Scholarly and Personal Interests
Since arriving in Mankato, he published
portions of his thesis analyzing a nation’s role in the world-economy
and its environmental degradation (World-Economy
Centrality and Carbon Dioxide Emissions: A New Look at the Position in
the Capitalist World-System and Environmental Pollution). More recently, he published his ideas combining social theory with complexity studies in the physical sciences: “Sociopoiesis: Understanding Crisis in the Capitalist World-System through Complexity Sciences” in The Oxford Handbook of Karl Marx. While he continues his interest in the environment, he has also turned
his attention to issues related to teaching difficult subjects. He
collaborated with students and another faculty to publish an article
about critical sociology in the classroom (The
Consequences of Teaching Critical Sociology on Course Evaluations).
To reach people outside of a strictly academic audience, the research
was intentionally published in an open access journal for everyone to
read.
You may see Dr. Prew riding his bicycle up Warren hill on his way
to
class, listening to his collection of blues, alt country, metal,
classic country, punk, southern rock and whatever else he happens to
come across. Aside from enjoying a little exercise on the way to
school, Dr. Prew likes to travel, especially cross-country motorcycle
rides to visit friends and see the scenery. He is also known to attend
a protest or two and was in Seattle for the 1999 protest against the
World Trade Organization. Locally, Dr. Prew applies his expertise
working with the Living
Earth Center and the Mankato Area
Fair
Trade Town Initiative.
Activism
Dr. Prew is dedicated to activism in the everyday. Prior to coming to Urban Studies, he found many opportunities to intervene on behalf of students. When COVID struck, Dr. Prew was able to work as a liaison between International Students and the university to try to meet some of their needs. As an International Student herself, Dolly Baruah began a movement, Remember Me Too, to work with the university to help International Students who were financially stressed by COVID. In addition to all the work that Dolly did to find housing and address food insecurity, she organized a bike donation program to help with transportation issues [ https://www.keyc.com/2020/06/14/international-students-attending-msu-mankato-get-gift-help-with-traveling/ ]. Dr. Prew helped Dolly communicate effectively with the University and support the bike donation program.
Dr. Prew’s advocacy for students did pose some challenges. Intervening on behalf of discriminated individuals can have repercussions. Some folks engaged in retaliatory and bullying behavior
(see the DARVO
model for example). An unfortunate but necessary part of social movement activism
is the stress and challenge of being pushed to the margins by the
perpetrators (who may be respected in certain circles because most
discrimination takes place through unrecognized implicit bias and
behind closed doors). No one wants to believe that their friends, or
themselves, discriminate. But, they do. To point it out, however, risks
retaliation and threats to employment. If one is truly committed to
social justice, they fight through these challenges.
However, he also presented his experiences at academic conferences and was asked to participate in conversations about these issues (as in the video below). While these types of activism (bystander intervention, proactively defending people who are discriminated against, etc.) are not very visible, they are meant to change institutions from within and create better outcomes in the long run.
