On reframing history

Over at The Atlantic, Edward Delamn talks with (genius!) Lin-Manuel Miranda about how his work of art is influencing how people understand the past — Delman: You talked about seeing people use the opening song in classrooms—how do you think your interpretation of Hamilton and this period will shape the way people understand the man and his […]

On lazy migrants?

John Oliver over at Last Week Tonight addressed migrants and refugees,

On Shakespeare and refugees

The Economist’s Prospero blog notes Sir Ian McKellen’s ongoing performance of a monologue from ‘Sir Thomas More‘ — The scene is based on a real historical event, the “Ill May Day” of May 1st 1517. A mob of working-class apprentices had gathered in London’s Cheapside district, planning to burn the houses of the city’s growing […]

On perpetrators and victims

Stumbled across a fascinating conversation hosted over at Foreign Policy: in discussing victims and perpetrators of genocide, Joshua Oppenheimer and David Rieff touch on film, intervention, kitsch and smugness. [note, the transcript is a reduxed version of the audio] Joshua Oppenheimer: Most nonfiction films dealing with human rights abuse tend to tell us that things are well in […]

On paying attention

Megan Garber over at the Atlantic recaps the recent South Park episode (s19e2), which manages to address both immigration and the current rise of Donald Trump — Here, though, is the heart of the episode—the scene that distills all the satire into one political message. One of South Park’s Canadian immigrants—who are also, it’s becoming […]

On passports

The suggestion of Nansen passports for refugees has been popping up, 24.09.15, Let Refugees Fly to Europe 28.09.15, Why the world’s refugees should be given international passports

On lynx cats

Sad to say, the lectures I used to coordinate at RC never got this much press. With reporting by David Francis at Foreign Policy, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia discusses the future of the death penalty in the US — In his historic address to Congress Thursday, Pope Francis, leader of the Catholic church, called […]

On intersectionality

Over at The Washington Post, Kimberlé Crenshaw discusses intersectionality and action — Intersectionality was a lived reality before it became a term. Today, nearly three decades after I first put a name to the concept, the term seems to be everywhere. But if women and girls of color continue to be left in the shadows, something […]

On interviews

A recap of a selection mission held in Turkey for Syrian refugees run by UDI, IMDi, and PST: via Marianne Virik at TV2 — Det er nå over fire millioner syriske krigsflyktninger i Syrias naboland. I år og de neste to årene har Norge bestemt at 8000 kvoteflyktninger skal komme herfra. Familier med barn På […]

On coolness?

The JSTORE Daily blog is a great repository of news and articles that otherwise would fall through the cracks. Via Erin Blakemore — There’s nothing as cool as academics pursuing their passions… but what happens when academics themselves lose their coolness capital? How should academics deal with being uncool? It’s a question posed by David Beer, who wonders how […]