Image credits: Wikimedia Commons By Simona Carnavale In Italy, the dinner table can be described as a cultural monument, where daily life, memory, and tradition converge. From long Sunday suppers to childhood memories of cooking with family members, meals are widely regarded as the most meaningful time of the day. In December 2025, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) officially recognized Italian cuisine as an Intangible Cultural Her

Image credits: Nico Lavaud, University of South Florida By Briggs Collins Murray Introduction On a warm, sunny day in early March 2026, the sun beamed down on the alabaster facade of the National Assembly of Senegal. Outside, Atlantic seagulls squawked as they circled overhead, eyes scanning for prey. Inside, elected deputies cawed as they debated in a hemicycle, setting their sights on a prey of their own: the domestic LGBT community. “I speak to international opinion: h

Image credits: Wikimedia Commons By Tulsi Ankur Patel Introduction On a breezy fall evening in 1928, after a restful summer vacation, Alexander Fleming returned to a messy lab bench. Sorting through different petri dishes of Staphylococcus bacteria that he had forgotten to place in the incubator, he realized a moldy film had formed over his dishes, possibly contaminating the samples. But, as he went to throw them away, he realized something fascinating. On his dishes, the mo

Image credits: Wikimedia Commons By Owen M. Eastman Look at a list of some of the fastest-growing countries in the world (% growth in GDP/capita) and you are bound to find a few surprises. Some seem to be obvious - Libya and South Sudan top the list at first and second, indicating a kind of “rebound growth” in the wake of war conditions. Others have recently been highlighted in Western media for their robust economic policies (Ireland, Kyrgyzstan), or obviously seem to be com

By Rachel French, an MPA student from the University of South Florida. (This article was originally printed in the Spring 2026 edition of our print magazine. To see the entire magazine, click here.) Introduction How does exploitation persist inside some of the world’s strongest democracies? Not for lack of laws, task forces, or political commitment, but because responsibility is divided. In many developed countries, anti-trafficking governance is dispersed across immigration

By Jill Parreno, writing from Clemson University. (This article was originally printed in the Spring 2026 edition of our print magazine. To see the entire magazine, click here.) In 1975, Ferdinand Marcos told Amnesty International in an interview that his administration had arrested over 50,000 Filipinos over the martial law period. Many decades later, stories of those victims remain buried—overshadowed by narratives that continue to glorify the Marcos era. Many would wonder

By Sara Adkins, reporting from Almaty, Kazakhstan through the University of Georgia's Russian Overseas Flagship Capstone program. (This article was originally printed in the Spring 2026 edition of our print magazine. To see the entire magazine, click here.) At the end of December 2019, the People’s Republic of China reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) cases of pneumonia of unknown etiology. Not even three months later, on March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the outbr

By Brett Rau, writing from the University of Georgia. (This article was originally printed in the Spring 2026 edition of our print magazine. To see the entire magazine, click here.) “Get up, get up, son of mine, and see if people are at the door; for I am hungry and would eat meat.” The voice was that of a man, seated in front of some red-hot cinders in the middle of the hut. The little boy ran to the door, and, upon seeing two girls standing there, implored them to run away

By Sara Alkelani, a Clemson University student and Fulbright ETA Finalist for Morocco (2026-27). (This article was originally printed in the Spring 2026 edition of our print magazine. To see the entire magazine, click here.) For more than a decade, Syria existed in the global imagination as a country suspended in destruction. Images of airstrikes, collapsed neighborhoods, and mass displacement flattened Syria into a singular narrative of war. In the process, its long history,

By Kate McDonough, writing from the University of Georgia. (This article was originally printed in the Spring 2026 edition of our print magazine. To see the entire magazine, click here.) The capture of Nicolás Maduro by United States forces in early 2026 was a seismic geopolitical event that did far more than disrupt Maduro’s reign: it severed the primary lifeline of the Cuban government. For over two decades, the partnership between Caracas and Havana functioned as the essen

By Jackson Hufman, the former Europe Desk editor for The Pendulum and a current PhD candidate with the University of Tennessee's Department of Philosophy. (This article was originally printed in the Spring 2026 edition of our print magazine. To see the entire magazine, click here.) On March 2, 2026, President Emmanuel Macron stood atop a terrace at Île Longue, with a nuclear-powered submarine looming imposingly behind him, and proudly proclaimed, “to be free, one must be fear

By Dylana Najera Rios, a triple major writing from Sewanee: The University of the South. (This article was originally printed in the Spring 2026 edition of our print magazine. To see the entire magazine, click here.) With over 130,000 people registered as disappeared in 2026, Mexico is facing an industrial-scale human rights crisis where enforced disappearances have become a terrifying norm. The 1996 Inter-American Convention on Forced Disappearance of Persons describes the p

Robert Johnson Microsoft, Google, and Amazon’s data centers are receiving priority access to freshwater in drought-stressed areas globally, amplifying local communities' water scarcity. Yet, these tech giants plan to continue expanding their infrastructure within these regions. Moreover, residents are often forced to take action through grassroots activism, as their local governments often welcome these companies as neighbors without regard to those living in these areas. S

Blake Arias A sudden chill shot down my back as I quickly hung up the phone. It was not until that moment that I fully understood the silence —an unordinary silence. The interviewee’s abrupt refusal to continue the conversation when I said “women in Iran” was what struck me the most, revealing a culture of fear so deep that even speaking safely felt impossible. That instant mirrored what many Iranians feel daily: that even a single word can come at a cost. What was meant t

Camila Polanco The Parsley Massacre in 1937 was a racially-charged massacre where Dominican soldiers killed over twenty thousand Haitians alongside the Dajabon River, yet to this day, this mass killing remains largely unknown. Since the massacre, little has changed, and racial tensions have continuously risen between both countries. Yet, the collective memory of the Massacre by both Haitians and Dominicans differs significantly: While the Dominicans don’t concern themselves

Alejandra Rodriguez “More than one in three people in rural areas do not have access to running water” (Conagua). The lack of availability stands in stark contrast to the abundant rainfalls that the Mexican state of Chiapas experiences, illustrating that supply does not guarantee access. Chiapas has had serious problems regarding its communal health due to the relationship between water scarcity and increased soft drink consumption. “My head has no strength. I almost can’

Mark Adams In Mali, protestors burn Western flags while brandishing signs proclaiming a love for Russia, as traditional chiefs perform rituals that synthesize tradition with political claims, demanding an end to neo-colonial interference in their country. This is not a scene from the Cold War; although the actors may seem reminiscent, the context is quite different. Across Africa, since 2020, throughout the southern band of the Saharan desert known as the Sahel region, a s

Molly Schweickhardt Lying in an isolated Croatian countryside, a fallen concrete triple obelisk rests forgotten, coated in graffiti and overgrown with brush. Until it was destroyed in 1992, the structure proudly stood as a 56-foot-high monument of sharp intersecting planes, projecting dramatically upward from the hillside. Its brutalism and abstractness stand in direct contrast to the solemn beauty of the natural landscape around it. Despite its apparent unworldliness, archi

Jack Kayal Once viewed as little more than a far-off frozen frontier and political backwater, the Arctic region is rapidly evolving into a flashpoint for global conflict and competition. Recent reductions in sea levels have thrust previously uninhabitable, strategically unimportant land to the forefront of international affairs. The National Snow and Ice Data Center reported that Arctic summer ice levels have declined by 13% each decade since 1979, while predicting that the

Image credits: Wikimedia Commons Gabriel Del Bosque Velasco The election of populist left-wing politician Andres Manuel Lopez-Obrador (AMLO) in 2018 marked the beginning of what he termed Mexico’s “4th Transformation.” This term attempted to position himself and his party Morena as the legitimate successors of political change in Mexican society, paying homage to the Mexican War of Independence in 1810 (1st transformation), the War of Reform in 1858 (2nd), and the 1917 Mexic