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Our objective? To understand organized political violence in the
early years of the
21st century.
Despite pulling many an all-nighter during the summer,
at no time did
I feel uninspired.
I was driven by a
newfound respect
and passion for
scholarship.
Kabir Sethi ’09
New Delhi, India
also lived in Cambodia
and Singapore
Political Science, Economics What is Liquid Modernity?
Liquid modernity is a term coined by Zygmunt
Bauman to indicate the present state of the
world as a more dynamic version of modernity.
The epoch’s defining feature is increased mobility.
This mobility, however, only characterizes
the global elite, while the poor majority remain
immobile with little access to global networks.
Making sense of war is no easy feat. Last summer,
Professor Andrew Latham of the Political Science
Department and I set out on a ten-week adventure
through discombobulating concepts like “zombified
states,” “explosive communities,” “liquid modernity,”
and, of course, “globalization.” Our objective? To
understand organized political violence in the early
years of the 21st century.
For undergraduates at most colleges, research with
a tenured faculty member is not much more than fantasy.
Here at Macalester, Professor Latham asked me
to work with him, not just as a research assistant, but
as co-author on a scholarly article that will become
the first chapter in his book on war and world order transformation. Specifically, I was to critically analyze
texts by Mary Kaldor, Ulrich Beck, Zygmunt Bauman, and
other academicians on theories of war in the post-Cold
War era. From our first meeting, Professor Latham made
it clear that our project was to be collaborative in nature
and that he expected me not to do just grunt work, but
to think and execute at a high level of scholarship. And
that’s not all—my summer work was fully funded by Mac.
At first, I was a little nervous, but as the weeks went
by, I realized I actually had something to contribute to
this project. I was given a basic framework with which
to approach my sections, but it was my responsibility to
make sure that my work was theoretically sound, empirically
accurate, and eloquently presented. There were
times when I was completely lost (liquid modernity?), but
as we approached the final weeks of our work, I understood
how much I had learned, not just about war and
globalization but about what it means to be a scholar.
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