Macken Keefe studies Conflict Resolution and Reconciliation at Trinity College Dublin, Belfast a resident of Lake Arrowhead, California. A graduate of Michigan State University, he obtained degrees in Political Science and Global and International Studies. Interested in Northern Ireland, he has researched Gordon Allport’s intergroup contact theory, which posits that the negative biases between two people groups can be mitigated by way of positive contact between members of those groups. Macken notes that, as Northern Ireland remains highly segregated, Catholics and Protestants continue to subscribe to different histories of the last century. He is also interested in how immigrants to Northern Ireland fit into the society today. Also interested in the representation of unrepresented populations in the media, his research project on the portrayal of drug users by NBC Nightly News during the crack cocaine epidemic of the 1980’s, and the opioid epidemic of the 2010’s, has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Law, Medicine, and Ethics. Serving as a legal intern for a non-profit organization that provides free legal services to asylum seekers, and interning for a judge and a law firm, has solidified his goal of becoming a lawyer who supports marginalized communities. He is also a camp counselor at a camp for children whose parents are affected by cancer and met with a senior once a week as part of program that seeks to combat age-related loneliness, due to COVID-19, in Greater Lansing.

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