Search Results
Use the field below to perform an advanced search of The Justice archives. This will return articles, images, and multimedia relevant to your query.
(10/19/21 10:00am)
In honor of Indigenous Peoples Day, Brandeis hosted public speaker and activist Chadra Pittman, who gave a talk titled ‘I, Too, Am America’: Stolen Land, Stolen People and the Forced Migrations of the Native & the African.' The talk focused on the history of the oppression, displacement and dehumanization of the Indigenous and African people in America’s past, discussing each of them on their own as well as drawing connections between the two histories.
(10/12/21 10:00am)
Content warning: this piece includes frank discussions of sexual abuse and child abuse.
(10/05/21 10:00am)
“NOW IS ALWAYS.” Is our past always present and the future already here? On my computer screen I can see the photographs of Vaune Trachtman — a collection of fleeting, evanescent memories. In spite of its immaterial quality, NOW IS ALWAYS is more about permanence rather than loss; remembrance rather than oblivion. Mixing her father’s negatives from the Great Depression with pictures taken on her iPhone, the master printmaker created a series of photopolymer gravures that expand the concept of family memorabilia. Invented in the late 19th century by the photography-pioneer William Henry Fox Talbot and Czech artist Karel Klíč, photogravure belongs to the Intaglio family of printmaking. It consists of capturing an image on a plate that is printed by pressure through an etching press. Deceptively simple in theory, it is a photomechanical process of tactile delicacy and painstaking craftsmanship. Trachtman’s prints were showcased in a solo exhibition at the Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester, MA, from May 26 to July 9. “NOW IS ALWAYS” is a mystifying body of work that unbinds the constraints of time with exquisite texture and electrifying motion.
(10/05/21 10:00am)
On the morning of March 17, 2020, I stood mindlessly scrolling on my phone in my high school hallway. I sighed in distress. COVID-19 had just taken the world by storm, and my hometown was close to a shutdown. That wasn’t what I was sighing about, though. On what would be my last day of school due to the pandemic, only one question was on my mind: Is Tom Brady going to stay on the New England Patriots?
(10/05/21 10:00am)
Every year, autumn starts on my birthday. 29 big ones this time around. Things feel more or less the same. They also feel different. Despite the dawning of a pandemic, 28 felt important in other, more clearly positive ways. Like the beginning of a new era, it felt like some large but beneficial change I am yet to fully understand. 29 was a bit more of a shock to the system, its positivity less clear. It felt quick. It came fast. Whether or not it came “too” fast is up to interpretation, and maybe that is the point. Younger ones may roll their eyes at yet another cynical millennial, while older individuals will tell you 29 means “nothing” in terms of experience. Many of them perceive their age as having wed far more wisdom to their lives than your relatively shorter 29 years of life.
(10/05/21 10:00am)
In this unprecedented year, students continue to grapple with mental health struggles. Although not foreign to most, mental health has come to the forefront of everyday life, but these issues have continuously been ignored.
(09/21/21 10:00am)
I honor Halloween more than most holidays. The horror, thrilling and gory genres across movies, television shows, books and other forms of storytelling have provided me an outlet since childhood to dissect some of my most isolating and terrifying moments better than any other commemorative day or cinematic medium. Nevertheless, I regularly struggle with the available content I consume. I have never really wanted to dwell on it prior to this, because I do find it strange to enjoy Ryan Murphy’s gruesome “American Horror Story” as often as I do. To make myself feel better on rough days, it is normal for me to sink into the gore of “The Walking Dead.” For fun or introspection, I watch shows or films that come wrapped in titles like “Evil,” “Get Out” and “Hereditary” with daunting, foreboding advertisement posters of gloomy heads plastered over foggy skies or darkened rooms. On nights I cannot sleep, my partner often finds me dozing off to the ghouls of “The Haunting of Bly Manor” or finding solace in the vampirical frights of “The Frankenstein Chronicles” or “Penny Dreadful.” I am uncomfortable at how it comforts me to escape through characters’ gruesome tales of doom, with inconceivably harrowing endings and no relief in sight. In what universe would these tales comfort such an anxious heart? What does that say about me as a person? Am I simply an adrenaline junkie, or am I the “twisted” one?
(09/21/21 10:00am)
For most of the world, Sept. 8, 2021 was not significant in any way. For the University of Wisconsin’s population of roughly 4,000 Jewish students and faculty, it was a day where they had to choose between spirituality and school. This year, Wisconsin’s first day of class — a day that appeared to be insignificant to the university’s administration — happened to fall on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year and one of the holiest days of the Hebrew calendar.
(09/21/21 10:00am)
Contrary to the words of many conservative pundits, there is nothing unprecedented or tyrannical about President Joe Biden’s rules that would require vaccination against COVID-19 for certain groups of Americans. Acting as a sort of mandate, the new rules require all employers with 100 or more employees to fully vaccinate their personnel. Additionally, any and all contractors who do work with the federal government must vaccinate their employees. Healthcare workers at Medicare- and Medicaid-participating hospitals must do the same. All in all, it obligates vaccination for around 100 million Americans, part of a larger effort to combat the contagious delta variant.
(09/14/21 3:32pm)
I thought I would be happy to return to Brandeis this fall. But as I drove to Theater Lot to check in and collect my dorm keys, the sinking feeling I had been experiencing all summer intensified. As the Department of Community Living student workers ushered cars through Theater Lot, many of them excited to see friends after a year and a half of virtual learning, I was caught in a state of disbelief. I kept thinking to myself, “Wow, this is happening. Everything is in person again, with limited to no restrictions.” The reality of living on campus during a pandemic hit me as one of the DCL staff members handed me my room key and informed me that if I did not get tested by 4 pm, I would have to quarantine myself for two days, whether or not I tested positive for COVID-19.
(08/31/21 10:00am)
LGBTQIA+ representation and queer theory continues to be villified in most grade and high school environments — even when the introduction of that knowledge might hugely improve or even save a student’s life. As kids trickle back to class in-person this fall, some leave the danger of prejudiced family homes only to enter risky school environments in which identities are restricted and homophobic attacks from students, staff and teachers go unpunished. Others will watch while administrations degrade and demonize LGBTQIA+ students, or fire gay teachers and coaches without due process. A majority of schools still refuse to teach any semblance of LGBTQIA+ history, not to mention LGBTQ-specific health or sex education. All the while too many students — like transgender students who report much higher rates of feeling unsafe in school or fall into the 35% of students who attempt suicide — continue to suffer silently.
(08/31/21 10:00am)
Every year, a book forum is held for Brandeis' first-years. A book is chosen by the school, and sent to incoming first-years. It is supposed to be an intellectually stimulating book which the entire class can analyze and connect to. The forum includes receiving the book, reading the book and finally discussing the book in classrooms on campus with other first-years during orientation. On the University’s website, the event is described as “the first of many experiences that will begin to build your community and a sense of belonging at Brandeis. The forum is the only time your entire class will have a shared academic experience, reading the same book, and bringing you together for a meaningful connection with your peers and members of our outstanding faculty. This special experience is the beginning of creating a unifying connection that will last for years to come.”
(05/04/21 10:00am)
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.
(05/04/21 10:00am)
I am confused by clothing lately, in particular, pants. Trousers have gone into disfavor during the past year due to the pandemic and the new norm of Zoom meetings that allows people to generally only show themselves from the shoulders up. Some people even seem to think that bottom clothing is optional. You know who you are!
(04/27/21 10:00am)
Five senator positions and three representative positions, with a total of 10 seats, were open in the second round of Student Union elections this semester. Students voted on April 21, and Secretary Alex Park ’22 held a debate between the candidates on April 18. Park announced the results on April 22.
(04/13/21 10:00am)
This year’s annual Deis Impact festival of social justice showcased a wide variety of programs. Highlights from the event, which ran from April 7 to April 12, include: a workshop on the Migration of Caste, a keynote speech from Jose Antonio Vargas, a 7-Day Neurodiversity Challenge and a faculty panel that discussed immigration policy and social justice under the Biden Administration. This year’s Deis Impact theme was “Reflections on Im/Migration,” focusing on immigration, migration, asylum-seeking, refugee experiences, xenophobia, citizenship and nationality, according to the event website. Members of the Justice attended several of these events.
(04/13/21 10:00am)
I suffered from Zoom fatigue last fall. Now, I am in the midst of Zoom burnout. After an extended winter break over December and January, classes commenced in early February and they have not stopped. Sure, they give us “Wellness Days,” but so far those days have been consumed by extra homework assigned by professors. There is absolutely no wellness going on.
(03/23/21 10:00am)
*CONTENT WARNING*: Violence, homophobia, transphobia, mention of death, links to details of assault
(03/16/21 3:15pm)
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.
(03/16/21 10:00am)
The Brandeis Journalism Program and Office of the President sponsored “Science in a Pandemic: A Brandeis Journalism Forum" to discuss the role journalism has had on the public’s understanding of the pandemic and overall view of public health institutions. The virtual event, which took place on March 3, was a part of “Science Journalism, the Pandemic, and Disinformation,” a new course offered by the Journalism Program.
