FALL 2011 M AG A Z I N E C1_FrontCoverOut.indd C1 10/10/11 12:03 PM C2_CUCNY.indd C2 10/6/11 12:22 PM CONTENTS Fall 2011 12 20 26 DEPARTMENTS FEATURES 3 Letters 12 The Long Night By Paul Hond 6 College Walk With her debut feature, The Whistleblower, Audrey or Marilyn? . A 9/11 Literary Talk . director Larysa Kondracki ’01GS has sparked Hackers Build Silicon Alley . The Telltale a worldwide discussion on human traffi cking. Hearth . Me and Kenneth 20 New Crop City 38 News By David J. Craig New global center established in Chile . Lettuce on the 7th fl oor? Beans on 12? James Valentini starts work as interim Welcome to Columbia scientist Dickson College dean . Jordan’s king and the view Despommier’s fi elds of dreams. from the throne . Old York archives come to Columbia . CAA expands career services 26 The Looming Towers By Camilo José Vergara 44 Newsmakers Ten years after 9/11, the photographs of the Chilean-born Vergara celebrate the Twin Towers 46 Explorations over the course of their 30-year life. 50 Reviews 34 Why We (Should) Read Lionel Trilling The Real Gandhi . Real Sex . By Adam Kirsch George Eliot’s Real Name We have all but stopped reading Trilling’s criticism since his death in 1975. A leading critic 62 Classifi eds says we’re making a big mistake. 64 Finals Cover photograph by Tanit Sakakini 1 ToC.indd 1 10/10/11 7:20 AM IN THIS ISSUE COLUMBIA MAGAZINE Executive Vice President for University Development and Alumni Relations Fred Van Sickle Partha Chatterjee is a political theorist, historian, Publisher and professor of anthropology at Columbia. His most Jerry Kisslinger ’79CC, ’82GSAS recent book is Lineages of Political Society: Studies in Editor in Chief Postcolonial Democracy. Michael B. Shavelson >> Page 50 Managing Editor Rebecca Shapiro Senior Editor David J. Craig Associate Editor Paul Hond Nan Rothschild ’62GSAS is a research professor of anthropol- Contributing Editors ogy at Barnard College and the director of museum studies Joshua J. Friedman ’08JRN at Columbia. She is working on a book about archaeology in Eric McHenry modern American cities. Art Director >> Page 46 Eson Chan HERBERT SEIGNORET SEIGNORET HERBERT Assistant to the Editor Nicole Brown Editorial Assistants Emelyn Lih, Samantha McCann, Amanda Pickering J. D. Scrimgeour ’86CC, ’87GSAS is a poet and professor of Mailing Address creative writing at Salem State University in Massachusetts. Columbia Magazine His work has appeared in Ploughshares, the Boston Globe Columbia Alumni Center 622 W. 113th Street, MC 4521 Magazine, the Chronicle of Higher Education, and Organica. New York, NY 10025 >> Page 11 Tel. 212-851-4155 Fax 212-851-1950 [email protected] www.magazine.columbia.edu Address and Archive Assistance [email protected] 212-851-4155 Camilo José Vergara ’77GSAS studied sociology at Columbia To update your address online, visit before devoting himself fully to the photographic documentation alumni.columbia.edu/directory of America’s decaying cities. He was a Revson Fellow at Colum- or call 1-877-854-ALUM (2586). bia and received a MacArthur Foundation fellowship in 2002. Advertising: >> Page 26 Publisher’s Representative Bruce Ellerstein 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 Thomas Vinciguerra ’85CC, ’86JRN, ’90GSAS is a writer alumni and friends of Columbia by the and the executive editor of This Week From Indian Country Offi ce of Alumni and Development. Today. His latest book is Backward Ran Sentences: The Best of © 2011 by the Trustees of Columbia University Wolcott Gibbs from the New Yorker. in the City of New York >> Page 55 2 Columbia Fall 2011 02 Contributors.indd 2 10/10/11 12:32 PM letters RACISM? WHAT RACISM? Teachers College, for his American Educa- bia University announces the Pulitzer Prizes Manning Marable thought the black elite tion: The National Experience, 1783–1876. each April after they are determined do not discuss the problems of the “under- Cremin received his PhD in history from by the Pulitzer Prize Board, an essen- class” because in doing so they would be GSAS in 1949. Foner’s larger point, “That tially independent body that meets on forced to confront the common realities of shows you it’s not an inside job,” is of campus and includes the president of racism that underlie the totality of America’s course sustained, since all three Pulitzers the University and the dean of the jour- social and economic order (“A Message for were richly deserved. nalism school. Other important Pulitzer the World,” Summer 2011). After 40 years Roger Muzii ’88GSAS news is also disseminated through Colum- of civil-rights legislation, affi rmative action, Sleepy Hollow, NY bia press releases. While the Pulitzer Prize and minority set-asides, at a time when Afri- offi ce is not an administrative part of can Americans play a prominent role in the I enjoyed Thomas Vinciguerra’s piece on the journalism school, it is located there sports and entertainment industries and can the Pulitzer Prizes. The article reminded and has a good working relationship with be found at every level of government, from me of a question I’ve had for years: Why is the school. state legislatures to the highest offi ces of the Columbia rarely, if ever, mentioned when land (not just president, but national security the names of the winners are announced? CHEMICAL REACTION adviser and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Living in Greater Boston, I can assure Paul Hond’s “Chemical Bonding” College Staff), blaming racism for the problems of you that if someone at Harvard so much Walk essay in the Summer issue brought the underclass is not very convincing. as sneezes, it’s publicized. Does Columbia back memories of Havemeyer and Chan- Carol Crystle ’64GSAS, ’70TC University purposefully downplay its role dler from a half century ago. The arrival Chicago, IL in the Pulitzers? If so, why? of Gilbert Stork in 1953 marked the estab- The Pulitzer Prize is an internationally lishment of a renowned research program PULITZER SURPRISE recognized and respected award, and the that attracted and ultimately trained and The College Walk piece describing the 2011 University would do well to more appro- inspired many of the preeminent organic Pulitzer Prize awards ceremony (“Nibs and priately advertise its stewardship of this chemists practicing today. It is good to Nibbles,” Summer 2011) quotes DeWitt annual event. know that the Thursday-evening problem Clinton Professor of History Eric Foner as Lee J. Dunn Jr. ’65CC sessions created by Stork are still operat- stating that the last Columbia historian to Concord, MA ing. Of course, personal computers and win the Pulitzer was Richard Hofstadter in PowerPoint presentations did not exist, so 1964. While true for Columbia faculty, the Sig Gissler, journalism professor and Pulit- one stood exposed at the chalkboard try- 1981 Pulitzer Prize for history was won by zer Prize administrator, responds: ing to draw and explain simultaneously. Lawrence A. Cremin, then the president of In a widely distributed press release, Colum- These multi-hour informal discussions were Fall 2011 Columbia 3 3-5 Letters.indd 3 10/6/11 2:48 PM LETTERS among the most exciting and stimulating on this spot-on, informative, and beauti- My letter drew out a few responses that experiences I, and many of my fellow stu- fully written review. ignored what I wrote and focused on one dents, enjoyed at Columbia. J. Michael Parish point: that I was not a veteran. The writ- William Reusch ’57GSAS Morristown, NJ ers assumed that the only real veterans are Okemos, MI military veterans, and that no one else can You have an excellent magazine. It is profes- fi ght for freedom or for one’s country. DONOVAN’S BRAIN sional, prudent, timely, and comprehensive. But if the military was then fi ghting for Phillip Knightley’s review of Douglas But one unattractive and unwarranted our freedom, they left out a big chunk of Waller’s biography of “Wild Bill” Dono- comment in Phillip Knightley’s review of Wild freedom back here at home. Who was van, the founder of the OSS and pro- Bill Donovan: The Spymaster Who Created excluded from freedoms such as voting, genitor of the CIA, was compelling and the OSS and Modern American Espionage or sitting at a lunch counter or on a bus? nothing short of brilliant (“Soldier, Spy,” was not in keeping with your high standards. Furthermore, the protesters at the rallies Summer 2011). This was particularly true The fi nal paragraph refers to J. Edgar I attended were protesting not against the of Knightley’s conclusion that Donovan’s Hoover spreading the rumor that his rival soldiers, but against the misdirection of role in creating the CIA unleashed on the Donovan had died of syphilis. Why mention our leadership. It is this leadership with American people a monster that has cost a rumor about an American who won every which many in the military have recently billions of unnecessary taxpayer dollars, combat medal of the United States? We are had problems. stomped all over civil liberties, and been taught that we should not repeat an alleged Perhaps the silliest letter was from David a complete failure — the emperor with no wrongdoing unless it is justifi ed and relevant. Clayton Carrad ’66 JRN, who invited me clothes who sits in the middle of the intel- I worked at Donovan’s law fi rm at to visit the “local VFW and American ligence community. Anyone who has read 2 Wall Street in 1959 and had the highest Legion posts armed with .