IMAGES FROM THE FIELD II: Institute Student & Alumni Work

Because many refugee children have been orphaned as a result of the conflict they are escaping, the whole community often takes responsibility for their care and upbringing.

Large nationalistic murals once dominated the visual landscape of Tehran. Created in the early days of the Islamic Republic, they typically disparaged the U.S. and Israel, and were written in both Farsi and English. Now, they compete for attention with equally-sized modern advertisements for skin care products and the like.

Afghanistan is the world's largest producer of opium, accounting for 87 percent of the global total in 2004. Three years after the Bonn Agreement, illegal drugs represent 60 percent of GDP and risk transforming the country into a narco-state, threatening the nascent peace and stability that have emerged after over two decades of war. Badakshan province, of which Faizabad is the capital, is the third largest area under cultivation in the country.

Boy in Hebron, West Bank. This photo is from the NIMEP trip, January 2004, a delegation of students and professors that traveled to Israel and the West Bank to learn about the complex issues surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict firsthand. Hebron is a city holy to both Jews and Muslims, and a divisive area of land in any future peace process.

A home on the Nebraska plains stands against the bleak winter sky. The native prarie grasses surrounding this house are an island amidst a sea of groomed fields. Ironically, the native grasses were intentionally planted and carefully tended. They are a reminder of the American Frontier and days long past.

Siuna is a small rural town in the autonomous region of Nicaragua that used to thrive around a prosperous gold mine. An American mining company took over the gold production and removed the gold from the area without giving any money to the community. All the company left behind was impoverished living conditions, hunger, and water contaminated to toxic levels.

This photograph was taken in paraje Cambaicol Bajo, aldea Las Lomas of San Martin Jilotepeque, Chimaltenango, Guatemala during a three-month research project into local-level reconciliation processes in Guatemala. Photographed is a body of a man who was killed during the internal armed conflict and later buried in a clandestine grave. His body was exhumed by the non-governmental organization Forensic Anthropology Foundation of Guatemala (FAFG) twenty-two years after his death.

Empty site of the Aladza Mosque in Foca, six months after the end of the 1992-1995 war. The outlines of the foundations can still be traced among the weeds. The circle of shattered marble fragments is the remains of the mosque's ablution fountain. In 1992, Foca was overrun by Serb nationalist forces, who rounded up the town's Muslim residents (60% of the population before the war), killed hundreds of them, and kept the Muslim women and girls locked up in the town's athletic center which was turned into a rape camp. All 14 mosques in Foca were blown up and their ruins razed.

Police form to monitor the Piquetero protests planned for that afternoon. Due to several recent cases of police brutality towards the members of the Piquetero movements, President Kirchner ordered a mandate of "no tolerance" for repression. The police have to enclose the entire government center of Buenos Aires with barricades. They are then within the confines and the Piqueteros are outside. For those few hours, about 15 blocks of the busiest part of the city are open only for residents, workers and media.

This photograph was taken during the first official visit of American students to the Islamic Republic of Iran since 1979. Organized at the Institute for Global Leadership, and comprised of both Tufts undergraduates and Fletcher graduate students, the small group toured sites throughout Iran and interviewed a variety of students, professors, academics, artists, and practitioners throughout Tehran, Shiraz, Isfahan, and Qom.

The photograph is taken in Lahore on my one day off from work. Generally, I am pretty much the 'walk around the city and discover it' kind of girl, but given that I had only this single day to see things other than those that made the view on my ride to and from the inside of lawyers' offices, guess what I did?