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Your independent source for Harvard news since 1898

January-February 2022

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Letters

Endowment litigation, food waste, western Massachusetts

President Bacow on Harvard Divinity School

Recognizing writers and artists for distinguished work during 2021

Time for greater Harvard transparency

The College Pump

Photo of new book on Harvard and Radcliffe presidents

  

Professors’ humble beginnings, concentration choices, and a mini history of Harvard and Radcliffe presidents

Treasure

Newspaper illustration depicts Richard P. Robinson fleeing Helen Jewett's murder scene

Graphic illustrations helped sensationalize the case.

Image courtesy of Harvard Law School Library

Helen Jewett and the origin of American murder media

In this Issue

Photo of Bloody Sunday during voting rights march, Selma, Alabama

From the inconic Selma-Montgomery voting-rights marches, 1965: Bloody Sunday, as state police attack marchers at the Edmund Pettus Bridge, beating John Lewis, LL.D. ’12 (on ground)

Photograph by Bettmann/Contributor/Getty Images

Tomiko Brown-Nagin’s bifocal view of the civil-rights movement

Portrait of Adamantios Korais on a 100 drachmas banknote, 1978

Portrait of Adamantios Korais, classicist and supporter of political liberalism, on a 100 drachmas banknote, 1978

Image by Ivan Vdovin/Alamy Stock Photo

Brief life of a leader of the Greek Enlightenment: 1748-1833

Charles Duhigg at home.

Photograph of Charles Duhigg by Glenn Matsumura 

Charles Duhigg unpacks how individuals and organizations work at war, on Wall Street, and in Silicon Valley

Portrait of Donald Hall 2014

Donald Hall in 2014

Photograph by Maundy Mitchell

Donald Hall, chronicler of life

Letters

Endowment litigation, food waste, western Massachusetts

President Bacow on Harvard Divinity School

Recognizing writers and artists for distinguished work during 2021

Time for greater Harvard transparency

Right Now

Illustratio of a man sleeping on a mattress made of stacks of dollars.

Illustration by Blair Kelly

High savings rates among the wealthiest U.S. earners may represent a macroeconomic risk

Illustration of a watering can irrigating a city to make it healthy

Illustration by Eva Vazquez

Inequities threaten the long-term health of cities

Illustration of a human head benefitting from exercise

Illustration by Stuart Kinlough/ Lemonade Illustration Agency

The hormone irisin, promising as a therapeutic against Alzheimer’s and dementia, is responsible for the cognitive benefits of exercise.

Harvard Squared

View of the two-tiered interior of the Armenian museum

The impressive two-tiered modern interior of the Armenian Museum of America

Photograph courtesy of the Armenian Museum of America

A museum reflects an ancient civilization and the modern global diaspora.

View of the exhibit “Candice Lin: Seeping, Rotting, Resting, Weeping”

Photograph by Awa Mally/courtesy of Walker Art Center

Candice Lin’s otherworldly refuge

Blue sky, wintry day with snow on the ground and snow on maple tree branches

A wintry sugar maple tree

Photograph courtesy of Mass Audubon

Getting outside and enjoying the New England’s winter season

Photo Courtesy of @newbalancerunning

Wellness and physical fitness destinations in the Cambridge area and beyond

John Harvard's Journal

Wideout Kym Wimberly hauls in Luke Emge’s third-down, last-seconds, no-timeouts pass to secure Harvard’s thrilling 31-27 victory in The Game.

Bulldog Backbreaker: Wideout Kym Wimberly hauls in Luke Emge’s third-down, last-seconds, no-timeouts pass to secure Harvard’s thrilling 31-27 victory in The Game. 

Photograph by Nathan Klima

The Crimson’s final win should have clinched an Ivy championship.

Lauren Williams

Lauren Williams
Photograph by Jim Harrison

Williams feels at home researching underexplored subjects.

Chart of Harvard Management Company endowment allocation and returns by asset class

Robust financial results despite the pandemic, and historic endowment returns

Portrait of Claudine Gay, dean of Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences

Claudine Gay

Photograph courtesy of Harvard Public Affairs and Communications

Better results than expected during the pandemic, and a sweeping effort to plan for academic improvements

Illustration of a collegiate hero, per Theodore Roosevelt in 1907

Illustration by Mark Steele

Headlines from Harvard’s history

Legacies challenged, campus sustainability, affirmative-action litigation, and honored scientists

Image of Giant Magellan Telescope design

Image courtesy of the Giant Magellan Telescope/GMTO Corporation

No more Harvard Teacher Fellows, universities and slavery, and more

Illustration by Olivia Holden

Food has always been a contentious topic among undergraduates.

Montage

Celia Pym at work with a needle and thread

Celia Pym at work in her studio

Portrait by Michele Panzeri

Textile artist Celia Pym knits meaning into mended clothes.

Photo of anti-vaccination protest, Los Angeles, October 12, 2021

October 12, 2021: protesting the Los Angeles Unified School District’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate

Hans Gutknecht/MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images

Steven Pinker on rationality

World War II domestic propaganda posters urge civilian compliance with rationing

As domestic posters suggest, civilian compliance with World War II constraints was neither automatic nor universal.

Public Domain

Elizabeth Samet, of West Point, reinterprets the American understanding of World War II.

Carter Burwell

Photograph by Kevin Leighton

The ingenious, intuitive film scores of Carter Burwell ’77

Rudy Ruiz

Rudy Ruiz

Photograph courtesy of Rudy Ruiz

Author Rudy Ruiz carries on his Mexican-American family’s storytelling tradition.

Portrait of Harvard Law professor and author Randall Kennedy

Randall Kennedy’s essays address “complex and messy” social and racial issues.

Photograph by Atephanie Nitchel/HPAC

Recent books with Harvard connections

Illustration showing U.S. flag pulled different directions by an oligarch and ordinary citizens

Illustration by Robert Neubecker

Liberals must learn from conservatives how to interpret the Constitution in all its dimensions.

Alumni

One “beautiful” encounter set Michael Stanley on his own humane path to neurology and writing.

Photograph by Jim Harrison

Michael Stanley and the covenant of medicine

Harvard alumni in their Commencement day finery preparing for the traditional alumni parade

The traditional alumni parade will remain an enjoyable part of the new celebration. (This photo was taken in 2014.) 

Photograph by Kris Snibbe/Harvard Public Affairs and Communications

Changes afoot for Harvard’s annual alumni meeting

The College Pump

Photo of new book on Harvard and Radcliffe presidents

  

Professors’ humble beginnings, concentration choices, and a mini history of Harvard and Radcliffe presidents

Treasure

Newspaper illustration depicts Richard P. Robinson fleeing Helen Jewett's murder scene

Graphic illustrations helped sensationalize the case.

Image courtesy of Harvard Law School Library

Helen Jewett and the origin of American murder media