06/26/2018
In the backyard of my hometown of Ojai brews a two decade battle to remove an obsolete dam. I never thought that I would give a damn until nearly four years ago when the small lake I drove by every time I visited Matilija Canyon looked different. Standing on the road overlooking the water, I...
04/17/2018
In July of 2017, a month and a half before I started the John Gardner Fellowship with a placement at Human Rights Watch, I went to a teach-in held by Dalit rights activist Thenmozhi Soundararajan. I attended as part of the group Alliance of South Asians Taking Action (ASATA), a community group I...
10/04/2017
Note: The views expressed in this blog post are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the U.S. Department of State or the U.S. Government. Beijing did not shield its displeasure at the annual International Religious Freedom Report, which the State Department...
07/27/2017
My last blog post was about my hopes to gain field experience in future professional positions. I had imagined taking a few months’ break from work to continue applying to short-term field positions, and being rejected from all of them because I still only have one year of non-internship work...
06/26/2017
Note: The views expressed in this blog post are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the U.S. Department of State or the U.S. Government. On May 15, Bill Gates issued a series of tweets directed to the newly-minted college graduates among his 35 million...
05/16/2017
I spent the first week and a half of my fellowship in researcher training, where I was warned by colleagues of the occasionally graphic nature of work at Human Rights Watch, and how important self-care would be to a healthy work-life balance. I’ve always been drawn to intense issues—my first...
04/28/2017
Note: The views expressed in this blog post are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the U.S. Department of State or the U.S. Government. I have spent much of the past several months thinking about the role of human rights in U.S. foreign policy. And I am far...
03/16/2017
Foresight. That is what effective policymaking is all about. A lawmaker must foresee as many implications as she can so 10 steps into her legislative journey she will not stumble over the footprint she left with her first step. The same is true of a judge. Yes, judges interpret existing law, but...
08/22/2016
Sandile , a ten-year-old boy who lives in South Africa, has a daily schedule that is very different from other children: On Monday afternoons he is not on the playground with friends, his Wednesday nights are not occupied with reading or arithmetic. Sandile has never been to school. He is deaf and...
07/05/2016
Disability has always been my least favorite word in the English language. It’s the word that catches in my throat and forces my pen to pause mid-thought. I can easily apply this term of difference, of alienation, to others. As a human rights advocate, I routinely argue that someone has a right to...