Culture Archives

The Intercollegiate Student Magazine

Comedy Is More Than Just Jokes

Boston University

Minimalism: The Consumption of Anti-Consumption

University of Pennsylvania

Minimalism, the movement which once aspired to combat the excessive cycle of overconsumption, has now become commodified and industrialized.

Autism and The Limits of Language

By Samantha Chipman

Emory University

For all identities, there will always remain a gap between what language can convey and what their full narratives are.

The Mental Health Crisis of College Athletics

By Shelby Rose Long

Boston University

If college athletics remains constant, its mental health crisis will persist. How many athletes need to suffer before we repair the system?

The Cost of Prestige

By Corinne Davidson

Boston University

This thirst for prestige becomes dangerous when you forget there are more important factors in valuing people other than just status.

From Sidewalks to Subways: The Hardships Behind Street Performance

By Amber Tai

Boston University

For street performers, pursuing their dreams is akin to running a marathon with no defined endpoint.

The Consequences of Academia’s Gender Imbalance

By Aurora Weirens

Cornell University

As fantastic as it is that so many young women are getting after it and going to college, the consequence of this dramatic skew harms both genders.

Gen-Z has Lost Authentic Personal Identities

By EJ Haas

University of Missouri

Young people seem to find a sense of belonging by boxing themselves into identities that can be easily inserted into a social media bio.

In a perpetually evolving artistic world, it is of utmost importance to note the intention behind the use of AI and vocal manipulation. This distinction is key in defining the impact that the tool has on the industry.

Big Tech’s Faustian Bargain

By Aliza Fassett

Tulane University

The bombardment of new and accessible information has created a new standard of incomprehensible intellectual turnover—what was relevant yesterday will be irrelevant tomorrow.

Defend Collective Effervescence in College Life

By Tabitha Parent

Northwestern University

The monotony of everyday life in college builds until it overflows in these moments.

Experience is the New Luxury Good

By Charlotte Ehrlich

Northwestern University

The particular flair of experience is that you alone understand how it made you feel, while flaunting a material object is a public affair.

An Ode to Enemies-to-Lovers

By Judy Liu

Stanford University

Enemies-to-lovers, when done right, shows that two people can change into better versions of themselves on a romantic journey.

We Need Not Suffer

By Willy Magnin

University of Chicago

It’s difficult to look at our lowest moments and admit how horrible they were, and even harder to accept that we would be better off without them.

Can We Make Social Media Authentic?

By Oriana Riley

Stanford University

For better or for worse, social media has become an almost necessary part of the modern world’s digital landscape.

Flying Solo: When “Make New Friends” Isn’t the Cure-all

By Oriana Riley

Stanford University

Encouraging students to try and make friends is incredibly important, but whether it’s an unprecedented pandemic or simply unpreferrable people, having a social circle is not inevitable. Your environment has as much to do with it as your actions.

The Cynicism of Clarence Thomas

By Caleb Dunson

Yale University

But I don’t think he changed so much as he settled, accepting a cynical worldview and placing no stock in the possibility of a radically different American society.

Generation Junkie

By Aliza Fassett

Tulane University

Sure, our parents may have smoked hash in public parks and spent the eighties enjoying the various pleasures of the early days of Wall Street, but for Gen Z, carnality is synonymous with culture.

Steinski and Cultures of Amateur Reproduction

By Olivia Grace Tanaka-Kekai

Tulane University

he first time that I saw Hannah Höch’s Cut with the Kitchen Knife Dada Through the Last Weimar Beer Belly Cultural Epoch of Germany, I remember being pulled into it. Not being able to focus on any one thing caught my attention with such fervor that it didn’t matter that I was looking at it nearly a century too late.

The Toxic Culture of Resume-Building

By Aliza Fassett

Tulane University

In the 2010s, panic swept across elite private high schools in the US. These institutions, designed to usher bourgeois coastal city offspring into the most elite colleges possible, were experiencing unprecedented rates of suicide within their student bodies.

Album Review — Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers

By Ben Klein

Louisiana State University

…Kendrick shifts the attention to himself and his internal struggles, dispelling the notion of the savior complex often attributed to him.

Oy Vey, Ye

By Bobby Becker

Tulane University

Everywhere, young adults are mourning their connection to an artist they once loved. It’s the death of somebody we knew, or thought we did.

Has Gen Z Killed Intimacy?

By Aliza Fassett

Tulane University

Hook-up culture, a consequence of a movement dedicated to sexual liberation, has morphed into one of the few remaining patriarchal structures where women ultimately compromise their desires for the benefit of men.

Free Speech Lessons from Nikita Khrushchev

By Conner Boehm

Dartmouth College

It has become apparent that colleges have failed to cultivate the flourishing atmosphere of open discourse that they claim to promote.

She-Hulk is the Unserious Show That Marvel Needs

By Kenedi Lynch

Louisiana State University

Enter She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. She-Hulk knows exactly how ridiculous it is and embraces that fact — plays into it even.

Nellie Bly Walked so that Martin Scorsese could Run

By Sawyer Harris

Rollins College

Scorsese’s exploration into madness is nothing new, or unique. Nellie Bly’s journalistic, 10 Days in a Mad-House predates Scorsese’s film by over 100 years and bears countless thematic similarities.

End the War on Hazing

By Bobby Becker

Tulane University

School policy around Greek Life has not stopped hazing. Instead, it has lead to a dangerous blind-eye approach from administrators.

The Hidden World of Romance at Women’s Colleges

By Zoe Friese

Although their nature is fiercely debated by modern academics, romantic friendships played a significant role in the culture of women’s colleges and the individual lives of nineteenth and twentieth century students.