VOL. CLXXIV NO.9
SNOW
TUESDAY, JANUARY 17, 2017
HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE
College panels will address Trump administration
ARTS AND “CRAFTS”
HIGH 37 LOW 28
By ALEXANDRA STEINBERG The Dartmouth
LAUREN KIM/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF
ARTS
HOOD DOWNTOWN EXHIBIT OPENS PAGE 8
Students serve craft brews behind the bar at One Wheelock during Microbrews Monday.
The Dartmouth Staff
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OPINION
SZUHAJ: THE PITFALLS OF NOSTALGIA
By DANIELA ARMAS The Dartmouth
Anthropology professor Nadav Samin arrived at the College in 2014 to teach in the anthropology department. Since then, Samin has taught courses in anthropology, government, history and the Jewish studies program.
Samin earned a doctorate in Near Eastern studies from Princeton University, as well as a masters degree in international economics and Middle Eastern studies from Johns Hopkins University and a B.A. from New York University. Samin’s book
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SEE PANELS PAGE 2
Q&A: Professor Professors discuss house system Nadav Samin By SONIA QIN
FILM REVIEW: “THE HANDMAIDEN”
During the week leading up to the presidential inauguration, the College will host a series of faculty-led panels discussing the opportunities and risks of a Trump administration. From Jan. 17 to Jan. 20, the day of the presidential inauguration, Dartmouth faculty from the College, the Tuck School of Business, the Geisel School of Medicine and the Thayer School of Engineering will cover topics including domestic governance, terrorism, the potential dismantling of the Affordable Care Act and energy and environmental issues. Economics professor and Rockefeller Center director Andrew
SEE Q&A PAGE 2
After Dartmouth’s first term using the new housing system, house professors feel positive about the past fall’s programming and are hopeful for future events. Last fall, the College debuted its newest addition to residential life: six new house communities meant to serve as consistent communities for all undergraduates. This new
community model grouped together the various residential buildings on campus to form North Park House, South House, West House, School House, Allen House and East Wheelock House. Faculty members were appointed as house professors last spring. They, along with their families, moved into College residences close to their respective houses. The leadership team of every house also includes an assistant director,
undergraduate advisors and four resident fellows — graduate students living in the house community. Each house is also equipped with several resident experts, who are undergraduate students providing academic help to fellow house members. Dean of the College Rebecca Biron replaced biology professor Ryan Calsbeek as house professor of North Park House shortly before SEE HOUSES PAGE 5
DDS food truck adds new items for winter By MIKA JEHOON LEE The Dartmouth Staff
The Dartmouth Dining Services food truck, which debuted in October 2016, resumed operations this winter after incorporating major changes to its menu and schedule based on the weather and student feedback this past fall. Instead of syrniki — Russian cheese fritters — and sliders, the food truck will now offer a variety of poutines and melts. Tomato soup,
salted caramel brownies and dessert poutines also replaced BLT salads and churros con chocolate in the new menu. Chef and manager of dining services Andrew Walsh, who oversees the three-person staff running the food truck, said that DDS plans to revamp the menu every term. In the midst of winter, he said he wanted to offer more warm and comforting food like poutines and melts. Walsh added that the food truck will continue serving garlic parmesan fries due to
their popularity among students. Amanda Bak ’20 said that she appreciated the new food truck menu items. “I went to the food truck a week ago and I found their pulled pork poutine really delicious,” Bak said. On the other hand, Christopher Chon ’20 preferred the options from last term. “Poutine is a little oily because its base is french fries,” Chon said. “I’d rather have sliders, but I do
like their melts.” The food truck will have a longer serving time at the Fahey-McLane cluster, one of the truck’s most profitable locations this past fall term. Instead of stopping at Fahey-McLane for an hour on Wednesdays, the truck will now park there on Mondays for an hour and on Wednesdays for two hours and thirty minutes. “We were trying to zero in on where we get the most business,” Walsh SEE MENU PAGE 3
THE DARTMOUTH NEWS
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TUESDAY, JANUARY 17, 2017
Panels to discuss Trump Professor’s research examines culture of Saudi Arabia FROM PANELS PAGE 1
Samwick is an organizer and panelist for the conversation regarding domestic issues. Samwick said that, due to the high levels of uncertainty surrounding the new administration, discussions about domestic issues are a necessity. “People have some anxiety about this,” he said. “People really don’t know what to think, and our job isn’t to tell them what to think but to help illuminate what we think are the most important parts of these issues that the new administration and Congress will confront.” Fellow event organizer and Tuck business administration professor Robert Hansen explained that the goal of the panels is to promote discussion. “I want to have a serious, scholarly, intellectual discussion about the challenges that the country faces, about the state of the current policy and about some of the changes that are being discussed and proposed and what the implications of those challenges might be,” Hansen said. Hansen initially wanted to organize a panel to specifically discuss the potential impact of the incoming administration’s positions on energy and environmental issues under the guidance of the Irving Institute for Energy and Society. After talking with director of the Dickey Center for International Understanding Daniel Benjamin and Dean of Tuck Matthew Slaughter, who will moderate the discussion on domestic issues and open the energy and environmental discussion, Hansen expanded the series to the full set of panels. He then proceeded to reach out to Samwick and others to assist in organizing the discussions. Despite the extensive planning that has gone into this series, Hansen stressed that what is actually discussed during the panel is up to the discretion of the panelists, moderators and audience. When asked about the significance of hosting the discussions just prior to Friday’s inauguration, Hansen responded that he believes the Trump administration is going to move very quickly, making it important to discuss these issues now. He cited discussions on possibly repealing the Affordable Care Act currently taking place in Congress as evidence of the Trump administration’s speed. Economics professor Douglas Irwin is one of the featured panelists on the global issues discussion who specializes in U.S. trade policy. When asked how conversations about the new Trump administration differ from those about the Obama administration, Irwin explained that there is increased uncertainty of the specified actions of the Trump administration, such as in
international economic and trade issues. Irwin said that the uncertainty of which of Trump’s policies will actually be implemented has caused a lot of fear in the public. “Just because there’s been a lot of rhetoric about a trade war doesn’t mean that that’s going to be the reality, so we don’t really know what policies he’ll try to pursue in terms of their specifics,” he said. “A lot of these fears may be overblown. Maybe they are fully justified — we just don’t know.” Hansen echoed a similar sentiment when he said that speculating about the future is difficult and limited in its utility. Hansen hopes that these discussions, despite being only an hour and a half in length, will also foster further thinking and conversations that can continue outside of the panels. Both Hansen and Samwick said that leadership style and communication, while not panel topics, are also relevant. Samwick, who previously served as Chief Economist on the staff of the President’s Council of Economic advisors during President George W. Bush’s administration, said that Trump’s inexperience with governmental issues could result in problems moving forward. “The utter lack of familiarity that the president-elect has with working constructively through government channels, which you would presume would have come up in prior experience, but has not, suggests that there are going to be a lot of governance issues,” he said. Samwick stated he hopes to communicate that problems in Washington lie in the areas of knowledge translation and leadership, rather than knowledge production and dissemination. “I just don’t have much tolerance for unrealistic proposals,” Samwick added. “I’m all about trying to lay out what good policy would look like, sort of measuring the gap between where we are and what that ideal would be and promote the path of least resistance to closing that gap.” Hansen emphasized that this series also shows the strengths of Dartmouth’s knowledge base in all of the areas covered, such as research and policy. He added that this series also exemplifies collaboration across the College — the panels are sponsored by ten organizations, including the Rockefeller Center and the Dickey Center. Samwick and Hansen both noted that it would be appropriate and important to have a follow-up discussion of the Trump administration at the “100-day mark,” a time where the priorities and specific plans of the new administration are likely to be more clear.
CORRECTIONS We welcome corrections. If you believe there is a factual error in a story, please email editor@thedartmouth.com.
FROM Q&A PAGE 1
“Of Sand or Soil: Genealogy and Tribal Belonging in Saudi Arabia” was a winner of a 2016 British-Kuwait Friendship Society prize. The work is an examination of the influence of traditional tribal affiliations on modern Saudi society. What compelled you to write a book on tribal identity in Saudi Arabia? NS: Saudi Arabia is a crucially important but poorly understood country in the Middle East. It still controls a large portion of the world’s oil and gas resources and is in important relations with the United States and the rest of the Western world. Within the broader fields of Middle Eastern history and Middle Eastern studies, Saudi Arabia has not been accessible to scholars. It was closed off really, until after 9/11. So I saw it as an opportunity to go to a place where there were so many new narratives to write and investigate archival sources and family and local narratives that had not really been considered before due to lack of access and interest. The mainstream of Middle Eastern history and Middle Eastern studies focuses on places like Egypt, Lebanon and North Africa. But here we had an opportunity to study at an intimate level this fascinating and complex society that hadn’t previously been investigated so deeply. What are your current areas of research and how do they tie into “Of Sand or Soil?” Are you planning on writing any books in the future? NS: Well I try to develop a framework, when looking at modern Saudi history, that categorizes social concerns, symbols and representations as dynamic. That is to say, genealogy is not a fixed and timeless proposition. Rather, I examine the processes that go into making decisions. For instance, why would a family care to claim a particular
descent? What does that tell us about politics and history? I’m doing that with respect to religion and Wahhabism for my second book project. Wahhabism is a very controversial subject in our discourse. It is often blamed for many of the problems in the Muslim world today, like the excess of dogmatism, or what others might call fundamentalism. But Wahhabism emerged out of a specific historical experience in Saudi Arabia, before it was exported due to oil wealth as an ideology of the Saudi state. So there are really two types of Wahhabism at play: the exported Wahhabism, and the one that emerges out of a very distinctive and ecological milieu — Central Arabia. So I want to treat Wahhabism as a dynamic phenomenon that changes as a result of various transformative forces, like the introduction of modern states and ideologies. That’s why I hope to write a new history of Wahhabism for my next project.
Has has your upbringing influenced your career and areas of study? NS: Well, I have roots in the Middle East. My father is Yemeni Jewish and was born in Israel. I was born in New York City. I also have a curiosity that was born of that upbringing — a taste for adventure, exploring other cultures and comparing them to my own. Part of it really has to do with September 11. Fifteen of the nineteen hijackers were of Saudi origin, and that was a profound puzzle for me. Though I initially reacted with pain and sadness as any New Yorker would, my intellectual curiosity was piqued. I channeled it into answering broader questions: What is Saudi Arabia about? Why would so many of the hijackers be of Saudi descent? Those questions led me on a trail of deeper investigations of this place with which the U.S. is so intimately related. Though we are so intimately related through energy ties and alliances that go back 70 years or more, we are also quite different in the
ways we have emerged as countries and powers. So those connections are what fascinate me. Though I don’t write about the Saudi-American connection formally, I am attuned to the fact that studying Saudi Arabia is studying America in an indirect way, and I try to bring that attitude to my classroom and my research. What drew you to work at Dartmouth? How has your experience here affected your work? NS: I was invited to teach here in the anthropology department as a visiting faculty member. Teaching anthropology was a wonderful opportunity. You know, my father is a doctor. Before he became a radiologist, he did a two-year surgery fellowship. I feel like teaching for two years in the anthropology department was a similar experience because it made me a better historian. It helped me grapple with large-scale concepts in a new way. I’ve taught in a range of disciplines between anthropology, government and now history here at Dartmouth. It’s been a great experience to try and further develop the interdisciplinary frameworks that went into the book, which was really written before I got here. I feel like Dartmouth can really provide a supportive base for myself and other scholars to make new leaps in our respective fields. What do you like to do for fun in your off time? NS: I love to take hikes in the Upper Valley with my family. I also love to play piano. Though these days I’m geared toward four-year-olds and mostly trying to learn the songs from Frozen. I also like to play basketball, which is especially fun when the undergrads humor me and I make my shots. Otherwise I feel a little bit like an oddball in the Alumni Gym. This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
TUESDAY, JANUARY 17, 2017
THE DARTMOUTH NEWS
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Bored at Baker shut down by founder Menu changes result from feedback with other Ivy League Schools and Carleton receiving their own boards The Dartmouth in the following years. Bored at Baker, a messaging board Bored at Baker had previously been created by Jonathan Pappas – known shut down by Pappas in October 2015, online by the pseudonym Jae Daemon – after a couple of controversies in the that gave Dartmouth students the ability years prior that had brought negative to post and interact anonymously, has attention to the website. been shut down in conjunction with the In April 2013, during Dartmouth’s entire “Bored At” network. Dimensions program, which is designed Pappas announced the decision to attract prospective students, members on the developer blog for “Bored At” of the social justice group Real in early December 2016. The actual Talk protested issues such as sexism, shutdown occurred Dec. 31, 2016. homophobia and racism during the The “Bored At” network included program’s final show. In response, similar messaging boards at Columbia several Bored at Baker users posted rape University (Bored at Butler) and and death threats on the board directed Carleton College towards many in Minnesota of the group’s (Bored a t “I think it allows people to members. C a r l e t o n ) , say things that they would among others. These threats The decision otherwisefeelembarrassed prompted the came as a result or threatened to say if their administration of a Pappas’ to cancel lack of interest name were attached to it.” classes for a in running the day, replacing network due to its them with -AARON PELLOWSKI ’15, age, operational programming costs and the lack FORMER BORED AT BAKER that was of upkeep and MODERATOR designed maintenance, “to discuss which left the Dartmouth’s network open to commitment to cyberattacks. fostering debate that promotes respect Despite harboring a sizeable user for individuals, civil and engaged base during its first years of existence, discourse and the value of diverse Bored at Baker soon saw a decline in opinions,” per a campus-wide email. active members due to the emergence The following year, another user of similar anonymous messaging posted a guide that detailed how to rape applications such as Yik Yak. a specific member of the Class of 2017. Pappas originally founded the site The student in question later stated that Bored at Butler while an undergraduate she had been sexually assaulted because at Columbia in 2006 and subsequently of the post, which led to a protest on expanded to Dartmouth later that year, the Green against sexual assault that
By ANTHONY ROBLES
was attended by hundreds of students. That same year, users suggested that Katie Van Syckle ’05 – a journalist working for Cosmopolitan magazine at the time – be invited to the nowderecognized Alpha Delta fraternity to “run train on her,” a euphemism for engaging in sexual acts with several men at the same time. Former Dean of the College Charlotte Johnson apologized to Van Syckle because of the post’s lewd content. Despite the controversial comments that were posted on the site, the site’s content was regulated by a group of moderators that worked on a rotating basis. Former Bored at Baker moderator Aaron Pellowski ’15 said that he first created an account for the website during the summer before matriculation and continued to use the site until graduation. As a moderator, Pellowski would log in and look at posts that had been reported and would then vote on whether the post should be removed from the site. Pellowski said that the site’s reliance on anonymous interaction gave people license to be crueler and more inhumane if that was their moral disposition. “I think it allows people to say things that they would otherwise feel embarrassed or threatened to say if their name were attached to it,” Pellowski said. “But it then can also allow people to be more authentic about expressing their minority political and social opinions or trauma that they experienced in their life that they would otherwise be incapable of sharing via their public persona.” Relating online anonymity to sociology, Neukom Fellow Joseph DiGrazia said anonymous online activity can result in individuals being more likely to engage in anti-social behavior. “There is a basic idea that if nobody knows who you are, you can behave in an anti-social manner like making threats or posting offensive things that you wouldn’t normally say if people knew who you really were,” DiGrazia said. DiGrazia said that for individuals with socially unacceptable views that they would express in an anonymous context but not express in a nonanonymous context, these sorts of behaviors may be more reflective of their actual views. “That’s not to say necessarily though, that the views you’re seeing expressed in anonymous forums are more representative of the overall population because there may well be some strong selection effects going on where people who have certain views are more attracted to these anonymous forums for the specific reason that it gives them an opportunity to express these views without fear,” DiGrazia said. Pappas did not respond to requests seeking comment. Pellowski and Van Syckle are former members of The Dartmouth staff.
DDS staff members frequently posted on Twitter and Instagram said. “We spend the whole night to promote daily specials and [at Fahey-McLane] on Wednesday, announce the truck’s location because it is house night for all the that day. DDS is still looking to fraternities and sororities right assemble a marketing team of there and generally it is a great student employees to manage the food truck’s social media accounts. central spot.” “We are actively trying to As a result of this adaptation to demand, the truck will no longer hire students but we actually get make a stop at House Center little interest from them,” Walsh said. “Where A. According I c a m e f ro m , to Walsh, only the University two students in “I went to the food of Buffalo, we the area bought truck a week ago had student food last term per and I found their employees night. The food truck pulled pork poutine ever ywhere so it was a strange will still stop at switch for me.” A n d r e s H a l l , really delicious.” Regarding sales, the McLaughlin Walsh said that C l u s t e r , -AMANDA BAK ’20 it is still early for Massachusetts DDS to determine Ro w a n d t h e whether the food R i ve r C l u s t e r truck has reached Monday through its financial goals. Thursday. However, there Jordan Swett has been no major ’19 said that he red flag yet. finds the food According to truck’s proximity to his dormitory, Mid Massachusetts, Walsh, the DDS food truck is planning to expand its operations convenient. “I like having some extra variety in the future by stationing itself at in food late at night especially when various student events. “We will likely be catering in [the food truck] is outside of my dorm,” Swett said. “I think it’s Commencement in June,” Walsh said. “We are talking frequently better than [Late Night Collis].” The food truck will continue with [the Dartmouth Organic using social media as an advertising Far m] for future sourcing of tool at least through the remainder ingredients and to throw an event of the winter term. During the fall, or two there sometimes.” FROM MENU PAGE 1
KATE HERRINGTON/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF
The Dartmouth Dining Services food truck offers a new menu this winter.
THE DARTMOUTH OPINION
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STAFF COLUMNIST RACHEL LINCOLN ’20
STAFF COLUMNIST BEN SZUHAJ ’19
Inaugural Fall
The Pitfalls of Nostalgia
The Donald is being sworn in — what’ll happen next?
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NEWS EDITOR: Alexa Green, NEWS LAYOUT: Carter Brace, TEMPLATING EDITOR: Jaclyn Eagle
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 past has romance, but remember to embrace new ideas. We have a tendency, in a world saturated by origins, is remembered warmly. He has media, to be drawn to that which feels familiar. become nostalgicized, associated with That is why, to cite memories of childhood anecdotal evidence, we Christmases. To label might be more inclined Intrinsically, there is him racist, to ask he be to watch a reboot of a nothing wrong with changed, is to attack the movie franchise that of memory, sticking to what you know. glasshouse supposedly ended 10, to throw a stone at the 20, 30 years ago than It is when the familiarity, beautiful and fragile to choose a new and safety and goodness recollections of so unknown movie from many Dutch people. thethousandsof internet that accompanies a The push for change options. Familiarity is recollection of the means a fundamental comforting. It is safe. reimagining on the part past prevents us from What’s so bad about of the Dutch public, that? Intrinsically, discerning the flaws of and that cannot be done t h e r e i s n o t h i n g the past that we become without an expectation wrong with sticking to of backlash. People will what you know. It is entrapped in nostalgia. fight to protect their when the familiarity, way of life. They will safety and goodness fight even harder to that accompanies a protect the memory of recollection of the past it. prevents us from discerning the flaws of the I think this phenomenon is partly past that we become entrapped in nostalgia. responsible for the polarization of American In the 20th season of “South Park,” creators society. Of course, the internet has a large Trey Parker and Matt Stone hit upon this very role to play in this: from the scourge of fake concept in their nothing-is-sacred style through news to the relative anonymity of online the use of anamorphic fruit — so-called forums, the proportion of outlandish claims “’Member Berries.” The nostalgic grape-like to those of measured veracity seems to be beings say things like, “’member Chewbacca?” ever-increasing. But on a more personal level, or “’member Reagan?” before escalating to people simply don’t like to feel bad. They more controversial recollections of the past: don’t want to feel as though something they “’member when marriage was between a man enjoy is harmful to others. That is why I, an and a woman?” Those unfortunate enough to omnivore, might be inclined to argue with the encounter the ’Member Berries often fall under annoying vegetarian sitting next to me in FoCo. their spell; that is, they became glossy-eyed Surely I, the American meat-eater, cannot lovers of the past, stuck in a nostalgia-induced be held responsible for the morbid practices stupor, that is eventually used to explain topics of agribusiness! I cannot be made to feel as such as Brexit and the election of an orange- though I have a role in changing the industry, faced lunatic — a thinly veiled caricature for in that acceptance of agency comes too the of President-elect Donald Trump. While acceptance of guilt. the connection is somewhat outrageous, the The role of the activist is to draw our message carries a startling truth: a full-throttled, attention to problems. Often, those problems unquestioning embrace of nostalgia leaves us may not be immediately apparent in our liable to overlook the problems of the past. daily lives. Sometimes, the quality of daily life Taken to the extreme, this can look directly depends on those problems, on those something like Zwarte Piet, a black Christmas systems of oppression operating in our favor. character popular in the Netherlands who helps It is no surprise that we have a tendency to St. Nicolas deliver his presents on Christmas lash out at the activist, for they are the voice Eve. Every year in the spirit of the holidays, critiquing our way of life — or so it feels. We the Dutch put on black face, must learn to listen to “the paint their lips an unsettling Outside of the other” without feeling as red, don afro wigs and though we are under attack. Netherlands, the renaissance garb and go out Fear is toxic and leaves little into the streets dressed as reaction to Zwarte room for debate. To write a Zwarte Piet, ready to spread Piet is usually one of liberal-leaning person off as holiday cheer. Outside being too politically correct of the Netherlands, the disgust. Russell Brand is to discredit everything reaction to Zwarte Piet has called it “a colonial they embody, just as is usually one of disgust. accusing someone of being Russell Brand has called hangover.” bigoted because they have it “a colonial hangover.” conservative viewpoints is The award-winning filmmaker Roger Ross to overlook everything they believe. Even if our Williams chronicled the use of Zwarte Piet first impulse is to defend ourselves, we must as a racist caricature in his documentary, open up to the possibility that we are wrong. “Blackface.” And yet, 91 percent of the Dutch We should strive to be defined by a weariless public don’t see anything wrong with Zwarte affinity for truth and the willingness to admit Piet. when we are wrong, not by our opinions and The problem here can be put simply: beliefs, things that should always be open to Zwarte Piet, however racially charged his alteration by new information.
THE DARTMOUTH NEWS
TUESDAY, JANUARY 17, 2017
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House professors report positive experiences after first term FROM HOUSES PAGE 1
the beginning of fall term. She was replaced in her house professor role this term by Native American studies professor Melanie Benson Taylor. Biron said she appreciated her time as a house professor not only because she enjoyed serving in the role, but also because it allowed her as Dean of the College to see how the implementation of the housing system unfolded from an on-the-ground perspective. Mathematics professor Craig Sutton, house professor of School House, said that reviews have been generally positive toward the house communities but added that enthusiasm seems to be inversely proportional to class year. “We have to take a long-term view on this – that was just the first term and each term is a new step,” Sutton said. Engineering professor Jane Hill, house professor of Allen House, said that her experience as a house professor was fun, stimulating and adventurelike. “We have some brushstroke ideas about what we might be able to achieve but of course that can only happen when students are active and participatory,” Hill said. “I think we are still in that amorphous, creation stage.” Some examples of past creations include the West House tailgate for
the Homecoming football game, the “California Guitar Trio” performance for students at South House professor Kathryn Lively’s residence, South House’s “Breakfast for Free” hosted by the UGAs during reading period and an intramural soccer tournament that School House won. This quarter, the houses will partake in intramural basketball. There were varying levels of participation and engagement in events in the fall, which was expected, Hickox said. He added that in the fall the main goal was to get programming off the ground first before gauging what works best. “You can have a small number of students at an event but if you find that you’re building a community among those people, then it can be just as valuable as something where you have a lot of people there,” Hickox said. Hickox added that the real sign of success is the building of a community of people who live around and engage with each other. At the end of fall term, School House conducted a survey that gathered mostly positive reviews, with most students rating the House community programming as “average” or “above average,” Sutton said. During the first term, neither students nor the leadership teams really knew what to expect from the communities, Biron said. She added
KATE HERRINGTON/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF
House Center B, which serves Allen and School Houses, opened for use during the fall term.
that in the fall term it was important to devise the definition of success. Lively added that the system also helps to break down barriers that may exist between faculty, staff and students. “A lot of the faculty and staff, who wouldn’t get to know each other very well in other contexts, got to meet each other,” Hickox said. “One of the things we envisioned from the beginning was the fact that we could engage a lot of the faculty and staff in the communities and it would provide opportunities for them to connect with students and with
each other.” Last year, when the House communities were first announced, the student body had trepidations about the new system, Biron said, but this attitude of skepticism and discomfort has already begun to change beginning this winter term. Lively said that the House communities have built more continuity on campus, as students know exactly where they will be returning to live. Having students think of the residential halls as “their dorms” will change their physical relationship with the space and will give them a sense of ownership, Biron said. She added that students will now have an incentive to contribute to the building of the community around them. Past students have often complained of the lack of control over their residential hall, Hill said, adding that she hopes students will appreciate the continuity provided by the Houses. Students are also encouraged to initiate and plan events that catered to their own interests. “Our goal is to have house activity be as student-driven as possible and as varied as possible,” Biron said, adding that she aims for academic and civic topic events as well as pure social events. Lively said that South House had “pitchfests” where students could put forth their best programming ideas, which could then actually become part of the house agenda. As part of this new residential life model, the College has also built two new House Centers to provide more common space for students. House Center A provides a one-floor space for primarily North Park and South House residents while House Center B is a two-floor space primarily for School and Allen House residents. Lively said that while the new House Centers are “definitely a good study space,” she thinks more work could be done on transforming them into better social spaces. A major problem encountered by the House professors has
been communicating about their programming. There is so much going on every day that it can be hard for students to keep track of all the different events, Lively said. In October 2016, the Student Assembly Senate was elected with each house having a representative from each class year. Eric Chen ’17, an elected student representative of Allen House, said that he appreciates the distribution of students from each grade. However, he added that there is not yet a very strong sense of loyalty to the houses from their respective representatives simply because of the novelty of the new system. “Ultimately the goal is to move away from the Greek system and so any form of community outside of the Greek system is moving in the direction of that goal,” Chen said. This term, Allen House will be hosting RED talks, an imitation of TED talks. There will be four sessions of presentations and discussions with senior fellows and postdoctoral fellows from the College’s Society of Fellows. Hill said that RED talks will be open to undergraduates, graduates, staff, faculty and community members. This will be a trial run and if it works, then starting in the spring it will occur weekly, she added. Sutton said that School House is looking into the possibility of having a formal, taking trips to different locations such as the Ice Castles and having dinners in various locations on campus. Hickox said that West House elected a student executive board in the fall, which helps with community programming. However, unlike West House, School House does not have an officially-elected student executive board. School House meetings are open to all house members, allowing everyone to pitch ideas that interest them, Sutton said. He added that a house executive board will formalize this term and student leaders will have specific responsibilities.
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THE DARTMOUTH EVENTS
TUESDAY, JANUARY 17, 2017
DARTMOUTHEVENTS TODAY 4:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.
“Implications of a Republican White House and Congress,” Georgiopoulos Classroom, Raether Hall, Tuck School of Business
4:45 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Artist-in-Residence: Žilvinas Kempinas, Loew Auditorium, Black Family Visual Arts Center
7:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.
Film: “Before the Flood,” featuring Leonardo DiCaprio, Loew Auditorium, Black Family Visual Arts Center
TOMORROW 4:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.
Implications of a Republican White House and Congress, Haldeman 41 (Kreindler Conference Hall)
6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Film: “Passage at St. Augustine,” directed by Clennon L. King, Filene Auditorium, Moore Hall
7:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.
“The Mahjouba Project: Bridging the Gap Between the Handmade and the Industrial” with Eric van Hove, Hood Downtown, 53 Main Street RELEASE DATE– Tuesday, January 17, 2017
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
ACROSS 1 Baja vacation spot 5 Tree’s sticky output 8 Neck mark from necking 14 Razor name 15 Suffix with pay 16 Taking the place (of) 17 Silly sort 19 Polish port where Solidarity was founded 20 Music producer Brian 21 Dueling sword 22 “Hannah and __ Sisters”: Woody Allen film 23 Formal pronouncements 25 Zeros 30 Pay with plastic 32 __ of: done with 33 Not at home 34 The Judds, e.g. 35 Migration formation 36 Move in the wind 37 Anniversary celebration at the Met, say 42 Numbered musical piece 43 Grunting female 44 Slowing, on a music score: Abbr. 45 Little point to pick 46 Sick __ dog 47 Spitball need 50 Disputed Mideast territory 53 R&B singer Baker 55 “That’s all __ wrote” 56 Fermented honey drink 58 The USA’s 50 59 Nissan model 62 Infantile vocalizations, and a hint to the starts of 17-, 25-, 37- and 50Across 64 Series of related emails 65 Luau instrument 66 Curved molding 67 Fort Bragg mil. branch
68 Boston hrs. 69 Dandelion, e.g. DOWN 1 Confined, as a bird 2 Not accented, as syllables 3 Ornamental pin 4 Doofus 5 Ivory in the tub 6 State without proof 7 Prefix with -lithic 8 Bogart film set in a California range 9 Truly 10 Irish county bordering Limerick 11 Next of __ 12 Wide shoe widths 13 Guffaw 18 Face adversity well 24 Cries of triumph 26 Layered cookie 27 Bridal attire 28 Avocado dip, for short 29 Eyelid sore 31 Dates one person exclusively
35 Ex-GIs’ gp. 36 Lustrous fabric 37 Bell hit with a padded mallet 38 Samoan capital 39 Skating leap 40 Have a good laugh 41 Address for a noblewoman 46 Traditional Hindu retreat 47 Delivers a lecture
48 Facial expression 49 Postwar British prime minister 51 Autumn blossom 52 Suffuse (with) 54 Queried 57 Help with a heist 59 Actor Erwin 60 “Come again?” sounds 61 FDR agency 63 Illegal parker’s risk
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:
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01/17/17
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01/17/17
THE DARTMOUTH ARTS
TUESDAY, JANUARY 17, 2017
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Alumni Q&A: filmmakers Ricki Stern & Annie Sundberg By KYLEE SIBILIA The Dartmouth
Ricki Stern ’87 and Annie Sundberg ’90 are an Emmy-award nominated duo renowned for their work in writing, directing and producing. Their films received acclaim for their focus on intimately complex human journeys and interactions. Their production company, Break Thru Films, most recently produced a documentary called “Marathon: The Patriots Day Bombing,” which was produced in collaboration with the Boston Globe and tells the story of the survivors of the Boston Marathon bombing on April 15, 2013. How did you become interested in documentary filmmaking, and how did you two begin working together in this medium? AS: When I was at Dartmouth, English and history were my focus, and I had a chance to take a documentary production course from a wonderful professor named Maury Rapf. Rapf was this really interesting professor with an expansive knowledge and love of film. He especially loved documentary, and he showed me this incredible synthesis. For me, documentary was this incredible blend of some of the objective observational journalism that I’d been drawn to, and also this incredible art form. Out of college I worked on a film called “Where the Rivers Flow North,” where I met Ricki [Stern]. I was working with the
director, and she was working with was relatively small, it had a certain on individual voices and the producer, and we just became intimacy, and the relationships portraying the stories of really good friends. Afterwards, between professors and students your characters. How did we were in New York, and I will were very deep. It really did feel like a this focus reveal itself in your never forget when Ricki basically family. It’s a network that continues. documentary about the Boston said that she had an idea for a film, We’ve had so many interns who Marathon bombing? and we started on our first project have then come on to work with us together. We worked with three other as producers at Break Thru Films AS: It was an incredibly challenging Dartmouth people to help us realize that have come to us through this film just because there are so many that film, and it became “The Trials Dartmouth network. On this past pieces that were from the past, and of Darryl Hunt.” film alone on the Boston Marathon we wanted to make them feel as RS: My background was in the bombing, we had three Dartmouth immediate as possible, so we worked theater, and when I came to graduates working with us. really closely with the Boston Globe Dartmouth I took a lot of English RS: [Hanover] is a very tightly photographers and videographers classes, but I also found the film knit community when you’re in who were there that day. We did a department. When I took huge push to get whatever a film class, one of the social media we could first classes I got into was a “Documentary film was a way in. It was remarkable documentary class. I made in which I could combine my that the survivors had so a short film about a young much first person footage woman who was in the background in theater and that they captured of Special Olympics. That understanding character and themselves and their experience, along with a families going through understanding the nature of screenwriting course I took the whole experience of with Rapf, got me interested. the structure of a play and a recovery. But for us it was But I think ultimately for me, narrative.” really that we don’t make documentary film was a way films that have a lot of in which I could combine my talking heads; we don’t background in theater and -RICKI STERN ’87, CO-HEAD OF BREAK generally do biopics. We understanding character and like to really go for stories understanding the nature of THRU FILMS where you can immerse the structure of a play and a yourself in someone’s life narrative. in the same way that a college, and that can be liberating narrative experience can allow you Both of you have collaborated in some ways because there isn’t as to have that immersive experience, with fellow Dartmouth alumni. much distraction as if you were in because for us, it’s the idea of walking How did the connections you a city. I think the positive side of it in someone else’s shoes for a period formed during your time at the is you work closely with people, so of time. college influence your future that when you graduate I think you RS: The Boston Marathon bombing careers? have this built-in sense of how you was not just a domestic story. It was want to work and whom you want an international story, and I think AS: The film department at to work with. we were challenged to find a way Dartmouth was an incredibly into that story, because there are so encouraging department. Because it Your films have a focus many stories there. There’s the work
of the FBI and the work of the local police. There’s the work of the first responders and hospital personnel, and of course the survivors and the victim’s family. And so our way was to find a handful of survivor families that we felt we could tell the story through their eyes while also pulling back and incorporating the actual unfolding drama of the bombing itself. What are you working on now? AS: We are getting ready to start production on a new project about reproductive issues in America in 2017. We will be shooting down at the Inauguration [on Jan. 20] and at the Women’s March in Washington D.C. [on Jan. 21] and at the March for Life [on Jan. 27], which has been held annually on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade. RS: By working on this film about women’s reproductive rights, we’re looking to tell both sides of this very divisive issue in America. Not just abortion, but everything that trickles down from abortion, which is contraception, sex education, access to healthcare and providers for all women-related health issues. We feel like after the election, everyone is sort of scratching their heads and wondering how pollsters and individuals could be so off. I think our goal with the film is to ask those same questions and to learn and to listen to what the two sides on this issue feel and are fighting for. This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
‘The Handmaiden’ barely misses the mark due to jarring subplot By SEBASTIAN WURZRAINER The Dartmouth Staff
After watching “Oldboy” and “The Handmaiden,” I think it’s fair to say that director Chan-wook Park, who directed both films, has a fascination with extremes. In “Oldboy,” it’s manifested through extreme violence, in “The Handmaiden,” it’s extreme sexual activity. Conceptually, there is nothing wrong with extremes in film, but they need to be justified or else films run the risk of coming off as gratuitous. So does “The Handmaiden” manage to justify its more intense moments? The answer: most of the time but perhaps not enough. To me, the most surprising aspect of the film is how relatively normal the story initially seems. The premise of the movie is that a con man in 1930s Japanese-occupied Korea hires pickpocket Sook-Hee to become a handmaiden for Lady Hideko. Hideko is extremely wealthy but lives under the iron fist of her ghoulish
uncle. The con man, with Sook-Hee’s help, intends to elope with Hideko and steal her fortune. But Hideko and Sook-Hee begin to fall in love, complicating the original scheme. That’s just “Part One.” As soon as the words “Part Two” appear on screen, things start to get crazy, both for better and for worse. The best part of the film is the way it continuously rewrites its own narrative and thereby continuously recontextualizes its central themes of power, control, duty and lust. “Part Two” completely undermines the way we understand the events of “Part One,” just as “Part Three” completely undermines the way we understand “Part Two.” This description may sound vague, but the ingenuity in the structure of this screenplay is hard to talk about while trying to avoid spoilers. Suffice to say, each plot twist is brilliantly managed, resulting in a film which feels almost like a Rubik’s cube in the process of solving itself. Of course none of these narrative
conceits would work if we didn’t care about the characters, but thankfully most of them are engaging while retaining the film’s aura of mystery. Personally, I found Kim Minhee, who plays Hideko, to be a little uninteresting in her portrayal. I understand that the character is supposed to be restrained, but there is a fine line between restrained and bland. However, Kim Tae-ri as SookHee makes up for anything Hideko lacks — she absolutely steals the spotlight in the film. She easily has the hardest job, constantly walking a tightrope playing both the victor and the victim, the player and the played. She handles this difficult task with both grace and humor. Perhaps the most delightful and unexpected surprise of this film is its intermittent humor. There’s one aspect of the film which will undoubtedly make it both famous and infamous: the erotic scenes. On one hand, there are a couple of lengthy sex scenes between Hideko and Sook-Hee that
rival the explicitness of “Blue is the Warmest Color.” These scenes have some justification, given that their aim is to convince the audience of the two characters’ passion for each other. That being said, this story could be interpreted as being about how women gain and use autonomy in a world dominated by men. One could further argue that this theme conflicts with the borderline exploitative nature of the sex scenes. Honestly, though, that’s a drop in the bucket compared to the rest of the sexual content, which is distinctly more problematic. An entire subplot in this film involves BDSM and sexual fetishes, and, sadly, it just does not fit. I am not, on principle, opposed to portraying these forms of sex in a movie. “Eyes Wide Shut,” which might be Stanley Kubrick’s best film, has some incredibly warped sex scenes. However, the nature of the scenes in “Eyes Wide Shut” is justified by the film’s plot. Not only does the plot of “The Handmaiden” fail to warrant
these scenes, it also fails to weave these scenes into a tonally cohesive film. Park appears to embrace the time period piece and costume drama style of the story he’s telling, and he manages to imbue the film with an intrigue that never conflicts with the often lighter tone. When the aforementioned subplot begins to rear its head in “Part Two,” it feels incredibly jarring. Though the BDSM and sexual fetishes does not occupy a significant portion of the film’s running time, I found the subplot so distracting that it completely compromises the overall experience. It feels like Park was handed the script for this film and disliked its tameness, so he wrote disturbing fetish scenes and shoehorned them into the final draft to fit into his “extreme” ideal. Iwantedtolike“TheHandmaiden” more than I did. For the first 45 minutes or so, I loved it. At the end of the day, I’m glad I saw “The Handmaiden,” but I certainly don’t think I’d see it again. Rating: 6/10
THE DARTMOUTH ARTS
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TUESDAY, JANUARY 17, 2017
New Hood Downtown exhibit showcases Persian gardens By ARUNAV JAIN The Dartmouth
The artwork of Iranian-born, Brooklyn-based artist Bahar Behbahani has found a home at the Hood Downtown at 53 Main Street. On Jan. 12, a student reception at the art space allowed students to explore Behbahani’s creations in the company of the artist herself. The exhibition, titled “Let the Garden Eram Flourish,” is the second installment in a series of exhibits at the Hood Downtown. “Let the Garden Eram Flourish,” which consists of paintings, an installation and a video, brilliantly employs the motif of the famed Persian gardens to explore multiple themes, including identity and geopolitics. John Stomberg, director of the Hood Museum, called Bahar’s markmaking extraordinary. “She is very brilliant, but she is also an intuitive painter,” Stomberg said. “She’s never on auto pilot — every piece of paint has been thought through. She carries on the legacy of true painting.” Behbahani’s paintings in the exhibit celebrate the splendor of Persian or Iranian gardens. Boasting flourishing, lush vegetation within their walls, these gardens are almost anomalies amid
the arid climate that surrounds them, relying on carefully engineered canals and irrigation networks to generate life. These constructions have thus naturally become iconic symbols of Iran’s history. The eponymous “Let the Garden Eram Flourish” painting, for example, features heavily detailed depictions of the water pools, flora and architectural structures that are integral parts of Persian gardens. However, Behbahani takes her work one step further by urging her audience to look beyond the visual appeal of the gardens. She explores the gardens to facilitate a broader, larger examination of their significance and her own identity, she said. “[There is] the notion of public and private,” Behbahani said. “So we’re talking about who these gardens served really — the royal family or the people?” Her series is the product of intense research Behbahani conducted around the subject of Persian gardens. Poetry, in particular, was one of the focal aspects of the artist’s investigation, as the gardens have long captured the awe of both native and Western poets. The title of the exhibition itself is derived from an ode by an early 19th-century poet Ali Khan dedicated to the Eram Garden, a UNESCO World Heritage
site in Shiraz, Iran that is also known as the Garden of Paradise. Another poet whose work strongly influenced Behbahani is the famed 14th-century Persian poet Hafez. Ugochukwu-Smooth Nzewi, the curator of the exhibition and of African art at Dartmouth, identified a potent relationship between the gardens and poetry. “When you think about a Persian garden, the first thing that comes to mind, beyond the physical structure, is the way it plays with emotion,” Nzewi said. “And when you think about emotion, you think about poetry.” Another area of Behbahani’s research that formed her creative direction was the embroilment of politics in the gardens’ history. Her findings regarding the life of American academic Donald Wilber, whom she knew as a well-established scholarly authority on Persian architecture in Iran, especially impacted this exhibition. She discovered Wilber’s role as the alleged architect behind the 1953 coup in Iran that overthrew the country’s democratically-elected prime minister Mohammad Mossadeq. Behbahani said that painting the imagery of the garden helped her understand the stark duality of Wilber’s personas and the coup.
“[Painting this series] is a meditative gesture of the political subject through the process of creating these seductive, beautiful paintings.” Behbahani said. “I also had to review all the political and not very pleasing facts I was researching.” The artist’s incorporation of imagery related to the coup is noticeable in the centerpiece painting, “The Decisions Are Made: Activity Begins.” The large black lines painted on the canvas represent the redacted sections of the CIA’s declassified documents revealing U.S. involvement in the coup. Some of the documents are also displayed in an installation that serves as a timeline of Behbahani’s research. According to Nzewi, the timeline offers an instructive service to the viewers. “It’s important that we don’t lose sight of our teaching mission when we make an exhibition,” Nzewi said. “We have something that provides [the viewers] textual context of the exhibition.” A fascinating feature of the timeline is that its events are not sorted chronologically. Behbahani explained this concept in terms of her memories. “I treat [the subject] as my own memory, which does not always go chronologically,” Behbahani said.
“It’s like fragmented portions of my memory and time and history.” History is perhaps the one central theme encompassing the different elements of the exhibition. In essence, “Let the Garden Eram Flourish” grapples with the different ways the Persian gardens have been depicted in history, both in an Iranian and global context. “History as we know is a set of different perspectives,” Nzewi said. “It is the perspective of the conqueror, the winner. It is the response by the underdog. History flirts with fact.” While Behbahani’s artwork is motivated by her personal exploration of identity and supported by heavy thematic concerns, she does not circumscribe her artworks within her own ideas and intentions. On the contrary, the artist actively invites and encourages viewer participation and interpretation. “I deliberately make everything as fluid as I can,” Behbahani said. “So I just keep the conversation open for imagining and reimagining discourses.” The exhibition is open Wednesdays through Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sundays from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. It will remain on display from Jan. 5 to Mar. 12. Admission is free.
Béla Pintér play ‘Our Secrets’ blends sexual and political taboo By JACOB MEISTER The Dartmouth
This past weekend, two massive rotating wheels, mounted on a charcoal grey backdrop to imitate simultaneously a harmless record player and a sinister recording device, filled the Moore Theater stage at the Hopkins Center for the Arts. In this dual-purpose set piece, the audience could bear witness to the bizarre, unsettling mixture of Hungarian folk culture, Communist authoritarianism and pedophilia that comprise the play “Our Secrets.” Béla Pintér, a Hungarian playwright, actor and director, wrote and directed “Our Secrets,” which premiered in 2013 at the Szkéné Theatre in Budapest, Hungary. Set in Budapest in the 1980s, the play revolves around the lives of several teachers at a Hungarian folk-dancing club and their struggles under an oppressive Communist state. The play’s main character, István Balla Bán, is a prodigious dancer and connoisseur of Hungarian folk music, but he is marred by a sexual attraction
to his own 7-year-old stepdaughter. The play begins on uneasy footing when Balla Bán admits this incriminating information to a trusted therapist, and it grows steadily more suspenseful as he continues to interact with his stepdaughter. But the tale of an emotionally unhealthy man soon develops into something more when an acquaintance reveals himself to be a Communist intelligence officer who has bugged the office of Balla Bán’s therapist. Balla Bán is forced to choose between saving himself or betraying his dissident friend, Imre, while also dealing with the consequences of his perverted sexual attraction. The conflicts peak in the final scenes, during which Imre is arrested and Balla Bán commits suicide following his attempted molestation of Imre’s young son. These provocative plotlines were well-complemented by nostalgic light tricks and a live Hungarian folk band on the outskirts of the stage, which provide a glimpse of Hungarian culture while facilitating transitions between increasingly disturbing scenes.
Despite his obvious intention to offer a nuanced look at authoritarian police, Hungarian folk culture and political division, Pintér consistently allows his obsession with breaking taboos to overshadow the more interesting aspects of the play. His decision to involve pedophilia in the central conflict was poorly executed and removes all agency from sexual abuse victims. In “Our Secrets,” Balla Bán’s attraction to his stepdaughter serves as a plot device to develop his character and tone of the play. While today’s popular culture welcomes anti-heroes with open arms, it is generally difficult to appreciate a character who takes advantage of his own stepdaughter. Zoltán Friedenthal did a masterful job portraying the guilt and anguish of such a complex character, but the same effect for the plot and character could have easily been achieved if Balla Bán was, for instance, homosexual. Undeniably, the worst decision on the part of Pintér was to include Balla Bán’s stepdaughter, Timike, as an onstage character. Friedenthal is talented enough to be
able to display the emotions of a selfdespising pedophile without forcing the audience to endure scenes like the one in which he receives oral sex from Timike. The scene was disturbing to say the least, in part because Timike is played by an adult woman who nevertheless does an outstanding job in the role of a two-dimensional child. Legendary playwright Anton Chekhov established a well-known dramatic principle known as “Chekhov’s gun.” The principle essentially states that if one introduces a loaded gun in the first act, then the gun should be used by the second act. In “Our Secrets,” Chekhov’s gun seems to have malfunctioned. Immediately as the show begins, the audience is introduced to Balla Bán’s perverse sexual desires, and he is told by his therapist that he needs to leave his family or there will be consequences. These events set an expectation that at some point later in the play, Balla Bán’s true nature will be revealed to his friends and family. Pintér, however, simply
allows those expectations and that feeling of suspense to seep into the audience until the play’s end. Balla Bán’s suicide gives the impression that the playwright could not give a succinct, proper climax. Although the audience’s constant state of suspense may offer a fair simulation of life under an authoritarian Communist regime, it negatively affects the other storylines. It becomes especially hard to enjoy the stellar performances of Pintér and Zsófia Szamosi as Imre and his Communist wife, Bea, respectively, when the viewer is constantly on the edge of his seat worrying about whether the next scene will involve the sexual assault of a child. Still, Pintér created a remarkable performance that gave viewers a glimpse into a different culture during a period of conflict. Even if audience members left the theater a little more unsettled than when they entered, that change is simply a testament to what great actors and musicians can do when given a play with a disturbing premise.