On April 15, after the terrorists attacked the Boston Marathon, we Bostonians rushed towards the explosions to help the injured, and we rushed to hospitals to give blood. In the chaos, we rushed to the internet to find out if our friends were safe. The media responded by rushing to conclusions. After the bombings, we […]
Judith Butler’s book Precarious Life was a subject of discussion in Prof. Bormann’s Contemporary Political Thought POLS 2332 class this past semester. This book puts human vulnerability and loss (the precariousness of life) at its center and Butler asks us, against the backdrop of 9/11, what – politically – might be made of our grief […]
All photographs in this gallery are courtesy of Delia Harrington.
Benjamin Franklin has long warned Americans that “any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.” His warning has been invoked throughout American history, as it has been in light of recent events. Yet it seems decidedly powerless in a country that so readily […]
Philip Kravtsov is a freshman journalism student at Northeastern where he is pursuing a B.A. in journalism. Philip is an editor at RIA Novosti. All photos in this gallery © RIA Novosti /Philip Kravtsov
When your city is terrorized, how do you react? Judith Butler says that we ought not to react to violence with violence. We should take a different approach. Butler does not suggest that we ignore the perpetrator, or let him or her walk free. Instead, we ought to give the criminal a trial, and not […]
In the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing, the relevance of Judith Butler’s A Precarious Life is a topic worth discussing. Prompted by the attacks of 9/11, Butler’s critique of the US response to fear and mourning is indeed contrary to the average American sentiment. While the official response to the attack on the World […]
I wrote the outline for this essay on Monday, April 15th. It had been an especially good day: I had even won myself a coveted window seat on the third floor at Snell Library. I was reading Judith Butler’s Precarious Life when I heard the news. I should have panicked. I should have been terrified. […]
The role of the hijab and its significance to the women who wear it is frequently oversimplified. Muslim American women must navigate multiple levels of pressures, social sanctions, and conflicting ideologies when they choose whether or not to veil. This article seeks to organize the various social dimensions of hijab into three spheres: the general […]
On February 11, 2011, President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt resigned after almost thirty years in office. The culmination of eighteen days of protest and demonstration across Egypt, this resignation brought an end to an age of authoritarianism and inspired hope for a new era of democracy, egalitarianism, and economic prosperity. Parliamentary elections were scheduled for […]
