In Search of the Shift

I'm published! Well, kinda. I edited an excerpt of my undergrad thesis and submitted to the Glasgow Refugee Asylum and Migration Network (GRAMNet) and they put it as a blog post on their site! Check it out using the link below: The Art of Displacement: Understanding Refugees' Connections to Place Through the Works They Create… Continue reading GRAMNet Blog Post

I have been in Johannesburg for several weeks, and the name Solomon Mahlangu has popped up in several different locations. The first is on the side of our university building, which is named ‘Solomon Mahlangu’ House. The second was when we visited the Apartheid Museum and I saw his name in one of the exhibits.… Continue reading Solomon ‘Kalushi’ Mahlangu: The Story of a Freedom Fighter

Hello all! I’ve been MIA for about a month and a bit as I’ve been working on final essays for grad school as well as travelling to South Africa to work on my dissertation with the African Centre for Migration and Society. There is a parliamentary election in South Africa today (May 8th), and I… Continue reading South African Elections

In the week following the mosque shooting in Christchurch New Zealand, you may have seen videos of multiple groups honoring their fallen Muslim brothers and sisters with a traditional Maori haka dance. I knew about haka before these videos but I watched them with a renewed realization that I didn’t understand the symbolism or history… Continue reading The Power of the Haka

There is a zombie idea that is hanging around in public discourse no matter how hard social scientists try to kill it: the concept of the ‘30 Million Word Gap’, which has been cited over 8000 times. This is the idea that ‘by 3 years of age, children from low socioeconomic backgrounds are upwards of… Continue reading The 30 Million Word Gap

Again, I'm working on an iPad so the formatting is off, but we're getting slightly closer! My post this week is a short essay I wrote for a class on the prompt 'organized business interests influence policy making: critically discuss.' As an American, it was immediately obvious to me that of course business interests influence… Continue reading The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers

(Apologies for the formatting oddities- I'm working on an iPad and it is not cooperating with me!) ~ Which universities do you think of when you think of the oldest institutions of learning in the world? Oxford? Bologna? Paris? The oldest university in the world is actually in Africa, and was founded by a woman.… Continue reading Fatima al-Fihri

Phillis Wheatley was born in Senegal around 1753, and was kidnapped into slavery at the age of 8. She arrived in Boston on the ship The Phillis and was sold to John Wheatley, who gave the young girl to his wife as a servant. Susanna Wheatley immediately noticed how intelligent Phillis was, and instead of… Continue reading Phillis Wheatley

This is a revisiting of a post from my old blog, on the topic of the Amistad rebellion. This is a story of a successful rebellion where captured slaves fought for their freedom and were able to return home. I thought it fit with the theme of this year's Black History Month, Black Migrations.  … Continue reading The Amistad

Today marks the start of Black History Month 2019. I have the luxury throughout the year to decide what I want to research and what I want to focus on, and I've decided to focus my writing this month on Black History, and especially on this year's theme of Black Migrations. As immigration and refugee… Continue reading Let America Be America Again