Author: Melissa Byrnes

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#WorldCupSyllabus

By Melissa Byrnes

In General

On July 9, 2018

I have been unusually transfixed by this year’s World Cup, where histories of European identity and empire are so clearly on display. [updated 15 July] We’re headed into the last week, and the final four teams are all European–all NATO members, actually, and even all EU members (though England may not be for long). France, […]

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Liberation/Immigration

By Melissa Byrnes

On July 4, 2018

There’s plenty to unpack in Trump’s likening of ICE raids to “liberating towns” with military force. Certainly, it aligns with other moments of exclusion and militarization. Me, I’m reminded

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Happy World Refugee Day!

By Melissa Byrnes

On June 20, 2018

Of all the ironies, today is World Refugee Day. Folks around the globe are hosting events that support refugee populations, that allow refugees to honor and express their hopes for their home countrie

No Victory in Europe

By Melissa Byrnes

In General

On June 7, 2018

Trump’s Europe policy is a mess. First, there’s this. And I thought our Ambassador’s enthusiasm for empowering the German right-wing had set a new low in historical understanding… Once you get past these public displays of ignorance, Thomas Wright has a worthwhile read over at the Atlantic that highlights the Trump administration’s shift to promote […]

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The Silence Heard Round the World

By Melissa Byrnes

On March 25, 2018

By now, everyone and her sister has probably told you to watch Emma Gonzalez’s speech at today’s March for Our Lives. And soon, there will be infinite dissections of what she said—and didn’t.

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What Students Can Teach Us

By Melissa Byrnes

On February 24, 2018

A group of students can shut down an entire country. Fifty years ago in France, they did just that. Student protests in Nanterre and at the Sorbonne quickly grew into mass demonstrations. Police attem

The Latest in Holocaust Denial

By Melissa Byrnes

In General

On January 29, 2018

Last Friday, Poland’s lower house passed a bill (months in the making) that would make it a criminal offense—punishable by a prison sentence—to implicate Poles in the crimes of the Holocaust. The law takes specific aim at the use of phrases like “Polish death camps” in reference to concentration camps built on occupied Polish soil. […]

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Time to Believe

By Melissa Byrnes

On December 6, 2017

You’ve probably already seen the news that Time‘s Person of the Year for 2017 is the collective of “Silence-Breakers” who have bravely stepped forward to accuse their harassers

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The Nation-State Strikes Back

By Melissa Byrnes

On October 1, 2017

Spain has resorted to violent state repression in the face of today’s referendum on Catalan independence. The latest from Reuters (at the time of writing) is that more than 760 people have been

Making Colonialism Great Again

By Melissa Byrnes

In General

On September 17, 2017

In case you haven’t heard, Third World Quarterly recently published a “Case for Colonialism,” political scientist Bruce Gilley’s adamantly ill-informed argument that doctrinaire anti-colonial ideology prevents us from accepting the redemptive promise of colonial systems. Gilley echoes earlier attempts to rehabilitate colonialism, like Marine Le Pen’s insistence that French rule was good for Algeria and […]

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They Have Come for the Rohingya

By Melissa Byrnes

On September 9, 2017

I spend too much time thinking about genocide. It’s a professional hazard—twentieth-century history is rather murderous—and has led to a disturbingly glib sense of gallows humor (we all have our

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Whistling Anti-Semitism in the Lone Star State

By Melissa Byrnes

On August 1, 2017

To echo Erik from yesterday, “There’s never good news when we are talking Texas politics.” Texas governor Gregg Abbott has published an alarmist opinion piece about redistricting,

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