Randall Amster

Randall Amster

Randall Amster, J.D., Ph.D., is co-director and teaching professor of environmental studies at Georgetown University. His books include Peace Ecology (Routledge, 2015), Anarchism Today (Praeger, 2012), and Lost in Space: The Criminalization, Globalization, and Urban Ecology of Homelessness (LFB Scholarly, 2008).  


 

Articles by this author

A protester wears a face mask displaying the words "I can't breathe" during a Black Lives Matter protest in Hyde Park on June 3, 2020 in London, United Kingdom. The death of an African-American man, George Floyd, while in the custody of Minneapolis police has sparked protests across the United States, as well as demonstrations of solidarity in many countries around the world. (Photo: Justin Setterfield/Getty Images) Views
Wednesday, June 03, 2020
We Interrupt This Pandemic... With Demands for Justice and Healing
Remember the coronavirus? It dominated the news for three months, redefined every aspect of our daily lives, and killed over a hundred thousand in the US alone. It also further exposed the venality and the insanity of our current Administration, making this reality-show presidency seem even more...
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President Donald J. Trump speaks with Vice President Mike Pence and members of the coronavirus task force during a briefing in response to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on Thursday, April 23, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images) Views
Saturday, April 25, 2020
Don’t Drink the Snake Oil—Or the Disinfectant
"Come one, come all! Welcome to the sideshow on the big stage, where anything is possible if you're willing to believe it. Whatever ails you, we’ve got what you're looking for! Chloroquine, the untested wonder drug—and who cares if the cure is worse than the ailment (even if I once said that). Try...
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This millennium has wired us into a pervasive system of individuated connection, making it a perfect precursor to the requisite high-tech sequestration at hand. (Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images) Views
Monday, April 13, 2020
Apocalypse On-Demand
It’s the end of the world, but you might hardly know it. Sure, there’s the inconvenience of being mostly stuck at home, making do with a bit less and rationing a bit more, and foregoing most of our exterior social interactions. But let’s face it: for many people right now, our streaming services...
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People maintain social distancing while standing in line to enter a Trader Joe's as the coronavirus pandemic continues on March 25, 2020 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images) Views
Tuesday, March 31, 2020
Holding Our Breath, Together and Apart
Are you (un)settling in to this brave new reality yet? Beyond hopeful signs of unity, there’s a looming sense that we’ve only just glimpsed how bad things might get in this pandemic crisis. The adjustments in many of our lives to totalized online sociality ( quarantinis , anyone?), teleworking (if...
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A worker carries out sanitation operations for the Coronavirus emergency in Piazza dei Miracoli near to the Tower of Pisa in a deserted town on March 17, 2020. Views
Saturday, March 21, 2020
Solidarity in a Time of Social Distancing
As we move deeper into the unmapped realms brought forth by this inconceivable viral crisis, it can be helpful to consider lessons from other disaster situations for guidance. While nothing before precisely matches this moment, we might at least derive some solace from the fact that people have...
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Empty shelves are visible at a Target retail store in Contra Costa County, San Ramon, California, as residents purchase all available stock of toilet paper, paper towels, canned goods, hand sanitizer and other essential items during an outbreak of the COVID-19 coronavirus, March 12, 2020. Views
Sunday, March 15, 2020
The New Abnormal
This is a moment, to be sure. There aren’t many of this magnitude over the course of a lifetime, and the effects can linger for decades after the immediate emergency passes. Whatever shape the trajectory of the coronavirus takes in the weeks ahead, the sociocultural implications alone are...
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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill after returning from the White House on January 02, 2019 in Washington, D.C. Views
Saturday, February 01, 2020
Trump and Subservient GOP Expose Failure of American Exceptionalism
The impeachment trial was never going to produce a conviction, of course, but it could have at least served to shore up even a few of the nominal pillars of democracy yet intact. Decades of erosion by chief executives, packed courts, congressional (in)action, and general malfeasance have weakened...
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Mural at 510 West Broadway, Hwy. 56, downtown Okemah, Oklahoma, depicting Woody Guthrie and Okfuskee County history. Painted by DeAnna Mauldin in 1994. Views
Wednesday, January 01, 2020
For 2020 and Beyond: 'Keep Hoping Machine Running'
It was a racially charged era, fascism was in a resurgence, and people were fighting for political and economic justice at the grassroots. That was 1943, and on January 1st of that year a great American troubadour, Woody Guthrie, handwrote (and doodled) a list of " New Years Rulin's " that serve as...
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Wednesday, December 25, 2019
The Gift of Perspective
Among the many wonders of the digital age is the ability to zoom in or zoom out with the push of a button. Whether used on a camera, video screen, or a magnifying app, this quality of jumping scale is critical for a multitude of purposes, but probably underappreciated when compared to functions...
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It would probably be redundant by now to point to Eisenhower’s departing warning about the military-industrial complex, except for the fact that it continues to be prophetic and grows increasingly manifest every day. (Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images) Views
Friday, December 20, 2019
Dread and Circuses: Powerful Forces Diverting Attention From Imperative Measures Through Crass Distractions
As our ongoing political reality show unfolds in real time, a sickening feeling sinks in that all is not well in America. This has been the case for a while now, but the spectacle of parochial politics, impeachment machinations, and unvarnished authoritarianism at the top levels raises the ante to...
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