The Rights Stuff

The Privacy Epidemic: On Facebook, Cambridge Analytica, and the Insecurity of Your Data

Every single action you take on the internet is tracked and linked back to you – and it’s more valuable than you think. It’s the kind of information that constitutes the majority of what your private data entails: everything from your digital traces to your purchases to your Google searches and to your “likes” is…

Too Little, Too Late

Cut off from access to the best hospitals, the best medical resources, and government support for remote indigenous communities in Canada. As governments around the world scrambled to act to protect their interests and their citizens as the severity of COVID-19 first became apparent, historically marginalized communities needs were disregarded. The indigenous people of Canada…

There’s Something in the Air: Chicago’s Hunger Strike Against Environmental Racism

Activists on Chicago’s Southeast Side were on a month long hunger strike to protest the opening of a scrapyard in their area, another instance of environmental racism negatively impacting the health of this predominantly Latinx & Black neighborhood.

#Anti-National—Shutting down Dissent Online: the Intersection of Social Discourse and Technology

On February 13th, 22 year old climate activist Disha Ravi was arrested by the Delhi police at her home in Bangalore on charges of sedition–her crime: editing and sharing a Google Doc with information about organizing and activism for ongoing protests led by farmers in the country. Ravi was officially granted bail on February 23rd,…

Undocumented Labor: A System Built to Exploit

After repeatedly telling her that her undocumented status offered her no rights in this country, he proposed her an ultimatum: either she accept his sexual advances or he would report her undocumented status and have her fired. Such is the story of Josefina Guerrero, who in 2010, became one of the many victims of exploitation…

Psychological Nationalism, Historical Discourse, and the Far-Right

In 2017, the attempted separation of Catalonia shattered Spanish national consciousness. Although independence is central to Catalonian politics, Spain has long suppressed the question of Catalonia’s status. Thus, when Catalonia declared full separation in 2017, many Spaniards faced a nationalist psychological crisis and turned to the far-right. The mythically united Spain they’d learned about was…

Chronic Absenteeism on the Rise in U.S Schools During the Pandemic

It’s been nearly a year since the start of the pandemic. The world has had to adapt to the startling emergence of COVID-19 and its crippling effects. One significant consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic has been the changes made to education: students at all levels have had their education negatively affected by the pandemic. The…

Regarding the Biden Administration’s Deportations Thus Far

Hundreds of deportations have been carried out under the Biden Administration thus far. What can we make of this?

Slavery Is Not Dead: Remaining Hurdles to Abolishing Slavery in Mauritania

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights ostensibly eradicated slavery from the world in 1948 — and yet, slavery continues to abound in Mauritania, where large swaths of the Haratine minority are enslaved by the Arab-Berber majority. According to recent estimates, nearly twenty percent of the local population — one out of every two Haratines —…

Democracy: a Possible Death Route in Laos

The disappearance of the LSMD student activists and Sombath Somphone highlight the horrific reality that voicing one’s opinion in Laos can amount to a death sentence.