The Dartmouth 2/21/17

VOL. CLXXIV NO.34

CLOUDY

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2017

HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE

OVIS discusses travel ban

IT TAKES TWO TO TANGO

HIGH 43 LOW 30

By ALEX FREDMAN

The Dartmouth Staff

LAUREN KIM/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

People gather in Sarner Underground on Monday night to learn to tango.

OPINION

ZHU: A LETTER TO CONSERVATIVES PAGE 4

SCHWARTZ: THE DARTMOUTH ‘WAY OF LIFE’ PAGE 4

ARTS

STUDENT SPOTLIGHT: ALEX LOPEZ ’15 PAGE 7

MOVIE REVIEW: ‘LEGO BATMAN MOVIE’ PAGE 7

Q&A: ACTRESS CHRISTINA RITTER ’99 PAGE 8

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TWITTER @thedartmouth COPYRIGHT © 2017 THE DARTMOUTH, INC.

Petition calls for eliminating app fees

By NOAH GOLDSTEIN and ZACHARY BENJAMIN

The Dartmouth Senior Staff

On Wednesday, 1vyG, an advocacy group for firstgeneration students, sent out a press release announcing its “No Apologies Initiative,” which calls for universities to eliminate application fees

for low-income and firstgeneration college students by the 2017-18 application cycle. Student Assembly president Nick Harrington ’17 signed the press release, alongside student government representatives from the seven other Ivy League institutions, Northwestern University,

V-Feb hosts sexpositive events

By JOYCE LEE

The Dartmouth Staff

Dialogues about gender equity and combating gender-based violence through exploration of sexuality and relationships were publicized this month through events associated with V-February. V-Feb is Dartmouth’s take on V-Day, a global movement against violence towards girls and women. Events held this month as part

of V-Feb included Sexpo: A Sex Positive Fair, “The Vagina Monologues” and a workshop and lunch with Jan Lloyd and Kelly Arbor of Rocket Erotic, who offer performance-based education about sexuality.

Member of the V-Feb programming team Alice Hsu ’19 said that part of her work with Sexpo and Rocket Erotic included relating events back to the mission of SEE V-FEB PAGE 2

Stanford University and the University of Chicago, as well as representatives for first-generation, low-income student groups from all members of the Ivy League.

The press release, written by 1vyG executive director and Brown University SEE PETITION PAGE 3

On Monday, the Office of Visa and Immigration Services hosted an information session to address President Donald Trump’s recent executive order restricting entry to the U.S. from seven Muslim-majority countries.

The executive order, signed by the president on Jan. 27, initiated a 90-day ban on the admission of non-U.S. citizens from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

The act is currently subject to a temporary restraining order pending review of its constitutionality by the court system.

Around 50 students, staff and community members gathered in Kellogg Auditorium at the Geisel School of Medicine for the hour-long information session, which was co-sponsored

by Geisel and the Office of the Provost.

The session began with a statement by geog raphy professor Richard Wright ,

whose research focuses on immigration. Wright spoke about the prohibition of refugees, especially those from Syria.

Wright said that while the U.S. admits around one million immigrants per year, only five to 10 percent of those are refugees. He added that in contrast, Canada, a country whose population is about one-tenth the size of the U.S., has taken 40,000 refugees from Syria alone since November 2015.

“We live in a globalized, mobilized world, but this is a serious problem we face as human beings,” Wright said. “Rather than retreat from this, we should move forward and realize our responsibilities in this particular moment.”

Wright added that there is currently no Dartmouth course that specifically studies refugees, though he is in the process of creating a course addressing refugees, migrants and diasporas.

SEE OVIS PAGE 2

Q&A with professor Lisa Marsch

By VIGNESH CHOCKALINGAM The Dartmouth

Geisel School of Medicine psychiatry professor and director of the Dartmouth Center for Technology and Behavioral Health Lisa Marsch recently testified before Congress’ Bipartisan Task Force to Combat the Heroin Epidemic about her research on the nation’s opioid crisis.

The task force was formed in 2015 by Rep. Ann Kuster ’88 and former Rep. Frank Guinta, both of New Hampshire. The state has the country’s highest rate of opioid overdoses per

capita . Marsch’s research focuses on understanding the roots of the opioid crisis and researching effective methods of addressing it, such as treatments and improving access to care.

How did you end up at Dartmouth?

LM: I came to Dartmouth about five and a half, almost six years ago now. Actually, I was running a research center in New York City. It’s very different to live in Manhattan versus living in Hanover, but I came here because I was really attracted to the community of

creative and talented people who are also cooperative. It was nice to see that community around campus — it seemed like a great place to make connections across the schools.

So we sit in the medical school, but get to reach out to folks in computer science and The Dartmouth Institute [for Health Policy and Clinical Practice] and [the] Thayer [School of Engineering] and elsewhere around campus to really engage in a broad interdisciplinary community and some collaboration.

SEE Q&A PAGE 5

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

PAGE 2

V-Feb hosts events

say it is okay to talk about sex, and it’s okay to talk about sexual positivity V-Feb — promoting gender equity and it’s okay to talk about healthy and ending gender-based violence. sexuality,” Fei said. “We’re hoping The Sexpo included activities such as through these events, we’re getting Valentine’s Day card-making, which the idea out there that it’s okay and centered not only around romance, that we have people and resources but also around platonic and familial available if you [are confused].”

One way of normalizing such relationships, Hsu said.

“We wanted to encourage people conversations was to show different to explore the relationships they aspects of sexuality as unintimidating had in their lives and to explore the procedures. For example, the fair more positive aspects of interacting featured a table for STI testing, with people socially and on a more where students realized that they could have results back the next day intimate levels,” she said.

Dartmouth healthy relationships or within 20 minutes if they were and sexual health specialist Tong Fei testing through an oral test for HIV, said that she is trying to promote Fei said.

“They were really visual ways for the idea that she is not only talking about sexual relationships, but also students to see,” she said. “Sometimes looking into meaningful friendships they shy away from asking those ques tions, but and relationships by being really t h a t a r e n o t “It’s our goal to friendly and necessarily sexual. positive, we tried One example of normalize and to to show them that doing so was the say it is okay to talk they didn’t need to collaboration with shy away.” the Tucker Center, about sex, and it’s Movement which participated okay to talk about Against Violence in the Sexpo by sexual positivity, also hosted an providing poems activity with t h at c o u l d b e and it’s okay to a wall where erotic but also talk about healthy participants could talked about stick Post-it notes friendships. The sexuality.” that answered the Tucker Center also prompt, “I get hosted a dinner -TONG FEI, excited when...,” with students of Hsu said. various religious DARTMOUTH HEALTHY “It’s a way to backgrounds on RELATIONSHIPS AND explore small Valentine’s Day, SEXUAL HEALTH gestures and she said. aspects of “ Fo r s o m e SPECIALIST sexuality that are of our students not inherently who have strong religious backgrounds or are within sexual or explicit in nature [and] multi-faith communities, it can be allow people to interact with you in a barrier to talk about sex, and both intimate and platonic levels,” we’re trying to include as [many] she said. “It’s also a way to explore communities as possible,” Fei said. the multiple ways in how people can “There’s a lot of opportunities to interact with you.”

Hsu said that the focus of V-Feb is talk about this topic in different communities during this month. We to explore gender equity as a whole and not to limit people to platonic have an element of diversity.”

Informational resources and or romantic relationships. She said booths that explored contraceptives that it was important to explore and sexually transmitted infections relationships that are not limited by were also available at the Sexpo, societal gender roles that are created and Rocket Erotic shared its mission by cultural perceptions of sexual and in spreading sex positivity with the gender identity.

“It’s part of the greater mission to Dartmouth community Fei said that she is hoping to create an egalitarian society where normalize conversations about people don’t feel endangered by how healthy sexuality and sex positivity they express themselves,” she said. as well as find what being sex-positive “We want to encourage people to explore the way they can express means for students.

The Sexpo was a positive themselves ... and create a space and environment for people, even for a culture where they feel safe doing people who were wondering if they so.” could approach the event, she said.

SEE V-FEB PAGE 5 “It’s our goal to normalize and to FROM V-FEB PAGE 1

CORRECTIONS We welcome corrections. If you believe there is a factual error in a story, please email editor@thedartmouth.com.

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2017

Info session examines travel ban FROM OVIS PAGE 1

Following Wright’s remarks, director of OVIS Susan Ellison spoke about the travel ban section of the executive order, as well as the College’s response to the order.

Wright described how College President Phil Hanlon joined in a letter with 47 other college and university presidents criticizing the order earlier this month.

The final speaker, Dartmouth’s g e n e r a l c o u n s e l Ro b e r t Donin , discussed the College’s participation in writing an amicus brief with 16 other universities, including all eight Ivy League schools, for a lawsuit against the ban currently pending in the Eastern District of New York.

Donin said the brief focused on the substantive impact the executive order had on institutions of higher learning, rather than the order’s constitutionality.

“You’d be hard pressed to find any sector of the U.S. economy or U.S. society that is more impacted by the executive order than higher education,” Donin said.

After the completion of the opening remarks, the session was opened for a question and answer period. Attendees asked questions regarding resources for students seeking help, ways for community members to help impacted individuals and the College’s preparation for scenarios such as the re-evaluation of work visas.

Ellison said that many members of the faculty and professional staff have H1-B work visas and that a leaked White House memo raised the possibility of the executive branch reevaluating these visas.

During the question and answer session, Ellison also mentioned that an immigration working group consisting of senior administration members has been formed to address potential issues affecting the Dartmouth community.

In an interview after the conference, Ellison said that cur rently there is no threat of H1-B visas being revoked.

She added that the status of undocumented students also remains the same, as the Trump administration has not indicated a willingness to change the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which offers work permit eligibility and a renewable twoyear period deferring deportation to undocumented immigrants who entered the country as minors.

Ellison also said that OVIS was not aware of any Dartmouth students or faculty originally from the seven countries affected by the ban who were out of the country when it was issued.

Charlene Dunaway Med’19, a On Feb. 3, a federal district Geisel student who attended the court in the Western District of event, said that she was grateful Washington issued a temporary that OVIS held the session, restraining order, effectively because it demonstrated the blocking the implementation College’s support for international of the order nationwide. Six students. days later, a three-judge panel “Being an international student from the Ninth Circuit Court of who is not from one of those Appeals unanimously upheld the seven countries, I ... understand restraining order. how difficult it is for other people Although initially signaling who are going through this, and that appellate court’s decision I couldn’t imagine being in their would be appealed to the Supreme position right Court, the now,” Dunaway House “You’d be hard pressed White said. has not done D u n a w a y to find any sector of so, instead a d d e d t h a t the U.S. economy or raising the the executive possibility o r d e r a d d s U.S. society that is that a revised difficulties for more impacted by the executive i n t e r n at i o n a l order may be executive order than s t u d e n t s issued. wh o h ave t o higher education.”

In an continue their i n t e r v i e w, studies while W r i g h t maintaining a -ROBERT DONIN, said that concern about DARTMOUTH’S GENERAL h i s t o r i c a l l y, i n t e r n at i o n a l extraordinary COUNSEL events. executive A second orders, such as information session will be held President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s the afternoon of Tuesday, Feb. 21 order forcing the internment of at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Japanese Americans during WWII, Center. have been held up by the courts.

When the order took effect, a He said that if the White House chaotic scene broke out the next issues further executive orders day in airports across the country, on immigration, how the order is as people from the seven listed worded will make a difference. countries were prohibited from “The devil is going to be in leaving the airports. The rollout the details — you have to look of the order sparked a series at how [the executive orders are] of protests across the country worded and how effectively they and lawsuits against the federal can be challenged, if they can be government. challenged at all,” Wright said.

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2017

PAGE 3

Petition asks for cutting application fees for low-income students FROM PETITION PAGE 1

student body president Viet Nguyen, describes Nguyen’s struggles to afford the various fees he encountered when he applied to college.

The release cites a 2014 report by the White House, which found that application fees are one of the main reasons that low-income students choose not to apply to college. It also references the recent New York Times study that found elite colleges in the United States have more students enrolled from the top one percent of family incomes than from the bottom 60 percent. The same study found that the College has the highest proportion of students from the top one percent in the Ivy League and the 11th-highest proportion nationwide.

Inthepressrelease,Nguyenapplauds organizations like QuestBridge and Posse, which help low-income and first-generation students access higher education, and writes that colleges should do more to help these students.

He refers to Bowdoin College and Trinity College, whose admissions offices waived application fees for first-generation students in 2015, as examples to emulate. Bowdoin also waived fees for all students applying for financial aid.

Harrington said in an interview that one of Dartmouth’s fundamental

principles is supporting diversity while knowing that said diversity improves Dartmouth’s education. In order to make this principle a reality, the student body should examine the barriers that exist not only within the Dartmouth community, but also among those who wish to become a part of the community, he said. As a result, Harrington supports the abandonment of application fees because they are a barrier to low-income and potentially first-generation college students.

“I signed the petition at the end of the day because I believe we can grow into a stronger and more diverse community if we start by allowing everyone the equal chance to apply in the first place,” Harrington said.

He noted that his signature was meant to show his personal support for the issue, rather than necessarily representing the entire student body.

Now that the petition is out, Harrington said he and other student leaders want to wait for a potential response from schools, although Student Assembly will support any efforts, such as campus advocacy, to reduce such barriers.

Candida Alfaro, president of the University of Pennsylvania’s PennFirst organization, which represents lowincome and first-generation students, said that she wants Ivy League schools to make additional efforts to

be inclusive to these types of students network at Dartmouth.

Malzman said she decided to sign along with removing the application fees. She hopes that this will inspire the petition because college application more students to apply to the Ivy fees can be harmful to prospective students. While there are ways to get League.

For Alfaro, the next step is to fees waived, students may not know reach out to potential low-income or how to do this or be unable to afford first-generation students in rural or the fees, she said.

“The identity of first generation underrepresented areas.

Cornell University Student could mean that your parents do not assembly president Jordan Berger have a four-year college degree, so they wrote in an email that he signed the might not have the support at home and may not petition because an know exactly application’s cost “I ended up h ow t o g o should not prevent about receiving a student from going not paying any a fee waiver,” to the best school they application fees, said. can. and because of that, Malzman “I think that Berger wrote that deters students Cornell’s Student I could apply to who could A s s e m b l y w i l l basically any college I be potential continue to work with first-generation wanted to, something candidates ... for the Ivy League student leaders, such I got full use of.” in general. as by creating a seat I think that for first-generation more students students on Student -KELLEN APPLETON ’20 should have the Assembly, which was ability to apply done last year.

One of Dartmouth’s First for college without having to worry Generation Network student about fees.”

By signing the petition, Malzman coordinators and signatory of the petition Bethany Malzman ’19 said that said she believed she was representing she first heard about the petition several the school alongside Dartmouth weeks ago when a student at Brown students who are first-generation, lowreached out to the first-generation income or both.

Malzman said that ideally, she would like to see fee waivers removed as a result of the petition, but realistically, she would at least like to see a dialogue on the topic emerge among firstgeneration leaders on campus and administrators.

QuestBridge scholar Kellen Appleton ’20 applied to most of the colleges he wanted to through QuestBridge because the organization paid his application fees. Appleton said that he specifically applied through QuestBridge so that he would not have to worry about paying his fees.

“I ended up not paying any application fees, and because of that, I could apply to basically any college I wanted to, something I got full use of,” he said. “If I had had to pay application fees for all the colleges I had applied to, I probably would not have applied to Dartmouth at all.”

Appleton said that if he had been forced to pay the fees himself, he would have ended up applying to four or five colleges, as opposed to the 18 that he ultimately submitted applications to.

For Appleton, getting the fees waived was difficult, although he knew that colleges would likely waive the fees if he asked. The problem, for him, lay in asking for help in the first place.

“A lot of poorer families, mine included, have kind of a stigma about asking for help in any certain way or form, even when that is something that the colleges encourage and that they say is definitely available ... I wouldn’t say there was a sense of shame, or anything

that strong, but there was definitely a hurdle to doing it,” he said.

Appleton said that the fees themselves can thus be prohibitive for students looking to apply to college.

Member of the First Year Student Enrichment Program Rachel Muir ’20 said that when she first started her college application process, she was not sure how many she would be able to apply to. Luckily, she was able to get funding through fly-in programs, which colleges typically sponsor to target underprivileged and underrepresented students beginning the application process. However, she said that not everyone she knew was able to attend such programs.

Muir said that while the applications for the programs themselves were not hard, it was still a lot of work having to fill out multiple waivers along with filling out the applications.

She applied to 18 colleges thanks to the fly-in programs and said she probably would have applied to 11, many of which were state schools with more affordable application fees, if it were not for the assistance.

She felt comfortable applying for these programs because she had a college access advisor, whom she met through the College’s Summer Enrichment at Dartmouth program.

If it were not for the advisors, Muir said she probably would not have been able to figure out the college application process.

Muir said that such fees discourage a lot of students from applying to schools.

FYSEP director Jay Davis ’90 said that he fully supports students advocating for an issue that they believe in. Regarding fee waivers, he said that nationally, even the knowledge that fee waivers are necessary can hinder prospective students.

“What the students are advocating for is a leveling of a field that they see to be slanted towards students that have either a higher income or a higher awareness of such things as waivers ... It is an issue that speaks directly to the difference of experience that lowincome students often have in the entire college application process,” Davis said.

He said that any student advocacy has the potential to attract national attention, but he is not sure how college fees will change moving forward, though he did say that he knows the College reevaluates its admission policies, including fees, every year.

The College has a waiver process for the Common Application fee.

According to College spokesperson Diana Lawrence, the College “review[s] and reconsider[s]” the application fee and fee waiver process every year.

PAGE 4

THE DARTMOUTH OPINION

CONTRIBUTING COLUMNIST MICHAEL ZHU ’20

GUEST COLUMNIST AUDREY SCHWARTZ ’20

A Letter to Conservatives

The Dartmouth “Way of Life”

Conservatives have the power in America today—they must use it well.

To my friends on the right: I admire you.

I admire your strength in the face of endless opposition and your resilience in a society that increasingly shuns you for unalterable ideological beliefs. I admire that often you can make strong arguments without resorting to -isms or -ists, that you remain strong even when liberals can claim to have won the cultural wars and the moral fights. Even though I don’t agree entirely with conservative ideology — only bits and pieces of it — I respect you.

I also fear for you. I fear that your clear-minded and unfazed ideology will be tarnished by partisan divides in Washington, D.C., that the people who claim to represent you in our capital will lose their way in the swamp of American politics. I fear that our president, who is dangerously populist and not actually conservative, will weaken the dignity and legitimacy of your ideology and of the Republican Party.

Most of all, I’m afraid that you will make the same mistakes the left made that allowed the right to take Congress, the White House and soon — as a result — the Supreme Court.

So, I ask of you a few important things.

Don’t begin to generalize about liberals as those on the left once did to conservatives. Just as there are all types of conservatives, each with different ideologies and beliefs, there are different types of liberals — some of which are actually willing to listen and cooperate without slander or insult. Not all liberals are intolerant of views dissimilar from their own. Just because conservative ideology is in a dominant position of power should not mean that conservatives have the privilege to label another entire ideology. True liberal beliefs are just as valid and deserving of respect as your conservatism.

Be wary of our current president. I am a proponent of giving President Donald Trump a chance to govern, but only a month into his term he has already disappointed. Even if we disregard his detrimental travel ban and his propensity to govern with executive orders, he is not the conservative president that you have hoped for. He has embraced the populist message of restricting free trade, threatened companies to keep jobs in the U.S. even at great economic cost, proposed the expansion of a government that is already large enough by tackling immigration reform with his ridiculous and expensive wall and now could provide funds to the National Guard to deport

over 11 million undocumented immigrants.

He has unfortunately associated conservatism with anti-women, anti-Muslim, anti-Hispanic, anti-veteran and homophobic beliefs — each of which I know most conservatives disagree with.

Trump is not a conservative, even though he represents the Republican Party. He could save the GOP, but more likely he will destroy it — I would bet on the latter. Don’t let that happen.

Modern conservatism possesses a clear-eyed recognition of our country’s enemies — even if it’s enemies are in our own government.

Ask your leaders to listen to their constituents.

I think they’ve done a satisfactory job of it so far. Republicans came into power advocating the complete repeal of the Affordable Care Act — with no mention of a replacement — yet after weeks of dissatisfaction from conservatives about a complete repeal, some leaders have now introduced a plan to replace it with a new system.

But conservatives in Washington can do better.

At the end of Barack Obama’s presidency, a majority of people did want Congress to consider Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland. An overwhelming majority of people supported a proposal to ban gun sales to people who are on the no-fly list. Those are only two examples in the past several years in which Congressional Republicans blatantly ignored public opinion.

Don’t stand for this, even if it means that your public ideologies must be adjusted. After all, ideologies are constructed by people, not the other way around.

Finally, make sure your leaders do not abuse their power. They have two years of almost complete political control on the national and state level before them. Do not waste it on partisan bickering or squabbles. Do not further perpetuate the issue of political gridlock; actively fix our country’s problems. Be conservative in ideology but not in action. Now that the left has given up the mantle of being moderates, take that position up. Let conservatism move to the center ground and the GOP will have its future.

Another four years of Congressional standstill and Trump’s detrimental whimsicality will end the legitimacy of the party. This is what I fear.

But I am confident that you’re up to the challenge, and I admire you for the fight you’ve put up these past few years. Liberalism might have won the cultural and moral wars, but conservatism clearly has won the political battle of 2016.

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ISSUE

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2017

NEWS EDITOR: Heyi Jiang, NEWS LAYOUT: Joyce Lee

SUBMISSIONS: We welcome letters and guest columns. All submissions must include the author’s name and affiliation with Dartmouth College, and should not exceed 250 words for letters or 700 words for columns. The Dartmouth reserves the right to edit all material before publication. All material submitted becomes property of The Dartmouth. Please email submissions to editor@thedartmouth.com.

Is there a right way to live in college? And does anyone monopolize it?

We all know “The Most Frustrating Man word, discontented.

Alive.” He’s the friend who’s social to a fault, That’s why he and I keep revisiting this can’t concentrate on a single goal without conversation. I want him to be content and remembering thousands of other things that he can’t understand for the life of me what has to do and — most dastardly of all — feels appeal parties can possibly have to a guy who the need to talk to you about all of it. One clearly has such a bright future ahead of him. night, my Most Frustrating Man Alive and I Likewise, he can’t fathom how I am content. were having the same conversation that our How can a girl, his eyes always ask me, who interactions always devolve into: a lighthearted remains ignorant of virtually all social events argument about whose approach to living at be content?

Dartmouth was better, mine or his.

My answer is this: I have what I care about.

My friend, who we’ll call Scott, goes out of I’m going to Dartmouth, a school that I love. his way to “make the most of Dartmouth.” I have my friends, who are as vivacious and In his mind, this means going to every party, irrepressible as any group you’ve ever seen. getting drunk at every opportunity, hitting on And I have my classes, the 5 year olds that I every girl and — you knew that the sentence work with at the local daycare, my writing … was going to end like this — sleeping with as And yet, Scott has the nerve to tell me that I many of those girls as possible. Scott’s rationale should get out more. As if I’m the unhappy for this behavior is simple: you’re only in college one. once. When we’re 30, he reminded me, getting But is he right? This is the question that drunk and crawling into bed at 4 a.m. will be Scott encouraged me to pose, when he ordered totally inappropriate. Scott wants to get the me to write an article about our conversations most out of his youth while he can. and was even kind enough to dictate the title.

On the other hand, what I want to do is Is he, in his scatter-brained way, right? Sure, to excel: I intend to become both an author his approach is contradictory — he wants the and a lawyer in my life, nights spent out with girls and much of what I do “I have my friends... and the days blossoming here is funneled toward good grades — but And I have my classes, with those goals. Granted, not is he right? Is he getting every moment is — I do the 5 year olds that I something fundamental have friends. I even do work with at the local out of college that I’m that crazy thing that all unwittingly missing out first years were secretly daycare, my writing ... on? It’s true that the terrified of: never hang out And yet, Scott has the fraternities and sororities with those friends without no interest for me, nerve to tell me that I hold getting a lick of work that I’ve never been to a done. But sure, compared should get out more.

Greek house and don’t to Scott, I’m an insular As if I’m the unhappy plan on breaking that person. Most of my free trend — but am I making a time is spent either writing one.” mistake? Is Scott’s way, as dreadful autobiographical uncouth and irresponsible vignettes or obsessively as it sounds to me, “getting reading about royal history, and I’m equally the most out of his youth” after all? content doing all of that either with a whole I don’t know. At the end of the day, I can’t group of friends around me or curled up in a know. As Scott put it before leaving to go panic chair alone. Actually, that’s the perfect word about another assignment, I’m never going to for how I generally feel: content. I could spend be able to convince him to keep a diary, and the whole day writing in bed and be absolutely he’s never going to be able to convince me to satisfied, and I wonder with genuine curiosity go to a fraternity. We’re at a stalemate. But about what kind of party could possibly be the thing is, the one truth that I can take from making such a racket at 3 a.m. my ongoing debate with The Most Frustrating Our differences wouldn’t be worth writing Man Alive, is that what matters is knowing an article about if it weren’t for one crucial where you are on the spectrum. What matters factor: Scott isn’t content, and I am. You see, isn’t so much whether you’re content or his way of life — the incessant partying, the discontented or anywhere in between on that ravenous desire for social connections, the sliding scale, but whether you can talk about insatiable appetite for girls — wouldn’t be a it. If you have the audacity to acknowledge problem if it were all that he wanted. But it’s how you feel and the luck to have someone not. This is a man who desperately yearns in your life who you can discuss it with, then to succeed, and he knows perfectly well that you’re well on your way. And Scott and I, the key to that success is in his academics. through relentlessly challenging each other on But does he typically treat his academics as a our approaches to living at Dartmouth, have priority? No. He runs himself into the ground found that. I hope that everyone reading this and knows browbeaten exhaustion better article can say the same. than sleep, berating himself by the hour for letting his schoolwork fall by the wayside. He The Dartmouth welcomes guest columns. We request wants to find love, real love, but gets trapped that guest columns be the original work of the submitter. in the vicious cycle of spotting one girl after Submissions may be sent to both opinion@ another to hook up with. He has a vigorous thedartmouth.com and editor@thedartmouth.com. sense of ambition but can never settle down Submissions will receive a response within three business enough to work toward his goals. He is, in a days.

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2017

Marsch discusses heroin research FROM Q&A PAGE 1

What was your first role at Dartmouth?

LM: I came in as a faculty member in the department of psychiatry, which is in the medical school, and I actually started here at the Center for Technology and Behavioral Health.

Right before I moved here, I had learned that the Center of Excellence Grant Application I had applied for to the National Institutes of Health was going to be funded. So when I decided to come to Dartmouth, I asked that the NIH award this Center of Excellent Grant to Dartmouth so we could start the center here. We started the Center for Technology and Behavioral Health at Dartmouth at that time. We were very happy that we just got a renewal of that Center grant about a half a year ago.

Have you always been interested in substance abuse [research]?

LM: Well, you know, I got exposed to it the first time with addiction research in a group I worked with in Baltimore, Maryland with the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine when I was a student. And I was so struck by the rigor of the science and the rigor of the clinical trials they were doing there, trying to evaluate different treatments for addiction, how difficult it was to change drug addiction, just this chronically lapsing nature of drug addiction. You know you see women come in saying, “I have to stop using because I’m losing my children.” You see these people facing very serious consequences but being unable to stop. It was such a compelling phenomenon to see this intense desire to stop something and not being able to do so. So I started my career in addiction treatment research mostly doing clinical trials, testing different treatment models, both medication and behavioral treatments of addiction. I did a lot of work with teenagers who were addicted to heroin and other opioid drugs and trying to test models of care for that really young group of kids involved with heroin use. And then the technology piece for me came about because, like a lot of science, what we know works best isn’t often what people use in real world settings. So, the most effective treatments of addiction are not what we routinely deploy in our systems of care. So the technology piece was a way to try to develop systems that with fidelity could deliver the best practices of what we know is the state of the science of therapies for drug addiction and to do it in a way that can scale.

So that was how it all started: to try to help accelerate the impact of science on addiction by using technology. And then it’s evolved from there in lots of different directions. But we still have a critical mass of activity in substance use disorders.

One of the things we have at our Center for Technology and Behavioral Health is that we’re part of a national clinical trials network that the National Institute on Drug Abuse supports. So we have partners all over the region in Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine that are a part of this national research infrastructure. We do all kinds of work in the addiction space through that, including the project that I briefly described — the Congressional briefing last week — which is heavily focused on the opioid crisis in the country with a particular focus on New Hampshire, which unfortunately has the highest rate of overdoses per capita in the entire U.S. Can you talk more about the opioid crisis and testifying before the Cong ressional Committee?

LM: So basically, we were asked by the NIDA to conduct what is called a “hot spot study,” which is really a rapid study to try to get a sense of what is happening in New Hampshire given this alarming rate of overdoses that we see happening, especially in the southern part of the state. We have the number one ranking. People say we’re ground zero for the opioid issue in the U.S. Because we are a part of this national clinical trials network, we can pretty quickly learn from not only active users — we met with 75 of them separately — but also first responders and emergency department personnel and law enforcement and all kinds of different stakeholders about what they’re observing in their different communities to try to understand the different factors that could be giving rise to this disproportionately high rate of overdoses. That’s what I was asked to talk to Congress about. It was really great to see that it’s a very bipartisan issue. The task force was co-chaired by a Democrat and a Republican representative in the House. They basically said, “We are the most rigorously bipartisan task force in the entirety of Congress,” because there is this strong commitment to the importance of this issue and its impact on our nation. It was a great opportunity and great to hear the questions they were asking about, what they’re trying to learn if they think about levers they can use to try to help tackle this crisis.

What do you think federal and state governments can do to address the opioid crisis?

LM: Well, they’re doing a number of things. But there are more opportunities of course. One thing that is terrific is this “21st Century Cures Act” that basically allots a billion dollars — half a billion this year and half a billion next year — to heavily increase treatment, evidence-based, medication-assisted treatment for opioid addiction but also to put some of the resources for prevention efforts. Every state can

apply for this money and can have this influx of resources to expand options for treatment for people who are managing this problem, which was terrific. The state’s application is due sometime this week, so the funding will be turned around pretty quickly before the end of this fiscal year. But I think there is tremendous opportunity for enhancing research. There are some really effective treatments for addiction. There are lots and lots of opportunities to make addiction treatment much more potent, much more perfected. But importantly, at an implementation level, how do you actually get out there in a big way the most effective treatments?

That is a challenge: lack of access.

How do we meet this enormous need that we see? Really understanding optimal models for scaling up access to care models is really key. We need more research but also more translation of the science into what is happening in our communities, so really incentivizing adoption of the most effective practices.

Do you have a positive outlook on the future of this issue?

LM: Boy, I hope so. If you look at the statistics, the rate of overdoses is increasing. There’s no evidence of the graphs leveling off at this point, so we’ve got to do something in a pretty dramatic way to change the trajectory of all of this. The good news is that there are a lot of people working on it: many, many federal links, not just the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and on and on. There are lots of entities trying to allocate resources and activities to try and tackle this, and lots of communitybased initiatives, state-level initiatives and foundation funding. I think one of our big opportunities is to increase the efficiency of all of this with all of this funding flowing into this. There are a lot of efforts that could be duplicated if we are not trying to coordinate the efforts to accelerate what the impact could be.

What do you see the future of your research as being?

LM: I think we are going to heavily continue to focus on scaling up access to effective models for addiction treatment and centrally leveraging technologies as part of that. The data are so compelling from the research we and others have done in this space to show that you can really dramatically increase access to effective resources in entirely new ways that aren’t traditional models of care with technology systems. I think a big interest of mine is not just to focus on silent problems, like drug addiction and isolation, because we know that a lot of these things cluster together.

This interview was edited and condensed for clarity and length.

PAGE 5

Sexpo initiates dialogue about sex and gender

we often fall into the trap of engaging those who are already engaged and Karina Korsh ’19, who is involved not engaging those who are not but in both MAV and the Sexpert would like to be,” she said. “So I program, said that anytime people really wanted to create events that have had to advertise sexual positivity, were accessible to everyone, with all people have also had to work against types of experiences, that answered or at least started discussions for stigmas against it.

“I think [the Sexpo] was successful questions that everyone is wondering in that we are trying to raise about but haven’t been able to bring awareness to a lot of ideas, which up.” a lot of people are not exposed to,” Fei said that in tying healthy she said. “Having events like this sexuality and sex positivity back to the mission allows people for V-Feb, one to see a positive could observe env iron m e n t , “For our fairly g e n d e r- b a s e d and it was violence in the p o s i t i v e i n polarized culture, ways it exists h e l p i n g we often fall into with topics such normalize the as the use of variety of sexual the trap of engaging contraceptives. experiences.” those who are said that K o r s h already engaged and She some students said that said that they communication not engaging those did not feel a n d c o n s e n t who are not but comfortable are elements of h a v i n g sexual positivity would like to be. So conversations that relate back I really wanted to about using to the movement create events that contraceptives, against genderand that this based violence, were accessible to was rooted in a s w e l l a s everyone...” g e n d e r- b a s e d advocating for violence. STI healthy sexuality testing is also f o r w o m e n -ALICE HSU ’19 a topic of a n d wo rk i n g c o nv e r s a t i o n against double that can be standards, as difficult for students to confront, well as fighting society stigmas.

Hsu said that through the events, Fei said. she wanted to bring to the forefront “How do we normalize having questions that people may be afraid these conversations that could lead to ask, and to create events around to gender-based violence?” she said. these questions that would answer “We’re trying to equip students to be able to counteract that kind of them and be engaging.

“For our fairly polarized culture, gender based violence.”

FROM V-FEB PAGE 2

PAGE 6

THE DARTMOUTH EVENTS

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2017

DARTMOUTHEVENTS TODAY

2:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.

Info Session: “White House Executive Order on Immigration,” presented by the Office of Visa and Immigration Services, Auditorium H, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center

3:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.

“Culture and Critique: International Conversations on Social Justice,” featuring economist Miren Etxezarreta, Black Family Visual Arts Center 301

4:30 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.

“Debating the Whirlwind: Senior Diplomats from Egypt and Israel Consider a Middle East in Turmoil,” Haldeman 41 (Kriendler Conference Hall)

TOMORROW

8:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Exhibit: “Reality to Abstraction - A Photographic Journey of Perception,” 7 Lebanon Street, Suite 107

12:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.

“Meet the World Series: From West Africa to New England, Building Communities,” with Ali Dieng, Burlington Kids Outreach Coordinator, Haldeman 246

5:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.

“PUP Global Heritage Consortium: The Future Has Other Plans,” featuring Jon Kohl ’92, Rockefeller Center 001 RELEASE DATE– Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

ACROSS 1 One in a bad mood 5 Diplomat’s asset 9 Vatican-related 14 Memorization method 15 Patron saint of Norway 16 Nimble 17 High-tech bookmark 20 African language group 21 Winter bug 22 Cupid’s counterpart 23 Safari beast 26 Mystery writer whose Baltimore home is preserved as a museum 28 Office gossip 35 Moved quickly, old-style 36 Meat inspector’s org.

37 “Awesome!”

38 Office coffee holder, perhaps 39 Hard-rock link 40 “O Sole __” 42 1965 march state: Abbr.

43 Gold or silver 45 Rainbow flag initialism 47 Gillette’s __ II razor 48 Right granted in the First Amendment 51 Bubbly prefix 52 Clapton classic 53 Gem from Australia 56 Private eye 58 Go around in circles?

62 “Et tu, Brute?,” e.g.

66 Pat down 67 Inbox clogger 68 Pamplona parlor 69 Sight or hearing 70 Wine city near Turin 71 River of central Germany DOWN 1 Bed with sliding sides 2 Author Jaffe

3 Mail-routing abbr.

4 Obviously embarrassed 5 Weigh station unit 6 Pub offering 7 Science Diet product 8 Nonstick kitchen brand 9 Sketching tablet 10 Shake hands on 11 Harbor strolling spot 12 “One more thing ... ” 13 Not as much 18 Industrial area of western Germany 19 Play for a sucker 24 Post-op areas, briefly 25 Margarita option 27 Ricelike pasta 28 Sound of a tree falling, say 29 Broadcaster 30 __-one: long odds 31 Kappa follower 32 Informed (of) 33 Pale purple 34 Stacy who played Mike Hammer

39 Out of the wind 41 “The __-bitsy spider ... ” 44 Completely flummoxed 46 Easy-to-swallow meds 47 Flowering hybrid with thorns 49 Phased-out PC screens 50 Farm machine

53 Does in, mobstyle 54 Whittle (down) 55 Idi of Uganda 57 Big cat of film 59 Actor Pitt 60 Vegging out 61 Many an Ivan, in old Russia 63 Lute kin 64 Gained a lap?

65 “No more deets!”

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

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02/21/17

For advertising information, please call (603) 646-2600 or email info@thedartmouth. com. The advertising deadline is noon, two days before publication. We reserve the right to refuse any advertisement.

Opinions expressed in advertisements do not necessarily reflect those of The Dartmouth, Inc. or its officers, employees and agents.

The Dartmouth, Inc. is a nonprofit corporation chartered in the state of New Hampshire. USPS 148-540 ISSN 0199-9931

By Bruce Venzke and Gail Grabowski ©2017 Tribune Content Agency, LLC

02/21/17

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2017

PAGE 7

THE DARTMOUTH ARTS

Student Spotlight on Alex Lopez ’15, political activist and writer

By KYLEE SIBILIA

The Dartmouth Staff

Everyone at Dartmouth excels at something, but it is rare to find a student who manages to surpass expectations in countless different fields. While choosing to major in English with a concentration in creative writing, Alex Lopez ’15 has expanded his time at Dartmouth beyond the traditional academic bounds, pursuing coursework and internships in the fields of sustainability, finance, politics and numerous other areas.

After participating in the Great Issues Scholars program as a freshman, Lopez applied the themes of globalization and social justice that he learned at Dartmouth in the real world, pursuing an internship with a sustainability organization in rural Mpumalanga, South Africa as well as studying abroad at the University of Hyderabad in India.

Lopez believes that his inter national per spective, specifically regarding the current global climate, is integral to his success.

“Especially with everything that’s going on with politics right

now,” Lopez said, “having that concept of having lived abroad with people from all kinds of cultures and all types of religions gives you this wonderful respect, tolerance and love for different cultures and different types of people.”

Lopez’s focus on global issues manifested itself once again in the fall of 2014 when the Dickey Center for International Understanding sponsored him to work for the Food and Agriculture Org anization of the United Nations in Rome and again in the summer of 2016, when he worked as the communications coordinator for the Young African Leaders Initiative’s Mandela Washington Fellowship at the Tuck School of Business. Lopez is currently continuing his involvement with the Young African Leaders Initiative by working on a sustainability project in Pailles, Mauritius.

Expanding his time at Dartmouth beyond the traditional four years has given Lopez the chance to pursue countless opportunities to which he might not otherwise have ever been exposed.

Freya Jamison ’17 spoke about Lopez’s ability to set himself apart

from his peers at Dartmouth. “[Lopez] has very much forged his own path,” Jamison said. “He’s taken extra time to graduate because he realized what his passion was partway through Dartmouth, and he decided he didn’t want to just push through with what he had already started.

He wanted to really take advantage of his time here.”

Lopez explained how he never felt limited by the constraint of having only four years at the College.

“Pretty much every interest I’ve had that I’ve wanted to explore, I’ve had a chance to explore that through an internship or through a club on campus,” Lopez said.

Despite spending much of his time at Dartmouth away from campus, Lopez has also had a huge impact here in Hanover. This fall, Lopez was the Dartmouth Campus Director for Hillary Clinton’s campaign with the New Hampshire Democratic Party, spending nearly 100 hours each week coordinating volunteers and running election booths. Lopez’s efforts helped New Hampshire to achieve one of the highest voter turnout rates it has seen in years, largely because of a

massive push by Dartmouth voters.

Hannah Matheson ’18, who worked with Lopez on T he Stonefence Review, a literary magazine at Dartmouth that had fallen out of publication but was revived with Lopez’s assistance, described Lopez’s ability to motivate his peers, a skill that appeared not just through his involvement in the Clinton campaign but also through his other activities on campus.

“Just stuff out of the blue that he thinks would be good for the Dartmouth community, he will do it, and get everyone excited about it,” Matheson said. “His ambition fuels other people to discover their own enthusiasm for something.”

While Lopez has pursued opportunities in countless different areas, he still draws everything back to his singular passion for reading and writing.

“I would look into certain internships and certain experiences as chances to explore different lives and get material for characters and stories, and hopefully one day for my books,” Lopez said.

Lopez has had great success with his writing, having attended the renowned Iowa Writer’s Workshop

at the University of Iowa, which exposed him to the work of professional novelists and poets.

Matheson emphasized Lopez’s engagement with the literary world. “ I s ee h i m as a cu ltu ral connoisseur in that he keeps his finger on the pulse of everything,” Matheson said. “I think he’s read literally all of the archives for The Stonefence Review and The New Yorker that they have in BakerBerry. He’s totally immersed in the literary world.”

L o p e z p l an s t o p u r s u e a career in writing after graduating from Dartmouth in addition to continuing his work to try to make the world a better place.

“My main goal is just to work for an organization or a cause that helps people,” Lopez said.

Just like with his time at Dartmouth, Lopez plans to give each of his passions equal attention in order to create a richer overall experience.

Jamison perfectly summed up Lopez’s striking ability to pursue multiple opportunities.

“He follows his heart and his head at the same time,” Jamison said.

‘The LEGO Batman Movie,’ clever humor but sappy morals

By SEBASTIAN WURZRAINER The Dartmouth Staff

The first few minutes of “The LEGO Batman Movie” are some of its funniest. As the audience stares at an empty screen waiting for the film to start, Batman (Will Arnett) informs us in a voice-over that all great movies start with a black screen and edgy music that makes parents and studio executives feel uncomfortable. He proceeds to comment on the varying degrees of epicness inherent in each of the studio logos as they appear on screen. I had yet to see a single LEGO brick, and I already thought the movie was hilarious. We then jump right into the middle of the action as literally all of Batman’s villains attempt to destroy Gotham City.

The police are evidently helpless until the Dark Knight arrives on the scene, cues his own background music and starts unleashing havoc on his enemies. The first half of “The LEGO Batman Movie” is exactly like this: nonstop breathless fun filled with witty satire. It’s only a shame that the film decreases both in speed and in quality as it approaches its finale.

Is there anything that sounds like more of a corporate shill than a spinoff of “The LEGO Movie” called “The LEGO Batman Movie”?

Yet, like its predecessor, the film

is so charming that it completely and, most importantly, not shoved makes us forget that we’re watching down our throats. The second half a feature-length advertisement. of “The LEGO Batman Movie” This time though, the film actually spends so much time hammering embraces its roots as a giant media in its message about teamwork that franchise — two, in fact: LEGO and I got sick of it. What’s worse is that Batman. Most of the film’s funniest Batman was infinitely more funny jokes are clever references to previous when he was a selfish jerk who didn’t on-screen incarnations of Batman want to cooperate with anyone. which, if you’re B u t a huge fan of “[‘The LEGO Batman there is a the character bigger problem l i k e my s e l f, Movie’] is so charming related to the make for some that it completely concept of the hysterical film’s target makes us forget moments. audience. If Here, Batman that we’re watching this film were is not brooding a feature-length intended for 5 and noble but a year olds, then I massive egotist, advertisement.” could probably who behaves forgive the like an emo manner in man-child desperately seeking which the message is handled. attention. And, of course, he needs However, during the screening to learn how to form relationships I attended, the majority of the and work with a team. laughter was coming from adults, not Which brings us to the film’s one children. This makes sense because, major pitfall. Like “The LEGO like I mentioned earlier, most of the Movie,” this film wants to be more humor relies on references that will than just a comedy by including an fly over kids’ heads. Which is not to emotional center and a touching say that I think kids are stupid; it’s just moral. Unlike “The LEGO Movie,” that I doubt they’ve had the cultural though, it just doesn’t work here. I exposure necessary to appreciate promise I’m not a cold, heartless jokes made about something like the critic who believes kids’ movies ’60s “Batman” TV show, starring should never have a good moral, Adam West as the titular character. but it needs to be well-integrated The result is a disconnected movie,

one half meant to appeal to the adults who will understand the jokes and one half meant for kids who need to learn the importance of teamwork.

This is an odd combination, and it sometimes feels like a product made simultaneously for everyone and for no one.

Despite my criticisms of the execution of the film’s moral lesson, I will admit that the catalyst for the moral is brilliant. We, the audience, first realize that Batman needs to open up and form relationships with others when he refuses to acknowledge the Joker as his greatest enemy. You see, the Joker imagines their connection in an almost romantic manner and is desperate for Batman’s validation. Over the years, many fans have speculated that Batman and the Joker have a strange obsession with each other, and this movie uses that aspect of their dynamic to brilliant effect. As a result, the resolution to their subplot is just about the only satisfying emotional moment in the movie.

That being said, all this talk of emotions and moral lessons undermines how genuinely funny “The LEGO Batman Movie” is. It’s exceedingly difficult for me not to share all my favorite jokes, and trust me, there are a solid dozen that I can think of right off the top of my head.

This is largely because the speed of

the animation recalls the insanity of “Looney Tunes” cartoons — every second has 10 jokes, nine of which you’ll probably miss the first time through.

At one point in the film, a character comments on the legacy of Batman, which spans over 75 years, to which Bruce Wayne quips, “I have aged phenomenally.” It plays as just a quick cut away gag, but it is inadvertently one of the film’s pivotal moments. It serves as a reminder that Batman is timeless, and his legacy will doubtlessly outlive any single interpretation. Critics have been commenting on what this film does well in comparison to last year’s immensely disappointing “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice.”

And indeed, this is a far superior adaptation of the character despite its tongue-firmly-embedded-incheek approach. But I’m honestly not sure if comparing this film to previous Batman films or even the source material really matters. Batman will survive all the ups and all the downs, and his fans will doubtlessly find something worthwhile in every iteration. My advice? In the words of LEGO Batman, “Crank up those subwoofers, dude” and check out “The LEGO Batman Movie.” Despite all its flaws, it’s still a decidedly fun time.

Rating: 7/10

THE DARTMOUTH ARTS

PAGE 8

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2017

Alumna Q&A: actress and professor Christina Ritter ’99

By ZACH CHERIAN

The Dartmouth Staff

combine those two.

How was the for/word company founded?

CR: I met some folks in grad school, and we just found we had some really common interests about pulling materials from the historical record and building plays that were constructed from primary sources — journals and letters and those kinds of things we can find in the historical record. We weren’t interested so much in doing “docu-drama” or something like that. I mean, a lot of the plays we do are not “historically accurate” Can you tell me about your so to speak, but we use history as backg round and how you a starting point, and then we try chose Dartmouth? to build an engaging story that CR: I actually grew up in London, certainly honors the history but England — my is more about family was over “[Studying acting at the human there — and I dynamic and the London Academy moved back to the the truth of the states when I was of Music and Dramatic emotion. about nine. So I Arts after graduation went from London, Can you give England to a small was] when it really me some town in Ohio. I seemed like, ‘Okay, examples of had always loved the history I can pursue [acting] h i s t o r y, a lw ay s you’ve drawn loved theater and and also combine my from? a c t u a l l y e n d e d love of history and my CR: Our first up at OSU my play was called freshman year, but interest in theater.’”

“North,” and it knew I wanted to was about Anne get out of the state Lindbergh, the -CHRISTINA RITTER ’99 and go farther wife of Charles away, so I applied Lindbergh . I to Dartmouth and had read a got in and ended up as a sophomore biography about Charles Lindbergh transfer student at Dartmouth. and had just been fascinated, but the thing that caught my attention was Did you know you were a few pages in the biography about going to pursue theater after Anne and how she once met this graduation?

French author, Antoine de SaintCR: No, I guess I didn’t think it was Exupéry, whom a lot of people that viable. But after my senior year know because he wrote “The Little at Dartmouth, I auditioned for the Prince.” He was a pilot in his own LAMDA and got in. After college, I right and a member of the French went over to London, and I studied Resistance during World War II acting for a year there. and kind of an incredible human being. Anne met him, and she just Was that where your career really was smitten and wrote about really got started in acting him in her journal. We started there and theater? and looked at how she had written CR: That’s when it really seemed about him, and it seemed like she like, “Okay, I can pursue this and was really describing a kind of also combine my love of history meeting of minds, a meeting of and my interest in theater.” So I hearts and that intrigued us. So we went to LAMDA, then moved to started looking into her writings New York City, auditioned and more, his writings — Antoine de did some things there, but quickly Saint-Exupéry — and the writings realized I wanted to go back and of Charles Lindbergh. All three of get a Ph.D. in theater history to them were prolific writers, all three Christina Ritter ’99 majored in history and participated in theater productions during her time at Dartmouth. Post-graduation, she trained in acting at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts before completing a Ph.D. in theater at the Ohio State University.

She now teaches “Introduction to Theater” at the University of Kentucky and is actively touring the country with her theater company, “for/word.”

of them were pilots and by looking channeling a 17th-century spirit. at those sources, we started to see She got a lot of people to believe her, a picture emerging. But the play and I think what really fascinated itself moves backward and forward us was not so much the mysticism in time, looking at her meeting that or the spirituality, but the limits night with de o f c re d u l i t y Saint-Exupéry, people will but also her “I find that I always believe, and m u s i n g s o n want to teach [theater h o w she love, and life seemed to need history] with an eye and, of course, some kind of loss — if people to what the past tells outlet and know anything us about why we still didn’t have it. about the She ended up L i n d b e r g h s , do certain things in writing poems it’s that their the theater and why and novels first child was t h ro u g h t h e stories from the past kidnapped. spirit almost The play dealt are so important and as her artistic with all of these interesting to us.” outlet. things through this singular W h a t h ave meeting that -CHRISTINA RITTER ’99 b e e n yo u r she had with favorite this man. roles over the years?

What is for/word currently CR: Certainly playing Anne working on?

Lindbergh in “North” and getting CR: In two weeks, I’m heading to to do that. BBC ended up buying St. Louis, [Missouri] to do a show that play, and they nominated it for called “Patience Worth.” Again, it their Audio Drama awards. Outside is something we uncovered in the of the company, I’ve certainly archives in the St. Louis Historical enjoyed working on Shakespeare’s Society about a housewife in St. “A Midsummer’s Night Dream.”

Louis in the ’20s who fancied herself a medium, and she claimed she was How does your passion for

history inform your approach to teaching?

CR: I love teaching, and I’ve found that I’m always very excited to teach theater history, which is one of those subjects that students in the drama department, and even teachers I think to some degree feel “I wanted to be a theater major so I could act, not so I could sit in the classroom and listen to history lectures.” I find that I always want to teach it with an eye to what the past tells us about current methods of practice, what does it tell us about why we still do certain things in the theater and why stories from the past are so important and interesting to us. I’m actually quite passionate about teaching theater history, and I also teach acting. I teach both the intellectual side of theater and then also the more practice-oriented classes.

Can you share your favorite courses you’ve taught?

CR: Right now, I’m teaching a Shakespeare acting class, and that’s been a joy. My training at LAMDA was heavily rooted in classical acting, and getting back to that has really been fun.

This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

COURTESY OF CHRISTINA RITTER

Actress and professor Christina Ritter ’99 (front) starred in BBC’s radio drama “North” as Anne Lindbergh.