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A screen shot from the closing moments of the 2020 virtual degree-granting ceremony (a technologically enabled singing of “Fair Harvard”)—an exercise now being replicated in some form for a second consecutive pandemic spring
Harvard Magazine
The 370th degree-conferral will be online for the second consecutive year—with Ruth Simmons as guest speaker.
Kate Murtagh, chief compliance officer and managing director of sustainable investing at Harvard Management Company
Photograph by Stephanie Mitchell, Harvard University.
Harvard Management Company issues its first report on the “net-zero” greenhouse-gas emissions goal.
As expected, the anti-affirmative-action advocate appeals after losing in lower court rounds.
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Noah Evers ’22 and his grandmother Patricia Greenfield ’62, Ph.D. ’66
Photo by Lauren Greenfield ’87
A Harvard grandmother’s—and grandson’s—research
Harvard development partner Tishman Speyer’s proposed massing and configuration of buildings for the first phase of construction on the Enterprise Research Campus in Allston.
From Tishman Speyer's Project Notification Form filing.
Tishman Speyer details the first phase of the “enterprise research campus”—and points to a doubling of the project’s ultimate size.
Roxanne Guenette
Photograph by Stu Rosner
Seeking answers to science’s biggest questions
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Noah Evers ’22 and his grandmother Patricia Greenfield ’62, Ph.D. ’66
Photo by Lauren Greenfield ’87
A Harvard grandmother’s—and grandson’s—research
Tucson, Arizona
Photograph by Sean Pavone/istock
The Undergraduate balances childhood and maturity.
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Noah Evers ’22 and his grandmother Patricia Greenfield ’62, Ph.D. ’66
Photo by Lauren Greenfield ’87
A Harvard grandmother’s—and grandson’s—research
Jeannie Suk Gersen
Photograph by Stu Rosner
Jeannie Suk Gersen on the law, trauma, and “the rhetoric of believing”
Bryant at work, captured in an undated photograph.
Image courtesy of the Museum of Comparative Zoology/Harvard University
Brief life of an underappreciated arachnologist
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Photo courtesy of Didriks.com
Turning your al fresco space into a springtime oasis
A still from The Painter and the Thief
From the filmA short list of fine
documentaries and feature films
Shen Wei in his New York studio, 2014
Photograph by Jeffrey Sturges
“Shen Wei: Painting in Motion,” at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
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A still from The Painter and the Thief
From the filmA short list of fine
documentaries and feature films
Illustration by Alex Williamson.
In a new book, Louis Menand probes the cultural currents of postwar America.
Solomon Gate in its typical open position
At Houghton and Lamont libraries, a creative new entry into the Yard
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David Melly rounds Harvard Stadium. Running the loop counterclockwise, he acknowledges, is controversial.
Photograph by Molly Malone
A legendary route’s disputed distance
An adept passer and gritty defender, Zeng also finished fifth in the Ivy League in service aces.
Photograph by Gil Talbot/Harvard Athletic Communications
Volleyball captain Sandra Zeng’s defensive focus
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Solomon Gate in its typical open position
At Houghton and Lamont libraries, a creative new entry into the Yard
David Melly rounds Harvard Stadium. Running the loop counterclockwise, he acknowledges, is controversial.
Photograph by Molly Malone
A legendary route’s disputed distance
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From the archives
Elizabeth Hinton
Photograph by Stu RosnerColor and Incarceration
Historian Elizabeth Hinton probes the roots of a gathering crisis.
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July-August 2020
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
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
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
(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.
(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 HousePhotograph by Ron Sachs/CNP/Getty Images
On restoring American leadership through diplomacy
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 by Paul Boston
Researchers hope to tease out the effects of breeding and training on dog brain structure.
Illustration by Gary Neill
If the press is essential to democracy, what can be done to save news organizations?
Illustration by John Holcroft
A serological test may reveal the COVID-19 virus’s weaknesses—and expose its strategic decoys.
Harvard Squared
(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
Salisbury Beach State Reservation
Photograph by Georgia P. Zumwalt/Alamy Stock Photo
Strict lines in the sand
(Click on arrow at right to view additional images)
(1 of 4) Crabapple specimens, with views of Boston, on Peters HillPhotograph by Jon Hetman/Courtesy of the Arnold Arboretum
Summertime at the Arnold Arboretum
Sofra's fresh-baked raspberry-rose jam turnovers
Photograph courtesy of Sofra
Cambridge’s Sofra Bakery & Café feeds sheltering crowds.
Photograph courtesy of Ben Barkan @homeharvest.grow.food
How to plan your staycation summer
John Harvard's Journal
Martin Baron
Screenshot by Harvard Magazine
Details of the virtual degree-conferral ceremonies
Dan Barouch
Photograph courtesy of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
The when and how of vaccines
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
The University adopts a new goal for managing the endowment.
The general counsel’s report recommended—and prompted—action.
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 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
Photograph by Monique Carboni
Playwright Katori Hall on the joy—and trauma—of black life
Photograph by iStock
Marjorie Garber explores the word’s complexity and history.
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
Paul Moravec
Photograph courtesy of Adelphi University
Paul Moravec’s soulful music
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
Alumni
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
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
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
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
Permission to reproduce image from the Earhart Papers granted by the Earhart family. Image courtesy of Schlesinger Library
A wartime life together—cut short