Students in the Yale course “Colonialism, Nationalism, and Identity in Myanmar” hosted Myanmar resistance leader, Lian Hmung Sakhong, the minister of federal union affairs in Myanmar’s National Unity Government — a resistance government formed after the February 2021 coup in Myanmar. Sakhong spoke about various topics including federalism, repression against ethnic minorities, peacebuilding and resistance efforts in Myanmar.

“I think what we need is to stand together for humanity,” Sakhong said. “We stand together for justice. We stand together for the truth.” 

Sakhong spoke to the class over Zoom on Wednesday, April 19. The course, taught by Henry Rice Postdoctoral Associate and Southeast Asian religious studies scholar David Moe and postdoctoral associate Frances O’Morchoe, takes a chronological approach to studying the history of Myanmar, covering themes such as pre-colonial conceptions of ethnicity in Myanmar, the impacts of colonialism and migration on ethnic relations, Buddhist nationalism and ethnic conflict, as well as interreligious solidarity after the coup. 

The course is composed of six Yale students and two to four students in Myanmar, who join the class via Zoom. According to Moe, the class aims to bring the “unheard voices and inspiring stories of these resistance movements” to a broader Yale audience.

O’Morchoe concurred, adding that Sakhong’s perspective as a resistance leader who is also an academic and a member of the Chin ethnic minority group provided valuable insight into the dynamics of current resistance activity in Myanmar. 

Since the coup in Myanmar, the ruling military junta has been associated with numerous human rights violations including repression of ethnic minorities, particularly the Rohingya Muslim community, violence against protestors and imprisonment of individuals expressing political dissent. The Burmese people have resisted the repression of the military junta in various ways, including through protest, active combat and online organizing. 

According to Human Rights Watch, the current death toll of the civil war, which began after the 2021 coup, numbers at least 2,300, with over 15,700 people detained by the military.

The National Unity Government aims to reinstate democracy in Myanmar through developing a federal constitution that encodes the rights and freedoms of the Burmese people, works with local governance structures — particularly in areas with high populations of ethnic minorities — and administers public goods in resistance-controlled areas. Additionally, the National Unity Government seeks to further its cause through forming diplomatic ties with foreign countries and international organizations.

Sakhong spoke of his early experiences engaging in dissent as a part of the 1988 resistance movement against the first military coup. He then engaged students in a discussion about the possibilities for federalism and federal democracy in Myanmar.

Because of Myanmar’s ethnic diversity, with 135 ethnic groups, the National Unity Government and Burmese proponents of federal democracy face several unique considerations when developing a constitution. Moe noted that these features mean that federalism in Myanmar, based on both ethnic and geographical considerations, will look different from countries such as the United States, where governmental structures are primarily organized geographically.

Sakhong noted the difficulties of activism and resistance work in an environment marked by political repression. This repression is particularly felt by members of minority ethnic groups.

“We, the Chin, have been persecuted under the regime, so many times and over so many years,” Sakhong said. “We are not able to practice freedom of religion. Yes, we are able to worship. But freedom of worship is not freedom of religion.” 

Claire Chang ’24, a student in the course, said that she appreciated the content of the course, particularly because few Yale courses cover Southeast Asia.

She added that she hopes to see more classes on this region in the future.

“I came into this class with little to no knowledge about Myanmar other than knowing about Aung San Suu Kyi and the Rohingya genocide,” Chang wrote in an email to the News. “Learning about ethnic constructions and community formations from a non American/Western point of view was very interesting as I mainly study race and ethnicity in the context of a white supremacist system.”

In his talk, Sakhong examined how promises of federalism and democracy have continually been left unfulfilled by the national government. He contended that the state’s desire for a homogenous ethnic and religious national identity precluded the formation of a just and equitable democracy.

A Burmese student, who has been granted anonymity due to potential political repercussions, said that they appreciated learning about the history of their country, particularly during a time of upheaval.

“Especially in a time like this, you realize many things… [about] why your country is in this state,” they wrote in an email to the News. “History always repeats itself.”

Moe and O’Morchoe say they hope to teach the class again in Spring 2024, focusing on additional themes such as questions regarding the meaning of sovereignty, forced migration and internally displaced people in Myanmar.

The Yale Council on Southeast Asian Studies was established in 1947. 

Correction 4/25: The article has been updated to reflect Sakhong and Moe’s correct titles.

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The play, produced by Sydney Bryant ’23 and featuring Armanti Reed ’23, Julian Hornos Kohl ’23 and Simone Williams ’23, was comprised of two acts — the first was set in 1850 immediately following the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act, while the second was set in the present day. The first act focused on the historical figure of William Henry Lane, also known as Master Juba, a Black performer in the 1850s who toured with a white minstrel group. The second act took place at a modern-day dinner party, underscoring how racist attitudes persist in American culture despite the passage of time. 

Magloire said that he first wrote “Juba, or Jump!” for “African American Drama through 1959,” a Yale class that he took in Fall 2021. The play was then presented at the 2022 Yale Playwrights Festival.

“In that class, we learned about William Henry Lane and other Black performers who before Emancipation, and in the decades following, reached levels of success that one wouldn’t necessarily expect,” Magloire said. “And I just thought that was really compelling.”

Lane, played by Reed, was one of the first Black performers to perform in front of white audiences. Although he received extensive praise for his performances as a dancer, his work was neglected in scholarly circles until decades following his death.

According to Magloire, Eric Lott’s book Love & Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class informed much of the historical background for the play, while Bruce Norris’ play “Clybourne Park,” a 2010 spin-off of Lorraine Hansbury’s 1959 “A Raisin in the Sun,” inspired his structure. 

While the three-person cast remained the same between acts, the characters that they played and the dynamics between the characters did not. Even though the two acts are separated by over 150 years, several elements of continuity between the two scenes show the persistence of racial prejudice against Black people in American culture. 

“I think that people watching the show should pay attention to the similarities between act one and act two because you’ll find a lot of really, really interesting ways that Aaron has weaved the themes of act one into act two and vice versa,” said Williams.

Magloire added that in addition to including these links in the written script, the actors also brainstormed ways to incorporate these connections between acts through their gestures.

Magloire and Hornos Kohl met in a class his first year, and the two of them were in a play with Williams last year. Magloire then met Reed through a show that they were both involved in last March. Reed said that the play, consisting of only three actors, was the smallest show that he had been involved in, allowing the cast to become close with one another.

“Especially when you’re doing material that’s this heavy, you need to have a strong sense of camaraderie in the room,” Hornos Kohl said.

Magloire stated that initially, he was hesitant to be the director of the play, since he was also the writer. He noted that it was “very difficult” to hear his writing repeatedly read aloud in early rehearsals. However, he said that there was an “inflection point” that occurred during the rehearsal process, after which the show was no longer his, and instead was “in the hands of the actors.”

“I hope they realize how much work went into this,” Reed said. “How much blood, sweat, and tears, if you will … it’s really been such a different theater experience than I’ve ever experienced before.”

The Underbrook is located at 242 Elm St.

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In their Nov. 4 film with the title “Conservative Women for Conservative Values Presents: Operation Save Yale Now, Our Movie,” they lampoon the anti-abortion movement, providing social commentary on the dissolution of reproductive rights protections in America. The satirical film, with a run time of 13 and a half minutes, features Attell and Larkin playing Reagan Adams and Roberta “Bertha” Child, self-proclaimed “conservative women for conservative values” who seek to galvanize Yale students against abortion. 

“It’s comedy that serves a purpose, and comedy that has a point,” Larkin said. “We wanted to start with the truth, like pro-life or pro-choice, people sometimes act as if pregnancy is no big deal. And then we thought, how can we escalate that to an absurd degree?” 

Masquerading as right-wing activists, Attell and Larkin used megaphones to amplify their messages across Cross Campus, performed an original song and even hosted a podcast with Students for Life America president Kristan Hawkins. Hawkins was unaware at the time of the interview that Attell and Larkin were playing satirical characters. 

During their interview with Hawkins, the filmmakers sought to underscore contradictions within conservative pro-life ideology by asking her a series of increasingly pointed questions, ranging from the viability of maternity wear aimed at teenagers to the possibility for pregnancy to be counted for academic credit in high school or college.

According to Attell, the filmmakers also sought to explore issues such as homophobia and anti-semitism in their work. Attell stated that the film was an “intersectional story,” revealing how issues of reproductive rights are also intertwined with other forms of inequality and discrimination. 

Taglining the film as “Sacha Baron Cohen meets Nathan Fielder meets a woman for the first time,” Larkin stated that she and Attell were influenced by several different comedians and actors, such as Maria Bakalova and Amy Schumer.  According to Attell, prank-based comedy is often male-dominated or male-centered, leading her and Larkin to be especially inspired by female-driven sketch comedy which meaningfully examines important issues. 

Because passersby were unaware that the film was a satire, they were often taken aback by Attell and Larkin’s performances.

“The film shoots sometimes required Zoe and Ella to be quite absurd in public which was sometimes fun and sometimes a bit of a logistical headache,” director Leo Egger ’24 wrote in an email to the News. 

Preparation for the film started with an intensive writing process that began over the summer. While Attell was interning in New York City and Larkin was traveling abroad, they collaborated together on a script, unsure of who they would feature in the film. Because much of the film was based on improvisational elements, Attell and Larkin often had to write several jokes and create contingency plans. Developments during the filming process, such as the characters receiving a real cease-and-desist order from Students for Life America, were written into the script. 

In order to flesh out the characters, Attell and Larkin imagined detailed backstories for the characters of Adams and Child. According to Larkin, her character, Roberta “Bertha” Child, aimed to become “one of the hot women on Fox News,” while Attell envisioned both her and Larkin’s characters as people who had repeatedly experienced rejection. During filming, Attell and Larkin used various techniques such as improvising with production assistants and method acting.

According to Larkin, the improvisational nature of the film often required several takes of the same scene, resulting in an intensive filming process. Additionally, equipment failures and script changes meant that production assistants had to develop ad-hoc solutions. 

“I think one of the things I’m most proud of with this project is that the energy was really high, and everyone was in it to win it,” Attell said. “Everybody really bought in, and it felt like we were rooting for each other.”

Their previous experience with comedy groups at Yale allowed Attell and Larkin to recruit several members of their production crew. Attell and Egger are co-directors of The Fifth Humour, a sketch comedy group of which Emma Fusco ’26, who plays a minor role within the film, is also a member. 

Attell, Larkin and Egger emphasized the political nature of the film and the importance of its message on reproductive rights. Egger wrote that the film “required a very quick turnaround” so that it could be released prior to November midterm elections. 

“This is a project that is rooted in a strong political angle,” Larkin said. “We are pro-choice. And specifically, we believe that the government should not be legislating women’s bodies. We also want to make people laugh. We want to make people think about the absurdity of legislating a uterus. If we can do both of those things, we will be very happy.” 

The Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision was released by the U.S. Supreme Court on June 24, 2022. 

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Yale sleep specialists and students alike have noticed this marked increase. According to experts such as Christine Won, the medical director of the Yale Centers for Sleep Medicine, and Craig Canapari, director of the Yale Pediatric Sleep Center, college students may hold misconceptions about the appropriate doses of melatonin supplements, effective uses of supplements and alternative ways to maintain and improve sleep hygiene.

“Melatonin is very useful for treating jet lag and other circadian rhythm disorders, but it is not meant to be used as a sleeping aid for people who can’t fall or stay asleep, i.e., insomnia,” Won wrote. “In fact, if you use melatonin incorrectly, for example, by taking it at times misaligned with your circadian rhythm, you may actually worsen your sleep or your ability to fall asleep.”

Melatonin, a naturally occurring substance released in the pineal gland, is a hormone used by humans to regulate sleep-wake cycles. Individuals can take oral melatonin supplements to induce production of this hormone at a particular time, in order to deliberately shift this cycle. 

According to this great info, college students use melatonin for a variety of reasons, from regulating the timings of their sleep to improving their sleep quality.

“As an international student, I usually use melatonin to regulate my sleep when I get back to campus,” Bianca Beck ’24 said. 

Sleep hygiene remains a major concern among Yale students, who, according to a 2016 report by the Yale College Council, receive an average of only 6.7 hours of sleep on weekdays. Both Won and Canapari said that the various pressures faced by college students — such as social commitments, academic obligations and extracurricular activities — create an environment which makes it difficult for students to maintain sleep hygiene. 

“Getting into a school like Yale is, in some ways, a test of how tolerant students are to sleep deprivation,” Canapari said. “I think there’s more stress in the pre-college experience, so something’s got to give. And for a lot of kids, in my experience, that’s sleep.” 

According to Won, college students often suffer from “social jet lag,” in which their weekday and weekend sleep timings drastically differ. This interrupted sleep cycle results in poorer quality sleep and difficulty falling asleep. Moreover, according to Canapari, these habits can stem from poor sleep habits developed during middle and high school.

Won and Canapari also noted that the general public holds misconceptions about how to effectively use melatonin supplements. One common misconception about melatonin, according to Won, is that people believe it’s a sleeping pill. 

According to Canapari, despite melatonin’s status as a hormone, it is regulated as a dietary supplement by the Food and Drug Administration. This means that over-the-counter melatonin supplements are not as highly regulated as other hormonal supplements, increasing the risk of side effects.

Additionally, according to Won, doses of melatonin found in supplements are often much higher than what is naturally produced by the human body.

“The effective melatonin dose for treating circadian disorders is less than 1 milligram,” Won wrote. “However, it is commonly sold at anywhere between 3 milligrams to 10 milligrams, which far exceeds physiologic levels.”

Canapari noted that melatonin is not a “habit-forming” substance and does not harbor similar side effects to benzodiazepines or other sleep aids. However, he mentioned that individuals may form a “psychological dependence” to these supplements, complicating their sleep habits. Moreover, individuals who take more than the recommended dosage may face issues such as bad dreams and interrupted sleep, along with grogginess the next day.

Canapari encouraged students with persistent sleep-related problems to interrogate these issues and make plans to improve their sleep hygiene. 

“Just like people might work towards getting a good grade or workout in the gym to lift a certain amount of weight or look a certain way, taking a little bit of care to have good sleep hygiene will likely pay significant dividends in terms of health, mental health and even academic dividends,” Canapari said.

Melatonin was discovered at the Yale University School of Medicine in 1958.

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Mehrotra, a computer science and political science major, was among 12 scholars nationwide selected for the Mitchell Scholar Class of 2024 and will begin her master’s in Political Communication at Dublin City University next September. 

The scholarship, administered by the US-Ireland Alliance, allows selected scholars to pursue a yearlong graduate degree on the island of Ireland. Named after U.S. Senator George J. Mitchell, who was instrumental in the adoption of the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement, the scholarship aims to strengthen ties between American students and Ireland.

“I think that I have focused for the past four and a half years on how to make a life for myself at Yale and how to get the most of my time at Yale,” Mehrotra said. “It was really helpful to think concretely about what I wanted to do in the future and get excited about opportunities elsewhere.” 

Mehrotra added that the application process allowed her to think about her goals, including whether she wanted to pursue further graduate studies.

During her time at Yale, Mehrotra served as Opinion Editor of the News and co-director of the Yale Politics Initiative. She also competed for the Yale Debate Association and was a member of the Yale Program in Grand Strategy. 

According to Office of Fellowship Programs director Rebekah Westphal, students interested in applying for the Mitchell Scholarship during their senior year should consult with the Office of Fellowship Programs during their junior spring, in order to receive support such as one-on-one meetings with advisors, interview practice and application review. 

“Rabhya made a very strong application because she had a very specific plan for the scholarship and had thought through why this made sense for her to pursue now,” Westphal wrote to the News.

While students who apply to the Mitchell Scholarship during their senior year must receive Yale’s nomination, applicants who apply as alumni are not required to obtain nomination by Yale. 

In an interview with the News, Mehrotra emphasized her excitement about the various aspects of the program, including developing a familiarity with Ireland, getting to know her cohort, and pursuing her academic interests in participatory democracy.

As part of a project for the Program in Grand Strategy, Mehrotra researched the 2010-2013 Icelandic proposal for constitutional reform, an unsuccessful attempt to create a foundation for participatory democracy in Iceland. 

Mehrotra noted the value of “deeply experiencing the small details of another place,” referencing her time in Iceland. Living there allowed her to understand how dynamics such as the dominance of Iceland’s fishing industry shaped political decisions.

“Over the years, I’ve been surprised by how many people who are influential in American politics have spent significant time abroad and how that’s shaped their perspective on politics,” she said. “I think there’s a lot to be gained from living somewhere else.”

During her time in Ireland, Mehrotra hopes to research the nation’s Citizens’ Assembly. She was particularly interested in the Citizens’ Assembly in Ireland as it is a successful implementation of a participatory democracy initiative.

Mehrotra noted that while some of these initiatives existed in the United States, such as the Washington state climate assembly and public opinion polling initiatives conducted by Stanford University, these initiatives were not particularly expansive. In contrast, the Citizens’ Assembly in Ireland empowers citizens to develop policy on issues such as biodiversity loss, drug policy  and abortion.

At Dublin City University, Mehrotra will study with Jane Suiter, who has extensively researched and been involved with the Citizens’ Assembly. 

“We are delighted to have Rabhya as part of the 2024 Mitchell Scholars Class, and found her research on citizens assemblies quite timely and interesting,” Mitchell Scholarship director Serena Wilson wrote to the News.

Mehrotra says she developed an interest in politics in middle and high school, citing her participation in debate and her interest in the 2016 Bernie Sanders presidential campaign as drivers of this interest. After learning about the 2010 Citizens United v. FEC decision, in which Citizens United, a conservative political action committee successfully undermined campaign finance restrictions, she became interested in “how moneyed interests affect politics.”

According to Mehrotra, her interest in citizens’ assemblies and participatory democracy was catalyzed by taking “Open Democracy: Reinventing Popular Rule for the 21st Century,” a course taught by professor Hélène Landemore in Spring 2021.

“It was the first time that I learned about alternative approaches to representative democracy,” Mehrotra said of the course, adding that she would like to bring participatory democracy to the United States during her career. “It was like a lightbulb went off.”

The Mitchell Scholarship was established in 1998.

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The high rating, granted by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, recognized Yale’s sustainability efforts in several areas while also highlighting the need for improvement in sustainable finance and campus engagement. 

Out of a possible 100 points, the University scored 70.5 total points, an increase from its previous score of 67.8, which it achieved in 2020. The scoring rubric is made up of five overarching categories — operations, planning and administration, innovation and leadership, academics and engagement. The gold rating, which requires a minimum of 65 points, is the second highest score on the scale. Platinum, the highest rating, requires a total score of 85 points. 

Yale could increase its score for future years by upping engagement with students in the professional and graduate schools, according to Lisa Noriega, a data analyst at the University’s Office of Sustainability.

“The [STARS] report itself reflects areas needing attention as we develop our office’s programming,”  Noriega said. “As a result of this reflection, new programming is underway to target a broader student population more effectively.”

By submitting data to STARS, according to Noriega, the University is also automatically submitting data to college sustainability rankings, including the Princeton Review’s Guide to Green Colleges and the Sierra Club’s Cool School Ranking.

Princeton University also received a gold rating this year, while Stanford University scored at the platinum level. Several other peer institutions have not yet received ratings. 

The rankings are another way to highlight the University’s sustainability efforts. According to the AASHE STARS website, universities derive several benefits from self-reporting for STARS ratings, including connections with other STARS institutions, suggestions for community engagement and concrete metrics to drive future sustainability efforts. 

Sebastian Duque ’24, co-president of the Yale Student Environmental Coalition, cautioned against putting too much credit on the results of the report and others like it, noting that reports like STARS are not always effective at measuring campus sustainability and that the University is more open to making changes to its sustainability plan when pressured by student activism. 

“In general, institutions can very easily use ratings like these to greenwash themselves and promote themselves as sustainable spaces or sustainable institutions when they’re not really fulfilling the full share that they could be,” Duque said. 

Even though Yale’s overall performance received a gold rating, the University did not perform well in all categories. It received its lowest scores in the subcategories of “investment and finance” and “wellbeing and work.” 

The University received a 0.83 out of 5 possible points for “sustainable investment” and 0 of 1 possible points for “investment disclosure.” According to AASHE, schools are scored on the accessibility of information related to investments, the presence of an effective sustainable investments policy and engagement with divestment efforts.

“I think Yale is a sustainability leader in a lot of ways, in their operations and buildings, thought leadership and research,” said Jamie Chan ’23, a former president of YSEC. “There are still definitely substantial ways that they can improve, particularly with sharing Yale’s sustainability resources with New Haven and taking serious calls for fossil fuel divestment.” 

Student groups like the Yale Endowment Justice Coalition have pressured the University to divest from fossil fuels, a commitment Yale has so far refused to make.

The current Yale Sustainability Plan outlines the University’s goal for divestment to “encourage Yale’s external investment managers to consider the risks and opportunities associated with climate change in their investment processes with respect to Yale’s portfolio.” 

The University’s sustainability plan was not created to align with the STARS rating system, according to Noriega. Yale’s sustainability plan was created years before the STARS assessment system, but in creating the next sustainability plan for 2025, however, the results of the STARS report can help shape more of the University’s goals for sustainability efforts in the future.

AASHE was established in 2005.

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As per Jensen, at the heart of Cherokee-American Rebecca Nagle’s fight to make the American judiciary accessible is a desire to reclaim Native truths and counter the erasure of Indigenous narratives.

In a Tuesday evening Pierson College Tea, the journalist, activist and creator of the podcast “This Land” spoke on her groundbreaking work in the recent Supreme Court case Haaland v. Brackeen, which regards the Indian Child Welfare Act — a 1978 law passed by Congress that allows tribal governments to regulate custody of Indigenous children.  She also discussed the importance of media representations of the case. 

“Until we have a public that understands what tribal sovereignty is and why it’s important, I think it’s very unlikely that we’re going to have federal judges and members of Congress [who will] also believe [in] that,” Nagle said. “The ignorance of the American Republic is shared.”

The talk was moderated by Rebecca Plumage, a research fellow at the NYU-Yale American Indian Sovereignty Project. At the start of the talk, Plumage introduced Nagle, remarking that she had completed a “tremendous amount of work” covering the ongoing Supreme Court case.

A white couple in Texas — Chad and Jennifer Brackeen — has ignited a national conversation on the adoption of Native American children. Looking to gain custody of the half-sister of their adopted Navajo and Cherokee son, despite resistance from tribal nations, they filed a lawsuit that could potentially overturn the ICWA.

Since then, Nagle explained that the media has constructed an “upside-down version of the truth” and a narrative in which the ICWA exclusively harms non-Native foster parents.

Nagle emphasized the importance of representing the feelings of foster parents within the proper context of foster care. Statements of love for a child or attachment to foster care do not override the fact that the “purpose of foster care is not to adopt,” she explained. She further noted that the foster parents were asked to sign a form reinstating that adoption is not guaranteed.

Nagle pointed out that dominant media narratives that sympathized with the Brackeens, including the New York Times, overlooked key details of the case, such as the fact that the Brackeens relinquished the placement of the first child that was placed with them.

“The story that’s told in the media is that this law [ICWA] rips the child away from their home,” Nagle said. “What’s actually happening is that there’s a deeply biased child welfare system that’s ripping Native families apart.”

Nagle hopes that the public will direct its attention to the greater systemic roadblocks and biases that hypercriminalize communities of color and prevent Native family members from trying to keep their children.

She added that a variety of interest groups have converged to diminish Indigenous sovereignty through seeking to overturn ICWA, including attorneys representing the private adoption industry and conservative organizations such as the Goldwater Institute, engaging in “strategic conservative litigation.” According to her, not only do these actors impinge on Indigenous sovereignty through legal means, they also introduce false narratives.

One of the largely dismissed components to the conversation that Nagle drew attention to was substance abuse stereotypes surrounding people of color, despite the statistic that Native folks have among the highest sobriety rates of any group in the nation. A big reason that these children entered foster care in the first place is that their parents were struggling with addiction, she explained, but the reality is that “almost none of these parents really get access to treatment.”

“Rebecca Nagle’s speech did the very important work of demystifying otherwise dense and convoluted Supreme Court cases regarding ICWA and Tribal sovereignty as a whole,” Avery Maples ’26, a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians from Cherokee, North Carolina, wrote in an email to the News. “She increases the accessibility of some of the most important information in Indian Country today and imparts a necessary sense of urgency. ICWA underscores that relationship and America’s promise that Indian Nations can coexist within America and are entitled to their protection of Native resources, including one of the most precious of all, the children in their nations.”

According to Maples, seeking out information about issues such as ICWA from Native journalists and sources is key to counteracting misconceptions about Native people among the public.

In an email to the News, Leah Shrestinian, the program manager for the NYU-Yale American Indian Sovereignty Project, stated that in addition to the podcast, “reading through the Sovereignty Project’s brief is an excellent way to get informed.”

In addition to discussion of contemporary events, Nagle also spoke about her motivations for becoming a journalist, which was grounded in her early grassroots advocacy for sexual assault and domestic violence. She is a founding member of FORCE: Upsetting Rape Culture, which seeks to galvanize a public consciousness of consent and mutuality in social relationships.

Nagle also added that she is currently working on a book about key Supreme Court cases affecting Native communities, a theme explored within her podcast.

The “This Land” podcast’s first episode was released in 2019.

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She noticed that depictions of Vietnamese people often reduced the complexity of their stories and identities and that dominant historical narratives relating to the Vietnam War minimized or distorted the experiences of the Vietnamese people. Through her ongoing exhibition Băng Qua Nước: Across Land, Across Water — which opened on Oct. 26 at Creative Arts Workshop —  she aims to uplift the art of Vietnamese artists, showcase the stories of Vietnamese immigrant communities in the United States, and prompt meaningful discussion.

“I hope that people will take away a better understanding of what home can mean for themselves, for others, for the Vietnamese community, and for the large immigrant and refugee community in New Haven,” Vuong said. “I hope they experience the joy held in this exhibit and feel like they can connect in some way, even if they have different experiences.” 

The exhibit features the work of four Vietnamese diasporic artists — Thuan Vu, Quyên Trương, Thu Tran and Antonius-Tín Bui. The exhibited artwork span a wide range of media, from acrylic and oil paintings on canvas and wood panels to a floor-to-ceiling installation piece and a short film by Bui. 

The exhibit is sectioned into three themes – Nơi Dây Nơi Dó: Here Nor/And There, Cùng Nhau/Together, and Sự mất và sự trả lại: Loss and Return/Redemption.

“Ivy did a really masterful job, choosing three themes that would not only resonate with Vietnamese Americans, but also most of the migrant, immigrant and refugee communities in the United States,” Bui said.  “Unfortunately our experiences of forced assimilation, displacement and erasure aren’t exceptional when considering US militarism and imperialism.”

The opening reception for the exhibit featured remarks by Creative Arts Workshop executive director Anne Coates, Vuong and artist Thuan Vu. After Coates detailed the history and programming of the Creative Arts Workshop, Vuong recounted her reasons for curating the exhibition, including her family’s experience immigrating to the United States.

At the reception, Vuong shared that her mother and father were “boat people,” a term used to describe refugees who left Vietnam after the 1975 Fall of Saigon. Vuong’s statements were followed by statements from Vu, who emphasized that while members of the Vietnamese diaspora share several threads that bind them together, they also harbor varied and diverse experiences. 

“When we talk about the Vietnamese American experience, that trip over to America took place in many different ways in different times,” Vu said. “We are not just Vietnamese or American … we are all of those things at the same time and yet we have to wrestle with our own finitude at the same time.” 

According to Vuong, her desire to curate the exhibition stemmed from the underrepresentation of Vietnamese artists and histories in museums. Despite the importance of these narratives, Vuong noticed how these stories were rarely told outside of Vietnamese communities. After encountering the work of Tiffany Chung, a Vietnamese American artist, at the Smithsonian, and sharing the work with her mother, she began brainstorming ways to use her art history background to uplift the art of Vietnamese diasporic artists. 

This summer, during an internship at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, Vuong came across an open call for curatorial submissions for the 2022 Open Source Festival by Artspace New Haven. Soon after, she received a message that her proposal had been selected and she began reaching out to artists and planning for the exhibition. 

Through the process of curating the exhibition, Vuong said that she has “worn about ten different hats,” honing her abilities in marketing and promotion, graphic design, and exhibition setup. 

The artists featured in the exhibition drew on familial memories, explorations of cultural identities, and personal artistic journeys to create their artwork. According to Trương, her artistic process consists of “thinking about how to make a two-dimensional piece live and breathe in a way that it should if it was three dimensional.” One of her featured pieces, Names like Fireworks, explores her father’s relationship with his name and identity, and was inspired by her love for the stories behind people’s names. 

Bui said that they created their dance narrative film, Upon Skin, Upon Stone, after losing their grandmother. The film was their first collaboration with their sibling, Theresa-Xuan Bui. The film synthesizes Vietnamese Catholic chanting, poetry and narrative dance performed at three Vietnam Memorial sites in Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, D.C.

“I was thinking a lot about what it means to lose an entire generation to lose access to their stories, all the libraries that they embody,” Bui said, adding that the process of creating the piece was “transformative and cathartic” for them and their sibling. 

Vu noted the significance of the exhibition, underscoring that the exhibition was the “first Vietnamese American art show, for Vietnamese artists, curated by a Vietnamese American curator, who happens to also be female.” 

According to Vuong, while there have been exhibitions that have showcased some Vietnamese artists, she had never seen a group exhibition solely featuring Vietnamese artists. Additionally, she added that most exhibitions featuring Vietnamese artists tend to be located on the West Coast, while her exhibition features Connecticut-based Vietnamese artists. 

Even though the exhibit focuses on the Vietnamese diasporic experience, Vuong observed that the themes of the exhibition resonated with a wide range of viewers, a sentiment echoed by Vu.

“It’s so universal. The human experience of what happens after there’s been trauma,” Vu said. “What happens after there’s been a disaster. What happens after there has been joy.”

While the exhibition was originally scheduled to run through Nov. 26, the dates have been extended to Jan 20. In the future, Vuong hopes to expand the exhibition, potentially curating an exhibition as part of the 50th anniversary of the Fall of Saigon in 2025.

Creative Arts Workshop is located at 80 Audubon St. 

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Named as the Schwarzman Center’s first artist-in-residence in June, Dessner will collaborate with different artists, engage in public performances and participate in workshops with the Yale community. Dessner will work with artists Julia Bullock, Ash Fure, Nathalie Joachim and Kaneza Schaal, who work across media including voice, instruments and film. One of his first engagements at Yale included a college tea at Grace Hopper College on Nov. 4. 

“I am thrilled to work with the new Schwarzman Center and build on Yale’s history of experimental music and performance — Julia Bullock, Ash Fure, Nathalie Joachim and Kaneza Schaal are among the most important artists working today,” Dessner wrote in an email to the News.

While the Schwarzman Center opened in fall 2021, the center’s programming has been significantly delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Associate Artistic Director Jennifer Newman DRA ’11. She added that the programs were “still very much in their early stages.” 

Newman said that the process of selecting the artists who would collaborate with Dessner was an endeavor shaped by Dessner’s “collaborative process.” According to her, Dessner often seeks to create community through his work, such as his curatorial work creating the MusicNOW Festival in Cincinnati and the Sounds from a Safe Harbor Music Festival in Ireland.

Newman noted that the artists involved in the collaboration were currently using the space to create original pieces, such as composer Ash Fure, who is currently working on a piece about the “ephemeral nature of performance.”

“It really is thrilling for me to see artists use the space and be really excited about being in the space,” Newman said. “They are very thrilled to be in the Dorm Room for an entire week and have access to the space and to really explore how sound works in a space as unique as the Dome.” 

Benjamin Verdery, associate professor adjunct of guitar at the Yale School of Music and Dessner’s teacher, friend and mentor, concurred with Newman’s comments, adding that it has been “exciting to watch [Dessner] grow musically.” 

Verdery noted that during his time at Yale, Dessner had engaged with a variety of musical influences through his work in classical guitar and creating a band with his brother and other musicians. He added that their friendship and partnership had grown throughout the years, with Dessner composing music for the Ulysses Quartet, a string quartet, who Verdery has performed with.

Thomas Kriegsmann, president of the creative agency ArKtype and Dessner’s producer, said that he was “deeply grateful for the opportunity” to work with Dessner and the Schwarzman Center. 

“The Schwarzman Center’s potential for transforming art, artists and community is boundless, as is the power of creative Centers like this as catalyzing agents in support of the creation of new work,” said Kriegsmann. “I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to work with Bryce in the Center’s first years to realize that mission and support artists with such vast potential for resonance. The work made here by Bryce, Ash, Kaneza, Nathalie and Julia will be nothing less than defining, signature works in times that need their voices badly. As a producer of experimental work, these opportunities are essential.”

The Schwarzman Center is located at 168 Grove Street.

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On Nov. 11, the Poorvu Center hosted a workshop entitled “Why (is it worth it to) Study the Arts and Humanities?”. Led by Assistant Director of Academic Strategies Lynda Paul, the session covered topics such as the role of the Academic Strategies Program, the importance of the arts and humanities and ways to engage with these subjects at Yale.

“There’s a very broad range of range of academic workshops available — everything from very practical things, like studying for exams and tackling p-sets to more theoretical things like how not to procrastinate, and we’re always trying to encapsulate the questions people have common anxieties about,” academic strategies mentor Sheryl Ofwona ’23 said. 

At the start of the session, Paul explained the services offered by the Academic Strategies Program to students, which include workshops, one-on-one sessions with Academic Strategies Mentors, and study halls. According to Paul, the Academic Strategies Program aims to help students “navigate the hidden curriculum of Yale,” in particular the “implicit cultural-academic norms” that govern academic spaces. 

Following Paul’s introduction, academic strategies mentors Ofwona, Josh Atwater ’24, Sam Heimowitz ’23 and Alejandro Ortega ’23 introduced themselves, their involvement with the arts and humanities at Yale, and their rationale for taking classes in these subjects. 

Atwater said that he was able to explore creative writing at Yale through both courses and extracurricular activities, such as writing for the Yale Herald. Ortega outlined how humanities courses, such as those found in the Ethnicity, Race and Migration major, were particularly conducive to academic exploration due to the wide range of themes and texts examined within these courses.

Inviting the audience to reflect on a passage from biologist David Ehrenfield’s essay, “Why put a value on biodiversity?,” Paul emphasized the importance of arts and humanities to cultivating different modes of understanding. Paul framed arts and humanities education as forms of “resistance,” allowing students to “make space to slow down.”

Students were then matched up to academic strategies mentors to discuss the variety of skills gained by studying arts and humanities as an undergraduate. These skills included both expertise relevant to arts-related careers, as well as transferable skills useful in a variety of sectors. 

After one-on-one discussion with a mentor, students shared their observations with the group as a whole.

“I’m a first year student and I’m kind of exploring what I want to do here at Yale. I came to this workshop to get a sense of what studying the arts full-time looks like here and getting motivation to do that,” Matias Guevara ‘26 said. “It’s nice to find a place where you can find the option of studying what you like.” 

Guevara added that he appreciated learning about the wide variety of majors and “ways to get involved with the arts.” 

Paul discussed the broad range of postgraduate opportunities that students take advantage of after majoring in the humanities, including jobs in marketing and communications, nonprofit management, and media work. She concluded the session by providing an overview of the resources available at Yale. 

The Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning was established in 2014.

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