Your independent source for Harvard news since 1898 | SUBSCRIBE

Your independent source for Harvard news since 1898

Magazine cover for July - August 2020 issue.

July-August 2020

Download a PDF

Letters

Health care, St. Louis, pioneering astronomer

President Bacow on Harvard’s history of confronting—and helping conquer—pandemics

What Harvard has already learned from the pandemic—and strategic challenges to come

The College Pump

Photograph of Nelson Mandela receiving honorary degree and University Marshal Rick Hunt

Nelson Mandela, holding his honorary degree, and University Marshal Rick Hunt

Photograph by Jim Harrison

Campus and Commencement without people, social distance, Dr. Fauci, and a meaningful password

Treasure

Envelope of an old letter

Permission to reproduce image from the Earhart Papers granted by the Earhart family. Image courtesy of Schlesinger Library

A wartime life together—cut short

In this Issue

Ethnographer Roberto Gonzales spent 12 years following the lives of undocumented young people.

Photograph by Adam Glanzman

Sociologist Roberto Gonzales on the predicament of undocumented young people

Painted portrait of a man from a Hellenistic coffin found in Egypt

(Click on arrow at right to view full image) No true likeness of Callimachus is known to exist, but the Libyan-born poet probably resembled the men whose faces appear on the Hellenistic coffins unearthed in Fayum, Egypt, including this one.

Photograph by Agis/Alamy Stock Photo

Brief life of a multifaceted poet: c. 310 B.C.E. - c. 240 B.C.E.

Bill Clinton with Yasser Arafat, King Hussein, and Benjamin Netanyahu, October 1, 1996, at the White House

(Click on arrow at right to view additional images)
(1 of 4) Bill Clinton with Yasser Arafat, King Hussein, and Benjamin Netanyahu, October 1, 1996, at the White House

Photograph by Ron Sachs/CNP/Getty Images

On restoring American leadership through diplomacy

A professor sits at a computer whose screen is shooting out a beam of light filled with all sorts of animals and musical instruments

Click on arrow at right to view full illustration

Illustration by Wesley Merritt

A professor’s interstellar reach

Letters

Health care, St. Louis, pioneering astronomer

President Bacow on Harvard’s history of confronting—and helping conquer—pandemics

What Harvard has already learned from the pandemic—and strategic challenges to come

Right Now

Illustration of a dog with a brain made up of different colorful regions depicting skills such as hunting and herding

Illustration by Paul Boston

Researchers hope to tease out the effects of breeding and training on dog brain structure.

Illustration showing Greek pillars to represent democracy made from rolled newspapers. One of the pillars has tipped over and spilled a jumble of letters.

Illustration by Gary Neill

If the press is essential to democracy, what can be done to save news organizations?

Illustration of a woman in a lab coat studying shadows cast by vials of blood, each shadow a readout indicating the presence of a past exposure to a specific pathogen.

Illustration by John Holcroft

A serological test may reveal the COVID-19 virus’s weaknesses—and expose its strategic decoys.

Harvard Squared

People enjoying a wildlife sanctuary

(Click on arrow at right to view additional images)
(1 of 4) Ipswich River Sanctuary (Mass Audubon)

Photograph courtesy of Mass Audubon/Kelly Moffett

Getting away and outside safely this summer

sandy shores at Salisbury Beach State Reservation

Salisbury Beach State Reservation

Photograph by Georgia P. Zumwalt/Alamy Stock Photo

Strict lines in the sand

Views of Boston from the arboretum's Peters Hill

(Click on arrow at right to view additional images)
(1 of 4) Crabapple specimens, with views of Boston, on Peters Hill

Photograph by Jon Hetman/Courtesy of the Arnold Arboretum

Summertime at the Arnold Arboretum

Fresh-baked jam turnovers at Sofra

Sofra's fresh-baked raspberry-rose jam turnovers

Photograph courtesy of Sofra

Cambridge’s Sofra Bakery & Café feeds sheltering crowds.

Photograph of purple flowers

Photograph courtesy of Ben Barkan @homeharvest.grow.food

How to plan your staycation summer

John Harvard's Journal

Massachusetts Hall

Massachusetts Hall
Photograph by Jim Harrison

Harvard’s oldest building at 300

Photograph of Martin Baron

Martin Baron

Screenshot by Harvard Magazine

Details of the virtual degree-conferral ceremonies

Dan Barouch in his Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center laboratory

Dan Barouch

Photograph courtesy of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

The when and how of vaccines

Photograph of Melissa Dell

Melissa Dell

Photograph by Wess Gray/Courtesy of Melissa Dell

“In the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, people in academic institutions like Harvard predominantly studied the U.S. and Europe,” says the development economist.

The factors influencing the fall semester—and beyond

Cartoon showing student pilots flying airplanes above Harvard's campus

Illustration by Mark Steele

Headlines from Harvard’s history

The University adopts a new goal for managing the endowment.

Group of degree candidates from the Design School pose on the steps of Widener for an unofficial Class Day photo.

Photograph courtesy of Jessica Lim

Leadership changes, new sexual-misconduct rules, and more

The general counsel’s report recommended—and prompted—action.

image of a girl in a dark space looking upward as her flashlight illuminates a verdant space ahead

Click on arrow at right to view full image

Illustration by Nicolas Ogonosky

The Undergraduate faces up to a postgraduate life without handrails.

Georgina Milne flies through the air, flipping toward the water.

Georgina Milne tucks and flips, helping Harvard defeat Brown.

Photograph courtesy of Harvard Athletic Communications

Diver Georgina Milne pictures a post-pandemic return.

Montage

The cast of "The Hot Wing King"

The cast of The Hot Wing King

Photograph by Monique Carboni

Playwright Katori Hall on the joy—and trauma—of black life

Multiple small paper tabs, each decorated with a simple line drawing of a different facial expression

Photograph by iStock

Marjorie Garber explores the word’s complexity and history.

Protestors with a large poster demanding reform of the Electoral College

Click on arrow at right to view full image
Photograph by Erik McGregor/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images

Problematic features of the Electoral College

Photograph of composer Paul Moravec

Paul Moravec

Photograph courtesy of Adelphi University

Paul Moravec’s soulful music

Painted fresco of a landscape, from a Roman villa

Landscape from a villa at Boscotrecase—an inventive illustration in Mosaics of Knowledge

Photograph by Sites & Photos/Shmuel Magal/Alamy Stock Photo

Recent books with Harvard connections

Karen Chee holding a flower to her face

Karen Chee

Photograph by Bridget Badore

Comedian Karen Chee finds her voice.

Alumni

Author Gabrielle Zevin seated on a sofa in Los Angeles with her dog Nico

A spontaneous photo of Zevin and her late dog Nico taken on a sofa trashed in Los Angeles. “As soon as we were done, a random guy loaded it into his truck.”

Photograph by Hans Canosa

A prescient novelist is hopeful that “after great change, amazing things can happen.”

Headed to the other Cambridge  

Photos of three Harvard Medalists

David L. Evans, Leila T. Fawaz, and Joseph J. O’Donnell
Photographs from left: HPAC, George Ellmore, and HPAC

For extraordinary service to the University

Pictured are Stephen Cook, Albert Fishlow, Helen Vendler, and Margaret Kivelson

Clockwise from top left: Stephen Cook, Albert Fishlow, Helen Vendler, and Margaret Kivelson. 
Photographs courtesy of Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences’ honorands

The official 2020 slates

The College Pump

Photograph of Nelson Mandela receiving honorary degree and University Marshal Rick Hunt

Nelson Mandela, holding his honorary degree, and University Marshal Rick Hunt

Photograph by Jim Harrison

Campus and Commencement without people, social distance, Dr. Fauci, and a meaningful password

Treasure

Envelope of an old letter

Permission to reproduce image from the Earhart Papers granted by the Earhart family. Image courtesy of Schlesinger Library

A wartime life together—cut short