Research Excursion Reviews

    The first research project I read was Marc's, where he discussed the IRA bombing referenced in Home Fire. I knew little to nothing about the subject, or Irish history in general, coming in to the essay. I thought Marc did a great job of reminding us the context that the reference appeared in before diving into the history of the IRA. IRA stands for Irish Republican Army, and they were a group that attempted to fight British control in Ireland. This group eventually split into two groups, one that wanted to fight with honor and another that used guerilla warfare. This caused civil turmoil in Ireland, and the more radical IRA continued to attack the British even after the Angle-Irish Treaty. It was this group that bombed the bridge mentioned in the novel, and were labeled terrorists by the Irish government. I liked Marc's conclusion, that terrorists can be from any ethnic background.

    The second essay I read was by Kiana, who wrote about the hijab and both the Muslim and outside perspective of the head covering. Personally, I had little knowledge about the hijab outside of its religious significance for Muslim women. I liked how Kiana first talked about the non-religious element for Muslim women, allowing the to feel more comfortable and confident with themselves in public. From an outside perspective, the hijab seems like the representation of a religion with a bad reputation, especially following the 9/11 attacks. Unfortunately, this leads to hate crimes against Muslim women, as 75% of crimes against Muslims were women. Overall, there are both positives and negatives of the hijab, and I feel like I learned a lot about a topic of which I had little prior knowledge.