I’ll be dedicating my last Saxa Politica column (at least for the foreseeable future) to an issue I’ve seen grow in salience over the three years I’ve spent in college. As someone majoring in the liberal arts, I’ve taken quite a few seminar classes that, many times, dedicate long periods of class time to discussing…
Under the Covers: Pursuing the Persistence of Memory
By: James Constant04/15/2015
Memory is a fickle aspect of our lives. Vibrant memories can provide a level of certainty to conceptions of self, but they also hold painful details that sour relationships and cement hatred. Amnesia can erase old resentments and bring enemies together. Does forgetfulness excise people’s true selves, or does it permit them to eclipse pasts…
Under the Covers: Time to rewrite the high school syllabi
By: James Constant03/19/2015
After getting back from a week-long hiking trip in the Smoky Mountains last Friday, I sat around with some friends and discussed our respective spring breaks. The topic of reading for pleasure (something that looks to have been relegated to vacation time for most Georgetown students) came up after a couple of beers, and I…
Under the Covers: Reading is hard, B.J. Novak can help
By: James Constant02/26/2015
I was a big reader during elementary school, which probably won’t surprise anyone, but I didn’t start out with a love for literature. The book that left the biggest impression on me as a child wasn’t Harry Potter or one of the many tomes in the Redwall fantasy series that I scarfed down like mad….
Under the Covers: Books should start at the beginning
By: James Constant02/12/2015
Sometimes, the bits that go nowhere are the most important ones. I’ve been reading Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I know, I know. I’m about seven years late to the Swedish murder-mystery party. I’m only two hundred pages in—not even close to where blood starts getting spilled and the going gets exciting—but…
Saxa Politica: Campaign videos campaign for votes
By: James Constant02/12/2015
Have you heard the shrill bleating of a freshman campaigner exhorting his roommate to “join us in building a new Georgetown”? Yes, GUSA campaign season has begun. For the next week, campus will be assaulted by feel-good slogans and beset on all sides by the grandiose promises of GUSA hopefuls that have little chance of…
Under the Covers: In the midst of harsh realities, hope springs eternal
By: James Constant01/29/2015
In a slum surrounding Mumbai’s gleaming Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, hope springs eternal, at least when prices for a kilo of compressed plastic bags are high. Katherine Boo’s stunning nonfiction novel, Behind the Beautiful Forevers, pulls the curtains back from the façade of the “New India” of cellphones and Hyatt hotels. The India she knows…
CV: Sleater-Kinney, No Cities to Love
By: James Constant01/29/2015
Band reunions are often a bitter cash grab. As a die-hard Doolittle fan, it pains me to think of the Pixies’ whitebread post-2003 releases. The same goes for the latest incarnations of Sebadoh and even Neutral Milk Hotel. The greats of the ‘90s aren’t what they used to be. The Sleater-Kinney revival, however, strikes of…
Saxa Politica: It’s time to let students get on board
By: James Constant01/21/2015
GUSA did something great last week. No, seriously! The student body’s esteemed representatives released a proposal on Jan. 11. In it, they call on D.C. college and university students to unite to eliminate the city residency requirement that is currently a prerequisite for serving on D.C. Boards and Commissions. As of now, students who aren’t…
Standing Up and Standing Together: Students demand racial justice
By: Shalina Chatlani and James Constant01/15/2015
“Your silence is suffocating. We, students of color, cannot breathe.” So begins the letter issued by a coalition of Georgetown University Law Center students of color to the GULC administration on Dec. 6, 2014, two weeks after a St. Louis grand jury decided not to indict Darren Wilson, a white police officer, in the killing…