FM Year in Review 2019: The Boundaries Issue | Magazine | The Harvard Crimson

Around Town

Walking by the ‘Woods’

Four million people live in this city. The global temperature has risen by an average of one degree Celsius since the 19th century. My feet are sore, and I wish that, for a moment, I could lean back on the bench overlooking the rose garden, close my eyes, and not be interrupted by the sporadic honking and sirens blaring from Route 203.

Conversation

'We're Really Great at Building Walls, We're Not Great at Building Marshes'

Michael T. Wilson ’07 has spent a lot of time thinking about unexpected coastal disasters like the 2018 Boston flooding.

Ju Yon Kim is Building from the Inside

When Kim took her job at Harvard in 2011, she didn't know she would be the only tenure-track Asian American Studies faculty member. "I was very surprised when I came to campus."

The Illogical, Irrational, Luxurious Dream of Min Jin Lee

"I thought it’d be simpler to be a writer, so I quit law and I started to write fiction. I was entirely wrong."

Migratory Language

Yiddish belongs to many, exists all over, and yet, as Feldman notes, “Students can’t go study abroad in a Yiddish land.” It is now considered a language of migration and marginality.

Lipstick and Legislation in Obama’s White House

When Andrea Flores was elected as the first Latinx president of the Harvard Undergraduate Council in 2008, her lipstick posed a problem.

Listening for Humanity at the Margins

A fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, Maria L. Hinojosa speaks with FM about her groundbreaking career in journalism.

The Scoop

FM REACTS TO COLLEGE DECISION REACTIONS 2019

“I’m about to get rejected three times in a row. Which is, just so you know, really hard to take.”

Revolution, Six Thousand Miles Away

Amidst the turmoil going on at home, Harvard’s Sudanese students are still trying to finish out this semester. The distance between home and Harvard can feel even farther.

Introspection

A Cultural Masquerade

In the 21st century, maybe it’s increasingly impossible for anyone to have a straightforward explanation for where they come from. We toggle between identities, pulling from a jumble of birthplaces and nationalities. When I pretended to be my American roommate Hannah, maybe it wasn’t a lie, so much as one facet of who I am.

Do You Know What You're Getting Yourself Into?

But spending the money is worth it, because a successful Visitas is imperative for NAHC. We’re a small group, and if we don’t convince enough prefrosh to join as freshmen, our numbers will dwindle. We feel like we have to convince Native prefrosh to commit to Harvard — and once that happens, we have to convince them that we are a community worth investing time in.

Breaking and Entering

The ladder was decades old and rusted over. It clung to the side of the building; I had nowhere to fall except the neighbor’s backyard, five stories below.

If All Space Were Safe Space

I have encountered this feeling in somewhat unconventional spaces: directing a porn film in an artist loft in Oakland, Calif., cheering from the audience as a woman reclaimed her sexuality in orgasm on a New York City stage, and participating in a “sex magic ritual” in a kinky mansion in the heart of New Orleans.

Talking Out Loud When My Roommate's Gone

When I first started watching Korean dramas, I was too young to be cynical.

Editors’ Note

Hello, reader!

Here at FM, we think categories are a little silly. This may come as a surprise, seeing as our magazine is largely based on content categories. They’re useful, of course — but non-essential at the end of the day. That’s why, for our 2019 Year in Review issue, we’ve chosen a theme that allows us to lean both into and away from categories. Welcome to: The Boundaries Issue.

The pun was unfortunately too irresistible to pass up, so we’ve crammed these glossy pages chock-full of content that pushes, explores, breaks, and affirms boundaries. We chatted with a host of people whose work explores boundaries in some way or another, whether they’ve broken down barriers in their field or pushed the borders of academic disciplines. And some of our writers have turned inwards, reflecting on the limits that they experience and surpass in their own lives.

The most literal boundaries in this issue are perhaps ecological — seawalls and the perimeter of Arnold Arboretum, courtesy of MHM and TTJ, respectively. JED pivots to the digital world with an investigation of students who upload college admissions reaction videos to YouTube. AKEC talks to accepted students in her reported essay exploring emotional labor in affinity groups. We invite you to explore — and, if you’d like, expand the boundaries of your own mind. Get it?

Yours in high-gloss print,

NMM & ALS

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