Sam Berman

Features

From beginnings in Soviet Kyiv to the forefront of post-communist scholarship: Professor Oxana Shevel’s journey.

By Sam Berman | September 3

“I remember as a kindergartner, watching [the] news with my grandfather. … [The] Soviet government presented [a] certain image of Western news, that everything was bad,” Associate Professor of Political Science Oxana Shevel said, reflecting on her upbringing under communist rule in Kyiv, Ukraine. “As a young child, you don’t question it.”

Graphic for sam berman’s civic engagement article

Features

Why do we vote? Tracing the roots of active citizenship

By Sam Berman | November 7

“I voted,” reads the sticker, but don’t let the simplicity of the message fool you. What else lies behind those words? “We know that the image of an active and engaged citizen is really central to people’s ideas of American identity,” Deborah Schildkraut, professor of political science, said. “I like to refer to it as an aspirational identity. … We think of [a good American] as someone who is active and informed and who votes in elections.”

Features

ChatGPT unmasked at the intersection of computer science and philosophy

By Sam Berman | March 1

In November 2022, OpenAI launched ChatGPT, a new chatbot powered by artificial intelligence. Users can input questions and ChatGPT will provide specific answers based on both advanced internet data collected through September 2021 and the content of the user’s conversation with it.

Guest

Letter from the Managing Board: Our semester in preview

By Madeline Mueller, Julia Shannon-Grillo, Alexander Janoff, Aaron Klein, Sam Berman, Rachel Liu and Mike Kourkoulakos | January 26

Dear fellow Tufts community members,

Local

Half a century since the lawsuit that shook the city: Reexamining Boston school desegregation

By Sam Berman and David Van Riper | December 8

“Boston made me feel that I didn’t have a chance, and that’s what racism does to you,” Beverly Crockett-Taylor said as a Black woman who grew up in the Dorchester neighborhood in Boston amid the tumultuous events preceding and during the desegregation of the Boston public school system that began in 1974.

Features

Tufts’ Master of Philosophy program promotes philosophical passion, community

By Sam Berman | November 3

“If I could choose one book to bring with me to a desert island, … it would absolutely be Plato’s ‘Republic.’ … I teach it every year, and I still discover new and exciting things, it still makes me think; it is by far my favorite book ever,” said Christiana Olfert, associate professor and director of graduate studies in philosophy at Tufts, who oversees the the top-ranked terminal master’s in philosophy program in the nation according to The Philosophical Gourmet Report.

Guest

Letter from the Managing Board: What you can expect from the Daily this fall

By Chloe Courtney Bohl, Delaney Clarke, Ty Blitstein, Sam Berman, Julia Shannon-Grillo, Charlene Tsai and Abigail Vixama | September 6

To our readers,

From beginnings in Soviet Kyiv to the forefront of post-communist scholarship: Professor Oxana Shevel’s journey.

Why do we vote? Tracing the roots of active citizenship

ChatGPT unmasked at the intersection of computer science and philosophy

Letter from the Managing Board: Our semester in preview

Half a century since the lawsuit that shook the city: Reexamining Boston school desegregation

Tufts’ Master of Philosophy program promotes philosophical passion, community

Letter from the Managing Board: What you can expect from the Daily this fall

More articles »

Editorial: Our guide to the Massachusetts ballot questions

A horrifying double femicide in Turkey, the hundreds before and why you should care

Somerville, Medford city councils advocate ‘yes’ votes on Mass. Question 2

Medford ballot Question 6 proposes debt exclusion to fund new fire headquarters

Medford divided on ballot Questions 7 and 8 asking $7.5 million override for schools and infrastructure