"PolicyMic is all about the spirit of debate. We're fed up with hyper-partisanship in the media and deafening and extreme media personalities on both sides. We're giving a platform to the next generation of pundits and reporters who are ready for productive discussion and a new kind of dialogue. Success and prestige on our site won't be driven by how loudly you speak, but by how thoughtfully you participate."

During my time writing for PolicyMic I wrote about peacekeeping troops in Congo, "Why I'm Bolwing for Abortion" and "Ag-Gag" legislation among other things. I also wrote a couple pieces about the Supreme Court's consideration of gay marriage.

PolicyMic is an interesting platform to engage with both sides of the political aisle.   While I ultimately decided it wasn't for me as far as pursuing an internship, it's a great platform to get started writing online. Unlike other places you might write, PolicyMic does take the time to edit and give feedback on posts. Valuable! They are also wrangling posts from some pretty big poltical names, including  Condolezza Rice, and creating a unique space for dialogue. 

Be sure to sign up to Samantha Meir's feminist weekly e-mail. And consider writing for PolicyMic yourself! 

It's no joke that Portland is a vegan mecca. This trip I'm going to be sure to check out the "vegan mall" and catch the Herbivore store.

I'm so pleased at the opportunity to speak this year and can't be grateful enough for a weekend full of like-minded bloggers working to create a better world for animals and enjoy some freaking amazing vegan foods. For more about the panels I'll be speaking on this year with other awesome bloggers check out my guest post "Expanding Outward: Connecting Veganism to Other Social Justice Movements" on the Vida Vegan Con website.

Be sure to follow us on twitter too via the #vegansocialjustice hashtag during the conference weekend May 24th-26th.

This year I'm signed up to bowl with New York City's finest pro-choice people on team Strike Hyde & Bowl! The New York Abortion Access fund does amazing things to help women access the reproductive health care they need.

From their website: 

AND NOW FOR THE ASK: Please go to my bowling page and donate!

Or bowl with me! We are bowling Sunday April 21st at Bowlmore lanes in NYC. Pics to follow!

"A global policy-making body, the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) is a functional commission of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), dedicated exclusively to the promotion of gender equality and the advancement of women. Every year, representatives of Member States gather at the United Nations Headquarters in New York to evaluate progress on gender equality, identify challenges, set global standards and formulate concrete policies to promote gender equality and advancement of women worldwide. Read more: About CSW, Documentation, NGO Participation" 

I attended the panel "Media as Instrument to Fight Violence Against Women in Conflict Settings" with three speakers:

• Abigail E. Disney Founder of Peace is Loud and Executive Producer of Women, War & Peace
• Mavic Cabrera Balleza Intl Coordinator of Global Network of Women Peacebuilders-International Civil Society Action Network
• Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda (moderator) General Secretary of World YWCA

I was pleased to see Mavic, whom I've worked with at GNWP, on a panel with Abigail E. Disney whose work I've admired since I saw her amazing film Pray the Devil Back to Hell. about women and the peace movement in Liberia in 2003. The most striking part of panel for me was when Disney shared a quote from someone she interviewed during her work for the PBS Women, War and Peace series (watch full episodes online):

"When you are raped in war time you become a refugee in your own body." 

It was encouraging to hear people on the panel recognize the powerful role of film and radio to share women's stories globally and create change. 

Unfortunately I was unable to attend any panels but I was able to grab a Conference Program with the descriptions of all the speakers and panels so that's a great resource. And of course there's always #AWP2013 to keep everyone in the loop. I met up with some friends in town to catch a poetry reading at a local pub Saturday night and then made it briefly to the closing night dance party. Wild times!

The three publications I was most excited to learn about from the bookfair are the Boston Review, the Women's Review of Books and the Massachusetts Review. The conference and bookfair seem very heavily weighed towards fiction writers and people interested in MFA programs, though that isn't to say there weren't plenty of panels addressing non-fiction work. It was nice, however, to see VIDA representing the need for more female bylines and book reviews with a look at the male/female breakdown from some publications including The Nation, Harpers, Boston Review and The New York Review of Books.

Dear readers, please do let me know about any amazing writing conference I should know about so I don't miss the next one! 

Here is a brief excerpt from the work:

"Research practice in the social sciences has much to gain from issues brought to theattention of the research community by feminists. Feminist research methods highlight the role of subjectivity in research practice — something often ignored or downplayed to thedetriment of both the research subjects involved and the research project. Applying a feminist informed gender lens to research practice allows the researcher to develop a moreethically informed research method. The gender lens recognizes that when a researcher interviews a woman from acommunity where women’s voices are often ignored and largely subjugated, the woman may be more comfortable speaking with a woman rather than a man. Similarly, adolescent boys may be more willing to work with or confide in male researchers than female researchers. Amale researcher studying refugee camps in a post-conflict crisis may not initially think to address issues of maternity care while women may be more sensitive to these concerns.These generalities are examples of how a researcher’s embodied experiences of sex andgender matter to the research process. Institutional Review Boards practicing feminist ethicswould alter the face of how gender subjectivity influences and changes research practice

Researchers using feminist methodologies and educated in ethical issues of importance to feminists are often hesitant to use the term feminism when referring to their research practice for political reasons. This in itself points to the need for a greater educationin the field of political science regarding feminism. The potentially significant role of theacademic Institutional Review Board in the realm of addressing gender and sex in humansubject research is one currently underdeveloped by feminists. Research methods developed with an awareness of sexism inevitably create more accurate and just research and I hope this is something political departments would openly embrace. I look to a future when feminist is not considered a potentially detrimental description for successful research. 

 The use of academic Institutional Research Boards (IRBs) began following the unethical research practices involving black men for nearly forty years in United States syphilis studies. In the Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis, conducted from 1932 to 1972, participants never gave what is now defined as “informed consent” as human researchsubjects and were misinformed as to the potential benefits and dangers of the study. Acknowledgement of the void of ethics in the process for academic research involving human subjects, particularly in the medical fields, led to the writing of  The Belmont Report.

Their own FAQ describes the conference in the following way: 

"Vida Vegan Con is a professionally run, annual conference designed to celebrate, explore, and fine-tune the practice—and ever-growing community—of vegan bloggers and users. With an action-packed weekend of workshops, discussion panels, speakers, special events, vegan food, and more, this conference will be the best vegan weekend of your life. Or at least that’s our goal! As vegan bloggers ourselves, we are producing the conference we’d want to attend."

Over the weekend I'll be speaking on a number of panels with a bunch of awesome bloggers in addition to (wo)manning my own "Reading the Comments" discussion. The other panels I'm speaking on include "Ethics Beyond the Plate", "Blog/Life Balance" and "Veganism, Feminism and Social Justice."

I'm really looking forward to this opportunity to speak about a number of social justice issues with a room full of dedicated and passionate vegans in the lovely Portland Art Museum!  

Check out the full 2013 Agenda and list of Speakers. 

One of those dogs I walked Monday throughFriday, sometimes twice a day, for years was Josi. Josi is a bulldog, like so many of my clients. She was stubborn. She was stout. And she was the only dog who I've ever taken home to live with me during my days as a dog walker.

The serendipity of our living as roommates is no small way a complete miracle. My ex had just moved out and I was attempting to afford a studio apartment in Park Slope during a particuarly slow year for dog walking. (Good news, I have two new clients as of this month!) Josi's mom called me up and asked if I could taken Josi home and care for her for what was an undisclosed time. After checking with the co-op board I breathed a huge sigh of releif and said yes, yes, PLEASE GOD YES.

Josi basically paid half of my rent. She and I lived in a swank studio apartment nearly four months together. During perhaps one of the roughest times I've had while living in Brooklyn, Josi forced me to get up everyday and walk her in the morning, insisted I clean the apartment for fear of drowning in slobber, gave my cat a bed to steal and kept me to a daily routine involving several walks and two feedings.

Josi gave me something pleasant and "normal" to talk about. People wanted to come over and see Josi so I had an excuse for company. People wanted to talk to Josi, so walks with Josi were a pleasant experience too. And of course, she loved going to Prospect Park.

But I'll be honest, Josi was a pill. Though she wasn't as stubbon about walking as most bulldogs I've walked, she had her ways. Her bark was loud and screeching and often involved her standing there in front of you with little to no guidance as to what it was about. Her looks could kill. The girl had everything she could want, but at times she would glare at you with a stare that seemed to be mustered from the very bottom of her soul and conjuring the devil. And for what? NOBODY KNOWS.

Bulldogs are notorious for their poor health. While I cared for Josi she was in particularly good shape, but she always had an incredibly dry nose and sometimes would give off a dreadful deep cough after drinking water. After spending several months with me, when it was time for her to go home I asked her mom to take her for a check up.

 This is the part of the story I'd like to make brief. A day after I dropped her off at home, Josi went to the vet and got a clean bill of health. Two days later 5 year old Josi died, most likely from Congestive Heart Failure.

I've worked with and lived with animals all my life. I've spent years working in animal shelters knowing full well many of the animals I'm caring for will be killed. Hearing Josi's mom call me with that terrible news is something I'm still unsure how to process. I have cared for animals in NYC as a dog walker for about seven years. Many of those years I've cared for some of the same dogs I care for now. At this point I've lost two dogs, both due to serious health problems. 

I don't know how to wrap up my feelings about Josi, but I do know that her time so close to me earlier this year was a salvation. I was able to offer her lots of undivided attention, trips to the park and one excursion to a winery in upstate New York. The girl is sorely missed. 

I reflected recently on my political career to date and the prevalence of covering violence.  At Brooklyn College I worked on the Violence and Politics  issue of the political science journal and wrote about genocide, particularly in Darfur. With women and peace and security work I seek ways to bring gender-based violence towards LGBTQ individuals into the conversation about gender-based violence. As an animal rights activist I'm constantly aware of the incredible violence towards animals in our society and the secondary, but nonetheless quantifiable, psychological and physical impact of this violence on women. (I'm writing a book review on this topic to be published in December in the Journal of Critical Animal Studies.)

One could also flip this perspective and say I cover peace. That is fine. That is diplomatic. That is how we discuss these things in politics and at panels.

Yet stating I write about peace is a challenge when I learn of the stark reality of  Syria first hand from a nurse working for Doctors Without Borders (MSF) to treat wounded Syrians, combatants and civilians alike. Even less so considering the nurse is a friend I shared a beer with not two months ago shooting the breeze about sports and tacos.

Sometimes I struggle with how I can properly address a story of international politics and violence in 700 words. Sometimes I wonder if writing is just a cheap way to think I'm involved in making change.

All the same I'll do my best to report the news, and when possible hold feet to flames. I'll also keep listening over beers for the stories those peacemakers and paramedics have to tell among the violence.

"The goal of this interdisciplinary program is to educate a community of global problem solvers -- scholars and analysts able to train and inform global leaders, as well as practitioners who can craft solutions that are grounded in solid research and theory.

The new program will focus on outcomes that matter most to individuals—a secure form of economic welfare and human development, ecological sustainability, public health, education, human rights, and political freedom— and on the  interrelationships among them."

Earlier this year I visited the campus and met with some of the program's professors including Associate Professor Rizarta Bilali and Associate Professor Darren Kew as as well as the Associate Director of the program  Roni Lipton. I also Skyped with Professor Jane Parpart who I'd likely be working with closely in the program.

While there I was pleased to meet with Sandra M. McEvoy of the Boston Consortium on Gender, Security ahd Human rights, an amazing consortium,  "founded in 2002 with the goal of integrating the study of gender and of women into work on human rights, security, and armed conflict."

When I visited UMass Boston I took an express Amtrak down and then commuter rail directly to the campus, but I was highly amused by the fact that this is definitely the only campus I've visited accessible by boat! I turned directly around to head back to Brooklyn in the same day so needless to say the whole experience was a bit of a whirlwind.

Due to finances I was unable to attend this year, but I've deferred untl Fall 2013. I look forward to hearing from the first cohort as they begin the program in September.