![\"\"](\"\/pardeeschool\/files\/2017\/03\/Klinger1.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nJulie Klinger,<\/a>\u00a0Assistant Professor of International Relations at the\u00a0<\/span>Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, was recently featured in the magazine of her alma mater, Sarah Lawrence College. Klinger is featured as a\u00a0“Global Citizen: Recognizing the Rights and Responsibilities Shared Across Race, Class, and Cultures.”<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Klinger discusses her recent book,\u00a0<\/span><\/em>Rare Earth Frontiers: From Terrestrial\u00a0Subsoils to Lunar Landscapes<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>(Cornell University Press, 2018), as well as the way in which she is paying forward her formative experiences as an undergraduate field research assistant by taking Boston University students with her to field sites in the Amazon<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n From the text of the article:<\/p>\n Modern life would grind to an abrupt halt without so-called rare earth materials\u2014a group of 17 chemically similar elements, with names straight out of a science fiction novel, found in everything from smartphones to solar panels.<\/p>\n For example, neodymium is used to make powerful magnets found in loudspeakers and computer hard drives, while praseodymium creates an ultrastrong alloy for aircraft engines. And a soft, silvery metal known as yttrium has diverse applications in lasers, white LED lights, camera lenses, and superconductors.<\/p>\n The unique magnetic and conductive properties shared by this family of metals have rendered them indispensable in today\u2019s technology-obsessed world. But as witnessed firsthand by Julie Michelle Klinger \u201906, the global demand for rare earth elements has left behind a trail of devastation within local mining districts. Klinger\u2019s in-depth fieldwork led her to the communities of Inner Mongolia in China\u2014the country that dominates the global production of rare earths\u2014where the environment and its inhabitants feel the blowback of the hazardous mining process.<\/p>\n \u201cI can tell who was born and raised downstream of the mine because they often have skin lesions, thinner hair, brown teeth, and bone deformities,\u201d says Klinger, an assistant professor of international relations at Boston University\u2019s Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies. \u201cIt\u2019s both heartbreaking and infuriating, because their suffering was entirely avoidable.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n