November-December 2024

On the cover: Illustration by Gary Neill

Letters

Cambridge 02138

Letters on academic freedom, reading, the science of sociability, and more

An Academic Agenda

How the administration might pursue Harvard’s core mission, pare bureaucracy, and promote Veritas

November-December 2024

November-December 2024

On the cover: Illustration by Gary Neill

Features

Home Unaffordable Home

America’s housing problem—and what to do about it

by Jonathan Shaw

When Technology and Society Clash

Latanya Sweeney confronts our all-consuming “technocracy.”

by Lydialyle Gibson

The End of the Ivy League?

College sports are changing. Will Harvard athletics?

by Max J. Krupnick

Thomas Wentworth Higginson

Brief life of an activist for freedom: 1823-1911

by John Nelson

RIGHT NOW Harvard research and ideas

How the Mind Assigns Meaning to Words

New research on how the brain uses sounds to form words and create meaning.

Why Ivy Athletes Score in Careers

How does undergraduate participation in varsity sports enhance career success?

Predicting Viral Variants and Vaccine Cures

Biomedical researchers are using AI to survey the viral landscape.

John Harvard's Journal University news

Smooth Start

Exhortations to civil discourse, training in how to talk together—and plenty of new campus rules

Pamelyn Bennett

Harvard Law School's "fairy godmother" on hospitality

Yesterday's News

From the pages of the Harvard Alumni Bulletin and Harvard Magazine

News in Brief

Provost appointed, College dean and University Secretary to step down, admissions after affirmative action, and more

Learning Curve

New coach, new season, and early football ups and downs

Montage Books, creative arts, performance and more

Maps of the World

The surreal, artistic cartography of Darren Sears

A Fictional Century

A book about books—and the protagonist is the twentieth-century novel itself.

What You Can Say, Singing

Liv Redpath’s operatic trajectory

A Moral Victory

A new history of the Civil War's Battle of Antietam

Off the Shelf

Books about the art and science of eating, on being Zen, helping youngsters grow up, and more

Harvard, H.H.R., Houghton

Invaluable architectural archive published at last

Harvard Squared What to do in Boston, Cambridge and beyond

The Boston Camerata Turns 70

Celebrating early music

Dancers Respond to “This Crazy Time”

Exploring emotional connections and the climate crisis 

Creative Ventures

Shopping locally for the holidays

Holiday Decorating on Steroids

Newport’s mansions further festooned

Urban Enchantment

Spend a holiday overnight in the city, with teas, trees, and festive toasts.

University People Harvardians far and wide

Provocative Politician

South Korea’s Lee Junseok tries to break old binaries.

Harvard Alumni Association Honorands

Six alumni have been recognized for their outstanding service to the University.

Gilbert and Sullivan, Today

Students adapt the operettas to changing times.

The Will of the Donor

How gifts shape student experiences, in often unseen ways