On Monday, September 25, 2017, 92 percent of the Kurds in Iraq voted for independence in a vote that has been condemned by Iraq, Turkey, Iran, and Syria. Each of these countries, with their significant populations of Kurds, is reluctant to allow Kurds to establish an independent state.
The Death of Liu Xiaobo
Human right activist and Nobel Prize winner Liu Xiaobo died on July 13, 2017. I’ve reposted something I wrote in 2010 for the Watson Institute’s Global Conversation blog.
Podcast: Histories that Inspire
In this “Inside the Writers’ Room” podcast, Lindsay Turchan and I talk with James N. Green, the Carlos Manuel de Céspedes Professor of Latin American History at Brown University and the director of Brown’s Brazil Initiative.
A Vote on Turkey’s Future
On April 16, Turkish citizens will go to the polls to vote on a package of constitutional amendments. The package proposes fundamental changes to Turkey’s parliamentary system of government—it would expand the powers of the presidency and dissolve the position of prime minister, among other changes. Public opinion is split on the referendum, and many […]
Podcast: Role-playing Multiple Perspectives in the Classroom
Mackenzie Abernethy and Mimi Stephens of the Choices Program talk to Celeste Reynolds, a teacher at Mashpee High School in Massachusetts, about her experiences using Choices role plays as a way to get students thinking about multiple perspectives.
Fake News? Teaching Media Literacy through Choices Curriculum
More students are arriving to our classroom with uncertainties about what constitutes “fake” and “real” news. To address these questions, my co-teacher Laurie Smith and I used a recent Choices Teaching with the News lesson to strengthen students’ media evaluation skills. The following passages outline specific pedagogical strategies we implemented during this unit. Syrian Refugees […]
Intersectionality in the Women’s March and the Classroom
Gender inequality often goes unaddressed in the classroom due in part to the complex, varied experiences of historical and current events through the lens of identity politics. This can be unfamiliar or intimidating territory for teachers. Fortunately, experienced researchers and educators have shared strategies and tools for discussing these issues with students. We hope that the resources […]
Oral Histories: Students in the Civil Rights Movement
On August 28, 1963, before a crowd of over 200,000 people in Washington D.C., Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered the most famous speech of the U.S. civil rights movement. “I have a dream,” he declared, “that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the […]
A Digital Tool for Connecting with Stories of Immigrants
At a time when the refugee crisis and issues of immigration permeate social media and political debates, I wanted to put forth another resource that may provide teachers with an entry point for leading a one-day spotlight on the diversity of immigrant experiences or for continuing a longer discussion on this complex topic. This is applicable to […]
Syria: Starting (and Continuing) the Conversation in the Classroom
The other night, my younger brother, who is a sophomore in college, texted me. Normally, at this point in the semester, all the kid wants is help brainstorming ideas for his papers or someone to complain to about the absurdity and injustice of final exams. But this time, he said something different. He said that […]