Here are a few more examples of journalistic articles that I have researched, written, and edited. These articles reflect my passion for delivering informative and engaging content across a diverse range of topics.
Fordham Student Situates Himself within San Juan Hill’s History
By Stella McFarland
Fordham student, Matthias Lai, began researching the San Juan Hill displacement during his internship this summer and has continued this work through the school year, opening his eyes to the history behind the university he attends.
Junior Matthias Lai, 20, pictured on the Fordham University Lincoln Center Plaza on September 21st, 2021.
As a student at Fordham University Lincoln Center, the history of San Juan Hill is important to learn to Matthias Lai. San Juan Hill was a predominantly African American and Puerto Rican neighborhood that Lincoln Center built over.
Lai worked with Professor Catalina Alvarez, the head of art and engagement at the Visual Arts department, at Fordham University during his internship. He continues his work with Professor Alvarez by taking her class Archival Reenactment.
When asked what he took from his experience working on the project, Lai responded “The importance of having a home and having a history. It is something that means a lot to a lot of people.”
Lai situated his own personal experience by sharing that he does not feel he has one place to call home. He was born in Chicago then moved to Detroit, then to New Paltz, and he now lives in Brooklyn.
The San Juan Hill neighborhood spanned from 59th to 65th street on the Upper West Side. This area was redlined; it was made up of tenements, residents could not get insurance, housing was not regulated, and there were countless landlord violations.
Through the Archival Reenactment class, Lai and classmates met with Sean Khorsandi, the executive director at Landmark West, a community-based advocacy organization with the goal of preserving the architectural history of the Upper West Side. Khorsandi took students on a walk through what once was San Juan Hill.
This experience allowed Lai to understand the history of Fordham as an institution, one which he is a part of. Fordham University Lincoln Center built over countless small businesses and communities. Lai believes it to be the responsibility of all students to understand this history, acknowledge their privilege, and use it to do their part.
Fordham student Dana Ebralidze, 21, who is also a part of this research, shared her realizations. Ebralidze reflected, “It made me rethink the way I see Lincoln Center. It is advertised as a hub of culture and education, but it seems that they had both of those things in San Juan Hill in a different way.”
Lai had the opportunity to speak to many locals about their rich history, deeply rooted in what we now call Lincoln Center. Lai shared, “This history has layers. This history has really been simplified and marketed, especially by Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.”
Using the influential jazz musicians and artists who were a part of the San Juan Hill community as marketing. While ignoring that this community has been demolished and built over.
Many students and residents of this area are not aware of the deeply problematic history of the land they exist on. Lai stressed the importance of understanding institutional history and educating ourselves.
Lai is continuing this conversation and he finds it important that other students do as well.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show’s Impact on the Queer Community
By: Stella McFarland
Published in MODE Magazine - Fordham University’s student-run fashion and entertainment magazine.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show was released in 1975, a key moment in time for the Gay Rights Movement. The film was released after the 1969 Stonewall Riots, a catalyst for the gay rights movement. In 1970, on the anniversary of the riots, people marched through New York City to commemorate the event. This is called Christopher Street Liberation Day, where the march activists reclaimed the pink triangle. The pink triangle was used by the Nazis during World War II to brand homesexual men in concentration camps. This triangle was also given to sexual predators, demonstrating the villanization of homosexual people (History). In The Rocky Horror Picture Show Dr. Frank N Furter is seen wearing the triangle on his clothing, reclaiming this once hateful symbol.
To most, this is an empowering film that encourages the disruption of heteronormativity and cisnormativity. However, there is controversy that surrounds film as well. The film uses the term “transvestite” which is an outdated term that was commonly used in the 1970s. Moreover, the gender non-conforming character, Dr. Frank N Furter was the “villain” who gets killed at the end of the film. This is problematic because the film is villainizing those who do not conform to gender and sexuality norms.
On the other hand, The Rocky Horror Picture Show is a cult classic within the queer community. The film encouraged people to embrace queer expression. Dr. Frank N Furter helps newly engaged couple Brad and Janet explore their sexuality. The film includes an amazing, vibrant soundtrack that perfectly pairs with the costumes, makeup, dance, and set design. This soundtrack includes songs “Time Warp,” “I Can Make You a Man,” and “Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch Me.” Dr. Frank N Furter was dressed in corsets, heels, garters, and his red lips are a signature image of the film. Overall, this film is a celebration of sexuality and the queer community as a whole.
Immigration from the Irish Troubles
By: Stella McFarland
Robert McFarland grew up as a protestant in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. McFarland shares his experience when he was 16 years old, “I took a later bus because my exam was later. I got onto the bus full of Catholic kids. They pulled me off of the bus and beat me up”. What he most remembers from this experience was that two days later a young Catholic girl apologized to him for the behavior of those boys. “I thought that was sweet. I’ll always remember that” McFarland says.
McFarland was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1956. The Troubles began in 1968 and continued until 1998. The Troubles, also known as the Northern Ireland Conflict, was between Protestant unionists who wanted to remain part of the United Kingdom and Catholic nationalists who wanted Northern Ireland to join the Republic of Ireland. For most of McFarland’s youth he was living in constant rioting and bombing.
McFarland grew up on Well St, two miles from the Belfast City Center. Bombs, usually car bombs, commonly came from the City Center. McFarland remembers hearing the bombs from his home. There were always people throwing bricks in the streets and lots of armed robberies, some even committed by his schoolmates. He lived in a two bedroom with his family of five. McFarland shared a room with his older sister and brother. They lived in extreme poverty and a common meal would consist of beans and toast because it was all they could afford.
When McFarland was 22 he left his car unattended in a zone where that was not permitted. He ran into the store to quickly pick something up. When he returned back to his vehicle the army was shutting down the area around his car in order to check if there was a bomb in it. He was fined $200 for leaving his car unattended for a few minutes.
In 1980 when McFarland was 24 he moved to San Diego, California. All he brought over was $2,000 and two suitcases filled with clothes and vinyl records. “I sold all my furniture, my leather jacket, shirts I’ve had since I was 15, my soccer shoes, and my car” McFarland says.
McFarland came over on a work permit as a shipyard engineer. In Belfast he was working on the Harland & Wolff shipyard, the same shipyard that built the Titanic. He and 20 other shipyard engineers from all over the United Kingdom were brought over to the United States for a project at the NASSCO shipyard in San Diego. He and five other engineers stayed on board after the project was completed. McFarland continued working for six years on a work permit until he got his green card in 1986 and became a citizen in 1992 when he was 36. “I gained a sense of relief and security knowing that I could stay and work in the states,” McFarland says.
McFarland recalls his quality of life improving substantially when he immigrated. He remembers thinking “this is a different world”. He was no longer surrounded by constant conflict and violence. Instead he was surrounded by hamburgers and Coca-Cola. McFarland says “even KFC was fantastic because we had never had anything like that before. Everything was so clean and big.”
His transition was made a little easier because he moved with his colleagues from the United Kingdom. Therefore, it was easier to feel a sense of belonging and community in such a new and unknown place.
Nevertheless, that does not take away from the struggle of leaving his family behind. McFarland had to leave his mother, father, brother, and sister in Belfast. Along with leaving the place he had lived his entire life and the only thing that felt familiar to him. McFarland says “back then moving to California from Europe was so hard. Everyone you knew, you didn’t see. The only people I knew were from Belfast. Knowing I wouldn’t see them for years was pretty sad. But I thought America would give me opportunities.”
By moving to the United States, his life dramatically improved and there was more opportunity to work his way up. McFarland is now Vice President of Wagner Aeronautical, an aerospace engineering company. He has provided for his family of four children and allowed them to grow up in conditions he could only dream of as a child. Most of his family still lives in Belfast and live off of social security income. The United States brought so much opportunity to McFarland and he was able to leave poverty for a better life.
“My younger self would be proud that I’ve worked so hard. But he’d be sad that he doesn’t live in Ireland anymore.”
Fordham Trip to US-Mexico Border
By: Stella McFarland
“It was very eye opening to see the horrible terrain that people traverse to get to the states and to not be seen by authorities. It is not a nice, pretty hiking trail,” Fordham alumni Madeline Hilf recalled of the hike she went on in Arivaca, Arizona this August.
“You are stepping in thorns and there’s cacti all around and the heat is really bad in the desert”, added Hilf.
She and her friend were on the U.S.-Mexico border to put themselves in the shoes of migrants entering the United States and better understand the journey migrants have to take.
They’d come to work with the Kino Border Initiative, a faith-based organization that raises awareness about the reality of migration and its effects. Kino aids deported migrants in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico and offers services to migrants at any stage of the process; migrants who have crossed and are being deported back, people fleeing from their homes typically from Central America or Mexico, and some looking to reunite with family in the states.
“It was a really powerful experience”, Aidan Auel, senior at Fordham University majoring in Humanitarian Studies and Political Science with a minor in Spanish, says about his time volunteering last year. The trip was extremely valuable for Auel because he was able to “see the faces and hear the experiences of real people who are affected by the immigration policies set in place in the United States.”
The Kino trips are led by Carey Kasten, a professor of Spanish at Fordham, who partners with Kino Border Initiative to bring students to the United States-Mexico border between Nogales, Arizona and Nogales, Sonora, Mexico.
Hilf said “it is hard to use the word typical when it comes to Kino because everyday is different. You do what has to get done.” She helped give Covid tests to migrants entering the country, served food, and distributed clothing.
Auel said that during the trip he spoke to various groups around the border in order to understand their perspectives. On the trip, students speak to ranchers who live near the border, Border Patrol officers, environmentalists, coroners who identify the bodies of migrants who have died attempting to cross the border, and migrants living in the migrant shelter in Nogales, Mexico.
Professor Kasten spoke about a 21 year-old migrant who really struck the students on the trip because they were the same age. “There were three or four athletic Fordham students on the trip who were really playing legitimate soccer with this 21 year old migrant who had dreams of being a professional soccer player. Clearly in his hometown he had played in a competitive league. I think that was super heartbreaking and poignant for everybody to see someone in their fullness,” said Kasten. “People aren’t just migrants, people aren’t just vessels of trauma. He also had things that brought him joy and that he was good at and he just loved hanging out with other 21 year olds and that was so striking to all of us.”
Hilf did not share migrants’ specific stories as they were shared with her trusting they would be private. She did say that families are still being separated. “I think people look at that as a Trump-era policy but it is actively continuing to happen and the Biden administration is not stopping it, '' she said.
Referring to Title 42 invoked by the Trump administration at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic that allows the Department of Homeland Security to expel migrants back to their home country without allowing them to seek asylum. She added, “Title 42 is preventing parents from being with their children and it is inhumane,” Hilf says.
Professor Kasten recalled the story of a woman who crossed the border and now lives in Seattle. “She spoke specifically about the abuses she suffered in detention. The dehumanization - the taking away of your personal belongings, of your clothing, the lack of temperature control,” she said.
“Everybody calls it the ‘hilera’, the ice box, because it's actually an intent to dehumanize you,” continued Kasten. “You aren’t given real blankets, you are given these metallic marathon blankets. All these things that the government says are ways to streamline the process also dehumanize. There’s no real regulation. Nobody has committed a crime, so why are they in jail?”
Professor Kasten now follows the woman on social media and is able to compare the normalcy of her life now to the dehumanization of being in detention.
Fordham student Michelle Moughan reflected on speaking with migrants “while simultaneously knowing the long and virtually impossible process to apply for asylum made the situation very real because we could see firsthand how unfair and mishandled migration is on the part of the US and Mexican governments.”
The trip “is really about waking up to the realities of what is going on around us”, Professor Kasten said. Taking the time to volunteer at the border, she added “ teaches students to “treat everyone with dignity, to really listen to people and not to judge them”.