“What’s your concentration?” is a question all of us have heard one too many times. Even freshmen are faced with the infamous question, despite having months before they need to make their decision. The expectation is clear—we all need to have a defined path from the moment we step on campus. With course registration opening […]
Pakistan’s ex-Prime Minister, Shahid Abbasi, turned towards me. “What’s your 9/11 theory?” I threw out my question to him from behind my cup of tea, perched in his living room post-dinner buffet at his home in Islamabad, Pakistan. The Al Jazeera journalist had left a short while ago. Her departure lent casualness and intimacy to […]
Prayer, fasting, almsgiving—the phrase Christians repeat over and over during the 40 days between Ash Wednesday and Easter. In the Christian tradition, across denominations, Lent is a time of “solemnity and self-reflection,” as described by the United Kingdom’s Christian Enquiry Agency. Christians use this time to repent for their wrongdoings and turn towards a more […]
The role of universities in shaping public discourse has been widely contested, especially in recent months. In the wake of rampant debate on issues such as the Israel–Hamas war and President Claudine Gay’s resignation from her post, universities have been criticized for both partisan and neutral responses. Some institutions have released formal statements on these […]
Chicago dyes its river green; New London, Wisconsin, changes all its signage to New Dublin for the day; Portland, Maine, takes a Paddy’s Day Plunge into the freezing cold Atlantic Ocean; even a Commander at the International Space Station sings “Danny Boy.” No city, however, celebrates St. Patrick’s (Paddy’s) Day quite like Boston, Massachusetts—at least […]
Beyoncé’s “Run the World (Girls)” bellowed throughout Trocadéro Square in Paris, France on Monday, March 4th, as hundreds of Parisians celebrated France becoming the first country to explicitly inscribe access to abortion in its Constitution. France’s historic enshrinement stands as a rebuke to the U.S.’s rollback of reproductive rights and a beacon of hope for […]
My mother’s dream was to be a writer. Yet, in an immigrant household, her acceptance to NYU for English was eclipsed by the glaring pressure to pursue the medical field. She went to the University of Akron for a seven-year medical program instead. I imagine that my mother always wondered what her life could have […]
There’s this idea that it is “‘beneath the dignity of an Ivy League school to train teachers,’” points out Walter Isaacson ’74, former CEO of CNN and graduate of Harvard College, quoted in an article by The Atlantic. It’s pretty normal to ask someone what their plans are after college. Most commonly, when I eavesdrop […]
Deep in the bowels of political social media, there is an ongoing debate about humor’s role in our society. Some believe that satire and ridicule are a necessary component to ensure our society has a healthy relationship with politics. If we take everything seriously and lose the ability to laugh, we are just pushing our […]
Picture this: You are a Harvard student sitting in your dorm, post-everything shower, in formal attire and dress shoes. This time, to your surprise, you actually do have plans, albeit arranged by the First-Year Social Committee (FYSC)—the First-Year Formal. A Great Gatsby themed endeavor, the Committee transported students back a century as they draped Annenberg […]