The Public Intellectual has been for us a fascinating experiment in bringing academic work to a general audience. We are very proud of the writing that has appeared on the site. We have been heartened by the support of our readers and the generosity of the writers who have worked with us since our launch last year. We have decided, however, that the project should end.

The number of incarcerated people in the United States decreased slightly in 2010. Does that reflect a decreasing desire to lock people up? A drop in crime? Philip Cohen considers these questions and takes a look at the 2010 numbers in two great graphs. Philip is a sociologist at the University of Maryland, College Park. He blogs at Family Inequality.

By Mignon Moore

LGBT people of color are simultaneously present and excluded in the neighborhoods where they live and in mainstream LGBT organizations. They might be more active in promoting LGBT advocacy efforts if they felt those efforts included their voices and incorporated more of the issues that are important to them.

Listen to PI social science editor Nikki Jones in conversation with sociologist Karen Sternheimer about the sometimes strange relationship between an ethnographic researcher and the neighborhood she’s studying. Nikki was in the field for three years for her first book, Between Good and Ghetto, and lived in the Fillmore neighborhood of San Francisco for three years for her forthcoming book, The Hustle: Why it’s Hard to Make Good in the New Inner City. Nikki is also producing a short film, The Camera Rolls, the story of one man’s decade-long effort to document daily life in a tough San Francisco neighborhood. Look for the film on PI the coming weeks.

Mike O’Malley is a historian at George Mason University and an early innovator in digital media and history. He started experimenting with digital technology in the classroom in 1994, and is starting a grant-funded, open access journal called American History Now. Will this digital model upend the traditional peer review model? And would such a disruption necessarily be negative? Mike tackles those questions here.

The general strike in Oakland yesterday had the feeling of a street party. The ebullience didn’t seem to suggest that people took the problems facing the 99 percent lightly – the many people who showed up appeared relieved to have a venue for their frustration.

Emily Hauser is ambivalent about the OWS movement – but are the police’s actions in Oakland enough to make anyone a convert to the cause? Emily is a freelance writer and social activist. Her work has appeared in The Atlantic online, The Hairpin and Feministe, and in a variety of print outlets. She blogs at emilylhauserinmyhead.wordpress.com, crossposts at Angry Black Lady Chronicles, and can be followed on Twitter @emilylhauser.

Emily L. Hauser offers a look askance at the Occupy Wall Street movement. Tune in tomorrow for her take on Occupy Oakland. Emily is a freelance writer and social activist. Her work has appeared in The Atlantic online, The Hairpin and Feministe, and in a variety of print outlets. She blogs at emilylhauserinmyhead.wordpress.com, crossposts at Angry Black Lady Chronicles, and can be followed on Twitter @emilylhauser

We shouldn’t be surprised that the occupiers don’t have a nicely polished plan of action, says Mary Keck. In fact, the openness to evolving platforms and solutions may be its greatest asset. Keck is an instructor of English and Gender Studies as well as an associate editor of Southern Indiana Review. As a freelance journalist and fiction writer, she explores issues of class, labor, and gender in contemporary American life.

Poor people have air-conditioning and X-Boxes. Some even have the internet. What more could they want? A lot more, says sociologist Phillip Cohen, who offers a Google-assisted glimpse into the lives of poor mothers in the great recession. Philip is a sociologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He blogs at Family Inequality.