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Will Cities Survive Another Pandemic?
F or most of human history, the link between cities and disease was deadly obvious. In 430 B.C.E, the Plague of Athens presaged the city-state’s downfall. Centuries later, when the bubonic plague spread from London to the Caspian Sea, it decimated …
Issue: January-February 2022
Events
THEATER. The American Repertory Theatre presents The Glass Menagerie, by Tennessee Williams, at the Loeb Drama Center from June 19 through July 11. For tickets and showtimes, call 617-547-8300 or visit www.amrep.org. The Harvard-Radcliffe Summer Theatre …
Curating a More Diverse Campus Environment
After more than a year of study and surveys, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) Task Force on Visual Culture and Signage released its report today, with a series of recommendations for achieving a physical campus that better represents Harvard’s …
Financing Climate Adaptation—and Deciding What to Let Go
What will happen when sea-level rise, wildfires, droughts, and floods begin to erode the tax base that cities and towns will use to pay for seawalls, firebreaks, and other expensive projects that could help them prepare for climate change? Financial …
Kennedy School Professor, Two Alumnae Receive the National Humanities Medal
Political scientist Robert Putnam , former dean and now Malkin professor of public policy at Harvard Kennedy School, whose works include the bestseller Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community , was awarded the National Humanities …
Harvard Public Health Dean Julio Frenk to Depart
Julio Frenk , who became dean of the Harvard School of Public Health (as it was then known) in January 2009 , has been appointed president of the University of Miami (UM), succeeding Donna Shalala, who announced her plan to retire last September . UM made …
Sven Beckert Wins Bancroft Prize in History
Bell professor of history Sven Beckert has won a 2015 Bancroft Prize in history for his book Empire of Cotton: A Global History , the trustees of Columbia University announced this afternoon. His fellow winner is Greg Grandin, a professor at New York …
Getting General Education Right?
Following a review committee’s sharp criticisms of the undergraduate General Education curriculum (Gen Ed) published last spring, its chair, Martignetti professor of philosophy Sean Kelly, on December 1 briefed the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) on …
Michelle Yeoh’s Three Tips for Success
Against the backdrop of Harvard Law School’s (HLS) Langdell Hall—where the HLS class of 2023 spent countless hours studying—Academy Award-winning actress and Class Day speaker Michelle Yeoh shared a guide to “jumping into voids.” Most know Yeoh from her …
A Cucumber Coil Conundrum
The cucumber tendril has long fascinated observant gardeners. This specialized plant stem grows straight at first—until it reaches the nearest trellis or fence post. Then it changes shape, wrapping around the object, twisting into tiny coils, and gaining …
Issue: March-April 2013
Off the Shelf
Picasso’s War: How Modern Art Came to America, by Hugh Eakin ’96 (Crown, $32.99). This learned, brilliantly written account explains how the European avant-garde came to captivate the American elite—as now embodied in that “hegemonic empire of art and …
Issue: November-December 2022
Football Star Justice Shelton-Mosley to Transfer
Call him Commodore Shelton-Mosley. Taking advantage of major college football’s so-called “graduate-transfer rule,” Justice Shelton-Mosley ’19, who in three-plus seasons at Harvard became one of the school’s greatest kick returners and wide receivers, …
A Broadcast Cornucopia
There may not be another radio station in America that would air a show like the one WHRB (95.3 FM) broadcast in February of 2013: an hour and a half of music with no song longer than one minute. “It was the most stressful 90 minutes of my life,” says …
Issue: September-October 2015
Rowing for Boston
Competition was intense at the Women’s Crew Beanpot this past Sunday on the Charles River, but there were no team colors in sight. Spurred by the Boston Marathon bombings, 225 rowers from six area schools rallied around the efforts of Harvard-Radcliffe …
“Made It: The Women Who Revolutionized Fashion”
The Peabody Essex Museum’s newest exhibit opens with a white T-shirt—intended not for a jog in the park, but as a call to action. Bearing the silver-lettered message “we should all be feminists,” borrowed from Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s …
Issue: January-February 2021