Success is one of those words that, like love, hate or freedom, means something very different who, when and where you ask. However, here is a common denominator when it comes to our understanding of success that, at least at this point in time, in our culture, is prevalent above all else: money. Taking this notion of success — albeit reductive and superficial — reflectively we want to assign the outcome to some personal attribute like being smart, hardworking or patient. These are heuristics at best.
Spring break is supposed to be a fun and relaxing week, where students can unwind and rest before the final weeks of the academic year. For the first few days of my spring break, this was the case. However, on Wednesday, my phone decided that it did not want to work anymore. This fact on its own would not normally cause stress; like most people, my phone has broken in the past. But this time was different. My phone wasn’t just cracked, it wasn’t just unable to connect to a cellular network, it wasn’t just randomly quitting out of apps — all things I have encountered in the past.
Andrew Dorogi ’18, an economics major and varsity football player from Cleveland, Ohio, died on Friday, March 16. President Biddy Martin announced his death in an email to the college community on Sunday, March 18.
“Andrew touched the lives of so many students, faculty, coaches and staff on our campus and his sudden death is a profound blow,” Martin wrote in a second email on Monday. She urged students to take care of themselves and provide comfort and support to others.
Professor of Physics David Hall ’91, working with a team of recent physics graduates, has published a paper about his recent discovery of a three-dimensional skyrmion in an experiment with unusual electromagnetic-like properties.
Though trained as an atomic physicist, Hall was drawn to topology, a branch of mathematics that focuses on the continuous deformation of shapes. “Topology is that thing that lets you distinguish shapes from one another, and it involves taking a shape and possibly deforming it in some way,” he said.
The theater and dance department debuted the African American Dance Symposium on Feb. 16. The symposium, which is free and open to the public, consists of master classes, film screenings and lectures leading up to a two-day conference on April 13 and 14.
The symposium was organized by theater and dance visiting scholar Ninoska M’bewe Escobar, whose speciality in African-American dance brought new offerings to the department.
Since the #MeToo movement moved to the forefront of national conversation last October, a vast number of people, mostly women, have come forward with their own stories of sexual harassment and assault by people in positions of power. In an effort to process the movement, the sexuality, women’s and gender studies (SWAGS) department hosted a panel on March 6 called “Making Sense of #MeToo,” which featured Masha Gessen, award-winning journalist and John J. McCloy professor, and Loretta Ross, key player in the creation of the reproductive justice movement and a professor at Hampshire College.
Brendan Seto ’18 is a statistics major. His thesis focuses on causal inference. His thesis advisor is Professor of Statistics Nicholas Horton.
