How America Shut Its Doors to the Next Nabokov
Jeva Lange '15 published an opinion piece today in The Week which explores the difficulties that international students face after graduation.
In the article, Lange notes that while some students have the opportunity to stay in the country for an additional year as part of a program called OPT (Optional Practical Training) any further time in the country is difficult to secure. She argues that by not allowing former international students to continue to live and work in the US, we are excluding a vital section of our cultural and intellectual consciousness. In her piece, she points to several great intellectuals who were born outside the United States, and speaks with two Bennington international student alumni, Maliha Ali '15 and Carlos Torres '14.
Where would American culture be without Vladimir Nabokov, Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, Joni Mitchell, Marcel Duchamp, or Neil Young, all of whom came to the United States to contribute to the artistic community after being born abroad?