ARCHIVE
Browse REFRACT’s now eleven-year archive of new, nonfiction writing:
SPRING 2025
S. TAVERA
My Linguistic Autobiography
CHERRY LEUNG
We Laugh at Our Clumsy Hands
DAVID REDLING
Rousseau and Woolf’s Literary Rebellion
KADEEJA MOHAMMED
Rainbows and Religion: My Struggle as a Queer Muslim
ALICIA GRECHU
The Subway Dilemma
TREVOR LAM
Protect Ethnic Enclaves
FALL 2024
PIN YUAN ZHU LEE
The Real Cost of College
MUHAMMAD ELBADRI
Ode to My Silky
ANDREW WATERHOUSE
A Modest Proposition
LAURA FASULO
It’s the Sociolinguistic Discrimination for Me
multiple students
On Technology and Authenticity
SPRING 2024
MIA GINDIS
A Conflict’s Toll on South Brooklyn
DARIA DMITRICHENKO
Through the Prisms of a Crystal Chandelier
VALERIE CONKLIN
How Does Alice Walker Take Her Coffee?
2022–2023
EDWARD KARAK
The Decrease in Length of English Sentences: A Historical Overview
NADYA KHAN
An Ethical Approach to Personalized Ads
JAMES ZHANG
The Dollar Store Crisis
CHRISTIE SYLVESTER
Representation of Black Women in Comics Matters
CHARISE WILLIAMS
Our Past Remains Ever Present
ISABELLA LOPEZ
Grief: That Five Letter Word
EDUARDO ESTEVES
Rhetorical Analysis: “What Do Pictures Want?”
REBECCA NEWELL
A Visit to the Seer
2021
ALICIA GARCIA
We Should Bail on the Cash Bail System
ROSIE VOLLARO
The Madonna-Whore Dichotomy
ROSHELLE FERGUSON
Natural Hair Discrimination and How Society’s Impact Dictates Negative
and Positive Perceptions of Black Hair and Hairstyles
OLHA SUM
Worldviews Hidden Away in Word Etymology: Barbarian & Humanitarian
MARIA JACOME
A Father’s Strength
MOHAMMAD NEAZ
Unlearning Arabian Nights
ISABELLA LOPEZ
Mental Health: From the Pandemic Perspective
FARAH JAVED
Remembering the Ladies: Why the First Lady Deserves Equal Recognition
to the President
DEVRANI BRAHMANAND
Let’s Make a Diya-fference!
DANIELLE KADE
Refusal of Acceptance: Tight Fist Parenting
ROSIE VOLARO
The Rise of Domestic Abuse and Violence Due to COVID-19
GAR BI CHAN
Victory From Division
FIONA SHI
It’s A Woman’s World Too
KEZIA VELISTA
WAP: Wigs, Actors, and Plays
2020
STEPHANIE JONES
A Vision of Healthcare
LOLA JACOBS
Ede Ominira
SCARLETT LIRIANO CEPIN
The Way to a Granddaughter’s Heart
KENNETH SOUSIE
Santa Monica and Hoover Street
BRANDON SCHIRO
The Biggest Game Changer to Insurance Companies Since Obamacare
ASHLY CHEN
Know Her Name
DEVON GIBBONS
Obscenity and Orientalism: How Burton’s Arabian Nights Challenged the
Victorian Stance on Sexuality
DANIEL ZUREK
Crony Capitalism in America
GRADY SCHLOTT
Rustbelt Rehabilitation
CHONG ZHANG
The Wenchuan Earthquake Memoirs
SOPHIA CARNABUCCI
Burning Man
KENNETH SOUSIE
The Pennsylvania Firefighters Fund
M’NIYAH LYNN
The Pitfalls of Being Extreme
ZUZANNA ZUREK
The Spirit Within Us
JONATHAN PERALTA
America: Land of Unequal Opportunity
FERN WHITE-HILSENRATH
A Lethal Combination: Firearms and Intimate Partner Violence
multiple students
A Tale of Two New Yorks
2019
CHARLES TOBASSO
The Language Barricade
BENJAMIN WALLIN
Coming to Pieces, Somewhere
MAYA YEGOROVA
Cuimhnigh I Gconai
CHIOMA NNADI
McDoubles and Nigeria
BENJAMIN WALLIN
One Big Joke
VICTORIA MERLINO
My Uncle, The Dead Man
ELLISA WHITE
Analysis of Jay-Z’s “The Story of OJ”
NIKOLAOS PANAOUSIS
Examining Bookstores: The Strand
CEDEEM GUMBS
FX’s Pose and the Importance of Representation in Media
2018
VINCENT NIKOLAYEV
Video Games as Art
DEJA WASHINGTON
English is Not our Language
DVORA ZOMBERG
The War That Comes Back Home
CHARLES TABASSO
The Old Boy
KEVIN CLEARY
Puerto Tarafa
STEPHANIE JONES
Love, Sabrina
VANDITA SEWSAHAI
Blessed Are The Peacemakers
BENJAMIN WALLIN
A Nazi by Any Other Name
CHELSEA BOOTH
Under My Thumb
NOSHIN HOSSAIN
Woman at Point Zero
2017
ERIKA SMITHSON
No Silver Bullet
BENJAMIN WALLIN
Silence Speaks Volumes
ORR CHALAMISH
Resistance Until Demise: The Lesson of Bartleby and Teddy
BENJAMIN WALLIN
Your Regularly Scheduled Program
REBECCA SIMON
Higher
2016
LIDA RAMOS
Black Widow: Part 1
LIDA RAMOS
Black Widow: Part 2
AUSTIN FISCHER
Dante’s Inferno and Social Media Activism
JEREMY BROWN
Sound in Space
LIDA RAMOS
The Metamorphosis of Reebok
BRITTANY REID
Hemingway’s Guide to Masculinity
MAXWELL STERNBERG
Unveiling Iran: The Complete Persepolis
DENNY JACOB
The Subversion of Gender Roles in Macbeth
POOKA PAIK
A Wilde Bite
ERIKA SMITHSON
Clear Horizons
VICTORIA MERLINO
Dancing Around Objectification
REUVEN GLEZER
The Believer
POLINA SMELYANSKAYA
Is This Just, Like, A Note He Left For His Roommate Or Is It, Like, Way
Crazier Than That Or Am I Just Reading Too Much Into It Or Am I Not
Reading Enough Into It
SARAH PARK
FOMO at the MoMA: A Collective Experience
MIGUEL MACHADO
Identity Forged From Sorrow: The American Other
JULIANA EMMANUELLI
Taught Discrimination: The Passage Into Adulthood Through the Loss of
Innocence
ASHLEY SOMWARU
Woman Like a Man: Blurring Gender Lines
2015
MICHEAL ROACH
Separating the art and the artist
SARAH PARK
“Degenerate Art”: art’s fight against Nazism
CONNIE HUANG
Yoshihiro Tatsumi’s Critique of Anomie
JACOB WEBER
Confessions of an Addict: On Third Wave Coffee