Aisha Saad
Class of 2009

Email to the Foundation
Spring, 2010

In the basement of the Radcliffe Sciences Library there are no windows and no clocks. Only shelves upon shelves of geography and public health and social theory. Fluorescent table lamps burn midnight at mid-day, and vending machines are stocked with the same timeless, placeless, diet coke and pretzels and snickers bars.




Lockdown for exams.

More.

Dorm room study guide, Oxford, England Photo by Aisha Saad '09

The French philosopher Gilles Deleuze writes about the process of research; scattered texts and thoughts and images, the researcher shuffles and assembles, making new linkages and presenting new revelations. Everything is data. 



In my mind I have 15 browsers open at once. New York Times, Financial Times, WhiteHouse.gov. Economic Geography, Corporate Responsibility, Philosophy of Science. A paint swatch from political theory, a fabric scrap from social policy.  Zoom in. Zoom out. Click. Minimize.



Without fail, every night at exactly 9:45pm my thoughts are sharply interrupted. The man with the giant mustache and the yellow suit paces through the desks clanging that annoying hand bell. ACTION. Bobbing heads snap up, hunched backs straighten, head-phones come off, emerging from individual audio worlds onto a shared sound stage of shuffling and whispering. Pack up, reshelf, exodus to the stairs, out the doors. Back to life.

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