NEWS: SJP TAKE ADVOCACY TO THE MAIN QUAD
FEBRUARY 23, 2022 SEVENTH WEEK VOL. 134, ISSUE 16
PAGE 4
University Enacts Limited Isolation-in-Place to Conserve Space in Stony Island By PETER MAHERAS | News Reporter
Stony Island Hall is the University’s isolation housing space. emma-victoria banos
Some students living in on-campus residence halls who have tested positive for COVID-19 are now isolating in their dorms to conserve space in the Stony Island Hall, according to an email from Assistant Vice President for Campus Life Richard Mason and Interim Executive Director of Housing & Residence Life Heath Rossner. The change came after surveillance testing detected 93 new cases between February 3 and 9, almost double the total of 49 cases during the week before. The positivity rate was 2.46 percent, according to the latest UChicago Forward update released February 11. Mason and Rossner emphasized that
the policy is a precautionary step and that Stony Island has not reached its capacity of 120 students. As of Thursday, February 10, 61 students were in on-campus isolation housing, while 32 additional students were isolating off campus. Only students who live in a single or a double where both students have tested positive will be asked to isolate in their dorm, according to University spokesperson Gerald McSwiggan. “The University is also limiting the number of residence hall buildings that are using isolation-in-place,” McSwiggan wrote in a statement to The MaCONTINUED ON PG. 2
Lawsuit Describes Alleged Pattern of Abuse by Former UChicago Professor John Comaroff By ERIN CHOI | News Reporter Content warning: This article contains detailed descriptions of sexual harassment, assault, and abuse. Three Harvard University graduate students are suing their university for ignoring and enabling sexual abuse by John Comaroff, a Harvard anthropology professor who previously taught at UChicago from 1978 to 2012. The lawsuit claims that when Harvard hired Comaroff in 2012, it did so knowing that he had a widespread reputation for sex-
GREY CITY: A” lover’s quarrel” with the University PAGE 8
ual misconduct at UChicago. The lawsuit, filed in Massachusetts federal court on February 8, argues that Harvard knew of and enabled Comaroff’s abuse when it hired him from UChicago. “Before Harvard hired him, Professor Comaroff taught at UChicago, where he was surrounded by ‘pervasive allegations of sexual misconduct,’” the lawsuit states. “Indeed, multiple UChicago students and faculty complained to UChicago about his CONTINUED ON PG. 2
ARTS: “Laurel Hell” is Mitski’s Take on Camp PAGE 6
The University’s Title IX office. han jiang
VIEWPOINTS: SJP advocates for the liberation of all oppressed peoples
SPORTS: UChicago Moot Court Places Second in National Competition
PAGE 11
Like our Facebook page at facebook.com/chicagomaroon and follow @chicagomaroon on Instagram and Twitter to get the latest updates on campus news.
PAGE 12 chicagomaroon.com
THE CHICAGO MAROON — FEBRUARY 23, 2022
2
“The number of students in isolation…has decreased in recent days.” CONTINUED FROM PG. 1
roon. “The number of students in isolation housing at Stony Island has decreased in recent days as students cycled through or left after testing negative. If this trend continues in the coming week there will be less need for temporary isolation-in-place measures.” The University also attributed the uptick in cases to social gatherings, not
in-person classes. “Although COVID-19 case counts are declining in Chicago, it remains critically important to continue following the University’s health requirements,” Mason and Rossner wrote in their email. Contact tracers would no longer notify students in classes with someone who had tested positive, according to the UChicago Forward update. Instead, con-
tact tracing would only notify students who had been seated near a confirmed case. The possibility of an isolate-in-place policy being implemented was first announced in January as a potential change should case counts rise. Students isolating in place are prohibited from leaving their rooms except to use bathrooms, seek medical care, collect meals
from a specific location, or remove trash from their rooms. Residents who are not isolating should not use bathrooms designated for isolating students. The University made no changes to current masking guidelines, which were recently relaxed to allow lecturers to remove masks when speaking.
“[He] was surrounded by ‘pervasive allegations of sexual misconduct.’” CONTINUED FROM PG. 1
behavior.” The Maroon was not immediately able to verify this information. One of the three plaintiffs, Amulya Mandava, graduated from UChicago in 2010 and is currently a Ph.D. student at Harvard. Mandava alleges that she experienced Comaroff’s abuse as an undergraduate at UChicago and faced retaliation for reporting his abuse of other students at Harvard. UChicago provided the following statement to The Maroon: “The University is committed to addressing and preventing incidents of unlawful harassment and sexual misconduct and makes substantial efforts to respond in a prompt, equitable and thorough manner whenever allegations occur. When a report of sexual misconduct is made to the University, we take immediate action to provide support, resources, and resolution options to the reporter. When an allegation is investigated and substantiated, we take action to prevent its recurrence and address its effects. In light of privacy considerations, we do not release details about individual cases.” Comaroff’s lawyers issued a statement in response to the lawsuit. “Professor Comaroff categorically denies ever harassing or retaliating against any student,” the statement reads. “To address the lawsuit’s specific allegations, Professor Comaroff was never the subject of any Title IX or other complaint at the University of Chicago.” Harvard also issued a statement: “Harvard University disputes the allegations of the lawsuit brought by Sanford Heisler Sharp, LLP, which are in no way a fair or accurate representation of the thoughtful steps taken by the University in response to concerns that were brought forward, the thorough reviews conducted, and the results
of those reviews.” The plaintiffs did not immediately respond to requests for comment; The Maroon will update this story with additional comments. Comaroff came to UChicago in 1978 as a visiting assistant professor of anthropology and became tenured as an associate professor in 1980, according to his CV. He was chair of the anthropology department from 1991 to 1994 and was appointed to the Harold H. Swift Distinguished Service Professorship in Anthropology and Social Sciences in the College in 1996. Comaroff joined the Harvard faculty in 2012 as a professor of African and African-American studies (AAAS) and of anthropology. The lawsuit alleges that at least one UChicago faculty member warned the chair of Harvard’s AAAS department about Comaroff’s behavior. Harvard allegedly ignored these warnings, allowing Comaroff’s abuse to continue. The lawsuit includes specific anonymous allegations of sexual misconduct while at UChicago and suggests that UChicago faculty and students were widely aware of his abusive patterns. The lawsuit recounts examples of Comaroff’s alleged abuse against one undergraduate and two graduate students at UChicago. The lawsuit alleges that in or around 1979, Comaroff lured a female undergraduate student to his home and forcibly hugged and groped her. At the time, when she told a graduate student what happened, the student responded that “Professor Comaroff was well-known for his sexual behavior toward students, and that he was engaged in an affair with another student,” according to the lawsuit. The experience caused this undergraduate to abandon her plans to pursue
a Ph.D. in anthropology, the lawsuit notes. Per the lawsuit, between 2006 and 2007, Comaroff allegedly sent violent pornography to a female graduate student without her consent and verbally and physically assaulted her. According to the lawsuit, when Comaroff learned that the student’s friend had reported the incident to UChicago faculty, he retaliated against the student: “[H]e ensured that the student had ‘trouble’ finding a job.” In 2007, as alleged in the lawsuit, Comaroff initiated a sexual relationship with another female graduate student. “On information and belief, once Professor Comaroff lost sexual interest in her, he used his influence to damage her career,“ per the lawsuit. The lawsuit then says that in winter 2009, Comaroff targeted Mandava while she was an undergraduate at UChicago. According to the lawsuit, Comaroff’s behavior against Mandava happened on a UChicago study abroad trip in South Africa. Comaroff made suggestive comments and actions that made Mandava uncomfortable, the lawsuit says. It also alleges that when Mandava raised these concerns to another UChicago professor on the trip, David Bunn, he said he was already aware of Comaroff’s behavior. The lawsuit says, “But Professor Bunn responded that Professor Comaroff’s behavior was part of a pattern; he regularly crossed boundaries on study-abroad trips. During each trip, he developed a ‘crush’ on a female student and ‘obsessively’ focused on her throughout the program.” The lawsuit also mentions that Harvard anthropology professors George Meiu and Nicholas Harkness, who both attended UChicago for graduate school, were aware of Comaroff’s reputation for misconduct. Meiu completed his UChicago graduate studies in
2014 and Harkness in 2010. The lawsuit alleges that when The Harvard Crimson first reported on the allegations against Comaroff in 2020, Meiu apologized before more than 100 anthropology department members, including plaintiffs, “for what I knew and what I didn’t say anything about.” The lawsuit adds that after the plaintiffs filed their Title IX complaints, Harkness said to plaintiff Lilia Kilburn that Comaroff was a “groomer” and “predator.” Harvard placed Comaroff on paid administrative leave in August 2020 after The Harvard Crimson reported on Title IX allegations against him. Harvard then placed him on unpaid administrative leave in January 2022. Recent developments in the case have sent ripples across Harvard, UChicago, and the rest of academia. In response to Comaroff’s being sanctioned in January, 38 Harvard professors signed an open letter on February 4 questioning the procedure and results of the investigations. The letter prompted a response signed by 73 faculty members denouncing the original letter for implicitly discrediting the students’ accusations. On February 9, the day after the lawsuit was released, 35 of the 38 professors sought to retract the original letter. The Maroon is currently investigating this issue. If you or someone you know has experiences or information that you would like to share with us related to Comaroff, sexual misconduct within the UChicago anthropology department, sexual assault, and/or the Title IX reporting process at UChicago, please contact us at news@chicagomaroon.com or through our tip form.
THE CHICAGO MAROON — FEBRUARY 23, 2022
3
Hyde Park Interfaith Council Establishes Anti-Violence Task Force By NOAH GLASGOW | News Reporter This January, the Hyde Park & Kenwood Interfaith Council, an association of religious leaders and organizations in the local community, announced the formation of an anti-violence task force to address rising rates of violent crime in their congregations’ neighborhoods. The formation of the task force was first announced in a letter in the Hyde Park Herald on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. “We, as faith leaders, feel strongly about the need for a response from the faith community,” the task force wrote, responding to a number of recent violent incidents in Hyde Park and Kenwood, including a widely publicized UCPD shooting. “[We need] a response that will seek to address root causes, and that will allow us to use our voices and resources to bring about the changes needed to literally ‘Stop the Violence.’” The task force is led by Reverend Veronica Johnson, one of the pastors of the Hyde Park Union Church. “Many faith leaders in our community have been involved in other groups that have been addressing violence across the city,” Johnson said when asked about the origins of the task force. With violent crime on the rise in Hyde Park, Johnson felt as though the faith community had a responsibility to step up and offer its resources and
perspectives—because, she said, “If not now, when?” Brie Loskota, the newly appointed executive director of the University’s Martin Marty Center for the Public Understanding of Religion, represents the University on the Anti-Violence Task Force. Loskota believes that communication between faith groups is critical for an even distribution of resources among leaders and congregations. “Religious leaders often don’t know what other religious leaders and clergy are doing,” she explained. “Everyone has to take on every component of every issue.” In their public letter, the task force shared their plans to prevent violence through education, service, outreach, and advocacy. “[We’re looking at] education from the perspective of understanding root causes of violence, as well as understanding specifically what is happening [in our community]…ignorance is going to lead to more chaos and confusion,” Johnson said. “If you pay attention to what is being learned when you study those at risk of becoming violent offenders, you will find poverty,” Johnson said. “But you will also find that they have been marginalized and disenfranchised—everything that comes from being Black in America.
[Rebuilding is] not easy and it’s not fast.” The task force intends to establish a mental health and trauma response program that supplies social and emotional care to those impacted by violent incidents. The task force also hopes to provide physical spaces for students and community members to congregate in the wake of violence and find spiritual relief. “Our groups are about spiritual care,” said Nancy Goede, the pastor at the Augustana Lutheran Church of Hyde Park and a member of the task force. She stressed the need for group engagement with anti-violence efforts. “It’s easy for people to become dispirited and hopeless, and it’s hard to turn that around by yourself.” Through outreach and advocacy, the program will connect local communities with the resources needed for grassroots violence prevention. “Advocacy [ensures] that we don’t go in saying, ‘Well, we know what services you need and here they are,’ but more try to understand compassionately… what services people think they need, and how can we facilitate those services to come about,” said Saba Ayman-Nolley, the president of the Interfaith Council, who worked closely with Johnson to establish the new task force. The task force hopes to engage the University in its anti-violence work.
“[The University] has to stop being an island, which it has been for some decades,” said Ayman-Nolley, herself a University alum. “I think there are elements of the University that are listening, that are trying very hard, and my hope is that we will connect to those elements and work together with them.” All members of the task force expressed hope that University students interested in faith-based activism will join the Anti-Violence Task Force. “We’re looking for people who can serve, and help us think through and create programs,” said Johnson. She also emphasized that the task force is “brand-spanking new” and that not every logistical detail has been hammered out. “People can also decide, ‘I have artistic talent,’ and I would like to work on some kind of artistic piece to help me think through race and violence and myself,” Goede said. “There are all kinds of possibilities for people to get involved.” Students looking for a way to promote anti-violence through their faith will be welcome in the task force. In the words of Loskota, it’s “a beautiful fabric of people all working in concert towards a shared goal of a flourishing community,” one that is already working to set up community programming. Students interested in joining the task force can contact: hpkinterfaithcouncil@gmail.com.
UChicago to Distribute Free KN95 Masks, Take “Cautious Approach” to Lifting Mask Mandate By CASEY KIM | Senior News Reporter The University reported 152 new cases of COVID-19 and 405 close contacts identified last week, according to an email sent to the University community on Friday, February 18. Seventy-one students are in on-campus isolation housing, with 24 isolating off campus. Chicago’s seven-day case rate declined to 1.8 percent this week, down
from 2.7 percent last week. Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot announced on the evening of February 22 that the City will lift its indoor mask mandate by February 28, in alignment with the State of Illinois. Though the University is subject to the City of Chicago’s mask mandate, it may take a more cautious approach and continue to require masks for a pe-
riod even if mandates are lifted, per the UChicago Forward email. The email noted that the school will continue to monitor the number of students isolating on campus to determine if the isolation-in-place measures in residence halls currently in effect are still necessary. According to the email, “the number of students in isolation housing at Stony Island has fluctuated as students cycle through or leave after
testing negative.” The University also announced its distribution of free KN95 masks for students and employees, available for pick-up between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. until Monday, February 28, at the front desk reception of the Quadrangle Club (1155 East 57th Street).
4
THE CHICAGO MAROON — FEBRUARY 23, 2022
Photo Essay: Students for Justice in Palestine Take Their Advocacy to the Main Quad By ERIC FANG & NOAH GLASGOW | Photographer & News Reporter
The UChicago chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine installed signs, banners, and flags across the main quad on Tuesday morning to protest “home demolitions” in Palestine.
THE CHICAGO MAROON — FEBRUARY 23, 2022
5
ARTS Come With Me to See the Symphony The Chicago Symphony Orchestra is having a terrific season; with ArtsPass tickets easily available, there’s never been a better time to relish in the joy of live music. By NOAH GLASGOW | Arts Contributor On a recent Thursday evening, Marin Alsop, a guest conductor at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO), took a moment to address her audience before the program’s final piece. I wanted to record her remarks, but I had already shut off my phone and didn’t have a pen handy. At the end of the performance, I tried to record what I could remember but didn’t get far: “It’s wonderful to be performing for you all tonight,” she said, or something similar. “I want to thank you all for your support of the symphony through these COVID days. There’s something special and important about live music…” Perhaps my failure to recall more of Alsop’s words stems from just how adept we’ve all become at tuning out these fatigued introductions. They grate on the audience’s patience and serve as little more than thinly-veiled requests that patrons request a donation envelope from their usher. By the time Alsop actually introduced the piece, Edward Elgar’s Variations on an Original Theme—which, by nature of its peculiar origins, merits a particular introduction—I have already refocused my attention on the gold filigree embellishing the hall’s luxury booths. Which, unlike Alsop’s remarks, I will have plenty of time to study later. My wandering focus is unfortunate, as is the dull character of Alsop’s preamble. The reality is that the symphony is both “special” and “important.” Like all live arts, it lends vibrancy to an urban life that “these COVID days” have tried desperately to efface. Alsop’s sentiment (if not her staid diction) is worth embracing, lest we forget the joy that comes from languishing in live performance and being present for the artists who paint with bows and mallets and double-reeds. The Chicago Symphony is having a terrific season and not one worth missing. For University students, tickets to the symphony are cheap. They’re available through the
University ArtsPass for only 15 dollars each; purchasing student tickets is intuitive, accessible, and requires minimal setup. Most concerts put on by the symphony have student tickets available. Since my return to campus this January, I have seen two performances of the CSO: the first, Baroque, Vivaldi, and Handel, at the tail end of January; the second, more recent and less easily defined, a consortium of Barber, Rachmaninoff, and Elgar last Thursday. The Baroque pieces, conducted by the CSO’s Music Director Riccardo Muti, were melodious and pleasing, refined yet altogether unpretentious. It is not especially demanding music, except perhaps on the focus of restless listeners (a few of these, less willing to relish in the tempered pace
particularly of Handel’s Water Music, were in my party; one was gently reminded of his location by an usher). Vivaldi’s Concerto for Four Violins in B Minor, the opening piece of the program, was the star. With the symphony pared back to just the strings and harpsichord, four violin soloists conversed in delightful exchanges of sharp and delicate tones; the melodies flitted back and forth with an electric zeal and the full-bodied character of musicians simply speaking through their instruments. The piece’s minor key was almost Eastern in its haunting flavor, more closely recalling the Jewish folk music I was raised on than the jaunty compositions of Vivaldi’s Baroque contemporaries. The following Vivaldi flute concerto, La Notte, did not carry itself with the sort of exacting style common in Baroque music;
the solo flutist often veered toward a tone too gravelly and unrefined. Handel’s Water Music, the entirety of the program’s second act, made memorable use of the symphony’s French horns, which periodically entered and withdrew from the piece with gorgeous, regal composure. Last Thursday’s concert was a longer program. It began with Barber’s Symphony No. 1, a piece unfamiliar to me. It was wildly dramatic, sweeping in its scope, reminiscent of those exotic film scores composed by Maurice Jarre for David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago (it was reminiscent also of the works of John Williams, who is always liberal with his appropriations). For the Barber, Alsop unleashed the brass and drew heavily on the timpani; at times, every waistcoated body on the stage moved in vigCONTINUED ON PG. 6
The Chicago Symphony is having a terrific season and not one worth missing. courtesy of chicago symphony orchestra
THE CHICAGO MAROON — FEBRUARY 23, 2022
6
“For University students, tickets to the symphony are cheap. They’re available through the University ArtsPass for only 15 dollars each.” CONTINUED FROM PG. 5
orous unison, bound by the veracity of the composition. Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2, featuring Lukáš Vondráček as solo piano, followed the Barber composition. While the tempo dragged occasionally, Vondráček’s duet with the upper woodwinds in the Adagio Sostenuto was seamless and entrancing, evoking those moonlit palatial gardens in which Rachmaninoff must have accompa-
nied the romances of the last of the fur-coated Russian nobility. The concert concluded with Elgar’s Variations on an Original Theme, known colloquially as the “Enigma Variations.” At this point, a program waltzing past two hours was too demanding of my attention; it took the fiery conclusion of the Variations (modeled, supposedly, after the habits and mannerisms of Elgar himself) to pull me back into the rapture of the music. All this is to suggest that a performance
of the symphony is, to a certain extent, like any popular concert: For most of its duration, it is both enjoyable and entertaining, even if there are moments which challenge our patience or taste. Classical music—especially that performed by a symphony as prestigious as the CSO—is rarely boring. After all, these pieces have aged for decades or centuries. With new music written constantly, the benchmarks of the classical repertoire hold a quiddity that is, by necessity, both moving
and entertaining. I do not intend to stop frequenting the CSO any time soon. Upcoming concerts with available student tickets include a performance of the work of Philip Glass, a 20th-century American composer, and Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique, both within the next month. Both performances promise to delight, even in “these COVID days”—and I hope to see you there.
Laurel Hell Is Mitski’s Take on Camp By PARUL KUMAR | Arts Contributor In a mere 30 minutes, Mitski cut deep and showed that she bled red like the rest of us, only to reveal it was corn syrup in the end. Laurel Hell marks Mitski’s sixth studio album, emerging at the tail end of the artist’s digital cleanse on Twitter and at the announcement of her opening for Harry Styles. In the past year, Mitski has seen great success in her artistry, using her lyrics to tackle various perspectives in her work, ranging from a wife singing about her loveless marriage to a girl singing about the elusive American girl. Yet, Laurel Hell marks a turning point in Mitski’s discography as she takes on a new feeling: the zeitgeist of today. Much of the love for Mitski today comes from the waxing melancholy of her lyrics, evoking a sense of bittersweet nostalgia. The music of a young Asian woman looking wistfully into the past is rare representation. Yet, Laurel Hell is different, opening with the lyrics of “Valentine, Texas,” where she asks, “Who will I become tonight?” as though peeking through the glitzy unknown. Then, Mitski transitions immediately to a jarring shift with “Working for the Knife,” where she recounts the long and dreary road of an unchanging future under capitalism where one lives and dies by the knife. Then comes “Stay Soft,” where she gleefully sings about how it’s only natural to harden across the span of one’s life, for your softness leads you to hell. She effortlessly transitions into singing “Everyone,” which comes across like an old man singing
about life on the other side of the story—a man who chooses the good side, only to find out there wasn’t that much of a difference anyway. From here, she moves through a transformational sequence in “Heat Lightning” where she surrenders to the future, a future where the singer can’t do anything. In “The Only Heartbreaker,” she falls into a relationship with someone she doesn’t love and perpetually becomes the bad guy because of it. When she does fall in love in “Love Me More,” it is about the kind of love to fill her up to feel anything. Mitski sings like she is doing a solo at a karaoke party, belting out the words “Love me more” over a neon backdrop of sound. After, she sings “There’s Nothing Left for You,” leaving the loveless normal to delve into a new future of complete romanticism, in which the world revolves around you. “Should’ve Been Me” plays like a twangy new beginning, where the singer looks at the person their lover replaced them with and laughs at how they’re simply a new iteration of the singer’s own lostness. From her new beginning comes her end with “I Guess,” sounding like a little girl in a musical, singing up to a fake moon on a stage, arbitrarily declaring the end of her story. Throughout the song Mitski thanks someone, although, a few listens in, I am still not sure who it is. “That’s Our Lamp” closes out the album, sounding like a satire of a love song where the singer cries about how their
once passionate lover doesn’t love them the same; and the backdrop descends into a cartoonishly fun ending, like the ending of a ’90s animation. Throughout the song, Mitski sings the line “that’s where you end me,” ending this saga with Mitski. Laurel Hell plays like a saloon special, and there’s something hilariously camp
about Mitski literally choosing to end a career of making music to survive like this. This is her version of adulthood in a year where the singer is comfortable prioritizing intention in her artistry. In a way, the things Mitski sings about are scary. As a Class of 2022 soon-to-be graduate, I’m absoluteCONTINUED ON PG. 7
Mitski’s album Laurel Hell. courtesy of dead oceans
THE CHICAGO MAROON — FEBRUARY 23, 2022
7
“[S]he takes on a new feeling: the zeitgeist of today.” CONTINUED FROM PG. 6
ly terrified about the prospect of the real world where passion, zest, and true love are more like epithets than guarantees. Thinking about adulthood fills me with fear. Despite the lyrics of “Working for the Knife” wondering about whether the road at 29 will be the same as it was in her 20s, Mitski releases Laurel Hell as the premier album in a career shift that she hopes will
be marked with intention and purpose. At 31, Mitski’s pivot signifies that life changes and that all of these worries we face become funny in retrospect. If albums had messages, Laurel Hell is, really, one of hope, where all of our worst fears are really our worst fears, and the cartoonish future we all imagine for ourselves really is like a cartoon. We’re going to be okay. The sound of Laurel Hell takes on in-
fluences from the pop style of the ’90s and ’80s, which comes through several songs in the rhythms and beats. Here, Mitski manages to exercise her artistry alongside her tasteful interpretation of camp to create an album about growing up fueled by all our anxieties to alleviate them. Still, despite the influences of past musical eras, the album is distinctly today—weaving in and out of stories about all our fears growing up.
Mitski’s Laurel Hell is a coming-of-age album, and one that I think should be listened to in full because of it. It plays out like a story, where the listener must give the album a little time to “get it.” Just like the first lines of the opener of the album “Valentine, Texas,” it is up to the listener to step carefully into the darkness. After all, they are the first steps you have to take in order to grow up.
Gem of the Ocean Stuns Audiences as August Wilson’s Legacy Lives On By BELLE NAHOOM | Arts Contributor When I first heard that Gem of the Ocean was playing nearby, I was jumping with joy. I have recently been on a journey to read and view each of August Wilson’s plays, and this was one of the final steps. Gem of the Ocean is one of the few underperformed August Wilson plays and for that reason, I feel that, from the perspective of young directors and producers, the show can take on many forms. In that way, I appreciated the inventive initiatives that director Chuck Smith took to put
on the show—it was astonishing. Gem of the Ocean is the first work (ironically written last) of ten plays written by August Wilson known as The Pittsburgh Cycle. The Pittsburgh Cycle is a collection of works in which every play, each set in a different decade of the 20th century, describes the lives of Black Americans in the United States, specifically in Pittsburgh. Gem of the Ocean correlates to the first decade of the 20th century (1900–10) about 50 years after the
There was something slightly eerie about seeing behind the walls of the home as if we were truly looking into another world. courtesy of liz lauren
signing of the Emancipation Proclamation and is thematically based on the inability of former slaves and their kin to truly be “free” of social constraints in the United States. The show examines the role of sharecropping and other economic limitations in the lives of both young and old Black Americans. Gem of the Ocean takes place in the home of former slave and renowned healer Aunt Ester. Ester’s power is said to be the cleansing of souls. She lives with Eli, a protector, and her maid, Black Mary, whom she views as her protégé. One night, a very distressed young man named Citizen breaks into her home in hopes of getting his soul cleansed. He admits he has committed a horrible crime and has been unable to live with himself since. He begs for Ester’s help, and she welcomes him with open arms. We are also introduced to two other characters, Solly Two Kings, a former slave who worked on the Underground Railroad, and Mary’s brother Caesar, an aggressive sheriff who is known for his brutality towards criminals. Caesar serves to distinguish between successful individuals in Pittsburgh and those who have been unable to feed themselves due to economic hardships. The show clearly creates parallels between the poorer, older former slaves, like Solly Two Kings, and the young, more successful Black folks in Pittsburgh, like Black Mary. We see this through Solly’s requests to Black Mary to read and write to his sister for him, as he was never given the opportunity of an education. The comparisons between these generations show how life had both progressed and remained stagnant for many Black people during this period in history.
In the exposition, we are introduced to the town’s crisis. The steel mill in town takes advantage of desperate Black Americans searching for a job. The mill offers a wage, but the workers must pay for their own food and lodging, placing the young workers in debt and forcing them to work without fair pay. We learn that a young man who worked at the mill is accused of stealing and, in anguish, killed himself. The young man’s death served as a sort of martyrdom for the other workers as they began to riot against the mill. The plot revolves around the cleansing of Citizen’s soul as pieces of the crisis interweave with the opinions and actions of our protagonists. Gem of the Ocean is quite an emotionally heavy piece for both cast members and audiences to take on (I must admit I cried a good amount throughout the last twenty minutes of the piece). Even further, it is quite a long piece, clocking in at about three hours and twenty minutes. Though the story is wonderful in all regards, it was quite difficult to hold back the thoughts of: “How much longer is the show? Is this the final scene?” If you plan on viewing this stunning production, you should plan for a long, but fulfilling, night ahead. On that note, the stage was incredible. The set is that of a home, but the walls are panels that the audience can see through. At first, the panels are used to let us see what is going on in the house, but later in the show, they take on the role of a backdrop for video projections. I loved watching the actors stay in character even when they were not directly within our view. There was someCONTINUED ON PG. 8
THE CHICAGO MAROON — FEBRUARY 23, 2022
8
“[H]ow can we remain calm when it feels as if our entire world is descending into chaos?” CONTINUED FROM PG. 7
thing slightly eerie about seeing behind the walls of the home as if we were truly looking into another world. The set designers were truly successful in their work. Acting-wise, there were no complaints. Every actor was jaw-dropping, and I must give kudos to their work. Time traveling to the historical period of Gem of the Ocean is exhausting, as the actors have to adapt not only their mannerisms but also their dialect. Specifically, I must state that Sharif Atkins, the actor for Citizen, encompassed his role
extremely well. It felt as if I were watching a man who held the burden of the world on his shoulders. Citizen’s sadness was not only embedded in his speech but also in his body language. Furthermore, Gem of the Ocean has quite a bit of a cappella singing toward the end of the show when Citizen is taken to the place where his soul will be cleansed, Bone City. The actors each brought their own unique voice to this a cappella piece and I cannot stress enough how wonderful they were. What is most disheartening about Gem
of the Ocean is the parallels it makes between its setting and the present day; its ethical concerns about lawfulness and the role of police officers in our lives continues in modern arguments. August Wilson puts forth the question: To what extent should those deemed “unfit for society” try to assimilate? To what extent should we follow the laws of a country when they are rooted in bigotry and hatred? And how can we remain calm when it feels as if our entire world is descending into chaos? I spent hours after watching the show contemplating my role as
a member of society. Seeing Gem of the Ocean at the Goodman Theatre, where it originally premiered, was a surreal experience. It felt as if I were sitting in the seat August Wilson sat in when he first experienced his masterpiece come to life. This production of Gem of the Ocean was a remarkable take on Wilson’s relevant storytelling of Black American issues. The production takes on both historical issues and modern societal problems, leaving its mark on its audience members.
Professor Srikanth Reddy on His Newest Book Underworld Lit: A “Lover’s Quarrel” With the University Professor Srikanth Reddy discusses his newest book of poetry Underworld Lit, which delves deep into the ancient underworlds of mythology and the author’s own brush with mortality. By MAEVE McGUIRE | Grey City Reporter UChicago creative writing professor Srikanth Reddy’s latest book of poetry, Underworld Lit, chronicles an absurd concurrence of personal crises set against the backdrop of the University of Chicago campus. An unexpected diagnosis of malignant melanoma, anxieties over the tenure process, and the state of constant emergency that accompanies raising a small child cause the book’s narrator to descend into a labyrinth of underworlds. After nearly a decade spent writing, Reddy’s personal fortunes turned around: His cancer was in remission, and he was a tenured professor. His book, with its poetic musings on death and burial, was published just in time for a global health crisis of historic proportions. Despite the book being published in August 2020, copies sold
quickly—especially on the University of Chicago’s campus. The University purchased hundreds of copies, which it gave out during a delayed graduation ceremony for the Class of 2020 and during President Alivisatos’s inauguration. “The University—which would seem like the last place that would actually want to buy copies of this book that’s complaining about the University all the time—has basically cleared out the warehouse,” Reddy joked in an interview with The Maroon. “Though my relationship with the University is complicated, it means so much to me. It’s where I feel happiest, most fulfilled, challenged and excited.” Reddy acknowledged that he feels very distant from the personal crises and the
“tonality of dread and absurdity” that originally inspired the book. He began writing during an extremely tumultuous time: He was going up for a tenure position within an English department that had never before granted one to a poet. Though he was successful in his tenure bid, it was a very confusing period intellectually, creatively, and professionally. This occupational scare was accompanied by both a shocking cancer diagnosis and the “amazing, beautiful crisis” of raising his young daughter. “It was a very strange cancer diagnosis because brown skin people don’t usually get malignant melanomas—which is kind of the worst skin cancer you can get,” Reddy explained. “Whenever I walked into a checkup or meeting, there’d be all these residents taking notes because I was one of the only South Asian persons these doctors had seen
with a melanoma. I’m in the medical literature now.” When he started writing, Reddy was teaching the first course in the humanities sequence Readings in World Literature. His syllabus included multiple ancient poems involving different cultures’ underworlds: the Odyssey, the Mahābhārata, and The Epic of Gilgamesh. Confronted by his own mortality, Reddy recognized that he, like the characters of these epic poems, was also plunging into an underworld of his own. Surrounded by the vast labyrinth of literature that is the Regenstein stacks, he said, one is easily transported into the world of the deceased. “You’re surrounded by the voices of the dead, you select some and re-emerge into the light of the day. There’s a kind of hauntedness about research, learning, and the study CONTINUED ON PG. 9
THE CHICAGO MAROON — FEBRUARY 23, 2022
9
“The underworld is kind of a mirror world.” CONTINUED FROM PG. 8
of previous cultures’ voices,” Reddy narrates. Reddy explores his personal crisis through a fictional character—Chen—who journeys through different cultures’ underworlds. His tale begins with a scene that typifies Reddy’s often surreal style: “In the district of Hóu-tcheou-fou, the magistrate’s assistant Chen was taking a nap in his cabinet of pain. Suddenly, a motorized airport staircase appeared, and beckoned him to follow.” Chen then journeys from the Mayan underworld of Xibalba to the Egyptian realm of judgment and rebirth, and finally to the Qing dynasty divine courts. Though the plot follows Chen’s adventure and his interactions with exotic characters, the book is inspired by the narrator’s experience translating these ancient foreign texts. “The key to that journey to the underworld was translation. However, I’m not a good translator, so it’s full of mistakes which begin to take over the translations,” Reddy explained. “We worry about being right, faithful, or successful as translators, but I think there’s a whole universe that you can discover if you’re willing to embrace the errors and not put yourself under that pressure.” Working on this book for over nine years, Reddy estimates, he wrote over ten times the material that was eventually published. He equates his writing process to “throwing a lot of stuff at a wall” to see what sticks, followed by a lot of rearranging. His narration shifts between real and imaginary life and different forms of writing. Student evaluations, faculty conversations, and office hours anecdotes are juxtaposed with imaginary underworld adventures, Rorschach tests, absurd 1–800 numbers (“Callers to 1-800-ABADDON are routed to TrueFire, the leader in online guitar instruction”), preposterous course descriptions, and hypothetical quizzes. At the beginning of the book, Reddy includes a real student evaluation he received, which deemed him “fairly intelligent” but “unreceptive, even intolerant, of anything that is not a poem or poetry in prose form.” Though harsh, Reddy views the witty elegance and the faint praise with a bemused satisfaction. “You can see a student’s intelligence on display in the most rhapsodic, wonderful way because they’re so cutting in evalua-
tions,” he said. Reddy envisions a fictitious course description geared toward a classroom of such students. The class is titled Hum 101: Introduction to the Underworld, which studies different cultures’ Books of the Dead. “Requirements include the death of the student, an oral report, and a final paper,” its description reads. The remainder of the book is peppered with an array of whimsical quizzes and class materials for the imagined course. One quiz reads: 3) The hero’s companion in the Epic of Gilgamesh dies of ____. A. Vehicle rollover B. Friendly fire C. Superficial spreading malignant melanoma D. Irrelevant question While much of Reddy’s inspiration stems from his own interactions with students, some is also borrowed from the experiences of his wife Suzanne Buffman, who is also a UChicago creative writing professor. Reddy uses one of these borrowed narratives to exemplify the “annoying brilliance” of UChicago students. “What if I’m ideologically opposed to revision?” one student asks. In another scene, a student tells the professor to go to hell during office hours. “Those three things—the real student evaluation, the story from my wife’s class, and the joke that becomes fictionalized— show how mixing reality with the imaginary can create a new reality that tells you more than a straight-up memoir would have done,” Reddy said. Throughout the narrator’s harrowing adventure through the worlds of the dead and Reddy’s own anticipation of death, there remains a light humor that transcends the gravity of his present challenges. At the recent inauguration of UChicago president Alivisatos, Reddy read aloud an excerpt from his book dealing with his some of his frustrations with the University. The audience, with some restrained, quiet chuckles, seemed beset by the question, “Should I be laughing right now?” Reddy, for his part, believes that a lot of important conversations can be started with that seemingly inappropriate laughter. While some part of Reddy wanted to prime the audience with a warning that it’s okay to laugh, he decided that there is value in them discovering this on their own, just as he did. “There’s this kind of heroic survivors’
Professor Srikanth Reddy. courtesy of the university of chicago narrative about this brave struggle with cancer which is not what I was experiencing. I felt ludicrous half the time in my hospital gown and being a South Asian person getting this cancer I’m not supposed to get,” Reddy said. “The way to make what was happening intelligible and meaningful was to see the humor in it. These absurd contradictions are always either going to be humorous or tragic in artistic form. I think that real humor makes people feel the tragedy of these contradictions too.” Since the publication of the book, millions more COVID-19 deaths have left the specter of death hovering over those left behind worldwide. The recent shooting deaths of three University affiliates have unearthed anxieties and provoked conversations about death among community members. Reddy acknowledged the stressors of attending college during a pandemic. “University students are in this crazy space where you’re surrounded by death in the news cycle but you’re a little bit protected from it, and also you’re made to feel—with good reason—responsible for protecting others [through social distancing and vaccinations]. That’s a really complex space to be in while you’re at university—away from home for the first time, learning, trying to figure out what you’re going to do with your
life, falling in love, and freaking out about a pandemic,” Reddy said. “I’m kind of amazed by how stoic students at the University are—I would be a basket case.” Reddy is taking the year off from teaching to edit a University of Chicago Press poetry book series that highlights contemporary voices and translations. He is also editing Poetry, a Chicago-based monthly poetry journal, which will release three issues in the spring featuring migrant and refugee stories alongside ancient poetry from around the world. Next year, he will return to teaching creative Writing workshops, and he half-jokes that he wants to attempt to actually introduce Underworld Lit to the University’s course catalog. Though he’d like to return to writing soon, he is overjoyed to have his book out in the world and hopes that the pandemic has given readers time to sit with the piece in a haunted, underworldly period of time. “These different cultures’ underworlds are really a collective imaginary space for reflecting on not just death and what happens after death, but for thinking about our own worlds. The underworld is kind of a mirror world,” Reddy said, “Although I feel like I wrote this book as a lover’s quarrel with the University, I’m really glad that it seems to be finding a place here.”
THE CHICAGO MAROON — FEBRUARY 23, 2022
10
VIEWPOINTS
We Must Condemn the SJP’s Online Anti-Semitism The SJP’s recent calls to boycott Jewish-taught and -related classes, posted to Instagram on Holocaust Remembrance Day, are anti-Semitic and must be condemned. By BENJAMIN ZeBRACK and MELODY DIAS After sunset on January 26, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) UChicago released a post on Instagram telling students to “Stop Taking Sh*tty Zionist Classes.” SJP has a continued pattern of anti-Semitism that must be condemned by students and the University alike. The Jewish people use a lunar calendar, where each day begins on the sunset the day before, which meant that the posting of the slides overlapped with Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27. We believe that this was done to isolate and alienate the Jewish population at UChicago and to interfere with a day of mourning. The following day, SJP posted a story in response to receiving backlash about posting on Holocaust Remembrance Day, showing that they in fact posted the day before, not the day of. But posting after sunset was itself an affront—it distracted from Holocaust Remembrance Day, especially as the post circulated and was promoted on the day of mourning itself. In the post, SJP sought to intimidate UChicago students and coerce them into dropping all classes related to Israel or taught by an Israeli professor, deeming
them Zionist classes. The post states: “Support the Palestinian movement for liberation by boycotting classes on Israel or those taught by Israeli fellows. By attending these classes, you are participating in a propaganda campaign that creates complicity in the continuation of Israel’s occupation of Palestine.” The targeting of classes taught specifically by Israeli fellows is xenophobic as Israelis cannot change their nationality, and this post demonizes that nationality by declaring all courses taught by someone affiliated with the nation as propaganda. Further, all courses listed are explicitly within the University’s Jewish Studies center. This furthers the trope that Jewish courses and professors work to contribute to propaganda for Israel, which is a blatantly false narrative. UChicago prides itself on its free speech policy, encouraging students to broaden their education and ask tough questions in classes. Instead, this SJP post actively encourages students to drop such classes, hence discouraging educational freedom. This also violates the University’s discrimination and harassment policies, as the Israeli faculty are directly discriminated against. As such, the Jewish student community is indirectly discriminated against. Further, the harassment policy states that any
organization that utilizes social media and other tactics—such as handing out flyers to intimidate students—in order to interfere with the education of students is harassment. SJP members later approached students in the quad about banning the classes in the post, reiterating the misinformation and attempting to demonize students in those classes. After several days, SJP edited their post’s caption. In this, they defined “Jewish national identity” for the Jewish community. In their explanation of the use of Jewish national identity, they wrote, “A more unambiguous term may have been ‘Zionist National Identity’—‘[I]sraeli nationalist identity’ would have been incomplete.” This statement confirms that the post was indeed targeting Jewish students. There was no apology or any other statements regarding the comments or complaints about the post, meaning that SJP saw nothing else wrong with what they posted. Although this incident has caught the attention of international organizations such as Jewish on Campus (JOC), neither the University nor the student government has responded. Melody Dias is a first-year in the College and the JOC representative on campus. Benjamin ZeBrack is a first-year in the College.
THE CHICAGO MAROON — FEBRUARY 23, 2022
11
We Should Join SJP’s Boycott of Zionist Classes Academic boycott is a valid form of political activism and encourages speaking out against injustice. SJP is not anti-Semitic but in fact advocates for the liberation of all oppressed peoples. By RAWAN ABBAS There has been a recent outrage regarding the academic boycott campaign by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) of certain classes because they promote colonial narratives and Zionist propaganda. An oped published in The Maroon titled “We Must Condemn the SJP’s Online Anti-Semitism” not only accused SJP of being anti-Semitic and xenophobic
but also said they were harassing students in those classes, spreading misinformation, and stifling freedom of speech. This op-ed, co-written by a campus representative of Jewish on Campus (JOC), made it seem as if mentioning Palestinian struggles was anti-Semitic. As if calling out internationally acknowledged settler colonialism is harassment. As if being pro-Palestine is inherently xenophobic. This kind of rhetoric
Matthew Lee, Co-Editor-in-Chief Ruby Rorty, Co-Editor-in-Chief Adyant Kanakamedala, Managing Editor Suha Chang, Chief Production Officer Charlie Blampied, Chief Financial Officer Gage Gramlick, Editor-in-Chief-elect Yiwen Lu, Managing Editor-elect Matthew Chang, Chief Production Officer-elect Astrid Weinberg, Co-Chief Financial Officer-elect Dylan Zhang, Co-Chief Financial Officer-elect The Maroon Editorial Board consists of the editors-in-chief and editors of The Maroon.
NEWS
Peyton Jefferson, editor Kate Mabus, editor Anushka Harve, editor Rachel Wan, editor Jinna Lee, editor Tess Chang, editor Nikhil Jaiswal, editor GREY CITY
Alex Dalton, editor Laura Gersony, editor Milutin Gjaja, editor VIEWPOINTS
Kelly Hui, head editor Elizabeth Winkler, head ediitor Ketan Sengupta, associate editor ARTS
Isabella Cisneros, editor Angélique Alexos, editor Adrian Rucker, editor SPORTS
Alison Gill, editor Ali Sheehy, editor Finn Hartnett, editor
COPY
Rachel Davies-Van Voorhis, copy chief James Hu, copy chief Cynthia Huang, copy chief Gabby Meyers, copy chief Charlotte Susser, copy chief Michael McClure, copy chief Skyler Lorenty, copy chief DESIGN
Arianne Nguyen, head of production Sofia Erlin, design associate Elena Jochum, design associate Natalie Manley, design associate BUSINESS
Graham Frazier, director of strategy Michael Cheng, director of marketing WEB
Firat Ciftci, lead developer Kate Hu, developer Joshua Bowen, developer Perene Wang, developer Editor-in-Chief: Editor@ChicagoMaroon.com Newsroom Phone: (312) 918-8023 Business Phone: (408) 806-8381
For advertising inquiries, please contact Ads@ChicagoMaroon.com or (408) 806-8381.
© 2022 The Chicago Maroon
Circulation: 2,500.
Ida Noyes Hall / 1212 East 59th Street Chicago, IL 60637
aims to guilt-trip Palestinians into repressing their struggles by framing them as the villains—when they aren’t. Classes that normalize the foundation of an apartheid regime on the exclusionary basis of other ethnicities and identities are racist. Calling out these classes is not. This op-ed openly claimed that SJP is anti-Semitic because the campaign was posted on Instagram on Holocaust Remembrance Day, which the authors allege was done in order to “isolate and alienate the Jewish population at UChicago.” However, this claim was based on mere speculation, and no evidence was provided to back it up. SJP released the post on January 26, and International Holocaust Remembrance Day is on January 27. The authors claimed that according to the lunar calendar, the post was released on the 27th. From this, they concluded that SJP willfully intended to harass Jewish students, which is untrue. Furthermore, the op-ed claimed that SJP spread misinformation to “intimidate,” “coerce,” and even “demonize” students. The usage of this language implies that students were forced or threatened when, in fact, SJP participated in common political campaign efforts relying on social media and flyers spread on campus. Actual coercion occurs when one party exercises structural power over another. Coercion occurs when recorded history is erased through academia, when the indigenous people of Palestine are called an “Arab minority,” when settler colonialism is reduced to
a “conflict,” or when genocide and ethnic cleansing is referred to as simply a “loss of Palestinian village life.” Moreover, SJP not only fights to end colonialism, imperialism, and racism for Palestinians but also fights for the collective liberation of all oppressed peoples. This op-ed and other similar rhetoric at UChicago, however, assumes that anti-Zionism equates to anti-Semitism. This is categorically false: Zionism is an imperialist ideology based on settler colonialism. It calls for establishing a Jewish nation-state through the ongoing demolition of Palestinians’ homes and the displacement of more than 750,000 Palestinians in 1948, known as Al Nakba. This is why SJP’s usage of the term “Jewish national identity” is valid: This national identity “exists under political Zionism, which is inextricably tied to settler-colonialism.” In other words, it is derived from a Zionist rhetoric. However, Jewish national identity is completely different from the belonging felt by the global Jewish kinship, which SJP declared was “completely valid and undeniable” in their edited caption. Many Jewish organizations and movements, like Jewish Voice for Peace, are openly anti-Zionist. Many UChicago Jewish students are anti-Zionists, actively voicing their support for Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions—the Palestinian-led movement whose principles guide SJP—and calling for the end of Israeli occupation of Palestinian land. Therefore, the SJP academic boycott campaign doesn’t spread “misinformation”—it condemns the
erasure of recorded history and an ongoing present of displacement and oppression. To talk about freedom of speech is to talk about discourse between two equal sides—not between the colonizer and the colonized. However, what these classes provide is one-sided conversation from the perspective of an oppressor that has already historically silenced the voices of Palestinians to advocate even their basic human rights. Additionally, SJP reported that these classes have ties with the Israeli Institute. In a report entitled “What is the ‘Israeli Institute’ doing on our campus,” SJP revealed that there are faculty fellows in the institute who were former members of the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF). Moreover, the executive director of the institute, Ariel Roth, is also a former IOF member who developed a “security” approach to using military violence in Gaza. If classes are designed to dismiss the Palestinian identity or reduce the ethnic cleansing of their families to simply a “loss,” what “big questions” does JOC suggest Palestinians ask? Refusing to be part of a colonial discourse that omits your voice from the start is a rightful and justifiable act of freedom of speech. Academic boycott doesn’t hinder freedom of speech. On the contrary, it urges those who have omitted the voices of Palestinians to listen. It is revolutionary and one of the many ways to speak out against injustice. Rawan Abbas is a student-atlarge in the College.
THE CHICAGO MAROON — FEBRUARY 23, 2022
12
SPORTS UChicago Moot Court Places Second in National Competition The student-run RSO competed against 26 other universities and achieved runner-up status By ALINA KIM | Sports Contributor When UChicago Moot Court Vice President of Oral Advocacy Coaching Danna Burshtine learned that she and her partner Lily Hong had made it to the final round of the National Moot Court Competition, she jumped out of her seat shouting. “That excitement was a two-fold thing,” Burshtine, a third-year in the College, recounted. “Lily and I jumped and danced around because of our own success. But the other and more exhilarating part was watching my team members get so hyped over their own victories, too. As the coach, it’s fulfilling to see how your teammates have grown over time.” A member of the American Moot Court Association (AMCA), UChicago Moot Court was founded in 2013 by Tyler Ross (A.B. ’16) and Tessa Weil (A.B. ’15). The club is currently ranked seventh overall by the AMCA in 2021, fourth in oral advocacy, and 23rd for brief writing out of around 500 certified member schools. In the fall, UChicago also hosts the Second City Invitational, a two-day tournament that invites collegiate teams from across the nation. This season, the tournament was hosted online—two University of Central Florida teams bested 26 others to take home the title. Members of Moot Court engage in simulated appellate-level debates for fictional cases, read and research case law, and prepare arguments for both sides in regional and national competitions. Some members join the oral advocacy team—in which each member defends their argument in front of a panel of judges—while others opt for writing case briefs. This year’s issue focused on the constitutionality of a federal vaccine mandate for polio and how it affects the Commerce Clause, which grants Congress the power to regulate international and interstate trade alongside commerce with Indigenous tribes and individual bodily autonomy.
Historically, congressional invocation of the Commerce Clause has faced controversy over the balance of power between the states and the federal government. For the UChicago Moot Court team, practice for regional and national competitions spans both summer and autumn quarter as well as winter break. “As the vice president of recruitment, I looked for students interested in salient legal issues. This year’s vaccine topic brought in a fantastic team,” Hong explained to The Maroon. “We read the case over the summer. [During] autumn quarter, we practice twice a week for two hours at a time. But we decided to [slot] in two extra hours weekly for practice over winter break. Our oral advocates even did three to four rounds outside of practice!” Unlike most other Moot Court institutions, UChicago’s team is entirely student-run, with upperclassmen coaches leading oral advocacy rehearsals and the brief writing process. Burshtine, who oversees the coaches, decides how much oral advocacy practice to pack in before regional and national tournaments. To supplement practices, she organizes office hours alongside assistant oral advocacy coach Rishabh Shastry to brainstorm and polish their team members’ arguments. The two also judge mock rounds during their practice rehearsals. Vice President of Brief Writing Coaching Shannon Chung and Assistant Brief Writing Coach Bert Chu also host office hours to provide feedback to their writers, who will submit 30-page case briefs to their judges when the competition begins. The National Moot Court Competition runs over the course of three days, from January 21 through January 23. Oral advocacy teams who win their rounds on their first day advance to the second and third. For UChicago Moot Court, this season was unprecedented—all of their teams made it to the second day.
“We qualified eight and a half teams,” Moot Court Pwresident Anna Selbrede recalled. “We knew our sheer number of teams in competition was historical, not only for our UChicago crew, but for our peers at other schools too. I don’t think even Patrick Henry College, who sweeps in intercollegiate Moot Court competitions, has gone to the top 60 with as many teams as our RSO.” Three teams (second-years Marie Ardy and Ethan Ostrow, first-years Vikram Ramaswamy and Cherie Fernandes, and fourth-years Marc Motter and Micah Clark Moody) advanced to the Top 16. Third-years Lily Hong and Danna Burshtine won the overall runners-up title after competing with Marco Romero and Vaishalee Chaudhary from California State University, Long Beach (CSULB). Ardy and Ostrow also placed second in the national respondent brief writing competition. Hong and Burshtine’s ranking marks the second time that UChicago Moot Court won the runners-up title in AMCA nationals; Henry Filosa (A.B. ’20) and Rebecca Lin (A.B. ’19) placed second in the 2017–18 season. Fernandes attributes the success of Burshtine’s team to her coaching and office hours, recalling how they read, reread, and re-reread case laws, shared annotated notes with other oral advocate teams, and brainstormed hypothetical questions that the panel of judges might ask during the tournament. “Moot success depends on [Burshtine’s] lesson plans,” Fernandes joked. “During our Tuesday and Thursday RSO meetings, she outlined what we wanted to cover. It’s a lot, but it’s a lot for a reason. Twice a week, we would research relevant law cases and figure out how to use them through hypothetical scenarios [oral advocates might see] in the competition. The bulk of practice after we organized our arguments was simulated debates, with Danna judging which team wins.” Due to the recent surge of Omicron
cases in the United States, the 2021–22 national competition was hosted remotely through Zoom. Nevertheless, the process was nearly identical to its in-person counterpart: the judge enters (the virtual space), the clerk describes the subject matter, and the Mooters take turns presenting their argument either as a petitioner or respondent. Finally, the judges adjourn the court to deliver their verdict and offer feedback to competitors. “It feels like a dance,” Ramaswamy said of the competition’s virtual flow. “For me, this feeling began way before I argued in front of the judges. I listened to my hype music before every round, and Cherie and I texted each other for luck. The actual competition itself is the judge [and I] having a back-and-forth.” The final round was live-streamed to a public audience; it ended with the judges declaring CSULB the winner of the 2021–22 season. When asked about the highlight of her experience at the national final round, Burshtine referred to an aspect in which she did not directly participate—the Slack support network her teammates created to cheer for her and Hong as they competed against CSULB for the national title. “Our entire team watched and essentially live-tweeted whatever they thought on Slack, complementing our counter-arguments and being supportive,” Burshtine reflected. “[Lily and I] scrolled through their conversation post-competition and had a good laugh over it. I think it’s fitting for our team, you know? We work best when we’re all together.” As spring approaches, Mooters will revisit this season’s case to both train veteran members and recruit prospective brief writers and oral advocates to the world of appellate argumentation. In the meantime, they can be found perusing case law to compete in their annual spring intra-team invitational tournament—undoubtedly, with more biweekly lesson plans to follow.