Editor’s Note (Issue 3)

Welcome to Issue 3 of Deerfield, which contains projects created by students in Boston University Writing Program courses during 2024 and selected by an Editorial Committee of faculty and students.

Many projects featured in this issue consider the relationship between identity and place: to what extent is our sense of self shaped by the communities in which we live and the spaces through which we travel? How might experiences of dislocation or movement across borders precipitate a radical rethinking of the self? Fan Bu’s “Kothari’s Use of Rhetorical Devices: Exploring Identity in ‘If You Are What You Eat, Then What Am I?’ explores how food is often a medium of cultural identity, “not just sustenance but a symbol of emotion, comfort, and identity.” Adam Mhal’s “Pen, Page, and Power” celebrates bilingual and bicultural identity, interpolating Arabic and English together into a poetic literacy narrative, “both languages woven / into a single, / beautiful thread.” Ajani Hickling’s “Third Worlds” takes the form of autobiographical memoir, likewise engaging in code-switching and linguistic play, finding a writing that at once captures the beautiful and dynamic multiplicity of language even as it wrestles with a sense of dislocation and uprooting.

The theme of space and place continues in projects that examine–and urge readers to notice–the resolutely local. For “On the Necessity of Murals in Boston,” author James Chang visited twelve local public murals to underscore the vital role of public art within a community. Nadia Mason’s “Redefining Educational Equity: Reallocating Resources from METCO to Urban Schools in Massachusetts” highlights the great need to invest in underfunded public schools in Boston and Springfield. Sanaya Tonsekar’s “Losing Louisiana: the Sinking Time Bomb” is a multi-modal website that charts the ecological disasters–many caused by humans–and their effect on natural wetlands.

We write not only to discover and reflect, but also to persuade and to advocate. Sophie Choong’s Op-Ed “We Shouldn’t Be Surprised that Abortion Didn’t Persuade White Women,” which she began to write a week after the 2024 Presidential Election, is both a sharp political critique and a clear-eyed assessment of the precarious times in which we live. Thalia Patiño Molano’s “Maria Lando” is a video documentary follows a day in the life of a hardworking immigrant mother who has sacrificed so much for her family. Nahyun Nadine Lim’s essay, “Transforming Music Education Textbooks in South Korea: A Proposal to Mitigate Gender and Racial Discrimination” argues that musical education is an important domain for fostering an inclusive multiracial and multicultural society. Sophia Pomposelli advocates for “more holistic models of elder care that recognize the importance of community, connection, and continued support throughout all stages of aging” in “Beyond Bereavement: Understanding the Long-Term Impacts of Spousal Loss on the Mental Health of Octogenarians and Beyond.” Julia Zaya’s “Que Viva La Raza: A Case Study Into Local Journalism as Civil Resistance” examines La Raza, a Los Angeles newspaper that began in a church basement in 1967, and which served as “an exposé of the mistreatment of Chicanos in LA, advocating for its community through its photojournalistic reportage of significant community events like the tragedy of the Chicano Moratorium and the East LA walkouts.” As noted by her instructor, the essay is itself a political act of remembering and documenting, “recognizing how critical images are in realizing justice, and how photos can be, in essence, a reflection of ‘the profound resilience of the human spirit.’”

Many pieces explore art’s capacity to challenge normative hierarchies. Chantelle Tadros’s provocative essay “‘Assay the Power You Have’: Distorted Female Autonomy in Measure for Measure” reads female sexual desire in Shakespeare as a subversive force in which female characters can reclaim the agency that an otherwise patriarchal society has robbed from them. Lucy Lee explores Korean films that disturb audiences through intentionally violating social norms and expectations, surfacing issues such as patriarchy and conservative expectations of motherhood, in “Challenging Social Norms in Korean Disturbing Films: How Cultural Context Heightens Discomfort for Different Audiences.” Chiara Hirt’s graphic novella, “Dear Andrew,” is a modern retelling of the Little Mermaid. Its masterful artistry and illustrations tell the story of unrequited love and the pain we endure as a result. In Hirt’s words, “As much as we love magic, the reality of our world is so often heartbreaking.” 

Waizo Chen’s poetry collection, “In the Waiting Room,” concludes the issue. Composed in WR320 Community Writing, Chen draws inspiration from his hospital volunteer work, using the waiting room–and the objects and people who share it–as a liminal, deferred space of quiet strength and uncertain futures, a place “where the raw essence of existence is laid bare, where we are reminded that to wait is not just to endure, but to hope fiercely, to feel deeply, and, above all, to live.”

Our cover illustration by Zhang Yuhui captures a fleeting and remarkable sunset over the Charles River. It reminds us that beauty can be found even in moments of precarity, and friendship in times of struggle.

Chris McVey & Gavin Benke