Jan. 28, 2026

Dear Griffins,

Last week we began a new academic term. The start of spring semester often brings a welcome change from the frenetic activity at the end of the calendar year, as well as an opportunity to create a new routine and perhaps settle into a rhythm of normalcy. But January has been far from normal.

Videos of the brutal killings of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti at the hands of federal agents have been inescapable. How can we make sense of what we are seeing?

Decades ago, when the Twin Towers fell on September 11, 2001, I received a voicemail from a former student from my Media and Conflict class named Drew. “Dr. Dobkin,” he said, “Where are you? I need to be in your class. I don’t understand what’s going on right now."

I didn’t have all of the answers then, and I certainly don’t now. But as a scholar of terrorism and the media, I do have a few perspectives to share about interpreting visual images of violence, the framing of narratives about those images, and the ways that language – and the label of terrorism - is used to assign blame and direct outrage. The recent justifications for the killings made by national leaders for state-sanctioned murder risk becoming normal.

I’m deeply thankful that at Westminster, we have faculty and curriculum that engage students in understanding history, politics, communication, journalism, and justice. We have the unique opportunity to investigate, ask questions, understand this historical moment together, and decide how each of us might try to recreate the democracy that we deserve.

I look forward to a semester that deepens understanding, cultivates fortitude, and creates an ever stronger community.

Regards,
Beth