Language is not static. English, particularly, is flexible and inconsistent. Perhaps English’s development into a contemporary ‘global language’ or lingua franca is due in part to its lack of a formal regulatory body. Though English Enlightenment writers Daniel Defoe and Jonathan Swift debated the issue, and Americans John Adams and John Quincy Adams suggested the … Read more
Brittany Packnett is the co-founder of Campaign Zero, and a member of President Obama’s 21st Century Policing Task Force. Packnett played a large role in the planning and coordination of the Ferguson Uprising in 2014. She previously served as the Executive Director of Teach For America, an organization which recruits graduates from top universities to … Read more
At the first Democratic presidential debate in June, Mayor Pete Buttigieg had strong words for Republicans. His words were uncharacteristic, not for the widely maligned (among Democrats) immigration policies he attacked, but for the vehicle he used to attack them. “For a party that associates with Christianity to say it is O.K. to suggest that … Read more
Climate change threatens to transform the world as we know it. At the current rate of global greenhouse gas emissions, climate change could displace two billion people due to rising ocean levels, cost the U.S. economy billions of dollars, and cause upwards of 250,000 additional deaths per year — all before 2100. Yet popular rhetoric … Read more
Protest against the Chinese government’s persecution of Uyghurs. In November, two documents were leaked detailing chilling evidence of the mass detention and onslaught of violence by the Chinese government against Muslim Uyghurs in the Xinjiang region of China. This series of documents is the most recent evidence revealing this brutal crackdown on Muslim ethnic … Read more
“World Travelers and Collectors” exhibit at the Southwest Virginia Museum. What do the Rosetta Stone, the Elgin Marbles, and Hoa Hakananai’a have in common? They are some of humanity’s greatest treasures, and they are all housed in the British Museum. But none of them are British creations. In fact, each was taken from their original … Read more