Skip to main content

Social Issues

Harris Forbes ’19 serves as associate producer and postproduction supervisor for America in Black. Produced by CBS News in partnership with BET News, the show airs monthly and covers a range of stories about Black America, from profiles of prominent movers and shakers to deep dives into the Black maternal health crisis and the fight to teach Black history in schools.

Read about Forbes’ work

The words BET News Presents America in Black are displayed on a black background.
The voices of people incarcerated in Illinois are rarely heard outside their institutions’ walls. Students in the Northwestern Prison Education Program (NPEP) are changing that.

Find out more

Four men in blue polo shirts and dark blue pants sit at desks in a classroom, listening to a teacher who is sitting at a desk across from them, wearing a gray shirt and dark gray pants. In the background there is a chalkboard and television.
Stage adaptations of books, movies and even music albums are nothing new. But this spring Christina Rosales ’11 brought an unusual production to Northwestern’s Wirtz Center Chicago: a stage adaptation of a video game.

Read the story

Two characters from the show Dot’s Home Live converse onstage. On the left is Mr. Murphy, a white man wearing a brown suit jacket and tan slacks and holding a black folder. On the left is Dot, a Black woman wearing a red top and white pants, pointing her finger at Mr. Murphy.
In May, Northwestern sent six student representatives to join the Ocean Plastics Recovery Project. The students spent a week under the Alaskan early summer sun near Prince of Wales Island, where they cleared beaches of 15,000 pounds of marine debris.

Read more about the field trip

The research vessel Island C serves as a mother ship and platform for the Ocean Plastics Recovery Project's collection expeditions in southwest Alaska. The white vessel is anchored in open water. There is a small vessel tethered to the larger boat. Crew members wear yellow jackets. here are snow-capped mountains in the background.
Co-founded by Andrew Youn ’06 MBA, ’19 H, One Acre Fund is a nonprofit that provides training and equipment to 4 million farm families across nine countries in eastern and southern Africa.

Read Youn’s essay

A black and white pencil-drawn illustration of Andrew Youn wearing rectangular glasses and smiling at the viewer.
When his dreams of directing theater fizzled, Art Johnston ’75 MFA instead took up the fight for queer rights in Chicago. Together with his husband, Pep Peña, he co-founded Sidetrack, an innovative gay bar that’s now the largest in the Midwest, and lobbied for passage of groundbreaking civil rights laws that have made Chicago a welcoming place for the LGBTQIA+ community.

Get to know Johnston

Art Johnston sits on a barstool in Sidetrack. He is smiling and looking slightly away from the camera to his left. Behind him is a neon sign displaying the name Sidetrack.
As dean of career programs and continuing education and director of apprenticeship partnerships at Olive-Harvey College, Cheryl Freeman-Smith ’92 creates opportunities for students from low-income communities to gain the specialized skills required for the modern economy.

Read about Freeman-Smith's work

Cheryl Freeman-Smith and Brandon Nichols stand beside several Rivian electric vehicles.
University Archives is home to documents, artifacts and mementos that showcase the rich history of Northwestern and its community, “items that will help people better understand the University we love,” says University Historian Kevin Leonard ’77, ’82 MA. The collections span 25,000 linear feet and include everything from a limited-edition Northwestern University Barbie to a real taxidermized wildcat.

Explore the archives

Man walking down a hallway in Northwestern's Archives Vault
We all want to give children the best possible foundation. Northwestern researchers and alumni across disciplines are working hard to understand how kids learn best, what tools and activities can bolster their development, and how families can use that information to help children reach their full potential.

Check out their advice

Illustration of a parent and child looking at a leaf falling
Haiti is embroiled in a humanitarian crisis, with gangs controlling around 80% of the capital city, Port-au-Prince. Freelance journalist and Haitian democracy activist Monique Clesca ’81 MS, who has been sheltering in place at her home in Port-au-Prince, spoke with Northwestern Magazine about the origins of the crisis and how the country might restore stability, democracy and equity.

Read the Q&A with Clesca

Monique Clesca leans up against a wall in Miami. She is smiling and wearing a white blouse. Her hair is in a bun.