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Transforming Portraiture and the World
Intimidating, stoic, yet somehow accessible, Nobel laureate and novelist Toni Morrison, Litt.D. ’89, emerges from the white background of a painting by contemporary portraitist Robert McCurdy. According to a new exhibition catalogue published by the …
Standing Out, United
Briana Acosta, M.P.H. ’23, is used to sticking out. As “one of a handful” of low-income students on financial aid at her private high school in Houston and one of its only students of color, Acosta said she struggled with “really feeling out of place”—a …
A Lover of All Things English
Even as a young literature student at Harvard, Erin Moore ’98 already yearned to be on the other side of the Atlantic, where the authors she studied lived, breathed, and wrote. In junior year, long before the College institutionalized study-abroad …
Issue: September-October 2015
Harvard President Claudine Gay Testifies Before Congress
On October 7 , hours after Hamas’s terroristic assault on Israel, a coalition of more than 30 Harvard student groups released a statement holding “the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence.” The now-infamous letter—and the three …
A Soft Bot That Jumps
For most people , the word “robot” conjures up the image of a lumbering metallic machine. Now, researchers report that they can fabricate robots with the exact opposite features—soft, pliant, and mobile—using 3-D printing. Today in Science, researchers at …
Yesterday’s News
1919 Alice Hamilton is appointed assistant professor of industrial medicine, becoming the first woman to hold a professorial position at the University. 1939 A negotiated agreement on raises ends the threat of a strike by dining hall workers, and the …
Issue: March-April 2024
Beyond the Transcript
Last year, Harvard's senior admissions officers urged applicants to the College-- and their parents--to relax a little, lest the rising generation of undergraduates pursue achievement so relentlessly that they end up burning out prematurely ("Harvard to …
Issue: November-December 2001
Olives Revisited
Since its opening in 1989, Olives' high-end Mediterranean cuisine has made a big splash in Boston. The restaurant has now spun off a chain of upscale outposts in Las Vegas, Washington, D.C., and Aspen. Recently we visited the flagship establishment to …
The Buddies in the Boat
For almost 50 years , this has been Garrett Olmsted’s recurring dream: “I’m back at Harvard,” said the former Crimson lightweight oarsman, “and I go down to the boathouse. And at first they don’t notice that I’m 30 or 40 or however old I am.” Olmsted ’68, …
Admissions Equity
Several years ago, a journalist at Harvard as a Nieman Fellow whispered a pitch for what he thought an explosive story: that Harvard gave admissions preference to “legacies”—children of alumni. I knew that, I replied. I had in mind M. Elaine Mar’s vivid …
Issue: November-December 2006
Harvard Square Blooms Again
After two quiet years, Harvard Square comes alive with Commencement, hosting ceremonies and celebrations from Monday, May 23, until Friday, June 3. Happily, there are plenty of new shops, restaurants, and diversions in the Square, too—so what better time …
Issue: May-June 2022
A Democracy of Opportunity
Franklin D. Roosevelt, A.B. 1904, LL.D. ’29, opened his 1936 campaign for a second term as president by pressing to rebuild the United States as “a democracy of opportunity.” At the Democratic National Convention, FDR decried the way the nation’s …
Issue: January-February 2022
Rallying Cries
A s the United States struggles with unauthorized immigration, and the administration of President Donald J. Trump sharply constricts legal means of entry, such as appeals for asylum, political counter-forces have been mobilizing. In New York City, the …
Issue: March-April 2020
Challenges to Harvard’s President: An Update
The following are developments since the confrontational Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) meeting following the announcement of the forthcoming resignation of Dean William C. Kirby. At that meeting, faculty members criticized President Lawrence H. …
“A More Perfect Heaven”
By his thirties , Nicolaus Copernicus had developed a theory that would turn the universe inside out, but for three decades, he kept his ideas almost entirely to himself. As a young man, he had formulated a mathematical model that placed the sun, rather …