Free spirit! Wikicommons/Pranjal Kumar. Some rights reserved.“Freedom is that possession which permits the enjoyment of all other possessions”, wrote Montesquieu. Yet, today we are led to believe that the only way to enjoy personal safety within society, and guarantee our individual and collective freedoms, is through preventive security and reinforced controls. How have we arrived…
Category: News
Friendship For Sale
I like making friends in unusual ways. I once made a friend in college by approaching him at the dining hall and asking him what he thought about color. A coworker and I bonded in the break room over the fact that we both had the same shade of purple socks. I’ve made friends with…
COP21: the climate movement’s last summit?
The openMovements series invites leading social scientists to share their research results and perspectives on contemporary social struggles. Between October 2014 and March 2016 I studied how the climate movement was mobilizing around the COP21 climate summit in Paris. Although the focus of this research was academic, I have long wondered whether my research could…
Standardized Tests Don’t Show What Kids Know
Every year, policymakers across the U.S. make life-changing decisions based on the results of standardized tests. These high-stakes decisions include, but are not limited to, student promotion to the next grade level, student eligibility to participate in advanced coursework, eligibility to graduate high school, and teacher tenure. In 40 states, teachers are evaluated in part…
At the FBI, Great Power And Scandal Tend To Go Hand In Hand
Drama at the FBI is nothing new. Given its 109-year history, the FBI has seen many scandals and numerous directors come and go. Its directors, in fact, have always been the face and driving force of the FBI. Most have retired or moved on to other work, four were forced to offer resignations, but only…
The allure of war: the motivations of Jordanian foreign fighters in Syria
Raad Adayleh/AP/Press Association Images. All rights reserved.In the light of the June attacks in Jordan, the Hashemite Kingdom has closed its borders with Syria and continues to imprison its nationals for terrorism-related charges. Jordan has already taken steps to limit the threat from extremists, but without fully understanding the many reasons why these men have…
Starving Yemen
Still from the film documentary,'Starving Yemen'2016. BBC Arabic/BBC Our World. All rights reserved.Most of us are glued to our visual media watching the nightmare unfolding in Aleppo and the systematic bombing and killing of a besieged population in the city while the world’s politicians are debating allocation of responsibility in New York between meals at…
This House Of Cards Tweet Perfectly Captures The Comey Testimony
It’s safe to say that Donald Trump has left many of us speechless. And as our nation and much of the world tuned in Thursday morning to watch former FBI Director James Comey testify about his interactions with the president, the folks at House of Cards found the perfect way to sum up the surreal:…
“No birthdays here”
A secondary school English class – lessons are as much about academic education as about sharing culture and creating a safe space to learn.Refugee Education Chios. All rights reserved. Amid freezing temperatures in Europe’s hotspots, refugees fleeing from some of the most dangerous places on earth still encounter political stagnation and the threat of forcible…
Republican Senator Comes Out Against Party’s Health Care Bill
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) dealt her party another punishing blow to its already maligned and delayed health care bill. After the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office published its estimate on Monday that 22 million Americans would lose access to health care coverage under the Senate Republican bill, Collins published a series of tweets explaining why she will vote against…