By E.D. Parish
Parish is a senior majoring in philosophy and math with a minor in PPE. After graduation, he will begin a PhD in philosophy at UC Berkeley.
Freshman year, I had an antecedent interest in politics, which I was looking to hone and express. I was considering joining both the Carolina Review and the Daily Tar Heel. Throughout the fall (and to this day), I was an avid reader of both. DTH was clearly a polished and well-run operation, consistently churning out dozens of articles each month. The Review, by contrast, was a small and scrappy outlet, which would be lucky to publish a dozen articles in a month. But what CR lacked in numbers, it made up for in insight. Each publication carried thought-provoking and articulate articles. These essays were so captivating that I would stumble across progressive friends discussing them before class started; few endorsed the conclusions drawn, but all agreed that the arguments were worth contending with.
So, after a few months, I resolved to join the Review and cold emailed the leaders of the organization, Bryson Piscitelli and Alex Kelly. These were two of the smartest students I met in my four years at UNC. I complimented their writing (it’s a shame more isn’t available online), and they invited me to dinner. There we had a lively discussion of politics, naturally, but also of history and literature. These were the kinds of spaces I craved to find in my time in college.
After a few months of working with CR, we underwent a rocky transition. Bryson stepped down to run for Student Body President, and Alex was unable to take over for personal reasons. There was thereafter a hot-potato of authority, as few were aware of the Herculean efforts these two exerted in running the Review.
After limping our way through my sophomore year—while also closing the spring semester with an ambitious edition—I was invited to take over. Attrition had hit CR pretty badly, and I was told that if I didn’t take over, the Carolina Review may have to go on hiatus. I reluctantly took on the role, hoping that if I could at least keep the magazine standing for another year, more capable hands could ensure its persistence and promote its growth in the future. The Review is an important institution, and I felt it was my duty not to let it slip.
My junior year was quite rocky. Recruitment was difficult, and I had to learn InDesign on the fly. Nevertheless, we ended up being quite successful. We saw approximately a tripling of our production. Thoughtful, articulate, and enthusiastic studies were eager to express their perspectives, and the Carolina Review offered them a platform. The generous support of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute and The Fund for American Studies—not to mention the institutional knowledge of the Carolina Liberty Foundation—were instrumental to this process. Also thanks to these organizations, I got the chance to meet extremely talented student journalists at their respective conferences.
As a senior, my role at CR diminished, as I stepped away to focus on my plans for after graduation. It’s clear that I left the outlet in capable hands.
If there’s one takeaway I have, it’s that the future of college conservatism is bright. This may seem counterintuitive, given the overwhelming progressivism on campuses across America, but some of the smart and insightful people I met during my four years at UNC were thanks to the Carolina Review. I’m confident that the Review can continue to be a vanguard for intellectual, right-wing, political analysis and activism in years to come.