UMass Amherst College of Social and Behavioral Sciences

What happens when countries decide that AI is too strategically important to source from another government? In a new essay for Prospect Magazine, Ethan Zuckerman, Associate Professor of Public Policy, Information, and Communication, argues that recent tensions between the US government and American AI companies are accelerating an emerging movement for "AI sovereignty": the view that governments should not depend on outside providers for AI infrastructure. Zuckerman's argument moves through several linked developments. Recent US actions, including a temporary order suspending foreign national access to Anthropic's most advanced models, signaled that trade restrictions can and will be used to control who accesses American AI. That signal has landed at a moment when open-source Chinese models like DeepSeek have effectively closed the performance gap with US frontier systems, according to Stanford's 2026 AI Index. The implications, he argues, reach beyond AI. US-based companies control roughly 85% of Canadian cloud computing resources and around 70% globally, raising broader questions about technological dependency. Read the full article 👉 https://lnkd.in/ez7V5PM5

Trust in government is low, confidence in public institutions has eroded, and partisans increasingly view one another with suspicion. And yet, a recent UMass Poll showed that nearly 74% of Americans believe their fellow citizens have more in common than what divides them. In a recent article for Brookings, Ray La Raja explores findings from a UMass Amherst Poll and a Gallup survey, discussing the coexistence of civic disappointment and civic solidarity. While our country is currently experiencing deep political polarization, its civic cohesion is surprisingly strong. "By civic cohesion, I mean the shared belief that despite our political disagreements, we remain one people, committed to common democratic ideals and a common future. We may disagree sharply about how those ideals should be realized, but they remain a shared point of reference," says La Raja. Read the full article 👉 https://lnkd.in/eGcGxckX Learn more about UMass Poll 👉 https://lnkd.in/ev6FQkTd

For six weeks each summer, students from across the country trade classrooms for excavation sites, learning to investigate human remains the way archaeologists, biological anthropologists, and forensic scientists do. Directed by Ventura Pérez, Associate Professor of Anthropology, the UMass Bioarchaeology and Forensic Anthropology Field School combines classroom instruction, laboratory training, and hands-on excavation. Students learn osteology, excavation techniques, forensic documentation, and laboratory analysis, working through simulated burial sites that mirror real investigations. The sites students excavate are designed by students from the previous year, creating a genuine investigative puzzle rather than a scripted exercise. A partnership with UMass Chan Medical School's Division of Translational Anatomy introduces students to ethical body donation practices and anatomical research. And invited experts help students engage with the legal, ethical, and cultural dimensions of working with human remains. The result: students who leave the program thinking like investigators. When this year's group uncovered three femurs at what appeared to be a single burial (two per person is standard), they had to develop and test a theory about commingled remains. "This field school is just unique in the country," Pérez says. Interest at a recent national conference suggests other programs agree. Read the full story 👉 https://lnkd.in/e9jwyhbe Interested in applying? Learn more about the program 👉 https://lnkd.in/eWjF_bSM

"Every solution that seems to be only about technology, like using AI to stop AI, in reality cannot be separated from social decisions." That's how Professor Laurel Smith-Doerr, Provost Professor of Sociology, addressed a question regarding AI from a recent webinar hosted by The Conversation. A participant asked what limitations professionals might capitalize on for job security. Her answer: the framing itself needs a rethink. Professor Smith-Doerr noted that the question assumes a workplace where employers control the technology and workers must follow rules imposed from above. But what if we instead imagine a more collaborative conversation about where the boundaries around AI should be? Her current research with truck drivers points to a related concern. Automation technologies often lack sufficient information about real-world contexts, creating real dangers in automated decision-making. Rather than treating driverless trucks, or AI adoption more broadly, as a foregone conclusion, she argues for more studies grounded in the perspectives of professional workers themselves. Because work varies so much across fields, the question of what should be automated is one that professionals in every field need a voice in answering. Read her full response 👉 https://lnkd.in/ezqEKmv8

In his new book "The Wage Standard," Arindrajit Dube, Provost Professor of Economics, explores the U.S. labor market and how wages for most workers have become painfully frozen. Last week, Prof. Dube sat down with Paul Krugman to discuss the book, labor economics, the state of wages across the nation, and the meaning of "monopsony." Watch the interview 👉 https://lnkd.in/eEj_NyCZ 📚 Learn more about "The Wage Standard" 👉 https://lnkd.in/e6e6uCpr

According to the latest UMass Poll, President Trump's approval rating is 33%, the lowest the poll has ever recorded. The team at UMass Poll has been tracking the sentiments of the American public on Trump's second term, and the latest results paint a striking picture: 📉 62% of Americans disapprove of Trump's job performance 🌎 65% say the country is on the wrong track 💸 Fewer than 1 in 4 Americans view the economy positively 🚔 Just 33% approve of how ICE is handling immigration enforcement And with the nation's 250th birthday just around the corner, Americans are deeply divided on what the milestone means and what makes someone an "American" in the first place. "Americans are spread across pride, reflection, and notably, disengagement in regards to the nation's founding. Younger Americans are much less likely to see the founding as a source of pride and more likely to feel detached from it altogether - just 25% of those under 30 years old call it a proud milestone, compared to 47% of citizens over 55," says Ray La Raja, professor of political science and co-director of the poll. Read the full results 👉 https://lnkd.in/e9R5dKmU

Not many undergraduates have the opportunity to co-author a published peer-reviewed study, but Bella Astrofsky '26, journalism, has done just that. Published in Journalism History, "The Jackson Clarion and the Mississippi Plan of 1875: Press Power and Authoritarian Rule in the Reconstruction Era South," documents how newspapers in the Reconstruction-era South went beyond expressing partisan views to actively inciting violence to support Democratic efforts to seize power. Kathy Roberts Forde, professor of journalism and co-author of the paper, notes, "The press has been a profoundly good actor in service of protecting democracy, but it has also been a political actor in building authoritarian regimes through racial violence...and overthrowing actual state-level governments." Learn more about the research 👉 https://lnkd.in/gBdeZNtf

🎉 Congrats to Adam Eichen on being named April's Groundbreaking Graduate Student at UMass Amherst! Eichen is a doctoral student in the Department of Political Science, where his research explores the passage of "citizen empowerment policies." When discussing his work, Eichen notes, "I hope that by uncovering the factors that lead to the successful passage of citizen empowerment policies, I can provide a roadmap for practitioners and lawmakers in other states who want to adopt these policies and, in doing so, help bring about a stronger democracy." As a lead graduate fellow at the UMass Poll, Eichen has also co-founded and co-directs the UMass Poll Undergraduate Fellow Program, a highly selective and rigorous training program for undergraduates. Learn more about Eichen's research 👉 https://lnkd.in/g38tUpFZ

"When you're cold, you put on a sweater, so we started thinking: what would you do if you're a building?" Carolina Aragón, UMass LA&RP, is part of a team of researchers who have unveiled a unique tool to keep homes warm while reducing both costs and energy use. The team developed a mosaic of removable photothermal fabric panels that can be hung on any surface, not only conducting the sun's warmth but also insulating the building. While modeling their design, the team saw a 15% decrease in energy costs for a residential building in a New England climate, with an even larger decrease for multi-unit apartment buildings. Read more about the study 👉 https://lnkd.in/gAPaVH9h