{"id":4303,"date":"2019-11-04T18:58:53","date_gmt":"2019-11-04T18:58:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/?p=4303"},"modified":"2019-11-04T19:25:13","modified_gmt":"2019-11-04T19:25:13","slug":"yoda-is-his-role-model","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/2019\/11\/04\/yoda-is-his-role-model\/","title":{"rendered":"Yoda is His Role Model"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Yes, that<\/strong> Yoda. Mohammed Shakibnia says the Jedi\nMaster was known for being a wise paragon of virtue, \u201cbut he wasn\u2019t infallible.\nHe made mistakes, and acknowledging them is really what true wisdom is about.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mohammed is writing his honors thesis on the socio-political\naspects of \u201cStar Wars\u201d and how science fiction can help us address issues like\nrace and injustice. He considers \u201cStar Wars\u201d a deeply political text, with\nworking-class, exploited communities rebelling against an oppressive empire. \u201cI\nthink we can learn a lot of lessons from that in terms of fighting\nauthoritarianism in our own society,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mohammed first became politically conscious in high school,\nand his Honors College experience \u2014 with a dual major in political science and\nphilosophy \u2014 is helping him shape that consciousness into a career path as an\nimmigration lawyer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn particular, philosophy helps you understand the root of\nissues in society,\u201d he says. \u201cYou read a lot of theory and different perspectives\nfrom philosophers throughout history. It helps you to think critically, and\nthat\u2019s what allows a good lawyer to operate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mohammed did not get into the Honors College when he first\napplied, but after his first semester at Oregon State, he was invited to join. With\nplans to attend law school at UCLA, he\u2019s trying to complete his undergraduate\ndegree with no debt. He lives at home with his family in Corvallis and works as\na soccer coach and referee to help cover costs. He\u2019s earned a Potter\nscholarship from the Honors College for the past three years and an\nExperiential Learning Scholarship to attend a conference. He also completed an\ninternship this past summer, jointly funded by the Honors College and the\nCenter for Humanities in the College of Liberal Arts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That internship aligned with issues he\u2019d previously worked\non as a leadership liaison at the Ettihad Cultural Center: Islamaphobia in the\nlegal system and society. Mohammed worked with Associate Professor Christopher\nStout on a project studying race, gender and religion in the political\ncampaigns of Muslim women during the 2018 U.S. elections. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The internship \u201cgave me a different insight into how\nresearch is done,\u201d Mohammed says. \u201cIt’s a very meticulous process.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mohammed examined how the women were covered in the media\nand some of the rhetoric used against them. His work also involved coding \u2014 a\nnew experience \u2014 scraping tweets and running them through algorithms to\nidentify trends in messaging. He and Stout are still compiling their findings,\nbut he says \u201cthe data show empirically that these Muslim women are conflated a\nlot more with terrorism,\u201d even though those messages are not true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A theme of social justice runs through Mohammed\u2019s college\nexperience. \u201cWe have a lot of work to do to make college more accessible to\nall,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m very lucky. I have access to these opportunities where a\nlot of students don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the opportunities he\u2019s had, Mohammed intends to work\ntoward a more just world where education is treated as a human right. Yoda\nwould surely approve.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yes, that Yoda. Mohammed Shakibnia says the Jedi Master was known for being a wise paragon of virtue, \u201cbut he wasn\u2019t infallible. He made mistakes, and acknowledging them is really what true wisdom is about.\u201d Mohammed is writing his honors thesis on the socio-political aspects of \u201cStar Wars\u201d and how science fiction can help us […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9319,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1205,82,1306],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stories","category-features","category-student"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9319"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4303"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4303\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4354,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4303\/revisions\/4354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}