We have a visitor in town! Pope Leo XIV’s ongoing visit to Türkiye is being framed as a highly symbolic first foreign trip, aimed at interfaith dialogue, Christian unity, and signaling Türkiye’s role in regional peace, building on earlier papal visits to the country.aa+2 Key facts about the current visit Pope Leo XIV is in … Read more
The Wenner-Gren Foundation is celebrating its 75th anniversary in 2016. It was founded in 1941 with an endowment of approximately USfoundation and the field have in essence grown up together. Wenner-Gren preceded the other major US funder of anthropology, the National Science Foundation, by almost two decades and, through its grants, fellowships, sponsored symposia, and … Read more
Czarny Protest: how Polish women took to the streets open Democracy News Analysis – by Kasia Narkowicz After two decades of feminist pressure, the people took to the streets. But why now? Polish women protest against a legislative proposal for a total ban on abortion in Poland. PAimages/Geert Vanden Wijngaert. All rights reserved. Joy and despair in … Read more
France burkini highest court suspends ban BBC News | Europe | World Edition France’s highest administrative court suspends a ban on controversial full-body “burkini” swimsuits in a town on the Mediterranean coast. The burkini as a mirror open Democracy News Analysis – by Adam Seligman Unless we are willing to live with the discomfort of what is … Read more
John Oliver has given us the best defense of newspapers ever washingtonpost.com – Op-Ed Columns by Kathleen Parker News is a bizarre kind of food chain whose most important members are at the bottom. Newsonomics: After John Oliver, the you-get-what-you-pay-for imperative has never been clearer Nieman Journalism Lab by Ken Doctor Can John Oliver’s 19 minutes rivet … Read more
Nancy Scheper-Hughes shares reflections on the Catholic Church anthropologyworks by Culture In Global Affairs Republished with permission from Berkeley News Nancy Scheper-Hughes. Source: Berkeley News In her research, writing and teaching, medical anthropologist Nancy Scheper-Hughes focuses especially on violence, suffering and premature death on the margins of the modern world. Best-known for her work on the … Read more
Archival Interview: Umberto Eco on Truth, Fiction, and the Holy Grail “It was a beautiful story. Too bad no one will find out about it.” “You surely don’t believe that you’re the only writer of stories in this world. Sooner or later, someone — a greater liar than Baudolino — will tell it.” — Umberto Eco, Baudolino In Memoriam | Umberto Eco: … Read more
Pope greets migrants in Vatican BBC News | Europe | World Edition Pope Francis greets several thousand migrants in St Peter’s Square and as the Catholic Church marks a day dedicated to refugees. Iran rejoins world economy as sanctions are lifted AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (IN DEPTH) Economic isolation ends after UN certifies Iran’s compliance with 2015 accord, … Read more
A Victory for Privacy and Transparency: HRW v. DEA EFF.org Updates by Mark Rumold In a victory for millions of people in the U.S. who have placed telephone calls to locations overseas, EFF and Human Rights Watch have confirmed that the Drug Enforcement Administration’s practice of collecting those records in bulk has stopped and that the … Read more
French cartoonist shares beautiful sketches that celebrate life in Paris Mashable! by Sam Haysom LONDON — In the wake of last Friday’s Paris attacks, a French cartoonist has been sketching scenes that celebrate life in France’s capital city. Resettling Syrian Refugees: An Alternative Slate Articles by Reihan Salam In the wake of the Paris attacks, a number … Read more
New book: Participatory Culture in a Networked Era by Henry Jenkins, Mimi Ito, and me! apophenia In 2012, Henry Jenkins approached Mimi Ito and I with a crazy idea that he’d gotten from talking to the folks at Polity. Would we like to sit down and talk through our research and use that as the basis … Read more
An EU-Turkey Reset Project Syndicate by Martti Ahtisaari, et al. Never have the European Union and Turkey needed one another more, and yet rarely have they been so distant. The EU should redouble its efforts to revitalize the relationship, strengthening both its criticism of Turkey’s democratic backsliding and the credibility of the accession process. Turkey and EU … Read more
“Homeland Security Act Proposal Undermines in Human Rights” Bianet :: English Human Rights Watch released a report, warning the government on the new act proposal concerning Turkey’s homeland security. The parliament should reconsider the parts that expands police duties, the report said. HDP co-chair Demirtaş responsible for any bloodshed: Turkish PM PM Davutoğlu declares that HDP co-chair … Read more
Turkey, Russia to seek new ways to deepen economic ties despite disagreements in Syria, Ukraine Moscow and Ankara will likely focus on finding new ways to enhance their already-tight relationship during Russian president’s high-level Ankara visit Turkey, Russia building new investment platform for joint projects across Russia’s regions The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and Renaissance Holding … Read more
Turkish Constitutional Court working on 10 percent election threshold Turkey’s Constitutional Court is considering applications that call for lifting the 10 percent threshold in the Turkish election system, according to Constitutional Court head Haşim Kılıç. Muslims discovered Earth is round, Turkey’s Science Minister says After President Erdoğan’s ‘Muslims discovered America’ claim, a Turkish minister raises the ante … Read more