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WINTER 2011––12 COLUMBIA MAGAZINE IS TIME UP FOR THE EURO? C1_FrontCover.indd C1 1/6/12 4:10 PM C2_CUCNY.indd C2 12/26/11 11:30 AM CONTENTS Winter 2011–12 82014 DEPARTMENTS FEATURES 3 Letters 14 Too Late for the Euro? Business school professor David Beim 8 College Walk assesses the shaky state of the eurozone. Campus Smokers . Go Untuck Yourself . Writers with Kids . “Light Snow” 20 Tell It on the Mountain By Stacey Kors 38 In the City of New York Playwright Katori Hall hits Broadway with When Valerie Paley was asked to rethink a fantastical interpretation of an American the New-York Historical Society’s permanent icon on the night before his death. exhibit, she had to use her heads. 26 The Long Shot 42 News By Douglas Quenqua Gerry Lenfest’s $30 million gift for Scientists trying to cure cancer need arts venue . Peter Mangurian hired to take greater risks with their careers, as new football coach . Global Center says biochemist Brent Stockwell. opens in Istanbul . George Van Amson appointed chair of CAA 32 Half of All of What Was True Short fi ction by Josh Weil ’04SOA 50 Newsmakers On a spring day in Texas, an immigrant immerses herself in the Rio Grande. 52 Explorations 54 Reviews 62 Classifi eds 64 Finals Cover illustration by Mark Smith 1 ToC.indd 1 1/9/12 2:49 PM IN THIS ISSUE COLUMBIA MAGAZINE Executive Vice President for University Development and Alumni Relations Fred Van Sickle David Beim worked for twenty-fi ve years in investment bank- Publisher ing before joining Columbia Business School, where he has Jerry Kisslinger ’79CC, ’82GSAS been a professor of professional practice in the fi nance and Editor in Chief economics division since 1991. He is the co-author of Emerging Michael B. Shavelson Financial Markets and serves as a director of several mutual Managing Editor funds managed by Merrill Lynch. >> Page 14 Rebecca Shapiro Senior Editor David J. Craig Associate Editor Paul Hond M. M. De Voe ’01SOA is a widely published author of short fi ction who has been nominated for three Pushcart Prizes Contributing Editors Joshua J. Friedman ’08JRN and other literary awards. She is the founder and executive Eric McHenry director of Pen Parentis. >> Page 11 Art Director Eson Chan Assistant to the Editor Nicole Brown Editorial Assistants Emelyn Lih, Samantha McCann, Amanda Pickering Cheryl Greenberg ’88GSAS teaches African-American and Mailing Address twentieth-century history at Trinity College in Hartford, Columbia Magazine Connecticut, where she is the Paul E. Raether Distinguished Columbia Alumni Center Professor of History. She is the author of four books, including 622 W. 113th Street, MC 4521 “Or Does It Explode?”: Black Harlem in the Great Depression. New York, NY 10025 Tel. 212-851-4155 >> Page 54 Fax 212-851-1950 STEVEN J. SHERMAN J. STEVEN [email protected] www.magazine.columbia.edu Address and Archive Assistance [email protected] 212-851-4155 Steven Millhauser ’65CC is the author of works such as the novel Martin Dressler, which was awarded the Pulitzer To update your address online, visit alumni.columbia.edu/directory, Prize in 1997, and, most recently, We Others: New and or call 1-877-854-ALUM (2586). Selected Stories. He teaches at Skidmore College and lives in Saratoga Springs, New York. Advertising: Publisher’s Representative >> Page 58 Bruce Ellerstein MICHAEL LIONSTAR 917-226-7716 To download our advertising brochure or submit a classifi ed advertisement online, visit www.magazine.columbia.edu/advertise. Columbia Magazine is published for Brent Stockwell is an associate professor of biological alumni and friends of Columbia by the sciences and chemistry at Columbia University and a Offi ce of Alumni and Development. Howard Hughes Medical Institute Early Career Scientist. © 2012 by the Trustees of Columbia University He serves on the editorial board of Chemistry & Biology, in the City of New York has been awarded ten US patents, and has published fi fty-four scientifi c papers. >> Page 26 2 Columbia Winter 2011–12 2 Contributors2.indd 2 1/9/12 4:35 PM letters FIGHTING MODERN SLAVERY have the strength of character to fi nd a way, I read “New Crop City” and was sorry to Thank you for bringing us Paul Hond’s with my background and in my line of work, learn that the idea has detractors among the “The Long Night” (Fall 2011). It shines a to fi ght slavery — in these times? ranks of organic gardeners. My understand- spotlight on a most shocking and shame- Keren Blum ’09TC ing of your article drew me to the following ful dimension of humanity. Awareness of Rebbetzin, Chabad at Columbia University conclusions: high-rise agriculture could use modern slavery is not as widespread as it water that can be recycled endlessly (how should be, considering it is a highly profi t- A FRUITFUL IDEA about also collecting the vast quantities of able, global criminal industry. Having written one of the fi rst pieces rainwater that fall on urban roofs?); elimi- I recall learning in elementary school about vertical farming for New York mag- nate pesticides; provide totally safe food (isn’t about the complex history of slavery in azine back in the spring of 2007, I was this what organic gardening should really be America. I vividly remember wondering if a little surprised that Columbia Magazine about?); prevent exploitation of immigrant I would have had the strength of character was just now getting around to covering agricultural workers and their children; to fi ght for the freedom of slaves had I lived Dickson Despommier, but you advanced make community-benefi cial use of land area in those times. Today, for me and for my the story quite nicely (“New Crop City,” and recycle blighted inner-city landscapes; children, who attend an elementary school Fall 2011). be a start in managing the salinization and without a modern-slavery curriculum, this The only thing I would add is the story breakdown of soil-based agriculture and is no longer a theoretical question. behind the story: were it not for the power intensive agri-irrigation; and provide signifi - “The Long Night” reads like the tale of a of the Internet, the idea would probably cantly greater yields of food crops. team of relay runners passing the baton, one still just be incubating with Despommier’s Are any of these statements false or only to the other; it took a series of efforts before, graduate students. The fact is, my vertical- partly true? I am an enthusiastic supporter fi nally, the UN acknowledged the slave farm story was, hands down, the most viral of the concept and want to know much trading of UN monitors sent to protect the piece I’ve ever written. It ricocheted around more about its practice. people of Bosnia. These Columbia alumnae the world with astonishing velocity; news- Victoria Hardiman ’65GS, ’67GSAS — Tanya Domi, Larysa Kondracki, and Eilis papers from the Middle East to Europe Ames, OK Kirwan — were moved to action against the downloaded the piece and reprinted it. It inhumanity of slavery. They and their fellow has been amazing to witness what struck David J. Craig responds: In his book alumni, Siddharth Kara, Faith Huckel, and me at the time as a pretty cool but perhaps The Vertical Farm: Feeding the World in Carol Smolenski, all found a way to use their slightly wacky idea take on a life of its own the 21st Century, Dickson Despommier backgrounds in social work, business, or fi lm — and even come to fruition. describes many potential health, social, to fi ght slavery. It was inspiring. But it left Lisa Chamberlain ’03JRN and economic benefi ts of indoor farming, me with a continually pressing question: do I Brooklyn, NY including all those you mention here. Winter 2011–12 Columbia 3 3-7 Letters3.indd 3 12/26/11 11:26 AM LETTERS Let us be realistic. Vertical farming is unre- considered effete, but that is always the case I had veered away from Trilling all these alistically expensive. Science should not when the coarse encounters the refi ned. years, out of loyalty to my departed uncle. be in the business of wasting money. If Do not despair, Adam Kirsch. Think of Thank you, Adam Kirsch, for opening the Columbia is serious about solving some of all the great literary names that have been door for me to Lionel Trilling’s literary crit- the world’s food problems, then it should lost for decades and then have risen again. icism. I am going to give it a shot. I’ll cer- form alliances with other universities that Anson Kessler ’47CC tainly read Kirsch’s Why Trilling Matters. are ahead of us in this fi eld, such as Ben- Hendersonville, NC Arnold H. Taylor ’64TC Gurion University of the Negev. Plainview, NY Farms need to produce protein. Raising I really enjoyed Adam Kirsch’s article on fi sh in brackish water — by using water Trilling. I studied with Trilling in 1974 when The decline of the evanescent intellectual cli- over and over because we are already run- I was working toward my master’s degree in mate that Lionel Trilling epitomized both on ning out of fresh water — is the way to go. comparative English literature and he taught campus and beyond has long saddened me. We have plenty of sun — hothouses can be a class on Austen on Tuesday and Thursday Not even the zillions of blogs, which further prefabricated and assembled while there afternoons. I remember how excited he was separate people with differing views, can is sun — but not enough water! Growing when speaking of her Mansfi eld Park.