Jonathan D. Fitzgerald

College changed my life. I want the same for my students — with less debt

I was an 18-year-old high school senior — soon to be a first-generation college student — when my mom tried to help me understand the implications of taking on student loans. It’s painful to admit it now, but I basically ignored her warnings.…

All Americans deserve paid parental leave

“OK kiddos, I have a question for you.” My daughter gives me a sideways glance in the rear-view mirror. “A real question or a joke?” she asks as she steps over her brother and into her booster seat. I look over my shoulder at my son tearing into…

Health-conscious millennials are driving a boom in nonalcoholic beer

On a Tuesday night in May 2019, a few friends and I were squeezed into a vinyl-lined booth at a sports bar in Salem for a feast of 50-cent wings. We’d done this for years, but it was our first time out in five months, since I’d quit drinking. I…

Chaplains and the rise of on-demand spiritual support

Globe Magazine As traditional religious practice recedes, many New Englanders are increasingly turning to a different kind of pastor when and where they’re needed.

Leaders’ empathy matters in the midst of a pandemic

Resilience, communication skills, openness and impulse control top the list of six qualities that presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin says are common to good leaders. In her book “Leadership: In Turbulent Times,” Goodwin surveyed the lives…

Everyone knows English majors can’t get jobs. Except the employers who hire them.

Perspective | Magazine College kids — and their parents — think a humanities degree is useless. But businesses want students who can write and think critically. For years, a number of diagnostic tests have been adjusted based on the belief that a…

Stop Yelling At Alexa: In The Age Of #MeToo, Digital Assistants Deserve Our Respect

My son, Wes, was 2 years old when he decided to wear a watch. He asked for help sliding an Elsa (from “Frozen”) watch — once loved and then discarded by his big sister — over his tiny wrist, pushing it up his arm until it fit snugly around his elbow.…

How Not To Talk About Your Kids

Jonathan D. Fitzgerald is a PhD candidate in English Literature at Northeastern University. You can find him on Twitter at @jon_fitzgerald or at his website www.jonathandfitzgerald.com. A day in the life of a PhD candidate and father of two, a…

Say Yes: The Benefits and Risks of Working for Free

Jonathan D. Fitzgerald is a newly-minted PhD candidate in English Literature at Northeastern University. You can find him on Twitter at @jon_fitzgerald or at his website www.jonathandfitzgerald.com. After earning my MA back in 2005, I decided that I…

Boston career changers can find plenty of helping hands

Massachusetts offers many programs for the under- and unemployed, to get them working and sometimes even running their own business.

Stand Out from the (Wordpress) Crowd with a Static Website

Jonathan D. Fitzgerald is doctoral student in English Literature at Northeastern University. You can find him on Twitter at @jon_fitzgerald or at his (static) website www.jonathandfitzgerald.com. If you don’t already have a personal website, you’ve…

With a Little Help From My Friends

Jonathan D. Fitzgerald is PhD student in English Literature at Northeastern University. You can find him on Twitter at @jon_fitzgerald or at his website www.jonathandfitzgerald.com. Grad school can be a lonely place. While we enter with a cohort with…

Dear Gordon College, You Do Not Speak For Me

My guess is that, until recently, you had never heard of my alma mater, Gordon College. Or, if you had, maybe you knew of it, vaguely, as that religious school on the North Shore of Massachusetts. Maybe you confused it with the similarly named, and…

Jeff Sharlet’s ‘Radiant Truths’: How Religion Shaped American Literary Journalism

From Walt Whitman to Occupy Wall Street, a new anthology shows the connection between preaching and great writing—and that great journalism is older than we think. Every era has its own “New Journalism,” but if there’s one thing that’s true about…

Boston Marathon Bombings: Making Sense of the Social Media Blitz

When I first heard that two bombs had exploded at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, I was sitting on my couch — the afternoon sunlight streaming through from the tall window behind me — cradling my 12-day-old daughter in my arms. While she…

‘Alone Yet Not Alone’: Inside the Conservative Christian Movie the Oscars Ousted

On Wednesday, the board of governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences took a near-unprecedented step when they rescinded the Best Original Song Oscar nomination for “Alone Yet Not Alone,” the theme song from an unknown independent…

Lena Dunham Is The New John Updike — But Not In A Good Way

I’m supposed to like the HBO series “Girls,” which began its third season this month. Here’s why: as a member of the Millennial generation — albeit just barely; 1981, my birth year, is the standard cutoff — and as a writer, I’m meant to recognize…

Can Nadia Bolz-Weber Resurrect Liberal Christianity?

Nadia Bolz-Weber is everywhere. A former drug user and alcoholic turned Lutheran minister, she’s gotten attention for her eye-catching appearance—colorful tattoos, cropped hair, hipster glasses—and her reputation for dropping the F-bomb. Her…

Jason Harrod: Singing Between Doubt and Belief for 20 Years

"Thanks for hanging in there through my mini-meltdown." Jason Harrod is playing the legendary Club Passim in Harvard Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts. He wipes sweat from his forehead (and was that a tear?), then leaves his hands on either side of…

On a mission to save godless Massachusetts

AT QUARTER TO NINE in the morning on Easter Sunday, I drove into the sprawling parking lot of the Revere Showcase Cinema, a megaplex theater across the street from The Squire strip club. I passed an expanse of run-down carnival equipment and pulled…