Editors’ Note
Welcome to the inaugural issue of Deerfield. Issue 1 contains projects created by students in Boston University Writing Program courses during 2022 and selected by an Editorial Committee of faculty and students. The committee is grateful to all the BU students who submitted work for this issue. What follows is a small sampling of the various talents displayed in these submissions. We also surveyed our contributors about their book/media recommendations, writing process, and thoughts on AI writing. Check out the Extras section to find out what they said.
In his essay about the painter Philip Guston, Vignesh Somjit notes Guston’s “embrace of ambiguity and social complexity.” A similar description might be applied to the projects featured in Issue 1, which do not shy away from the world’s messiness, but rather sift through it and look hard at what remains in the hand, then offer carefully crafted op-eds, personal essays, research papers, podcasts, and poems, so that we too might pay more attention. Emma Schwettmann’s cover image beautifully captures how tuned in to the world these projects are, as well as the stillness and the chaos that accompany the creative process.
The students published here expand our conception of what belongs in academic projects. For instance, Taylor Needleman interrogates the media scrutiny surrounding Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s “WAP,” while Clara Montes’ personal essay explores the role of basketball in her family’s immigrant experience. Several students look at gender and sexuality from new angles. Arya Gupta explores the impact of climate change on Navajo women, Lily O’Hara examines the dangerous history behind the ballet body, Lauren Dang compares fictional tales about female autonomy and male power, and Hazel McLaughlin acknowledges the simultaneous hazard and necessity of social media for trans people.
The projects in Issue 1 not only cover a wide range of topics, including gender, sexuality, language, race, power, climate change, and personal responsibility; they also demonstrate a variety of approaches to argument. For instance, Esther Besson writes a poem-obituary for resting bitch face, Xueting (Emma) Li’s podcast toggles comfortably between autobiography and theory, and Natalia Deren melds personal narrative, opinion, and research in her essay on newborn photography and surrogacy. Spotlighting the power of a multimedia approach, Will Maharry considers the complexity of the memorial act in his podcast on the Crazy Horse Memorial, and Nayeli Quiles uses a variety of graphics in her op-ed on the Latino vote.
We invite you to sift through Issue 1, to sit with the questions and ideas these remarkable students offer, and then to share what you have learned with someone else.