Category / Fire
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In the Crosshairs of a Media Firestorm
This piece is an excerpt from my ongoing larger project “On Our Collective Sense of Hopelessness: Media and Our View of Society in the 21st Century.” The media’s reach is so wide now that it has blurred the lines between digital and real life. Many of us approach what we see on our screens as the objective,…
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Studying Abroad in the Arab World
I know why I am studying Spanish. I am from Texas and Spanish is necessary to learn to speak with a large portion of the population of our state. But no one ever asks, “Why Spanish?” instead, I am asked, “Why Jordan? Why Arabic?” even from my professors. After finishing three years of studying Arabic,…
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Fueling our Fires, Fueling our Passions
Imagine a kettle of water on a gas stove, waiting to be heated. Elsewhere, another kettle of water has a flame burning strong beneath it. The water boils. For some kettles, their fires are on a low simmer; others burn steadily on medium. Upon first ignition, the water goes an unsettling yet powerful transformation from…
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City on Fire
Going into the 17th week of unrest (as of this article’s writing), Hong Kong has been one of the most long-lasting international political spectacles of this summer. With both sides using smear campaigns at times, it is almost impossible to fully understand the current situation of Hong Kong without actually being there (and even that…
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Agtech For The Ag Coast
The United Nation’s median projection for the population of the world in 2050 is 9.7 billion people — an increase of over 25 percent in the planet’s population and 2 billion additional people from 2019. Although seemingly far off, 2050 is only a little over 30 years from now, meaning that most of us will…
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College Endowments: A Colonial Empire
In 1793, General Cornwallis, one of the leading British generals in the American Revolutionary War and later, the Governor-General of India, introduced the Permanent Settlement Act to the Indian territory of Bengal, which instituted the zamindari land ownership system into Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, and Varanasi. Under the zamindari system, each region would have an appointed…
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“I Am Bully Proof”
In the 2018 Democratic Primary, activist Cori Bush battled Congressman Lacy Clay for the seat he has held since succeeding his father, Bill Clay, in 2001. Bush hoped to combine support from national progressive groups, public backing from prominent allies, and her award-winning career as an advocate for marginalized communities in St. Louis to become…
