Olivia Paschal

Contributor

Olivia Paschal is a contributing writer with Facing South and a doctoral student in history at the University of Virginia. She was a staff reporter with Facing South for two years and spearheaded Poultry and Pandemic, Facing South's year-long investigation into conditions for Southern poultry workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Her reporting has appeared in The Atlantic, the Huffington Post, Southerly, Scalawag, the Arkansas Times, and Civil Eats, among other publications. Olivia holds a bachelor's degree in history from Yale University.

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Articles by Olivia

Economist Rebecca Boehm on Tyson's stranglehold over Arkansas's poultry industry

By Olivia Paschal

August 20, 2021 - A new report from the Union of Concerned Scientists finds an "alarming" level of concentration in Arkansas's chicken industry. Facing South spoke with the report's author about the implications of such high levels of concentration for farmers, workers, and consumers, and possible policy solutions.

Arkansas Marshallese commemorate 75th anniversary of U.S. nuclear testing

By Olivia Paschal

July 13, 2021 - At a series of events hosted by the Marshallese Educational Initiative, Marshallese leaders in Arkansas discussed the public health inequities their community faces as a result of the U.S. nuclear legacy, climate change, and government policy.

Photo of Georgia Department of Labor building

INSTITUTE INDEX: States struggled to distribute federal pandemic unemployment assistance

By Olivia Paschal

June 25, 2021 - A report from the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Inspector General found that several Southern states failed to deliver unemployment payments in a timely manner. In Georgia, for example, about 80,000 unemployment applications remain in limbo.

Several people walking down a street holding signs in protest of Alabama's prison lease plan

How Alabama organizers blocked Gov. Ivey's prison lease plan

By Olivia Paschal Elisha Brown

June 17, 2021 - The Communities Not Prisons coalition has stalled Alabama's plan to work with private prison companies to expand the state prison system, which the U.S. Justice Department has charged with unconstitutional human rights abuses. The victory was won by organizing across geographic, race, and class lines — and by targeting the banks involved.

A history of groundbreaking reporting on the South's poultry industry

By Olivia Paschal

June 1, 2021 - It was 32 years ago that Southern Exposure — the print forerunner to Facing South — set out to document conditions in the region's fast-growing poultry industry. Many of the problems it reported on continue today. And as our recent reporting has shown, the pandemic created new challenges for the industry's changing workforce while also presenting opportunities for organizing in an industry that's long resisted unionization.

For Magaly Licolli, organizing poultry workers starts with learning together

By Olivia Paschal

June 1, 2021 - Licolli co-founded the group Venceremos to organize poultry workers in Northwest Arkansas and now serves as its director, a position she previously held at the now-defunct Northwest Arkansas Workers' Justice Center. In this oral history interview, she talks to Facing South about her upbringing in Mexico, how her theater education plays into her organizing strategy, sexism's impact on worker organizing, and lessons she's learned through her work.

Education

Arkansas voucher program for students with disabilities draws ire of parents, advocates

By Olivia Paschal

April 29, 2021 - The Arkansas legislature recently passed the state's first expansive education voucher legislation, which has been decried by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. The move came as the state's original voucher program — for children with disabilities — has come under fire for failing to provide a quality education.

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