NEWS

Writer and cartoonist Alison Bechdel visits Yale

BY AVA SAYLOR STAFF REPORTER

Students packed the 53 Wall St. auditorium on Thursday afternoon to hear a talk from Alison Bechdel, the graphic artist and namesake of the Bechdel test.

Bechdel delivered a talk that focused on generational differences through her work using 20th-century poet Adrienne Rich as a touchstone. While on campus, she also participated in a seminar where she spoke about the evolution of her art, the complexities of writing a coming out story and the transmission of cultural history through literature.

“There’s sort of a retrospective understanding that my story has become a node of transmission of a certain branch of queer history, which is kind of cool,” Bechdel told the News. “But you know, that makes me a little nervous. Like, did I get it right? What’s my responsibility here? But I guess anyone writing anything has to grapple with that.”

Professors Ellen Handler Spitz and R. Howard Bloch, who co-teach the Humanities seminar “Love, Marriage, Family: A Psychological Study Through the Arts” — the seminar Bechdel visited — invited Bechdel to campus. The Yale Humanities Program; English department; women’s, gender and sexuality studies program; the History of Art department and the Whitney Humanities Center co-sponsored the event.

Bechdel rose to prominence with the publication of her 2006 graphic-memoir, “Fun Home.” The book centers around Bechdel’s relationship with her father, the events leading up to his death and Bechdel reconciling her own queerness with her father’s closeted sexuality. “Fun Home” was later adapted into a Tony-winning musical.

Maia Decker ’24 — who, like Bechdel, is a queer writer — attended the event with friends from her creative writing class. She was most excited to hear about Bechdel’s writing process and relationship to her work.

“I was inspired by the manner in which Bechdel transverses the academic and popular world — a task especially difficult for writers,” Decker wrote to the News. “I’m so grateful that we were all able to learn from such a talented writer and a queer elder, the latter of which is not to be taken for granted.”

Bechdel was introduced by Kathryn Lofton, who will serve as acting dean of the Faculty of Arts & Sciences beginning in January. Lofton spoke about the current censorship of queer literature and Bechdel’s profound influence on queer writers — and also joked about Bechdel’s rejection from Yale.

Lofton detailed a recent personal encounter with the cultural weight of Bechdel’s work. After speaking at Colorado College, she traveled with members of the college’s LGBTQ+ alliance to Club Q, the LGBTQ+ nightclub where a shooter killed 5 people and injured 17 others in November.

On the drive back from the club, one of the students revealed that she was in the process of storyboarding a graphic novel. When Lofton asked whether the student liked Bechdel, the student responded, “Yes, she is everything.” Everyone in the car, including their previously-silent driver, nodded reverently in agreement.

“For us, the work is never to forget how powerful a thing it is to speak truth at the highest level of its expression,” Lofton said. “How truly dangerous it is to speak that truth. When it is done, it can break open the world.”

Bechdel’s talk spanned across her 40-year career, using her ongoing connection to 20th-century poet and feminist theorist Adrienne Rich as a touchstone throughout. She described Rich, whose “radical lesbian poetry” shaped Bechdel’s political perspective and aesthetic mission, as one of her greatest influences.

The audience collectively gasped when Bechdel described a personalized rejection letter she got from Rich after submitting a short memoir piece to a lesbian, feminist journal early in her career. Though discouraged, Bechdel continued to write, calling Rich’s letter a “gift.”

Projecting photos of her cartoons onto the auditorium screen, Bechdel recounted her first forays into professional cartooning. She first described her dissatisfaction with the 1980s representation of queer women, which she strived to correct with her comic strip, “Dykes to Watch Out For.” The strip ran for 25 years.

Bechdel then spoke about her graphic memoirs “Fun Home” and “Are You My Mother?,” which focus on her father and mother, respectively. She said she continued to take inspiration from Rich as she used writing to process her life story and understand her parents in a historical context.

“Sometimes the only way to really untie this complicated, traumatic knot would be to not just feel it but to to think it through,” Bechdel said. “When I was younger, I pretty much wrote my parents off as being hopelessly damaged from the repressive era they had grown up in, but as I

MIRANDA JEYARETNAM/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

Bechdel, the author of acclaimed graphic novel “Fun Home,” addressed craft and queerness in her talk to the Yale community.

wrote about them, I began to gain an appreciation for the extent to which they managed to keep themselves intact in spite of those forces.”

When Bechdel began writing her latest book, “The Secret to Superhuman Strength,” she drew inspiration from a quote, “To study Buddhism is to study the self, to study the self is to forget the self, to forget the self is to be with others.”

Bechdel claimed that her connection to Adrienne Rich had lapsed by this time. However, during a period of writer’s block, she suddenly thought of the phrase “Transcendental Etude” — the title of a poem by rich. The poem’s title was eventually included in the final chapter of “The Secret to Superhuman Strength.”

“The poem brought me back to the days of my youth, of my political and sexual awakening and the clarity of that vision of the world, which did not get muddied by experience,” Bechdel said.

At the event’s conclusion, students were given the opportunity to ask questions and get their books signed.

Bechdel was hesitant to give advice to future generations of writers, but she eventually turned to Rich once more.

“I just think I hate giving advice to people because I don’t like getting advice,” she told the News. “But it makes me think of my rejection letter from Adrienne Rich. It said, ‘Writing is a very long, demanding training. More hard work than luck.’ I think that’s really awesome advice.”

“The Secret to Superhuman Strength” was published in 2021.

Contact AVA SAYLOR at ava.saylor@yale.edu .

Davenport formal canceled mid-event after alcohol smuggling

BY BRIAN ZHANG STAFF REPORTER

Gnomecoming, Davenport College’s annual formal dance, came to an abrupt halt on Friday evening following the discovery of prohibited alcoholic beverages and underage drinking at the venue.

This year’s Gnomecoming, which took place at the 80 Proof American Kitchen & Bar, divided attendees into two cohorts. First years and sophomores were invited to stay from 10 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. and juniors and seniors were asked to attend between 11:30 p.m. and 1:00 a.m.

The first cohort arrived on time, donning feather boas and 1920s dresses in keeping with the formal’s “Moulin Rouge” theme. But at 11:32

RYAN CHIAO/SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

This year’s Davenport College formal was canceled after the discovery of prohibited alcohol and underage drinking. p.m., Davenport students received an email from Co-President of the Davenport College Council Patrick Chappel ’24. In the email, which has been obtained by the News, Chappel asked juniors and seniors to “hold off” on coming to the venue at their designated slot time.

Nine minutes later, Chappel sent another email, with the subject line, “This one hurts.”

“It is with literally the greatest regret that I let you know that Gnomecoming is canceled,” Chappel wrote in the two-sentence email. “To the individuals who snuck alcohol in and exhibited the most ungnomelike behavior… that was so not a slay.”

Meanwhile, first years and sophomores were ushered out by the DCC and venue staff. No upperclassmen were allowed inside afterwards.

Warrington said there “was a lot of screaming and commotion” as staff cleared students from the venue, adding that it would have been helpful for someone to confirm that the event’s cancellation had not been a joke.

“The whole situation could have been managed better… the instructions could have been clearer,” said Sunniva Warrington ’25.

The process for gaining alcoholic drinks at the formal was as follows: students showed their IDs at the entrance and then were given different wristbands. Students over 21 years of age received two drink tickets that could be exchanged at the bar for alcoholic drinks.

Friday night reflected an “irresponsibility” on various fronts, according to both Warrington and Kayla Wong ’25. They emphasized the importance of “trust” when it comes to alcohol consumption at campus events — both among students and between students and the event hosts. They added that they hope that the same mistake does not repeat itself for future recreational events hosted by the University.

Warrington added that it might have been more productive to remove only the individuals involved in the alleged alcohol smuggling, though she understood that the venue could have demanded the cancellation.

Wong said she felt “disappoint[ed]” and “frustrat[ed]” that many students, especially juniors and seniors, were not able to enjoy their night as planned, adding that she looks forward to receiving a refund or a replacement formal. She called for greater transparency in communication between Davenport leadership and formal attendees.

“DCC has been working to plan this [Gnomecoming] since August, and we were all looking forward to this event,” read a statement that Ella Martinez ‘25, another organizer of the event, wrote on behalf of DCC. “We are incredibly upset that the behavior exhibited at Gnomecoming by certain individuals led to the venue canceling. We are disappointed on behalf of juniors and seniors who missed out on this event, and we are committed to making it up to them in the spring.”

The 80 Proof American Kitchen & Bar is located at 196 Crown St.

Contact BRIAN ZHANG at brian.zhang@yale.edu .

“The Criminal Mind” course caps enrollment, drops over 200 students

BY TRISTAN HERNANDEZ CONTRIBUTING REPORTER

The last time Arielle Baskin-Sommers taught “The Criminal Mind,” enrollment for the course was just under 400 students. This year, the number of students attempting to register shot up to over 700.

“The Criminal Mind” is the most popular course the psychology department is offering in the spring 2023 semester, with 513 students currently registered according to Course Demand Statistics. But, this number fell from initial enrollment after over 200 students were forced to drop the class because of lecture hall size restrictions, leaving many disappointed.

“I know there were many people who worked their schedule around that class, and it’s frankly unfair that such a last minute decision was made to drop these students so close to the end of registration period,” William Miller ’26 said. “Since it’s such a popular class, I can understand why so many people registered, and the priority may have gone to upperclassmen. Yet, overcapacity is an issue that should have been sorted out beforehand.”

When Baskin-Sommers — who is currently serving as interim Head of Silliman College — saw she had 725 students who had added the course on their Canvas worksheets, she contacted the University Registrar’s Office and was informed that all courses must now be capped at 450 students.

The largest classroom on campus is O.C. Marsh Lecture Hall in the Yale Science Building, with a maximum capacity of 483 people.

On the Registrar’s Office’s suggestion, Baskin-Sommers said, those who enrolled first in the class were able to remain. Since registration changes to the spring 2023 semester made the opening of course enrollment staggered by class year, seniors and juniors — who saw registration open earlier than sophomores and first years — were less likely to be affected by the removal.

Removal from the class roster did cause some issues for some students who planned their schedules around the lecture. Sushant Kunwar ’26 was one of these students. He was hoping to use the class as his social science distributional requirement since it fit into his schedule.

“Being kicked out of the class was troublesome,” Kunwar said. “I removed my backup classes from my registration worksheet so I was scrambling to fill out my registration worksheet before the deadline.”

Baskin-Sommers expressed support for teaching the class again in the future, and Kunwar said he hopes to take the course when it is offered again.

Yale’s most popular course ever, “Psychology and the Good Life,” taught by Laurie Santos — who is currently on leave from both her teaching post and her role as Head of Silliman College — saw enrollment surpassing 1,200 students in 2018. The course was originally split between Battell Chapel and live streams in other auditoriums before moving to Woolsey Hall.

“The Criminal Mind” was last taught in 2020, and it had an overall rating of 4.6 on CourseTable. Baskin-Sommers attributed the class’s popularity to the multidisciplinary content covered, the introductory nature of the class and the lack of discussion sections or labs that make the workload “relatively manageable.”

“My main goals in this course are to get students excited about psychology and neuroscience and to help address myths that many people believe about criminal behavior by helping students understand the rich scientific literature on the topic,” Baskin-Sommers wrote to the News.

The course goes over the role of the environment, the role of mental illnesses and underlying patterns of thinking and feeling that contribute to chronic criminal behavior. It also uses scientific understanding to consider potential changes in legal policy and intervention.

Some students, like Miller, attributed some of the course’s popularity to its offering every two years, which he said makes students more eager to take it as it may be their only chance.

“I mainly chose this course because I was told it was one of the most interesting courses at Yale,” Miller said. “Since I’m in Silliman, my head of college is also teaching the class so I have some sort of connection with the professor as well. I’ve also never been particularly interested in psychology, so I want this to be the class that sparks my interest.”

The classes of 2024 and 2025 set record numbers for enrollment, with the current sophomore class’ population of 1,786 about 240 students larger than the previously typical incoming class. In 2021, administrators told the News the increased student population created larger demand for courses. This is the first time “The Criminal Mind” has been offered for this larger student body.

Baskin-Sommers said she was not sure if larger Yale class sizes impact the record enrollment for her course.

O.C. Marsh Lecture Hall is located at 260 Whitney Ave.