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News Briefs
How Harvard Handles Harassment In the wake of the charges of persistent sexual harassment brought against Jorge Domínguez, former Madero professor for the study of Mexico and Harvard’s first vice provost for international affairs, a committee will review …
Issue: November-December 2019
New Vice President for Harvard Library
Amid continuing leadership changes at the Harvard Library during a period of major reorganization, Provost Alan Garber announced on May 20 that Sarah Thomas, who currently directs the University of Oxford’s Bodleian Libraries, will be shifting her office …
Off the Shelf
The Sentinel State: Surveillance and the Survival of Dictatorship in China, by Minxin Pei, Ph.D. ’91 (Harvard, $35). A professor of government at Claremont McKenna details the technology (cameras, AI facial recognition, and phone tracking) and enormous …
Issue: March-April 2024
Retooling Tech Transfer
When physicist Eric Mazur’s research group created a new material called black silicon one day in 1998, he knew right away they were on to something. The material absorbs 50 percent more visible light than regular silicon, making possible uses easy to …
Issue: January-February 2008
Kathleen McCartney Appointed Smith College President
Kathleen McCartney, who became acting dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) in 2005 and dean in 2006, has been named president of Smith College, effective July 1 . During her tenure, she led the creation of a new doctor of education …
Kevin Beasley at the ICA/Boston
Artist Kevin Beasley’s sculptures resonate with what’s not there. He typically uses found objects, from Air Jordans and T-shirts to feathers and amplifiers, and molds them into eerily inhabited shapes or spaces using resin or polyurethane foam. “His work …
Issue: July-August 2018
How Birds Lost Flight
How did emus , ostriches, and kiwis end up flightless? What chain of events resulted in these birds diverging from the species that soar through the air and moving to a wholly terrestrial, and very successful, existence? For a long time, scientists …
Issue: March-April 2024
“This Is a Gift”
“We wanted to make something.” Two months ago, as Sharmila Sen and her colleagues at Harvard University Press (HUP), all working from home, followed the news of demonstrations spreading around the country—and around the globe—to protest racism and police …
Lessons from Libya?
In the spring of 2007, this magazine published a brief news item observing that "Lawrence University Professor Michael Porter, perhaps the world's preeminent corporate strategist, is advising the government of Libya on economic reform." It went on to say …
Alumni Awards
The HAA Clubs and SIGs [Shared Interest Groups] Committee Awards honor individuals who provide exemplary service to a Harvard club or SIG, and recognize clubs and SIGs that have organized exceptional programming. Awards were to be presented to the …
Issue: March-April 2012
“Here and Then Gone”
In playwright Bess Wohl’s work—sweet and sharp and sad, and often darkly funny—something important is usually missing. In American Hero, it is the owner of a new sandwich franchise who mysteriously disappears, leaving his employees to drift between …
Issue: January-February 2019
Harvard Will Guarantee Staff Pay and Benefits Past June 28
Harvard will guarantee pay and benefits to staff members whose work has been idled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, such as dining and custodial workers, beyond its previously set date of June 28, executive vice president Katie Lapp announced in an email …
Ashton Carter Named Deputy Secretary of Defense
The White House has nominated Ashton B. Carter, the Pentagon’s top weapons buyer, as the next deputy secretary of defense, reports the Boston Globe . The Obama administration noted that Carter’s nomination indicates the importance the White House places …
Historic Threads
By the time the talented and shrewd Samuel Slater arrived in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, in 1790, the race to mechanize was on. Groups of carpenters and mechanics, funded by businessmen, were urgently trying to move beyond hand- and animal-power —to catch up …
Issue: May-June 2020
Rebooting Online Education
Editor’s note: This article was reported before students left campus and the University pivoted to remote teaching , effective with the end of spring recess on March 23 ( a huge effort highlighted by President Lawrence S. Bacow: see his letter , here). …
Issue: May-June 2020