btw here's a PSA for anyone who currently deciding on a major and getting talked out of what they find interesting, because it may end up being useless: My ling/anthro/int'l studies (focus: U.S.-Mexico border and LatAm) undergrad degree is proving extremely useful right now.
ditto for my almost-a-master's (my thesis was on identity, migration, and music and it's obsolete as of ~2016, so I have to start it over again), which was in LatAm history with emphasis on the U.S.-Mexico border and modern Bolivian politics with heavy emphasis on decolonization.
until this year it was simply due to my own interests - I put myself through college in my twenties and thirties - and I thought I might be able to specialize in humanitarian and postcolonial journalism around the border and write dense textbooks that no one read.
so study what you love to the best of your ability, because life is long and really fucking weird sometimes.
btw my thesis will now be around disinformation around the border. It's practically written already
btw my thesis will now be around disinformation around the border. It's practically written already
I might also write about disinfo heralding a massive backlash to decolonization efforts all over the world, for which Bolivia was something of a bellwether, but because Bolivia's politics are fascinatingly and maddeningly complex I might just sit that one out until I know more
which is also why I haven't weighed in on the far right/white supremacist/colonialist attempts to fill the power vacuum there too much. I know enough to know I don't know enough
but I will say that a particular political group seems to be on the rise again that was the main reason some of my family had to leave Bolivia, if you know what I mean
also I was a TA to offset costs of grad school and ended up teaching journalism and writing and sorta naturally fell into studying disinformation and how it spreads because it’s been a big part of the U.S. relationship with Latin American countries historically. And here I am!
