Remembering the People Behind the Polls

Last week, I made the short trek up to New Hampshire to knock on some doors and get out the vote in preparation for the state’s Feb. 11 primary. Later that evening, I went to a Democratic rally, giving the candidates a last hurrah before Monday’s election. Each candidate spoke, and in these speeches, I found not an opportunity to cheer the loudest for policy issues and taglines the candidates brought up, but instead to look around the room and notice who did. That is to say, I approached the eve

Rabbi Bridges Judaism and Environmentalism in Talk

Environmental Rabbi Ellen Bernstein sat down with students to discuss the connection between faith and environmentalism on Nov. 15. The gathering was an addition to Amherst Hillel’s weekly shabbat dinner in collaboration with the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life. With a background in ecology, Bernstein’s work as a rabbi centers on knitting together environmental issues and Judaism. She founded Keepers of the Earth, one of the first Jewish environmental organizations and recently finished

Fresh Faculty: Anna Abramson

Anna Abramson is an assistant professor of English. She was a postdoctoral fellow at both MIT and Harvard. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Brown University in English and psychology, and her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in English. Q: What led you to want to pursue English in a Ph.D. in English, what led you to want to become a professor?A: When I was in college, I double majored in English and psychology because I couldn’t pick between two things that I was really in

Amherst Through Art: Homecoming History at the Mead

The Rotherwas Room: Then | Now One of Amherst’s most iconic spots is the installation of the 15th century Rotherwas Room. On permanent loan to the Mead Art Museum from the George Pratt bequest to New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, the room was once home to members of the English royal court and had been host to Robert Frost’s poetry readings during his time at Amherst. It now displays the Rotherwas Project series, where its fifth iteration is now on display, an installation by Christopher M

Studying Arctic Ice Caps from the Capitol

For so many, an interest in scientific research charts a clear path: undergraduate degree, master’s, doctorate, research, professorship. But Cynthia Suchman ’90 launched onto that path not knowing exactly where it would lead, open to the turns it took and the possibilities it opened — away from what’s most conventional. It’s an attitude that landed her where she is now, living in northern Virginia and working as the program director for the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Arctic Natural Sc

How My Taylor Swift Love Affair Continues On “Lover”

Watching Taylor Swift on “Saturday Night Live” this past weekend felt off in a way that’s difficult to put into words. What is Taylor Swift doing singing onstage with a saxophone? Why does she perform with such uncomfortably imposed swagger? It all seemed out of place and out of character, as Swift stood with hazy smoke around her ankles and sat in kelly-green at the piano. But it’s not the setting that seemed strange — there is no question of the abundance of flashy performance today. I could

The Life Behind “Living”: What We’ve Been Listening To

In the Arts and Living section, we spend every week upholding, analyzing and exalting the arts and culture on the campus, in the valley and world around us. But, it’s also worth taking a moment, or two, to look within the section for the arts and culture we ourselves consume. This week: podcasts. As the summer season of binging and intern-commute listening comes to an end, there’s still room for podcast consumption. It just might take some revived inspiration, so consider this list of my favori

“If You Want to Act, Understand the Stage”

Yixin “Arthur” Xiao ’19 sees the world through the lens of a different language. It’s not because he came to Amherst as an international student from a home on the southern coast of China, but it is because he sees the world, and all within it, through the language of physics. He is able to recognize the world for its microparticles and envision how they interact through time and space, yet he is also able to zoom out to imagine entire worlds in mathematical theory. And somehow, he makes this

A Reflection on Jeff Sessions' Visit

I often write not because I have the answers, but, rather, because I have questions that require vocalization. Writing helps me think through and knead out questions that don’t have obvious answers. There are some things I know for sure: I know that Jeff Sessions is the antithesis of the values I hold dearest. I know that he has enacted some of the most wicked policies this generation has seen and that he is responsible for the inhumane and heartbreaking separation of families at the border. He

“Shrill” Gives Us a Polished, Pink Celebration of Real Life

I must admit that I have been waiting for “Shrill” since Hulu announced it would turn Lindy West’s book of the same title into a six-episode show in early August. I stayed awake until midnight on March 15 to stream the show as soon as Hulu put it online. With six short episodes — none longer than half an hour — I cruised through the show over the weekend, and it’s all I want to talk about. In her first scripted lead in a TV series, Aidy Bryant plays the deeply loveable, endearingly adorable yet

The Internet Outage: A Lesson in Vulnerability

I like to think of myself as wholly independent. I’m able to spend hours alone, navigate a new city by myself and, above all, work my way out of most problems I stumble into. And this, I believe, is what perturbed me so deeply about the more than 72-hour-long Wi-Fi outage that hit the campus last week. It wasn’t that I ran out of high speed data or couldn’t check my email; it was that I was rendered completely powerless when confronted with the removal of something I’m so utterly reliant on ­— a

John Kasich Calls for Unity in Talk

Barely a month out of public office, former Ohio governor and 2016 presidential candidate John Kasich arrived at the college to give a talk on Feb. 7. His visit began with a small classroom discussion with a randomly selected group of students, followed by dinner at President Biddy Martin’s house with students involved in politics-related studies and his sold-out talk in Johnson Chapel. Kasich walked on stage charismatic and smiling and was able to spin a politically incorrect faux pas (callin

Curator Pursues Passion for Objects of the Past

For Tara Gleason Chicirda ’94, there is no such thing as a dull day. As the curator of furniture for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation in Williamsburg, Virginia and the mother of a 12-year-old boy, her days are full of constant activity, moving from her office to the historic grounds and museums of Colonial Williamsburg, the world’s largest living history museum featuring 18th-century shops and houses. Days Spent Among Relics of the PastChicirda’s job managing Colonial Williamsburg’s extensi

Paak and Lamar Collaborate Seamlessly on New Single “Tints”

With a surge of good music this fall — the offerings range from a Khalid album to new Post Malone track and Lady Gaga’s powerful vocals in “A Star is Born” to the long-awaited “Carter V” by Lil Wayne — it’s easy for hidden gems to remain hidden. But, the recently released single “Tints” from Anderson. Paak featuring Kendrick Lamar has received a mere fraction of the attention it deserves, and we owe it a moment of appreciation for the sheer talent on display. The single is an early release off

Poetry Festival Celebrates the Artistic Legacy of Emily Dickinson

Typically quiet and deserted, the yard of Emily Dickinson’s house surged to life on Saturday night, as students, professors and townspeople alike flocked to the historic site for an evening of poetry and music. The Saturday evening event was part of the sixth annual Amherst Poetry Festival, which ran from Thursday, Sept. 20 through Sunday, Sept. 23. The event was the product of a collaboration between the Emily Dickinson Museum, Mass Poetry (a state-wide group that aims to make poetry more acce

Amherst to Go Half-Solar by 2019

Amherst, along with Bowdoin, Hampshire, Smith and Williams, has formed the New England College Renewable Partnership, a collaborative contract to purchase solar electricity from a solar farm in Farmington, Maine. Starting in 2019, Amherst will annually receive 10,000 Megawatt hours (MWh) from the farm, enough to power around half of its total electricity use and all of its purchased energy. The facility, a 25 Megawatt hour (MWh) array, will produce enough energy to offset 46,000 MWh annually am

Bluestockings To Host Single Group A Capella Concert This Friday

After a semester of joint concerts and openers, Amherst’s a capella group, The Bluestockings, will take the stage in its own show on Friday, March 2 at 6 p.m. in the Morris Pratt Ballroom. Having their own show means group members will have the time to perform more songs and debut new arrangements. New songs The Bluestockings will sing include “Heaven” by John Legend, “Rich Girl” by Hall & Oates and “Yesterday” by the Beatles. For Bluestockings bass singer Devyn Prieto ’21, “Yesterday” is one

“Urinetown” Illuminates Social Issues Through Satire and Parody

Picture a world plagued by massive drought and ruled by an evil dictator — this may not require much imagination. Now, envision that world, but filled with song and dance, parodying some of Broadway’s greatest musicals. To do that, you may need some help from Amherst College’s upcoming production of “Urinetown.” The show will take place this weekend in the Powerhouse on Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 7:30 p.m. each night. The performance will be the culmination of nearly a month of work from a

Q&A With Sydney Tate on Women of Amherst’s Spring Play

Every spring, Women of Amherst puts on a play, inspired by and expanding upon Eve Ensler’s feminist play “The Vagina Monologues.” The play is a series of separate skits all centered on issues women face, and all the skits are student-written submissions. Currently, Women of Amherst is collecting submissions from students to include in the play. I sat down with director Sydney Tate ’18 to learn more about the play itself and how students can submit. Olivia: How would you describe the project th