Dear Professor Barlow, I am a professor of media studies at USF (and a proud supporter of USFFA) and the author of several books. I have written for several publications and blogs including Foreign Affairs, The San Francisco Chronicle, On Faith, Huffington Post, The Indian Express, The Times of India, The Hindu, and have spoken…
As Executive Editor of this blog, I have a tweet automatically produced for each post. It goes out over my name. Most often, that results in retweets and mentions that are positive; sometimes, quite the opposite. Never before, however, had I seen anything like this: .@AaronJBarlow Indian government should ban you from entering because of…
By Stephen Kuusisto We are living in the age of autocracy, a matter that’s clear, as every conceivable matter of public concern is about who controls what. It is hard to derive solace from the assertion America was always an oligarchy, that our founders were aristocrats, wealthy, and privileged. The second President of the…
Writing for Vox, Libby Nelson offers a thoughtful analysis of the recently released average scores on this past year’s SAT tests. She notes that although the average scores declined slightly, at least part of that decline may reflect the increased diversity among the students now taking the test. Although I have only a very superficial…
Guest blogger Lyn S. Graybill had earlier taught in West Africa as a Senior Fulbright Scholar at Fourah Bay College of the University of Sierra Leone. When the plane landed in Abidjan in August, I was excited. I had been accepted under a three year contract to teach Political Science courses at the International University of Grand-Bassam,…
This is now the third time I’ve written about being harassed for being an educator, but clearly the message isn’t getting through, so I will try one more time to reason with those who spend their lives making it their duty to share their opinions regarding my profession, my areas of expertise, and the work…
There are certainly times when it is morally necessary to resist one’s government. Thoreau wrote, “There will never be a really free and enlightened State until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power and authority are derived, and treats him accordingly.” Sometimes saying…
In other news from the GOP side of the presidential campaign, Chris Christie has suggested that he would consult with the CEO of FedEx on how to reduce our problems with illegal immigrants because FedEx accurately tracks ten of millions of packages per year. Almost immediately, Chistie was criticized for comparing human beings to parcels,…
So here is how Scott Walker’s opinion on building a wall along the entire U.S. and Canadian border has changed, once that the idea began to be lambasted as ludicrous. It started with Chuck Todd on Meet the Press on Sunday: “Todd: We are talking about the southern border and building a fence there. We don’t…