The Dartmouth 01/22/2020

MIRROR 1.22.20

TRIGGER WARNINGS 4-5

Q&A WITH MISAGH PARSA 6

TTLG: ASPIRATION 7 AMELIE PERRIER/THE DARTMOUTH

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Editors’ Note

Dare to Be Different DRAWING

DIVYA KOPALLE/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

There is no shortage of conflict in our world today: from online discussions about a possible “World War III,” to the restructuring of the British royal family, to the debate over which candidates will represent the Democratic and Republican parties in the 2020 presidential election, the evidence is everywhere. But if conflict is the norm rather than the anomaly, how do we make sense of the swirl of players, agendas and outcomes all around us? How do we inform ourselves about conflict in a world increasingly permeated by misinformation, and how do we formulate an opinion and craft an appropriate response?

This week, the Mirror examines conflicts on scales global and local.

We interview a professor who specializes in Iranian politics to shed light on recent conflicts between the U.S. and Iran. We tell the stories of students who study vastly different subjects and investigate the use of trigger warnings on campus. We recognize that we cannot tell you how to feel about such complicated issues, nor can we explain exactly how to reconcile all the conflict. But we hope you finish this issue with more of a sense of these stories within it than when you started reading, armed with more knowledge than you started with.

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1.22.20 VOL. CLXXVI NO. 119 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF DEBORA HYEMIN HAN PUBLISHER AIDAN SHEINBERG MIRROR EDITORS KYLEE SIBILIA NOVI ZHUKOVSKY COPY EDITOR JULIAN NATHAN ISSUE LAYOUT GRANT PINKSTON

By Lila Hovey

Mixing and Matching Majors and Minors STORY

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By Angelina Scarlotta

At Dartmouth, where 35 percent of given degrees are for the social sciences, another 9 percent are for engineering, and 8 percent are for biological or life sciences, it can be easy to look at potential degree paths through a narrow lens. While Dartmouth’s liberal arts philosophy encourages students to experience a wide range of academic fields, this kind of study is often accomplished through students’ efforts to complete distributive requirements. For example, an engineering major may take COLT 1: “Read the World” his freshman fall for a literature credit or a government major may take EARS 2: “Evolution of Earth & Life” her sophomore summer for a science credit. But for some students, studying across departments has influenced their chosen degrees — leading them to combine seemingly conflicting areas of study, fusing art with technology and blending science with humanities.

According to interim associate dean of undergraduate students Larissa Hopkins, Dartmouth’s liberal arts focus fosters an environment that supports interdisciplinary exploration.

She also said that Dartmouth’s extensive major and minor offerings makes it easier for students to string together their various academic interests.

Katherine Taylor ’22 is a prime example of a student with an interdisciplinary combination; she is an unofficial film modified with computer science major.

“I feel like I struggled for a while to figure out what I wanted to major in, because there’s a lot of things I like and I don’t feel particularly super passionate toward one field. I have a lot of creative interests but I also like more STEM-y stuff, so I wanted to do a mix of the two,” Taylor said.

Biology major and classical studies minor Chithra Singareddy ’22 had a different experience when deciding what to study, since she knew what interested her before coming to Dartmouth. While biology was something Singareddy wanted to pursue since early in high school, she

NAINA BHALLA/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

The Undergraduate Dean’s office offers advising services to students as they determine their course of study at Dartmouth.

was initially hesitant to learn about classics; her parents convinced her to attend the advanced studies program at the St. Paul School in Concord, NH, where she was assigned to study Ancient Greece. There, she discovered a passion for a subject that she has been able to pursue at Dartmouth.

“It was really relaxing for me to not always be thinking about my career when I was learning about something — just learning for the sake of learning — and I think that’s held true in my minor,” Singareddy said.

Singareddy said she strikes a balance between her two interests by taking one or two STEM classes with a classics class, giving her brain a bit of a break while still studying something that interests her.

“It’s really nice to have a class that kind of doesn’t matter — not that it doesn’t matter, but it’s less high-

stakes,” Singareddy said. “And I can just really enjoy what I’m learning, and I don’t always have to apply it to my research and think about what I learned in chem or bio. It’s just kind of self-contained, and it’s chill.”

This term, she is taking CLST 10.10; “Ancient Medicine,” a class which combines both classics and the scientific theory aspects of biology.

This will likely be the only convergence of Singareddy’s disciplines: However, Taylor currently plans to apply her studies to a career in the entertainment industry given that she sees film and computer science colliding as the field continues to advance technologically.

Taylor said she attributes her opportunities to experiment with classes to the quarter system, which allowed her to eliminate options as she went along.

“I think the quarter system is very

helpful for that, because it felt like each class I took was less pressure,” Taylor said. “I felt like I had time to explore different stuff and figure out what I wanted to do because I came in with no clue and I still don’t really know, but we have a plan.”

While the quarter system can make it easier for some students to cross departments for modified majors, double majors and minors, it can be extremely difficult for those on the pre-health or engineering paths. For pre-health students, there are 13 required classes (assuming that a student did not test out of any introductory courses), and this does not include additional courses for those who wish to major in physics, chemistry, psychology or sociology. For the Bachelor of Arts in engineering sciences, there are 17 requirements: still nine less than the 25 required

courses for the five year Bachelor of Engineering program. Once the nine distributive requirements and three world culture requirements are factored in, this leaves little room for these students to explore.

But for students with sufficient space in their course load, Singareddy said she finds that the College is unique in how it supports students’ endeavors across academic fields.

“I think that there’s not a ton of schools where I could do this except Dartmouth. I think that Dartmouth really loves their students to be intersectional, and be well-rounded and love a lot of things,” Singareddy said. “I feel like the fact that I didn’t have to declare a major — or I technically haven’t yet but I have to this term — I think that lets students and me in particular try whatever you want.”

Facing the Unexpected: Trigger Warnings in the Classroom 4// MIRR OR

STORY

By Cristian Cano

It’s no secret that current college magazine Fifteen Minutes which memorable moment about 10 years students have a reputation for details research concluded trigger ago. It was the first day of her being “snowflakes.” The existence warnings aren’t class about the of things like safe spaces and d o i n g m u c h Holocaust and, emotional support animals can good, but they "I thought to myself, after spending seem to many like classic examples aren’t causing 'If you sign up for the first hour of Gen-Z coddling. much har m going over the a course about the One of the more notorious of either. course syllabus, such examples is the idea of trigger And these are Holocaust, it's going she spent the warnings. just a few of the second half of to be upsetting.' One Trigger and content warnings most recently the class showing are, simply put, war nings of p u b l i s h e d would know that. her students the potentially explicit or sensitive a r t i c l e s o n Right?"

1 9 5 6 Fr e n c h material. Some kinds of content trigger warnings. documentary warnings have become universally T h e g r e a t e r Night and Fog. accepted: most people would c o nv e r s a t i o n s -SUSANNAH HESCHEL, She explained probably agree that if you send s u r r o u n d i n g that the JEWISH STUDIES someone a link that contains nudity them have been documentary or other graphic content, it’s a g o i n g o n f o r c o n t a i n s good idea to include an NSFW years. beautiful visuals and music, and tag to show that the link is “not H ow d o e s t h e D a r t m o u t h she wanted her students to discuss safe for work.” Other kinds of community feel about trigger why someone would make such a warnings, though — like the ones warnings? It goes without saying beautiful film about such a horrible some professors put in their syllabi that there isn’t any one answer, topic. to warn about potentially upsetting but it’s still worth looking at how To Heschel’s surprise, after content — are more controversial. they’re used on campus. And when playing the film, a male student who A quick Google search for “trigger it comes to how trigger warnings are was Jewish stood up and angrily told warning” pulls up a wide variety of used on college campuses, a major her that she should have warned the articles and op-eds on the topic, point of contention is whether or class before playing the film. She usually in the context of higher not professors should use them. remembers being speechless at first, education. Some, like an opinion The Dartmouth Center for the though she eventually apologized to piece published in The Daily Utah Advancement of Learning has a the student.

Chronicle in November 2019, argue syllabus guide on its website with One thing she didn’t do, however, against trigger warnings, stating suggestions on what to include, was open up the topic of trigger that they can a n d t h e r e i s warnings to class discussion. make teaching no mention of “I wouldn’t have wanted to put less interesting "A part of me was trigger or content him on the spot by asking other by removing any somewhat excited warnings in the students [what they thought],” sense of surprise g u i d e. G i v e n Heschel said. “People might have and improperly that a topic like that there is no criticized him, and that would not prepare students immigration came c l e a r C o l l e g e have been fair.” for the world up ... But I could policy on the She then explained that she had after graduation. topic of trigger taught the course in the past, and Others, like an also understand why war nings, the no other student had ever had such article published people were upset inclusion of such a strong, vocal reaction. She then in The Cornell warnings is at added a warning about triggering Daily Sun last that there weren't any the discretion of material to her future syllabi for D e c e m b e r , trigger warnings." each individual several years, though she eventually argue in support professor. stopped because those warnings felt of their usage, Je w i s h unnecessary. noting that they -JOSELYN LOPEZ BONILLA studies professor “I thought to myself, 'If you sign can significantly '22 S u s a n n a h up for a course about the Holocaust, benefit survivors H e s c h e l s a i d it’s going to be upsetting,'” she said. of trauma. s h e s t a r t e d "One would know that. Right?"

Even more articles include more including warnings in her Jewish Even without a formal written scientific perspectives, like an article studies class about heavy topics like trigger warning, Heschel continued published in the Harvard Crimson’s the Holocaust after an especially to vocally introduce potentially

triggering material before inLopez Bonilla, who described class discussions. She emphasized the class as discussing philosophical the importance of respect in the topics through the lens of video classroom on the days of difficult games, recalled that the incident discussions — for that same reason, happened during a week centered she doesn’t allow students to bring around discussing mundanity: Why in food on those days. do players enjoy video games in When asked her thoughts on which they carry out mundane the argument that trigger warnings tasks? There was no specific coddle students, Heschel took great mention of immigration on the issue with the word “coddling.” She syllabus, which is why she and her brought up a piece of advice that classmates were especially caught a colleague had once given her: off-guard when they watched a You can teach by fear, or you can video about the circumstances at teach by love. She said she chose the the Mexico-United States border latter route and dedicated herself and then played a video game to being available to help students called “Papers, Please,” in which in whatever way she can. the player controls an immigration Using trigger warnings, she officer checking passports at a believes, are just another part border crossing. of that commitment to helping No trigger warnings were used. students.

According to Lopez Bonilla, the “I will help any student who professor had usually used trigger wants and needs help, and I warnings in the past, but in this will spend as much time as that specific case, opted not to use them student needs,” Heschel said. to underscore the severity of what “Am I coddling was happening at the student, or the border. am I helping "I will help any student During the and trying to who wants and needs class, several of make this the Lopez Bonilla’s best possible help, and I will spend classmates o p p o r t u n i t y as much time as that became upset, and [for them] to she remember s student needs. Am I learn?” several of them It’s one thing coddling the student, staying behind to to use trigger or am I helping and speak with the warnings in a p ro f e s s o r a f t e r context where trying to make this class. She said sensitive topics the best possible that she wasn’t are expected to personally upset opportunity [for come up, like by the class but a class about them] to learn?" understood why the Holocaust. others might have W h a t been, especially a b o u t w h e n -SUSANNAH HESCHEL, if they were t r i g g e r i n g JEWISH STUDIES undocumented, s u b j e c t s as y lum s eek er s c o m e u p i n PROFESSOR or otherwise unexpected personally contexts? For affected by Joselyn Lopez Bonilla ’22, that exact immigration. situation happened last term when “A part of me was somewhat the topic of immigration came up excited that a topic like immigration unexpectedly — in a class called came up, especially since a lot MUS 46: “Video Games and the of classes don’t really talk about Meaning of Life.” that,” she said. “But I could also

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SAMANTHA BURACK/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

had brought up what happened in a meeting for the Coalition for Immigration Reform and Equality at Dartmouth, where she serves on the executive board. She added that CoFIRED is currently working on initiatives like creating a directory of professors who are known allies to undocumented students, as well as a guide for the Dartmouth community about how to create a safe environment for non-U.S. citizens. Among their suggestions is the mindful use of trigger warnings.

What about trigger warnings outside of the classroom? Some students might not see the need for trigger warnings in non-academic contexts, but not Zeke Baker ’20.

For him, another place where content warnings can be useful is in social media posts.

Baker’s way of including content warnings is by writing “cw” for “content warning,” followed by the specific tags, like sexual assault or racism, at the very top of his social media posts. He explained that he doesn’t use them on every post — only ones that include those specific kinds of potentially triggering content.

He acknowledged that some people might see those posts and think the warnings are an example of “virtue signaling” — a low-cost public act that conveys someone’s moral beliefs without actually doing much, if any, good — but for him, using trigger warnings can have a large impact.

“Yeah, it does look kind of superficial, and some people might see it as a virtual signaling

thing,” Baker said. “But it could stop someone from going into a panic attack or reliving some past trauma.”

Baker said he understands why some people might be against trigger warnings in certain contexts.

In some academic contexts, for example, he can see why using them might cause students to react in a more reserved and held back manner.

Social media is not an academic setting, however, and not every user is scrolling through their newsfeed looking to engage in intellectual discourse. For users who either don’t want to or can’t emotionally handle engaging with a certain topic, content warnings allow them that option, and Baker explained how for those who are interested in those

more serious conversations, content warnings aren’t a hindrance. “ W h e n yo u p u t [ c o n t e n t warnings] up there, you’re not stopping anyone who wants to engage with that kind of content from [doing so],” he said. “It’s not a barrier.”

Baker didn’t always use content warnings; he said he learned to use them after coming to Dartmouth, in part because of his friends on campus and in part because of the “leftist” communities he found online once in college. He isn’t angry that more people aren’t using trigger warnings, but he does think that it’s always a good idea to be more conscious of and sensitive to people’s past experiences.

The number of people who have experienced some kind of trauma

is greater than one might expect, Baker said, and it’s not his place to decide if someone is ready to engage with a specific topic.

Despite the unanimous support of those interviewed for trigger warnings, they are far from universal at Dartmouth. A difficulty in finding sources willing to speak out against trigger warnings, however, could suggest that within the current Dartmouth student body, even students who don’t personally use trigger warnings don’t take much issue with those who do.

In any case, whether the use of trigger warnings will continue to rise, or if the warnings will eventually fall out of favor with the Dartmouth community and beyond, is a question that can only be answered with time.

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Q & A with Sociology Professor Misagh Parsa STORY

By Arianna Khan

The recent rise in tensions between the United States and Iran has incited a substantial amount of concern about increased conflict between the two countries. As a result, many of us have been closely following the news in hopes of better understanding the situation and its potential consequences.

I spoke to sociology professor Misagh Parsa, who studies Iranian politics, to learn more about the context of this conflict from the Iranian perspective. Parsa conducts research on Iran’s struggle for democracy, ranging from the early 20th century to the present. He aims to understand the problems within Iran’s democratization movement and how it may succeed in the future.

Is there anything about Iranian politics that you think many Americans don’t know but they should, or any common misconceptions that you run into when talking to people about Iran?

MP: Two major ones. One has to do with domestic politics in Iran and one about the United States.

The first one, domestic. So, when the revolution came, the first parliament was dominated by the clergy. Just over sixty percent of the first parliament in 1980 were clerics. By 2016, when the current Parliament convened, 5.5 percent of them are clerics. So, the Iranians basically rejected the clergy. And in the past few weeks and the past few years, beginning with 1999 student protests, everywhere you hear “the clergy must go, the clergy must go.”

First, the students started it and now, all the protests, including a few days ago and in November and 2017, 2018, are against the clergy. One of the new slogans says, “Cannons, tanks, missiles, the clergy has to get lost.” In 1999, the slogan was, “The people are miserable, and the clerics are acting like Gods.” So that’s the first thing that people in this country and the rest of the world should know: The vast majority of

the Iranian people do not want the theocracy.

The other issue has to do with the views of America in Iran. So, Khomeini and his supporters could have been overthrown late 1979 or early 1980s, possibly, but it’s not highly probable. They played a very effective trick, which they have been playing all this time. You had the United States embassy taken — the people who were there taken hostage for 444 days — and that’s a position against America. The country was falling apart, and Khomeini had difficulty fulfilling promises that he had made because he had no intention of fulfilling some of those promises. So, he said, America is the great Satan, and he endorsed the students who had taken over and that rallied everybody around the flag and behind him. Again, the war against Iraq came in 1980, and everybody had to support the government. If you didn’t support the government, you were an American agent, you were repressed.

You were put to jail and executed.

But now, fast forward to 2017.

One group of farmers in the city of Isfahan had a fight over water against the Islamic regime, which had diverted some of their water to a drier region. Isfahan and particularly farmers in Iran have been historically very conservative.

They did not even join the revolution for the Islamic Republic until very, very late and their participation was not consequential at all. Now we can fast forward to 2017. These farmers came out, to my surprise, and brought one new slogan to Iranian politics: “Our enemy is here.

They lie saying that America is our enemy.” And, in the past few weeks, we have seen that in the university they put American flags on the ground in walkways and in public areas, so people were supposed to be walking over them, and the students and the public walk around the flag.

They do not walk on the flag. There’s two things that people should know.

Were you surprised by the recent rise in tensions between the U.S. and Iran involving the assassination of Qassem Soleimani and the attacks on military bases housing U.S. troops in Iraq?

MP: I was absolutely shocked that Donald Trump, or any American president, would assassinate perhaps the most important powerful person in Iran, after the Supreme Leader.

People in Iran were saying he was a national hero and defended the country against ISIS. Some people were talking about him running for the presidency, even. Doing such a thing would be basically a declaration of war.

The other shocking thing about what happened was the fact that the Islamic Republic didn’t really respond. So, this is one of the things about the Islamic Republic and the tension between the United States, Iran, Israel and Iran, Saudi Arabia and Iran: the Islamic Republic, from the very beginning, wanted to expand and export the revolution to the rest of the Middle East. Much of the Middle East is not Shia, it’s Sunni, but wherever they could, they wanted to organize and overthrow those governments or bring their own people to power. Iran goes to these countries, like Lebanon, and promotes the Hezbollah, the Shiites, arms them, trains them, and gets them ready for a war against Israel or whoever is their enemy.

It creates a government within a government.

Now in Iraq there are all these militia groups, at least two major ones. Iran’s policy is promoting militias. What shocked me is that the militias basically didn’t do a thing. And looking back, what just happened with the shooting down of the Ukrainian airplane is a way to understand the situation in the country, to understand why they didn’t respond against the United States. You have to look inside Iranian society. They have now got the message that the vast majority of

COURTESY OF MISAGH PARSA

the people do not want them. So if you get into a war, maybe for a few days they chant “death to America,” “death to Israel.” But after those few days, as just happened when they admitted that they had shot down the plane, the protesters were out in all major cities, all universities throughout the country, and so they had to arrest and beat up people and all that. It shows that they understand that the vast majority of the people don’t want them, and if they get into a war with the United States, they’re finished.

Do you think that this conflict will have a lasting impact on the relationship between the United States and Iran?

MP: Yes. This conflict will have lasting impact. Definitely. Iranians have noticed that the Islamic regime used them against America in order to repress them, not America.

They all want to normalize their relationship with the United States.

It was just empty slogans in order to shore up their support base. So yeah, they don’t want conflict with the United States. That’s the moral of the story. That’s the lasting thing that will come out of this. But first, they have to replace the Islamic Republic in order for them to get there, and now that’s the issue. That’s the challenge for them.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.

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TTLG: Aspiration and Circumstance TTLG

By Sirey Zhang

Dartmouth has been a placed of the country beyond the city limits filled with incredible opportunities felt more and more like home. My and experiences that have allowed research into the lived experiences me to challenge myself and engage of healthcare in Tanzania afforded with my passions in a meaningful me with incredible conversations way. In my freshman year, a with new people. I was optimistic serendipitous series of events ranging and felt affirmed that the path of from interesting courses to new ties global health and engaging with with mentors and peers accelerated health inequities was the right one me into the world of global health. for me.

Lisa Adams, the dean of global However, on the day I will health at Geisel School of Medicine describe here, everything went and human being extraordinaire, wrong. The day’s events started appreciated my enthusiasm and off with me boarding a dala-dala, offered me mentorship. Thanks a bus that really is just a glorified to her and so many others, I’ve van. Onboard, I struck up a received tremendous support using conversation with a seemingly nice both the sciences and humanities to man, something that I had already understand the structural violence done many times onboard, in and epidemiology that have resulted hopes of continuing to practice my in global health inequities, most Kiswahili. The bus was stalled in profoundly for women and children the usual bumper-to-bumper traffic. of color.

After a few minutes, we realized The initial spark of interest that we were both heading in the catalyzed the design for a long-term same direction, so he asked me if I research project that would serve wanted to hop off and share a taxi as the capstone of my Dartmouth that would avoid the congestion with experience. Using all the resources side roads, since taxis aren’t tied to that the College has to offer, I the routes that dala-dalas are. engaged with literature and worked We got off and he hailed a taxi. with faculty across disciplines When we got onboard, everyone to design a six-month research acted like they were meeting for project in Tanzania, looking into the first time. After taking some the contemporary back streets to culture of health “avoid traffic,” “I guess here is and healthcare the car stopped d e l i v e r y a n d hoping for lower Gini on a quiet how colonialism coefficients that would s t r e e t . Tw o has impacted more men got them. One day make things like theft into the car, in Tanzania, the more obsolete ... ” sandwiching excitement and me in the back momentum of my seat. After perceived life’s exposing the work collapsed. This is a story about handle of a switchblade and turning a conflict between aspiration and up the radio to muffle any loud circumstance: a moment when the noises, they took everything out of work put into following your path my pockets and forced me to give unknowingly leads you to a dark and the pin to my debit card. We then challenging place. spent the next two hours driving Nearly four months into my time around the city to various ATMs, in Tanzania, I felt established. With extracting money that the College a dependable group of local friends had funded me with until my card and a growing confidence in my locked. Finally, they left me with a conversational Kiswahili, the busy little bit of money to find my way streets of Dar es Salaam and the rest home and dropped me off in a

COURTESY OF SIREY ZHANG

remote part of the city.

My friends came to my assistance afterwards, for which I am eternally grateful. Beyond the stressful experience and the loss of physical capital, I was safe and wellsupported. At my core, however, something was fractured. The years of work at Dartmouth engaging with courses, faculty and peers seemed useless. The efforts I put in to designing this research project and the extensive application process to obtain funding all seemed to be for nothing. I had let down all the people who put their faith in me, and I felt useless that all the terms of work came crumbling down because of my own stupidity.

I once found a crash course video on kidnappings in my YouTube recommended section for some reason. Curiously clicking on the link, the video’s narrator recommended compliance and appealing to the humanistic side of the perpetrator in an abduction situation. Despite not sharing their

names, I was able to learn a bit about my short-term captors in the hours that I was with them. They claimed to have been Congolese refugees who had been in Tanzania for over 10 years. They each had large families and were unable to get a real job due to their immigration status. I hope that they were being truthful.

After reflection, I realized that this was an experience that showed a lot about the lived experiences of poverty and inequality, something that I care deeply about addressing.

I am still convinced of the good in people, and I don’t think that any individual inherently wants to make a living off of stealing things. These people were in a desperate situation and they saw my presence as an opportunity. I hoped that as a result, their family had more food on the table and that things were easier for them for a little while. With that in mind, it wasn’t so bad.

In hindsight, everything about that day feels incidental. I guess

everything makes for good fodder in my book of life experiences as long as I live to tell the tale. In retrospect, one aspect that gives me a laugh is the fact that I was speaking Kiswahili the entire time. Quite impressive that I had a grasp of the language strong enough to still be using it while being mugged! This is an experience that I would never wish upon anyone else, and one that I hope to never undergo again.

In contrast with the conflict that I felt immediately after, though, I feel more determined after realizing how this experience was a window into how structural violence manifests itself. Going through this gave me a lesson on empathy, and I hope that anyone who reads this can understand a little bit more about how poverty affects people, and how much work there is to be done to combat the structural violence that manifests inequities. I guess here is hoping for lower Gini coefficients that would make things like theft more obsolete …

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Climates in Contention PHOTO

By Naina Bhalla and Lorraine Liu