Happy new year. Read More In 2019, I spent a cumulative three months at home. And I wrote about it here on this blog. It’s a big part of the reason I started writing here. That year was incredibly trying. I was constantly isolated and moving around. I wasn’t able to form new relationships and […]

Right now, my colleagues at Columbia are preparing for a strike in an attempt to pressure the university administration into bargaining with our union. Here’s why I support them and why you should too. Read More

Last year, my husband and I were looking to buy a house in the small California city of San Leandro, on the edge of Oakland. Being a historian and a nerd (redundant, I know), I looked into the history of the town and its name. I was surprised, delighted, and eventually horrified to find it […]

Happy new year. Read More I recently played the puzzle platformer Gris, which has been hailed as a beautiful, emotional journey. I think it kind of falls short, but it prompted me to think about the larger genre of emotional indie games. Read More

How can a home baker get both great flavor and that incredible crust? Read More I have a confession. For all my Mediterranean obsession, I hate two of the most essential Mediterranean vegetables: eggplant and zucchini. I would refer to zucchini as a useless vegetable – a filler that restaurants throw in to bulk up […]

As a progressive in 2020, you’d have to be willfully ignorant to think that there are no problems with Thanksgiving. But unlike, say, the former Columbus Day, this holiday isn’t just a day off. For a lot of Americans, myself included, this day has been one of the most important yearly events of family gathering […]

There is a conflict bubbling between professional and amateur historians over directly addressing current social issues when talking about history. On one side, people who enjoy hearing about topics like the ins and outs of the Roman Empire claim that there is an unbiased way to present history, without judgement from the present. On the […]

How can a home baker get both great flavor and that incredible crust? Read More It’s persimmon season in California, and last month a friend with a tree gifted me with a huge haul of bright orange fruits. Read More If I had to encapsulate my academic aspirations into a single image, it would be […]

My research year is going to start out pretty typically for a history PhD – a few months in an archive looking at some old manuscripts. And then things are going to get really weird when I bring an x-ray gun to Italy so I can take readings on things made of copper. Read More

People treat learning to cook like some kind of special skill, and the current foodie culture and idolization of chefs doesn’t do a lot to help that. But cooking is just a toolkit of basic techniques, and you can teach yourself these techniques by making just about anything, including box mac’n’cheese. Read More I love […]

The other day, a completely innocuous thing happened while I was at work: my coworker complemented my hairstyle. She and I have just about the same hair in color and texture, but that day we had opposite styles – hers was in full fabulous curl, and mine was braided down against the sides of my […]

Right before I took my oral qualifying exams, I called my adviser in a panic. I had failed my German and Latin exams almost ten times each, and time was running out to pass them before I would have to push back my oral exam date. My adviser talked me down. “Take a walk” he […]

This is a recipe most easily prepared with two people, although my mom made these weekly by herself (I watched, unhelpfully). It produces a lot of dishes, but these cutlets are fantastic cold, on a sandwich, or chopped up in any dish you would want to have chicken in. So, it’s a good opportunity to […]

Like just about everyone else stuck inside during this lockdown, I’ve fallen into a sort of cabin fever malaise that’s made work pretty difficult. In that vein, I also haven’t felt much like writing blog essays, and I haven’t been inspired enough in the kitchen to post recipes. I do have some thoughts: the performance […]