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The Justice Editorial Board would like to extend a warm welcome to the Class of 2025 as they begin their first year of college and the Class of 2024 as they begin their first year of in-person classes. This board has compiled a list of its favorite survival tips on the Brandeis campus for navigating these new and exciting times.
It is bittersweet saying goodbye to our seniors after a year of navigating school and student journalism in a pandemic — bitter because we’re saying goodbye, but sweet because we’re so incredibly proud of them for getting through this year and making the most of it. Each of our graduating seniors has made invaluable contributions to the Justice. We wouldn’t be where we are today without them. We as an editorial board want to take a moment to recognize each senior and celebrate their achievements.
Keynote speaker Bryan Stevenson, a human rights lawyer and the founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, spoke to the graduating Class of 2021 about overcoming racial injustice and inequality.
Throughout his career, master wood engraver Barry Moser left his footprints in many categories of books, from children’s books to religious texts. He is accomplished not only in watercolor illustrations and wood engravings, but also as an “engineer” of books’ creation, as he described. On Friday, April 30, Director of Brandeis Arts Engagement Ingrid Schorr invited Moser — along with author, poet and gallery owner Rich Michelson — to talk about the new edition of Moser’s classic book, “The Art of Wood Engraving & Relief Engraving,” published by Brandeis University Press. In the event, Moser shared his experience and insights on his career.
On April 29, Professor Aida Wong hosted a lecture with Dr. Robert C. Anderson on the topic of Japanese architecture as part of her course, “The Art of Japan,” and the Brandeis Leonard Bernstein Festival of the Creative Arts. With the focus on three contemporary Japanese architects, Anderson took the audience on a virtual aesthetic tour, introduced Japanese aesthetic principles and tracked the connective threads of Japanese architectural forms across time.
Being busy with school and everything else for the past few months, I have had little time to watch any movies, or to keep up with the latest movie news. Although I have put several of the nominated films on my watchlist, I was not even aware of the date of the Academy Awards ceremony this year and had not seen any of the nominated movies to write a prediction piece. For that, I tip my hat to Mr. Dinlenc, Mr. Weintraub and those who come after me who can meet the task. Motivated by hot shame, as someone who considers himself to be a “fan of cinema,” I watched “Sound of Metal” this weekend.
This past week, one needed to look no further than Fellows Garden to shop for jewelry, bags, dishware, soaps and more. On Tuesday, April 27, and Thursday, April 29, Brandeis creators set up booths to sell their hand-crafted goods during the first annual Create@Brandeis Craft Market. The market was part of the Leonard Bernstein Festival of the Creative Arts, the annual week-long festival which consists of performances, exhibitions and other events that celebrate the arts and highlight the work of artists within the Brandeis community. The Craft Market, which was organized by Brandeis Arts Engagement, hosted more than a dozen student and staff vendors during the two-day event.
Illustration by Amy Chen.
Like many students, I’ve spent the past year brooding over the switch to online learning that has replaced in-person classes due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But after getting my vaccine last week and hearing about the hopeful return to mostly in-person instruction next semester, I realized that some part of me will miss attending a Zoom class with my camera off, bare-faced, while cozy under a blanket. Online learning has provided many students with more substantial conveniences and accommodations, such as allowing them to watch recorded lectures on their own time and when they felt best prepared to absorb the materials. In future non-COVID-19 times, will we be nostalgic and miss some elements of our experiences with online learning?
Though there were no club recognitions, charters or decharters, the April 11 Senate meeting was still full of activity, being just one of the few meetings from this semester to run the full two hours. The meeting was broken down into four blocks, during which University administrators were invited to answer questions submitted by senators — a deviation from the standard meeting procedure.
Illustration by Megan Liao.
A Forbes Magazine article reported staggering data about the price of university and college tuition in the United States — the average cost of a four-year college rose by 497% between 1985 and 2018, which is more than twice the rate of inflation. While this increase alone continues to cause a financial burden on tuition-payers, the economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic have worsened this burden. Most universities that switched to remote learning in spring 2020 continued to charge the same tuition that was charged prior to the pandemic, according to the article.
On April 6, Carali McCall, a London-based artist and co-author of “Performance Drawing: New Practices since 1945,” gave a virtual talk as part of the “Brandeis Post Baccalaureate in Studio Art Lecture Series.” McCall is fascinated by the passage of time, physical energy and bodily movement. Her research and artwork question an artist’s role and uncover new ways to understand the body. She explores the performative nature of human activities and demonstrates how the act of drawing can become a tool of performance. In this relaxing talk interspersed with video clips of her performance work, McCall charted her journey as an artist and the development of her vibrant and expressive practice: the “performance drawing.”
Illustration by Megan Liao.
Illustration by Megan Liao.
Illustration by Megan Liao.
If you are like me, who just survived the overwhelming midterm season, a comforting and aesthetically pleasing movie would be a great leisure activity to soothe your nerves. Directed by Shuichi Okita, “Mori, The Artist’s Habitat” is a delightful and offbeat biopic that peers into a typical day of Kumagai Morikazu (1880-1997), aka Mori, a celebrated yet reclusive Japanese painter. The slow-paced and lighthearted movie examines a 30-year period in Mori’s late life, during which he never ventured outside his home in Ikebukuro and spent every day observing nature and insects in his tiny botanical garden. His ability to embrace peace and calm in a constrained space may offer us new insights into how we can obtain self-contentment in forced isolation during the pandemic.
Over the past few months, American interest in civil disobedience has exploded, leading to increasing amounts of people participating in protests and social justice campaigns. However, some have been involved in this form of activism for years prior. One of these people is visual artist, photojournalist and legal worker Shanna Merola, who gave a talk via Zoom to Brandeis students where she detailed both her artistic work and her work with activism near her hometown of Detroit, Michigan. Prof. Sheida Soleimani (FA) hosted the talk, which took place on March 15 and was sponsored by the Brandeis Department of Fine Arts.
In the virtual discussion, “The Flesh in Question,” held on March 16, Professor Ariel Basson Freiberg (FA) engaged in conversation with Stephanie Davereckas, an art historian, curator and critic. Outside of Brandeis, Freiberg is a painter specializing in feminist theory in the visual arts. Her exhibition, “Hellbent,” is currently being shown in a virtual format at Brandeis Women’s Studies Research Center. This particular conversation, organized by curator and Director of the Arts for the Women's Studies Research Center Susan Metrican, examined Freiberg’s exhibit in conjunction with Linda Nochlin's 1983 essay "The Imaginary Orient" and historical paintings depicting the biblical figure of Salome. The paintings showcased in this exhibition feature bright colors, women’s bodies both obscured and revealed, and cultural relics meant to counter Orientalism.
Justin Booska ’13 was that rare Brandeisian who exemplified the best of our university. He was a natural leader, a kind soul and a thoughtful colleague who always thought of others before himself. Tragically, Justin disappeared before his fifth-year Brandeis reunion. Brandeis should honor his legacy, the asset he was to our little slice of Waltham, and the impact he had on the people he touched, which rippled across the entire globe.