Thursday, August 10, 2006

Today was a good day; I edited the current Syllabus for the upcoming Legal Research Class. Overall, Dwight liked it; he has to run it pass Warren and Ed to approve the changes before classes begin. I incorporated learning objectives because its helpful for students to have an idea of the direction of the course. I finally got a reply back from Financial Aid regarding a question that a retired faculty member had.

For the research question I was working on re: Divorce, Religion, and the State, Dwight suggested I look at a web-site that was created by a professor of law at Ave Maria Law School (Michigan).

True Marriage.net
http://www.truemarriage.net/article.jsp?ID=52

I gave Dwight a bibliography of articles to consider, a couple of articles for him to peruse, and a listing of current titles (books) that are available in the library. He suggested this web-link because he thinks the law professor was looking for articles pertaining to what is available on this web page.

Along the same lines, I came across this article pertaining Mate Selection. The article is written by Michael J. Rosenfeld, Stanford University. American Journal of Sociology, Volume 110 Number 5 (March 2005): 1284–325© 2005 by The University of Chicago. It has some interesting comments and study results pertaining to why interracial couples marry (especially when one spouse is Black and the other is White).

I read an interesting report that states: "Results consistently demonstrate that the cohabitations and marriages of non-hispanic black women are less stable than those of non-Hispanic white women". The report contains 44 detailed tables showing analyses of eight outcomes related to cohabitation and marriage.

Bramlett, M.D., and Mosher, W.D. - Division of Vital Statistics (1995). "Cohabitation, Marriage, Divorce, and Remarriage in the United States" (1995). This survey was jointly planned and funded primarily by the National Center for Health Statistics, The National Institute for Child Health and Human Development, The Office of Population Affairs, and the National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention.


Final Note: Two of my favorite reads about Black Life in general are from two dynamic thinkers:

Dr. Michael Eric Dyson (A fellow Native Detroiter) and author of "Is Bill Cosby Right? (2005) and Mr. Juan Williams, author of "Enough" (2006). I love NPR for allowing excerpts of both books to be available electronically. Each writer, thinker, observer of Black Life in their own right, addresses issues in the Black Community that should be discussed in Black households, academia, community centers, and churches.

Dr. Michael Eric Dyson: Is Bill Cosby Right? or is the Black Middle Class Out of Touch? http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4628960

Juan Williams: African American "Victimhood"
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5618023