BY MAYA HOFFMAN ’20
The Mount Holyoke College Arab Student Union (MHCASU) hosted “Queer Arab Narratives -‑ Past and Present” in the Mead Common Room on Wednesday, April 18. The event was meant to “explore stories, organizations, works and personalities that have dominant, explicit or implicit, queer associations throughout history in Arabic culture, literature and music,” according to the event’s Facebook page.
BY MAYA HOFFMAN ’20
On Wednesday, April 11, Maurice Carney gave a lecture titled, “Conflict in the DR Congo: What Hinders Peace?” which addressed the relatively unrecognized conflict currently happening in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The departments of politics and international relations, as well as the McCulloch Center for Global Initiatives, sponsored Carney, the co-founder and current executive director of Friends of the Congo. The nonprofit organization was formed in 2004 “to work together to bring about peaceful and lasting change in the Democratic Republic of Congo,” according to the organization's website.
BY MAYA HOFFMAN ’20
La Unidad MHC hosted “Noche Latina” on March 24 as a fundraiser to help Puerto Rico deal with the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, on Mar. 24. The event, which included dinner and after party, aimed to “educate the public about Latinx culture and the natural disasters that affected Puerto Rico,” according to the event page.
BY MAYA HOFFMAN ’20
Stephen Biddle, professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University (GWU), gave a talk on “U.S. Policy and Strategy for Syria and ISIS” on Feb. 23. Biddle’s areas of expertise are “U.S. National security policy, military strategy and the conduct of war, technology in modern warfare [and] recent operations in the war on terror,” according to the GWU website. He has a Ph.D. from Harvard University and has been on the GWU faculty since 2012.
BY MAYA HOFFMAN ’20
On Jan. 30, Donald Trump delivered the State of the Union in the chamber of the United States House of Representatives. The speech was long, lasting approximately an hour and 20 minutes. Pauses were filled with loud standing ovations from one half of the room, while the other half remained seated. Despite the theatrics of the ceremonial event, Trump had a somber task at hand; as the second year of his term began, the president attempted to establish the State of the Union, the goals of American foreign policy and the fate of immigration under his administration.
