Thank you for reading the Summer 2016 edition of The Contemporary! The Contemporary is a journal produced by Trinity University students that serves as a platform for undergraduate thought leadership, advocacy and current affairs dialogue.
We present contemporary issues by students and for students in order to enhance understanding of complex global problems. I am honored to announce that e Contemporary competed for, and won $5,000 from Trinity University’s Stumberg Entrepreneurship Competition. We will be working to develop our organization over the summer in the accelerator program.
This edition combines two new sections in addition to our usual articles. First, we are happy to present our interview with former General Martin Dempsey. Dempsey discusses his career and his thoughts on current affairs in the new interview section Conversations. The second new section, Characters combines synopses of new research, important statistics and people in an engaging graphic format. We developed this section after noticing the need for vivid media that brie y immerses readers in several complex subjects.
If you like The Contemporary and want to help us empower collegiate journalists across the country, please consider donating here.
Commons contains an array of opinions and subjects. First, Sarah Tipton investigates the gender gap in American politics by analyzing the gendered nature of questions moderators pose to candidates in presidential primary debates. After examining fictional debates from House of Cards and Veep, she turns to a real democratic primary debate in late 2015.
Next, Kassie Kelly addresses the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict over Gaza, and other solutions for resolution. She argues that a critical step for the U.S. is officially recognizing the state of Palestine and brokering a permanent cease re between the two parties.
Continuing in the international arena, Hanna Niner explores whether Latin American countries with more female representatives and instances of female empowerment provide better access to healthcare and reproductive rights. Although the Catholic foundation of recently democratized countries creates a fundamental antagonism between religion and women’s rights, there are still prospects for improvement in education in order to encourage political progress.
William Baynard concludes this edition by scrutinizing the ethics of domestic surveillance. He believes that recent government intelligence programs have dangerously violated central principles of our nation.
We recently co-hosted a public debate on the 2016 American Presidential Election with Trinity University Forensics Society between Trinity and Rice students. In the future, we hope to utilize such events to generate dialogue and content for future editions of this publication. Accordingly, a special September/October edition section will cover the presidential election, so please submit via the “Submit” tab on thecontemporarytu.wordpress.com. As always, we ask for opinion pieces, research papers and art from our readers. In the meantime, please connect with us on Twitter @TUContemporary to send us feedback, contribute ideas and correspond with the editors. In the meantime, please enjoy the second edition of The Contemporary!
