Noam Schimmel

Supervisor: Lilie Chouliaraki|

Research Topic: American liberal presidential rhetoric on healthcare reform and the social imaginary and moral order it advocates in the context of conservative opposition to government guarantee of universal healthcare to US citizens.

Background

I earned an MSc in Philosophy, Policy and Social Value from the LSE in 2004, where I wrote my dissertation on the subject of the applicability of international human rights law to street children, drawing upon my experiences in the field volunteering with street children in Cape Town, South Africa and Buenos Aires, Argentina. I have volunteered and worked in Africa and Asia on international development and humanitarian relief projects, with a focus on securing the rights of street children and indigenous peoples, and addressing poverty through community development. Most recently, I served as an intern with the Office of the Prosecutor at the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, in Arusha, Tanzania. Following my internship there I travelled to Rwanda where I volunteered with Survivor's Fund, an NGO dedicated to securing the human rights of genocide survivors. I continue to support their work and plan to return to Rwanda to volunteer in the field again.

My doctoral research builds upon a subject that became of interest to me as an undergraduate majoring in English and Political Science at Yale University. My thesis aims to fill a gap in the academic literature by using rhetoric analysis to illuminate the social imaginary and moral order that liberals, specifically presidents Truman, Johnson, and Obama offered as justification for their healthcare plans to expand access to healthcare in the United States irrespective of income. It analyzes their rhetoric comparatively and situates it in relationship to opposing conservative rhetorics which have emphasized limited government and rejected the principle of universal or near-universal healthcare insurance to be guaranteed to American citizens.

Specifically, I analyze how liberal presidents justify their healthcare plans and respond to conservative discourse around the issue of the size of the government and its corresponding characteristics. Healthcare is significant because it represents one of the most fundamental human needs, along with shelter, access to food and clothing, and education. The lack of universal healthcare for Americans has been one of the great social injustices that tens of millions of Americans have suffered for almost a century; its impacts on life expectancy, quality of life, individual freedom, family stability, economic productivity, and social cohesion are substantial.

I consider how the debate over healthcare reflects the larger discursive struggle over the moral and social obligations of the United States government to its citizens. Conservatives and liberals alike understand that enabling healthcare reform or disabling it has profound implications on how Americans imagine themselves, the bonds that tie them, and the obligations of government to United States citizens.

Peer Reviewed Articles:

(2011) ‘The Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village: Community Development for Rwandan Orphans and its Impact on Orphaned Genocide Survivors.’ Progress in Development Studies. Volume 11, Issue 3.
(2010) ‘An Invisible Genocide: How The Western Media Failed to Report the 1994 Rwandan Genocide of the Tutsis and Why.’ International Journal of Human Rights, August 16.
(2010) ‘Failed Aid: How Development Agencies Are Neglecting and Marginalizing Rwandan Genocide Survivors.’ Development in Practice. Volume 20, Issue 3.
(2009) 'Media Accountability to Investigate Human Rights Violations.' Peace Review: A Journal of Social Justice. Volume 21, Issue 4.
(2009) 'The Abuse of Development and its Consequences for Indigenous People: A Case Study of Botswana's Bushman Community.' Development. Volume 52, Issue 4.
(2009) 'Towards a Sustainable and Holistic Model of Peace Education in Israel.' The Journal of Peace Education. Volume 6, Issue 1.
(2009) 'Judaism and the Origins of Erich Fromm's Humanistic Psychology: The Religious Reverence of a Heretic.' Journal of Humanistic Psychology. Volume 49, No. 1.
(2008) 'A Humanistic Approach to Caring for Street Children.' Vulnerable Children and Youth Studies. Volume 3, Issue 3.
(2007) 'Indigenous Education and Human Rights.' International Journal on Minority and Group Rights. Volume 14, Number 4.
(2006) 'Freedom and Autonomy of Street Children.' International Journal of Children's Rights. Volume 14, Issue 3.

Conference Papers:

(2011) American Political Science Association 2011 Annual Meeting in Seattle, Washington. I will present a paper entitled, ‘Obama's Delicate Balance: Moral and Practical Emphases in Obama's Healthcare Reform Rhetoric.’ September 3, 2011.
(2011) Conference on Empathy, Self, Society and Culture hosted by the University of Indiana at Bloomington Poynter Center for the Study of Ethics and American Institutions. I will present a paper entitled ‘The Role of Empathy in Barack Obama’s Political Rhetoric and Vision of Social Solidarity.’ November 12, 2011.
(2010) Presented paper entitled, ‘Memory, Empathy, Solidarity: Jews and Rwandan Tutsis and the Communication Resulting from Shared Experiences of Atrocity’ at the International Communication Association Conference. June 22-26, 2010. Singapore.
(2009) 'Communicating Radical Evil: The Challenge of Reporting on Genocide to an Indifferent Public by an Indifferent Media' at the 2009 International Association for Media and Communication Research Conference. July 21-24, 2009. Mexico City, Mexico.
(2009) 'Piety and Poverty: Conservative Religious Discourse on the Causes of Poverty' at the pre-conference on Religion, Politics, and Media of the International Communication Association. May 21, 2009. Chicago, USA.
(2008) Presented paper entitled, ‘The Uses and Abuses of the Media by Governments Violating Human Rights’ at the London School of Economics and Political Science’s Conference on Media, Communication, and Humanity. September 23, 2008.

Contact: n.schimmel@lse.ac.uk|