active lifestyles? Can good design have a significant public health effect?
• Can Chapel Hill (or any town) increase the availability of affordable housing without sacrificing the quality of life for current residents?

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American Communication Association
http://www.americancomm.org

Public Relations Society of America
http://www.prsa.org/

Issues:

• How have emerging technologies affected business communications? For example, mobile phones, PDA's, email, and instant messaging.
• What constitutes ethical and/or effective internet-based marketing? For example, email spam, pop-up ads, manipulating search engine results.
• Should limits be placed on marketing and advertising to young children? Should companies use sex in marketing to teens?
• What role does gender play in communication methods and styles? Do men and women truly communicate in significantly different ways? Why or why not?

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American Society for Information Science and Technology
http://www.asis.org/

Association of Computing Machinery
http://www.acm.org/

Issues:

• Should there be a national identity card system?
• Is a face recognition system ready to use for airport security? Does it violate the right to privacy? Are current systems accurate enough to be useful in security?
• What effect will the development of nanotechnology, spintronics, organic chips, DNA chips, and/or atomic transistors have on computer chip design?
• Moore's Law, which predicts the increasing capability of integrated circuit chips, has held true since declared in 1965. How long can it hold? What technologies allow for its future validity?

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American Economics Association
http://www.vanderbilt.edu/AEA/

Issues:

• What are the roles of sustainability, environmental concerns, and fair trade in economic policy?
• In the U.S. or in the world, is the gap between the incomes of the very rich and the very poor widening? If so, what should be done about the disparity?
• How would raising the federal minimum wage affect the U.S. economy? Would it create an undue burden on businesses (large or small), or would it create more consumers?

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National Association of Independent Schools
http://www.nais.org/

National Education Association
http://www.nea.org/

Issues:

• Will the “No Child Left Behind Act” help students receive a better education?
• How should the reforms dictated by the “No Child Left Behind Act” (including school transfers, special education accommodations, private tutoring, smaller classes) be funded—by the federal government, states, school districts?
• Are schools pressuring parents and doctors to give children unnecessary drugs such as Ritalin?
• What is the effect on children when schools cut after-school programs and arts classes?
• Should classroom teachers use behaviorist or constructivist teaching methods? Which is more effective at improving students' learning?
• Should schools practice "social promotion" or should students who do not meet end-of-grade requirements be held back? Should the grade level and age of the child be a factor in this decision?

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Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors
http://www.aeesp.org/

Marine Technology Society
http://www.mtsociety.org

American Geological Institute
http://www.agiweb.org

Issues:

• What are the real causes of global warming?
• The role of geology in climate change or global warming.
• How should clean drinking water standards be set?
• Gasoline additives such as ethanol, MBTE: more harm than good?
• Do “no-fishing zones” preserve marine biodiversity and healthy ecosystems?

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American Public Health Association
http://www.apha.org/

Issues:

• Why are the numbers of type 2 Diabetes cases increasing?
• How can a bioterror (such as smallpox or anthrax) epidemic be prevented or responded to?

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American Medical Society for Sports Medicine
http://www.amssm.org

Association for the Advancement of Applied Sport Psychology
http://www.aaasponline.org/index.php

American Physical Therapy Association
http://www.apta.org

National Athletic Trainers' Association
http://www.nata.org/

Issues:

• Is there such a thing as overtraining syndrome?
• How can physical education in public schools best combat the epidemic of childhood obesity?
• What is the best course of action for keeping young athletes (high school or college, for example) properly hydrated, to avoid dehydration, heat stroke, or hyponatremia.? Should they drink only water? Sports drinks? How much? When?

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American Academy of Forensic Science
http://www.aafs.org

American Academy of Forensic Science's Young Forensic Scientists' Forum
http://www.aafs.org/yfsf

Issues:

• Is DNA fingerprinting a reliable forensic tool?
• How has the popularity of the television program CSI affected recruitment and education of forensic scientists?
• What are the most accurate methods of determining time of death?

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American Genetics Association
http://www.theaga.org/overview.html

Issues:

• Racism and the Human Genome Diversity Project (HGDP)
• Should patients be screened for genetic dispositions towards diseases such as Alzheimer’s, where few effective treatments or prevention measures exist? Should availability of treatments be taken into account before screening?
• State laws require various genetic screening tests for newborns, but the diseases screened for vary by state. Which tests should be required, based on the rarity and severity of the diseases and the public cost of screening?
• The relatively new procedure preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) allows couples to have embryos screened for genetic abnormalities (or for stem-cell matching for a sibling) before implantation, but its use raises numerous ethical questions.

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Association of American Geographers
http://www.aag.org

American Geographical Society
http://www.amergeog.org

Issues:

• "Geoslavery" through unethical use of human-tracking devices, violation of privacy rights, and the misuse of GPS (Global Positioning Systems) technologies.
• How do professional and college sports affect the character and identity of a place?
• What are the limitations and benefits of the growing use of GIS (Geographical Information Systems) among geographers?

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American Historical Association
http://www.theaha.org/

Issues:

• Is revisionist history a consciously falsified or distorted interpretation of the past to serve partisan or ideological purposes in the present or is it a more valid and holistic approach to past oversights in historical scholarship?
• Should the Archivist of the United States (trusted with maintaining the integrity of and the public access to the historical documents of the federal government) be a politically appointed position? The American Historical Association has recently expressed concern over the Senate confirmation of a new Archivist.
• Current educational and historical theory encourages the use of primary documents in teaching history in the schools, yet most schools continue to use textbooks (secondary sources) instead. What are the benefits and disadvantages of these approaches, and how can public schools better educate students regarding history?

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National Women’s Studies Association
http://www.nwsa.org/

National Association of African American Studies and Affiliates (including Native American Studies, Asian American Studies, and Hispanic and Latino Studies)
http://www.naaas.org

National Council for Black Studies
http://www.nationalcouncilforblackstudies.com/

American Studies Association
http://www.georgetown.edu/crossroads/asainfo.html

Issues:

• Should interdisciplinary studies be separate from other traditional disciplines? Does a history of repression create a need for special attention and create unique problems not able to be addressed in traditional disciplinary departments? Or does this separation create a new form of segregation, perhaps letting the traditional disciplines continue to ignore (for example) African-American history or women’s literature?
• What defines the scope of Women’s Studies or African-American Studies (etc.)?
• Universities have offered courses, minors, and majors in interdisciplinary cultural studies of underrepresented or minority groups (such as women, Native Americans, etc.) for many years. Some schools have more recently introduced similar opportunities such as “White Studies” and “Men’s Studies.” Is this appropriate and/or necessary?

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International Studies Association
http://csf.colorado.edu/isa/

Latin American Studies Association
http://lasa.international.pitt.edu

African Studies Association
http://www.africanstudies.org/

Association for Asian Studies
http://www.aasianst.org/

Middle East Studies Association
http://fp.arizona.edu/mesassoc/

University Association for Contemporary European Studies
http://www.uaces.org/A11.htm

Issues:

• How can the United States gain a more objective perspective of how it is perceived by other countries?
• Should colleges require or encourage (through subsidies or other means) student study abroad?
• What degree of fluency in a foreign language should colleges require of their graduates? Should it depend on the major?
• Are current globalization efforts beneficial to developing nations?

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Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc.
http://www.ire.org/

National Association of Broadcasters
http://www.nab.org/

Society for Professional Journalists
http://www.spj.org/

Issues:

• Should cameras be allowed in the courtroom? Does the need for public access to courtroom proceedings outweigh the potential impact of televising trials?
• To what degree should journalists protect the confidentiality of their sources? (for example, Valerie Plame, the "outed" CIA agent in 2004)
• When courts accidentally release confidential information to the press (as happened in the Kobe Bryant trial in Colorado in 2004), should press organizations print the information? What are the limits of "prior restraint?"

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American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages
http://www.actfl.org

Modern Language Association of America
http://www.mla.org

Linguistic Society of America
http://www.lsadc.org

Issues:

• Should language be studied as a fixed or adaptive phenomenon? In other words, should the study of grammar and word usage preserve language rules or should it reflect the way language users speak and write? For example, regional dialects and ebonics.
• How should foreign languages be taught? Should public school curricula require foreign language study? At what age should it begin?
• Are linguistic structures innate to humans (as structural linguists argue) or are they learned?

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American Bar Association
http://www.abanet.org/

Issues:

• What are the constitutional rights of detainees held in a time of war? What difference does it make if they are U.S. citizens, citizens of U.S. allies, or citizens of enemy states?
• Are parts of the USA PATRIOT Act unconstitutional?
• Does "tort reform" offer a chance to reign in absurd jury settlements that raise health care costs, or does it threaten the citizen's only defense against doctor malfeasance?

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American Comparative Literature Association
http://www.acla.org

Modern Language Association of America
http://www.mla.org

Issues:

• What is the canon of classic literature and who decides what is included? Should authors ignored in their time for cultural reasons be re-inserted into what are considered “the classics”?
• How should literature be taught in schools? Should teachers emphasize a book's connection to history or culture? Or should English classes focus on close readings to find meaning within a work of literature (a formalist approach)?
• Is there inherent value in reading--reading anything, including comic books, romance novels, and other popular literature? Should teachers, professors, and librarians encourage any reading at all, or should readers be encouraged to read more "quality" literature?

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American Medical Association
http://www.ama-assn.org

American Nurses Association
http://www.nursingworld.org/

Issues:

• Should physicians be required to disclose health information to the parents of minors? Should exceptions be granted for sexual health issues or in other cases?
• Should health care providers be required to take the smallpox vaccine?
• Are public access defibrillators safe and effective? If so, where should they be located?
• As the prison population ages, how can the health care professional community effectively serve the growing number of older, infirm, and dying prisoners?
• Evidence-based medicine: has it revolutionized the medical and nursing professions?

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American Musicological Society
http://www.sas.upenn.edu/music/ams/

International Foundation for Music Research
http://www.music-research.org/

National Association for Music Education
http://www.menc.org

Issues:

• Does the study of music (through the playing of instruments, listening to classical music, or other activities) have a significant effect on intelligence? Is this effect more pronounced at certain ages?
• How can unique musical traditions be preserved when the culture that produces it disappears or is diluted by mainstream cultures? (for example, Appalachian musical styles)
• How do (or should) copyright laws affect "traditional" musical styles such as the blues, where songs have evolved through multiple artists' renditions or where music was recorded as field recordings? Who should receive royalties, and who is responsible for finding the recipients of these royalties? See the Music Maker Foundation for more information on this issue.
• Is it possible and practical to create a database that allows a person to search for a piece of music by humming, playing keys, or otherwise use non-language cues? In other words, can there be systems that allow you to search for a song if you can't remember the title, composer, or any other information about it other than the melody?

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American Philosophical Association
http://www.udel.edu/apa

American Academy of Religion
http://www.aarweb.org

Issues:

• Are the studies of philosophy and religion relevant to a liberal arts education?
• Should classes in these disciplines be taught as service-learning courses to find real-world applications, or is there inherent value in discussions of ethics?

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American Physical Society
http://www.aps.org

Issues:

• What is "dark energy?" What evidence do we have that it exists? Are there competing explanations for the available evidence?
• Why are nanotubes the hot topic in physics? What are they, what do we know about them, and what use are they?
• Many ideas long popular in science fiction, such as parallel universes, time travel, and teleporting, have received serious scientific attention. Are these actually possible?
• How do quantum computers work, and will useful prototypes exist in the near future?
• How do we know how old the universe is? Why is there some controversy over the age? What are the main methods by which the age is determined?
  

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American Political Science Association
http://apsanet.org

Issues:

• Qualitative versus quantitative research in political science and economics. See http://www.politicaltheory.info/scholarship for more background.
• Why are there fewer women than men in elected political positions in the U.S.? Is it a reluctance among women to enter politics or a reluctance among voters to elect women? Is this inequity a significant problem for U.S. democracy?
• Can economic embargos and sanctions be effective methods of regime change? What factors into their success or failure? (for example, sanctions against Cuba, South Africa, and Iraq)

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Association: American Psychological Association
http://www.apa.org

Issues:

• Privacy of medical records versus the public’s need to know about violent or sexual criminals.
• What triggers "false memory syndrome" in patients? Can repressed memories of traumatic events ever be recalled accurately?
• In recent years, antidepressants (such as Prozac and Zoloft) have changed the way clinical depression is understood, perceived, and treated. Are there social or environmental factors that trigger depression that have been neglected since these drugs gained popularity?
• Which neurotransmitters are involved in schizophrenia? How should future research be directed to address the current understanding of the disease?

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National Association of Social Workers
http://www.naswdc.org

American School Counselor Association
http://www.schoolcounselor.org/

Issues:

• Is obesity in children a form of child abuse?
• How can recidivism rates of prisoners be lowered?
• How can secondary school counselors effectively address the growing incidence of eating disorders among adolescents?

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American Sociological Association
http://www.asanet.org

Issues:

• Should the federal government (through the NIH or similar agencies) fund research into sexual behavior? Congress has recently opened an inquiry into research of this type.
• What is the relationship between residential neighborhoods and the stress levels of its inhabitants?
• What social and demographic factors shape a parent’s decision to stay at home with his/her children?

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Contact:
Suchi Mohanty
(smohanty@email.unc.edu)
(919) 962-1355