《追凶》内容简介
哈佛暗影:性别、权力与被沉默的真相。
被谋杀的女孩,谣言中的教授,数十年的杀戮之谜,揭示镜像、厌女症与制度沉默的编年史。
猫、斧头、常春藤盟校政治、考古挖掘、一个敏感又固执的侦探——不要将事实与故事混为一谈。
2009年,还是大三学生的贝基·库珀第一次听到有关简·布里顿被谋杀的传言,她立刻被这个故事吸引住了。故事的中心是布里顿与一位已婚教授的所谓婚外情,据称这位教授在布里顿威胁要透露他们关系的细节时将她杀害。对这位年轻女性了解得越多,库珀就越觉得“她与自己的关系更像是炼金术而非理性”,但库珀同时也担心,像哈佛这样“无所不能”的机构“会在多大程度上确保这件事不被曝光”。
直到2012年回到纽约后,库珀才开始全面调查简惨死背后的细节。她在互联网上搜索信息,在那年秋天以哈佛大学本科生的身份卧底,以了解更多关于涉嫌谋杀布里顿的已婚教授的信息。
在随后的数月和数年中,库珀秘密采访了人类学系的研究生和简的朋友,加入了一个业余侦探在线小组,并研究了包括《哈佛深红报》在内的报纸上的文章。一些细节的出现不仅使案情复杂化,还揭露了其他嫌疑人,以及哈佛和执法部门的个人秘密和系统性背叛等纠缠不清的问题。
简的故事不再是DNA证据最终在2018年揭开的谋杀之谜,而是学术界性别不平等的故事,它关乎被赋予权力的男性精英中的“牛仔文化”、制度的沉默效应以及我们重写女性受害者故事的冲动。
作者简介
贝基·库珀(BeckyCooper),曾是《纽约客》编辑部成员,也是布兰迪斯大学舒斯特调查研究所的高级研究员。本书的写作得到了调查性新闻基金和国际妇女媒体基金会霍华德·G.巴菲特女记者基金的支持。
Synopsis of the Chase
Harvard Shadow: Gender, Power, and the Silenced Truth.
The murdered girl, the Professor in the rumor, and the decades-long mystery of the killings reveal a chronicle of mirror images, misogyny, and institutional silence.
Cats, axes, Ivy League politics, archaeological digs, a sensitive and stubborn detective - don't confuse facts with stories.
When Becky Cooper first heard rumors of Jane Britton's murder as a junior in 2009, she was immediately hooked on the story. At the center of the story is Britton's alleged affair with a married professor who allegedly killed her when she threatened to reveal details of their relationship. The more he learned about the young woman, the more he felt that "her relationship with him was more alchemical than irrational," but Cooper also worried about the extent to which an institution as "omnipotent" as Harvard "would go to make sure it didn't come to light."
It wasn't 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, going undercover as a Harvard undergraduate that fall 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 friends of Jane's, joined an online group of amateur sleuths, and studied articles in newspapers including the Harvard Crimson. Details emerged that not only complicated the case, but also revealed other suspects, as well as tangled questions of personal secrets and systemic betrayal at Harvard and in law enforcement.
Jane's story is no longer the murder mystery that DNA evidence finally unravelled in 2018, but a story of gender inequality in academia, about "cowboy culture" among empowered male elites, the silencing effect of the system, and our impulse to rewrite the stories of female victims.
About the author
BeckyCooper is a former editorial member of The New Yorker and a senior fellow at the Schuster Institute for Research at Brandeis University. The writing of this book was supported by the Investigative Journalism Foundation and Howard G. International Women's Media Foundation. The Buffett Foundation for Women Journalists.