Pia Deshpande

Last summer, I had four wisdom teeth yanked out of my mouth. In the days afterward, I was puffy-cheeked and achy-jawed, with a stubborn, drug-induced droopy eye. I was comically miserable.

On the third floor of Hamilton sits the Center for American Studies. Its glass doors are framed by warm yellow lights that make the room look like the star of the hallway, even though it is nestled in at the end. On the right of the entrance, there is a poster for “Learning to ‘March,’” a lecture given by Congressman John Lewis on Selma in 2015.