David Walls (academic)
Encyclopedia
David Walls is an activist and academic who has made significant contributions to Appalachian studies
and to the popular understanding of social movements. He is professor emeritus of sociology
at Sonoma State University
(SSU) in California
, where he was dean of extended education
from 1984 to 2000.
and in Duluth, Minnesota
. He finished the last two years of high school in Coral Gables, Florida
. He attended the University of California, Berkeley
as an undergraduate from 1959 to 1964, earning a bachelor's degree in economics. While at Berkeley, he was active in SLATE
, the campus political party, and served a term on the board of directors of the Associated Students of the University of California.
, commissioner of the Vocational Rehabilitation Administration, and her deputy. In 1965 he transferred to the newly established War on Poverty
headquarters, the Office of Economic Opportunity
(OEO), where he worked in the Community Action Program, assisting Jule Sugarman
with the launch of Project Head Start and funding student volunteer programs.
(AV), a nonprofit agency conducting community organizing projects in the central Appalachian coalfields of eastern Kentucky, southern West Virginia, and southwestern Virginia. He moved to Harlan County, Kentucky
to supervise VISTA
volunteers. A year later he became field coordinator for the AV in the state, and moved to Berea, Kentucky
. When founding executive director Milton Ogle resigned in August 1968, Walls became the director for the organization's final year. Although his initial work in Harlan County involved organizing low-income people to demand representation on the Cumberland Valley's community action agency, he soon was drawn into the growing opposition to strip-mining for coal, after a landslide from a strip-mine bench threatened a house at the head of Jones Creek, above Verda on the Clover Fork of the Cumberland River
in Harlan County. The AV's support for people opposing strip-mining for coal led to sedition charges in Pike County, Kentucky
in August 1967 against an AV staff member and two workers for the Southern Conference Education Fund. Although the sedition charges were quickly dismissed by federal judge and former Kentucky governor Bert T. Combs
, the case undermined OEO support for the AV.
After Republican governor Louie B. Nunn
was elected in November 1967, the AV faced an investigation by the Kentucky Un-American Activities Committee (KUAC). Walls issued a statement challenging the constitutionality of KUAC and the legality of the hearings. He refused an invitation to appear before the committee, but was not issued a subpoena, which he had hoped to challenge in court. In an interview with the Louisville Courier-Journal, Walls summarized the outlook of the AV staff on the coalfield region:
(UK) in fall 1969, while still working part-time for the AV. In fall 1970 he began full-time studies at UK, moving to Lexington, Kentucky
, to live with a group of fellow graduate students in Collective One, a politically progressive household of five men and five women. With an offset press in the basement, Collective One printed leaflets for the local anti-Vietnam War and women's movements. The women in the collective were among the initiators of the women's liberation movement in Lexington. Collective members also helped organize participation in local and national demonstrations against the Vietnam War
, and helped elect one of their group, Scott Wendelsdorf, to two terms as student body president. Walls married Lucia Gattone, whom he had met in Prestonsburg, Kentucky
while working for the AV, at Collective One on Thanksgiving Day, 1971. He received an MA in sociology in 1972 with a thesis comparing dialectical sociology in Peter Berger
and Western Marxism
. After two years Collective One broke up as members went their separate ways to jobs and other graduate schools.
Remaining at UK, Walls worked toward a doctorate in sociology and edited Appalachia in the Sixties with his faculty mentor John B. Stephenson
. In fall 1974, Walls accepted a faculty position of assistant professor in the social work program at UK. He also worked with a group of colleagues to organize the interdisciplinary Appalachian Center at UK, with a mission of promoting Appalachian studies
courses, research on the region, and community service. The Appalachian Centerhttp://www.research.uky.edu/Appalcenter/index.html was formally established in 1976, with Stephenson named director, and Walls designated associate director. A meeting between Walls and American studies
professor Alessandro Portelli
during a visit to Rome, Italy, in 1973 led to a long-term exchange program, involving graduate students and faculty, between the UK Appalachian Center and Sapienza University of Rome.
Walls's doctoral research produced several articles and chapters that contributed to the emerging field of Appalachian studies. At the 1975 Appalachian Symposium held at Appalachian State University
to honor Cratis D. Williams, Walls presented his paper "On the Naming of Appalachia," http://www.sonoma.edu/users/w/wallsd/sociology-southern-appalachia.shtml
which identified the first appearances of "Appalachia" on the maps of early explorers and mapmakers. This conference served as a catalyst for the Appalachian Studies Association
. At UK, Walls elaborated on the application of the internal colonialism model to the Appalachian region, first developed by Helen M. Lewis, http://www.sonoma.edu/users/w/wallsd/internal-colony.shtml and collaborated with sociologist Dwight Billings on the sociology of the southern Appalachians, the structure of the coal industry for the Ohio River
Basin Energy Study, and the foundations of the university's Appalachian studies curriculum. His Ph.D. in sociology was awarded in 1978.
(SSU) as director of sponsored programs and general manager of the SSU Academic Foundation. In 1984 he became the dean of the school of extended education. During his tenure as dean, SSU introduced a BA degree completion program with a distance learning component, MA degrees in liberal studies and computer
and engineering science, and an expanded group of MA degrees in psychology, including organizational development and depth psychology
. He received an academic appointment in sociology, and taught classes on the civil rights movement
, the environmental movement
, and gender and social movements.
Walls authored The Activist's Almanac: The Concerned Citizen's Guide to the Leading Advocacy Organizations in America, interviewing over a hundred leaders of national social movement organizations.
After a favorable review of The Activist's Almanac in The Workbook (a quarterly aimed at activists in the Southwest), editor Kathy Cone invited several articles by Walls. These appeared in The Workbook between 1994 and 2000, when the magazine was discontinued by its sponsor. Walls's survey article on community organizing has been updated twice and remains a popular on-line resource.http://www.sonoma.edu/users/w/wallsd/community-organizing.shtml
Since 2000 Walls has engaged in a dispute with Project Censored
over what he sees as a denial of war crimes committed by Serbs in Bosnia
and Kosovo
, specifically concerning atrocities at Trnopolje camp
and Omarska camp
near Prijedor
in Bosnia, and the Racak incident
in Kosovo. Walls's article in New Politics
http://www.wpunj.edu/newpol/issue33/walls33.htm drew a supportive letter from sociologist Bogdan Denitch
and rejoinders from Peter Phillips, Diana Johnstone
, and Edward S. Herman
& David Peterson, with replies to each by Walls.http://www.sonoma.edu/users/w/wallsd/whitewash-debate.shtml He has also been critical of Project Censored's occasional inability to distinguish between sound and unsound science, as in the case of NASA
's Cassini-Huygens
mission to Saturnhttp://www.sonoma.edu/users/w/wallsd/cassini.shtml and its promotion of 9/11 conspiracy theories
.
(OLLI programs)http://usm.maine.edu/olli/national/ at SSU and other northern California campuses.
Social Theory
Social Movements
Human Rights
Appalachian studies
Appalachian studies is the area studies field concerned with the Appalachian region of the United States.-Scholarship:In 1966, West Virginia University librarian Robert F...
and to the popular understanding of social movements. He is professor emeritus of sociology
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
at Sonoma State University
Sonoma State University
Sonoma State University is a public, coeducational business and liberal arts college affiliated with the California State University system. The main campus is located in Rohnert Park, California, United States and lies approximately south of Santa Rosa and north of San Francisco...
(SSU) in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, where he was dean of extended education
Continuing education
Continuing education is an all-encompassing term within a broad spectrum of post-secondary learning activities and programs. The term is used mainly in the United States and Canada...
from 1984 to 2000.
Early life and education
Born David Stuart Walls in Chicago, Illinois, he grew up on the Upper Peninsula of MichiganUpper Peninsula of Michigan
The Upper Peninsula of Michigan is the northern of the two major land masses that make up the U.S. state of Michigan. It is commonly referred to as the Upper Peninsula, the U.P., or Upper Michigan. It is also known as the land "above the Bridge" linking the two peninsulas. The peninsula is bounded...
and in Duluth, Minnesota
Duluth, Minnesota
Duluth is a port city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and is the county seat of Saint Louis County. The fourth largest city in Minnesota, Duluth had a total population of 86,265 in the 2010 census. Duluth is also the second largest city that is located on Lake Superior after Thunder Bay, Ontario,...
. He finished the last two years of high school in Coral Gables, Florida
Coral Gables, Florida
Coral Gables is a city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, southwest of Downtown Miami, in the United States. The city is home to the University of Miami....
. He attended the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
as an undergraduate from 1959 to 1964, earning a bachelor's degree in economics. While at Berkeley, he was active in SLATE
SLATE
SLATE, a pioneer organization of the New Left and precursor of the Free Speech Movement, was a campus political party at the University of California, Berkeley from 1958 to 1966.-Origins:...
, the campus political party, and served a term on the board of directors of the Associated Students of the University of California.
Work in Washington, DC
After graduating from UC Berkeley, he began work in 1964 as a management intern at the Department of Health, Education and Welfare in Washington, DC, serving as an assistant to Mary E. SwitzerMary E. Switzer
Mary Elizabeth Switzer was an American public administrator and social reformer. She notably shaped the 1954 Vocational Rehabilitation Act, which provided a great expansion of vocational rehabilitation service for people with disabilities...
, commissioner of the Vocational Rehabilitation Administration, and her deputy. In 1965 he transferred to the newly established War on Poverty
War on Poverty
The War on Poverty is the unofficial name for legislation first introduced by United States President Lyndon B. Johnson during his State of the Union address on January 8, 1964. This legislation was proposed by Johnson in response to a national poverty rate of around nineteen percent...
headquarters, the Office of Economic Opportunity
Office of Economic Opportunity
The Office of Economic Opportunity was the agency responsible for administering most of the War on Poverty programs created as part of United States President Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society legislative agenda.- History :...
(OEO), where he worked in the Community Action Program, assisting Jule Sugarman
Jule Sugarman
Jule Meyer Sugarman was a founder of the Head Start Program who also led the program for its first five years.-Early life:...
with the launch of Project Head Start and funding student volunteer programs.
Work with Appalachian Volunteers
In fall 1966 Walls joined the staff of the Appalachian VolunteersAppalachian Volunteers
Appalachian Volunteers, Inc. was a non-profit organization engaged in community development projects in central Appalachia that evolved into a controversial community organizing network, with a reputation that went “from self-help to sedition” as its staff developed from "reformers to radicals," in...
(AV), a nonprofit agency conducting community organizing projects in the central Appalachian coalfields of eastern Kentucky, southern West Virginia, and southwestern Virginia. He moved to Harlan County, Kentucky
Harlan County, Kentucky
Harlan County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. It was formed in 1819. As of 2000, the population was 33,200. Its county seat is Harlan...
to supervise VISTA
Volunteers in Service to America
VISTA or Volunteers in Service to America is an anti-poverty program created by Lyndon Johnson's Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 as the domestic version of the Peace Corps. Initially, the program increased employment opportunities for conscientious people who felt they could contribute tangibly to...
volunteers. A year later he became field coordinator for the AV in the state, and moved to Berea, Kentucky
Berea, Kentucky
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 9,851 people, 3,693 households, and 2,426 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,055.4 people per square mile . There were 4,115 housing units at an average density of 440.9 per square mile...
. When founding executive director Milton Ogle resigned in August 1968, Walls became the director for the organization's final year. Although his initial work in Harlan County involved organizing low-income people to demand representation on the Cumberland Valley's community action agency, he soon was drawn into the growing opposition to strip-mining for coal, after a landslide from a strip-mine bench threatened a house at the head of Jones Creek, above Verda on the Clover Fork of the Cumberland River
Cumberland River
The Cumberland River is a waterway in the Southern United States. It is long. It starts in Harlan County in far southeastern Kentucky between Pine and Cumberland mountains, flows through southern Kentucky, crosses into northern Tennessee, and then curves back up into western Kentucky before...
in Harlan County. The AV's support for people opposing strip-mining for coal led to sedition charges in Pike County, Kentucky
Pike County, Kentucky
Pike County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of 2010, the population was 65,024. Its county seat is Pikeville. Pike is Kentucky's largest county in terms of land area. Pike County is the 11th largest county in Kentucky in terms of population preceded by Bullitt County and...
in August 1967 against an AV staff member and two workers for the Southern Conference Education Fund. Although the sedition charges were quickly dismissed by federal judge and former Kentucky governor Bert T. Combs
Bert T. Combs
Bertram Thomas Combs was a jurist and politician from the US state of Kentucky. After serving on the Kentucky Court of Appeals, he was elected the 50th Governor of Kentucky in 1959 on his second run for the office. Following his gubernatorial term, he was appointed to the Sixth Circuit Court of...
, the case undermined OEO support for the AV.
After Republican governor Louie B. Nunn
Louie B. Nunn
Louie Broady Nunn was the 52nd governor of Kentucky. Elected in 1967, he was the first Republican elected to that office since Simeon Willis in 1943 and the last to hold it until the election of Ernie Fletcher in 2003....
was elected in November 1967, the AV faced an investigation by the Kentucky Un-American Activities Committee (KUAC). Walls issued a statement challenging the constitutionality of KUAC and the legality of the hearings. He refused an invitation to appear before the committee, but was not issued a subpoena, which he had hoped to challenge in court. In an interview with the Louisville Courier-Journal, Walls summarized the outlook of the AV staff on the coalfield region:
"An impatience with the slowness of change and paternalistic government programs; a distrust of experts who think they can solve the problems of poor people; a disgust with the way corruption is taken for granted in the mountains; a trust in the ability of poor people to solve their own problems, given the proper tools and money; a desire to end the colonialistic exploitation of Appalachia by corporations in Pittsburgh and New York and by small cliques of men in county seats; and a belief that the wealth of the area's mineral resources ought to go toward constructing a better way of life for all the people who live here."Political pressures to terminate funding for the AV finally took their toll, and no further OEO support was forthcoming. After attempting an orderly spin-off or phase-out of AV staff and programs, Walls resigned as executive director in April 1970.
Activism and Appalachian studies at the University of Kentucky
Walls began graduate work in sociology at the University of KentuckyUniversity of Kentucky
The University of Kentucky, also known as UK, is a public co-educational university and is one of the state's two land-grant universities, located in Lexington, Kentucky...
(UK) in fall 1969, while still working part-time for the AV. In fall 1970 he began full-time studies at UK, moving to Lexington, Kentucky
Lexington, Kentucky
Lexington is the second-largest city in Kentucky and the 63rd largest in the US. Known as the "Thoroughbred City" and the "Horse Capital of the World", it is located in the heart of Kentucky's Bluegrass region...
, to live with a group of fellow graduate students in Collective One, a politically progressive household of five men and five women. With an offset press in the basement, Collective One printed leaflets for the local anti-Vietnam War and women's movements. The women in the collective were among the initiators of the women's liberation movement in Lexington. Collective members also helped organize participation in local and national demonstrations against the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
, and helped elect one of their group, Scott Wendelsdorf, to two terms as student body president. Walls married Lucia Gattone, whom he had met in Prestonsburg, Kentucky
Prestonsburg, Kentucky
Prestonsburg is a city in and the county seat of Floyd County, Kentucky, United States. It lies in the eastern part of the state, along the banks of the Levisa Fork of the Big Sandy River. It was founded in 1797 by Col. John Preston—for whom it was named—along with Solomon Stratton, Matthias...
while working for the AV, at Collective One on Thanksgiving Day, 1971. He received an MA in sociology in 1972 with a thesis comparing dialectical sociology in Peter Berger
Peter L. Berger
Peter Ludwig Berger is an Austrian-born American sociologist well known for his work, co-authored with Thomas Luckmann, The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge .-Biography:...
and Western Marxism
Western Marxism
Western Marxism is a term used to describe a wide variety of Marxist theoreticians based in Western and Central Europe, in contrast with philosophy in the Soviet Union...
. After two years Collective One broke up as members went their separate ways to jobs and other graduate schools.
Remaining at UK, Walls worked toward a doctorate in sociology and edited Appalachia in the Sixties with his faculty mentor John B. Stephenson
John B. Stephenson
John B. Stephenson was a sociologist and scholar of Appalachia, a founder of the Appalachian Studies Conference, and president of Berea College from 1984 to 1994.-Early life and education:...
. In fall 1974, Walls accepted a faculty position of assistant professor in the social work program at UK. He also worked with a group of colleagues to organize the interdisciplinary Appalachian Center at UK, with a mission of promoting Appalachian studies
Appalachian studies
Appalachian studies is the area studies field concerned with the Appalachian region of the United States.-Scholarship:In 1966, West Virginia University librarian Robert F...
courses, research on the region, and community service. The Appalachian Centerhttp://www.research.uky.edu/Appalcenter/index.html was formally established in 1976, with Stephenson named director, and Walls designated associate director. A meeting between Walls and American studies
American studies
American studies or American civilization is an interdisciplinary field dealing with the study of the United States. It traditionally incorporates the study of history, literature, and critical theory, but also includes fields as diverse as law, art, the media, film, religious studies, urban...
professor Alessandro Portelli
Alessandro Portelli
Alessandro Portelli is an Italian scholar of American literature and culture, oral historian, writer for the daily newspaper il manifesto, and musicologist. He is currently a professor of Anglo-American literature at the University of Rome La Sapienza...
during a visit to Rome, Italy, in 1973 led to a long-term exchange program, involving graduate students and faculty, between the UK Appalachian Center and Sapienza University of Rome.
Walls's doctoral research produced several articles and chapters that contributed to the emerging field of Appalachian studies. At the 1975 Appalachian Symposium held at Appalachian State University
Appalachian State University
Appalachian State University is a comprehensive , public, coeducational university located in Boone, North Carolina, United States. Appalachian State, also referred to as Appalachian, App State, or simply App, is the sixth largest institution in the University of North Carolina system...
to honor Cratis D. Williams, Walls presented his paper "On the Naming of Appalachia," http://www.sonoma.edu/users/w/wallsd/sociology-southern-appalachia.shtml
which identified the first appearances of "Appalachia" on the maps of early explorers and mapmakers. This conference served as a catalyst for the Appalachian Studies Association
Appalachian Studies Association
The Appalachian Studies Association is an organization of scholars and activists interested in Appalachian studies.According to its web site, “The Appalachian Studies Association was formed in 1977 by a group of scholars, teachers, and regional activists who believed that shared community has...
. At UK, Walls elaborated on the application of the internal colonialism model to the Appalachian region, first developed by Helen M. Lewis, http://www.sonoma.edu/users/w/wallsd/internal-colony.shtml and collaborated with sociologist Dwight Billings on the sociology of the southern Appalachians, the structure of the coal industry for the Ohio River
Ohio River
The Ohio River is the largest tributary, by volume, of the Mississippi River. At the confluence, the Ohio is even bigger than the Mississippi and, thus, is hydrologically the main stream of the whole river system, including the Allegheny River further upstream...
Basin Energy Study, and the foundations of the university's Appalachian studies curriculum. His Ph.D. in sociology was awarded in 1978.
Career at Sonoma State University
In 1982 Walls returned to California to take a job at Sonoma State UniversitySonoma State University
Sonoma State University is a public, coeducational business and liberal arts college affiliated with the California State University system. The main campus is located in Rohnert Park, California, United States and lies approximately south of Santa Rosa and north of San Francisco...
(SSU) as director of sponsored programs and general manager of the SSU Academic Foundation. In 1984 he became the dean of the school of extended education. During his tenure as dean, SSU introduced a BA degree completion program with a distance learning component, MA degrees in liberal studies and computer
Computer science
Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...
and engineering science, and an expanded group of MA degrees in psychology, including organizational development and depth psychology
Depth psychology
Historically, depth psychology, from a German term , was coined by Eugen Bleuler to refer to psychoanalytic approaches to therapy and research that take the unconscious into account. The term has come to refer to the ongoing development of theories and therapies pioneered by Pierre Janet, William...
. He received an academic appointment in sociology, and taught classes on the civil rights movement
Civil rights movement
The civil rights movement was a worldwide political movement for equality before the law occurring between approximately 1950 and 1980. In many situations it took the form of campaigns of civil resistance aimed at achieving change by nonviolent forms of resistance. In some situations it was...
, the environmental movement
Environmental movement
The environmental movement, a term that includes the conservation and green politics, is a diverse scientific, social, and political movement for addressing environmental issues....
, and gender and social movements.
Walls authored The Activist's Almanac: The Concerned Citizen's Guide to the Leading Advocacy Organizations in America, interviewing over a hundred leaders of national social movement organizations.
After a favorable review of The Activist's Almanac in The Workbook (a quarterly aimed at activists in the Southwest), editor Kathy Cone invited several articles by Walls. These appeared in The Workbook between 1994 and 2000, when the magazine was discontinued by its sponsor. Walls's survey article on community organizing has been updated twice and remains a popular on-line resource.http://www.sonoma.edu/users/w/wallsd/community-organizing.shtml
Since 2000 Walls has engaged in a dispute with Project Censored
Project Censored
Project Censored is a non-profit, media criticism and investigative journalism project within the Sonoma State University Foundation. It is managed through the School of Social Sciences at the university....
over what he sees as a denial of war crimes committed by Serbs in Bosnia
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...
and Kosovo
Kosovo
Kosovo is a region in southeastern Europe. Part of the Ottoman Empire for more than five centuries, later the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija within Serbia...
, specifically concerning atrocities at Trnopolje camp
Trnopolje camp
Trnopolje camp was a concentration camp established in the village of Trnopolje near the city of Prijedor in northern Bosnia and Herzegovina in the first months of the Bosnian War.-History:...
and Omarska camp
Omarska camp
Omarska camp was a concentration camp run by Bosnian Serb forces, in Omarska, a mining town near Prijedor in northern Bosnia and Herzegovina, set up during the Prijedor massacre for Bosniak and Croat men and women. Functioning in the first months of the Bosnian War in 1992, it was one of 677...
near Prijedor
Prijedor
Prijedor is a city and municipality in the north-western part of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is situated in the Bosanska Krajina region....
in Bosnia, and the Racak incident
Racak incident
Operation Račak , also known as the Račak Massacre , "The Račak Incident", "The Račak case" and "The Račak Hoax" of 15 January 1999 was the killing of 45 Kosovo Albanians in the village of Račak by either combat or murder in central Kosovo...
in Kosovo. Walls's article in New Politics
New Politics (magazine)
New Politics is an independent socialist journal founded in 1961 and still published in the United States today. While it is inclusive of articles from a variety of left-of-center positions, the publication leans strongly toward a Third camp, democratic Marxist perspective, placing it typically to...
http://www.wpunj.edu/newpol/issue33/walls33.htm drew a supportive letter from sociologist Bogdan Denitch
Bogdan Denitch
Bogdan Denitch is an American sociologist of Yugoslav origin who is an emeritus professor at the City University of New York . He is a leading authority on the political sociology of the former Yugoslavia...
and rejoinders from Peter Phillips, Diana Johnstone
Diana Johnstone
Diana Johnstone is a American leftist political writer based in Paris, France. She focusesg primarily on European politics and Western foreign policy. Johnstone received a Ph.D...
, and Edward S. Herman
Edward S. Herman
Edward S. Herman is an American economist and media analyst with a specialty in corporate and regulatory issues as well as political economy and the media. He is Professor Emeritus of Finance at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He also teaches at Annenberg School for...
& David Peterson, with replies to each by Walls.http://www.sonoma.edu/users/w/wallsd/whitewash-debate.shtml He has also been critical of Project Censored's occasional inability to distinguish between sound and unsound science, as in the case of NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
's Cassini-Huygens
Cassini-Huygens
Cassini–Huygens is a joint NASA/ESA/ASI spacecraft mission studying the planet Saturn and its many natural satellites since 2004. Launched in 1997 after nearly two decades of gestation, it includes a Saturn orbiter and an atmospheric probe/lander for the moon Titan, although it has also returned...
mission to Saturnhttp://www.sonoma.edu/users/w/wallsd/cassini.shtml and its promotion of 9/11 conspiracy theories
9/11 conspiracy theories
9/11 conspiracy theories are theories that disagree with the widely accepted account that the September 11 attacks were perpetrated solely by al-Qaeda. These theories arose because of what proponents of the conspiracy theories believe to be inconsistencies in the official conclusions or some...
.
Recent Activities
Walls stepped down as dean in 2000, and taught part-time at SSU for four years, retiring as emeritus professor in 2005. He has since taught short courses on the sources of social movement success for the Osher Lifelong Learning InstitutesOsher Lifelong Learning Institutes
Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes offer noncredit courses with no assignments or grades to “seasoned” adults over age 50. Since 2001 philanthropist Bernard Osher has made grants from his foundation to launch OLLI programs at over 120 universities and colleges in 49 states and the District of...
(OLLI programs)http://usm.maine.edu/olli/national/ at SSU and other northern California campuses.
Selected publications by David Walls
Appalachian Studies- David S. Walls and John B. StephensonJohn B. StephensonJohn B. Stephenson was a sociologist and scholar of Appalachia, a founder of the Appalachian Studies Conference, and president of Berea College from 1984 to 1994.-Early life and education:...
, eds., Appalachia in the Sixties: Decade of Reawakening (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1972). ISBN 0-8131-0135-2
- "On the Naming of Appalachia," in An Appalachian Symposium, ed. J.W. Williamson (Boone, NC: Appalachian State University. Press, 1977), pp. 56–76. http://www.sonoma.edu/users/w/wallsd/on-the-naming-of-appalachia.shtml
- David S. Walls and Dwight B. Billings, "The Sociology of Southern Appalachia," Appalachian Journal, 5 (Autumn 1977), 131-144. http://www.sonoma.edu/users/w/wallsd/sociology-southern-appalachia.shtml
- Internal Colony or Internal Periphery? A Critique of Current Models and an Alternative Formulation," in
' Colonialism in Modern America; The Appalachian Case, ed. Helen M. Lewis, Linda Johnson, and Don Askins (Boone, NC: Appalachian Consortium Press, 1978), pp. 319-349. http://www.sonoma.edu/users/w/wallsd/internal-colony.shtml
- David S. Walls, Dwight B. Billings, Mary P. Payne, and Joe F. Childers, Jr., "A Baseline Assessment of Coal Industry Structure in the Ohio River Basin Energy Study Region", 2 vol. (Urbana, IL: ORBES, June 1979). NTIS No. PB 82 103615.
- Dwight Billings and David Walls, "Appalachians," in Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups, ed. Stephan Thernstrom (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1980), pp. 125–128. ISBN 0-674-37512-2
- "Appalachia," in Encyclopedia of Appalachia, ed. Rudy Abramson and Jean Haskell (Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 2006), pp. 1006–7. ISBN 1-57233-456-8
- "The Appalachian Volunteers in Perspective," review essay of Thomas Kiffmeyer, Reformers to Radicals:The Appalachian Volunteers and the War on Poverty, in Appalachian Journal, vol. 37, nos. 1-2 (Fall 2009/Winter 2010), pp. 100-105.
Social Theory
- "Models of Poverty and Planned Change: A Framework for Synthesis," Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, 5 (May 1978), 316-326. http://www.sonoma.edu/users/w/wallsd/models-of-poverty.shtml
- "Dialectical Social Science," in Theoretical Perspectives in Sociology, ed. Scott G. McNall (New York: St. Martins, 1979), pp. 214–231. http://www.sonoma.edu/users/w/wallsd/dialectical.shtml
Social Movements
- The Activist's Almanac: The Concerned Citizen's Guide to the Leading Advocacy Organizations in America (New York: Simon & Schuster/Fireside Books, 1993). ISBN 0-671-74634-0. Updated overviews of thirteen social movements, with annotated bibliographies are located at: http://www.sonoma.edu/users/w/wallsd/index.shtml
- "Power to the People: Twenty Years of Community Organizing," in The Workbook, Vol. 19, No. 2 (Summer 1994), pp. 52–55. "Thirty-five Years" update: http://www.sonoma.edu/users/w/wallsd/community-organizing.shtml
- "Community Organizations," in Encyclopedia of the Consumer Movement, ed. Stephen Brobeck (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 1997), pp. 120–122. ISBN 0-87436-987-8
- "Marching Song of the First Arkansas Colored Regiment: A Contested Attribution," Arkansas Historical Quarterly, Winter 2007, pp. 401–421. http://www.sonoma.edu/users/w/wallsd/smm-marching-song.shtml
Human Rights
- "Dubious Sources: How Project Censored Joined the Whitewash of Serb Atrocities," New Politics, Vol. IX, No. 2 (New Series), Summer 2002, pp. 165–171. http://www.wpunj.edu/newpol/issue33/walls33.htm
- "Debate: Did Project Censored Whitewash Serbian Atrocities?" New Politics, Vol. IX, No. 3 (New Series), Winter 2003, pp. 88–100 (commentary and responses by Bogdan DenitchBogdan DenitchBogdan Denitch is an American sociologist of Yugoslav origin who is an emeritus professor at the City University of New York . He is a leading authority on the political sociology of the former Yugoslavia...
, Peter Phillips, Diana JohnstoneDiana JohnstoneDiana Johnstone is a American leftist political writer based in Paris, France. She focusesg primarily on European politics and Western foreign policy. Johnstone received a Ph.D...
, and Edward S. HermanEdward S. HermanEdward S. Herman is an American economist and media analyst with a specialty in corporate and regulatory issues as well as political economy and the media. He is Professor Emeritus of Finance at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He also teaches at Annenberg School for...
& David Peterson, with replies by David Walls). http://www.sonoma.edu/users/w/wallsd/whitewash-debate.shtml