Lorelei Blackburn

Abduction, Recolonization, and Cash:
The Costs of Literacy in (Post)Colonial, (Post)War Uganda
Michael Wessells, in Child Soldiers, Peace Education, and Postconflict Reconstruction for Peace, suggests that literacy is essential in helping former child soldiers reintegrate into civilian life and build positive futures.  In an attempt to assist with former child-soldiers’ reintegration into society, I traveled to Palisa District, […]

documentary_screenplay.pdf

The practical realities of teaching former child soldiers in Uganda and how they apply to teaching traumatized populations in the U.S.
In Northern Uganda, seventy-five percent of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) is comprised of abducted children and youth. In many cases, children’s involvement in combat “has obstructed their education—while such atrocities as rape, watching families being […]

With Ted Haggard’s recent fall from grace, Pat Robertson’s protein shakes, and Lahaye and Jenkins’ eschatological nightmares, televangelists and characters in Christian movies too often resemble spirit-filled frauds rather than spirit-filled savers. Christian media’s routine invocation of the sublime, a pivotal element in the genre of didactic Christian cinema, instills dread in its audiences, thus […]

The influx of refugees into the United States from war-torn regions can leave ESL teachers grappling with more than language barriers.  Because many young refugees’ education has been obstructed by war, and some have suffered such atrocities as rape, watching their families being murdered, or being forced to serve as child soldiers, many are left […]

Edmund Burke, in his work “On the Sublime and Beautiful,” claims that terror is essential for something to be considered sublime.  And Longinus, who wrote on the sublime hundreds of years before Burke, states “the Sublime, acting with an imperious and irresistible force, sways every reader whether he will or no.”  Both these statements contain […]

Augustine, Erasmus, and Fell used scripture as successful rhetorical appeals, but with the rise of empiricism in the 18th century, scripture began to be perceived as ineffectual and inferior to classical rhetoric.  The now-canonical rhetorical works of Francis Bacon and John Locke emphasize the tension that existed between the classical, accepted rhetoric and the idea […]

So, I’ve met some really intelligent kids at school. Unfortunately, (have I mentioned this yet?) the school sucks and the teachers have been on strike for months. I’ve decided to sponsor a boy, Joseph, so he can finish secondary school at a good facility. It’s not that expensive, so if any of […]