Dear Readers,
Happy Spring! In this Spring 2023 issue of The Yale Globalist, our writers invite you to join new and existing conversations about stories that have been [Redacted] from headlines, Western narratives, and the attention of global readers.
In her piece Reconquista, Reconquête, Hemmer examines the trend of far-right European political campaigns’ use of “Reconquest” narratives and how they validate modern Islamophobic language with the old rhetoric of the Christian battle against Muslim influence in the Iberian peninsula until the fifteenth century.
Cheuk shares powerful stories of three exiled writers under censorship and highlights the acute challenges to share the truth in defiance of not only their own repressive governments but also the oversimplified Western and especially American lens.
Ben Tkhayet studies fashion as a unique tool for freedom–as an outlet of popular expression, while also exploring its potential to be a mechanism of oppression. Her interview of Yale’s Jane Lynch sheds light on the power of fashion to weave the fibers of political and personal narratives.
Tedla traces the history of the UK’s financial instability and austerity measures to understand the unprecedented economic challenges for the former European economic powerhouse. The piece further examines how the Conservative party seeks to redact the extent to which its policies have crippled the economy.
Duan discusses the toll of sensationalism and how the modern readers’ news consumption is heavily and increasingly dominated by the biased mainstream coverage–most recently in light of the Russo-Ukrainian war. She calls attention to the stories that have been “redacted” from the headlines–the droughts in the Horn of Africa, the socioeconomic crisis in Sahel, Congo’s civil wars, and the Afghan struggle for recovery.
Seo’s piece echoes Duan’s sentiments for Westernized media coverage of inter-national issues and spotlights the contrast between Middle Eastern and Ukrainian portrayal in Western mainstream media, under coverage of Myanmar and vilification of China.
rubalcava, the team’s creative director, contributes two articles in addition to his creative work in putting together the issue layout. His piece on ChatGPT grapples with the escalating moral dilemma of human relationship with AI and the tension between ethics and progress. In the feature story, he highlights the visit of Anderson Cooper,Yale ’89 Alum and Spring 2023 Chubb Fellow, to Yale this semester.
We thank all our contributing writers, editors, creative team, and board members for their dedicated work throughout the production process. And, we sincerely hope their work will encourage readers to ask what else may be REDACTED in the media landscape.
Warmest Regards,
Victory and Amre