It can feel daunting to create complex, original analysis. Even if a writer has an exciting question and a confident understanding of the elements of a successful piece of academic writing (already no easy task!), crafting the substance of the paper often still feels like exploring an unknown and foreboding terrain. In research, though, it’s often the case that the closer you look, the more you’ll see, as these excerpts demonstrate. Eitan Gelb’s deep engagement with Jewish scholar Maimonides’s framing of polygyny reveals implications for the interaction of culture and law in the context of Jewish tradition. Meanwhile, Louise Sanches Barbosa decrypts the color white’s shades of meaning (pun intended!) in Federico García Lorca’s play The House of Bernarda Alba, showing how this close reading complements the play’s textual narrative and visual staging.
— Jordan Fraser Angel ’27