MY PUBLICATIONS
Forthcoming in Gender Issues
“Political Gay Science: Nietzsche, Conservatism, and Nonbinary Identity”
Why has modern American conservatism committed itself to gender binaries? Examining why this new categorizing unsettles conservatives (and how they have reacted against teacher unions and transgender influencers), this paper turns to Nietzschean analysis. It finds that the unsettling of heteronormative gender norms resulted in a pivot by conservatism to perpetuate a new gender identity politics in which nonbinary and especially transgender people are scapegoated. Imagining a nihilistic interpretation of gender, conservatives have made “transgender” a signifier of amorality and barbarism, envisioning themselves as warriors of normalcy. Conservative activists have named their frontier “radical gender ideology” while contesting the legitimacy of diagnosed gender dysphoria, revising its pathology, and alleging clinical gender transitioning is a financial ploy. As a result, bodies have become sites of contestation between doctors, trans activists, and groups that advocate against gender-affirming care. This paper traces the conservative movement from resentment to opposition on three fronts – pathology, pronouns, and restrooms.
Published in Critical Arts
“Digital Barbarism: The New Colonization of the Mind”
The goal of this article is to compare and contrast the traditional Western versus the postmodern colonization of the mind. How is the current technological age barbaric? I investigate Aimé Césaire’s writings, refer to Lea Ypi’s definition of colonialism, and discuss society’s use of psychopolitics to find the answer.
Published in Life Sciences, Society and Policy
“Souled out of rights? – Predicaments in protecting the human spirit in the age of neuromarketing”
Modern neurotechnologies are rapidly infringing on conventional notions of human dignity and they are challenging what it means to be human. This article is a survey analysis of the future of the digital age, reflecting primarily on the effects of neurotechnology that violate universal human rights to dignity, self-determination, and privacy. In particular, this article focuses on neuromarketing to critically assess potentially negative social ramifications of under-regulated neurotechnological application. Possible solutions are critically evaluated, including the human rights claim to the ‘right to mental privacy’ and the suggestion of a new human right based on spiritual jurisdiction, where the human psyche is a legal space in a substantive legal setting.
Published in Cogent Social Sciences
“Bi-Polar Development: A Theoretical Discursive Commentary on Land Titling and Cultural Destruction in Kenya”
Development economist Hernando de Soto Polar has effectively advocated for property rights in the Third World, as his ideas have influenced the policies of the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and United Nations Development Programme. He envisions land titling as a means of lifting the poor out of poverty. I argue that his classical liberal interpretations of property and the good life are dangerously naive. One can see the dangers of de Soto’s imperialist and one-dimensional vision after considering the cultural destruction that results from his brand of development in pastoral Kenya. Also, this article demands a reframing of standardized development approaches. It argues that the conventional view is prone to creating unstable, culturally hegemonic relationships between the government and entrepreneurs, and the people of the land. Asymmetrical lawfare is another nondemocratic feature of de Soto’s development. This article emphasizes that Kenyan pastoralists are not inherently vulnerable people but that they have been rendered vulnerable by society. Lastly, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) is the basis for an alternative to de Soto’s development design. UNDRIP was a hard-fought legal protection for the world’s indigenous peoples that makes human dignity central to development. The Global North and Global South produce differing visions of development. This article points to Kenya as an example of how the Global North’s vision has fundamentally failed because it disenfranchises pastoralists—the very people policymakers and policy supporters claim it is intended to benefit.
Published in NanoEthics
“Does Facebook Violate Its Users’ Basic Human Rights?”
Society has reached a new rupture in the digital age. Traditional technologies of biopower designed around coercion no longer dominate. Psychopower has manifested, and its implementation has changed the way one understands biopolitics. This discussion note references Byung-Chul Han’s interpretation of modern psychopolitics to investigate whether basic human rights violations are committed by Facebook, Inc.’s product against its users at a psychopolitical level. This analysis finds that Facebook use can lead to international human rights violations, specifically cultural rights, social rights, rights to self-determination, political rights, and the right to health.
Published in The International Journal of Civic, Political, and Community Studies
“Reclaiming Religion: Why Empire Cannot Be Sustained”
The new orthodoxy of neoliberal thinking has led to a reduction in both freedom and prosperity for the multitude by thrusting forth the modern Empire. By using the phenomenological method, I conclude that this new type of Empire cannot be sustained, because it tries to occupy the same space as the human spirit. Instead of reaching fulfillment, Empire faces inevitable fragmentation. To illustrate my point, I utilize Heidegger’s conception of art.
Published in The International Journal of Religion and Spirituality in Society
“Hanh’s Concept of Being Peace: The Order of Interbeing”
After being nominated by Martin Luther King, Jr. for the Nobel Peace Prize, the “gentle and fearless” Vietnamese Buddhism monk Thich Nhat Hanh established a worldwide movement called the Order of Interbeing, which deals with major human conflicts with ancient Buddhist teachings. By drawing from original Buddhist texts, Hanh has created an authentic type of religious activism based on mindfulness of our connectedness that has real potential for peace, because of its twin focus on resolution and prevention. In this paper, I discuss how the Order has come into existence, its framework, its cause, how it educates its members, and how effectively it is creating a culture of peace by examining the history of the Order, reading Hanh’s wisdom books and poetry, analyzing its structure, and interviewing a local Sangha on their mystical experiences. I argue that Thich Nhat Hanh’s engaged Buddhism has the potential to make a significant impact on mankind.
My Theses
Thesis accepted in May 2018
“Towards Spiritual Dignity, Opting Out of Neoliberalism's Cultural Imperialism”
From the recent literature, one observes a growing discontent with neoliberalism among scholars of human dignity. New nomenclature such as “the new chronic,” “wounded attachments,” and “third-order suffering” have become part of the conversation in how dignity is defined. Most notably, they identify the human spirit as a dimension of political action – such as human rights protection – opening the door for fresh discourse on how the human spirit could be protected via law. I explore how the law is used to protect the human spirit and how law may adapt to someday explicitly protect all souls from the ills of postmodernity. My objective is to build a concrete understanding of how the human spirit features in human rights law. How can one fix the problem of neoliberalism’s cultural imperialism using a cultural rights approach? I ask: Why not address cultural imperialism of non-indigenous souls much like the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) has done for indigenous souls? That is, why not protect the whole of humanity with adequate cultural rights to spirit, and how would that look? I determine that there are clauses in UNDRIP and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) that would promote such a measure.
Thesis accepted in December 2015
”Sudan: A Case Study in Legal Authoritarianism”
After the end of British colonization and three internal wars, the Republic of the Sudan’s modern leadership must redefine the new nation’s legal identity. While having a long history of weak laws under British rule, the majority Muslim nation’s leadership has replaced the old legal system with sharīʿah law. There is a fear in the international community, which has witnessed the nation’s ethnic strife (particularly the persecution of minorities), that: (a) Islamization and Arabization are movements which disenfranchise non-Muslim citizens and (b) present day Sudanese sharīʿah is excessively cruel. This paper chronicles how substantive law is the ultimate tool for framing society (and therefore people). It also concludes, thus, that substantive law has the ultimate liberating and suppressive power. Using a phenomenological approach to ethics, this paper gives an explanation for the development of human rights and prospects for the growth of human rights in Sudan. Also, this paper uses critical theory to investigate the potential social implications of postcolonial Sudanese constitutional law, including a prospective Qurʾanic rights dialectic for Sudan to reclaim its authenticity.