Before I left for Paris in the fall my sister-in-law suggested that I buy a fake engagement ring to put on in bars, in public transport, or wherever else unwelcome attention may be hurled at me. She had lived alone in Singapore for nine years and cites this small action as being the most effective against harassment. Unfortunately I was, as many are, a naïve optimist and a little self-deprecating, as I held the opinion that I was just… average-enough to evade such leers.

The newest book about AI seems promising. With a strong title, The Invisible Student. , Dr. René Ryman writes about her opinions in regards to AI. Ryman is a recognized consultant and educator in the area of international business and public policy.

I’ve always been conscious of the Palestine-Israel conflict. We see some of it in the news, but I never really understood the conflict's problem until recently. I met someone very passionate about this; he is Palestinian and explained what the conflict was about. Since he is Palestinian, I only had one point of view, so I knew I needed to do some research to be more aware and make up my own mind about this complicated subject. The more I read, the more interested I was. But it was also much more complicated to understand than I thought. 

This photo series you will look into today reminds me of an exhibition of works by François Sargologo I saw while visiting the Institut du Monde Arabe, here in Paris, last semester. His work consists of small vignettes of pictures he took around the fragmented Beirut in the midst of the civil war. Underneath those shots were small lines of commentaries about the photographed scene. There is this sense of a nostalgic aura around these pictures presented by Sargologo. 

The SGA executive team for the Fall 2021 - Spring 2022 school year has been elected! The objective of student government at AUP is to represent the student body. Student involvement is encouraged and open forums are regularly hosted for expressing any opinions and views. Get to know your executive team!

Earlier this month, members of the AUP community were sent an email from President Celeste Schenck, discussing a shift in university policy. Titled, “Language Matters,” the email indicated to the community that the university policy on the word freshman was changing. Going forward, the term for students in their first year of studies will be first-year. 

"Do you like drugs?" asks Miguel, an American singer, in one of his songs. "Yeah, well me too," is the following answer. How did we go from drugs regarded as a taboo topic to these romantic references of them in music? Or how did we normalize "my car smells like marijuana" at 18? Before getting into an investigation, I thought of conducting a survey among AUP students to find out about this unhealthy habit. 15 out of 23 students surveyed reported taking drugs.

My dad’s first impression of AUP was through a little office in New York City squashed between Broadway and Astor Place where he dropped off his application. The year was 1992 and at this point, there was no common app, no Facebook group of incoming students but instead, he first met his fellow classmates on the plane from New York to Paris. He tells me AUP used to organize flights so that incoming students could travel together. My dad vividly remembers my teary-eyed grandmother waving him off as he embarked on that plane to Paris. 

“What if I told you I feel like I know you? But we never met – it’s for the best,” croons Phoebe Bridgers in the title track to her 2020 sophomore album, “Punisher”. Fans of the artist know her for her heart-wrenching, melancholy ballads and lyrics. I became acquainted with Bridgers’ work during quarantine; I was familiar with her breakout song “Motion Sickness”, (from her debut album “Stranger in the Alps”) and quarantine boredom allowed me to become fully entranced in her haunting music.

After a long weekend, AUP hosted a virtual event concerning an upcoming novel that will be published by Fitzgeraldo publications. Hosted by Daniel Medin, the event began with a taste of Japanese Rock from the 80s that translated seamlessly into the novel which recounted Polly Barton’s experience as a translator and author in Japan.