Hello, welcome! I have blogged for over a decade now in various places as part of my thinking process about the issues and events that concern me and make me think more deeply about the world. These are generally informal and initial thoughts and I’m always happy to hear from people with any thoughts and comments. Going forward I will continue to post at my current blog-home, Helen May Be Writing, and repost here. I start with some round-up style re-blogging of pieces from both blogs I’ve written at that may be of interest to people.
From 2010 when I was in Colombia for PhD fieldwork until 2014 I posted at Cuentos de Colombia. This blog is still available in full. Often these posts were news-round-ups or very informal reflections on fieldwork as well as observations particularly about children and conflict, gender and violence, and Colombia’s politics and peace process. Longer-form pieces from Cuentos de Colombia I like include:
- 2012: Quality education, basic education & why investing in young people makes all the difference
- 2013: The death of ‘el Duke’ and deliberate acts of ‘unknowing’, on the killing of youth leaders in Comuna 13 in Medellin. (And follow up thoughts the next month]
- 2013: Silencing, speech & being-in-the-world: deliberate violence and the un-sharability of suffering
- 2014: Only Malala is Malala: Being a ‘beacon’ & the acceptability of political girlhood, initial thoughts about Malala Yousafzai that eventually, with my re-working become my IFJP article
- 2014: Mourn-able Bodies & the Emotive Politics of Childhood in Global Events
From 2015, as I started a new job and my work moved away from primarily Colombia to broader topics, I have been writing at Helen May Be Writing, and will continue to post there and cross-post here. Existing pieces there that I particularly like include:
- 2015. “Jihadi Jake”: Some Thoughts on Media, Moral Panic and Youth Radicalisation
- 2015. (Young) Death as Spectacle, prompted by Alan Kurdi’s death
- 2016. The Boy is in the Ambulance. In Our Newsfeeds. Again.
- 2017. Apparent Global ‘Rise’ of Young Political Leaders
- 2018. Children’s Distress and the Images that Move Us
As always, less formal opinions and thoughts can be found on my twitter: @hmberents.
Helen Berents 