Professional Communities: Subjects, Organizations, and Issues
Academic disciplines commonly researched for English 11's Professional Communities
Unit are listed below, with prominent scholarly associations, and some suggested
topics for research.
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Arts and Humanities
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Social Sciences
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Natural and Physical Sciences
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Anthropology and Archeology
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:
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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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City and Regional Planning
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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Computer and Information Science
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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Environmental and Marine Science
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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Exercise and Sports Science
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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Interdisciplinary Cultural Studies (e.g.,
African-American Studies, Latino/a Studies, Women's Studies)
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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Journalism and Media Studies
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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Social Work and Counseling
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
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