Kate Brown, History, in TIME and Al Jazeera America

History professor Kate Brown has been in the news reflecting on two major recent news stories: the death of Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov and a Pasco, Washington police shooting case. Brown published op-eds in Al Jazeera America  and Time  that studied the deeper history behind both incidents to give more meaning and context to the two stories.

In her column “Boris Nemtsov died alone,” Brown discussed how much of the news coverage surrounding Nemtsov’s murder mainly focused on his personality and who was responsible for his death, not on his plans for economic reform.

“Unfortunately, the funeral coverage of Nemtsov is all about his personality, not his policies, because he did not manage on a national level to pass the reforms he sought,” Brown wrote.

In “Only Part of the Story is Being Told About the Police Shooting in Pasco,” Brown explained how Pasco’s history in many ways has informed some of the reaction to the police shooting case of Antionio Zambrano-Montes on February 10.

“The killing of Zambrano-Montes—the fourth fatal police shooting in six months by Pasco police, though the first with a Latino victim—triggered anger among the Latinos who make up more than half of Pasco’s population, because they complain that they have little representation in the local government or police force. But there is more to this story than one death. The anger has been building for generations, in part because the marginalization of minorities in Pasco has a long history,” Brown wrote.

To read complete versions of both articles, see below:
Boris Nemtsov Died Alone (Al Jazeera America)
Only Part of the Story is Being Told About the Police Shooting in Pasco (Time)