Essays Archive - Page 122 of 131

An Unexpected Concertmaster

How Shakespeare Influenced the Romantic Era

June 20, 2019 • by Max Serrano-Wu

You thought Shakespeare was all about the language? Not according to the scholars who estimate there are over 20,000 Shakespeare-inspired pieces of classical music! During the Romantic Era, composers such as Johannes Brahms, Giuseppe Verdi, and Antonín Dvořák drew inspiration from tragedies like Hamlet, Macbeth, and Othello. They gravitated to ...

Uncategorized

Blue Butterfly Open

An Excerpt

June 20, 2019 • by Alice Barber

--- This is a story about two photographs, both of butterflies. What you need to know about the first photograph is that it was never an actual photograph, although I wished it so. What you need to know about the second photograph is that it is not from my camera, and ...

Democracy

Defeating the Prince of the Darkness of Our Times

On the 2020 Election / Against Ideology

June 20, 2019 • by Jeffrey C. Goldfarb

I hope Elizabeth Warren will be the next President of the United States, though I would be satisfied with Joe Biden, and pleased with Bernie Sanders, Pete Buttigieg, Kamala Harris, Cory Booker or Jay Inslee, or with any one of the other sixteen or so candidates, none of whom has ...

Uncategorized

An Open Letter to My Best Friend About Abortion

I am not writing you this letter to change your mind.

June 19, 2019 • by Hannah Leffingwell

I don’t remember when I first realized I was “pro-choice” and you were “pro-life.” It’s not a discussion we ever had. We grew up in the same Colorado suburb, only a few blocks away from each other. In kindergarten, we started playing together. I like to think we became friends for ...

Feature

European Parliament Elections Viewed from Central and Eastern Europe

June 19, 2019 • by Veronica Anghel

While the current wave of Euroscepticism and nationalism is a challenge for the European project, this also presents the European Union (EU) with an opportunity for further consolidation: the EU now has clear cut internal “enemies.” More so than an abstract sense of purpose, enemies provide a strong incentive to ...

Education

Public Shakespeare in Public Seminar

Public writing is framed as an alternative to both academic writing and creative projects

June 17, 2019 • by Jeffrey R. Wilson

The assignment, which you’re welcome to use or adapt as you like, starts with students selecting two essays from our Public Shakespeare page. Based on their research topics, they identify three possible venues for their Public Shakespeare essays, reading some recent (non-Shakespearean) essays from these venues to get a feel for public writing. In ...

Blue Monday

How Much Longer Can Pelosi Keep Fiddling While Constitutional Democracy Burns?

What we need now is a Democratic leadership that believes in democracy.

June 17, 2019 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

It has been two and a half years since Donald Trump first took his presidential wrecking ball to America’s very flawed system of constitutional democracy. It has been more than two and a half years since the Justice Department -- the FBI, the Special Counsel, lesser federal prosecutors -- first began ...

Education

‘Our Readers Feel We Are on Their Side’

A Q&A with InsideSchools founder Clara Hemphill

June 16, 2019 • by Clara Hemphill

Urban Matters: Let’s start with InsideSchools. It’s immensely popular; it's web site gets more than 1.5 million annual visitors. Its individual school profiles have made it the first place many parents go for information about schools as well as about school policies and procedures. What makes InsideSchools work? Hemphill: People trust us. ...

Education

Accumulation by Education

White Property and Racialized Debt

June 14, 2019 • by Iyko Day

A key loophole that perpetuates both legal and illegal corruption is the outsized role that varsity sports play in the admissions process, widening the path to acceptance for predominantly white athletes in lacrosse, sailing, tennis, crew, water polo, and other “white sports.” Despite the perception that Black students are the face of ...

Feature

Collective Amnesia in Post-Communist Poland

Why history, not memory or mythology, is the path to Polish-Jewish reconciliation

June 14, 2019 • by Magda Teter

After WWII, many European countries engaged in what some scholars dubbed “collective amnesia.” Austria, for example, began to redefine itself as the first victim of the Nazis. France amplified the Resistance, forgetting about its Vichy days; Western Germany, after the trials of several high-profile Nazi leaders, allowed for silence to ...

Education

Why Occidental College Revoked a 1929 Honorary Degree to White Supremacist Paul Popenoe

Confronting the legacy of eugenics in the United States and its ties to the founder of modern marriage counseling

June 13, 2019 • by Peter Dreier

In recent years, many colleges and universities have created task forces and programs to excavate their racist histories. These efforts explore their institutions’ financial ties to slavery; the racist views of some founders, faculty, and alumni; their admissions and hiring practices; and their evolving curriculum that, wittingly or unwittingly, reflected society’s white ...

Democracy

Brazil’s Universities Are Under Attack — And So Is Its Democracy

Brazilians are fighting to maintain their public universities

June 12, 2019 • by Daniel Peres

Cuts in the public budget are something usual -- not desirable, but normal nonetheless. What is not normal is when the cuts are justified in ideological terms. For Brazil’s new elect government, the Brazil University system is an enemy to be destroyed. Our universities, so they say, are all dominated ...

Essays

An Unexpected Concertmaster

How Shakespeare Influenced the Romantic Era

Blue Butterfly Open

An Excerpt

Defeating the Prince of the Darkness of Our Times

On the 2020 Election / Against Ideology

An Open Letter to My Best Friend About Abortion

I am not writing you this letter to change your mind.

European Parliament Elections Viewed from Central and Eastern Europe

Public Shakespeare in Public Seminar

Public writing is framed as an alternative to both academic writing and creative projects

How Much Longer Can Pelosi Keep Fiddling While Constitutional Democracy Burns?

What we need now is a Democratic leadership that believes in democracy.

‘Our Readers Feel We Are on Their Side’

A Q&A with InsideSchools founder Clara Hemphill

Accumulation by Education

White Property and Racialized Debt

Collective Amnesia in Post-Communist Poland

Why history, not memory or mythology, is the path to Polish-Jewish reconciliation

Why Occidental College Revoked a 1929 Honorary Degree to White Supremacist Paul Popenoe

Confronting the legacy of eugenics in the United States and its ties to the founder of modern marriage counseling

Brazil’s Universities Are Under Attack — And So Is Its Democracy

Brazilians are fighting to maintain their public universities

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