VOL. CLXXIV NO.120
MOSTLY SUNNY
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2017
HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE
Appeal for indoor practice facility denied
ARE WE OUT OF THE WOODS YET?
HIGH 72 LOW 47
By SUSIE LEE
The Dartmouth
foundation’s website. Project iSWEST includes education on microcontrollers, computer prog ramming, innovation and entrepreneurship, according to Boateng. The idea for the program and specific aspects of the innovation course are based on ENGS 21, which Boateng took as an undergraduate.
In late September, the College lost its appeal to the Grafton Superior Court to approve a plan for a new indoor practice facility. College spokesperson Diana Lawrence wrote in an email that the College is reviewing the court’s decision and considering its options moving forward. Presiding judge Peter Bornstein wrote in his decision that the College “failed to carry its burden of proving that the Board’s denial of the petitioner’s site plan application was unlawful or unreasonable.” In 2015, Dartmouth proposed an approximately $20 million plan to build a new 70,000 square foot indoor sports practice facility next to the Boss Tennis Center. The facility would have been used year-round, but especially in the winter, when it is often difficult to practice outdoors. In late 2016, the Hanover Planning Board denied a permit for the facility. Though the board agreed that the proposal complied with zoning regulations, four out of five members voted against the plan based on other regulations calling for projects to relate to the “harmonious and aesthetically pleasing development of the town” and that it did not fit in the town’s master plan. The master plan is a guide for future planning that each town in New Hampshire is required to create. Following the denial, the College appealed the decision, asking whether or not the Planning Board
SEE iSWEST PAGE 2
SEE FACILITY PAGE 2
NAOMI LAM/THE DARTMOUTH
Yesterday, Brookings Institution fellow Aaron Klein ’98 delivered a lecture, “Ten Years after the Financial Crisis: Causes and Consequences,” at the Rockefeller Center.
OPINION
SHI: EAT YOUR HEART OUT PAGE 4
GHAVRI: VIOLENCE AND BARBARITY PAGE 4
ARTS
FILM REVIEW: ‘DUNKIRK’ PAGE 7
CAROL DUNNE RECEIVES $1.25 MILLION GRANT FOR THEATER PAGE 8
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STEM program uses inspiration from engineering class By EILEEN BRADY The Dartmouth
Founded in 2013 by George Boateng ’16 Th’17, Project iSWEST, which stands for Innovating Solutions with Engineering, Science and Technology, is a three-week summer program for high school students in Ghana based in part on the College’s curriculum
for Engineering Sciences 21, “Introduction to Engineering.” The course serves as the flagship program of the Nsesa Foundation, a nonprofit founded and run by Boateng and six of his colleagues. Nsesa, which means “change” in the Ghanaian language Twi, hopes to help young people use science, technology, engineering and math to benefit their communities, according to the
Bipedalism course launches online By MARIA HARRAST The Dartmouth
On Sept. 26, the College released its latest m a s s i ve o p e n o n l i n e course, or MOOC, called “Bipedalism: The Science of Upright Walking.” Taught by anthropology professor Jeremy DeSilva, this free five-week course, open to the public, is
the newest addition to DartmouthX, a collection of Dartmouth MOOCs created over the past three years. The course is comprised of five units: comparative anatomy, evolutionar y origins, evolutionary history, human variation and the trade-of fs of SEE DARTMOUTHX PAGE 3
Q&A with government professor Yusaku Horiuchi
By BERIT SVENSON The Dartmouth
Born in Japan, government and quantitative social science professor Yusaku Horiuchi has had a global academic experience. After receiving his undergraduate education in Japan, Horiuchi obtained his master’s degree at Yale University and his doctorate degree at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He then taught political science and public policy in Singapore and Canberra, Australia, respectively, before arriving at Dartmouth in 2012. At the College, he has taught courses in various academic departments including government, quantitative social science and Asian and Middle Eastern studies.
Horiuchi’s current research interests include Japanese attitudes toward refugee resettlement, campus diversity and the influence of media frames on citizens in the United States. Earlier this year, Horiuchi co-authored, “Explaining Opposition to Refugee Resettlement: The Role of NIMBYism SEE Q&A PAGE 5
THE DARTMOUTH NEWS
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Court rules against College in appeal
athletes about the indoor practice facilities has been varied. had the authority to deny an Running outside in the winter application even if it complies with is “not super ideal but [is] usually zoning regulations and arguing still doable unless the ground is that the denial’s basis was too too icy,” cross-country runner Ben Roberts ’20 said. subjective. Some Hanover residents have Yet, Roberts added, he and some defended the Board’s decision of his teammates “definitely would because they have been very active rather run on the treadmill every in opposing the indoor practice day.” facility, according to Hanover Football player Nathanael town manager Julia Griffin. Since Boone ’21 said practicing in the the College suggested placing the Leverone Field House limits p r a c t i c e o p t i o n s, building on the putting Dartmouth periphery of the at a disadvantage campus abutting “People are very the residential passionate about compared to other Division I football neighborhood, programs, most of some neighbors maintaining which have indoor f e l t i t w o u l d the quality of facilities. overwhelm their While the streets, Griffin life to their College is still said. neighborhoods, considering its “ P e o p l e options, Griffin said are v e r y and they are it should “let the legal passionate about resistant to see system play out” and maintaining “interact with the the quality of change which neighbors to try and l i f e t o t h e i r they perceive accommodate their neighborhoods, as the negative concerns.” and they are “If the College resistant to see impact on their were proposing to ch a n g e w h i ch quality of life.” bu i l d t h e i n d o o r t h ey p e rc e i v e practice facility as the negative somewhere in the impact on their -JULIA GRIFFIN, middle of the campus quality of life,” HANOVER TOWN that was not adjacent Griffin said. to a residential The College MANAGER neighborhood, this now has the case would probably right to request not have been reconsideration appealed because of the issue by it becomes less the court and controversial,” she then, depending said. on whether the The Planning court reconsiders Board agreed with or changes its residents that due decision, the to the aesthetics and residents can potential noise from also appeal to the building, the plan the court. If the was out of character judge decides not with the town of to reconsider or does reconsider the case yet Hanover, Griffin said. maintains his original decision, Director of varsity athletics the College can reappeal the case communications Rick Bender said that all coaches were unavailable to the court, Griffin said. S e n t i m e n t a m o n g va r s i t y for comment. FROM FACILITY PAGE 1
CORRECTIONS We welcome corrections. If you believe there is a factual error in a story, please email editor@thedartmouth.com for corrections. Correction Appended (Oct. 2, 2017): The original version of article “The Weekend Roundup: Week 4” stated that field hockey player Sarah Tabeek ’18 scored the game-winning goal in the fifth round of the shootout, when Kira Koehler ’21 won the game in the seventh. The article has been updated to reflect this change.
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2017
Ghana program focuses efforts toward innovation and education FROM iSWEST PAGE 1
“Both the structure of the [iSWEST] program and the [innovation] course specifically were modeled after ENGS 21,” Boateng said, citing the course’s emphasis on problem-solving as a reason he chose to recreate the course in his home country. This past summer, the program’s focus was on solving problems in Ghana’s agricultural sector. When taught at Dartmouth, ENGS 21 students participated in a group design project weaving together fields like mathematics, economics and communication, according to the Thayer School of Engineering website. “We want to teach [participants] STEM skills and mentor them in developing solutions to problems in Ghana,” Boateng said. Thayer professor Petra BonfertTaylor, who has served on the review board for ENGS 21 in the past, believes that the course’s creative nature lends itself particularly well to the type of innovation Boateng is trying to inspire. “I think it’s the course that students get the most out of,” Bonfert-Taylor said. “Students get so far, and they start with almost nothing. It’s absolutely stunning what they produce at the end of the course.” Bonfert-Taylor taught Boateng in ENGS 21 and has worked with him through the Dartmouth Emerging Engineers program, which offers
academic support for students taking many of the participants. engineering prerequisite classes. “A lot of people are excited to pursue “He’s a true believer in the [Emerging education outside of Ghana because of Engineers] program and has helped [Boateng’s]exposure and him coming many students here through his back to give back,” Kumbol said. work,” Bonfert-Taylor said. “He’s a Building on the success of powerhouse.” Project iSWEST, the In spring Nsesa Foundation is 2017, Boateng “We want to teach planning to launch was awarded [participants three initiatives soon, the T hayer Boateng said. N-Club, Dean’s Service science, which will launch Award for his technology, early this month, is a work with the program designed to E m e r g i n g engineering and use the curriculum E n g i n e e r s math] skills and from Project iSWEST program and in high school and t h e N s e s a mentor them college clubs. SuaCode, Foundation. set to launch in in developing “[Boateng] November, is a selfis like a big solutions to paced online program brother to all the problems in teaching participants participants,” how to code using smart Ghana.” John Kotey, phones. Finally, STEM vice president Woman of the Week of development -GEORGE BOATENG ’16, will honor a different for Nsesa, said. woman in STEM each H e a d d e d TH ’17, FOUNDER AND week on social media. that Boateng PRESIDENT OF THE A d d i t i o n a l l y, is always Boateng would like to NSESA FOUNDATION willing to help try to bring some Project participants iSWEST participants with college to Dartmouth at some applications point in the future. and share his own experiences. “To bring talent here and give them Victor Kumbol, Nsesa’s vice more opportunities to bring it back president of programs, added that to their home [would be] brilliant” Boateng has had a large impact on Bonfert-Taylor said.
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2017
THE DARTMOUTH NEWS
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Free DartmouthX anthropology course examines bipedalism ch a r a c t e r i s t i c a m o n g m a ny MOOCs. The course “Question bipedalism, DeSilva said. Each Reality! Science, Philosophy, unit involves watching short videos, and the Search for Meaning” completing taught by physics knowledge a n d a s t ro n o my “A learner could c h e c k professor Marcelo q u i z z e s a n d go on the website Gleiser was the participating first bilingual this morning and in activities M O O C o f f e re d that challenge be done with the by DartmouthX, l e a r n e r s t o course this evening Gleiser said. apply their Learners could knowledge, he if they bingech o o s e t o t a k e added. the course in watch the videos Although the either English or MOOC is free, and do all the Portuguese. p a r t i c i p a n t s knowledge checks “I had a few can pay $49 to [question and receive a verified and activities. ... a n s we r ] Re d d i t certificate upon Everyone learns sessions, and those completion of were really fun. I t h e c o u r s e . differently. For couldn’t even keep Another feature some people, it up with all the of the course questions coming is that learners might be best to from so many can study at do this; for others, people,” Gleiser their own pace, “I think that they would want to said. DeSilva said. the most positive “A lear ner space this out over part is realizing could go on how many people the course of five the website this are interested in mor ning and weeks.” these kinds of be done with questions and the course this how amazing it evening if they -JEREMY DESILVA, is to engage with binge-watch the ANTHROPOLOGY people from Brazil videos and do all to Madagascar.” the knowledge PROFESSOR DartmouthX checks and MOOCs appear activities,” DeSilva said. “Everyone to not only be successful on a learns differently. For some people, global scale but also in retaining it might be best to do this; for others, learners. According to Gleiser, 32 they would want to space this out percent of learners completed his over the course course, whereas of five weeks.” the average for “Experimenting DeSilva without with teaching open MOOCs w a s i n s p i re d a c e r t i f i c at e i s to develop a online education five percent, Kim MOOC after and Gleiser said. really forces us speaking with Additionally, the J o s h K i m , to think about College has had director of over 115,000 things you can digital learning l e a r n e r s e n ro l l i n i t i at i ve s at only do between in DartmouthX the Dartmouth a professor and a courses, Kim said. Center for the However, Kim Advancement student and things noted that the goal o f L e a r n i n g, you can do looking of DartmouthX who introduced is not to boast him to the idea at a screen.” high numbers but of making his rather to promote knowledge learning. a c c e s s i b l e -JOSH KIM, DIRECTOR “We know that to a broader OF DIGITAL LEARNING what we’re doing audience. for DartmouthX INITIATIVES AT Wi th 1 , 2 9 2 is nothing like learners from THE DARTMOUTH what you get here 8 6 c o u n t r i e s CENTER FOR THE at Dartmouth,” currently Kim said. e n r o l l e d i n ADVANCEMENT OF “Experimenting t h e c o u r s e , LEARNING with teaching open DeSilva’s online education M O O C really forces us to demonstrates the global reach of think about things you can only do DartmouthX, he said. between a professor and a student This global scope is a common and things you can do looking at FROM DARTMOUTHX PAGE 1
a screen. We’re not pushing for numbers — we’re really pushing to advance learning.” While DartmouthX MOOCs have proven successful, DeSilva does not believe they are a replacement for in-class learning. “Nothing can really top the classroom experience,” DeSilva said. “There was a while where people were saying online courses would replace college courses, and that’s never going to happen. You can’t get that same experience watching videos on a computer screen as you can sitting in a lab with me and measuring fossils.” A challenge that MOOC developers face is promoting active learning in what may be a passive process of watching videos. One way DeSilva and his team addressed this concern was by incorporating three-dimensional digital models
of fossils that learners can rotate as they watch the videos. Since the creation of these models for the MOOC, DeSilva now utilizes them as a resource with his own students at the College. DeSilva added that another benefit of developing his MOOC has been learning how to explain information in an accessible way that anyone can understand. The vast majority of learners are not Dartmouth students themselves, and many of them enroll in MOOCs for a variety of reasons. Kim noted that for a course such as bipedalism, learners will typically enroll because they have an inherent sense of curiosity, while other MOOCs give learners the opportunity to advance their careers, such as “Retail and Omnichannel Management” that offers a professional certificate in
retail management from the Tuck School of Business. “You have a mix of folks who are either just curious lifelong learners or people who are really using these courses to think about how they can advance the next steps of their career,” Kim said. Faculty are continuing to develop MOOCs that cover a wide range of subjects, Kim said. Future DartmouthX courses will include “Free Will, Attention, Top-Down Causation and Consciousness in the Brain” with psychology professor Peter Tse, “Materials in Gear” with engineering professor Rachel Obbard Th ’06, “John Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’” with English professor Thomas Luxon and “Complementary and Alternative Medicine” with Geisel School of Medicine medical education professor Mark Spaller, Kim said.
BEDTIME BUDDIES
NAOMI LAM/THE DARTMOUTH
Vignesh Chockalingam ’20 read bedtime stories to members of the Humanities Living Learning Community.
CONTRIBUTING COLUMNIST KATIE SHI ’21
STAFF COLUMNIST ANMOL GHAVRI ’18
Eat Your Heart Out
Violence and Barbarity
Dartmouth should add more Asian food to its regular rotation. On GroupMe and Snapchat, most so that they were crimped neatly at the ends. exchanges with my friends begin with questions There’s so much love expressed in the food like: “Breakfast at 7:10 a.m.?” “Lunch after we made together, and I hadn’t realized how class?” “Collis or Foco?” At 10 p.m. on any given much I would miss that warmth before I left day, we can be found at the Hop for Late Night for school. (“$5.50 for a fruit cup?!”) calculating how many Like me, you may have longed for some meal swipes we’ve used that week. Over the past actual Asian food from home after being month, campus dining has streamlined my diet transplanted to Hanover and repeatedly fed into a rotation of salads, pasta, omelettes and Dartmouth dining staples like cookies and pasta. smoothies. Most nights I pair the latest offering For many of us, we’ve been stripped completely from Ma Thayer’s with cantaloupe cubes while out of our comfort zones. Most foods that the my more athletic friends gorge themselves on cafeterias here serve are still predominantly plates of pizza and grilled Western — hamburgers, cheese. Yet as someone c a l zo n e s, A m e r i c a n “What I miss more who believes that “you are comfort foods and so on what you eat,” I’ve felt that than the home-cooked — and the “international” an essential part of me is meals themselves are choices are often subpar. missing. The entirety of Asian “I kind of miss eating the memories attached cuisine regularly offered Chinese food,” I told to them.” on campus should not just a c la ss m ate d u r i n g be stir-fry, sushi and an Orientation who, like me, occasional week of World is Asian. She shrugged. View specials. There are “I’ve grown up eating a handful of options offIndian food my whole life, so I think this change campus, and a weekend trip to the Chinatown is refreshing,” she replied. I felt the same way in Boston or the one in New York would suffice, at first, but these days, I miss my parents’ but those aren’t nearly as accessible. cooking more than anything else: Fluffy white Until Dartmouth expands its selection of rice paired with roasted vegetables and braised Asian food, however, we can alleviate this meat. Dumplings filled with chives and pork. homesickness, even for a little while, by cooking Tomato cooked with eggs. Pan-fried tofu cut together. It can be instant rice and stir-fry made into tiny cubes that melt in the mouth. Rice in the communal kitchens of your residence porridge with tiny pickles and roasted peanuts. hall or hot pot thrown together at a friend’s Hongshaorou, red braised pork, on top of apartment. It’s the comfort of food that I love: soft taro root slices. I remember my favorite Food as a means to connect family and friends, variation of my mother’s fried rice — complete food as a way to survive a bad day and look with soy sauce, egg, green onion and chicken — forward to the next one. Part of this power lies when I watch someone scrape unappetizingly within the food itself, in its familiar textures dry rice out of the rice cooker at the Foco with and flavors, but the act of cooking holds an an ice cream scoop. emotional element that’s just as important. What I miss more than the home-cooked What if you can’t cook on your own — what meals themselves are the memories attached to if you don’t have the time, the resources or the them. I miss watching my father whisk eggs in a know-how? Sometimes, the best you can do bowl before placing them in a pot to cook, the is to go to a dining hall for group dinners or final product emerging from the steam with a share your turkey melt and mozzarella sticks silky, tofu-like consistency. I miss the weekends with friends at midnight. We can’t always bring my parents and I spent standing at the counter our homes to Dartmouth, but we can always making dumplings until 9 or 10 p.m. I would set establish a second home here, where friends my misshapen dumplings next to my mother’s and peers form another family. And once the perfectly-formed ones, and each time she would term ends, course, I know I’ll definitely enjoy teach me how to fold the thin dough wrappers eating my mother’s fried rice again.
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ISSUE
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2017
THE DARTMOUTH OPINION
PAGE 4
NEWS EDITOR: Peter Charalambous, Mika Jehoon Lee
SUBMISSIONS: We welcome letters and guest columns. All submissions must include the author’s name and affiliation with Dartmouth College, and should not exceed 250 words for letters or 700 words for columns. The Dartmouth reserves the right to edit all material before publication. All material submitted becomes property of The Dartmouth. Please email submissions to editor@thedartmouth.com.
The definition of “violence” is fraught with double standards. Ask anybody what “violence” is, and they will most likely give you a straightforward answer. A Google search returns “behavior involving physical force intended to hurt, damage, or kill someone or something.” Everybody agrees that there is no place for this definition of physical, bodily violence in public discourse and protest. Yet the ways in which perceptions of violence, barbarity and unruliness are deployed in the public sphere through protest, public engagement and policing in America do not always align with Google’s clear-cut definition. In America, a police officer could shoot a colored person in front of his family in his own car and walk free because the officer “reasonably” feared for his life after seeing marijuana and a disclosed but legally carried firearm in the vehicle. No duty to de-escalate, extend or patiently assess the situation is placed on the State. By virtue of being colored and conspicuous, you are deemed unruly, irrational, barbaric and worthy of all the unmitigated “fear-fueled” fury Philando Castile, his girlfriend and her daughter faced. You are not even worth a second of assessment or deescalation, just seven shots in quick succession while sitting with your loved ones in your own car. Now imagine that same scenario, but replace Castile and his family with a 21-year-old white fraternity boy. He would get away with a stern warning — or daddy could make a phone call. At worst, some regular procedure of ticketing or arrest would be followed. The point of this scenario is to illustrate that ideas of violence, barbarity and unruliness in America are never deployed in a racially equitable manner based on their most straightforward definitions. For white people in America, the simple acts of possessing firearms or drugs, protesting or being non-compliant are assumed to be lawful and peaceful. When a white person commits an infraction or acts “unruly” and non-compliant, we give them the benefit of the doubt. We have seen this occur during the January 2016 armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon by white ranchers, through the possession and use of illicit drugs by rich, white people in the Upper East Side of Manhattan (or in Greek spaces on campus) or the neo-Nazi march in Charlottesville, Virginia. When participants in a Black Lives Matter protest chant loudly and “aggressively” in Baker-Berry Library and make students who were studying “uncomfortable,” they are labeled “violent” and worthy of all the outrage of Dartblog, which called it “An Ugly and Violent Display.” Disruptive, close, impassioned and even vulgar verbal confrontations in public areas are examples of free speech, not violence — unless it is by people of color. Neo-Nazis can march through Charlottesville chanting “Jews will not replace us,” mow down protesters with a car and still be called “very fine people” by the president. When a black or brown man exercises his freedom of speech by chanting loudly, aggressively or disruptively at political rallies or protests — or even when he kneels during the national anthem — he is dehumanized.
Indeed, dehumanization and criminalization of colored skin through sensational or disproportionate media reportage and policing is at the heart of most of the backlash to current protest, activism and non-compliance by colored people. In America, conflation of being colored, loud, conspicuous and non-compliant with being violent, unruly and barbaric results in the repression, murder — by both the State and citizens — and imprisonment of colored people at a disproportionate rate. Being a person of color in America does not preordain you to be more criminal than a white person — it is the State’s policing, targeting, spectaclization and dehumanization of noncompliance and black and brown bodies who “don’t know their place” that makes you a criminal. Rebuttals to my line of argument may point to the fact that American crime statistics show that people of color commit a disproportionate percentage of crime in the United States relative to their percentage of the overall population. Why then should they not be imprisoned, treated violently and barbarically and made a spectacle of at a disproportionate rate? My response would be to look at what the nature of the “crimes” being committed are, why they are being committed and who is doing the enforcing. When drug possession or povertyinduced gang violence are considered more severe crimes than drug possession or financial crimes on Wall Street, when such crimes are selectively enforced in places where people of color live and when they are prosecuted in such a way that does not allow for an appropriate defense, of course black and brown people fill the cells of private prisons at a disproportionate rate. By looking at the symptoms without understanding the causes of crime — by assuming the State treats white and colored people with the same standard — those who make this argument assume that incivility and barbarity are “innate” to people of color when they are actually thrust upon them. These perceptions of unruliness and incivility thus share a similar strain to historical racist and colonial perceptions of the “barbarity” and savagery of black and brown people in Asia and Africa during the age of European imperialism. The sincere and thoughtful efforts made by police departments around the United States to train and equip officers better to fight implicit biases and perceptions of “unruliness,” incivility and barbarity offer a ray of hope. Having police departments that are more representative of the populations they police and having police officers engage with communities outside of just responding to a 911 call allows for a more wholesome and sensitive form of law enforcement. But that is not enough. In order to make any substantial progress in bridging the racial divide in America today, we need a more sophisticated and nuanced understanding of violence and of the disparities in people’s perceptions of barbarity, civility and unruliness. Loudness, aggressiveness, chants, disruption and non-compliance do not constitute “violence” — they reflect this country’s laws upholding free speech.
THE DARTMOUTH NEWS
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2017
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Professor Yusaku Horiuchi shares his career start and recent data FROM Q&A PAGE 1
and Perceived Threats,” which surveyed 2,500 American citizens on whether they take into account the geographic context of refugee resettlement following President Donald Trump’s travel ban. How did you become interested in government and Japanese studies? YH: I’m the Mitsui Professor of Japanese Studies here, so I teach Government 40.03 “Politics of Japan: A Unique Democracy?” every year. I start multiple new projects, but always at least one of them has something to do with Japan because I feel that I need to do something about Japanese politics. But I’m not just a Japanese politics expert so I have done research on many things. For example, the most recent paper that I have published with my coauthors here at Dartmouth is what American people think about the Muslim travel ban, how American people react to this policy, how their reactions are influenced by the media frame and also how their reactions are conditional on whether or not there are many refugees in their area. I’m generally interested in public opinion, political behavior, media influence and policy-making processes. My bachelor’s degree and also master’s degree are in
economics, so I was initially thinking to be an economist. I did lots of statistics and econometrics, and I was thinking I might be focusing on international economics or labor economics, but that was in the 1990s. Back then, for those who wanted to study the political aspect of economic policy or policymaking processes, the obvious choice was to pursue a Ph.D. in political science, not a Ph.D. in economics. So I changed my subject, and I pursued a Ph.D. in political science. But I think it turned out to be good. I’m really interested in politics, particularly the relationship between borders and the political process. I’m interested in when and why people participate in elections, voter turnout and how this participation affects policy processes. That’s actually my main interest. Can you discuss what you found in “Explaining Opposition to Refugee Resettlement: The Role of NIMBYism and Perceived Threats”? YH: It’s published in a journal called “Science Advances.” Within a week after Trump signed that controversial treaty, we designed a randomized, survey experiment, and we invited about 3,000 people in the U.S. to participate in our survey. We had about 2,500 responders all over the U.S., and then they were randomly assigned
to three groups. In group one, they were asked to read a short article, an actual news article published in the Washington Times, which is a conservative newspaper, and the article actually says that refugees are entering into Western countries but they are terrorists. They may be terrorists — that’s the frame. And fortunately on the exact same day we found an article on CNN, which is more liberal, and it said that in the U.S., there is absolutely zero refugees that are terrorists. So it’s a counter frame. And then to the control group, no information was given. So people were exposed to this or no information, and then we asked that question, “How much do you support refugee resettlement in the U.S.?” As I expected, when people are exposed to the negative frame, then there is little support toward refugee resettlement. But to the people exposed to the counter frame, it actually doesn’t have much effect. So the negative frame is called framing or priming. Negative frame affects people’s mindset. Another more interesting part is when we actually asked two questions — “How much do you support refugee resettlement in the U.S. in your country?” and “How much do you support it in your community?” — and we found people tend to support the national refugee resettlement, but when they are asked about refugee resettlement in their community,
they say no. This is called NIMBY, “not in my backyard” syndrome.
How did your background influence your current work? YH: I got my Ph.D. in 2001 — I was just a student, so I was focused on doing my work, taking courses, studying hard and writing my dissertation. I left the U.S. and after 11 years came back as a faculty member. Then I found that diversity is such a huge issue at Dartmouth and at many other institutions. And then there was a huge protest [in spring 2016] — that weekend, it made the nationwide news and we held workshops and discussions. I am one of the few professors at the College who are Asian, so I was invited to attend many sessions to work and meet with students, the president and the provost. I naturally got interested in this topic and I didn’t just want to attend meetings. I wanted to use my time effectively for Dartmouth and for my research, so I thought I should do research with this. Two years ago, we did a survey asking Dartmouth students what they think about diversity. It’s not easy to ask this question because it is a socially sensitive issue. When students are asked what they think about diversity, they feel like they feel the need to say diversity is important, but it’s not quite sure whether they are expressing their honest opinion or whether they are
responding to the survey questions based on what is regarded as socially desirable. There are certain statistical techniques to elicit honest opinions. We found at Dartmouth, students indeed support diversifying the faculty and student body. What advice would you give to students interested in gover nment or Japanese studies? YH: I would ask students to take advantage of being at an liberal arts college. You can take courses in computer science, but you can also take courses in government. Try to put these pieces together, and you will be able to do some really innovative research. And that is actually what we do in quantitative social science. Students can work on any topic — sports, history, marketing, we try to encourage interdisciplinary research. What is your favorite aspect of Dartmouth? YH: I really like the students. I can say that without any doubt. I met many students and taught many students in different countries, but I really like Dartmouth students. They are hardworking and smart but also open to new ideas and innovative. I always like to work with Dartmouth students. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.
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THE DARTMOUTH EVENTS
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2017
DARTMOUTHEVENTS TODAY 5:00 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.
Lecture: “Hair: Transcultural Entanglements of Place, Race, and Identity in Central Europe” with Dr. François Guesnet, Rockefeller Center 001
6:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Lecture: “Natural Selection as a Restatement of Adam Smith” with biology professor Mark McPeek, Moore B03
7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Performance: Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, Spaulding Auditorium, Hopkins Center for the Arts
TOMORROW 4:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.
Lecture: “Combining Topic Structure with Rhetorical Information for Automatic Summarization” with Yale University Ph.D. student Natalie Schrimpf ’12, Silsby 312
4:30 p.m. - 5:45 p.m.
Lecture: “When Permafrost Thaws: Tundra Carbon Feedbacks to Climate Change” with biology professor Caitlin Pries, Haldeman 41 (Kreindler Conference Hall)
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THE DARTMOUTH ARTS
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2017
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‘Dunkirk’ is a harrowing masterpiece with minimal dialogue By SEBASTIAN WURZRAINER The Dartmouth Staff
In many ways, “Dunkirk” is the film Christopher Nolan was meant to make. This is not to say that it’s his best film, though it is certainly among the best. While watching the film, one senses that it is the payoff for all his efforts to simultaneously become commercially successful and critically beloved over the last 20 years. After watching “Inception,” which is undoubtedly the most Nolan-esque of all the Nolan films, I feared that the director had reached his pinnacle. His unique and thrilling combination of labyrinthine narratives, philosophical themes and nuanced characters seemed to have been pushed to its limit. After reaching the top of Mt. Everest, there simply was no other peak to summit. His next two features reflected this fact; “The Dark Knight Rises” and “Interstellar” are both decent films that fall short of greatness because they are so overstuffed. Nolan’s ambition, previously his greatest asset, was slowly becoming his primary weakness. Until “Dunkirk.” In 1940, thousands of Allied soldiers, mostly composed of the British and the French, retreated to the French seaside city of Dunkirk and were surrounded on all sides. While the situation was dire, over 300,000 soldiers were evacuated when a flotilla
of British civilian vessels crossed the English Channel to assist. Many historians consider the evacuation a turning point in the war — if it had not been successful, the Allied forces would not have been able to withstand their opposition for much longer. “Dunkirk” chronicles these events by narrowing in on three stories. One is about Tommy, a young private desperately trying to get on a ship headed home. Another follows Mark Rylance as Mr. Dawson, a British civilian sailing his own ship to Dunkirk in the hopes of doing some good. And the final story features Tom Hardy, once again hidden behind a mask, as a Spitfire pilot flying to France. These stories all take place over radically different timeframes, yet the film weaves them together as though they occur simultaneously. The end result is trademark Nolan, refracting time and space to create a mosaic of war. Indeed, the entire film feels like a culmination of the director’s career, welding the blockbuster spectacle he has recently become famous for with a tight, non-linear story structure reminiscent of earlier work like “Memento.” But “Dunkirk” is admirable in no small part because it is also something new for Nolan. The director most known for weighty and thought-provoking philosophical speeches has stripped his newest film of any and all extraneous dialogue.
What remains is purely utilitarian. Thus, Nolan showcases his mastery of visual storytelling, employing techniques innovated during the Silent Era to great effect. Naturally, the film also owes a great debt to the countless war films that have preceded it. Several critics have declared it the greatest of its kind since “Saving Private Ryan,” though if I’m being perfectly honest with myself, I think I might prefer “Dunkirk.” Both films focus heavily on the brutality and anguish of war, but each comes to a distinct conclusion. “Ryan” may portray war as horrific, but it ultimately reaffirms that the sacrifices are worth making. It is a harsh film to be sure but also a deeply patriotic one. “Dunkirk,” on the other hand, is almost nihilistic in its outlook. The final shot is haunting, contrasting Winston Churchill’s “We Shall Fight on the Beaches” speech with Tommy’s shell-shocked face. It is a potent reminder that even if the sacrifices of war can be justified, they are still clearly sacrifices and individuals suffer tremendously from the trauma. Resultantly, “Dunkirk” doesn’t feature any typically grandiose moments of heroism as one might expect from this story. Yet it isn’t a totally hopeless film either. At the end, we realize that heroism in war is not necessarily an extraordinary act of bravery but sometimes the mere act of survival,
of making it through the day. This overarching theme is most clearly encapsulated in the character of Tommy, played with remarkable intensity by Fionn Whitehead. The film may juggle multiple storylines, but by design Tommy is the closest thing we have to a main character. In another film, Tommy might be characterized as a coward. In Nolan’s hands, his decisions become decidedly relatable. Once again, he just wants to survive. Whitehead, a newcomer, has barely more than a dozen lines to work with, and he sells his character with a magnetic performance. To be clear, the film is not without its flaws. As with all films, and particularly films about real historical events, “Dunkirk” is deeply rooted in the culture that helped produced it. As other critics have pointed out, the narrative is occasionally limited by the influence of Britain’s rather whitewashed and sanitized reinterpretation of its own history. Furthermore, some viewers have quibbled about the dearth of historical contextualization and character arcs. Such complaints might initially make some sense, yet both decisions are clearly very deliberate on the part of Nolan and his production team. “Dunkirk” is a film about the visceral experience of war and not the historical, political or ideological contexts that come to anchor such experiences in history
books. Moreover, I reject the notion that the film is somehow hollow or lacking in humanity because so little is explained about the central characters. Nolan is clearly quite purposeful in his attempts to eschew certain clichés, such as providing the soldiers with backstories so that we will care more when they are placed in perilous situations. “Dunkirk” never provides the luxury of these familiar narrative tropes. Instead, the film seems to suggest that audiences shouldn’t require arbitrary reasons to feel anguish and sympathy at the sight of another human in pain. I mentioned “Saving Private Ryan” earlier, but “Dunkirk” really owes even more to a better war film — coincidentally, released in the same year as “Ryan”— Terrence Malick’s “The Thin Red Line.” “Dunkirk” and “The Thin Red Line” are beautiful and unnerving meditations on war. But, unlike Malick, Nolan does not fill his film’s beautiful silences with philosophical narrations. Rather, he places us so firmly inside the subjective experiences of his characters that we are encouraged to create our own narrations. If we were in their positions, how might we muse about the impacts, implications and pains of the battlefield? For that reason alone, “Dunkirk” is the best film I’ve seen so far this year. Rating: 9/10
THE DARTMOUTH ARTS
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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2017
Carol Dunne paves way for parity in theater with new grant By ZACH CHERIAN
The Dartmouth Staff
Over the summer, theater professor Carol Dunne received news that her vision to help support female theater professionals and artistic directors at the regional and national level had been endorsed by Helen Gurley Brown’s Pussycat Foundation. Since that decision, the Pussycat Foundation issued Dunne a check to the tune of $1.25 million to establish the BOLD Theater Women’s Leadership Circle. Such a grant, specifically aimed to support the careers of women in the theater, is unheard of and represents a major opportunity for theaters all over the nation. The story behind the realization of the grant is also quite remarkable. According to Dunne, it was both a mixture of serendipity and a testament to the vitality of the theater community at Dartmouth and in the Upper Valley that led to her achievement. “We really have a triangle of artistic strength in the theater up here that we’ve built,” Dunne said, referring to Dartmouth, Northern Stage and the New London Barn Playhouse, the three centers of
theater in the Upper Valley. According to Dunne, the board members of Gurley Brown’s foundation had been on a retreat and had chosen New London as the destination. Members of the foundation were familiar with Dunne’s work, and so during their retreat, the board members decided to see Dunne perform at the New London Barn Playhouse. Afterward, they invited her to dinner and asked to hear her story and larger perspectives on theater, which resonated with the group, Dunne said. “I found that in talking about my vision for great theater and my vision for community engagement and my vision for the power of theater to change lives, the board members and their cohorts really got excited by my story — the good parts and the negative parts, where I talked about some of the challenges of being a woman in the theater, working my way up rather than being hired with bells and whistles,” Dunne said. Dunne recounted that she had a follow up meeting later, and this time brought a plan which would eventually materialize into the grant she holds today. “I created a white paper, which
was very much the program that you see now,” Dunne said. “Five women artistic directors, a major funding initiative that supports the artistic director’s vision and, most importantly, sponsors a mentorship for another woman. That’s one of the centerpieces of the program.” As a function of receiving the grant, Dunne will be responsible to award four other female artistic directors across the country. “I feel like that day changed my life, because that ‘yes’ has now created so many ‘yeses’ for other women that I’ve been working with to make this grant a reality, and it is a reality, it has been funded and Northern Stage received it this year as the first recipient for one year,” Dunne said. Dunne also has a variety of roles in the Upper Valley. She is the producing artistic director for Northern Stage where students often go on to intern, perform and work at while attending school and after graduation. Olivia Gilliatt ’08 is currently playing Nora in “A Doll’s House” at Northern Stage this season. Gilliatt has known Dunne for over a decade. “I’ve been very lucky to have
[Dunne] as my mentor,” Gilliatt said. As both a graduate of Dartmouth’s theater program and a current professional at Northern Stage, Gilliatt is familiar with the benefits that such a grant can bring to Northern Stage and theaters like it. “Under [Dunne’s] artistic directorship, [the Northern Stage] has undergone this massive renovation,” Gilliatt said. “More than just the physical renovation of it, they’ve been revamping the way they do the season, and their artistic mission of changing one story at a time is something that they’re working very hard to implement in new ways and with the voices of local playwrights, which I think is amazing. Receiving a grant which helps further that mission, I think it’s fantastic.” Dunne was also instrumental in weaving together the Dartmouth undergraduate experience and that of the Northern Stage with her creation of the experiential term, which allows Dartmouth theater students to spend their off term working at Northern stage in a professional capacity. T h e “ E - t e r m ” w a s re c e n t l y given institutional support from
Dartmouth, according to Dunne, solidifying the longstanding bond between the two institutions. The BOLD grant, then, will support both Northern Stage and the Dartmouth community as well. Claire Feuille ’18, a theater major who participated in the “E-term” and is planning on acting professionally after graduation, echoed the excitement surrounding the grant and the praise for Dunne. “[Dunne’s] a force,” Feuille said. “She can do whatever she puts her mind to in the theater world. I think she’s perfect for that type of grant.” Dunne mentioned that there are very few stipulations attached to the grant, and the main benchmark for theaters who wish to apply is that they must have an operating budget of over $500,000. While the initial circle of female artistic directors who will receive funding from the foundation is limited to five total, she hopes that the initiative’s success will expand it to many others over the years. “I think the goal is to grow the program until there is parity in the American theater,” Dunne said. The BOLD Theater Women’s Leadership Circle promises to help make that vision a reality.
Group spotlight on spoken word poetry collective Soul Scribes By JORDAN MCDONALD The Dartmouth
Every Sunday at approximately 9 p.m. a group of creative, artisticallyminded students meets in Collis Center 301. Founded by Dartmouth students in 2004, Soul Scribes is part performance group, part workshop space for poets and writers on the Dartmouth campus. In the past members have performed in venues around campus, competed in collegiate slam competitions and hosted professional poets to perform on campus. In his spoken word poem, “Complainers,” critically-acclaimed poet Rudy Francisco said: “the human heart beats approximately 4,000 times per hour, and each pulse, each throb, each palpitation is a trophy engraved with the words ‘you are still alive.’ You are still alive. Act like it.”
Soul Scribes is committed to exploring what it means to be alive and “act like it” through mediums like performance and spoken word. President of Soul Scribes Celeste Jennings ’18, who joined the group her freshman year, emphasized the openness of the group to new members and different forms of expression. “We usually have new members every meeting, which is really fun and cool,” Jennings said. “Anyone can join us and just come write. You don’t have to consider yourself a writer.” Chiemeka Njoku ’18, the vice president of Soul Scribes, reiterated the group’s inclusiveness of new members. She joined the group during her freshman fall and described its composition as “fluid” and “porous.” Due to the ever-changing membership courtesy of the D-plan, Soul Scribes operates under a
flexible leadership system, Jennings explained. “Per term, we have different leadership roles,” Jennings said. “We try to be really collaborative with it. Even though I’m the president, the [vice president] can do stuff that I would normally do. I try to help the secretary. Anyone can take on that role as we go in and out during the year.” Soul Scribes meetings typically consist of g roup check-ins, discussions, writing time and opportunities to share new work. “You can share — you don’t have to share,” Jennings said. “Whatever people are comfortable with. It’s an opportunity for people to workshop their pieces.” In terms of major goals for the group moving forward, Soul Scribes has high hopes for how the group will evolve and continue to represent the arts on Dartmouth’s campus and beyond.
“We’re trying to become a more cohesive group as well as work on our artistry,” Njoku said. “We’re trying to have more events that are exclusively us.” There are no auditions for Soul Scribes and the group is primarily focused on cultivating self-expression through spoken word poetry. “We’re very open,” Raven Johnson ’18 said. “I tell people all the time: ‘Come to Soul Scribes! Learn how to be yourself and write and be with people who also like to write’ ... We’re just a group of people who may or may not be activists, who may or may not be entertainers, just doing what we feel.” In 2015, Soul Scribes cosponsored an event featuring award-winning slam poetry duo Dominique Christina and Denice Frohman. As far as dream guests are concerned, the Strivers Row, a group
comprised of spoken word poets and other artists, is a major inspiration to Soul Scribes’ members. “I love everyone in there,” Njoku said. “Any single person from there or any combination of them would be my dream.” Jennings mentioned Miles Hodges as another dream guest, referencing a Strivers Row poet. Johnson expressed an interest in bringing other collegiate poets to Dartmouth’s campus. “I think having another collegiate group come up would be really fun,” Johnson said. Overall, while the g roup has competed in slam-poetry competitions such as the College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational in years past, artistry comes first and foremost for Soul Scribes this term. “We just want to create a safe space where we can share our feelings with other people and create empathy,” Jennings said.