Thinking about Ambedkar by thinking beyond Ambedkar. By Maya Lerman Illustration by Truman Dickerson In May of 1916, a 25-year-old Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar wrote and presented a paper, entitled “Castes in India: Their Mechanism, Genesis and Development,” for a Columbia anthropology seminar. “ Subtler minds and abler pens than mine have been brought to the task of unravelling the mysteries of Caste,” Ambedkar remarked, “but unfortunately it still remains in the domain of the ‘un

Reflections on privilege and performance through the Ivy League Solidarity Memorial on Feb. 7, 2026. By Rocky Rūb Illustration by Ines Alto On Dec. 13, 2025, an active shooter entered a Brown University building and killed two students, injuring nine others. The gunman remained at large for nearly a week after taking the lives of Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov and Ella Cook, aged 18 and 19, respectively.  Over the 48 hours following the shooting, Instagram was flooded with posts an

On Susan Sontag, the Wild West, and spring break. by Luke Zinger Illustration by Em Bennett Up until about a month ago, my vision of “ the West ” was a hazy ideal constructed by half-remembered scenes of galavanting cowboys in network television Westerns, and a hedonistic, rambling set of passages I’d earmarked in my copy of Kerouac’s On the Road . I had dreamlike imaginings of shriveled tumbleweeds crawling down horsetrod desert paths in New Mexico, and giant, thundering tor

On Filipino connection at the corner of 5th Ave and 46th St, and across the Pacific By Selma White-Pascual Illustration by Jacqueline Subkhanberdina It is 30 minutes past the 2 p.m. start time when the program begins. The protesters gathered in front of the General Consulate of the Philippines on 5th Ave joke, “It’s actually early for Filipino-time!” An organizer steps forward and tells us through a large megaphone that we will run through the chants together. I share a print

The Beginnings of Ntozake Shange and her Literary Elsewheres. By Nnema Épée-Bounya Illustration by Iris Pope On the fourth floor of Milstein Library, in box nine, folder three of the Ntozake Shange Papers sits a stapled, slightly stained, magazine. Tucked between the manilla folders of Barnard’s Archives, its cover is a loose sketch of a nude Black woman—her arms delicately wrapped around her body, her hip popped to the side, her featureless face turned toward the reader. To

On small moments of love that lie solely within a New York City park.   By Sayuri Govender Illustration by Jacqueline Subkhanberdina In each of the parks around campus are pockets of us—people-watching with our neighbors, sharing inside jokes, and breathing out with the trees. I have dozens of different trail loops memorized, and I know exactly which one I need when. For a long, contemplative moment, I’ll walk down to the bend near 99th where Riverside Park meets the Hudson R

On a priori truth and looking at the moon.  By Duda Kovarsky Rotta Illustration by Justin Chen Read while listening to Billie Holiday's I’ll Be Seeing You.  Ever since I spent a semester reading Kant's Critique of Pure Reason for class, that Prussian virgin's words have loitered in my mind. The thick Critique  weighed heavy on my bag from class to class, and on my peregrinations to see the woman I love.  Over the course of our medium-distance New York-Boston relationship, we

On college love, temptation, and heartbreak from a Muslim-American perspective .    By Sara Omer Illustration by Kathleen Halley-Segal I exist in a rift between two vastly different worlds, straining to hold them together. The first world was introduced to me by my parents. I can only reach this one through focus and expert dissociation. I awake from my slumber in the middle of a silent night while everyone around me is snoring and dreaming. I splash unnervingly cool water on

Some names have been changed, some haven’t. By Rocky Rūb Illustration by Em Bennett Three and a half years ago, I started making a playlist for every semester. It’s a maladaptive practice, in which I imagine that each 14-week stretch of time makes up a television season, and that each playlist makes up its soundtrack. I’m the main character, obviously, but a couple tracks focus on my friends, the featured cast members. There are times that I actually can’t listen to the playl

How to drink from the heart. By Iris Eisenman Illustration by Justin Chen In anticipation of a date, I watched my friend, who never smokes, tuck a cigarette into her purse. When I asked her why, she told me it was her first date routine. Something about the small ritual gave her a comfortable distance from the moment, like someone else was experiencing the night in her stead. I immediately recognized her desire for a switch to be flipped, for romance to exist in a compartment

On relationships, labels, and keeping love alive .    By Ana Sorrentino Illustration by Iris Pope The names in this piece have been changed to respect the sources’ romantic privacy. Upon reading, I’m sure you’ll understand why.  In high relief against the outer wall of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, white birds bathe in shallow pools of melted snow along the plaza’s edge. In soft crowds they stretch wings, pivot, and stare. Two take off flying around in a frantic chase to th

On the inexplicable obsession with the perfect ballet dancer. By Magda Lena Griffel Illustration by Iris Pope As a child, Grace Li, CC ’28, was transfixed by the role of Clara in Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker . For Fiona Witty-Daughtery CC ’28, it was the older dancers at her first summer intensive. For the late ballerina Michaela Mabinty DePrince, it was a magazine cover of a prima ballerina that flew to the gate of her orphanage when she was four. She joined ballet classes a

Musings of a pollworker. By Ava Lattimore Illustration by Vanessa Zhou *The views expressed in this piece are my own and do not represent the views of the NYC Board of Elections. Election Day. Based on the conversations I snuck in during my four hour poll worker training, it seems like people sign up to be poll workers for one of three reasons: They need the money ($350, to be exact); they like politics; or, there is a guilt that rots and metastasizes inside of them for takin

Columbia’s real conservative newspaper. By Eli Baum Illustration by Selin Ho In April 2025, Columbia was on the verge of signing a deal with the Trump administration. It would have banned all masked protests on campus, restructured the University Senate, and created a committee to oversee University reforms. But at the critical moment when Columbia was about to sign, Harvard publicly stood up to the White House. Columbia decided that it could not capitulate to the Trump admin

On swenking, Sapeurs, and dressing well . By Nnema Épée-Bounya Illustration by Iris Pope I am in the back of a theater, the smallest theater I have ever been in. The seats are made of wood and have red velvet cushions. The woman next to me is eating a bag of chips extremely loudly, slowly, and self-consciously. The woman in front of me has an afro shaped like a heart, and I wonder if it’s intentional. Two middle-aged Black women sit beside me after arriving with the director

What it means to be Christian during the resurgence of the religious right.  By Althea Downing-Sherer Illustration by Em Bennet When people discover that my dad is a pastor, I feel compelled to assure them that I’m not that  kind of Christian: “But don’t worry, he’s, like, a really woke  pastor.” With a pride flag fluttering high above our church’s entrance to prevent local dissenters from stealing it and with church members prepping donations of school supplies, my church do

Reckoning with the large, the small, and the good life.  By Evan Rossi Illustration by Isabelle Oh On a gloomy October night in the heart of St. Paul’s Chapel, four musicians handling a violin, cello, clarinet, and piano attempted to conjure the end of time. The theme of the concert was spiritual music, and the quartet had decided on Quartet for the End of Time composed by Olivier Messiaen. Conceived inside a German prisoner-of-war camp, the eight-movement work is a figurativ

The birth, death, and resurrection of Gutzon Borglum’s angels. By Natalie Buttner  Illustration by Audrey Wang The ornate facade of St. John the Divine is populated by a lavish community of statues. Angels, apostles, patriarchs, and prophets wrapped in gray robes are frozen in place, enacting the more theatrical moments in Holy Writ. The style is inconsistent, indicative of a diversity of sculptors and visions for the Cathedral. The arched doors are centered on a marble statu

Making sense of Manhattan-Project mythology. By Jack Bradner Illustration by Em Bennet Three yellow triangles imprinted on a black circle universally indicate nuclear radiation. On a haphazard walk across 114th Street, I doubled back to take a second and then a third look at the “FALLOUT SHELTER” designation some five stories beneath my room in Carman Hall. I had two initial, instinctive reactions. I was reminded of America’s nuclear history and at the same time recalled Fall

On writing amidst the plague. By Marvin Cho Illustration by Em Bennet All institutions, assumptions, and habits of normalcy in Oran had...