Four Student organizers recount the events of Columbia University’s Gaza Solidarity Encampment, a protest that challenged institutional power, inspired campus activism globally, and eventually faced university crackdown. NYPD on the site of Gaza Solidarity Encampment minutes before the first arrests…
Month: January 2025
Ukraine’s Information War: The Race to Document War Crimes in Kramatorsk
How a missile attack on a train station came to emphasize the role of investigators tasked with combating disinformation about war crimes in Ukraine. Geolocated and authenticated locations of civilian harm in Ukraine, downloaded from Bellingcat’s “Civilian Harm In Ukraine”…
Vegetables of the war: A life of a Ukrainian amid never-ending conflict
A generation of young Ukrainians grew up with war being the only way of life they know. Darka Harnyk copes by moving in and out of the country Darka Harnyk. Photo: Barbora Chaloupková By Barbora Chaloupková I wanted to talk…
‘I don’t have a place to stay’: Catalina’s Journey
Catalina, an asylum seeker, embarks on a dangerous, transcontinental search for home. Painted fence outside Casa Juan Diego. Photograph: Meg Spasia By Jonathan Griffin The treacherous journey was not her first choice. At the age of 21, Catalina traversed the…
There’s room at this table
How a chef and a community fight food insecurity in Paterson’s Little Lima Chef Edgardo prepares a meal in the Oasis kitchen. Photo: Marco Gutierrez Rosales By Marco Gutierrez Rosales A little past 9 in the morning, the breakfast hustle…
Three Generations of Exile: A Tibetan Family’s Journey to Preserve Their Heritage
Photo: Tenzin Dekyi Through a chain of whispered warnings, passed from neighbor to acquaintance to friend, Tenzin Dekyi’s mother learned devastating news: her brother – a Buddhist monk in Tibet – had been taken away for questioning by Chinese authorities.…
From Financial Despair to Hope: An Under-The-Table Dogwalking Job Helps an International Student Stay Afloat at Columbia University
Alexandre’s story of navigating financial hardship during his studies highlights how one of the world’s elite institutions is unprepared to support underprivileged students. Alexandre’s first day walking dogs in the summer of 2024, taken by the friend that referred him…
After the Sky Fell: Two Afghan Women’s Remarkable Journeys, and the Men Who Champion Them.
Parween and Fahima’s lives changed when they left Afghanistan. Now they fight for gender equality. The men in their lives fight for them too. “I always dreamed of living abroad, meeting new people, learning different languages. My dream came true,…
The Day Democracy Stood Still: One Israeli Woman’s Fight Against Netanyahu’s “Judicial Coup”
Eden Cohen, an Israeli graduate student at Columbia University, participated in one of the large protests during the Israeli “Judicial Coup” of 2023. Eden, on the far left, and her friends, wearing hats that say “democracy” on the day of…
Do Not Cross This Line
Humanitarian Work under Gang Control in Haiti By Christine McNeill The truck pulled away through a throng of unknown faces. Faces of people who happened to live on the wrong side of an invisible line, recalled Pete Staffelbach. He could…