NOTE: Faculty, if you are interviewed and quoted by news media, or if your work has been cited, and you have an online link to the article or video, please let us know. Contact us at news@csusb.edu.

The start of the 2017-18 academic year also means the return of the intermittent feature, Faculty in the News, a compilation of news coverage that included Cal State San Bernardino faculty.

Headlines thus far this week:

CSUSB history professor David Yaghoubian interviewed about Iran-U.S. nuclear agreementPress TVSept. 18, 2017

Iran’s best response to U.S. violations of the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and the P5+1 group of countries, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), would be to continue with its path of diplomacy and to maintain the agreement alongside other signatories, says David Yaghoubian, professor of history at Cal State San Bernardino.   

“I believe that Iran’s best response would be to continue with its path of very pragmatic and responsible diplomacy and to find a way to maintain the agreement with the other P5+1 [countries] and EU partners, which would achieve the effect of demonstrating that it is in fact the United States that is a rogue nation,” Yaghoubian told Press TV in an interview on Monday, Sept. 18.

“So if there is a way for Iran to continue with responsible activity to maintain the JCPOA or to somehow recast it with the other responsible members of the international community … this will serve the purpose of maintaining stability within the region and maintaining Iran’s sovereignty and rights,” he added.

CSUSB professor comments on alleged racist incident aimed at four Temple University studentsThe (Philadelphia) Inquirer Sept. 19, 2017

Jenice Armstrong, a columnist for the newspaper, interviewed Brian Levin, director of Cal State San Bernardino’s Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, after an incident in which four Temple University students felt they were targeted because of their race.

The center recently released the results of a new study showing that hate crimes are up about 5 percent nationwide — and up 50 percent in Philadelphia. “This is a terrible thing,” Levin said after Armstrong told him about the Temple allegations. “We have to speak with one voice in condemnation of any incident that degrades someone’s dignity.”

Wrote Armstrong: “Those four African American undergrads took one look at that banana on their door handle Sept. 11 and saw it as a jab at them for being black. They didn’t just get mad. They also notified their resident adviser in Morgan Hall North on the 1600 block of Broad Street, tweeted about it on social media, and gave interviews to local reporters.

“ ‘It’s not a coincidence that a banana was placed on our door,’ said Madison Brown, an undeclared business major from Upper Marlboro, Md. ‘I was upset because I felt like people were basically targeting our race. … The first thing that popped in my head was the negative connotation of black people and bananas, you know, how they call us primates or say we’re primitive. I felt that way because we are the only entirely black room on the floor.’”

Resurgence of extreme left and right violent groups leads to an escalation of confrontations, CSUSB professor saysMSN/The Wall Street Journal.Sept. 19, 2017

In an article about the rising anti-fascist movement and its violent confrontations with right-wing extremists, Brian Levin, a former New York City police officer and now director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, said multiple studies show that in the past 15 years, extremists with far-right ideologies, including white supremacists, neo-Nazis and antigovernment extremists, have committed more violence—including homicides—“by a long shot” than have extreme leftists.

But, he added, the resurgence of these competing extremes is increasingly dangerous and is leading to an escalating number of violent confrontations between the two sides.

Exclusive: New CSUSB report offers proof of U.S. hate crime rise in the Trump eraThe Huffington PostSept. 17, 2017

The number of hate crimes rose across the United States in 2016, marking the first time in over a decade that the country has experienced consecutive annual increases in crimes targeting people based on their race, religion, sexuality, disability or national origin.

Data collected by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, and provided exclusively to HuffPost, shows hate crimes rose about 5 percent from 2015 to 2016.

The study, authored by Professor Brian Levin, is seen as a reliable predictor of official FBI hate crime statistics, released each year in November. Levin’s 2016 findings amount to the most comprehensive hate crime data to date for the divisive election year, and back up alarming anecdotal evidence of emboldened bigotry in America. 

Also picking up coverage of the report: Vice News, Hate crimes are on the rise in America's biggest cities, CSUSB study finds, on Sept. 18; Think Progress, An explosion of hate across the United States drove hate crimes up last year, Sept. 18; and Voice of America, Hate crimes rise in major U.S .cities in 2017, according to CSUSB center report, on Sept. 19.

CSUSB professor comments on Nazi artifacts pulled from Minnesota military collectors showStar Tribune (Minn.)Sept. 16, 2017

 Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, is interviewed for an article about Nazi artifacts being pulled from a Minnesota military collectors show after white supremacists took to the streets in Charlottesville, Va., in August, co-opting Nazi symbols in their protest. It’s a sticky debate, and one that has become more complicated after the violence in Charlottesville.

“We’re living in a time with emboldened white supremacy and Nazism,” said Levin. “It’s a good time to question just how acceptable we want these items available in an unrestrained manner.”

Levin, whose father was held by the Nazis as a prisoner of war, defends the right of vendors to sell some items, although he personally wouldn’t. “These items have been transmuted from historical artifacts into expressions of disgusting promotions of anti-Semitism and white supremacy,” he said. “I think the risk of profoundly offending people is greater than the benefit of having these items floating aimlessly in routine commerce.”

But banning them isn’t the answer, he added. Instead, he thinks such images should be restricted.

These news clips, and others, may be found at “In the Headlines” on the Inside CSUSB news website.