United States of America

BY LISA FEIERMAN When Madeleine Albright arrived at the Democratic National Convention to see Hillary Clinton accept her party’s presidential nomination, she dressed for the occasion: She wore a brooch made of shattered glass to symbolize the historic nature of her friend’s achievement—putting “the biggest crack in the glass ceiling yet,” as Clinton said. The […]

BY MELISSA BENDER I was a 19 year-old college sophomore in November 2008. I had never voted before, let alone organized my classmates around anything bigger than the boundaries of our campus. But the tension between my civic duty as a voter and my academic duty as a college student was called into question, and […]

BY SEBASTIAN LANGER Angela Merkel’s conservative Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) announced it’s 2017 election budget: 20 million Euro (around $22.1 million) on October 21. This is not the full sum needed for the campaign—every district’s candidate has to raise another 6,000 to 10,000 Euro for his or her personal campaigning. But that’s all. […]

Embed from Getty Images “Turkey is at a crossroads!” has become the rallying cry for commentators as the country grapples with terrorism, a coup attempt, and a reshaping of its domestic and international stances. The cliché has long described Turkey as a country straddling two continents, torn between East and West – its imperial history tied to […]

BY SEBASTIAN LEAPE We’ve heard a lot about Trump’s past recently, but less about what the future of a Trump presidency would actually look like. I went to a Trump rally in Laconia, New Hampshire on September 15 to hear his pitch in full to try and figure it out. Behind the bluster, there is […]

Every year, National Hispanic Heritage Month is observed in the United States between September 15 and October 15. This 30-day period is symbolic because it encompasses the independence days of several Latin American countries –Mexico, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Chile. During this time, Americans honor and celebrate the cultures, histories, and […]

For Republicans, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s Middle East policy has been a lightning rod. In addition to Clinton’s email scandal, Republicans have frequently criticized positions the former secretary of state took during the 2010-11 Arab Spring uprising and the 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya. The Arab world’s pundits have their […]

BY MICHAEL ALTER Americans are bad at voting. Okay, maybe that’s a bit harsh, but the U.S. ranked 27th among developed countries with only 53.6 percent of its voting-age population casting votes in the 2012 presidential election. Meanwhile, Belgium, the top-ranked country, had 87.2 percent of its voting-age population vote in its 2014 election. This […]

BY BRYNNA QUILLIN On Monday night, the world finally got to see Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump face off for the first presidential debate. Watching the two candidates on stage together was striking. Hillary Clinton is one of the most, if not the most, qualified presidential candidates in history, with an extensive resume: First Lady, […]

BY BEN BLINK I was disappointed last week to learn that Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson was officially excluded from the three U.S. presidential debates. The two-term New Mexico governor, who cares equally about reducing budget deficits, protecting civil liberties, and improving the justice system, will not get a podium. I was frustrated, but hardly […]

In this personal essay, Janiece Mackey discusses how she navigated the complexities of race within the educational context. Now, having progressed from student to teacher, she promotes civic engagement and intersectional empowerment among underserved youth. Janiece’s story  serves as a precursory example of the Black student and educator experience, discussed in depth in our 2016 feature of “The Politics of […]

BY BRYNNA QUILLIN Crammed into a narrow hallway leading to the convention hall, I stood on my tiptoes to locate the podium on stage above the ponytails and tall “Hillary” signs. For months I had been eagerly awaiting Hillary Clinton’s speech at the Democratic National Convention. Clutching the “USA” and “Michelle” signs I had scavenged […]