Benjamin Powers

Benjamin Powers is currently a freelance journalist living in New York City. He writes about technology, privacy, policing, and the military for a number of different outlets. His writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Rolling Stone, the New Republic, Pacific Standard, CityLab, BREAKER Mag, Smithsonian, Playboy, and Paste Magazine, among others. He graduated from Bard College in spring of 2014 with a joint degree in Human Rights and Politics, with a focus on international studies. He speaks basic French and has traveled extensively, having spent two and a half months in France studying French as well as a semester in Johannesburg, South Africa studying human rights and interning with Action Support Centre, a non-governmental organization focused on conflict transformation. There he was heavily involved in organizing and participating in the first International African Solidarity Festival the organization hosted, which included workshops participated in by activists from over 30 countries. In the summer of 2013, he completed a highly competitive Public Policy and International Affairs Fellowship at the Goldman School of Public Policy in which he was a Law Fellow. There he took Masters-level courses in policy analysis, in a curriculum focusing on economic analysis, quantitative analysis, and policy writing and communication. He was also the head of the Life, Language, and Learning program, which offers academic support to ESL students in the Rhinebeck, New York, provides local family advocates and translation services to help maintain steady contact between the families and the school district, and seeks to raise social awareness of immigration and education issues. After graduation, he spent 6 months working on a congressional campaign in upstate New York, where he was the Deputy Director of Operations and Outreach. He was also the Executive Associate at The B Team, a non-profit which works to make businesses more sustainable and humanitarian.