Hooker is a professor of social sciences at Brown University and a political theorist who specializes in racial justice, Black political thought and more. In addition to this, she is also the author of Black Grief/White Grievance: The Politics of Loss. In her presentation, Hooker gave historical examples of Black resistance to racist commemoration and public memory.

This particular discussion focused on Mary Church Terrell and W.E.B Du Bois in relation to slave monuments. Terrell was an educator, speaker and activist who campaigned for women's suffrage and social equality for African Americans in the late 19th century. She was also a founding member of the National Association of Colored Women and the first Black woman to serve on the Washington, D.C. Board of Education. Du Bois, in turn, was a sociologist, historian and co-founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He used his scholarship and editorial work to challenge racist historical narratives and advocate for Black civil rights. He also wrote extensively about the politics of memory and the representation of Black Americans in public life.

The event began with a discussion of a 1951 poem, "A Black Woman Speaks... of White Womanhood" by Beah Richards. Hooker analyzes this poem through the lens of epistemic injustice and racialized memory.

"Richards's poem centers a figure - the mammy, often referenced as the embodiment of race relation - and then systematically dismantles this racist myth by narrating the experience from the black woman's perspective, foregrounding the sexual violence that produces interracial kinship," Hooker explained. "She allows that Black mammies cared for their white charges, as they did not starve them to death [...] but she also shows how complex and fraught nurturing white children was for Black women."

An example from the poem that Hooker cited came from the line where Richards described the way that white mothers taught their children to hate the Black women who had raised them, detailing how they "despoiled my daughters and killed my sons."

Despite the limitations of post-Reconstruction political disenfranchisement, Hooker explained how African American intellectuals, activists and everyday people resisted the Lost Cause myth and fought to level the epistemic playing field by engaging in their own forms of memory by preserving and disseminating African American history to Black publics.

"Black club women, for instance, studied black history, encouraged their children to learn black history in schools and at home, and wrote articles about African American history," she outlined. "They undertook educational outreach and support for community libraries in order to try and transmit to children and the general public a different version of African American, Southern and American history than that in the Lost Cause propaganda."

The Lost Cause is an interpretation of the American Civil War (1861-1865) that attempts to frame the role of the Confederates through a positive lens. This point of view attempts to preserve the honor of the South by attributing the Confederacy's loss as a result of overwhelming Union advantage and celebrates an antebellum South of supposedly content enslaved people.

Hooker then went on to analyze attempts to build 20th-century faithful slave monuments (statues erected to promote the "Lost Cause" narrative) and the fierce resistance to them by African Americans. She emphasized that these monuments were designed to naturalize racial hierarchy by presenting enslaved people as loyal and devoted to their enslavers.

"Now, faithful slave monuments are a particular type of racist monument. They are not statues honoring racists like those of Confederate leaders like Jefferson Davis or Robert E. Lee, nor are they statues built without racist intent, but whose form or placement nevertheless conveys racist messages, such as statues that feature kneeling slaves," Hooker said. "African American intellectuals challenging faithful slave commemorations in the 1920s and 1930s - especially Mary Church Terrell and W.E.B Du Bois - became pioneering theorists of epistemic injustice by identifying [...] harms of racist monuments."

She explained that these monuments had actively shaped public understanding of slavery and reinforced white supremacist narratives.

In particular, Hooker highlighted two major campaigns to construct faithful slave memorials. Two attempts in the early 20th century sparked national debate and organized protest within Black communities.

"I analyzed two attempts to build faithful slave monuments in the U.S. in the early 20th century, and the fierce resistance to them by African Americans, especially Terrell and DuBois," she explained. "The first ultimately unsuccessful effort was the proposal by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the UDC, to build the National Monument to the black mammy nearby in Washington, D.C in 1923. The second effort was the Haywood Shepherd Memorial, which was installed by the UDC and the Sons of Confederate Veterans at Harper's Ferry."

Hooker also examined the UDC's cultural influence, including its Catechism for Children. Through educational pamphlets and children's materials, the UDC successfully campaigned to construct monuments and shape historical narratives across the South.

"The UDC shaped official history by asserting control of public school curricula and monument buildings, while professional historians like the members of Columbia Dunning School and Woodrow Wilson gave Lost Cause inversions the imprimatur of scientific rigor, the grassroots historians of the UDC inserted them into everyday institutions in the South - as we can see here from their Catechism for Children, which contains their questions and answers about the Civil War, slavery, etc," Hooker explained.

She argued that this effort represented a coordinated strategy to institutionalize Lost Cause ideology in education and public spaces. Hooker contended that the UDC's work blurred the line between grassroots activism and official historical authority.

This influence extended beyond monuments into classroom instruction, shaping how generations of Southern students understood slavery and the Civil War. It also marginalized Black perspectives by presenting Confederate memories as the objective truth.

"The UDC also successfully campaigned to build monuments in every city, town and state of the former Confederacy," she illustrated. "It was so successful, Historian Karen Cox argued, that one of the very significant explanations for the increase in monument building between the 1890s and World War I was the rise of the UDC."

In doing so, the UDC embedded racial hierarchy into the everyday landscape of Southern life. This normalization made racist interpretations of history appear natural and unquestionable, limiting opportunities for alternative perspectives to gain legitimacy.

"African Americans were keenly aware of the games of Faithful Slave Monuments, as we can see from some of these cartoons that appeared in Black newspapers," she said. "One editorial in the black press noted that no subject has brought forth a more unanimous protest except lynching since the Civil War than has the proposed black Mammy statue during an era of Black political and cultural self-assertion of The Harlem Renaissance."

The event concluded with a question-and-answer session.

In an interview with The News-Letter, freshman Vivian Gan, studying Medicine, Science and the Humanities described her experience participating in the event's interactivity. Gan highlighted how she appreciated audience members engaging in the conversation.

"I honestly enjoyed the questions the most because it was interesting to see how other people's perspectives wrapped into what the lecturer was saying," she said. "[Audience members] showed up to [...] the previous two lectures, so I appreciated context [...] as well because they drew more from the modern era rather than just [the] Confederate statues of faithful slaves."

Additionally, senior Joshua Pamphile detailed his reflections on the lecture's exploration of art, memorial and racial power in an interview with The News-Letter.

"The main thing that interested me was probably the way that art was used to beautify oppression," Pamphile said. "Because I feel like in a lot of readings about [...] slavery and the antebellum style, you don't really hear so much about the artistic side of oppression more - like the innate brutality and monstrosity of it. So, being introduced to a new [point of view] like that was definitely very interesting to me."

In the opening sequence, we are introduced to our characters, the most important of all being the roadway itself. The movie begins to paint a picture of three individuals each struggling with their own set of flaws. Chris Hemsworth is Mike Davis, a clever thief with a moral code whose modus operandi is robbing locations just off Route 101. Mark Ruffalo's Detective Lou Lubesnick is hot on his heels despite the disapproval of his superiors. Meanwhile, Halle Berry's Sharon faces ageism and sexism in her insurance broker's firm as she is denied being named a partner despite years of loyalty.

Their stories collide when Mike denies a risky heist from his boss Money (Nick Nolte), and Money's backup, the reckless Ormon (Barry Keoghan), botches the job. Now Mike is setting up his own heist on a wealthy businessman and his wife, while Ormon is dispatched by Money to learn about this new plan and do the job himself. Throughout the 140-minute runtime, we find ourselves split between these three main characters and their lives as chaos ensues on the Pacific Coast. But does it stick the landing?

Mike is a great thief; he is meticulous, implied to be struggling with OCD and some secret from his past. He is restrained in his personality, a choice meant to strengthen his serious persona. Yet the execution of this can be difficult to believe with Hemsworth in the role. As opposed to piquing the interest of the audience regarding what lies beneath, his performance comes off as stale. There is something we don't know about our complicated protagonist, but there is not much urgency to find out what is wrong.

Enter the love interest, Monica Barbaro's Maya, a publicist who literally crashes into Mike's life and helps him find a little humanity before their inevitable breakup as the heist plan spirals. Among the complexities that arise in the plot, her character is simply put to the wayside save for a few cute date scenes and other stereotypical girlfriend bits. It is an odd choice that this actress (fresh out of a supporting role in the Oscar-nominated A Complete Unknown) would be so underutilized. Her lack of presence led me to wonder if she would return in Act III by being somehow embroiled in the schemes. Instead, Mike predictably sends her a childhood photo and asks if they can get back together.

As Mike juggles a girlfriend and a career in crime, he must also evade the only person who understands his modus operandi: Ruffalo's Lou Lubesnick. An aging veteran cop who has hit a rough patch and is determined to prove his theory of a robber operating solely on the 101 does seem to harken back to previous cop characters over decades of film, but the script is able to flesh out his arc better than the supposed main character. Paired with Berry's Sharon, whose frustration and desperation can be felt through the screen, they prove to be the driving force of the narrative. Keoghan's performance as Ormon also gets a shoutout for capturing the rookie's explosive rage and lack of experience in the business as he tries to prove himself.

Though the first two acts take their time in building up the conflict, Act III kicks the movie into high gear as the storylines finally converge and brings all of the previously separate characters together into the same room for the ultimate showdown. In a standoff, the two thieves and the detective face off while the millionaire couple watches helplessly, unaware of the one person connecting them all. This is preceded by what stands out as the most riveting scenes in the movie: Mike driving Lou holding a briefcase of money, and a tense conversation about vintage cars and Steve McQueen movies. Are they aware of each other's plots?

All comes to a head in a somewhat anticlimactic ending. In true Hollywood fashion, Mike is able to atone for the crimes and make peace with Lou and Maya. The music swells and the credits start to roll, but something feels off. This would be the lack of screen time for Mike's boss, Money, in Act III. The ending seems to forget the existence of this character. Shouldn't there have been some sort of payoff in Mike giving Lou the location of this greedy, insidious man and sending him to prison as opposed to simply gifting him a vintage car? Perhaps there wasn't enough time. Or they're holding out for a sequel.

Despite these shortcomings, this film does succeed in presenting an interesting heist plot and is able to flesh out most of its characters to provide the drama and tension on which the story relies. Underlying themes surrounding the precariousness of morality and the nature of a capitalist society are explored in a Los Angeles captured in its most raw, whether it's the lights of traffic on the 101 at twilight or the stretch of tents that line the sidewalks in the day. A few car chases later, and this movie isn't the worst way to kill time on the weekend.

Currently, Yeh is a part-time advisor and experienced officer for Cherish, a company that develops intelligent radar-based sensor platforms, and the founder of Yeh Innovation, where she pursues her deep commitment for patient centered care, advocacy for consumer voice in healthcare and the celebration of aging. She has previously held numerous leadership positions where she had done a lot of work with Medicare and Medicaid, in addition to serving on governance and advisory boards. However, Yeh started her career off working as an emergency physician, and shared that it is within the experiences she gained from working as a doctor that ignited her passion for advocacy.

"To me, we tend to focus in healthcare a lot about the what: what is it we need to do, what condition do we have, how do we diagnose this, how do we treat it, [but] I think in this new era, we need to be going back to the who and the why," Yeh said. "[As an emergency doctor], I would see everyone coming in, and you could see the friction in their day to day living that just couldn't allow them to follow through on instructions because we didn't understand who they were [and] their experiences."

These observations as a physician drove her down the path of navigating how to address and minimize friction points primarily associated with healthy aging. Her ongoing work with EssilorLuxottica, the largest global leader in eyewear and med-tech and home to many established brands such as Ray Bans and Chanel, is actively doing so by working to creatively tackle one of the most common and normal consequences to aging: hearing loss.

Yeh started working with them in January 2026 and shared how it had initially surprised her that the companies decided to get into the hearing space. She later explained that the reason they did so was because they wanted to see the culture shift that occurred with vision to be applied to hearing.

"Growing up, you didn't want to admit you needed glasses. Now, everybody wears glasses, and as you can see, they are a fashion statement," Yeh said. "That's really what led to nuanced audio, which is [EssilorLuxottica's] subsidiary that [creates] hearing aid glasses."

Yeh personally expressed favor in utilizing these hearing aid glasses herself as she opened up about having some mild drug induced hearing loss. She noted that she also wears glasses on a regular basis and found it difficult to wear glasses and hearing aids simultaneously, mentioning that the hearing aids would often "fly off." She goes on to explain how this innovation is a prime example of why research revolving around the cooperation of the health care side of hearing and business is necessary.

"You guys are great at seeing stigma and how many people are doing this and that, [but] how many of you are actually, this is where you could cooperate with industry, looking at form factor function and [comparing] open air like a nuanced audio versus over the ear versus in the canal," Yeh said. "How many of you are thinking: Where are the friction points for adoption? How many of you think about as you progress into cognitive decline mode, and you have hearing loss, they can't handle the little hearing aids… they go into memory care, nobody checks the batteries."

By studying these types of questions, Yeh acknowledges that researchers will not only contribute to increasing the adoption rate of these beneficial med-tech products and better health but will also contribute to opening up the marketplace that heretofore was not easily accessible. Additionally, she mentioned how it appears to be that people tend to resort to hearing aids as the ultimate hearing solution, but she encourages researchers to study the supplemental tools to amplify hearing, such as speech to text captioning and facial readings.

Yeh has personally witnessed the potential of speech to text captioning when she had accompanied her dad to the hospital. She shared how at age 95, he had endured two cancers and got a cochlear implant due to profound hearing loss, and brought an iPad with speech to text captioning on it. This technology allowed her dad and the hospital staff to directly communicate with one another. She implied that the staff initially were not drawn to this method of communication, but their perspective did eventually change.

"The second time they came in [they said], 'where's that device… I've got to talk to your dad,'" Yeh said. "It made it easier, faster… they didn't have to repeat themselves [and] the best part is, my dad, halfway through the hospitalization, turned to me and said: 'Do you know, this is the first time they're not talking to you… they're talking to me.'"

Yeh also talked about the importance of being able to distinguish between hearing loss and cognitive decline in elderly as she shared another story about her father where she first attributed his growing cognitive decline in communicating with family attention span to developing dementia. However, she decided to get him the Xander glasses, speech to text detection virtual reality glasses and after a couple of days wearing them, she immediately noticed that he was starting to communicate again. She used this experience to illustrate why it is worthy to further research into the relationship between hearing loss and dementia and how technology and even AI can be used to distinguish between the two.

"I can see the use of AI in monitoring people longitudinally to then begin to say the correlation of what appears like cognitive decline and hearing loss… to say, at what point do we want to distinguish and figure out what's the right treatment," Yeh said. "Everyone goes to the drugs but the drugs for dementia might not [solve the problem] if the [patient's] problem is hearing loss."

In addition to this example of how AI can be a useful tool in hearing and aging care, she suggested that there are a myriad of other implications that are waiting to be explored, such as how AI can be useful in evaluating somebody in terms of their dexterity, vision, hearing etc. Overall, she reminds researchers to actively think about the application of the data they have collected and how it translates into the business side of things in order to make a real impact.

"We need you and we need you to do this," Yeh said. "So, please do not lose that passion because, like I tell you the stories of my dad, these are real people who need what you know and how to apply it to real world experiences. So, if you want to have an impact, make sure to understand who your audience is, your end consumer."

The six new FAs are as follows: FA1 Writing and Communication, FA2 Scientific and Quantitative Reasoning, FA3 Creative Expression, FA4 Engagement with Society, FA5 Ethical Reflection and FA6 Conceiving of and Realizing Projects. FA1 requires one foundational course in writing and one in oral communication, followed up by two ePortfolio assessments in those two courses that require a minimum assessment of "Proficient." FA2 requires four to six courses and a laboratory associated with one of the natural science courses, most of them being fulfilled by a Whiting School of Engineering majors' requirements. A minimum of 12 credits combined under FA3 and FA4 must be completed. FA5 requires one foundational course in ethical reflection with its respective ePortfolio. Lastly, FA6 consists of at least two ePortfolio assignments completed by taking a class that has an assignment eligible for the requirement.

These changes follow the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences' (KSAS) updated FA system that was first implemented in the 2024-2025 school year, albeit with differing categories and credit counts. KSAS's FA system also has six categories: FA1 Writing and Communication (15 credits, including 6 within the major), FA2 Science and Data (15 credits), FA3 Culture and Aesthetics (15 credits), FA4 Citizens and Society (15 credits, with 3 credits falling under FA4.1 Democracy), FA5 Ethics and Foundations (15 credits), and FA6 Projects and Methods (6 credits). Courses cannot double count across multiple FA areas, except for Writing and Communication and Projects and Methods.

One significant step taken by the University to help streamline the transition is the launching of Stellic, a degree audit program with features that display the FA category a specific class might fill, which has been offered to assist students in mapping out four-year plans.

Similar to the criticism toward KSAS FAs, WSE students expressed their concerns about how these new changes increase the difficulty to double major and graduate early, criticizing the University's lack of transparency regarding the FA requirements.

In an interview with The News-Letter, an anonymous freshman going by the pseudonym "Robert," majoring in Computer Science, spoke about his experience with FAs and meetings with academic advisors. Robert noted that he happened to take one of his favorite courses from the semester because he registered to a philosophy course for the FA4 requirement. He credited the requirement as an incentive for students to explore outside of their comfort zone, but highlighted his frustration with the current tagging of courses.

"Firstly, courses for FA6 were not listed in the course catalog. The reason, according to [academic] advisors, is because freshmen can't take FA6 courses in their first semester. I find that kind of off-putting because what if there is an FA6 course that has three semesters worth of pre-requirements?" Robert continued, "That's more of a niche concern but in general, some of the FAs seem pretty arbitrary, specifically with the way they are categorized. Why does Elements of Macroeconomics fulfill FA4 when Elements of Microeconomics does not? The thing is, you can't impose that expectation and then restrict the avenues in which you can pursue those FA requirements. I feel like if they expanded the catalog of courses that fulfilled every FA requirement, it would be a lot better."

Currently, the public course catalog does not have a tag for FA6eP, which would be the label corresponding to courses that fulfill the ePortfolio requirement under FA6.

Robert also explained that accounting for FAs in his schedule has shaped his decision to double-major and take on minors.

"When double-majoring, you're unable to take enough higher-level courses in both majors, and I think the FA requirements amplify that. They impact my decision [against] double majoring across schools; since there are already more credits to take for a single major, my double major itself seems less productive. What FAs mean is that instead of going in depth into both majors of choice, you go a little bit in depth into one, fulfill the other [major's requirements], and then the rest of your credits are for meeting FAs. Especially for somebody who wants to graduate early, the FAs [make] minoring [difficult]. Without the FAs, I could possibly have done a minor in Entrepreneurship and Management. That's 14 credits. But with the FAs, that's just not an option," Robert stated.

Another freshman, going by the pseudonym "Claire," discussed her experiences double-majoring in Biomedical Engineering (BME) and a KSAS major. As BME is her primary major, Claire is under the WSE FA system.

"The system is so complicated; you could very easily make a mistake and just take a class that you don't actually have to take. Also it makes double majoring across schools so hard. Whereas you could see our upperclassmen, and they are triple majoring, becoming specialized and ready to go into the career that they want to go into."

Claire also stated that one of the reasons for choosing to attend the University was due to her campus tour guide talking about their ability to triple major, one of which included Claire's primary major, BME. She learned about the changed FAs requirements during orientation. Claire expressed her understanding of the administration's reasoning behind the FAs, but she disapproved of the current state of its implementation.

"I get the merit of FAs - being a well-rounded student - because Hopkins has a lot of pre-med kids, and we want our future doctors to be aware of things outside of medicine. But [the FAs] are unfair because it hinders our actual progress. We need to be able to find the line between creating informed students, but also letting us do what we want to do in our jobs and our education."

Tyler Lee, a senior double-majoring in Materials Science and Engineering and Philosophy, offered his thoughts as a student under the previous distribution requirement system before the rollout of the FAs in an email to The News-Letter.

"My program of study requirements [under the previous system] enabled me to pursue a second major in humanities without having to take substantially more credits. Furthermore, flexibility in my schedule has allowed me to explore research that isn't strictly in my primary department. I'm grateful that I had the time and credit availability because these other topics, while not essential to the completion of my primary degree, are things that I would not have had the chance to learn about if the curriculum had been more restrictive. Looking back, the best aspects of my undergraduate education have been exploring topics that are personally interesting to me," Lee wrote.

The Student Government Association (SGA) has been in contact with KSAS Vice Dean Erin Rowe and WSE Vice Dean Michael Falk regarding students' perspectives on the FAs. In an email to The News-Letter, the SGA Executive Board, as well as senators in SGA's Academic Affairs committee, outlined its progress navigating these changes, highlighting the diverse array of experiences heard from WSE students. Complaints include difficulties in planning FA requirements with classes required for their major and double-majoring. SGA also received perspectives from students who are still able to graduate early by a semester or a year. During Fall 2024 and Fall 2025, then-Freshman Senator and current Sophomore Senator Kevin Xu and current Freshman Class Council member Issac Zhang included reducing the intensity of the FAs in their individual campaign priorities for the Class of 2028 and Class of 2029 SGA Freshman Elections, respectively.

One of the steps SGA took was to conduct a survey regarding student responses to bring to the administrations of both schools. A timeline provided by SGA to The News-Letter displayed that in January 2025, a survey about student reactions to FA requirements was sent out to the Class of 2028, whose KSAS cohort was the first to experience the school's new FA requirements.

Questions from the survey asked about the importance of FAs guiding the student's decision to attend the University, when they first learned about FAs, the FAs' impact on their career plans and more. Results of the survey were shared to the general undergraduate population through Xu's personal website. SGA first met with Rowe and Falk in March 2025 and then held an Executive Board meeting with them during November 2025, and they summarized their interactions in an email to The News-Letter.

"[Through these meetings,] Dean Rowe agreed to push for retroactive tagging of some courses with FAs but was reluctant to push for the alteration of the FA system in a significant way, [including] the solutions we proposed based on survey results such as more double counting and reduced number of credits. Dean Rowe cited the recency of the implementation and stated that any review and changes to the curriculum itself would only be considered in a few years once the effects are fully clear and the new students are no longer affected by the knowledge of the less restrictive distribution system."

The statement added that they intend to continue working on the FAs with the arrival of the class of 2029 SGA representatives. SGA also addressed that the WSE FAs were made to be less credit-heavy than KSAS requirements due to the larger credit hour requirements for WSE majors.

"Since the implementation of FAs, the university's communication with students has improved. Stellic has been a helpful tool for students to create 4-year plans that [fulfill] the FA requirements but it is not enough," SGA wrote. "There is still a large disconnect between students' understanding of the FA system, the information shared by academic and/or faculty advisors, and the new graduation requirements themselves. As the class of 2029 begins to plan their sophomore and junior years, we are communicating with the schools and sharing the need for more thorough and consistent communication."

SGA commented that this year's progress appears to be more productive, although results will be limited to potential intersession and summer courses, as well as FA workshops.

Keerthana Rajesh and Alex Pan contributed to the reporting of this article.

Friday

Charm City Django Jazz Fest, Baltimore Museum of Art, 10 Art Museum Dr., doors open at 7 p.m., show starts at 8 p.m.

The 11th annual Charm City Django Jazz Fest returns to the Baltimore Museum of Art for a night of Django Reinhardt-inspired jazz and swing. The lineup features international and local performers including Luca Pino, Natalie Hanna Mendoza, Tim Kliphuis, Jimmy Grant and the Hot Club of Baltimore with trumpeter Sean Jones. Tickets are $55.

Lancelot Chimera, Voxel, 9 W. 25th St., All-weekend event, 8 p.m.

This electroacoustic concerto for amplified bassoon and tape blends experimental sound and multimedia performance into a 45-minute immersive work exploring transformation, individuality and chaos. The performance includes flashing lights, fog and sensory effects. Tickets are $15 for students.

Saturday

Candlelight: 90s Unplugged, Maryland Center for History and Culture, 610 Park Ave., 6:30 p.m. and 8:45 p.m.

The Candlelight concert series brings a string quartet performance of 1990s classics to the Maryland Center for History and Culture, illuminated by candlelight. The Listeso String Quartet performs arrangements of hits by Nirvana, Oasis, Alanis Morissette, Radiohead and more in an intimate, hour-long concert experience. Tickets start at $47.

Liquid Courage, Baltimore Museum of Industry, 1415 Key Hwy., 5-10 p.m.

Liquid Courage returns to the Baltimore Museum of Industry for its second annual celebration of Maryland's cocktail and distilling history. The event features curated tastings of local spirits, food pairings from Baltimore eateries, workshops and demonstrations with industry professionals, plus live music and dancing throughout the evening. General admission tickets are $125 and include access to all tastings, programming and entertainment.

Sunday

Terry Brewer featuring Presence with Sean Jones, Keystone Korner Baltimore, 1350 Lancaster St., 5-9 p.m.

Baltimore-born pianist and arranger Terrahn "Terry" Brewer leads an evening of jazz infused with gospel influences alongside trumpeter Sean Jones and an ensemble of acclaimed musicians. The performance highlights Brewer's work across jazz, theater and orchestral music in one of the city's premier live jazz venues. Tickets start at $35.

Karina Wizevich, associate program director and senior lecturer for the MA in Museum Studies program, opened the discussion. She introduced the topic of AI intersecting with the museum sphere and welcomed the event's moderator, Dr. Joyce Ray, another Assistant Program Director and senior lecturer for the MA in Museum Studies program.

Ray then introduced the two main panelists: Nik Honeysett, now CEO of the Balboa Park Online Collaborative, and Alexandra Kron, a community manager at Terentia.

Honeysett, a former adjunct faculty member at Hopkins, was the primary lecturer for the first half of the event. He described his recent work, which focuses on AI in museums, and began with a discussion on whether institutions were willing to adopt AI tools in curatorial practice. Honeysett conducted a survey on this question and found that nontraditional individuals tend to be skeptical about AI.

"This is important when you think about it, because in any group of people, not only in an institution, a museum, you're going to get this group of people, but also your audience is the same," he said. "There are some people who are totally up for AI adoption and [who] embrace it, and there are others where it is the last thing they'd want to do."

Honeysett then described the current scope of museums in relation to AI usage. Museums have for-profit corporate board members who embrace AI adoption. However, there's a gap in which those very individuals in leadership lack the time necessary to delve into AI discourse. Honeysett continued on the idea of digitization as fuel for AI. He noted that museums should be adopting governance early with these systems, referencing Google's search engines that influence how museum websites are trafficked.

"If you've been using Google certainly for the last four to six months, you'll notice that when you search, rather than getting a set of results, you're actually getting an AI interpretation," Honeysett said.

This has had impacts on museum websites, where there was a spike in traffic per the AI "bots," followed by a dip in that same traction because Google had taken away those AI possibilities. Honeysett expanded on this by explaining generative energy optimization (GEO), which is how websites are designed to be AI-friendly.

However, there are challenges with GEO. For example, Honeysett presented on a website called Living Museum. He described how a coder in Canada took the British Museum's entire collection and attached an AI assistance tool to the service, available in any education level or language. While benefit is personalization, the drawbacks are nonnegligible - museums could lose control of their voice and historical accuracy.

"Museums need to be treating AI like a publication platform with all the editorial guidelines and goals and rigor behind it that they would do under any circumstances," he said.

Green AI policy is also significant in the grand scheme of AI utilization. The goal is to use AI to enhance operational efficiency as well as visitor experience, all while minimizing the environmental impacts of its use. According to a chart presented by Honeysett, Google Gemini is the most efficient AI platform for the environment. Ultimately, he argued, AI is not a replacement for people, rather it is there to supplement human productivity.

"You are certainly seeing an overestimation of [AI's] ability right now, but it is going to have a massive impact over the long term," Honeysett concluded.

Kron then began her section, which focused on the role of digital asset management systems (DAMS) in building intelligent museums. She first outlined what occurs behind the scenes of AI tools, such as an engine that identifies dataset patterns, biased outputs and AI's lack of context awareness. Products of AI are shaped by the context and data that we provide it with.

"As we're using those AI tools more and more, we're seeing a rise of what I'm going to call AI-enhanced projects, and by that, I mean projectswhere AI supports human work -not replacing it. In a museum context, this looks like generating or enriching metadata, suggesting keywords, possibly identifying people or places in images, transcribing handwritten documents, or converting audio and video into searchable text," Kron said. "But AI's role isn't limited to efficiency. AI is increasingly also shaping search and discovery. It can influence which objects are surfaced, how materials are connected, and what patterns are becoming visible in your collections."

AI in museums presents both opportunities and risks. With advances in efficiency, scale and insights, there are risks of a loss of context. The argument goes back to the fact that AI's outputs are based on our own context. Kron referred to DAMS as a "truth anchor" for AI, suggesting that they can provide a home for files, metadata and version history. When AI operates within DAMS, it operates under governance. It can assist with tagging and transcription under institutional rules and human review. AI working outside the DAMS may rely on incomplete or decontextualized data.

Kron also highlighted the critical uses of DAMS based on institutional priorities. She called attention to The Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, a project in Medora, North Dakota.

"What makes this project really unique is that it began without a traditional collection... The library started with almost no physical materials on site and no existing digital infrastructure. So to build its collection, the team had to aggregate records and digital assets from more than 30 institutions, including Harvard, the Library of Congress, and the National Archives," she said.

Like other projects, there were familiar challenges such as data consistency and rights agreements. The solution was to establish a single system of record, or a trusted AI digital repository that consolidates collections data, among other benefits. AI tools have archivists review outputs, approve confidence records and flag others for review. This performance will improve over time. The lesson, though, is that AI can accelerate projects only when it is influenced by strong governance and human oversight.

A question-and-answer session followed Kron's demonstration. Honeysett deliberated on how museums can be more AI-friendly.

"The best training for an AI engine is a combination of data - so, collections data," Honeysett said. "And there's some examples that we've done [in] a project with Strategic Air Command [where] collections data [was] augmented by recording volunteers giving tours around the institution and recording the questions that are asked of them and their answers."

Another concern is education with AI tools. The solution is increased utilization. AI will not replace jobs, but those with more skills in using those very platforms will. This conversation extends into job applications, where there is a shift in making a resumé more AI- than human-friendly.

The panel concluded with a discussion of museums that are skeptical about using AI tools. The consensus was that being informed on AI itself and learning how to gain the most out of its advancements are key. When interacting with AI, they argued that the most effective approach is acting as a performance director, emphasizing a controlled environment and understanding how these engines are designed in the first place.

The event began with opening statements from Caitlin Berry, director of the Irene and Richard Frary Gallery. Berry explained the purpose of the archival event, detailing the importance of teaching and learning about relationships with archival materials.

Elisabeth Long, the Dean of the Sheridan Libraries, Archives and Museums, further elaborated on the significance of showcasing archival materials that highlight African American history and culture. She emphasized that these collections provide critical insight into the historical and contemporary experiences of Black communities.

"Sometimes, I think that when people hear libraries, archives and museums, they think of sedate, hermetically sealed buildings where they are always getting shushed. But that is really the opposite of what we want," she said. "While we - of course - want to keep our collections safe, we equally want them to be used, to be seen, to be read, debated, reckoned with and used in creative ways."

The Irene and Richard Frary Gallery is a free art gallery that presents rotating exhibitions drawn from the University's collections in addition to special exhibitions created from partnerships with leading museums and collections. Located in the Hopkins Bloomberg Center, the gallery is open to the public from Tuesday through Saturday.

This current exhibition, Ceremony, by artist Lindsay Adams, explores the history of Black movement. As the centerpiece of the showcase, Adams's painting "Kind of Blue" represents the commitment of individuals to honoring local artists. Inspired by Miles Davis' 1959 album Kind of Blue, the work reflects a blend of musical influence and visual storytelling to convey rhythm and heritage.

Moderated by Ceremony's guest curator Claudia M. Watts, the discussion explored themes of memory, family history and the preservation of African American history. In an interview with The News-Letter, Watts discussed her role in organizing the exhibition as well as her goal of facilitating dialogues between contemporary artists and historical archival materials to deepen understanding of cultural heritage.

"This talk really thinks about the archive and Black archiving - and within the exhibition, I paired Lindsay's works with archival documents from the Sheridan Library's Special Collections," she said. "You will see, when you go in [the exhibit], various conversations with postcards, sheet music and programs - all from various points within Black history. There are things from people who are unknown as well as people who were famous - like Billie Holiday and Josephine Baker - and that was really the catalyst for having this larger conversation."

Individuals featured in the event included Adams, Jason Reynolds and Savannah Wood. Each panelist shared their personal connections to history and the ways in which archives have informed their creative and professional work.

Adams is the gallery's first solo artist to feature a series of works directly engaging with archival documents. Opening the panel, Adams explained her inspiration and her desire to create pieces that respond to different aspects of the human experience.

"I do allude to both psychological and emotional landscapes in [my] painting," she explained. "So part of that is a reconciliation of what makes us who we are... How do we use that through both an emotional lens and a psychological [one]?"

Moreover, Adams stated that her art seeks to create connections between history and contemporary life. She also noted that her work often integrates materials and references drawn from archival sources.

"I was able to do [an] independent seminar, [during] which I went back to seven drawings," Adams noted. "In those drawings, I incorporated some of the soil from Edenton with the cult wax - and the ink - and was able to bring in the land and the history."

Wood is a descendant of a formerly enslaved man, John H. Murphy Sr., who founded the Baltimore Afro-American newspaper in 1892. She shared that learning about her ancestors' work provided her with a deeper understanding of her family's legacy and the role of Black media in American history.

"It took going to other cities and exploring these other archives to really come back and think about this family legacy," she said.

Wood further described the emotional weight of connecting with her ancestors and the responsibility that came with preserving their stories. She emphasized the importance of preserving these stories for future generations.

"That's the fear, right? It's like when you recognize that you're supposed to do something but that it is going to take over your entire life, and that you are just going to have to submit to it," she explained. "And you don't know what that means yet, but you know it's going to be life-altering - that's the fear."

Jason Reynolds is an author who is deeply invested in tracing his family history through archival research. During the discussion, he described how discovering documents like letters, photographs and legal records helped him connect to his family. Reynolds then spoke on the importance of preserving personal and familial archives for understanding identity and history.

When asked which of his archival documents he considered to be the first, Reynolds detailed the marriage license of his first ancestor post-emancipation.

"[It is] the very first time that we're on paper - like I own the first example of our love on paper," he said. "The interesting thing about having pieces like that you get to wrestle with, not only the history of it all, but the way that names worked back then and how [our] names are constantly changing."

For example, Reynolds explained how one of his early relatives' names was spoken as "Stone." Yet, on his marriage license, Stone's name was written as "Stones." This instance served as an example of how historical records can both preserve and alter family narratives.

Reynolds then highlighted certain items in the current exhibition, such as letters from Langston Hughes when he was writing Black Nativity. For Reynolds, these acquisitions had less to do with what the person was saying and more to do with the shape of their handwriting. Other additions include Louis Armstrong's letter to the person who made his lip balm.

Afterward, Watts asked the panelists about their views on the impact of digital catalogs. The panelists discussed how digitalization increases accessibility but cannot fully replace the experience of handling physical archival materials.

"I think that nothing will ever beat analog," Adams said. "Nothing will ever be like being able to touch something, feeling it and possessing it yourself... The key will always be a balance between [digital and analog]."

Adams added that digital tools are valuable for research, but personal interaction with archives creates a unique emotional and intellectual connection that could not be understood otherwise.

In response, Reynolds echoed the sentiment, noting that archives are not just information but lived experience and describing the way that physical artifacts are able to assist in maintaining continuity between generations.

"Our humanity is wrapped in the boring bits," he said. "I have a check that Jackie Robinson wrote to his daughter for $20. I don't know what it was for, right? But I get to live in the black imagination of my ancestors - that is a special thing that I'm afraid we'll lose."

Later in the event, Watts asked the panelists to illustrate how the archives allow scholars to experience the past and present simultaneously. She prompted the speakers to reflect on how that notion impacts their perceptions of the future as it relates to the Black experience.

"Just thinking about things that are absent from the archive and the way that having an interiority is actually a strategy that we should hold onto - also that everybody doesn't need to know everything," Wood said. "We talk a lot about access in archives - and yes, that's critical - but for black archives, I think there's like another layer there that we need to be careful of: how much we're giving away and how much of our survival is based on what we've kept."

Reynolds agreed and reflected on the notion that secrecy can be protective and empowering in archival practices.

"I agree with this, and I think that our secrets have kept us alive," he said. "And I think our secrets have kept us enslaved."

The event then opened to a question-and-answer session with the audience. Members asked questions about preserving cultural memory in personal and community archives.

In response to a question regarding youth engagement with historical archives and preservation, speakers offered advice on maintaining digital and physical records of personal and family histories.

"If there are stories that you care about, then have a backup copy of [them]," Wood advised. "Anything that you have on Instagram, TikTok is not necessarily gonna be there forever."

An audience member asked about the use of technology as a tool of archiving. He explained that he had a recording of his mother's voice that he treasured as a direct link to her memory. Listening to it allowed him to experience the emotional nuances of her speech that no transcription could capture.

Adams responded that this type of personal audio archive demonstrates how technology can preserve intimate memories that would be impossible to record otherwise.

"Technology is a mode of accessibility, of bridging a gap between not only the past and the present, but also letting people experience information in various ways. To the point of the voicemails that you have... this device is still working to help you remember the moments that you have had with her," Adams explained. "Technology can enhance their overall experience of [the moments]."

Moreover, Reynolds emphasized that technology should always complement and not replace human connection to memory and material culture. He noted that while digital tools can store information, the emotional experience of interacting with artifacts and hearing a loved one's voice cannot be replicated.

"It's dope, right? But it's because I think that one thing that is important to know is that it's actually your mother's voice, correct?" Reynolds said. "A different conversation [is], if you [said] 'I had AI recreate my mother's voice,' right? The reason that you can feel everything is because it is, and it's that intangible thing that we can't quite put our finger on."

Reynolds's point highlights the role ordinary, everyday artifacts play in preserving history and how small details carry significant weight.

In an interview with The News-Letter, Eilah Brown-Davis and her husband, Alexander Davis, discussed how paying attention to ordinary moments and objects allows people to see the significance of appreciating the mundane.

"I feel like a lot of times, people will look for their lives to be unique and [for] things to really stand out, and we kind of get obsessed over it - like with social media, we want to capture [ourselves] at our best moments," Davis said. "But you know what [the best moments are]? When [...] we're sitting on the couch and we're watching Love is Blind, those are [the] things that get you through the tough moments."

Brown-Davis emphasized the importance of family stories, demonstrating how memory can be preserved in ordinary routines.

"I think that [the discussion] was a great reminder, like now more than ever, that as African Americans, our ancestors were so resilient, and now we can look back on that [and] see how that shows up in many different forms," Brown-Davis elaborated. "Like art, letters [and] music - and it's so great to be reminded of that, especially in this time."

Additionally, speaking on family and memory, Germaine Norman, father of Lindsay Adams, shared his perspective on the importance of preserving everyday history in an interview with The News-Letter.

"I think the key takeaway is that all [of] our histories are important and that we should keep track of [them] and share [them] with our friends and family," he said. "I think [that] I'm going to be more intentional [about] sharing my history and my life with my kids - and my family - things that I haven't shared before."

The sound of a blender at seven in the morning is usually the herald of a New Year's Resolution. It's the sound of frozen blueberries, spinach, protein powder and milk being pulverized into some slush; the kind of health smoothie that promises a fresh start with a healthier body and mind.

But as I stumbled downstairs from my room to the kitchen, half-blinded by the sharp grey January, the air didn't smell of berries. There was a sulfurous sting of raw garlic, the sharp bite of onions and the grainy, floral sweetness of Korean pears.

My mother was making the "slushie" base for kimchi.

I watched her pour the white frothy mixture into a massive stainless-steel bowl, followed by a violent heap of gochugaru, or ground red pepper flakes, that turned the pale liquid into an angry crimson. Then came the fermented anchovy sauce to anchor the spice with an earthy funk. Outside, the world was locked in a brittle frost, the trees standing like skeletal needles. Inside, my mother was elbow-deep in a red sea of salted cabbage, performing a ritual of preservation that felt less like cooking and more like alchemy.

I like to think of the process of making kimchi as a mirror for the process of living. There is a specific kind of violence to it at first. The cabbage is hacked apart and buried in salt until it wilts. It reminds me of those "salty" seasons of life where we have moments in which the weight of expectations or a long, exhausting winter seems to drain the crispness right out of you. We have all had days that feel like being brined; we feel smaller, more brittle, and perhaps a little more broken than we were the day before.

But standing there in the kitchen, watching the red paste coat every leaf, I see that the salt is just there to prepare it for the spice.

And I would compare the red pepper spiciness with passion. It's the heat, the "kick," the intensity that keeps me moving even when the sky is flat, uninspiring. It's the part of us that refuses to be bland. And I think that passion alone is boring; it needs that fishy depth of our complicated experiences and the sweetness of the pear.

I find the beauty of this process in the fact that kimchi is edible at every single stage, and each stage has its own value. There is the geotjeori, which is the fresh, unfermented version. It's crunchy, brash and immediate. It's the newness of a project or the high-energy start of a new year. It's delicious, though it lacks the wisdom of time.

The real transformation happens once the hangari, or traditional Korean ceramic jars, are sealed. My mother tucks them away into the cool, dark corners of our kitchen. To an outsider, it looks like nothing is happening. It looks like cabbage rotting away in a jar of red salt. But underneath the surface, the sharp, aggressive heat of the garlic is mellowing; the cabbage is absorbing the spice, getting better, deeper and more complex as the days move.

I think we are often in our hangari phases without realizing it. We feel stuck in the winter, buried under the cold routine of January. We feel like we're just sitting in the dark, waiting for our lives to start fresh again. And maybe that "sitting still" is the most important part of our making. We're being cured and seasoned.

As I watched my mother seal the last jar, I realized that I don't need to be "finished" yet. I am currently a mixture of things: a bit of the salty, tired cabbage, a healthy dose of spicy ambition and a lot of raw ingredients that still need to mellow out.

So I find that sometimes the "making" of life is the act of sitting in the dark and trusting that we are becoming something better as time moves on. The blender eventually went silent, leaving the kitchen in a ringing quiet. Then, the jars were lined up like soldiers, ready for their long winter wait.

Outside, it was still cold, but for a moment, the waiting felt like progress.

Kathryn Jung is a freshman from Silver Spring, MD, majoring in Biomedical Engineering. Her column reflects the process of creating and how the small things we make, notice and hold close bring meaning to everyday life.

One study Hantsoo is working on is funded by a two-year long NIH R21, which investigates hormone changes throughout an individual's menstrual cycle, particularly in patients with PMDD. PMDD is a severe form of premenstrual syndrome (PMS). Symptoms mostly occur a week before menstruation and include increased depression, anxiety, irritability, fatigue and lapsed concentration. Physical symptoms may include bloating and weight gain.

"There's a real range… 5% of people who have periods will have PMDD… My patients and study participants describe [the disorder] like this roller coaster where they'll have two or three weeks every month where they feel fine, they feel like themselves, and then they have a week or two [before their period] where they say, 'I feel like a different person. I feel really down, or I feel really irritable.' And then [their period] starts and [they say] 'I feel like myself again.' It's an interesting disorder, because on one hand, it's cut and dry: it's very tied to the menstrual cycle. We see this very clear on and off pattern," she said.

Hantsoo aims to explore this regulation at the molecular level. Hormones of interest for the study include the neurosteroids estradiol and progesterone that not only play crucial roles in reproduction but also protect neurons and regulate neurotransmitters. One specific progesterone metabolite is allopregnanolone, which modulates GABAA receptors that reduce neuron activity, and may cause sedative effects.

"We think that it's possible in women who have premenstrual mood changes, there is some issue with either the way those [ovarian] hormones are shifting across the late luteal phase, which is that week or so prior to menstruation, or the way that the hormones might be interacting with these receptors… We wanted to trace what the levels looked like of these neuroactive steroid hormones, and then also the GABAA receptors that they interact with," Hantsoo explained.

Participants included people with and without PMS symptoms. Their blood was collected every other day during the week before their period and sent to a collaborator at University of Illinois, Chicago. There, molecules of interest like isomers of progesterone metabolites and neuroactive steroids were qualitatively and quantitatively measured through gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.

"The nice part about [the frequency of the blood collection] was it gave us this really detailed picture of what these hormones are doing. This is letting us test the hypothesis that perhaps there are differences in the pattern of what the neuroactive steroids are doing. So for instance, right before someone's period, in the few days before you'll start to have a decrease in things like allopregnanolone. Maybe the rate of decline could be different in people who do versus don't have PMS," Hantsoo said.

Hantsoo also discussed one of the challenges of PMDD: the difficulty of diagnosing the disorder. She explained that to properly provide a clinical diagnosis, the individual needs to track their symptoms every single day for two full menstrual cycles for the provider to observe a possible pattern of the symptoms' starting date and length. The time-consuming nature of this activity might act as a barrier to receiving care, particularly in individuals that might not have the time and energy everyday.

Another difficulty in diagnosing PMDD is related to menstruation not being taken seriously in popular culture, Hantsoo noted. The severe symptoms might be considered as normal to some people, therefore not brought up to their doctor. The stigma that surrounds discussion about menstruation and related disorders also contributes to the issue.

"There's almost a double stigma to it, or double taboo. It involves not only mental health but also involves the menstrual cycle…People with PMDD can face really upsetting [reactions]. [PMDD] is just like things like major depression or generalized anxiety disorder or panic disorder -- it's a mental health diagnosis. To joke about it or minimize it, or say, oh, 'that person is just PMS-ing' can really feel minimizing to people who have that diagnosis. [To] really respect the diagnosis is to not brush it off," Hantsoo said.

However, Hantsoo highlighted the increasing awareness of such disorders. She touched upon social media as a method of sharing experiences related to reproductive health.

"Social media can make people feel more comfortable opening up about that. If they see other people posting 'I'm struggling with these symptoms,' they may be more comfortable opening up themselves, being like, 'Okay, this is a thing.' Because what I've seen clinically is that patients often feel kind of isolated. They might be the only person they know who has these PMS symptoms, and they might feel really isolated because of that… This might be really comforting, and I'm hoping that that awareness continues to grow."

The new dormitory intends to support the removal of the Alumni Memorial Residence (AMR) I as a housing option. According to a University spokesperson, AMR I will be demolished this semester; as a wider plan, the University plans to build a new dormitory and dining hall on Freshman Quad. In an email to The News-Letter, a University spokesperson detailed these plans.

"Once construction on the AMR I building is complete, it will serve as residential housing for first-year students. The University intends for The Academy to continue as a JHU residential housing option once construction on AMR I is completed," they wrote.

To convert the building into a dormitory, the University will not need to implement any major renovations; instead, it will primarily increase security and residential staff.

"The Academy will be very similar to other JHU residence halls in terms of safety, staffing, and student support, while offering apartment-style living options and on-site amenities like other JHU residential housing," the spokesperson wrote. "The building will be staffed by a professional residence hall director who will reside in the building, and it will have JHU-provided 24/7 security. Like our other residential housing, resident assistants will also live in the building and provide student-centered community programming and events for residents."

The Academy features studio, one-bedroom, two-bedroom, three-bedroom and four-bedroom apartments, with in-suite laundry facilities, a gym, a library and an entertainment room. While tours officially begin on Feb. 28, these amenities have excited current freshmen for their second-year housing prospects. In an email to The News-Letter, freshman Minal Mustafa shared her thoughts on the option in comparison to McCoy Hall, which only contains double bedrooms in four-member suites.

"I think it's great that the Academy is being introduced as a new housing option. It would provide all sophomores with single rooms within suites, which is currently not an option available to sophomores in McCoy," Mustafa wrote. "However, the only discouraging factor is that it's pretty far away from campus relative to other housing options... Since the tours start on the 28th of Feb, the only downside is that it gives students 2 days to make their decision before selection day, so it would've been better if tours were spread out across a longer period of time."

The Academy is located at 3700 N. Charles St., about a four-minute walk from Homewood Field and a 10-minute walk from the Bloomberg Center for Physics & Astronomy. Freshman Raniah Imran corroborated Mustafa's sentiments, adding her perspective on the building's distance from campus.

"We haven't been able to tour the building yet, but I've seen a video of a walkthrough, and it has a lot of amenities like an in-unit washer/dryer and a full kitchen, so it's really nice. I know some people may complain about the distance, but I feel like it's equally as far as [Homewood Apartments], and I think it's a nice addition for housing," she said.

According to a University spokesperson, the University acquired the Academy in fall 2023 with the intention of increasing on-campus housing options; however, it did not publicize this purchase to the student community until fall 2025. Students signing leases for the building until the current 2025-26 academic year shared that they did not receive official University notice. Non-Hopkins affiliates and graduate students must move out of the building by July 2026, but rising seniors may remain in their apartments. In an email to The News-Letter, a junior choosing to go under the pseudonym "Chloe," who currently resides in the Academy, shared her experience with University communication and future plans.

"The first official communication I have is from early October, but I heard about it from word of mouth almost as soon as I moved in. I don't have to move out as a rising senior, but I don't want to be subject to dorm security again (i.e residential advisors, signing people in), so I'm moving to another building," Chloe explained.

Junior Nyle Dar, also a resident at the Academy, shared a similar experience in an email to The News-Letter, noting that the University has recently been promoting other apartments for current junior student residents. Dar explained that, while he heard from peers that the University bought the Academy when he moved in, he did not expect the conversion into a dormitory to happen this quickly.

"Recently, they've been sending lots of emails about [the dormitory conversion], and it seems like [the University] wants us to move out. They keep telling [residents] that apartments in Nine East are open. I think this does affect my residence. My roommates and I are wondering if we should stay or not, since it's already expensive and being [within] university housing would suck," Dar stated.

The University stated, however, that they contacted residents of the Academy about this matter since 2023.

"We have been in contact with residents of The Academy since the initial purchase to ensure students were informed about the transition timeline and have the support and information needed to meet their housing needs. Undergraduate students who are eligible to remain at The Academy, including rising seniors, have been offered priority," a spokesperson wrote. "Our Off‑Campus Housing Office has provided one‑on‑one support and hosted in‑person and virtual information sessions to help residents identify alternative housing options and ensure a smooth transition when The Academy becomes JHU residential housing."

When asked about their thoughts on the dormitory option to begin with, both Dar and Chloe expressed dissatisfaction with the decision. On the one hand, Dar felt concerned about the year disparity in the building.

"I'm not a fan of [the Academy being a dormitory]. I don't wanna live with underclassmen as a whole senior. I also don't want to live in University housing because there [are residential advisors], and you have to sign in people," Dar explained.

Chloe agreed with Dar's sentiments, adding that she wished the University would communicate its intentions earlier during her apartment search.

"Obviously it's frustrating on my end, especially since I could have avoided having to move if I signed a lease elsewhere at the beginning of the year, but the building and rooms are very nice and the location is ideal if you spend a lot of time at the [recreational center] and/or [the Bloomberg Center for Physics & Astronomy]," Chloe added.

Women's Basketball: W (81-37), W (71-54)

Officially undefeated!

The Hopkins Women's Basketball team accomplished a feat that had never been done in school history, as they finished the regular season undefeated. Their final two games came against Mary Washington and Dickinson, capping off a historic season of dominance.

Despite the final scoreline, the first quarter of their game against Mary Washington was quite close, as the Blue Jays found themselves down by one point at the end of the first. However, Hopkins kicked into gear and dominated on both ends from here on out, outscoring Mary Washington 65-20 in the final three quarters. Freshman guard Faith Williamson led all scorers with 18 points, while senior forward Emily Collins and senior guard Macie Feldman combined for 23 points and 21 rebounds.

In their final game of the season, the Blue Jays once again got off to a slow start, falling behind 21-7 early in the second period. However, they would not let this get in the way of their pursuit of perfection, mounting an admirable second-half performance that saw them win by 17, placing this season in the history books once and for all. Williamson once again stood out, scoring 21 points, her career-high at Hopkins.

The Blue Jays' season is not finished, as they will host a conference championship semifinal this Friday, Feb. 27. Good luck!

Swimming: Centennial Conference Championships

Over the weekend, the Centennial Conference Championships took place for both swimming teams in Lancaster, Pa.

It was another overwhelming success for the Hopkins men's team as they emerged from the four-day event as conference champions. It was the first conference title for the Blue Jays since 2006, marking an impressive performance on all fronts that saw them leave with 11 individual titles. Among the most impressive performers was freshman Kai Henrikson-Brandt, who took home the honors of Most Outstanding Performer.

In the women's division, Hopkins performed impressively as well, finishing in second place in the championship standings. Sophomore swimmer Ken Lee stood out on the third day of competition, winning two conference titles in the 200 Backstroke and 400 Free Relay.

Next up for both teams are the NCAA Championships, which take place from March 18-21 in Indianapolis.

Baseball: W (24-0), W (5-4), L (6-9)

The 2026 Hopkins baseball season is officially underway, as the team played its first three games of the season this week.

The season opener came against Rutgers-Newark at home, in which the Blue Jays scored their most runs in an opener since 1946, romping to a comprehensive 24-0 victory. This marked the beginning of the tenure for newly hired head coach Nate Mulberg. Hopkins burst out of the gates with its guns blazing, putting up seven in the first inning and another three in the second. By the fifth, they had already mounted 24 runs against their opposition and the game was all but finished. A notable mention for fellow sports editor Joseph Rainbolt, who pitched a scoreless inning in relief with two strikeouts.

Next was a doubleheader on Saturday, in which the Blue Jays came up against Baldwin Wallace University for a much more competitive contest. After a scoreless first inning, Hopkins broke the stalemate with a three-run second, thanks to a two-run homer by junior designated hitter Aaron Bock. Baldwin was able to respond with a run in the top of the third, but the Blue Jays managed two of their own in the bottom. This would ultimately be enough to seal the victory, despite a late push by Baldwin with a three-run shot in the top of the eighth.

The second half of the doubleheader came against St. John Fisher. Unfortunately, Hopkins was behind the eight ball from the get-go and was never able to truly get back in the contest. The game was closest in the bottom of the second after a home run from sophomore outfielder Shane Keough closed the gap to just one, but St. John Fisher never relented. A scoreless ninth from Hopkins sealed the deal as they lost 6-9.

Women's Lacrosse: W (15-9)

The Women's Lacrosse team continued its hot start to the season with a 15-9 win over No. 14 Pennsylvania. After taking down the previously ranked No. 14 team, Duke, the Blue Jays pivoted their sights to a contest away from home against a strong UPenn side.

The game started out close with the sides trading goals, before junior midfielder Lacey Downey imposed her will on the contest and scored three straight goals, two unassisted. From here on out, the Blue Jays began to separate further from Penn thanks to impressive performances from both Downey and senior attacker Ava Angello, who combined for 10 goals and four assists.

Hopkins will return home this week for two games against Georgetown and Colgate, so make sure you come and support them!

A lot of people ask me why I waste money on sugary mocktails when the non-alcoholic options I listed above (and many more) exist at all restaurants. I believe those people completely miss the best part of mocktails: similar to cocktails, they never get boring. When I open a bottle of Guava Goddess kombucha, the taste is standard. My Churchill's taste depends on the lemon and salt ratio, but it's always familiar. Cappuccinos do have a stronger excitement element as each cafe adds their unique commentary to their coffee (best one I've ever had was at a random coffee shop in Berlin, though Red Emma's oat milk cappuccino has a special place in my heart), but they're still not like mocktails.

I like to open the "Mocktails" (or "N/A Drinks" as many places tend to group them with other soft drinks) section and check the recipes, imagining what they will end up tasting like. Not knowing what the drink will be like makes the whole experience more invigorating: Will I end up liking fig jam paired with lemon, ginger syrup, ginger ale? I wonder what this bar's maraschino cherries taste like...

It might be comforting to know what you will taste when you take a sip from a fresh can of Coca Cola, but mocktails are where you get to explore what suits your palate and leave your comfort zone to try new flavors and combinations, which I've always found entertaining! In this article, I will share the best mocktails I've had in Baltimore so far. I hope that you'll make your way to these places and give them a try!

No. 3: N/A Vampire Killer, Nepenthe Brewing Co.

The first time I had this drink was the Sunday right before school started, when I had to drag my boyfriend with me to Hampden so that I could get a new SIM card (thank you Metro for permanently deleting my number because my autopay didn't go through!). As I checked what this drink consisted of, I was mostly intrigued by almond orgeat (as you will see with my No. 1 choice, I'm a sucker for almond flavored drinks).

The almond-orange flavors were combined with house maraschino syrup, lemon, rose powder and toasted green cardamom, all brought together in alcohol-free gin and topped with a maraschino cherry (delicious). The foamy finish, and the perfect combination of fruity flavors with warm, nutty seasonings made this drink a delight. I'm almost grateful that Metro deleted my phone number as, otherwise, I'm not sure if I would pass by Nepenthe and decide to go in to have a drink.

No. 2: Café Varo, Southpaw

My high school friend came to visit me and suggested going out during her last night, so we randomly chose a small cocktail bar. There, I loved this drink so much that I got it twice! Surprisingly, cocktail bars never make coffee-based mocktails, which has always been upsetting to me as I love coffee.

I stopped drinking before I ever had an espresso martini, and since the idea of coffee-mocktails has always intrigued me, I've always wanted to try one, which was made possible by Café Varo. Non-alcoholic vodka is combined with cold brew and non-alcoholic mezcal, then topped with cinnamon. Such a simple yet delicious mocktail that I wish more places tried out.

No. 1: A Date to Remember, Ammoora

I had the pleasure of having this drink during my pre-Valentine's Day dinner with my boyfriend. It was love at first sight and a perfect concoction of almond, orange and date flavors, the latter of which earned the drink its meaningful name. It was a Valentine's Day special, which breaks my heart as I would go back to Ammoora just to have this mocktail once again. I hope they will bring it back next year.

Other than the smooth, creamy taste, the presentation was also beautiful: the rim of the glass was covered with almond particles and topped with a red, decorative flower, fitting the ambiance of the place and Valentine theme perfectly.

While named quite similarly to Alain Resnais' 1959 romantic drama Hiroshima mon amour, a hallmark of the French New Wave, Gaza mon amour paves its own path entirely, with an entirely different focus and outlook on its subject. Resnais follows a whirlwind love affair that takes place in Hiroshima between a French actress with a history of trauma and a Japanese architect, while focusing on commentary about war, the cruelties of the hydrogen bomb and the incredible pain and fear that comes with forgetting. Rather than an explicit war commentary told through the lens of a romantic relationship, Gaza mon amour uses the dreary nature of its setting and its characters as a backdrop for a heartwarming story about the possibility of love, of finding both love itself and the courage to pursue it in unlikely places and at any stage of life.

The film follows Issa (Salim Daw), a 60-year-old fisherman who begins to fall for the widowed seamstress Siham (Hiam Abbass) when he sees her daily at the market while bringing his catch to sell. The monotony and unsatisfactory nature of everyday life is lamented throughout the movie by the various characters' money troubles, the vocal complaints of Issa's friend Samir (George Iskandar) and Siham's lackadaisical divorcée daughter, Leila (Maisa Abd Elhadi). Throughout the film, Issa's well-meaning but overbearing sister Manal (Manal Awad) attempts to introduce him to women he could marry since she disapproves of his chosen bride.

Just as the viewer begins to settle into what seems a humorous but likely predictable film, Issa pulls something unexpected up in his net: an ancient bronze statue of Apollo that Issa later accidentally severs when trying to hide the statue in his closet. This portion of the story is full of comedy and feels absurd, but it is based on a real story of a fisherman finding an ancient statue which was then confiscated by Hamas in an attempt to sell it to a museum or another nation.

This all sets the stage for the tone and plot of the rest of the film. Comedic scenes - Issa admitting his wet dream to a government official, an attempt to sell the statue's detached phallus at a pawn shop, dancing to Spanish love songs while cooking fish, over-shortened pants - are strewn throughout events that could otherwise feel devastating, heartbreaking or pitiable. These include moments of conflict between Issa and Manal or Siham and Leila, Issa's arrest, the explosion of an Israeli bomb, or constant electricity cutoffs leading Siham to roll bread in the dark. Such a juxtaposition adds layers to the tone of the entire movie since undercurrents of sadness flow beneath scenes that are primarily farcical and even the most joyous moments have a tinge of creeping bleak reality seeping through.

The bleakness of the film's setting is further established by Christophe Graillot's cinematography. The underdeveloped urban landscape is washed out, filled with grays, blues and khaki tones. One need only glance at the shot of Issa holding his umbrella over Siham, perhaps the film's most iconic scene, to see this in full effect. This develops the dichotomy that makes the film so powerful - that of satire and solemnity - on a scale within the sphere of power in film that literature does not have: its visual language.

There are multiple instances of visual elements throughout the film that illuminate the characters' personalities and histories. For example, encouraged by Manal on a visit to Issa, one of the women allows a larger opening of her burka to show more of her face (in contrast to the other women who wear hijabs or less concealing headscarves). However, she quickly readjusts it upon the arrival of men from the government. This small moment gives insight into the culture and gendered dynamics at play in the setting's specific cultural scenarios.

Gaza mon amour leaves viewers a lot to grapple with after watching. As someone to whom the landscape of the movie is entirely foreign, but also someone who lives in a world inundated with news about Palestine, it certainly left me questioning some of my own preconceptions. I walked into the screening expecting to feel disturbed by bleak commentary on Zionism, Palestinian nationalism or war. But when I left, I felt entirely the opposite: I felt joyous and hopeful. I would smile recalling some of my favorite moments from the film, and this remains true even while writing this.

I was given the opportunity to see this film by the series on "Love and Family in Palestinian Cinema" hosted by the Global South Humanities Initiative in the University's Alexander Grass Humanities Institute. This series gives Hopkins students and affiliates a wonderful opportunity to engage with Palestinian voices through film, with screenings every couple weeks throughout the 2026 spring semester. As I grapple, then, with my own inherent biases and a seeming expectation that all art from a war-stricken country must be centrally about war, I can only encourage everyone to take any opportunity you have to challenge your own biases in the same way.

Across the U.S., entire communities are being targeted. There is growing hostility, a lack of empathy and a selective concern for who deserves safety, dignity and compassion, as shown by immigration raids that have separated families, protests erupting in cities across the nation and the growing political divide that makes conversations feel more like battlegrounds than effective dialogue. Parents being detained while their children wait at home not knowing when, or if, they will return. Communities march in the streets, demanding accountability, fairness and basic human dignity. Across the country, protests have been met with heavy police presence, arrests and, in some cases even, violence, deepening the fear and mistrust many already feel. The tension is no longer abstract; it is visible in our neighborhoods, on our campuses and in the headlines that many of us scroll past each day. Watching it unfold, I've realized that silence, even when unintentional, is not neutral. Neutrality still sides with the oppressor, whether we want it to or not. We cannot afford the comfort of silence; in moments like this, choosing not to act is still a choice, and it is our responsibility to stand on the side of justice.

Before coming to college, I didn't fully understand how much our voices mattered. I didn't realize how powerful a community could be, or how dangerous apathy is when it becomes normalized. College teaches us to think critically, but it also challenges us to look beyond ourselves, to recognize that we are part of something larger than our individual schedules, grades and routines. At Hopkins, the people I've met - especially my closest friends, Evelyn and Faith - have shaped that realization. Our conversations go beyond assignments and exams; we talk about what is happening across the country, about immigration raids, protests and the growing political divide. Sharing values, questioning each other and reflecting on our roles in all of it has shown me how meaningful dialogue can be. At the same time, I have also encountered a different perspective - classmates who, because they do not feel personally affected, say things like, "Well, it's not happening to me, so why would I care?" Hearing that forced me to confront how privilege can create distance, and how easily silence can be justified when injustice feels far away.

It's easy to say, "I don't watch the news for my mental health." And for some, that choice feels necessary. But the truth is that millions of people don't get that option. They can't turn off the headlines because they are the headlines. Their daily lives are shaped by policies, violence and discrimination that don't disappear just because others choose not to look.

We live in a country that prides itself on diversity, yet more and more, it feels like diversity is being treated as a threat rather than a strength. You might not be directly affected, not yet, but that doesn't mean this moment doesn't concern you. History shows us that indifference allows injustice to grow quietly, until it's impossible to ignore. In the 1940s, more than 120,000 Japanese Americans, two-thirds of whom were U.S. citizens, were forcibly incarcerated in internment camps during World War II under Executive Order 9066. Many lost their homes, businesses and livelihoods, while much of the country remained silent. During the era of Jim Crow, racial segregation and voter suppression were upheld for decades, sustained not only by lawmakers but by widespread societal acceptance and inaction. Even in Nazi Germany, the persecution of Jewish people escalated gradually - from discriminatory laws like the Nuremberg Laws of 1935 to the genocide that killed six million Jewish people - in part because too many people chose not to intervene when the warning signs were clear.

Coming to class after everything happening in the world may feel uncomfortable, and it should. That discomfort is a reminder that we are human, that we are connected and that we still have the power to care. We don't all have to agree, but we do have to pay attention, because choosing not to see suffering doesn't make it disappear, it just makes us complicit in it.

What scares me most isn't just what's happening, but how quickly people move on. How easily anger fades into indifference, how empathy becomes selective and how suffering turns into background noise. We scroll, we sigh and then we keep going. But for those whose lives are being disrupted, threatened or erased, there is no moving on. No pause button. If college teaches us anything, it should be that awareness is not a burden, it's a responsibility. Caring does not mean carrying the weight of the world alone, but it does mean refusing to look away from policies that impact immigrant communities, debates over reproductive and LGBTQ+ rights, and the growing unrest playing out in protests across the country. The smallest act of courage right now might simply be choosing to care out loud. Because history is shaped not just by those who act, but by those who refuse to stay silent.

Alexandra Garcia Herrera is a freshman from Laurel, Md. studying Chemistry.

President Vishnu Dontu opened the meeting by noting the approaching student elections before clarifying that proposed initiatives regarding Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) remain an ongoing conversation with university administrators.

The meeting continued with a discussion of concerns about the coordination and timeline of upcoming SGA elections. Much of the meeting was devoted to this subject and the status of the Committee on Student Elections (CSE). Senators raised concerns about the short notice for mandatory information sessions. This year's elections being held before spring break is a departure from precedent. One senator described the timeline announcement as "unprofessional," while others cited communication lapses that could affect ongoing legislation and candidate eligibility.

A CSE representative attributed the short notice to internal coordination challenges and confirmed that four vacancies remain for the next academic year. He also said that no members are currently serving on CSE due to a failure to reappoint members earlier this year, highlighting some organizational challenges. This discussion concluded with an announcement that the Leadership Engagement and Experiential Development office, the judiciary and CSE plan to clarify timelines and procedures.

Senator Kevin Xu shared that the credit overloading survey targeting Krieger School of Arts and Sciences students was approved by administration and will be distributed in the coming weeks.

Several funding bills were also announced. First, Senator Jason Yu introduced the JHU Umbrella Loaner Program, which would provide short-term umbrella rentals during rainy weather. Some senators raised concerns about feasibility and the proposal remains under discussion. Senator Seán Durkis-Dervogne proposed a Course Transparency bill, which would allow people to access grade distributions via a student-run site. Concerns about Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) compliance, inaccurate self-reported data and institutional oversight were raised.

The senate approved funding for "Fast with JHUMA," a Ramadan dinner organized by the JHU Muslim Association. Before the meeting adjourned, senators announced upcoming Registered Student Organizations outreach and a Chick-fil-A tabling event to foster engagement between senators and students.

Unbiased long-term transcriptome storage using vault organelles

Researchers from the Broad Institute recently developed TimeVault, a unique way to record and store cellular transcriptional activity over time. The team utilized a ribonucleoprotein complex known as the vault particle, a non-membrane-bound organelle found in most eukaryotic cells whose function is still largely unknown. Engineering these vaults to bind to the poly(A) tails of nascent mRNAs allowed the complexes to capture and store newly transcribed genes for more than a week with no detectable changes in cellular behavior.

Previously developed CRISPR-based memory systems were constrained by the limited numbers of target sequences, and RNA labeling systems were prone to rapid degradation. By storing nascent RNAs in these vault particles, TimeVault solves both these problems by providing an unbiased, long-term storage system in a single construct. Though the system still has notable limitations, TimeVault has the potential to aid future studies in drug development and developmental biology.

Cognitive speed training linked to lower dementia incidence 20 years later

A study led by Hopkins researchers recently published the results of a 20-year study on Alzheimer's disease risk. The study consisted of 2,802 adults enrolled into the study from 1998-1999, where participants received different types of cognitive training for five to six weeks. Half of those participants also received booster training sessions one and three years after the initial training.

After 20 years, researchers found that the participants who underwent speed-training tasks with booster training sessions had a significantly decreased rate of dementia (40%) compared to the non-trained control group (49%). This finding supports the idea that cognitive training, even from a distant past, can help prevent or delay the onset of dementia. However, it is important to note this significant result could arise from different factors and variables, and further studies in cognitive speed training should be conducted to find the mechanisms that could prevent age-related cognitive decline.

Artemis II mission set to launch later this spring

On Feb. 20, NASA successfully conducted a countdown test for the Artemis II mission. It aims to send humans beyond low Earth orbit and around the Moon for the first time in over 50 years. The mission is part of the larger Artemis program, which aims to establish a long-term human presence and a permanent base on the Moon.

The two-day test run required filling up the Space Launch System rocket with liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen and testing the pre-launch countdown system. Initially, there was significant hydrogen leakage from the rocket, but engineers have since sealed the gaps and successfully completed the countdown test. However, on Feb. 21, NASA announced an upper stage issue in the Artemis II rocket, which may cause a rollback and subsequent delay to an April launch, which was originally March.

Julianna Abrantes, an incoming student accepted in the Early Decision II round with interests in neuroscience, public health and bioethics, shared her experience opening the admissions portal in an email to The News-Letter.

"When I saw the screen turn blue, it was this immediate mix of disbelief, relief, and absolute excitement for the next four years! It felt like the past few years of work suddenly clicked into place, and even more importantly, that I was heading somewhere I genuinely loved!" Abrantes wrote.

Another student admitted during the Early Decision II round, Amy Zhu, who is interested in public health and the biological sciences in relation to the intersection of medicine and community health, shared her excitement in an email to The News-Letter.

"I'm most excited to be surrounded by people who are deeply curious and driven. I can't wait to get involved in research, explore Baltimore, and get to know and learn from professors who are leaders in medicine and science. I'm also excited to grow both academically and personally in a community that challenges and inspires me," Zhu wrote.

In an email to The News-Letter, Isaac Alvarado Calderon, a student admitted in the Early Decision II round and interested in electrical engineering, mathematics and education, shared how his background shaped his upcoming contributions to the Hopkins community.

"My arrival in the US was not precisely easy or simple, but [God] built the way in which I am now walking," Calderon wrote. "In my last years of high school, I had a few experiences related to academics and self-study that changed my whole perspective towards education and learning, leading me to teach others [and] contribute to my community, while asking meaningful questions wherever I go!"

23% of the incoming class are first-generation college students. 68% plan to enroll in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, and the remainder plan to enroll in the Whiting School of Engineering. This is the first incoming class to benefit entirely from expanded financial aid and tuition reduction based on income.

The remaining members of the Class of 2030 will be admitted on March 18.

"I hope you go home today knowing that macrophages are absolutely essential," May said.

May began by challenging a commonly held view of macrophages as "garbage collectors," which comes from their ability to engulf and digest dead cells, cell debris and foreign material. Instead, she prompted listeners to think of them as dynamic development cells with the potential to communicate with epithelial cells, nerves and surrounding support tissue. Her decision to 'redefine' macrophages in this way stems in part from her postdoctoral work on neurons, where she first saw how immune cells and the nervous system intersect during development.

"[I learnt] what's being secreted by cells, and what's guiding development from different receptors on adjacent cells or even on cells themselves," May said.

By combining live imaging, genetic depletion and organ culture, her lab investigates how various macrophage populations influence branching morphogenesis - the tree-like growth of ducts and secretory units that underlie many glandular organs.

The primary methodology May's team uses is an inducible genetic system that deletes macrophages during critical windows of salivary gland development. Her group observed that, after depleting macrophages during a critical development window, developing salivary glands had less branching.

"[Usually], you're going to have smaller end buds and more of them in a highly branched gland," May explained. "When you have less branching, you're going to have much larger buds and fewer of them."

When embryos lack these cells, the epithelial compartment exhibits a visibly abnormal structure called 'Terminal Buds' (small spherical 'end bulbs'), which are a sign of impaired branching morphogenesis.

Her team's later gene expression analysis further supported this observation. Tissues lacking macrophages showed decreased expression of gene cohorts associated with secretory acinar cell differentiation, ductal cells and other epithelial markers. Essentially, the absence of macrophages not only reduced branching but also hindered the maturation of key cell types that produce and transport saliva.

"Not only are we reducing branching," May noted, "but we're hindering differentiation of these essential cells."

Beyond abnormal structure caused by the epithelial defects, glands without macrophages had developmental effects on non‑epithelial cell types in the developing salivary gland that are developmentally distinct from acinar and ductal epithelial cells.

For example, some genes were shown to be linked to glial and neural cell markers. May believes this pattern provides evidence of the possibility of a distinct nervous system within the gland.

This finding also supports the hypothesis that macrophages help prune neurons during development in other organs. Thus, May perceives neurons as crucial for normal gland development but stresses that they must be precisely calibrated. Her team is now working on neuroscience approaches to potentially uncover how macrophages coordinate epithelial and neuron patterns with the same developing tissue.

"We know that these neurons are also required for development of these structures," May stated, "and [now] we also know in other tissues that macrophages function in pruning neurons as they grow."

May then transitioned into a segment on signaling. As a developmental biologist, May tends to think in ligand receptor space.

"[I] ask which signaling molecules are being secreted and which receptors are present in neighboring or even the same cells," May highlighted. Therefore, to identify candidate communication pathways, her lab mined single cell RNA sequencing data using ligand-receptor interaction tools. In doing so, one factor stood out: tumor necrosis factor (TNF). This is a type of cytokine typically associated with inflammation and injury, and was shown to be in macrophages.

Initially, May suspected that enzymatic digestion for single cell prep might have artificially activated the cells.

"Tumor necrosis factor is not a surprise for macrophages to express… however, we generally think of TNF as a pro‑inflammatory marker in an injury or a disease state within the adult organ. You don't really think of it as a developmental regulator," May said.

However, the direct tissue staining confirmed the TNF expression in macrophages near the epithelial compartment. When the team examined the receptor expression over the time of development, they observed a sharp upregulation of the epithelial TNF receptor.

"We thought this was quite interesting… that maybe TNF signaling is playing a role in the maturation of this embryonic structure," May reported.

Thus, in order to directly test TNF's effects on epithelial development, May turned to an in-vitro culture system. Using a refined enzymatic protocol, her team isolated the epithelial component of embryonic salivary glands and removed nerves, blood vessels and macrophages. These 'purified' epithelial pieces were then cultured. According to May, it would be expected to see the epithelial explants "as little spiders in dishes," slowly branching over time and forming ducts.

"You can see them undergoing branching and then the formation of buds at the ends of these branches… we also call them cauliflowers," May explained.

However, in the TNF samples, the glands became much larger and more pronounced in branching.

With added TNF, May says, "We see a significant increase in both the branching and the growth of these glands," along with "strong dark lines in the center of the branches," indicating that ducts are "now actually moving to form a lumen."

May concluded her talk with a major deliberation: salivary glands contain macrophages of dua origin. These include a long-lived yolk-sac derived population and a monocyte-derived population that arrives later in development.

These subtypes occupy distinct niches in the embryonic gland and appear to perform different jobs over developmental time. May displayed live imaging movies where the macrophages physically crossed the basement membrane and encapsulated the entire epithelial compartment. She called this "cuddling."

"What we can see is that this population can actually cross the basement membrane and enter into the epithelial compartment.. and [then the macrophage] enters and they almost cuddle a cell, and just as they exit, we can see that that cell undergoes cell division."

The group is still investigating why 'cuddling' happens. One major question is whether macrophages are being recruited to monitor cells that are already committed to dividing, or if they are actively triggering proliferation. Nonetheless, this behavior across the tissue suggests that macrophages are not the passive bystanders we once thought of them as, but as dynamic cell counterparts that may be closely linked to epithelial growth dynamics.

Foremost in this intersection is the New York-based rapper xaviersobased, whose idiosyncratic music has captivated a certain niche in the popular American music scene. His unpinnable sound is deranged, fusing off-kilter jerk beats with unmistakably weirdo swag, and it is bound to infuriate you the first time you try to conceive of how someone could cook up something so terrible.

But then you listen again. And again. And you find yourself strangely consumed by his delivery, his flow and his lyricism.

xaviersobased, born Xavier Lopez, is no stranger to the underground, having released music via SoundCloud for almost a decade, working with artists from Jane Remover to fakemink to Black Kray, and collaborating within his self-created clique, 1c34. However, what separates xaviersobased from his contemporaries in the current underground is his readiness to experiment, blending the hazy, heavily autotuned vocals of 2010s-era Drain Gang with strange, abusive 808s and distortion you might find in a live My Bloody Valentine set.

But what brought the rapper his first taste of success was his lyricism on top of frantic jerk beats, particularly in "patchmade" off of his 2022 mixtape install. Alongside the oft-rapped-about topics like drugs, sex and guns, xaviersobased drops absurdist, often humorous lyrics as well, citing his disdain for people who are "right-wing" and advising others to leave a girl alone because "she a teen."

Although one could write these lyrics off as him trying to be witty, xaviersobased's music does carry some sway in the manosphere-dominated social media apps like TikTok and Instagram, with far-left accounts responding to the recent rise in alt-right content by way of educational short-form videos promoting Marxist and post-Marxist thought soundtracked by xaviersobased's "worth it."

However, the one constant among his constantly evolving sound is his aversion to playing it safe, from hopping on Jersey Club beats (see "paterson new jersey") to his contributions to what is known as the Terror Plugg genre, a genre that takes the spacey, ethereal production of plugg trap and adds obscene amounts of distortion to the 808s, slaughtering the dreaminess with walls of abrasion.

In his debut studio album, he continues the same restless refusal to stay in a single lane, further doubling down on the blown-out aesthetics and quirky songwriting that preceded his rise in popularity.

His latest project, Xavier, is 20 songs long and nearly 50 minutes, his longest project to date. Filled to the brim with vocal oddities, near-psychedelic instrumentals and crazed flows, he takes us on an overwhelming journey, painting us shimmering synth-laden pictures with his broad musical palette, proudly wearing his influences on his sleeve.

Swedish rapper Bladee's mark can be felt throughout the record, particularly on "iPhone 16," whose melodic delivery is a page taken straight out of the Gluee-era textbook and whose refrain "bеing smart is hard, ignorance is bliss" is still stuck in my head nearly two weeks after the album's release.

The next song, "Harajuku," features a similar singsong delivery, placing a heavy autotune-drenched, nearly whining chorus over a beautiful swirl of blackly ethereal synths. Area 34 synth bloops enliven the track as 808s thud in the background, making this happy-go-lucky rapper feel almost menacing, before beautiful, ethereal synth patterns rise in the latter half and elevate it from its former Hadean beginning.

Another standout track from the album is "100,000," whose vocals feature xaviersobased melodically rapping in a double-track layered with an over-the-top operatic falsetto, and whose lengthy, lush synth passages are reminiscent of a George Clanton song. "Zelle You" is essentially two songs, split by an intermission before we hear a low-end, hushed reimagining of the opening section; that first half stands out on its own, particularly for the intimate, close-to-the-mic delivery. This kind of structural reworking isn't new, as frequent collaborator and fellow 1c34 member tenkay employs a similar method on many of his freestyles.

The hazy "Heartfelt" has a jittery, funky beat, with sweet percussion notes contrasting with the gritty, hardcore rhymes from Detroit rapper Rio da Yung OG while the instrumental bears the fingerprints of frequent Drain Gang collaborators Woesum and Yung Sherman all over it, furthering the album's similarities to the icy melancholy and synthetic aura long associated with the Sad Boys collective.

Speaking of storied producers, the streaming exclusive "Party At My Place" is a collaborative effort between internet legend and dubstep producer Skrillex and 100 gecs's Dylan Brady. The genre-bending song pulls in elements from SOPHIE's PC Music collective with crisp, explosive synths, before shifting in its latter half to a vocal breakdown where xaviersobased's vocals are chopped beyond recognition, a sharp departure from the lo-fi vocal styling we usually hear from him.

For fans of xaviersobased's oddball character and eccentric delivery like myself, Xavier is an elevation on all parts from his previous work, marking a natural transition into more ambitious production and genre-blurring experimentation. However, others may find themselves more disappointed. xaviersobased's songwriting is certainly not profound, and some songs do tend to blend into one another. For some, the resulting amalgam may be a sloppy mess, but for the chronically online with "trained ears," Xavier is heaven, Xavier is nirvana, Xavier is Red Shambhala.