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The Indian Ban on Commercial Surrogacy

06.19.20

  Introduction The usage of assisted reproductive technology (ART) has grown immensely around the world, and future increases are expected.[i] The global market is expected to grow at the compound annual growth rate of 10 percent until 2025.[ii] Surrogacy, the process of a surrogate mother carrying and delivering a child on someone else’s behalf, is […]

The Strange Absence of LGBTQ Actors in the Historical and Political Writings of Derek J. Penslar

06.19.20

Derek J. Penslar is the William Lee Frost Professor of Jewish History at Harvard University. His research has focused mainly on Zionism and the State of Israel and has been praised, though he has recently been subject to harsh criticism as well.i Here, I will specifically discuss the topic of homosexuality in his writings and […]

Gender, Race and Identity

Suicide and Nepantla: Writing in in-between space to crave policy change

06.19.20

This autohistoria, or “a personal essay that theorizes,” is a special piece to me.[1] It is spiritual, poetic, political, and dialogic. This essay thus delves deeper into the mourning, the fear, the tears, the pain, the loneliness, the strength of a Vietnamese queer immigrant in a state of Nepantla in order to relate with other queers […]

Gender, Race and Identity

It’s Time for a U.S. Feminist Foreign Policy

06.15.20

  Women leaders around the world are being disproportionately recognized for their skilled responses to the coronavirus crisis. These women have led compassionately and collaboratively, and put individuals—other women, in particular—at the center of their policymaking and response efforts, to incredible impact. Jacinda Ardern, Prime Minister of New Zealand, for example, has grabbed global headlines […]

The Revolution Must Not Be Gaslighted

06.8.20

All fifty states in the U.S and over thirty countries around the world have participated in the protests initiated by the murder of George Floyd, a Black man killed by a white police officer in Minneapolis. As coverage of the protests continued through the first week, the conversation unsurprisingly moved away from the police’s disproportionate […]

Advocacy and Social Movements

The Wheat Fields Still Whisper: Forgotten Human Rights Stories from Punjab, 1984-2020

06.4.20

As I was completing my MPP, a faculty member at Harvard Kennedy School had written to the chair of a prominent North American foundation, confident they would be interested in my work. The chair, a man of South Asian descent whom I shall call Mr. X, sent back a pat response: The proposal focusing on […]

Human Rights

Addressing Labor Exploitation: An Examination of Undocumented Asian Americans in the Workplace

06.2.20

This article reviews unethical business practices in restaurants and nail salons vis à vis undocumented Asian American employees and suggests policy solutions to protect their economic justice and equity. Introduction The issue of labor rights for undocumented workers is a recurring topic in American political discourse in which we rarely question the identity or demographics […]

COVID-19: Making Visible the Invisible Survivor

06.2.20

  The COVID-19 pandemic has left more than half of humanity confined to their homes. Governments have asked and, in some cases, enforced that individuals stay home based on the assumption that their citizens face the fewest health risks there. This is not always the case. Many governments have forgotten an already vulnerable group – […]

Latin America’s Challenges and International Cooperation, an Interview with Isabel Guerrero

05.21.20

How do you think the common challenges of Latin America have changed in the past twenty years? In the early 2000s we were discussing the middle-income trap and how to deal with the dependency of commodities of Latin America. One of the aspects that has changed in the last twenty years has been the perception […]

Gender, Race and Identity

Coronavirus is not just a Global Crisis – it’s also a Women’s Issue

04.3.20

The conversation about coronavirus covers the impact on the economy and healthcare system. What is absent from this conversation is the impact on those most burdened by COVID-19’s global disruption – women.  Coronavirus coverage is starting to feel like a wall of noise – a hum of threat, change, and fear that is hard to […]

Politicians Are Taking Advantage of Anti-Chinese Sentiments for Electoral Purposes

03.26.20

China’s entanglement in the domestic politics of other countries has resulted in rising anti-Chinese sentiments, especially during times when countries hold elections. Given its timeliness, politicians have used people’s frustration with China’s exploitation of their nation as a talking point to gain electoral support. Anti-Chinese sentiments can be attributed to several factors that include investment, […]

An Interview with Robyn Ochs

03.11.20

Robyn Ochs is an educator, speaker, grassroots activist, writer, and editor of Bi Women Quarterly. She has served on the board of MassEquality, and on the Massachusetts Commission on LGBTQ Youth. She was named by Teen Vogue as one of “9 Bisexual Women Who are Making History,” and she was chosen to represent Massachusetts on the Advocate’s “50 States, 50 Heroes” […]

Gender, Race and Identity

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