“I am so ___ about the mass killing in Tucson this Saturday that I think ____ ought to be _____.” The first blank is easy: I am mad. I am mad, in part, because it seems almost impossible not to be. And yet I’m also mad because, for all the talk of ‘taking it down… Continue reading Fill in the Blanks
During the crux of my punk rock days*, I wondered whether “the kids” would ever revolt. I didn’t put much thought into what would happen if they actually did; after all, as Sham 69 put it, “If the kids are united, they will never be divided.” I’m fascinated by the student protests in the U.K.… Continue reading When the Kids Revolted
This week saw a new addition to the Sachs Scholarship family. We are a small tribe—the scholarship has existed for 40 years, and only one person has been chosen in all years except one—and it is really exciting to have a new member among us. (Seriously, check out Veronica—what a brain wave!) The announcement… Continue reading New Family
Hello world! I could explain my recent failure to update this blog as the product of grad-school applications and thesis-transcriptions, but a more honest explanation is that I have simply been loving life too much to write about it. I’d like to think my life is still interesting enough to merit a bit of documenting:… Continue reading Re-Ox the Punx?
I expected a lot of things when I woke up this morning and, thanks to the time difference, opened my New York Times to catch the electoral news. I anticipated seeing the GOP make massive gains, and I knew that, for all my “they’re-all-the-same” cynicism, I would feel totally despondent about it. They did,… Continue reading What left-leaning blogger isn’t writing one of these?
Oh hai. If you haven’t heard, there’s a war on higher education going on. As nearly every social service that makes civilization, well, civilized is currently up for debate, it’s not particularly surprising that university funding hasn’t really made it on to most peoples’ radars. But in Britain, the restructuring of higher education that is… Continue reading News from the Front
“Yasuní-ITT”—the proposal by the Ecuadorian government to leave 900 million barrels of oil underground in exchange for international compensation (and, not incidentally, also the topic of my thesis)—has evolved into a powerful symbol. When I first started my research, commentators were already declaring the proposal to be the solution to climate change and the harbinger… Continue reading The Wheels Come Off the Yasuní Bus (And My Thesis?)
Every time I go back to Princeton, the entire thing feels like a non-stop personal examination. While I should just enjoy my precious few days on campus, I find myself spending the balance of time agonizing over how it is, exactly, I am supposed to relate to my alma mater. I am I supposed to… Continue reading Going Back; Moving On
My grandpa is out in the garage. He’s been standing-up for the last four hours, while he refinishes a bench with a power-sander. I suppose this is not that exceptional, except that he is ninety years old, and—despite having flown half-way across the country unassisted to come visit us—has decided to spend his vacation doing… Continue reading Oral History
It’s amazing that I’ve already been back in the United Statse for a week. As usual, the transition is much faster than I would have imagined. Preoccupations with my Spanish skills and obsession with grabbing a few more interviews have quickly fated, as I shift gears back into ivory tower mode. Some things stay with… Continue reading Hot Latin Romance
Alex V. Barnard - Sociology 