Kingsborough Community College

This article introduces the “Uneven Geographies of Social Infrastructure in Times of Crisis” Focus section of The Professional Geographer, which rethinks social infrastructure as relational, reproductive, and political. Building on and extending Klinenberg’s influential work, the articles highlight how social infrastructure not only connects people and supports community life but also organizes care, power, and inequality. The collection uses crisis as an analytical lens to explore how social infrastructure takes shape through both acute disruptions and the ongoing conditions that organize everyday life. Across cases from mutual aid networks in Brooklyn and community kitchens in Argentina to urban farms in Puerto Rico, schools across the United States, everyday aging routines, and teacher unionism in Chicago, the articles trace how infrastructures are built, sustained, and contested in uneven ways. Together they foreground the gendered and racialized labors that reproduce collective life and show how infrastructures can both carry forward and transform the effects of crisis. In reframing social infrastructure as a terrain of struggle and world building, the collection emphasizes justice rather than resilience as the measure of collective capacity and as the foundation for more equitable futures.

Abstract Secondary ion mass spectrometry U‐Pb geochronology has been performed on zircon grains separated from impact melt rock from the 2.7 km‐in‐diameter Ritland impact structure, southwestern Norway. Scanning electron microscope‐based imaging techniques, including electron backscatter diffraction analysis, reveal various zircon grain microtextures, including shock‐recrystallization and high‐temperature zircon decomposition. Analyses from unshocked zircon grains yield two distinct concordant age populations at 1.5 and ~2.5 Ga, interpreted to represent igneous crystallization ages. The former aligns with Telemarkian magmatism (1.52–1.48 Ga) which dominates the local area of the Sveconorwegian orogeny and the target sequence at Ritland. The latter indicates a more ancient zircon population in Southern Norway, representing detrital grains in cover sediments present at the time of impact in the Cambrian. Collectively, the U‐Pb data form two distinct discordant arrays with poorly resolved lower intercept ages spanning the Cambro‐Ordovician boundary. The melt rock at Ritland is highly altered, and significant postimpact Pb loss is observed throughout the U‐Pb data, likely in response to burial‐induced thermal overprinting during the Caledonian orogeny. Post‐filtering and selection of the data to minimize the effects of nonimpact‐specific Pb loss, the two discordia produce indistinguishable lower intercept ages of 586 ± 73 Ma (MSWD 1.6, n = 15) and 545 ± 48 Ma (MSWD = 11, n = 9) which coincide in the Cambrian–Late Ediacaran. We therefore provide radioisotopic support for previous stratigraphic age constraints for the formation of the structure (500–542 Ma).

This study investigates the cognitive consequences of bilingualism by examining phonetic learning, speech motor adaptation, and verbal memory. Early Spanish-English bilinguals divided into high and intermediate proficiency groups and English monolinguals completed three tasks: (1) production of an artificial English accent with novel phonotactic rules, (2) serial digit span in English, and (3) production of unfamiliar speech sounds during real-time magnetic resonance imaging (rtMRI). Bilinguals, particularly those with high proficiency, outperformed monolinguals in phonetic and articulatory learning. In the memory task, no group-level differences emerged overall, but high bilinguals showed stronger primacy effects at moderate sequence lengths, suggesting more efficient encoding. These results support a shift toward investigating task-specific and process-based effects of language experience. We also demonstrate the feasibility of using rtMRI to assess articulatory behavior in cognitive studies of bilingualism, with minimal need for manual post-processing.

ABSTRACT Epibionts were identified from adult horseshoe crabs from Delaware Bay, New Jersey and Jamaica Bay, New York during the peak of the spawning season from 1997–2003 and 2012–2021. Acorn barnacles, bryozoans, slipper shells (Crepidula fornicata), polychaetes (Sabellaria vulgaris), and mussels (Mytilus edulis) were the most frequently occurring epibionts; barnacles, Crepidula, and Mytilus were more common in the Jamaica Bay population, whereas bryozoans and Sabellaria were more common in Delaware Bay. However, epibiont species composition was insufficiently distinctive between the two populations to be useful as a biological tag. Four previously unreported epibionts were found: the urochordate Molgula manhattensis, sponge Clathria (Microciona) prolifera, alga Gracilaria sp., and an unidentified chiton. Males were more heavily encrusted than females, which may be related to their mating behavior, in which the males cover a portion of the female's opisthosoma while they are attached to her. Jamaica Bay crabs had significantly more of their carapace encrusted than crabs from Delaware Bay, and the carapace condition index, an indicator of post-molt age, was significantly worse for Jamaica Bay animals. The preponderance of older aged adults in Jamaica Bay may be indicative of poor recruitment into this population and/or emigration of younger adults from Jamaica Bay.

ABSTRACTBackgroundThis study, conducted jointly by the City University of New York, Kingsborough Community College (KCC) in the United States and Salzburg University of Education (PHS) in Austria, investigated the impact of inclusive practices from different perspectives. It aimed to understand the contributions and challenges of two inclusive courses (an equivalent to a module) for students with intellectual disabilities.MethodsQualitative and quantitative research and data collection involved two students with intellectual disabilities who were also participatory researchers (PRs). Additionally, insights from 37 student teachers taking the education courses for credit towards their degree were gathered. The instructors teaching at KCC and PHS were the lead researchers and taught, respectively, a music and movement education workshop at KCC and a ‘Citizenship Studies’ course at PHS. The PRs attended and fully participated in these courses at the same time as the student teachers without being graded. They were working towards a bespoke certification rather than obtaining credit toward a degree. The PRs were each supported by a mentor: the KCC PR was mentored by an alumnus of CCC, while the PHS PR was supported by a student at PHS.FindingsThe findings highlight diverse perspectives, demonstrating how inclusive education fosters understanding and awareness. Questionnaire results, provided insights, a snapshot into the learning environments, revealing the impact of interactions among students. The study identifies challenges, benefits and opportunities for promoting inclusive practices.ConclusionsThe study demonstrates the transformative potential of inclusive education. It emphasises the positive impact of including students with intellectual disabilities. The findings underscore the importance of mutual learning and the enhancement of inclusive practices.

In a pilot study, we investigated the relationship between articulatory skills and higher-level executive function in monolinguals and bilinguals. Participants completed a tongue-twister task to assess articulatory skills and a Simon Task to measure conflict resolution. While monolinguals exhibited slightly higher articulatory accuracy, bilinguals demonstrated a small advantage in reaction times for the Simon Task, particularly in inhibiting responses, but performance was close to 100% across the board. Contrary to expectations, we found no significant correlation was found between articulatory skill and executive function. Our findings partially replicate previous research on bilingual advantages in executive function while suggesting that the relationship between articulation and executive function may be more complex than initially hypothesized. Limitations, such as small sample size and potential methodological factors, are discussed. To further explore this and the potential effects of task complexity, we are currently replicating this study with higher numbers of participants and with a more difficult auditory switch task in which participants switch from making decisions regarding auditory stimuli [whether (a) they are presented in English or a different language and (b) they start with a nasal sound or not]. Our findings help us gain more insight into the mechanism underlying the bilingual advantage.

Forty-eight instructors were surveyed to create a resource list of materials most commonly used in Race and Crime courses. Results identified 10 textbooks, one journal article, sections/chapters from eight books, and 11 documentaries, films, or television episodes used by two or more Race and Crime instructors. Participants also offered advice for first-time Race and Crime instructors. This advice was qualitatively coded via thematic analysis and organized into five primary themes: (1) self-management (involving both emotional and technical preparation); (2) designing the course and navigating the classroom; (3) barriers that disrupt student learning; (4) course content focus; and (5) advice on miscellaneous topics that did not fit neatly into the other themes. Findings are discussed within the context of the ongoing politicization of higher education and universities’ responsibility to equip students with the tools necessary to navigate a complex, racialized social world.