Skip to main content

Social Issues

A year out of Northwestern, Keith Miller ’10 was working at a youth mentoring organization and moonlighting as a model in New York City when he wrote a manuscript focused on Jay, a queer African American young man coming of age in the Deep South in the early 2000s. Now that manuscript is the basis for an animated short film and a two-book deal with Harper Collins.

Read more about Miller and his film

pritty animation
After a treacherous 45-day climb, Chris Bombardier reached the 29,032-foot summit of Mount Everest in May 2017. It was numbingly cold, but Bombardier felt nothing but pride in what he had accomplished for the hemophilia community: He became the first person with the bleeding disorder to climb the world’s tallest mountain, knowing full well that an accident on the ascent could lead to a dire situation.

Learn about Bombardier’s mission

cu chris bombardier
Born in Karachi, Pakistan, Sumbul Siddiqui and her family immigrated to the U.S. when she was a child and found affordable housing in Cambridge, Mass.

Learn about Siddiqui

cu sumbul siddiqui
As a child, Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate was surrounded by music, theater and his Chickasaw culture. His father, who is Chickasaw, is a classically trained pianist, and his mother, who is Manx Irish, was a dancer and choreographer — so it was little wonder that Tate immersed himself in music.

Read more about Tate

cu jerod tate
Northwestern alumni are applying their journalism training to podcasting. Whether they’re transporting us to faraway places, helping us understand all sides of a complex situation or digging into a single story to shed light on broader social issues, these alumni are delivering diverse, compelling experiences straight to your earbuds.

Explore the feature

podcast hero
Most LGBTQIA individuals face challenges when trying to access high-quality care, leading to poorer health outcomes. Northwestern researchers are coming together to study these communities, remove barriers to care, and develop groundbreaking interventions to improve health.

See how Northwestern is making a difference

lgbtq healthcare opener
Northwestern researchers are part of global teams studying antibiotic resistance in Pakistan, climate change in Japan, the effect of cobalt mining on communities in the Democratic Republic of Congo, mysterious strands in the Milky Way and more.

Explore the research partnerships

GM FallHero
The advance of science and technology has brought remarkable gains over the last two centuries. But how do we measure the importance of research and the return on R&D investment?

Read an essay from Jones

voices ben jones
The Northwestern community shares tips for tricky situations.

Hear tips from ’Cats

sound off opener
My name is Charla Wilson and I am the Archivist for the Black Experience at Northwestern University. And I had the privilege of being part of the Black House "curating the space committee" this past year. We worked together to select a few pieces of artwork and photographs of Black student life on campus that are displayed in the Black House.

Watch the video