Ellen Lindeen, Associate Professor of English and Peace Studies at Waubonsee Community College, published an op-ed article, “An Obstacle to Peace: The Race Border,” in several publications this summer: Counterpunch, Huntington News, The Times of Earth, Las Vegas Informer and The Free Press.
The article was written as Lindeen attended a summer institute, “Conflict Transformation across Borders,” a University of Massachusetts-Boston graduate course offered in Quito, Ecuador. The class included trips to the Amazon and to Colombia.
Lindeen focused the article on how borders, whether real or imagined, keep people separated.
“I discuss migrations of people across geographical borders, and the use of walls to keep people in or out of certain places or countries,” she said.
Her conclusion is that race can also be a boundary that divides people and causes conflict or even violence.
“I ask people to see what divides them from others and to try to eliminate these borders,” she said.
Lindeen has taught at Waubonsee since 1996.
