Hi! Thank you for visiting my blog. I would like to take this moment to introduce myself. I am Elsa. By day, I am a nerdy PhD student, aiming to become a scholar and practitioner of international development policy. By night, I am Elsa, the Warrior KQueen. I have created this space in part for…
“The decision whether or not to bear a child is central to a woman’s life, to her wellbeing and dignity. It’s a decision she must make for herself.” – Ruth Bader Ginsburg On Friday, June 24, 2022, six people, sitting in the United States Supreme Court, stripped away a constitutional right from the American people,…
“Differences are not intended to separate, to alienate. We are different precisely in order to realize our need of one another.” – Archbishop Desmond Tutu Dear Fellow Warrior, Following the previous poem I posted a few weeks earlier, “I wrote a poem on 2020,”in this post I share that specific poem that I wrote in my…
“If light is in your heart you will find your way home.” – Rumi I recall the drive back to Washington, D.C. last September, and the ‘excitement’ of returning after defending my dissertation and finishing my degree during the Pandemic quarantine in Wisconsin. I have shared that experience in some of my previous posts…
Dear Fellow Warrior, I wrote this poem about a poem that I wrote about 2020. 🙂 There might be a moment where I share that poem as well. But here is the poem I wrote about it. 🙂 Here is a quote to inspire you in your courageous act of writing… It is the quote…
Connected to my last post… a love letter to my poverty: To my dearest Poverty, O my darling Poverty… Do not let me rise above you. Without your recollection, without your scars… as the alarm bells inside the soul and mind. Stay with me, my dear “traumas of difficult times.” Teach me. And never stop.…
“How I wish everyone had decent work! It is essential for human dignity.” – Pope Francis “A lot of jobs don’t allow you to be who you are. There is dignity in work only when it is work freely accepted.” Albert Camus At the start of the COVID-19 Pandemic, there was great anxiety about the…
Yesterday, I attended my School-specific graduation. I really wanted to get a lot of different things done relevant to my dissertation research before this date, but it couldn’t happen due to the need to prioritize the “dignity of work” which I will address in a different post. It was a special and important moment for…
{Featured Photo from Pakistan National Monument Museum, Islamabad, December 25, 2018.} “Nations are born in the hearts of poets, they prosper and die in the hands of politicians.” – Dr. Allama Muhammad Iqbal It is another moment in Pakistan’s history, a moment which some may perceive to be a “window of opportunity,” and others, a…
