Speaking of writing things about the Middle East, a paper of mine was selected for the Middle East Studies Association Undergraduate Research Workshop in Denver this November, so inshallah I can find a way to get funding to actually go! I've been researching Tunisian women's political involvement in the context of the Arab Spring, and will hopefully have the opportunity to clean up and revise what I've done so far.
In other news, there's a lot happening in the world, as per usual. I enjoyed this article by the Washington Post because of its graphics and humanizing of Syrian refugees, though the user interface is sort of annoying, and I feel like they could have included a little more detail and research. It stuck out to me because I followed a very similar route over winter break, when I traveled from Austria to Turkey by land. Reading this article reminded me of the privileges that I have, an American passport and a little disposable income sent me to the same places that these people went through, but I have the luxury of doing it for fun. It also reminds me that I got my passport very thoroughly checked on a train between Hungary and Austria, which normally doesn't happen because it's all Schengen - I wondered about it at the time, and I still do. Maybe they thought I was an illegal immigrant or asylum seeker too... It wouldn't be the first time.
It has also been a sad week, with a fair few terrorist attacks all over the world. I don't even know if people in the U.S. read about these, so here's a link if you hadn't. The New York Times headlines online right now are all about gay pride and parades and marriage. I'm happy that the Supreme Court made the correct decision, but I don't think marriage is quite as important as dozens of people dying. As a side note, it was a little uncomfortable to read about gunmen killing foreigners at a beach resort before heading off to go be a tourist at a beach resort here.
Finally, a side note related to the above but also not. Just FYI.
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