About Me
My name is Eamon Kircher-Allen. I write, edit, podcast, tweet, blog, research and sometimes even photograph and produce multimedia. This blog’s focus is on Africa and the Middle East, both regions where I have lived and worked.
After I completed a Masters program at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs in 2009, I moved to East Africa, where I reported for GlobalPost. Earlier, I lived in Syria for two years, where I worked for the UN and learned to speak Arabic. I’ve also lived and/or worked in Lebanon, Ghana and Nigeria. (Nowadays, I’m back in NYC.)
In this blog, I’m trying to bring a historical and contextualized perspective to some of the most pressing issues in these regions. I also frequently digress on New York City, San Francisco and music — a few of my other favorite subjects.
Here are some of my clips:
Mother Jones
Interview with K’naan: straight outta Mogadishu
The manic peace party: life in Lebanon in 2008
The Christian Science Monitor
Kwani?, Kenya’s rising culture club
GlobalPost
Will Rwanda become East Africa’s WiFi hotspot?
Multimedia Lunatic Line: Kenya’s fading train
Multimedia Eid al-Fitr in Zanzibar
Swahili swerves into the Internet age
Seacom cable: Could East Africa become an outsourcing hub?
Who’s behind those Nigerian scams?
The Huffington Post
The Pulitzer Center
Multimedia Lebanon’s voices of the future (podcast and article)
African Arguments
Context Be Damned: Reactions Against Saviors and Survivors from the R2P Camp.
The Daily Star
Sky-high cell phone service prices have no easy answer
Gulf tourists flock to Bhamdoun to escape scorching heat
More from The Daily Star
Guernica
SIPA News
Sudan and the ICC: The Politics of Justice (PDF, page 7). Winner of Columbia’s Raphael Smith Memorial Prize
California Lawyer Magazine
State of emergency: the American Patriot Act and Syria
Silicosis slowdown: litigation bonanza dries up
Electronic expertise: demand grows for e-discovery pros
Other publications
I c0-designed and edited Communique, the newspaper of Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs, throughout 2008. See November 2008, the presidential election issue, for one example (PDF).
I researched and wrote for There Will Be Ink (PDF), a study of journalism on the extractive industries in Ghana, Uganda and Nigeria, which I coauthored along with several other Columbia students and Columbia professor Anya Schiffrin.
Many other articles in Lebanon’s Daily Star, SIPA’s The Morningside Post and elsewhere.
http://www.myspace.com/blackfirebiko
The next great thing from San Francisco- Berkeley high history teacher
Amazing! Know that you are my brother in Capoeira, my brother in peace, and my brother in humanity. I will be offended if you don’t drop by for dinner, coffee, or a roda next time you’re close to Los Angeles. Yallah ya akhuya!
Prof. Versatil Ismail : Capoeira Batuque
P.S. Thanks for the pictures of my friend Arbi (Papagaio) in Beirut!
Thank you for the invitation, Professor Versatil! Make sure you come by Capoeira Guerreiros if you are NYC. Glad you liked the posts and pics. Arbi is the man!
Interesting blog. Came across it as I was checking for the Sudan debate. Am writing on African issues at
rubeneberlein.wordpress.com
It is interesting that you choose to work in Africa. Always a very interesting subject, and so much opportunity.
I am a fan of your work and how you raise issues and address them, I live in Dublin at the moment, been here forever but thinking of going back to Tanzania to work
I work in HR and did a law degree I have major interest in issues affecting human beings especially of the African continent, so it’s always great to see someone interesting on these issues and create awareness.
Great work, keep it up!
Anne.
Dear Eamon,
I’m the editor of the new improved ‘African Arguments’ site – http://www.africanarguments.org, which now includes Alex de Waal’s ‘Making Sense of Sudan’ – I noticed that you wrote a piece for it a while back.
I’m trying to expand both contributors and readers, so if you want to do either then that would be great. RE contributing, just email and we can discuss potential themes etc.
Best Wishes,
Magnus
Editor
African Arguments
Twitter: @RoyalAfricanSoc
Hie Eamon,
I am a Zimbabwean lady and student in international relations and diplomacy and i was wondering if you knew of how best to get a good paid internship position for someone like me. Am now in my 3rd year.
regards,
Network, network, network! Unfortunately “internship” and “good pay” rarely go together, but they’re out there. Good luck!