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Every week, Syracuse University professor Aileen Gallagher helps Longreads highlight the best of college journalism. Here’s this week’s pick.

The U.S. government is increasingly facing cyber threats that could affect our national security and economy. As a result, the government is courting hackers for cyber security jobs, but needs to overhaul its image to lure young talent, who can easily find well paid jobs in Silicon Valley and private security firms: “To get a […]

An investigation into America’s underground market for adopted children. Using online forums like Yahoo and Facebook groups, parents often advertise their unwanted children—who have a tendency to have been adopted abroad and have special needs—and give custody rights to strangers in a practice called “private re-homing,” which has little or no government regulation: “As the […]

Entertaining and infuriating exit interview with New York City’s mayor, in which Bloomberg defends the rich, criticizes the current mayoral candidates, and trumpets his record across crime, education and quality of life: “A common theme in the campaign to succeed you has been that you’ve governed primarily for the rich. “I’m fascinated by these comments—and […]

More than 25,000 North Korean defectors have escaped to South Korea to build new lives for themselves, but transitioning to a foreign way of living isn’t always so easy: “Defectors arriving in South Korea are debriefed intensively by security agents before going to the Hanawon rehabilitation complex, where they are given training in the skills […]

New reading list from Emily Perper featuring picks from Guernica, Hazlitt, YALSA, and Bitch Magazine.

The writer travels to Thessaloniki, the second largest city in Greece, and talks to the mayor and other residents about they city’s social and economic life. Here, he speaks with Dora Seitanidou, a percussionist and university worker in her late 30s: “‘If we become increasingly fascist—and Greek society is becoming increasingly fascist—you have to put […]

The writer stays with the Dominican Sisters of Houston and learns about the life they lead and the work they do: “‘I think a lot of them want some kind of sign,’ Pat says of the choice to wear the habit. ‘They want people to know.’ She also cites ‘that romanticism,’ as in (and this […]

Jellyfish are wreaking havoc on human inventions like nuclear power plans and aircraft carriers—and they’re changing the ocean permanently, according to Lisa-ann Gershwin’s book Stung!: “Japan’s nuclear power plants have been under attack by jellyfish since the 1960s, with up to 150 tons per day having to be removed from the cooling system of just […]

In Haiti, the country’s first little league team is inspiring hope for a young generation: “There are typical boyhood illusions drifting through the minds of those riding in the truck through the streets of Port-au-Prince. There are would-be rappers, of course—young Eminems and 50 Cents, little Lil Waynes, and in a few years, tiny Drakes […]