Institutions Matter, Or, What I Learned Sleeping with Lions in Kenya
Several lessons can be learned from fieldwork. Experience in Kenya speaks to the variety found in the everyday functioning of societies, institutions and cultures.
Want a Scapegoat? Blame Serbia! (a Satire)
Whilst scapegoating of countries like Israel is common, there is a frightening and serious rise of fascism in Europe. Satire can offer a fresh outlook on bias.
Symbolic Violence and Post-election USA: A Parable
The extraordinary degree of diversity in the US population can be managed with narratives and terms of discourse that lead to discontent and upheaval, or to pluralism.
The War of the Words: Trump and the Left
Institutions keeps the country intact and in balance over the long term. Arguments over the details of policy matter less, for we regularly change our minds on policy.
Mainstream Film and the Middle East
A recent trend in film-making is bringing to Western audiences a more grounded Middle East.
Fourteen Points on Local Courts in the U.S.
Local judges need to be more empowered, not less, so that they can engage their training in impartial decision making based on law and principle.
Inhabiting Orthodoxy: Discussing Islam and Feminism, Continued
Examining how Muslim women in the Middle East inscribe themselves in their own religion can help clarify differences and similarities between ‘us’ and ‘them’.
Methods War: How Ideas Matter within Political Science
Calls for qualitative scholars to share their fieldwork notes is not only illegal, but also threatens the integrity and quality of the qualitative research process.
Pacifism, Just War and Civil Liberties in a Multicultural Age
I will not fight for my rights, my freedoms or for my place in the political process. All of these are granted either by birth as a human being, or by citizenship.
Explaining the Donald Trump Victory
Mark Twain came to mind many times throughout the recent election. I could imagine him rocking in his chair, smoking his cigar, shaking his head, and chuckling.
