On backlash and global opinion

A piece published at The Hill on 11 February by András Simonyi about the global backlash Denmark recently received in light of their response to an influx of asylum seekers caught my attention — But Danes — politicians and the general public alike — need to realize something that strangely eluded them completely: that they are […]

On finding inspiration

Beyond thankful that my singular wish of 2015 – to see Hamilton – came true! The cast album is certainly wonderful, but the brilliance of the live experience is something I won’t soon forget. Happy to report the show exceeded my (very high) expectations and deserves every superlative. While in NYC, K and I tried to absorb as […]

On humanization

Some great advice from the recent bell hooks interview that ran in NYT’s The Stone — George Yancy: What should we do in our daily lives to combat, in that phrase of yours, the power and influence of white supremacist capitalist patriarchy? What can be done on the proverbial ground? bell hooks: I live in a small, […]

On conferences: the discursive construction of ‘strangers’ @ Uni Birmingham

Ruth Wodak’s lecture on the discursive construction of ‘strangers’ during a conference held by the University of Birmingham on 5.11.15: Inclusion and exclusion of migrants and refugees are renegotiated in the European Union on almost a daily scale: ever new policies defining and restricting immigration are proposed by European member states. A return to more […]

On what the news covers

Max Fisher over at Vox addresses the swirling accusations that the media (at large) ignores certain conflicts for others — It would be easy to blame the media for this, to say that if only media outlets covered Beirut rather than ignoring it, the world might pay attention. I have bad news: The media does […]

On refugees after Paris, et al.

General: The science behind why people fear refugees related: what current debates are really about, “what we’re debating right now is really more about American feelings (our sense of security versus our sense of righteousness) than it is about macro-level solutions to their crisis.” from: Europe’s refugee problems, and ours Our reaction to terrorism is […]

On panel discussions: The Migrant and Refugee Crisis @ Oxford Martin School

Interesting set up, really interesting result: The Oxford Martin School hosted a panel to discuss the migrant and refugee crisis + responses and solutions. In her six minutes to address the panel, Bridget Anderson brought up issues around victimhood, agency and morals [@35:20] — On September the 7th in response to the so-called ‘refugee crisis […]

On punctuation + effortless writing

Reading this morning’s post on the incomparable Brain Pickings, Maria Popova highlights a passage from Quack This Way by David Foster Wallace + Bryan A. Garner. The bit about punctuation especially resonated after trying to transcribe quotes yesterday — Reading is a very strange thing. We get talked to about it and talk explicitly about […]

On responsibility, visibility

One of my favorite current essayists, Roxane Gay, has a piece up in the NYT about the recent events in a school in Columbia, South Carolina — In the wake of such indecency, there has been a vigorous public response — shock and outrage, with many people denouncing Mr. Fields’s actions. There have also been […]

On blindness

The NYT just posted a wide-ranging conversation between George Yancy and Seyla Benhabib in their The Stone blog — George Yancy.: We far too often fail to understand each other across racial divides. A “post-racial” discourse might even occlude the effort to do so. How do we create spaces for understanding the conditions of others, especially within […]