Adaptation: Letter from the Editors

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Dear Globalist Readers,

In the past year, our communitiesand with them, our liveshave undergone significant changes as a result of COVID-19 and various social, political, and economic events. Accordingly, the Globalist wanted to analyze how we, as individuals and communities, have reacted to such changes.

In our first issue of the new year, we celebrate the adaptations, little and large, that each of us have seen and made in our lives. Iyala Alai ’22 explores the radical changes to how we experience arts and culture in the age of COVID-19. Sarah McKinnis ’22 looks into the COVID-era classroom in Connecticut, and the educational inequities that have been exacerbated. Phoebe Campbell ’22 covers Sir David Attenborough’s latest documentary, A Life on Our Planet, and the role we have to play in preserving the natural world. Through her poem, Mercy Idindili ’22 shines a light on rediscovering a place close to her heart as the chaos of the pandemic falls away. Mao Shiotsu ’23 explores the political controversy over facemasks, both hailed as a safeguard and condemned as a muzzle. In our newly established Internationalist column, jointly sponsored by the Yale International Students’ Organization (ISO), Aurelia Dochnal ’23 reports on the political discussion with Professor Daniel Mattingly on US-China relations in the wake of the 2020 US presidential election. And finally, members of the Yale community submitted entries to the Globalist’s recent photography contest, which seeks to cast light on how our communities have “adapted” in various ways in the last year.

We invite our readers to reflect on this year of change, and hope that our writers’ words resonate with you as they do with us.

Warmly,

Nicole, Phoebe & Sarah