Revisiting Egypt’s Arab Spring, Five Years Later
Localized entrepreneurship and innovation is transforming the Middle East and empowering individual changemakers to create solutions to problems in areas such as education, healthcare, and web-based communication through technology. A regional youth bulge is pushing for change, and the newfound individual autonomy provided by communications technology is changing conversations in the region surrounding women’s rights, […]
A (Not-So-Brief) Rundown of the Best Show on TV
Following an evening of serious number crunching, tough algorithms, and even tougher decisions, the 2016 Presidential campaign report cards are finally in. Now that the dust has settled on last Monday’s historic and exciting presidential primary in New Hampshire, the candidates are gearing up for the next showdowns in South Carolina and Nevada. Some candidates […]
The Neoliberal University
Last month at Northeastern University, the adjunct union reached a tentative agreement with the university administration to avert a planned walkout after more than a year of unsuccessful negotiations. Those familiar with the adjunct campaign know that adjunct professors are contingent workers who comprise more than half of the teaching staff at Northeastern and are […]
For Some Reason I’m Not Concerned: Bernie Sanders vs. The Democratic Spin Machine
In a November 2003 Believer magazine interview, American author David Foster Wallace (who once profiled John McCain’s 2000 Republican primary campaign for Rolling Stone) was asked of his opinion on U.S. political writing around the turn of the century. “As of 2003, the rhetoric of the enterprise is fucked,” the late writer said to interviewer […]
For Some Reason I’m Not Concerned
Okay, so, I finally did it. For way longer than I thought possible, I stayed away from the 21-minute political masterpiece that you’ve all been raving so much about. I’m proud of how long I resisted this thing, as it was teasing my interest nonstop from all over the Internet, silently lurking around every shadowy […]
Reflection on the State of the World
[slideshow_deploy id=’3739′] I returned to Paris on the morning of November 16. I had been in Spain during the attacks, enjoying Armistice Day, a holiday in remembrance of those who died in WWI. My bus got in at around 8 A.M., and I entered the Metro alongside multitudes of people on their way […]
And Now, This: How John Oliver Is Changing the Television Landscape
An important moment happened on a recent episode of Last Week Tonight With John Oliver. Let me back up a bit. The first time I saw John Oliver on television playing an obnoxious, possibly alcoholic professor in Community, I hardly thought that a few years later he would have a weekly late night show featuring […]
#WAKEUPWORLD and Showing Solidarity
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” – Martin Luther King, Jr. Early last week, I was lucky enough to witness and participate in #WAKEUPWORLD, a Boston march in solidarity with students of color all over the country protesting institutionalized discrimination within schools and universities. Representatives of 17 schools, including Northeastern, walked through Boston […]
Lifting the Veil on Laïcité: The Rise of Islamophobia in Europe
Islamophobia has been on the upswing throughout Europe recently, with the rise of anti-immigrant political parties and the implementation of discriminatory laws that directly target Muslims. The EU has long struggled with questions of identity that have only become more pronounced in recent years; the question “what defines Europe?” continues to pester EU leadership, its […]
The Sadcom: How a new genre of comedy is teaching people about depression
In a recent segment, John Oliver pointed out something very disturbing about the way our politicians treat mental health: they discuss it for a week or so after a mass shooting in an attempt to prove that America’s lack of gun control isn’t the real problem. They use this deflection to avoid passing sensible legislation, […]