A newly published memoir from Ben Appel ’20GS, Cis White Gay: The Making of a Gender Heretic, traces his journey growing up in a restrictive Christian cult. After working as a hairstylist for over a decade, the journalist and author discovered a renewed sense of purpose in LGBTQ+ activism and enrolled at GS to pursue creative writing.
Clinical psychologist and best-selling author Dr. Chloe Carmichael ’06GS released her latest book, Can I Say That? Why Free Speech Matters and How to Use It Fearlessly, in which she discusses the value of speaking your mind. By reframing free expression as a mental health and resilience issue, she explores the connection between open dialogue and mental well-being, and how free speech can help people connect and solve problems together.
Psychotherapist Matthew Lowe ’05GS published his first self-help book, Seeing the Forest and the Trees: Mapping Your Inner World for Greater Clarity and Satisfaction in Life. In this collection of essays, Lowe engages with the complexities of life, in particular language, limitations, emotions, time, relationships, and therapy. Using his professional experience as a guide, he reveals the power of seeing the big picture and the smallest details of life’s journey.
Reimagining Singapore’s History is a collection of essays edited by Matthew Oey ’24GS that brings together several of the nation’s leading historians to discuss how Singapore’s “history” has been expanded and revised over the last few decades. The volume and its themes are based on a conference Oey organized as part of Columbia History Lab Asia. Oey, a 2025 Fulbright recipient who grew up in Singapore, adapted the book’s introduction from a final paper he wrote for Professor Adam Tooze’s International History course. Read more about Oey on page 8.
Author and mapmaker John Tauranac ’63GS published New York’s Scoundrels, Scalawags, and Scrappers: The City in the Last Decade of the Gilded Age, highlighting the grittiest New Yorkers of the 1890s. Tauranac, who learned about New York by walking its blocks, has published many books illuminating the city’s architectural and social history. He even led the creation of the map that was on display in every subway station for the past 50 years. Read more about Tauranac’s impact on New York (or, as he calls it, “God’s concrete”) here.
