This week, our editors recommend stories by Carla Ciccone, Lex Pryor, Bhavya Dore, Michelle Cyca, and Casey Lyons.
Academia
The Professor
“Maybe the most powerful person is the one who dares to refuse the gift.”
The Native Scholar Who Wasn’t
“Academia is an industry, like journalism, that defines itself in large part by its ethical standards; we’re supposed to educate people and produce knowledge. So what does it mean that we’re also a haven for fakes?”
A Black Physicist Is Borne Back Ceaselessly Into the Past
“I am forced to live in a parallel world to the one I wanted to live in, where I could have been a physicist without also constantly being asked to speak on or attempt to compensate for the persistent racism of institutions.”
He Wants to Save Classics From Whiteness. Can the Field Survive?
Dan-el Padilla Peralta “believes that classics is so entangled with white supremacy as to be inseparable from it.”
The True Story of Jess Krug, the White Professor Who Posed as Black for Years—Until It All Blew Up Last Fall
“She fabricated harrowing personal backstories, peddled gross caricatures, and spoke from perspectives she had no right to claim. And nobody stopped her.”
‘Writing Was a Way to Have My Say’: An Interview with Author Sejal Shah
“I didn’t know at first what I was doing. I was just trying to represent the inside of the feeling.”
Jersey Girl
Too Japanese for Americans and too American for the Japanese, one New Jersey native traces the influence of racism on her parents’ careers and her own life.
If Following McMillan Cottom and Gay on Twitter Isn’t Enough, Here You Go
More of this sort of thing, thanks.
The Big Lie
How the story of an ambitious chemistry professor in Colorado who forged a letter and lost everything.