Scrutiny
Can Hopi Hoekstra Have It Both Ways?
As Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean Hopi E. Hoekstra has found repeatedly, it’s hard to simultaneously serve Harvard, the corporation churning through the news cycle, and Harvard, the collective of researchers and students filling its classrooms and labs.
The Fight to Keep Cambridge Local News Alive
The fragility of Cambridge’s media ecosystem raises questions of what a sustainable model for local journalism looks like — and what the city loses when local news disappears.
Volume XXXVI, Issue IV March 6, 2025
Dear FM, In this week’s scrutiny, AWA and AJBS examine the state of local news in Cambridge. Their story illustrates the patchwork of outlets, published in church basements and Vietnamese coffee shops, that cover a city of over 118,000 people. They find that Cambridge’s media ecosystem is alive — for now — but that it’s stricken by the resource problems plaguing local news outlets across the nation. With incisive, colorful prose, AWA and AJBS explore the creative solutions journalists across the city are taking to ensure Cambridge news survives. Making her return to FM, NYS profiles Professor Michael J. VanRooyen, a physician working to build a better form of humanitarianism. And in a delightful 15Q, XSC chats with Professor Leslie J. Fernandez about techno-orientalism, Blade Runner, and BMO from Adventure Time. In this week’s columns, CS interrogates our instinct to close-read queerness. CJ deconstructs the immigrant-child lunchbox story — weaving olfaction, TikTok, and Disney’s “Ratatouille” together in the process. And last but never least, KT closes us out with a beautiful endpaper on overcoming guilt. Thank you to BHP, JHC, KHL CHF, XCZ, SFL, and OWZ for the gorgeous visuals filling our issue. Thank you to all of our FM execs — but especially KJK and XSC, for welcoming our compers to their first writers’ meeting! And, finally, thank you to MTB — for your intelligent edits, clear-eyed proofing, and endless dedication. There’s no one I’d rather be doing this with. FMLove, MTB+YAK
Thomas A. Dichter Portrait
Thomas A. Dichter ’08, lecturer on Hist & Lit; 2015-20, extended 2020-25 via taking on an administrative role
Leslie J. Fernandez Portrait
Leslie J. Fernandez, program director of the Committee on Ethnicity, Migration, and Rights; lecturer on Asian American Studies, formerly under time cap, 2023-24
Nicholas F. Bloom Portrait
Nicholas F. Bloom, lecturer on the Committee on Degrees in History & Literature, 2023-26
Andi T. Remoquillo Portrait
Andi T. Remoquillo, lecturer on the Committee on Degrees in History & Literature, 2024-27
