Writing

Learning has always been a choice
Video Essay September 2025

Learning has always been a choice

My chapel talk about being a terrible high school cellist, and why the rise of AI makes the choice to learn even more important.

The Steppe and the Sea: Nature in Chekhov
Paper

The Steppe and the Sea: Nature in Chekhov

In this paper, I examine how Chekhov's natural landscapes—from across his career as a writer—use recurring webs of motifs to raise existential questions about whether the universe is sympathetic and communicative or indifferent and empty.

Course Technology Requirements
Essay May 2025

Course Technology Requirements

An excerpt from my syllabus and a cry for help.

Very Remarkable Men: Villains and Victorian Doubt
Paper

Very Remarkable Men: Villains and Victorian Doubt in Robert Louis Stevenson

In this thesis, I examine how Robert Louis Stevenson's most enduring villains—Long John Silver and Mr. Hyde—function as embodiments of Victorian doubt and the terrifying specter of an empty, materialist universe. Both figures are invested with such sublime mystery that no conventional ending could dispel their power.

88 Theses about AI and Schools
Essay May 2025

88 Theses about AI and Schools

Some claims about AI & education.

Lichen on granite, Gerrish Island
Photo Essay Summer 2021

Stranger to the House

An immersive photo essay on photography's artistic value and vulgarity, using Proust's In Search of Lost Time as a lens. Capstone project for Bread Loaf's Advanced Writing Tutorial.

African Leadership Academy campus
Photo Essay 2008–2009

My Year at ALA

A collection of emails home from my gap year at the African Leadership Academy in Johannesburg, South Africa. Written at 18, rereading them has been a fairly mortifying experience.

Recent Posts from my Substack

  • Loading recent posts...