Prisoner of Conscience: The Story of Mam Sonando and the Future of Journalists in Cambodia

On May 16th, 2012 the Cambodian government conducted a raid of Kratie Province, located in northeast Cambodia. Hundreds of police officers and soldiers bombarded the province, armed with weapons and the help of a military helicopter. Hundreds of Kratie residents were displaced from their land during this government-supported raid, which the government defended by claiming […]

Jamaica: Trying to be Better.

Flying over Jamaica is a little bit like watching advertisements for your dream vacation.  The beauty is literally breathtaking.  Yes, there are resorts.  Yes, the water is spectacular.  And yes, the food is phenomenal.  But those are just perks.  And unfairly, those perks aren’t available to most of the population.  The beauty of Jamaica, though, […]

Do-it-Yourself Terrorism: Al Qaeda’s Ad Campaign and the Domestic War on Terror

On April 15th at 2:49 p.m., two massive explosions detonated at the finish line of the Boston Marathon.1 Cheers were quickly replaced with screams of horror, celebration with mayhem. The two suspects believed to be responsible for this tragedy, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, allegedly used simple household items and over-the-counter materials to wound 264 people […]

Judith Butler’s: Precarious Life

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 […]