Meredith (“Mimi”) Garcia had the unique challenge of teaching “Apocalyptic Lit” amidst the COVID-19 hybrid year. Still, the central questions of the course remained, “Will the apocalypse bring total annihilation, transcendence, bloodthirsty zombies, or all of the above? Will it bring people together or tear them apart?” As a medium, fiction allows for distance from both the material and reality, enough to critically engage with the text. Despite the fantastical, sci-fi qualities to apocalyptic literature, Mimi stresses that each text, from The Walking Dead to Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go, speak to questions of human nature and of hope.
Mimi’s new course offering, “Globalization, Literature, & Film”, investigates how globalization and media have come to shape each other and our everyday lives. The course utilizes films like Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon (1950) and Walter Salles’ Motorcycle Diaries (2004) to discuss how politics, history, and cross-cultural encounters come to manifest in film. Mimi notes that the entire film industry and how we have come to watch film also plays a role in how we analyze and reflect on the relationship between literature and media—to be both critical of the past and the present.
A Look Back: Poet Dr. Joshua Bennett Visits D-E
D-E was recently graced with a campus visit from renowned poet Dr. Joshua Bennett, a Professor of Literature and Distinguished Chair of the Humanities at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Dr. Bennett is the author of five books, including The Sobbing...
Wacky Water Day and Kindergarten Field Day Spark Joy for Lower School Students
Wacky Water Day was a blast for D-E’s 1st through 5th graders! The annual tradition gives Lower School (LS) students the opportunity to get into their bathing suits to participate in water activities on Mr. Rocky’s Field with their peers, while teachers splash them...
Kindergarten Zoo Highlights
A beloved annual tradition returned to the Lower School (LS) when the Kindergarten Zoo was set up on Mr. Rocky’s Field by LS teachers Ms. Tricia Fiore, Ms. Kristina Dellefave, Ms. Teresa Cali, and Ms. Meghna Mathur. Enthusiastic kindergarteners, donning safari vests...
D-E Celebrates Commencement 2025
The mood was joyous and a little bittersweet as D-E’s graduating seniors, their families, faculty, and staff gathered beneath a white tent on Leggett Field for Commencement 2025 on June 1. This momentous event was called to order by Student Government President-Elect Max Koppelman ’26. The processional followed, with the graduates led into the tent by a pipe band and the playing of Elgar’s “Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1” by the D-E Symphony Orchestra. …
End-of-Year All School Assembly Highlights
This morning Interim Head of School Preeti Fibiger P’24 welcomed the D-E student body, faculty, and staff to the End of Year All-School Assembly, which carried on the theme of ‘community’ from the first All-School Assembly earlier this year. The program began with...
Class of 2025 Wraps-up Year with Senior Selectives & More!
The end (of a chapter) is near for our graduating seniors! D-E’s Class of 2025 has had an active couple of weeks leading up to Commencement this Sunday, as part of their Senior Selectives trips and activities. “Selectives—senior + electives = selectives—are a time...
8th Grade Discovery Field Trip to PIX11
Hot off the presses! Students in 8th Grade Dean Ali Miller’s ‘In the News’ Discovery class recently got a sneak peek at a morning news broadcast during a field trip to WPIX (Channel 11), a TV station in New York City, followed by a tour of the United Nations. Ms....
Engineering Pioneer Speaks to Women in STEM; Sylvie Yao ‘27 Honored
Women in STEM Education (WISE) recently hosted Chitra Venkatraman, Co-Chair of Women in Engineering for the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (IEEE), who was on campus to present Sylvie Yao ’27 with the IEEE’s North Jersey Young Engineer Award....
Sixth Grade Experimental Design Fair Highlights
Sixth graders unveiled the results of weeks of scientific research, experimentation, and data analysis for the Sixth Grade Experimental Design Fair, which took place this morning in Hajjar Auditorium. “Through hands-on experiments, students have learned to ask...
“How to Get Away With a Murder Mystery”: Spring Theatre 2025 One Act Play Highlights
Senior Hannah Carroll ’25 recently presented her comedic one-act play, “How to Get Away with a Murder Mystery,” to a packed Hulst House. The student director described the show as “a parody on the beloved murder mystery genre with references to Clue, Knives Out,...
