LibGuides: Research Topic Ideas: Current Events and Controversial Issues

Not Sure Which Topic to Choose?

Look at the "Picking a Topic" tab on this guide for help brainstorming your topic. Also, our Research Process guide can help you throughout your research process.

Research Process
by Liz Svoboda Last Updated Oct 31, 2023 19686 views this year

NOTE TO STUDENTS IN HIGH SCHOOL AND AT OTHER UNIVERSITIES: Most of our online resources are available only to UM-Flint students. You may have access to them through your own library. While we are happy to assist you when we can, your own school or public library is the best place to start.

Controversial Issues and Current Events

Affirmative Action
Affordable Care Act
Alternative medicine
Alt-right
America's global influence
Antifa
Artificial intelligence
Assisted suicide
Atheism
Bilingual education
Biofuels
Black Lives Matter
Border security
Capital punishment
Censorship
Charter schools
Childhood obesity
Civil rights
Climate change
Concussions in football
COVID restrictions
Cryptocurrency
Cyber bullying
Cybersecurity
DACA
Drug legalization
Early voting
Eating disorders
Equal Rights Amendment
Executive order
Extremism
Factory farming
Filibuster
Foreign aid
Fracking
Freedom of speech
General Data Protection Regulation
Genetic engineering
Gerrymandering
Green New Deal
Hacking
Hate speech
Health insurance
Human trafficking
Immigration
Israel-Palestine relations
Judicial activism
Labor unions
Land acknowledgments
#MeToo movement
Minimum wage
Misinformation
Net neutrality
Nuclear energy
Offshore drilling
Online anonymity
Organic food
Outsourcing
PFAs
Police reform
Political activism
Prescription drug addiction
QAnon
Racial profiling
Reparations
Russian hacking
Sanctuary city
Screen addiction
Self-driving cars
Sex education
Smart speakers
Social Security reform
Socialism
Standardized testing
Stem cells
Stimulus packages
Supreme Court confirmation
Sweatshops
Syrian civil war
Title IX enforcement
Trade tariffs
Transgender rights
Ukraine and Russia
Urban agriculture
Vaccination mandates
Vaping
Violence in the media
Voter ID laws
Voting fraud and security
White nationalism
Wildfires
Women's rights
Zero tolerance policies

Related suggested databases

Opposing Viewpoints This link opens in a new window
Covers contemporary social issues with pro & con and background information. Also allows searching of the collection Global Issues.
Covers contemporary social issues, from Offshore Drilling to Climate Change, Health Care to Immigration. Helps students research, analyze and organize a broad variety of data for conducting research, completing writing assignments, preparing for debates, creating presentations, and more. This resource helps students explore issues from all perspectives, and includes: pro/con viewpoint essays, topic overviews, primary source documents, biographies of social activists and reformers, court-case overviews, periodical articles, statistical tables, charts and graphs, images and a link to Google Image Search, podcasts (including weekly presidential addresses and premier NPR programs), and a national and state curriculum standards search correlated to the content that allows educators to quickly identify material by grade and discipline.

Keyword(s): United States
CQ Researcher Plus Archive This link opens in a new window
In-depth, unbiased coverage of health, social trends, criminal justice, international affairs, education, the environment, technology, and the economy.
1923-present. Each single-themed, 12,000-word report is researched and written by a seasoned journalist, and contains an introductory overview; background and chronology on the topic; an assessment of the current situation; tables and maps; pro & con statements from representatives of opposing positions; and bibliographies of key sources.
Issues & Controversies This link opens in a new window
Balanced, accurate discussions of over 250 controversial topics in the news along with chronologies, illustrations, maps, tables, sidebars, contact info, and bibliographies, including primary source documents and news editorials.
Covers 1995-present. A Read Aloud button is available for text-to-speech for much of the content.

Keyword(s): United States
What Everyone Needs to Know This link opens in a new window
Series of short books that offer a balanced and authoritative treatment of current events and countries of the world.
What Everyone Needs to Know has short overviews designed to offer a balanced and authoritative treatment on complex current events and countries of the world. Includes books in these areas:
- Arts & Humanities
- Law
- Medicine & Health
- Science & Mathematics
- Social Sciences

Flint Water Crisis

Activism
Art as commentary
Early childhood development
Citizen scientists
Emergency manager law
Environmental health
Government regulations
Health care access
Infrastructure
Investigative journalism
Lead and Copper Rule
Lead toxicity
Legionella
Phosphates
Shigella
Volunteerism
Water filtration
Water Resource Development Act (S.2848)
Water rights
Water supply policy
Water supply regulation

Related subject guide

The Flint Water Crisis: A Guide to Information Resources
by Paul Streby Last Updated Oct 30, 2023 787 views this year