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追凶:哈佛一桩谋杀案和半个世纪的沉默
(us)becky Cooper
In 2009, when Becky Cooper, a junior, first heard rumors about Jane Britton's murder, she was immediately drawn to the story. The story centers on Britten's alleged affair with a married professor, who allegedly killed her when Britten threatened to reveal details of their relationship. The more he learned about the young woman, the more Cooper felt "her relationship to herself was more alchemical than rational," but he also worried about the extent to which an "omnipotent" institution like Harvard "would go to ensure that this was not exposed." It was not until he returned to New York in 2012 that Cooper began to fully investigate the details behind Jane's tragic death. She scoured the Internet for information and went undercover that fall as a Harvard undergraduate to learn more about the married professor suspected of murdering Britton. In the months and years that followed, Cooper secretly interviewed graduate students in the anthropology department and Jane's friends, joined an online group of amateur sleuths, and studied articles in newspapers including the Harvard Crimson. Details emerge that not only complicate the case, but also reveal tangled questions about other suspects, personal secrets and systemic betrayals at Harvard and law enforcement. Jane's story is no longer a murder mystery that DNA evidence finally revealed in 2018, but a story of gender inequality in academia, about "cowboy culture" among empowered male elites, the silencing effects of the system, and our impulse to rewrite the stories of female victims.
In 2009, when Becky Cooper, a junior, first heard rumors about Jane Britton's murder, she was immediately drawn to the story. The story centers on Britten's alleged affair with a married professor, who allegedly killed her when Britten threatened to reveal details of their relationship. The more he learned about the young woman, the more Cooper felt "her relationship to herself was more alchemical than rational," but he also worried about the extent to which an "omnipotent" institution like Harvard "would go to ensure that this was not exposed." It was not until he returned to New York in 2012 that Cooper began to fully investigate the details behind Jane's tragic death. She scoured the Internet for information and went undercover that fall as a Harvard undergraduate to learn more about the married professor suspected of murdering Britton. In the months and years that followed, Cooper secretly interviewed graduate students in the anthropology department and Jane's friends, joined an online group of amateur sleuths, and studied articles in newspapers including the Harvard Crimson. Details emerge that not only complicate the case, but also reveal tangled questions about other suspects, personal secrets and systemic betrayals at Harvard and law enforcement. Jane's story is no longer a murder mystery that DNA evidence finally revealed in 2018, but a story of gender inequality in academia, about "cowboy culture" among empowered male elites, the silencing effects of the system, and our impulse to rewrite the stories of female victims.