Applying Self-Disclosure to Columbia’s Couples By Jack Bradner Illustration by Selin Ho In 1997, psychologists Arthur Aron et al. published  their seminal study, “The Experimental Generation of Interpersonal Closeness: A Procedure and Some Preliminary Findings.” To investigate how self-disclosure affects relationship-building, Aron et al. devised a set of 36 questions to probe closeness between unacquainted participants. Two of the participants in Aron’s study were married  s

Barnard’s production of Trojan Women and its historical antecedents. By Jack Bradner Illustration by Truman Dickerson An email from my Lit Hum Professor popped into my inbox with the playbill for Barnard Theatre’s then-upcoming rendition of Trojan Women . Set in a Greek war camp, the play stages the aftermath of the Trojan War with Troy’s women detained and kidnapped by various Greek soldiers. On Oct. 17, Barnard and Columbia students recreated Euripides’ play with the Troja

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