The Dartmouth 5/18/16

VOL. CLXXIII NO.84

MOSTLY CLOUDY HIGH 65 LOW 39

WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2016

Petition calls on admin to reprioritize

By ALEXA GREEN

The Dartmouth Staff

ARTS

SENIORS PREPARE FOR SHOW PAGE 8

OPINION

SHARMA: POLITICS OF GENDER PAGE 6

JUNG: BLIND TO COLOR AND TO HISTORY PAGE 7

READ US ON

DARTBEAT DEAR LONE PINING THIS WEEK’S OVERHEARDS FOLLOW US ON

TWITTER @thedartmouth COPYRIGHT © 2016 THE DARTMOUTH, INC.

Student leaders at the College released a petition on Monday critiquing the administration and urging the Board of Trustees and College administrators to “depart from the realm of student life” and instead focus on fiscal decisions they say will enhance campus intellectual and social climate.

As of press time, 1,037 people have signed the petition which also has nearly 200 comments.

The current goal is 1,500 signatures.

Senior class president Danny Reitsch ’16, senior class treasurer Michael Beechert ’16, Palaeopitus senior society moderator Robert Scales ’16, Student Assembly vice president Dari Seo ’16 and junior class president Elisabeth Schricker ’17 , launched the “Take Back Dartmouth” petition this Monday under the public name Daniel Webster. The petition states it will be delivered to the Board of Trustees, College President Phil Hanlon, Provost Carolyn Dever, Dartmouth students, faculty and alumni.

Reitsch and Beechert wrote the petition, which was inspired by multiple instances of the College administration making poor financial decisions and “over stepping boundaries” regarding student life, Reitsch

said.

The petition aims to address “financial mismanagement” and “distracted focus” at the College, the factors the group sees as the two primary problems facing Dartmouth, Reitsch said. Lapses in focus are partly a result of college ranking systems — including U.S. News and World Report — in addition to negative media coverage of the College, he added.

“There is a strain on undergraduate education,” Reitsch said.

The petition also expresses concern with the consistent increases in tuition and attendance fees. This year, the Board of Trustees approved a tuition increase of 3.8 percent, and the cost of attendance at the College has increased by 39 percent from the 20092010 to the 2016-2017 academic years.

“It is important that we reprioritize,” Scales said.

“Our resources should be emphasizing and underscoring the school’s strengths, and I think when budgeting decisions come up, it is important to be systematic.”

Scales cited the difference between the rate of tuition increase and that of the SEE PETITION PAGE 2

HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE

Forum talks survey, working groups, tenure

ELIZA MCDONOUGH/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

Palaeopitus senior society sponsored a community forum to discuss the results of the October climate survey. Students asked several questions concerning tenure.

By JOYCE LEE The Dartmouth Staff

Students and senior administrators discussed the results of the Rankin & Associates October campus climate survey, the sustainability of working groups and the role of the administration at a community forum sponsored by Palaeopitus senior society last night.

Dean of the College Rebecca Biron, vice provost for student affairs Inge-Lise Ameer, vice provost for academic initiatives Denise Anthony and vice president for the Office of Institutional Diversity and Equity Evelynn Ellis were in attendance at the forum to present

and discuss the findings from the survey. Around 60 people attended the event which was held at 6 p.m. in Rockefeller 002.

The forum also discussed the three linked working groups, one each for students, faculty and staff, formed in March to study existing data and initiatives regarding diversity and inclusivity at Dartmouth. These groups made recommendations to the “Inclusive Excellence” executive committee composed of College President Phil Hanlon, Provost Carolyn Dever, executive vice president Rick Mills and Ellis.

Biron opened the forum by referencing the recent removal of a Blue

Lives Matter display in the Collis Center and the tenure process, which has been criticized after English professor Aimee Bahng was denied tenure last week. She said that these events demonstrate how issues involving diversity are emotionally and ethically charged.

“In response to conflicting views on different actions, both recent actions and longstanding actions taken by administrators, faculty, staff and students, many of us are feeling primarily angry, hurt, impatient or confused,” Biron said. “Many of us are feeling all of those things at the exact SEE PALAEOPITUS PAGE 3

Over a dozen seniors secure national scholarships

By ALEXANDRA PATTILLO The Dartmouth

This year, over a dozen seniors have secured national scholarships to pursue further study after commencement.

As of April 1, Madeline Baird ’12, Michael Beechert ’16, Rocio Labrador ’15, Alex Moushey ’16 and Joshua Tu-

pler ’16 have all been named as Fulbright Scholars.

Four Dartmouth students — Katherine Crane ’16, Dalia McGill ’16, Bay Lauris Byrne Sim ’15 and Malika Khurana ’15 — earned the H. Allen Brooks Travelling Fellowship, which the College awards each year to graduating seniors or recent

Dartmouth graduates in fields such as architecture, urban planning and art history.

The College also awarded the James B. Reynolds Scholarship for Foreign Study to nine students: Pascal Croak ’16, Ester Cross ’15, Jacqueline Donohoe ’13, Christopher Fay ’16, Saida Makhmudzade ’14, Elizabeth Markowitz ’16,

Maia Salholz-Hillel ’15, Alice Wang ’16 and Nancy Wu ’15.

Reynolds Scholarship recipients will be able to study or conduct research in any field in any foreign country with a recognized educational institution and a definite program of study or research approved by the Committee on Graduate Fellowships at Dartmouth.

Other popular scholarship opportunities among students at the College include the Beinecke and Udall Scholarships.

The Beinecke award, which supports the graduate education of “young men and women of exceptional promise,” provides award winners SEE SCHOLARSHIP PAGE 2

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

PAGE 2

WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2016

Petition calls for greater Five named Fulbright Scholars autonomy for students FROM SCHOLARSHIP PAGE 1

“We believe that the administration should treat students like the legal Consumer Price Index, which is adults they are and cease chipping away at free speech, free thought substantially lower.

“The rising costs of tuition and and free association.” a Dartmouth education are far The petition aims to have indisurpassing actual inflation in the vidual members of the Dartmouth real economy,” he said. “I think community — students and alumni alike — reach out and express their that is a real problem.”

The petition criticized the concerns about the College and its “lack of fiscal discipline” at the recent policies.

College, pointing to the increases Petition signer Marwan Zelmat in non-faculty staff without stated ’19 said he believes the school has justification. The petition states not been prioritizing its spending that the number of non-faculty correctly, and is allowing unstaff increased from 2,408 in 1999 checked administrative spending.

“I believe that Dartmouth’s to 3,497 in 2015.

Calling administrators “pater- priorities are not where they should be, ever innalistic babysitadters,” the petition “I am an optimist about creasing m i n i s t r at i ve also argued that the administra- what our faculty and bloat and the restriction has taken hopefully the likes of subtle tion of stusides in sensitive debates and Hanlon can do if they put dent liberties u n d e r m i n e d a their minds to willingly are problems that remain free exchange of ideas. The docu- reversing the trends of unsolved as the misallocament cited the raising tuition.” tion of funds Foundation for continues,” Individual Rights he said. “Inin Education’s - JAMES FAIR ’18, creasing tenrecent lowering PETITION SIGNER sion between of the College’s students and speech code ratthe adminising from a green tration results in poor communicato yellow.

Administrative control over tion and cooperation between the student organizations — including two.”

Greek houses — was a major issue Another petition signer James Fair ’18 said that he believes that raised by the petition.

“Students and organizations the College can fix the issues identiare being controlled much more fied in the petition. than they used to be,” Scales said. “I am an optimist about what “Instead of the school being a place our faculty and hopefully the likes where you can learn and prepare of Hanlon can do if they put their for the real world, now there are minds to willingly reversing the fewer and fewer things that the trend of raising tuition,” he said.

Fair added that administrative student body is allowed to do. I think that makes the adjustment interference in the undergraduate into the real world even more dif- social scene could make campus more exclusive. ficult.”

Reitsch said that too much The petition’s target audience is of students’ tuition money goes students, alumni, staff and faculty towards over-policing student life who are worried about the Coland supporting extraneous staff lege’s recent direction and policies, rather than focusing on the central Beechert said. He added that the mission of Dartmouth — under- goal is to present a hard copy of the petition to Hanlon and the graduate education.

The petition calls for greater administration. The authors hope autonomy for individual students to begin a dialogue about the issues in making personal choices, saying the petition highlights and explore FROM PETITION PAGE 1

CORRECTIONS We welcome corrections. If you believe there is a factual error in a story, please email editor@thedartmouth.com.

The May 16 article, “ Alumna Q&A: TV host Anna-Kay Thomas ’12,” incorrectly quoted Thomas saying “work hard and stay nice.” The quote should have read “work hard and play nice” and has since been corrected.

$4,000 prior to entering graduate school and an additional $30,000 while they are attending graduate school. Sera Kwon ’17 received the award and plans to continue studying social movements with the grant.

JoRee LaFrance ’17 and Helen Thomas ’18 both received the Udall Scholarship, which awards 50 scholarships of up to $5,000 and 50 honorable mentions to sophomores and juniors interested in careers in the environment, tribal public policy or Native American health care.

LaFrance is a double major in Earth science and Native American studies with a minor in anthropology. A member of the Crow tribe, she wants to learn more about tribal energy and economic policy, especially relating to hydroelectric power, according to the Scholarship Advising office website.

Thomas, a Hunkpapa Lakota, plans to major in economics modified with education and minor in Native American studies and hopes to study impacts of education policy on reservation communities.

Instead of entering the professional world immediately, scholarship recipients will take a more unconventional path, choosing to study, teach and work abroad in various capacities. Next year, the grant recipients will travel to diverse locations around the world, including Malaysia, Germany, Colombia, Australia, Brazil, China and the Dominican Republic.

The College has a longstanding relationship with various scholarship programs. Undergraduates and recent alumni of the College consult the scholarship advising office, led by assistant dean of scholarship advising Jessica Smolin and Fulbright program advisor Kenneth Bauer throughout the application processes. The Committee on Graduate Fellowships, consisting of nine faculty members, endorses students for scholarships.

The Fulbright is one of the most popular scholarships among Dartmouth students, and applicants are notified of their acceptance at different times, depending on the country where they plan to work. The Fulbright Program currently operates in over 160 countries.

The Fulbright Program, the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government, is designed to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries.

Moushey, a theater and film major pursuing a career in medicine, received a Fulbright teaching position in Malaysia.

“I am going to go in as humble as I can and accept whatever they need me to do,” Moushey said. “If it

turns out I’m working with another age group than I planned, that’s okay. If there is not the opportunity to shadow at a medical clinic, that’s okay. If I end up in a super rural area in Borneo, that’s okay.”

The Schwarzman and Yenching Scholarships provide support for international students to live and study in Beijing in preparation for a future as global leaders. Jordyn Turner ’16 and Jake Gaba ’16 have been named Schwarzman Scholars for this upcoming year and will participate in a one-year master’s program at Tsinghua University in Beijing.

Turner’s interest in China was initially sparked by a project studying comparative media in Asia during high school and her foreign study experience in Beijing. She worked closely with Smolin to prepare her application and supplementary materials as well as conduct mock interviews.

She said that she plans to study public policy in Beijing, which will subsequently prepare her for a career in law.

Gaba said he is excited to pursue international studies. As a computer science modified with studio art major, he said he is passionate about international media. Gaba’s interest in studying in China also stems from his experience living in Beijing and

studying Mandarin on the Chinese LSA. The scholarship advising office’s largest challenge is recruitment, Smolin said. Dartmouth students are often professionally minded, sometimes viewing scholarships as a detour of sorts. She emphasized that scholarships can fit in well with whatever path a student is interested in taking.

Bauer himself completed a Fulbright 20 years ago, executing a research project focused on how small scale communities develop and adapt to rapidly changing circumstances relating to development projects in Nepal. The experience was completely transformative, Bauer said, and launched much of the work he continues to do today in the region.

Both Smolin and Bauer emphasized that national scholarship opportunities can yield tremendous meaning and value for students.

Bauer said he feels that there is a lot of untapped potential amongst the College student body, many of whom could benefit tremendously from scholarship opportunities.

“I don’t think enough people apply, nor do I think that the right people apply,” Bauer said.

Moushey is a former member of The Dartmouth staff.

WORKING HARD OR HARLDY WORKING?

ELIZA MCDONOUGH/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

Students take advantage of the warmer weather by studying outdoors.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2016

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

PAGE 3

Tenure decision discussed at forum FROM PALAEOPITUS PAGE 1

same time, and that makes it very difficult to listen to each other and speak with each other instead of at each other about our differences.”

In her discussion of the campus survey, Ellis said that previous studies had been too internally driven, not objective and superficial, and that she expected the Dartmouth community would be skeptical of this study because of their experience with previous studies. Rankin & Associates, an outside consulting firm, administered the community study to address these issues. Their work established the idea that the community, not the administration, has ownership of the study, Ellis said.

After a brief review of the survey’s main results, Biron, Ameer, Anthony and Ellis opened the forum to audience questions.

One student said that Dartmouth and its administration did not push for the survey as much as student activists on campus, and that the activists’ work should not be neglected. She also asked for the results to be broken down by the respondents’ race.

Anthony specified that Rankin & Associates analyzed every answer along all demographic cleavages.

Ellis said that the differences in answers from participants reflected the differences between experiences at Dartmouth that were a result of these various identities.

An audience member asked if the data showed the majority views from different groups represented on campus. In response to this, an audience member pointed out that 72.4 percent of the survey takers had identified as white, and another audience member stated that pointing out any majority seemed like a way to silence unsatisfied minorities on campus.

Anthony and Ellis said that identifying the feelings of minorities on campus is exactly the point of this study.

Another audience member who identified himself as a member of one of the working groups said that the denial of tenure for Bahng undermined three months of the group’s work. He asked what each individual member of the administration present at the forum thought about this decision.

Ellis said that hearing that Bahng did not receive tenure felt “like someone had put a knife in my gut and twisted it.”

She said that her actions would have to be as an individual and independent of any group or the executive committee.

“I am not a part of tenure review, but I see a history of something wrong, something broken, and for me it broke at a time when my hopes were highest,” Ellis said.

The same audience member asked how the members of the administration would use their offices to help reverse the tenure decision.

Ellis responded first, saying that she could influence senior administrators like Hanlon by stating how the decision made her feel.

Anthony said that she did not have a very satisfying answer, and that this was not a satisfying feeling for her to have. She said that her role as the vice provost is to pay attention to what the executive committee recommended.

In response, the audience member said Bahng’s decision had to be overturned to regain students’ trust.

Biron said that the tenure process at universities is confidential for good reasons, and that she cannot and does not know why Bahng was denied tenure. When asked if she would sign a petition to reverse the decision and grant Bahng tenure, Biron responded, “Sure.”

Ameer also said she was disappointed with the decision, but said that her office does not deal with the tenure process. When asked if she would sign the same petition, Ameer did not reply.

O t h e r au d i e n c e m e m b e r s asked about the administration’s problem-solving methodology, how people are chosen for working groups and why no students were involved in many of these processes.

Biron said that the administration focuses on establishing “clear structures for accountability” and ongoing channels for selfevaluation. However, she pointed out that the current initiatives — which include survey analysis and the working groups — would only bring long term change and not immediate appeasement.

Anthony said that the working groups’ members were decided through a nomination and selfnomination process. Due to an overabundance of nominations, not all nominees could be placed in working groups.

Ellis added that the executive committee needs to be kept small to streamline the decision making process. However,the decisions of an executive committee are not final, she said.

An audience member asked SEE PALAEOPITUS PAGE 5

THE DARTMOUTH EVENTS

PAGE 4

WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2016

DARTMOUTHEVENTS TODAY 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.

Northern Lights Quilts Exhibition, presented by the Northern Lights Quilt Guild, 7 Lebanon Street, Suite 107

3:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.

Philosophy Department Honors Thesis Presentations, reception to follow, Thorton Hall 105

7:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.

Fifth Annual Digital Arts eXpo, showcase of student digital artwork, Hood Auditorium and Hood Museum of Art

TOMORROW

12:15 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.

The Class of 1961 Robert Frost Statue Contest Awards, near the Loew Auditorium box office, Black Family Visual Arts Center

4:30 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.

“Feminism and the Digital Humanities,” Associate Professor Elizabeth Losh from the College of William and Mary, Kemeny Hall 007

7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.

“The Pitch!,” presented by the Digital Arts, Leadership, and Innovation Lab and the Dartmouth Entrepreneurial Network Filene Auditorium, Moore Building

RELEASE DATE– Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

ACROSS 1 Pricey 6 Place for a chicken 10 Herring prized for its roe 14 Use a lectern 15 A fan of 16 Tortilla snack 17 With 59-Across, words from a fictional mariner ... and a hint to both parts of 26-, 31-, 42- and 47Across 19 Any minute now, to a bard 20 Tampa-toJacksonville dir.

21 Frosty coat 22 Fern-to-be 23 Criticize sneakily 26 Oil conduit 28 Chef’s tool 30 Fire, or firefighting tool 31 Electricity source 34 Astronaut Grissom 37 Incriminate with false evidence 38 __-Locka, Florida 39 Emaciated 41 Messy spot 42 Reaganomics term 44 __ Kan: Alpo rival 46 Fit as a fiddle and tough as nails 47 Primary entrance 52 Exams for wouldbe attys.

53 Shore eagles 54 Object of worship 56 Dick’s wife, twice 58 __-Seltzer 59 See 17-Across 62 Safe document 63 Left 64 Conundrum 65 They may be split or tight 66 __ buco: veal dish 67 Make a mess of DOWN 1 Seeded 2 Convey 3 Completely eroded

4 Nice season?

5 Part of 60-Down 6 “Ta-ta” 7 Coming up next 8 Ferrell’s “SNL” cheerleading partner 9 __ favor: Pedro’s “please” 10 Paper clip alternative 11 Onetime capital of French Indochina 12 Oak nut 13 Charity, say 18 Puppy 22 Masters and Johnson subject 24 Agenda line 25 Partner of simple 27 First lady after Lady Bird 28 Suntan lotion numbers, briefly 29 Baseball’s Matty or Felipe 32 Droid download 33 Snoozes 34 Free from blame 35 Not wanted 36 Fr. holy women

39 Places with rings and horses 40 Massive land mass 42 Gp. that kidnapped Patty Hearst 43 Big name in pharmaceuticals 44 Works on, as dough 45 Top prosecutors: Abbr.

47 Maryland’s Fort __ 48 “Over the Rainbow” composer Harold 49 Signed in pen 50 DVR devices 51 Blissful places 55 Treat often split 57 Nothing 59 __ trip 60 Typing meas.

61 __ polloi

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

ADVERTISING

xwordeditor@aol.com

05/18/16

For advertising information, please call (603) 646-2600 or email info@thedartmouth. com. The advertising deadline is noon, two days before publication. We reserve the right to refuse any advertisement. Opinions expressed in advertisements do not necessarily reflect those of The Dartmouth, Inc. or its officers, employees and agents.

The Dartmouth, Inc. is a nonprofit corporation chartered in the state of New Hampshire. USPS 148-540 ISSN 01999931

By Jerry Edelstein ©2016 Tribune Content Agency, LLC

05/18/16

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2016

Campus climate discussed at forum FROM PALAEOPITUS PAGE 3

for comments about the fact that Hanlon had cancelled his recent office hours, which they thought implied that Hanlon did not want to hear the voices of students.

Biron replied that she could not speak for Hanlon, and Ellis

responded that she could not control anything her colleagues do.

Audience questions also addressed concepts of free speech on campus.

In a recent email, Hanlon condemned the removal of the Blue Lives Matter display on the grounds of free speech. An audi-

ence member asked panelists why Hanlon sent out this email when he did not condemn the vandalization of a fall term Black Lives Matter display with similar urgency. The audience member also asked why the four panelists had not sent out their own emails about the Blue Lives Matter display.

Biron said that the College should not weigh in on something that cannot be federally defined as hate speech, and that if the university started moderating speech, it would lead to “the death of intellectual engagement and debate.”

She also noted that Hanlon did send a message condemning the removal of the Black Lives Matter display in November.

One audience member asked the panelists about a “culture of intimidation” — an atmosphere that he said student activism had recently contributed to. He said many students feel that they cannot freely express their thoughts.

Another audience member later responded, saying that “radicals in the room” are not intimidating their classmates. Meanwhile, she said that student activists have been receiving death threats, and that the contact information of certain activists had been publicly shared.

PAGE 5

MILITARIZED REFUGE(ES)

ELIZA MCDONOUGH/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

Yen Le Espiritu gave a talk on reconcepualizing the idea of a refuge on Tuesday.

THE DARTMOUTH OPINION

PAGE 6

WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2016

STAFF COLUMNIST BEN SZUHAJ ’19

STAFF COLUMNIST HANSA SHARMA ’19

Don’t Let PC Ruin the Games

Politics of Gender

Gender definitions in international sports present complex issues.

In July 2015, the Court of Arbitration for Sport handed down a ruling decried by some as “ending women’s sports as we know them.” They revoked the International Association of Athletics Federations’ regulation that required hyperandrogenic track and field athletes to keep their testosterone levels below 10nmol/L or face suspension. The normal female range of serum testosterone is 0.1-2.8nmol/L. For men, the figure is 10.5. The Court of Arbitration for Sport suspended the IAAF’s regulation for two years and will abolish it completely unless the IAAF could scientifically prove that hyperandrogenic athletes perform better due to their elevated testosterone levels. In all likelihood, the IAAF will be unable to do so.

Many factors contribute to athletic success — not just testosterone. Proving a scientific link between testosterone and performance is difficult, not to mention that some hyperandrogenic athletes are androgen insensitive and do not benefit from elevated testosterone levels. That being said, some clearly do.

In 2009, South African middle-distance runner Caster Semenya burst onto the international stage after winning the women’s 800-meter race at the world championship at the age of 18. Her winning time, 1 minute, 55 seconds, was the fastest time run by a woman that year. Following the race, she underwent gender testing by the IAAF. They discovered that Semenya had been born with internal testes, a dangerous condition of which she was unaware. Rather than stripping Semenya of her win, the IAAF removed her from competition for a year and reinstated her in 2010.

In 2011, they passed the regulation requiring female athletes to keep their testosterone levels below 10nmol/L. Semenya had a high-caliber 2012 season, but has been a non-factor on the world stage for the past three years.

Now that hyperandrogenic athletes are not required to regulate their testosterone levels, Semenya has been on fire, recently becoming the first woman to win the 400, 800 and 1500 at the South African National Championships.

Semenya is considered a shoe-in to win Olympic gold unless the ruling is overturned.

Some people have voiced concerns, wondering how women with average levels of testosterone are supposed to keep up. The answer is unsatisfactory: they cannot.

While some androgenic athletes may not

experience a performance boost from elevated levels of testosterone, many do. There is a reason that testosterone is considered a banned substance: it leads to gains in sports. Semenya would not be competitive if she raced against men. Now that the regulation has been suspended, there is no clear metric that can be used to differentiate men and women into their respective races. If there is nothing stopping someone who would have previously been forbidden from running the women’s race from choosing to run in the women’s race, it is clear who will lose out: women.

That is why the testosterone rule is so important: it is the least biased, most objective metric I am aware of that can be used to separate genders based on biological advantage. Until the 1990s, this differentiation was done through “gender testing,” which was invasive and crass. That is the same testing that Semenya underwent in 2009, testing which elicited outrage from many of her supporters. However, whereas in previous decades Semenya would have been told she was not a woman and banned from competing with women for life, she was instead told of her medical condition and advised to begin hormone therapy if she wished to continue competing with women.

The new system is not perfect, but it is necessary.

Semenya is every bit a woman as any other woman, but the truth is that she has elevated testosterone levels which almost certainly give her an advantage. Whereas taking medication to lower those levels — to lower them only below that of men, mind you, as they can still be two or three times as high as average female levels — constitutes a temporary treatment whose effect will wear off once a patient stops taking the medication, erasing all quantifications for defining gender in sports is tantamount to discriminating against the vast majority of people who fit within those boundaries.

While the 2010s have been full of successes for the LGBTQIA community and for those who argue that gender identity is something determined by a person and not by birth, elite sporting competitions must have a way to differentiate competitors based on biological advantage.

The alternative is that everyone runs in one big race. While that may fit some people’s vision of total inclusivity, in this case, that inclusivity would exclude women who wish for the right to compete on an equal playing field.

6175 ROBINSON HALL, HANOVER N.H. 03755 • (603) 646-2600

REBECCA ASOULIN, Editor-in-Chief ANNIE MA, Executive Editor

RACHEL DECHIARA, Publisher MAYA PODDAR, Executive Editor

SARA MCGAHAN, Managing Editor PRIYA RAMAIAH, Managing Editor MICHAEL QIAN, Managing Editor PRODUCTION EDITORS NICOLE SIMINERI, Opinion Editor ANDRES SMITH, Editorial Director HAYLEY HOVERTER & CAROLINE BERENS, Mirror Editors RAY LU & GAYNE KALUSTIAN, Sports Editors HALLIE HUFFAKER, Arts Editor KOURTNEY KAWANO, Assistant Arts Editor ANNETTE DENEKAS & MAY MANSOUR, Dartbeat Editors KATELYN JONES, Multimedia Editor KATE HERRINGTON, Photography Editor

BUSINESS DIRECTORS HANNAH CARLINO, Finance & Strategy Director HAYDEN KARP-HECKER, Advertising Director ADDISON LEE, Advertising Director NOAH GRASS, Operations & Marketing Director BRIANNA AGER, Operations & Marketing Director ALISON GUH, Design Director JEREMY MITTLEMAN, Technology Director

ELIZA MCDONOUGH, Assistant Photography Editor ANNIE DUNCAN, Assistant Photography Editor

ISSUE

NEWS EDITOR: Parker Richards, LAYOUT MANAGER: Jaclyn Eagle, TEMPLATING EDITOR: Jaclyn Eagle, COPY EDITOR: Alexa Green

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 way people discuss Hillary Clinton reflects a sexist double standard.

As the United States starts to wrap up an exciting primary season and enter conventions, two candidates have clearly emerged triumphant over the fray of mudslinging and deeply personal attacks.

Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton not only represent opposite affiliations but have also been at opposite ends of personal attacks.

Trump has not shied away from these attacks, even coining nicknames like “Little Rubio,” “Lyin’ Ted,” “Crooked Hillary” and “Crazy Bernie” to fuel his social media crusades, avidly followed by spectators around the world. Both Clinton and Trump have corporate ties based in New York and were friends in the past — Hillary and Bill Clinton attended Trump’s wedding and their daughters, Chelsea and Ivanka, are friends. Until 2011, when he made a run for presidential office, Trump’s federal and statewide election donation record showed 54 percent of his donations going to the Democratic Party. At first, many conspiracy theorists considered Trump’s candidacy as a blessing in disguise for his good friend Hillary. But now, when Trump and Clinton are soon to be head-to-head for the general election in November, people are no longer dismissing his nomination as a ridiculous attempt to hand Clinton the presidency.

Furthermore, the race is getting uglier and more personal, especially in terms of sexist undertones.

Ever since announcing her run for the presidency last year in April, former Secretary of State and First Lady Clinton has been the subject of sexist commentary on topics ranging from her cold demeanor to her shrill voice and even her aggressive negotiating style. Given a male candidate with these traits, different adjectives would be used, such as “measured,” “engaged” or “uncompromising leader.” Starting her career with the Children’s Defense Fund, Clinton has proven herself as a progressive with the actions to back her ideology, including healthcare reform during her time as First Lady, LGBTQIA rights abroad and at home as Secretary of State and long term support of women’s rights as human rights.

This prevalence of sexist commentary directed towards Clinton came to light after Washington Post columnist Bob Woodward described Clinton as “screaming” and communicating in an unrelaxed way. This harsh criticism, as many female senators on the Hill pointed out, was a double standard given Trump’s “braggadocio” in issuing bombastic, sexist insults. Trump’s feud with conservative commentator Megyn Kelly especially comes to mind. He referred to Kelly as having “blood coming out of her wherever” when she confronted him about his previous language toward women.

Trump’s misogyny is even more problematic with each passing day as his plan for the upcoming debates in the fall includes hitting Hillary on Bill’s infidelities while in the White House.

Hillary Clinton is not perfect, not even

close to it. Despite her debatable track record, it is disheartening that her rival presidential candidate chooses to highlight her husband’s personal shortcomings as a projection of her character in the 21st century. But what is expected from a man who attacked the appearance of the wife of his former opponent?

Although there seems to be no stopping Trump’s sexist remarks, campaign donations show that it might be costing him.

When commenting on his major victories on April 26, he made his infamous and trending “women card” statement. “And frankly, if Hillary Clinton were a man, I don’t think she’d get 5 percent of the vote. The only thing she’s got going is the woman’s card.

And the beautiful thing is women don’t like her, okay? And look how well I did with women tonight.” This enabled the Clinton campaign to capitalize on the buzzword.

“Women card” became the impetus for thousands of contributions, totaling $2.4 million dollars within three days.

Dismissing Clinton’s extensive political leadership and degrading her by insinuating she is playing the “women card” serves only to paint Trump as a sexist brute. Are his comments an attempt at appealing to men who cannot grasp the idea of a woman competent enough to run for the highest office in the nation? Politicians all tailor their messages to appeal to target demographics. But Trump’s persistent misogyny and its intensification as we approach the general election illustrates a systematic double standard within our society. Instead of judging candidates based on their political experience — or lack thereof in the case of Trump — we are more concerned with issues that divide us like personal relationships and scandal.

Perhaps, Trump is intimidated by the prospect of a female candidate who has better credentials than him and deflects through misogynistic means. But is that not a more reflection of our society than it is of Trump?

As a businessman, he is merely marketing himself to voters.

As the two candidates close in on each other, it will be interesting to see how far Trump will take his sexism. Currently, it seems to be a weak point that the Clinton campaign has pounced upon. Regardless of the sexism conversation, it will do both candidates well to focus on actual issues and experience rather than smearing each other with insults stemming from sexism or in response to it. Instead of letting the ugliness of misogyny and smear tactics engulf the general election, as citizens and voters, it is up to us to turn the topic of conversation to real issues that matter. Only if we stop consuming gossip fodder about extramarital affairs and other trivial issues that Trump throws at us, can we actually consider Clinton as a bonafide candidate with formidable achievements but most importantly, a woman with the gall to run for president in a world of double standards and hypocrisy.

THE DARTMOUTH OPINION

WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2016

PAGE 7

GUEST COLUMNIST ERIC JUNG ’17

GUEST COLUMNIST MATTHEW GOLDSTEIN ‘18

Blind to Color and to History

A Necessary Response

Affirmative action and desegregation need to be upheld.

We live today in neither a colorblind nor post-racial society, though many – in good faith, I suppose – would like to fantasize otherwise. Still, in the wake of recent tragedies from Ferguson and Staten Island, to Charleston and Baltimore, more Americans are now being compelled to reexamine this nation’s lamentable history of racism and earnestly reckon with its lingering vestiges in our neighborhoods, communities and campuses.

But the Supreme Court, I fear, will neglect this history in favor of a myth that we have somehow overcome our tenacious racial inequities — as if the stains of slavery, segregation and discrimination could be so easily wiped clean. Indeed, the Court’s decision to reconsider Fisher v. University of Texas portends a threat to diversity in higher education. And there is good reason to fear.

In case after case, the Roberts Court has refused to recognize, let alone confront, the realities of race in America. Chief among the bench’s colorblind is the chief justice himself. In the 2007 case Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1, Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. penned an opinion that struck down plans to maintain racial integration in the Louisville and Seattle public school systems. “The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race,” according to Roberts, “is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.” The chief justice’s platitude – divorced from reality, both past and present – ignores centuries of discrimination and the lived experiences of racial minorities today. More disconcerting still is Roberts’ claim that Brown v. Board of Education vindicates his reasoning: that the segregation imposed by the Topeka School Board is somehow equivalent to the Louisville and Seattle school districts’ efforts to achieve diversity and preclude racial isolation. It is, as former Justice John Paul Stevens exposed in his dissent, “a cruel irony.”

This amnesia of history resurfaced in 2013, when the Court eviscerated an enduring achievement of the Civil Rights Movement: the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The issue was the federal preclearance required of certain, mostly Southern, states and counties to change election procedures.

But the unsettling record of voting rights in these jurisdictions is not ancient history. In fact, between 1982 and 2006, the Justice Department successfully blocked over 2,400 discriminatory voting practices on the basis of race. “Our country has changed,” Roberts concluded for the majority in Shelby County v. Holder. But when the realities of race continue to painfully unfold in our communities and classrooms, can we sincerely say that it has?

Now, in 2016, the Roberts Court has once again entertained the delusion that we live in a colorblind society and, accordingly, must forsake color-conscious laws and attitudes. Indeed, the Court’s decision to hear Fisher for the second time — rather than affirming the judgment of the lower courts, as Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg urged — disregards Texas’ persistent history of racial discrimination. At stake is the University of Texas’ race-conscious admissions policy — tailored to both redeem its sad past of segregation and, later, hostility to racial inclusion, and remedy the inequity in higher education for blacks and Latinos. The efforts to stymie student body diversity come at a time when the resegregation of Texan public schools has disturbingly proliferated.

In 2010, 40 percent of black students attended a highly segregated school with 90 to 100 percent minority enrollment. The end to racial isolation, as hoped for by Brown six decades ago, is regrettably far from reach.

The affirmative action measures that have helped to integrate our society must be maintained until equal access to educational opportunities is made real. Surely it is obvious that race-conscious admissions should not be retired simply because there has been progress in reducing disparities?

To do so, as Justice Ginsburg memorably dissented in Shelby County, would be as senseless as “throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet.” Indeed, states that have already banned racial preferences in higher education admissions — whether by state referenda, legislation or executive order — find themselves in a deluge without cover. A 2013 study by the University of Washington concluded that states that have banned race-based affirmative action saw a cumulative decrease of 23 percent in a minority student’s chances of admission to public universities. California, for instance, has yet to recover from the decline in black and Latino enrollment since affirmative action was outlawed in 1996. By 2010, admission rates for blacks at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of California, Los Angeles were effectively reduced by 70 to 75 percent.

Colorblindness, at best, is a blindness to history — a disregard for the legacy of chattel slavery, segregation and discrimination and its effects on all dimensions of American life. The historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. opined that “the great strength of history in a free society is its capacity for self-correction.” The initial step in correcting the pernicious consequences of centuries-old racism, then, is to acknowledge that the problem still exists. In order to be answerable to the future, we must first be accountable to the past.

It is encouraging that we are now speaking more candidly and meaningfully about race. If some justices are so inclined to ignore persisting racial inequities, it comes as a relief to know that many students do not. This year especially, America’s college campuses have seen a solidarity of student activism demanding more just and safe spaces of learning. Empowered by other racial justice campaigns such as the Black Lives Matter movement, students nationwide have sought to root out the entrenched prejudice and inequality in higher education, pressuring administrators to increase student and faculty diversity, adopt and expand programs on cultural sensitivity and disavow names or symbols with racist legacies.

It remains to be seen how the Supreme Court will rule in Fisher, though it is hardly difficult to forecast which way the wind blows. But this much is certain: the goal of more inclusive and integrated campuses would benefit immeasurably if the Court deferred to historical consciousness. We — and the justices, especially — must dispose of the folly that race no longer matters. This invention of a colorblind society, as Justice Sonia Sotomayor passionately reminded us in Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, is “out of touch with reality.” It is also a distortion of history. And if history is indeed said to repeat itself, then we should do well not to neglect our past, but to be mindful of it and, hopefully, learn from it.

GRID’s refusal to condemn anti-Semitism is condemnable.

On May 7, professor Annabel Martín posted an essay on the Gender Research Institute at Dartmouth’s website regarding a May 6 article in The Dartmouth. Seeing as I am referenced by name in the piece, I would like to respectfully refute some of Martín’s points.

Martín claims that the article caused “profound hurt” to Dartmouth’s Jewish community. This profound hurt was in fact caused by GRID’s embrace of Jasbir Puar, whose speech and writings have repeatedly met many of the U.S. State Department’s criteria for anti-Semitism and fall far short of the academic standards that Dartmouth demands of its own students.

At Dartmouth, we are encouraged to critically engage with controversial material.

Over the past few weeks, Martín has not done the same. Before the event, I met with Martín and presented evidence in asking that GRID release a statement condemning anti-Semitism. She declined and informed me that Puar’s claim, which I believe to be blood-libelous, that Israel harvests Palestinians’ organs, among others, was corroborated in a journal article by Puar.

I read Puar’s paper, its sources and the manifesto of the journal in which it was published. I found no corroboration of Puar’s claims. I drafted and sent to Martín a detailed rebuttal questioning the paper’s academic legitimacy.

Martín writes that the article in The Dartmouth was full of false affirmations and poor research, but these phrases better describe Puar’s paper. She relies on cherrypicked statements and opinions that presuppose her ideological validity. Puar, a queer theorist, has no educational background in Israeli or Palestinian issues, does not speak either Hebrew or Arabic fluently and makes no effort to introduce views that oppose her own. She cites Mondoweiss, whose founder has accused Jews of controlling government and the media, and Jadaliyya, whose founder has said that the magazine does “not pretend to be an open forum for all views.” She condemns Israel for shooting to injure rather than kill Palestinian attackers, effectively concluding that the only acceptable Israeli action is none at all. She praises the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement as a method for “delegitimization” of Israel. She accuses Israel of employing “weaponized epigenetics” without citing one biological or scientific source. She omits any fact, number or source that would undermine any of her points. Her article, which comprised almost the entirety of her talk, is analogous to a paper on evolution whose sources are all creationists. This scholarship does not conform to the standards toward which we at Dartmouth are taught to strive.

Puar’s article is published in borderlands, a journal that seeks submissions that “blur the lines between fiction, journalism, and essayistic prose.” As stated on its manifesto, borderlands searches “knowledge for its effects rather than its truth.” Like borderlands, Puar’s paper displays a lack of regard for the

truth. Martín contends that Puar’s remarks cannot have been anti-Semitic, as they only focused on Israeli policy. However, this is a common theme of today’s anti-Semitism.

While of course not all criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic, simply replacing “Jews” with “the Israeli government” in patently false and malicious claims does not automatically make them alright.

At the GRID symposium, Martín threatened that she would have me removed “with force if necessary.” In addition to denying this, Martín also questions my motivations.

I have stood by my straightforward motivations throughout this ordeal: I want to ensure Puar’s accountability to the truth, especially given her requests for her speeches not to be recorded. Further, the fact that I am white, male and Jewish, and Puar is not, is an insufficient basis for Neel Ahuja and Martín to conclude that my actions represented support for colonialism or racism. Quite the opposite: I am concerned by Puar’s remarks because of an acute sensitivity and opposition to bigotry.

Martín states that nobody “challenged Puar on any matter of fact or interpretation,” just before describing a challenge on a matter of fact or interpretation. The moderator, however, took the microphone from professor Sergei Kan when she judged his question — the only verbal dissent in the room — unfit to be asked. Martín points out that Puar’s response was unrefuted, but does not mention the difficulty of refuting a point in a lecture hall when the benefit of a microphone has been taken away. GRID’s lack of dedication to “debating conflicting visions” is disheartening and directly conflicts with Dartmouth’s academic ideals.

Martín claims that if anything antiSemitic had been said, GRID would have offered a condemnation. However, Puar’s presentation was anti-Semitic, crossing the line from false to malicious and employing opaque language to give an academic sheen to patently un-academic work. On multiple occasions, I brought concerns about this to GRID through Martín. Each time, I was rebuffed without any critical engagement from GRID or Martín.

My education is a constant reminder to question my surroundings. I welcome views different from my own, as confronting them is essential to intellectual growth. I encourage my own academic discomfort and hold the free dissemination of ideas sacred. I find academic honesty and accountability to the truth to be paramount in my growth as a contributor to global thought. I would hope to find those values in each member of this community.

I invite Martín to examine the views of those with whom she allies herself and to begin to espouse the ideals that she represents through her professorship. Nobody is exempt from critical analysis of dissenting ideas. The world is indeed full of uncomfortable truths, but it is the duty of our whole community — not just students with one particular view — to confront them.

THE DARTMOUTH ARTS

WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2016

PAGE 8

Three seniors to be featured in Barbary Coast Ensemble concert

By WILL TACKETT

The Dartmouth Staff

If you entered the Hopkins Center for the Arts at any point this week, you might have noticed a zany video blaring brassy big band music. The video, which features Barbary Coast Jazz Ensemble’s three graduating seniors, Kimberly Hassel ’16, Moises Silva ’16 and Kathryn Waychoff, is a promotion for the Ensemble’s upcoming Senior Feature Concert.

Barbary Coast puts on this show every Green Key week (this is the 37th annual occurrence of the show) in order to highlight the graduating senior’s accomplishments during their tenure with the ensemble.

This year, Barbary Coast is graduating a saxophone and clarinet player (Hassel), a drummer/percussionist (Silva) and lead trumpet (Waychoff).

Each senior got to pick a set of a few songs designed to represent their specific interests and skillsets within jazz.

The song featured in the video, “Tank!” by the Japanese blues/jazz band SEATBELTS, well-known as the opening theme to the classic anime show Cowboy Bebop, is one of Hassel’s picks. She picked the song for its prominent saxophone solo and for how

well it fit the ensemble.

“I really like this song, I think it’s a fun song,” Hassel said. “I also like the whole kind of secret agent vibe that goes with it.”

The song intersects with Hassel’s academic interests. She is a Japanese modified with Anthropology major, and will be pursuing a Ph.D. in East Asian Studies at Princeton after graduation.

Hassel chose her second song, “One More Once,” by Dominican jazz pianist Michel Camilo to honor her own Dominican heritage as well as incorporate some interesting rhythms into the set.

The choice of her third song, “It’s Only a Paper Moon” by Benny Goodman featuring Dottie Reed (Tyné Freeman ’17 will sing this part), has roots in her development as a jazz musician, as it was a song she listened to a lot during her transition from classical to jazz clarinet.

Hassel characterizes her improvisational style as rhythmic.

“I definitely like to play very loudly and just experiment a lot with rhythm and just basically shred,” Hassel said.

“I think that’s what my trademark is in the band.”

Barbary Coast Ensemble director

Don Glasgo remarked on the “constantly positive energy” Hassel brings to the group.

“She just has such a beautiful attitude toward the group and is such a nice person,” Glasgo said.

Meanwhile, Waychoff’s role is the steadfast lead trumpet, a position she stepped into when she first joined the Ensemble her freshman year. She commented that the transition was hard, but that as she has gotten older she has learned to play with more confidence, even if it means confidently missing a note.

“I’d never been challenged that much in music before,” Waychoff said.

“A lead player’s role is to be constant and to be the driving force that’s always there.”

Waychoff picked up trumpet from her father, also a jazz trumpeter, who encouraged her to practice and created a jazz-filled environment in their home.

“A lot of the songs that sort of embody why I play jazz and aspects of my childhood are songs that we’re going to play at the concert,” Waychoff said.

Two of the pieces Waychoff selected are songs by Maynard Ferguson and his Orchestra, a band she grew up listening to, meaning that it is “sort of

inevitable” that she is playing them now.

One of those pieces includes “Maria,” the namesake for Waychoff’s middle name.

The third song Waychoff chose for her feature is “Get It On” by the band Chase, a rock song that features trumpets.

“She’s been the best lead trumpet player I’ve ever had in the group, so it’s been a pleasure all the way through,” Glasgo said. “I’m glad she’s going to be featured the way she wants to be in the show.”

For his feature, Silva is doing just one piece — but no one’s heard it yet.

For the show, he is going to perform a single eight to ten-minute-long, improvised drum solo with an audience immersion aspect. Even Glasgo will be hearing how Silva executes his solo for the first time on Thursday at the concert.

“I’m excited about that, just to hear what’s he going to do and how he’s going to do it. That’ll be fun,” Glasgo said.

Silva got his inspiration for the piece from Antonio Sánchez, a Mexican jazz drummer known for his integral role in the soundtrack for the film Birdman (2014). Silva admires Sanchez’s ability to develop ideas throughout the whole

song, rather than just do the motion of a drum solo.

“What I like about him is that he really champions melody and rhythmic ideas as a whole instead of ‘How fast can I go?’,” Silva said.

Silva joined the band just two years ago with little jazz drumming experience, after encouragement from one his bandmates in The Euphemisms, a student band, who also played for Barbary Coast.

“I wanted to join the Barbary Coast, because to me that’s the group where if you really are an expert at your instrument, then you play in that group,” Silva said.

The concert is also the first one since the Ensemble’s spring break trip to Cuba. During the trip, they toured the country, playing with high school and professional musicians.

“Going to Cuba was a big surprise and a great way to end senior year,” Silva said. “It made it easier to say it was time to let go of the Barbary Coast.”

Hassel commented on the sense of community within the group.

“Coast is an amazing group of people,” said Hassel. “[The Cuba trip] made me realize how much of a family they are to me and how much I’m going to miss the band.”

Lahiri speaks about words, writing and a sense of belonging

By KAINA CHEN

The Dartmouth Staff

Monday afternoon in Filene Auditorium, audience members filled the seats and aisles to hear acclaimed author Jhumpa Lahiri speak about her work and answer questions from the audience. Her books include “Interpreter of Maladies,” “The Namesake,” “Unaccustomed Earth” and “The Lowland.” She received a Pulitzer Prize in 2000 for her literary debut, “Interpreter of Maladies.” She has also been awarded the 2008 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award for “Unaccustomed Earth” and the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature for “The Lowland.”

Lahiri began the 90-minute session with an introduction about how her upbringing has influenced much of her work. She was born in London to Bengali immigrant parents, but moved to the United States at a very young age. Lahiri spoke Bengali with her parents and spoke English outside

of the home.

She did not truly feel at home in her physical home, but rather in the public library. Lahiri said that the shelves of books there gave her “possibility and a sense of belonging.”

This sense of displacement that largely stems from immigration is a prominent theme in “Interpreter of Maladies,” a collection of short stories that narrates the triumphs and tribulations of Indian immigrants.

Even though she is no longer the child who found solace in a library amongst books, Lahiri’s sense of not quite having one particular place to call home has remained.

“Those who don’t belong to any specific place can’t return anywhere,” Lahiri said. “I wander the world, even as I wrote at my desk.”

Nisha Kommattam, a postdoctoral fellow for the Leslie Center for the Humanities, introduced the idea of “words and empty space” as expressed

by Lahiri, which focused the discussion on Lahiri’s most recent work, “In altre

parole” (In Other Words), written in Italian. Lahiri, who had always been fascinated by Italian, decided to move to Italy in 2012 and fully immerse herself in the language and culture, writing in Italian in a diary that eventually became the book.

Lahiri specifically tackled the relationship between words and empty space by filling blank notebooks with multiple lists of words during the lengthy process of learning a new language. This process paralleled Lahiri’s perspective on creative spaces. For her, a creative space can begin with the kind of emptiness that is willing to be filled.

“It’s really when I started putting words on paper that I started to feel present and alive,” Lahiri said.

The idea of the permanence of words complemented her sense of feeling adrift. “[Words] seem to represent me in a more concrete way than I myself felt,” Lahiri said.

Commenting on why she chose to learn another language even though

she has been very successful with work written in English, Lahiri remarked that she chose Italian precisely because it was unexpected.

“It’s not filtered or mediated by either my family’s vast set of expectations or by the world in which I was raised,” Lahiri said.

Yet, Lahiri’s expanding language capabilities highlight her sense of exile.

Lahiri noted a sense of her alienation from each of the three languages as they are components of very different parts of her life. Lahiri feels “more affectionate” in Italian, while she feels it is “wrong to speak to a child in English,” because it was not the language she grew up surrounded by.

Furthermore, Lahiri felt that language was very much a limiting factor.

She found the experience of living in Europe where different languages are spoken so closely together “humbling.”

Yet, as limiting as they can be, she acknowledges that “the wonderful thing about languages is that they can be learned.”

“They’re kind of beautiful that way,” Lahiri said.

“In altre parole” was translated into English by Ann Goldstein, under the title “In Other Words.” Lahiri did not translate the novel herself because she wanted to spend her remaining time in Italy fully immersed in the language.

“I didn’t want to risk creating a more polished version of what I had made in Italian”, Lahiri said. “I felt that a translator with objectivity would be the right person to do that.”

Audience member Sai Mupparaju ’18 related to Lahiri’s sense of displacement.

“I understood what she meant about not really belonging to a singular language,” Mupparaju said.

Beyond her work as an author, Lahiri is a professor of creative writing at Princeton University and was appointed by President Barack Obama onto the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities.

This event is part of the Leslie Center for the Humanities speaker series.