May 2015 The first time I saw the Córdoba Mosque-Cathedral was during a vacation to Spain. I remember walking into the building, and feeling a sense of awe as I stared up at the rows of striped arches, dimly lit by elegant brass lamps. Nestled in the heart of the mosque is a cathedral bathed […]
New York Times Magazine — Suzy Hansen’s latest article takes an in-depth look at the tactics of Greek Finance minister Yanis Varoufakis and Greece’s precarious place in the European Union. Varoufakis, only four months in to his term, is determined to improve Greece’s economic situation regardless of the political cost to him. Read the article here. […]
Foreign Policy — Neri Zilber’s latest piece for Foreign Policyr discusses the future of Benjamin Netanyahu’s Israeli government and how he has cemented his grasp on political power. Read the article here. […]
“The Pierre Omidyar Insurgency,” a piece by Past Fellow Andrew Rice, published by the New Yorker has been named a finalist in the 2015 Mirror Awards. The piece is nominated for Best Profile and offers a fascinating look at the rather mysterious founder of eBay and his fight for government transparency. The winner will be […]
The New Yorker — Nicholas Schmidle’s latest piece describes “a billion-dollar mirage” that resulted in a financial scandal in the Middle East and legal proceedings in the United States. This is just the latest of many compelling long form pieces written by Schmidle in his capacity as a Staff Writer at the magazine, where he has been since […]
Past ICWA Fellow Pramila Jayapal is gaining a lot of attention as a state senator in Washington. Many are impressed with her activist roots and expect her to go far in politics. Read “From Handcuffs to Elected Office: Washington State’s Rabble-Rousing Senator,” a profile of Jayapal by Sanjena Sathian for Ozy. […]
OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso – On Nov. 1, 2014, the day after Blaise Compaoré resigned as Burkina Faso’s president and fled the capital in a convoy, abruptly ending his nearly three-decade hold on power, a 40-year-old man named Prosper looked on as an opposition lawmaker exulted over the autocrat’s hasty departure while giving a radio interview […]
LAGOS, Nigeria–Election day dawned cloudy and cool in Lagos; an odd tranquility filtered through my window. I heard birds, and the wind, rather than the normal honking and hawking—the ambient sounds that permeate the air here, fueling what seems to be endemic insomnia among its residents. The silence was particularly notable after the clamor […]
By Allyn Gaestel AG-1 / NIGERIA / FEBRUARY 2015 LAGOS – Comrade Agbodemu Ishola Musbau strode through Ebute-Metta, a bustling neighborhood of concrete block homes interspersed with fading colonial houses, their deep brown, mint green and mustard yellow stucco walls stained with watermarks and exhaust fumes. Weaving between bright yellow vans and golf carts—the […]
ABIDJAN – Thiossane and Moctar meet in classic West African fashion. Trying to send a text message one day to an old friend from school, Thiossane, an educated but unemployed resident of Dakar, the capital of Senegal, enters the number incorrectly and instead reaches Moctar, an uneducated grave-digger who has recently lost his job. Moctar […]