The post Cyanotypes appeared first on Yale Daily News.

The event, hosted on Sept. 4,  ran in collaboration with professor Karin Roffman’s debut course “Poets and Their Papers” — a poetic research class which centers around living poets, including Charles North, whose papers are held in the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. This is JE’s first college tea under Paul North, its new head of college and Charles North’s nephew.

 “In the University we tend to be at arm’s length from the writers and their process of writing, so this reading was an excellent and rare opportunity to get in there and see how things are done from the poet’s side,” Paul North told the News. “We had 55 people in attendance, which is a wonderful turnout for a college tea. This indicates to me what a genuine love of poetry we have amongst the student body. I was surprised and amazed by the extent of the enthusiasm in the room.” 

The event began with a reading, as Charles North shared selections from his anthology, “New and Selected Poems” and  his newest collection, “Everything and Other Poems.”

He read a range of poems and shared anecdotes with the audience about his relationships with fellow poets within the second generation of the “New York School” — a nebulously defined group of poets living in New York City in the 1960s whose work was thematically experimental, philosophical and anti-establishment. 

Charles North then transitioned to a discussion of the effect his early mentor and teacher Kenneth Koch had on the beginning of his poetic career. He shared that he did not take a liking to the art form until his mid-20s, having found it boring throughout his early education. He explained that he was dissatisfied with the way he was traditionally taught poetry; the traditional English curriculum he was exposed to as a child gave him a very distant and formal view of the art form. 

“Kenneth turned out to be the best poetry teacher in the history of our country,” Charles North continued. “He changed my life during a time when I felt like I was floundering. I was amazed by the way Kenneth Koch taught — it pulled the rug out from under traditionally formal ways of teaching poetry.”

In addition to speaking at the tea, Charles North visited Roffman’s class. Roffman’s course,  “Poets and their Papers,” has been studying the work and personal life of Charles North since the beginning of the semester, reading through his personal composition notebooks, poetic drafts and correspondences to fellow New York School poets like Ron Padgett and Paul Violi. The new course immerses students in the poetic drafting process, tracking how a poem develops from its  initial conception to its published form. 

Roffman noted that while reading the poems as they are published is important, it is crucial to hear the poem as it sounds in the voice and tempo of the poet. These subtle changes reveal multitudes about the poet’s vision and meaning of their work, and allows us to shift our understanding of the poem to reflect what the poet initially intended. 

“It is a remarkable experience to hear a poet, in a way, annotate their papers,” Roffman said. “Pulling out old notebooks and drafts of things from well-packed boxes in a library reading room, it is easy to forget that these things were once blank pages on someone’s desk, surrounded by other papers, books and pieces of their life.” 

In his visit to Roffman’s class, Charles North recovered some lines of a poem he had written in about 1988 in one of his many handwritten compositional notebooks. These fragments of a poetic draft, discarded at the time, were now wonderful to him as he suddenly encountered them decades later, Roffman said.

 “When the poet encounters their own drafts or notes or letters, often after not seeing them for years, many different things occur, but sometimes one of them is that they recall what was happening around the page — both activities and thoughts — and we hear more about things that were going on at the same time,” Roffman said. 

Keeley Brooks ’25, an audience member and a student in Roffman’s course, added that Charles North’s visit supplemented her research and illuminated the course material. 

“Hearing North read out loud the poems we have been studying in class was magical,” Brooks said. “It was a lovely experience to hear them spoken with North’s stylistic vocal inflections and syllabic emphasis.” 

Brooks noted the “joy” that Charles North expressed in his collaborations and discussions with other poets.

Reflecting on what it felt like to host his first college tea, Paul North noted that what he most enjoys about his job is engaging the people around him in intellectual and artistic thinking that can spur new conversations. 

“I’ve seen Charles North read many times alongside big name poets from the New York School,” Paul North said. “But what really struck me about this experience was how funny his poetry is — it was so nice seeing how closely the audience engaged with the humor which spread to a joyful, enthralling atmosphere amongst the crowd.”

The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript library holds 11 boxes of Charles North’s personal papers available for view to all students and faculty of the University. 

The post Poet Charles North reads at Jonathan Edwards College Tea appeared first on Yale Daily News.

Before this year, pre-orientation programs were optional and students had to pay a fee to participate. The University announced its switch to mandatory, free programs last spring in an attempt to balance the initial arrival of first-years to campus — in 2021, a spike in interest in pre-orientation programs led to large groups of students arriving on campus at different times, separating those who participated in programs from those who did not. 

“Making the programs mandatory and taking away the cost that has historically been charged to participate in the program has made it a much more equitable experience,” Jayanti Gupta ’26 said. “It is now an experience which all Yalies, regardless of financial status or other socioeconomic demographics, can participate in.” 

For Gupta, the most important part of participating in a pre-orientation program is the chance to engage with fellow students on a deeper level than would be possible otherwise. Gupta said her experience in Cultural Connections was transformative, leaving her with lifelong friends and people to engage with on campus, making the first-year experience less intimidating. 

Gupta’s pre-orientation program connected her with people who hold similar identities and backgrounds, which she said she especially valued because the University is a predominantly-white institution. Cultural Connections was the one thing that grounded her at Yale, Gupta said, giving her a community within an entirely new social and academic environment. 

Annie Cui ’26 said she appreciated her pre-orientation program, FOOT, for allowing her to develop deep connections to people in a very vulnerable setting. In particular, she highlighted one of the program’s traditions: having every student give a “hometown,” or an in-depth recollection of their life story and background.

“I think living in the wilderness without showering, sleeping like sardines under a tent and living off tortillas really bonds people like no other,” Cui said. “My FOOT group met me in my dirtiest, most repulsive state, and still decided to be friends, which goes to show what a phenomenal bonding program it is.” 

Issy Po ’26 saw her pre-orientation program, the Orientation for International Students, as an opportunity to become adjusted to the resources available at the University. 

She also highlighted her program’s help in assisting her and other international students in their transition to life in a new country. The group bonding exercises connected Po with a group of friends and comforted her during times of anxiety during the move to Yale, she added.

“As an international student, it doesn’t feel like I am being forced to join a pre-orientation program,” Po said. “This is definitely a community I want to be a part of in the long-term, and I have definitely made some valuable connections that I believe will carry me through my Yale experience!” 

The pre-orientation programs include Cultural Connections, BUILD, FOCUS, FOOT, OIS, and Harvest. The BUILD program centers around the chance for students to create virtual computer programs and technological objects. The FOCUS program is dedicated to local activism and community service and takes place in New Haven — and generated some criticism over its projects with local service groups. The FOOT program is a four day backpacking trip through the northeastern mountains. OIS serves to help adjust foreign students into life and school in the United States, and the Harvest program seeks to familiarize students with agriculture and outdoor activities in a farming setting in Connecticut.  

Not all students were at ease with the idea of being mandated to join a pre orientation program. For Cui, the requirement was intimidating and unclear. 

“I felt a mix of anxiety and excitement going into pre-orientation,” Cui said. “I wasn’t quite sure what the four days would entail –– all I knew was that I would be backpacking for the first time ever with complete strangers somewhere in the Appalachians.” 

The pre-orientation programs split students into small groups, each led by a student leader. 

The post First-years reflect on inaugural year of mandatory pre-orientation programs  appeared first on Yale Daily News.

When words are the lifeblood of my love, my work, my vision, it’s frightening to watch them obfuscate my feelings, dancing around their complexity.

Human beings protest words with a dismissal of language in the moments that wholly strangle us: a moment of silence to remember an entity deceased or our loss for words in a state of shock.

It’s hard for me to register the insufficiency of words when I’ve seen a room in tears because of a poet’s work. Or when I nestle into the literature department of my university to find a mother in the books, a father in my writings, a family united by the appreciation of verse. 

I catch the token words of authors in my mouth to cash in at the arcade of academia. Collect enough, and you, too, can win a prize! 

So often, we choke on words too large, regurgitating them like glimmering medallions, receipts of learning a celebrated style of language. 

As a young woman learning to write, I rearrange words to craft a new perspective — it’s visceral. I want to be new, I want to be heard, but most of all, I want to make an impression. 

It’s a constant fight not to picture you all as I am writing, sitting in green lawn chairs in the corners of my mind. You sit with lips pursed and heads tilted, wondering how to best suggest concision, rationalization.

I’m desperate to separate language from performance. Yet I cry in my car when I can’t get the words to bend to my will. Was it to make me unique, to make me understand myself, to understand others? My relationship with language is my construction of reality — my slice of the human obsession with meaning-making. 

When a boy told me that I occupy a special little space in his head, or that his mother called me beautiful. That was when I realized that words were heavy molds. They felt so true, so easy to shape into something grand, mighty, and substantial. I let them mean too much.

I don’t doubt each word to be an attempt at truthful representation. It’s not the syllables at fault — but the interpretations they so willingly invite. 

When a professor told me that I had a vision she had never seen before. When she said that I had what it took if I could just keep pushing deeper into the language. If I could just go a little further than the others had gone before. I couldn’t understand why she was asking me to become an archaeologist. 

Like I would find a new deeper meaning to the classic text after digging, as if the fossil wasn’t already on display. Even as a lover of analysis, I found myself doubting any author’s intentionality behind the color of a curtain. 

When is the dive too deep? When am I too pseudo-poet? 

I confided in my freshman-year English professor who found me a confidante: Addie Bundren. A character of William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying, Addie acknowledged the insufficiency of language like no one I had seen before:

“He had a word, too. Love, he called it. But I had been used to words for a long time. I knew that that word was like the others: just a shape to fill a lack; that when the right time came, you wouldn’t need a word for that anymore.”

It strikes me that even Addie’s refusal of language is conveyed through language. How even when we recognize their flaws, words are the only mechanism by which we can attempt to cultivate understanding. For that power — they have no replacement. 

I realized that we value words because of their insufficiency, extrapolating from language what we want to believe. 

A byproduct of their insufficiency, words are uniquely personal reflections of hope. When we speak, we frame situations only as they fit the vision of what we allow ourselves to see.

If a word is “a shape to fill a lack,” it is a shape we mold ourselves. In its ductility, a word is a medium conducive to artistry.

I am good at constructing meaning from the heavy molds of words. I pour myself into them, filling them, stacking them, piecing them together so that they fit the design of what I had in mind. 

My self-awareness of the inadequacy of words — my knowledge that language fails to capture the entirety of a feeling, leads me to an obsession with an extraction of depth. I am afraid that if I do not look deep enough into someone’s words I might miss a gem — the heart of the mine, the heart of their mind. 

I know that despite life’s advertisements, language is not universal. It is not singular. It is not true. Its capacity to be individually interpreted, personally owned, singularly perceived, is precisely why it is so valuable. 

I found another confidante in Jacques of Diderot’s Jacques the Fatalist: 

“It can hardly happen twice in one day that someone’s words are understood in the same way as they are spoken.”

Jacques acknowledges the brokenness of language, noting how we rarely grasp others’ words the way that they were intended. Instead, we project a piece of ourselves into language perception. 

A man tells Jacques in the novel: “Just tell the thing as you will, I will listen as I can and believe as I am able.”

This call to “tell the thing as you will,” suggests the need to keep conversing, speaking, writing, in the face of the fallibility of language. 

I think the fallibility of language promotes the reader and the writer. As we overfill or underfill the mold of language, our interaction with language is artistry reflective of the self. 

Language is broken. It can never be fixed. Words are molded by our subconscious personal associations. They are incomplete, representative figures. 

Language is a vessel, and that is why I have dedicated my life to it. Words, in their subjectivity, remain valuable because they do not lead us into truth. They lead us into ourselves.

When I write, I soar. I’m the one who does the flying. The paragraphs fall away, the sentences fall away, the words fall away. Language is a mere mold that holds what I have already cultivated inside myself.

The post I write because words are broken appeared first on Yale Daily News.

Yousafzai, the world’s youngest Nobel laureate, virtually joined the event, which Laurie Santos, Silliman Head of College and psychology professor, hosted in person for students. She detailed the importance of individuals speaking out, as seemingly small actions can cause a ripple effect, as well as the difficult balance between activism and resulting burnout.

“We all burn out,” Yousafzai said at the event, discussing the exhaustion that can arise from holding global crises so close to her heart. “When you put so much energy into one cause and one mission, like my advocacy for education financing, it is natural.”

Event attendees included Yale students, faculty and potential incoming members of the class of 2026 through the Bulldog Days program, as well as students around the world. According to Santos, several hundred students attended — including one fifth-grade classroom.

A prominent education advocate, Yousafzai has spent her life speaking out publicly against the Taliban’s terrorist regime. In 2012, at 15 years old, she survived an assassination attempt by the Taliban — and she has since continued working to promote educational access for women and girls.

Yousafzai discussed that the hardest part of constantly advocating for change is the frequent empty promises she faces from policymakers.

Oftentimes, she described, politicians leave her with nothing but “nice words” and make no effort to achieve the goal of her advocacy: a fiscal commitment to gender equality in financing women’s education.

“There is burnout in the sense that I feel like I could have done more, that I was being too optimistic. But then I remember the progress that has been made,” Yousafzai said at the event. “What gives me hope is the voices of young girls across the world that are speaking out. The pity is always there when you take a break. In those times you have to remind yourself that you are the most productive when you are not exhausted.”

She continued to say that everyone needs to recharge to “boost” their productivity, and that she spends time with friends and partners to “refuel” herself.

In an email to the News, Santos said that she and Yousafzai are both writers for the Bulletin, a new Meta platform, and she was able to connect with Yousafzai for this purpose by drawing on that connection.

“Just being able to connect with someone who’s doing such important work was amazing, but I was thrilled to be able to share that connection with the Silliman Community,” Santos wrote to the News.

Residential college teas offer an opportunity for Yale affiliates to engage with various visitors renowned in their fields, be it politics, arts, activism or research. According to an event description on Yale’s Bulldog Days website, this event also offered accepted students who are considering matriculating to Yale a chance to experience a sample college tea.

Yousafzai graduated from Oxford University in 2020 with a degree in philosophy, politics and economics.

The post World’s youngest Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai delivers Silliman college tea appeared first on Yale Daily News.

Yale’s characteristic two-week spring recess was halved in December as the spring semester was delayed due to concerns about the Omicron variant. The change from two weeks to one evoked frustration and annoyance within the student body. The News spoke to 10 students about the change, many of whom shared that the shortened break has kept them from traveling home or visiting friends. Students expressed frustration with the limited time to rest before the end of the spring semester, noting that the shortened break would be used mostly to catch up on assignments, rather than to prioritize relaxation.

“The one-week break is completely less than ideal,” said Whitney Toutenhoofd ’25. “Between midterms, seasonal depression and the anxiety and uncertainties that the pandemic have brought to campus this semester, it seems like a lot of students are feeling really burnt out and in need of a longer reset than a single week can provide.” 

The two-week recess generally leaves time for extracurricular groups such as a cappella and improv to tour as well as spend time at home. It gives students in general time to balance travel, relaxation and catching up on schoolwork. 

The University made the decision to shorten the spring recess in the wake of the Omicron surge in December 2021. Yale College Dean Marvin Chun told the News that once the administration had decided to delay the start of the semester to avoid widespread cases of the Omicron variant, they deliberated where to allocate the extra week that had been removed from the beginning of the spring semester. 

With the shortened spring recess at Yale University leaving students with limited time to travel and rest, it becomes crucial to make the most of the one-week break. While many students may feel frustrated and burnt out by the lack of time for relaxation, it’s essential to prioritize self-care during this period. Instead of embarking on elaborate trips, consider exploring places where you feel comfortable and can unwind. Traveling to familiar and soothing environments can provide a much-needed reset for the mind and body. For more travel tips and destinations that offer comfort and tranquility, read more on the blogs available at The Trajet. These resources can guide students in making the most of their one-week break and ensure a rejuvenating experience before returning to complete extra work and academic commitments.

As the decision to shorten the spring recess at the university was undoubtedly influenced by concerns over the Omicron variant, it also sparked discussions among students about alternative ways to utilize their time during the modified break. Some students took this opportunity to explore Australia’s stunning landscapes and vibrant culture, with Popular Cairns attractions being a top choice for many. The allure of the Great Barrier Reef, the breathtaking Daintree Rainforest, and the picturesque Kuranda Scenic Railway drew adventurous souls looking for a unique travel experience. Others opted to support local businesses and tourism by planning staycations in nearby cities or towns, enjoying the chance to relax and unwind amidst familiar surroundings. While the circumstances surrounding the shortened recess were unexpected, students adapted and found diverse ways to balance their academic responsibilities with the pursuit of enriching experiences and memorable adventures.

Administrators considered adding an extra week of school to the end of the summer, Chun said, but this was ultimately rejected because of the disruption it would have on summer plans and programs on the student and University level. Chun reflects on the decision to remove a week from spring recess as the “right decision,” as it was the smoothest way to add back the week missed without significantly altering the semester’s schedule, he said.

“We didn’t do so lightly,” Chun said. “But again, it was kind of necessitated by the fact that the semester got pushed back a week, which turned out to be very prescient and wise, because the goal was to avoid the peak of Omicron.”

Last spring, due to concerns about the spread of COVID-19, spring recess was canceled entirely and was replaced with five “break days” which were spread out throughout the semester.

Chun acknowledged that the break days did not prove to be an effective replacement for a spring recess and said that administrators took this into consideration when evaluating spring recess options this year.

“Last year, we had no spring break and I know that was very unpopular and difficult for everybody,” Chun told the News. “We knew we had to have a spring break, so we took into account that Yale is rather unique in having a two-week spring break. We felt that at least we were making sure we did everything possible to preserve at least one week of spring break. But again, most schools don’t have two-week spring breaks.” 

But although most students feel that the week-long spring recess marks an improvement from last year’s break day model, 10 students interviewed said they wished that the two-week spring recess could have been preserved.

Stevan Kamatovic ’25 told the News that his spring recess will likely not constitute a true break, as he will have to spend the week catching up on sleep and coursework from the first half of the semester. And Toutenhoofd pointed out that for those in performance groups, much of the week will be spent on tour, limiting the time they have to rest.

Others noted that the shorter break kept them from spending time with family and friends and pushed them to spend more time on schoolwork.

“Unfortunately, the shorter break forced me to change my spring recess plans entirely,” Simona Hausleitner ’25 said. “I was planning on flying to the West Coast to see my family and my best friends from high school, but when I found out we only have a single week, it wasn’t enough to justify a cross country flight for me. The fact that we only have one week of break for the whole semester is also very taxing, especially with the higher academic load I’m facing this semester.” 

The Yale College schedule is released multiple years in advance of each given academic year, which leads many students to plan long distance travel significantly ahead of time. 

Like Hausleitner, the abrupt change in schedule for spring recess caused many students to cancel flights or rework travel plans. Look into the Connecticut Entertainer blog to plan a short but memorable trip with family and friends, also gives satisfaction after completing the short and sweet trip.

“I was originally planning on flying back to San Diego, but the shortened break has forced me to scrap those plans,” said Garrek Chan ’25. “It doesn’t make sense to fly 12 hours door to door each way to only spend less than a week at home.” 

Another student explained how the shortened break strained her ability to receive proper health attention. Planning on the extra week to be able to see a hometown doctor, Emeline Malkin ’24 will not be able to attend to her health problems in the way she would have with a two-week recess.

“I have had some recent health problems arise, and the shorter break has made it hard if not impossible for me to schedule appointments with all of my doctors,” said Malkin. “Because the Yale doctors are booked through the summer, seeing doctors at home is my only option. The one-week break doesn’t give me much time.”

Students will return from spring recess and resume classes on March 28 and will have five more weeks of the semester until reading period begins on April 29. 

Yale’s first two-week spring recess was introduced in 1867. 

The post Students reflect on changing travel plans, shortened spring recess appeared first on Yale Daily News.

A number of established women’s groups on campus celebrated International Women’s Day, hosting events ranging from a social media campaign led by the Women’s Working Network, or WWN, to a movie night led by the Women’s Network at Yale, or TWN. Campus events echoed the International Women’s Day’s theme of #BreakingTheBias, which seeks to recognize both the conscious and unconscious biases which make it difficult for women to move ahead in their careers as compared to their male counterparts. 

“It feels daunting to reckon with women being unequal in society and at work, but the truth is since 2012, we’ve gone from making 77-cents for the dollar a similarly educated man makes to 88-cents for the dollar,” said co-chair of WWN Stacey Bonet, who also serves as chair’s assistant at the Yale School of Public Health. This number is lower for non-white women, with Black women making an average of 63 cents and Latinx women making an average of 55 cents per dollar. “We are trying in everything we do, this day and all year long, to raise awareness and encourage all the women at this University and in our communities to lift each other up and overcome these barriers to our success and our equality.” 

The WWN is an all-volunteer group of female staff who work to provide advocacy and community building events, in addition to their respective jobs within the University. 

Nikita Tillman, social media manager of the WWN, created #BalanceForBetter printable cards, which can be used in photos through social media posts to show individuals’ commitment to building a gender-balanced workforce. Examples of the social media cards include phrases like “We will maintain a gender parity mindset” and “I will help forge a more gender-balanced world.”

Tillman explained that due to COVID-19, the necessity of advocating for celebrations of International Women’s Day through social media has become as important as ever. 

“[Social media] gives me the ability to empower, provide support and remain in feminine solidarity with amazing women around the world and motivates us to continue to pursue progress, equal pay and equity across the board,” Tillman said. 

Through email, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram outreach, Tillman invited affiliates of the WWN to share #BreakTheBias images, videos, resources and social media to encourage people to commit to “helping forge an inclusive world.” 

These efforts by the WWN fall in line with the International Women’s Network’s national social media campaign. The international chapter of the women’s network encouraged women to share selfies of people crossing their arms, striking an “X” pose on social media to show solidarity with one another. 

“With everyone transitioning to be back in-person and struggling through this change, our focus was really on making it easy for women in our community to support each other and women around the world,” Bonet said.

On campus, the Yale Women’s Network organized a movie night to foster a sense of community amongst women during International Women’s Day. TWN President Lauren Potter ’22 said that the group showed “The Devil Wears Prada” because it speaks to the importance of hard work, ambition and self confidence — values embodied by the Women’s Network.

Potter acknowledged the importance of hosting both virtual and in-person events to maintain and strengthen a sense of female community at the University, adding that TWN is hosting a women-owned New Haven business sale and a “Let’s Chat” event guided towards confidence and self-advocacy as a part of its broader Women’s History month celebrations. 

“I would love to see more in-person activity across campus to acknowledge this important time to celebrate women,” Potter said. 

On the University level, there were also various in-person events that specifically recognized International Women’s Day. 

In an email to the News, Vice-President of University Life at Yale Kimberly Goff-Crews ’83 LAW ’86 emphasized the importance of celebrating the contributions of women to the University year-round, and not solely during a specific day or month. 

On International Women’s Day, the University premiered “My Story,” a new discussion series centered around sharing the stories of Yale community members and their journeys. 

“The intention of the “My Story” series, which launched today, is to amplify the voices of members of our community — to celebrate the many unique perspectives and experiences that contribute to a vibrant and excellent Yale and to learn from one another,” Goff-Crews said. 

The discussion series is hosted in conjunction with Belonging at Yale, a designated University effort for inclusion, diversity and equality. Goff-Crews, who moderated the discussion series, explained that the event was not intentionally scheduled to coincide with International Women’s Day but said that it was a “happy coincidence” that the two overlapped. 

Women’s International Equal Pay Day is on March 15. 

The post Student organizations celebrate International Women’s Day appeared first on Yale Daily News.

The event was organized by Yuliia Zhukovets ’23 with the help of Oleksii Antoniuk ’24 and Sofiya Bidochko ’24, all of whom are Ukrainian students who have been personally affected by the crisis. The organizers invited numerous politicians who spoke to the crowd, including Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Rep. Rosa DeLauro and New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker. Professors Marci Shore and Timothy Snyder also spoke on the complexities of the conflict, and various Ukrainian students spoke about their personal experiences with the violence.

The post Yale students, faculty and government officials rally in solidarity with Ukraine appeared first on Yale Daily News.

Each year, Yale’s Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance and Abolition awards the Frederick Douglass Book Prize. The award, which comes with a $25,000 prize, is given to the best book in English published on the subjects of slavery, resistance or abolition, according to the award’s website. This year’s two winners were selected from a pool of 81 recommended books. 

The virtual award ceremony, held on Feb. 17, focused on the need to ensure that education on slavery is an integral component of history classes throughout the world. Normally hosted in person in Trinity Church on Wall Street, the virtual ceremony featured a livestream from the Church by Pastor Phil Jackson, a presentation of awards by Yale Sterling Professor of American History David Blight and speeches by the award winners. 

“We now face a question: how or even whether we teach the history of slavery at all,” award winner Vincent Brown said at the ceremony. “Let teachers teach, let writers write, let my people go. Scholars of slavery are my people. They free our minds.” 

Vincent Brown serves as the Charles Warren Professor of American History as well as a professor of African American studies at Harvard University. Marjoleine Kars teaches classes in early American history, women’s history and Atlantic history at the University of Maryland. Kars and Brown studied together in the same graduate program at Duke University, where they first met before being co-winners of the award. 

Brown spoke at the event and emphasized the importance of being a scholar of slavery and the obligation to teach slavery as a foundational part of historical curriculums.

The Frederick Douglass award is selected by a jury, chaired this year by Joseph Reedy, a history professor at Howard University. Other jury members included Marleen Doe from the University of Virginia and Matt Hopper from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. 

The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History is the overarching organization of which the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance and Abolition is a part of. Daniella Müling, the book prize manager at the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, told the News that the Institute “provides both financial and administrative support for the award process.”

In their acceptance speeches, both Kars and Brown acknowledged the resistance to slavery studies in many educational programs. They both thanked the Gilder Lehrman Institute for its role in advocating for slavery studies. 

Marjoleine Kars referenced the ongoing attacks against critical race theory, a movement which seeks to shine light on the ways that racism is ingrained in United States social systems like education, healthcare, and criminal justice. Kars addressed the opposers of critical race theory who deem slavery education unimportant. 

“The teaching of slavery and white supremacy are under attack,” Kars said. 

The ceremony also focused on student engagement, incentivizing teachers to bring their students to the virtual event by offering a free set of the winning books to any teacher who brought more than 10 students. Jackson remarked to the audience that he loved the event because it allowed students to speak directly to authors and historians on pieces of history often disregarded. 

Traditionally, teachers and students are invited to attend the ceremony in-person. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s ceremony was held virtually, and featured a virtual question and answer session in which students asked questions to the winners. 

“K-12 teachers are always included, because it is students who ultimately matter most in our goal to make this known to the widest possible audience,” James Basker, the president of the Gilder Lehrman Institute, said at the event. “Normally hundreds of students would be sitting here with us today.”  

Blight, who presented the winners with their awards, explained that the award is the most prestigious in the field of slavery studies. Blight himself is a former winner of the Frederick Douglass book award.

“This award ensures global histories of slaverty resistance are illuminated as seminal works, ensuring the continuing scholarship of African American struggles,” Blight said. 

Blight also noted that the award is important in that it encourages historians to explore the “silences of the archives,” expanding slavery studies beyond the Atlantic region with which slavery is most commonly associated. 

Kars’ “Blood on the River” did just this, centering around the slave rebellion in the Dutch colony of Berbice, present-day Guyana, which came remarkably close to succeeding. 

“This year, a book about a little-known slave rebellion in a little-known Dutch colony won the book award. It is virtually unknown outside of the country where it took place,” Kars said at the event. 

Vincent Brown’s book “Tacky’s Revolt: The Story of an Atlantic Slave War,” zeroes in on the largest slave uprising in eighteenth-century British Atlantic history, occurring in Jamaica.  

“We study history to understand the ongoing processes that shape our world. Precisely because history never repeats itself,” said award winner Vincent Brown. “It only guides us in the scope, direction, and likelihood of the changes ahead.”

Kars said she was brought to her work out of an interest in posing the question, “Who has access to the records on slavery’s past?” The Gilder Lehrman Center itself circles around supporting that question. In his opening remarks to the ceremony, Basker pointed to the history of the Institute, which began in the 1990s when philanthropists Lewis Lehrman and Richard Gilder heard a lecture on the transatlantic slave trade given by David Brion Davis, who was a Sterling Professor of History at the University. 

“They decided that the tragic, epic story David was telling was too little known by the general public and too little taught in our schools.” Basker said at the event. “Eighteen months later, the very first assignment they gave me when I became President was to go up to Yale, and to negotiate the founding of the Gilder Lehrman Center on slavery.” 

Now, the Institute seeks to provide educational resources such as curriculums, lesson plans, essays and online exhibitions to various historical programs. The Institute is a leading non-profit organization for K-12 history education, and works to support teachers and students in leading and discovering uniquely researched and foundational concepts in the field of American history. 

The Gilder Lehrman Center has received 1,600 book nominations and awarded over half a million dollars through the Frederick Douglass Book Award program, which was first given in 1999. 

The post 23rd Frederick Douglass book award ceremony advocates for slavery studies in historical education appeared first on Yale Daily News.

All posts were deleted and users were notified Thursday evening through a platform-wide post by the app’s creator, Ryan Schiller ’23. The app was Schiller’s first project, and it was released in 2019 when Schiller was a junior. He ultimately shut down the app because he is pursuing a “new endeavor,” he told the News, and did not think he had the time to maintain Librex, which he has moderated since its inception. In Librex’s absence, a number of new anonymous discussion forums are cropping up on campus. In the app’s absence, Viktor Kagan ’24 told the News that he will remember Librex for the conversations it sparked — but also for its “very toxic environment.”

“It provided a space for valid communication but could also be toxic and abusive,” Kagan said. 

The app began on a small scale, with about eight consistent users logging on everyday. But during its three-year run, the app grew to about 6,000 daily active users across the platform, according to Schiller. The app was initially crafted for Yalies, but quickly expanded to include the entire Ivy League, and ultimately grew to include many other colleges as well. The app took the place of YikYak, another anonymous software that spread across college campuses but infamously served as a platform for hateful conversations.

Schiller said he made the app because he thought that “extreme judgment” pervades Yale’s social sphere. His vision for Librex, he said, was to create a space in which people could escape these confines.

“I think a lot of people at Yale are looking for a group of people they can connect to, to develop their voice, and to do so in an open space they can trust,” Schiller said. “Professors told me that they did not feel like they could speak freely about how they truly felt about campus events. Students want a place to say what they mean.” 

But the app was controversial, and several students said it often fostered ad hominem attacks on members of Yale’s campus. Under the veil of anonymity, people expressed often contentious opinions.

“While Librex promotes the idea of an anonymous, free speech platform, their lack of regulation led to a great deal of controversy and negative discourse within our Yale community,” José Marín-Lee ’25 told the News. 

Some students stayed away from Librex, disliking what they saw as negative and problematic content that came from the app’s unregulated discourse.

Kagan described the Yale-specific Librex as “as positive as it was negative.”

“I remember last year, during the fall YCC elections, someone anonymously commented something vulgar about Aliesa and Reilly’s campaign,” he said. “This in itself made Librex a toxic space, but it has served for good, too, for students to rant about Yale’s inefficacy and inability to understand student concerns.”

Still others emphasized the value of having an anonymous platform to discuss their thoughts and campus life.

Clementine Rice ’25 noted that the media source allowed new students to learn about spontaneous and unconventional campus events, such as the Bass Library naked run.

In the days following Librex’s departure from campus, multiple new anonymous discussion spaces have sprung up. Sidechat, proclaimed as a “Yale-only Yik Yak,” sent out promotional material on Instagram and in Yale GroupMes, and Fizz, another Yale-specific anonymous discussion app, sent out emails to some Yale students. Both apps follow the same general platform Librex initiated, including an “upvote” feature and a comment section.

Andrew West ’25 told the News that the “copycat” apps were likely trying to fill the niche for an anonymous student platform left by Librex’s absence. 

 “It’s definitely valuable to have a place where people can share their thoughts anonymously, but I feel like having one that’s well-moderated is also important,” West said. “It’s nice to have an environment where you can just ask stupid questions without looking stupid in front of people. It’s important for people to have an outlet — it can be anonymous, but not to the degree where people say stuff that’s offensive.” 

Matthew Park ’24 concurred, arguing that there was value in having a space for students to voice opinions or ask sensitive questions to which they did not necessarily want to attach their names. 

Apart from the highly public medium of Yitter — the colloquial name for Yale’s student Twittersphere — Park said that there were few other ways for students to spread campus occurrences and opinions in real time. 

“Even if some people never took Librex too seriously, I don’t think we can doubt that it was the sole platform that could really aggregate informal discussions among the student body,” Park told the News. 

The Librex team — composed of eight engineers, one product manager and six designers — will continue to work together, Schiller said, moving forward on a new, bigger project. Schiller said that he and his team would not have the time to maintain Librex alongside their new endeavor, which he said is coming in the summer and will be aimed at a wider audience. 

“Our new endeavor was compelling enough to go all in on, bigger in terms of community and complexity,” Schiller said. “This new endeavor is massive, this thing is so exciting that I needed to act on it quickly and decisively. The team has been ready for a bigger challenge for a while now.”

Creating the Librex app was the first time Schiller had ever coded.

Correction, Feb. 21: An earlier version of this article listed the incorrect number of product managers on the Librex team and the incorrect year in which Schiller published the app. The article has been updated to reflect this.

The post Anonymous app Librex abruptly shuts down after nearly three years of operation appeared first on Yale Daily News.