Isaac Amend
Staff Columnist
Author Archive
AMEND: Literature Keeps Me Alive

Students on campus are reading books for the wrong reasons.

AMEND: Three Morrison classes we need now

In a Jan. 26 column, I explained why Yale needs to teach more of Toni Morrison. Chief among a whole host of reasons is that […]

AMEND: The Queen’s Gambit

I founded a chess club in Fairfax, Virginia. My grandfather taught me how to play chess from the age of eight, and the game has […]

AMEND: Literature Makes the World Go Round

After graduating seven years ago, I’ve learned that making money in America revolves around knowing finance, data and science. Making money means understanding economics and ways to do business, and working in geopolitics. Writers and people who study good books rarely make a lot of money. But their literature is what makes the world go round. 

AMEND: Yale needs more Toni Morrison classes

In April 2015, I saw Toni Morrison speak at Harvard before her passing in 2019. My love for Morrison started after I read “Song of […]

AMEND: Watch your language

Five years after graduating Yale, I told a business colleague of mine that his language was heteronormative. “What’s heteronormative?” he said in confusion and disbelief. […]

AMEND: It’s time men speak up

Content Warning: This column contains references to sexual violence. SHARE is available to all members of the Yale community who are dealing with sexual misconduct […]

AMEND: A dangerous vehicle

Today, Friday, March 31, a “Free Speech Bus” sponsored by CitizenGO will stop in New Haven. Having started in New York City, the bus is […]

AMEND: Against the happiness craze

My first class at Yale was an English 114 seminar called “The Pursuit of Happiness.” In it, a graduate student led us through a syllabus […]

AMEND: Pravda!

Yale’s intellectual ambivalence to New Haven residents is a ludicrous disavowal of pravda and a subliminal nod to the perils of istina. At the end of the day, heeding palpable concerns as opposed to theoretical ambitions advances the public good.

AMEND: Obama’s fatal caveat

From the standpoint of this columnist, Obama retained a godlike status.