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Sarah Jessica Parker Speaks at Harvard Law School Class Day 2016
“KnoW THAT LISTENING is your secret weapon,” award-winning actor and humanitarian Sarah Jessica Parker told imminent Harvard Law School (HLS) graduates and their families on Class Day. The earnest speech was delivered before an international crowd of …
When Water Is Safer Than Land
“.… you have to understand, that no one puts their children in a boat unless the water is safer than the land….” Warsan Shire, “Home” The jubilation that accompanied the brief flowering of the Arab Spring is long gone …
Issue: January-February 2016
An Earlier Bid for Mastery
New genetic knowledge may let us manipulate our nature: beef up our muscles, brush up our memory, make designer children. What’s wrong with that? Bass professor of government Michael J. Sandel proposes an answer in The Case against Perfection: Ethics in …
Issue: May-June 2007
In "Art of Jazz," A Multivocal Exhibit
In the front hall of the Cooper Gallery on Mount Auburn Street, what appear to be two bubble-shaped lanterns hang from the ceiling—but instead of beaming down light to illuminate the art, they pipe in music for visitors standing beneath. In the rooms …
The University in “Contentious Times”
President Lawrence S. Bacow, speaking at Emmanuel College, Cambridge University (John Harvard’s alma mater, in 1632), on January 25 addressed the challenge of maintaining universities as places for honest, thoughtful inquiry at a time of both external …
An Exchange of Violence
“Before I saw the guns, I saw the wounds.” That’s how anthropologist Ieva Jusionyte—who spent years working as a paramedic along the United States-Mexico border—described her earliest encounters with the devastating effects of the U.S. gun industry on …
The Data on Drama
History catalogs failure far less frequently than success—and sometimes, says assistant professor of English Derek Miller, that is a mistake. Miller, who studies theatrical history, is engaged in an experimental project he calls Visualizing Broadway that …
Issue: November-December 2015
Harvard Corporation Rules Thirteen Students Cannot Graduate
On Monday, during the Faculty of Arts and Sciences’ meeting on students’ eligibility to receive their degrees, members voted that 13 students found by the College’s Administrative Board to have violated University policies during their pro-Palestinian …
Improvised Cuisine
It sounds odd —quite odd, actually—for a sandwich. Two slices of sourdough bread emerge from a toaster, then one gets slathered with peanut butter. Nothing surprising so far. But then a layer of pickle chips covers the nut butter, followed by a drizzle of …
Issue: September-October 2021
No Surprises
The Harvard University Financial Report for the fiscal year ended last June 30 appears to fulfill administrators’ hopes: it conveys essentially no surprises. In this, the mid-October report contrasts sharply with the fiscal 2009 version, which disclosed …
Issue: January-February 2011
What Does the Arctic Circle Sound Like?
Vocalist and composer Claire Dickson ’19 was on a tall ship in the Arctic Circle when she composed the first song on her debut album, Starland . It was October 2019, and the Arctic was in all-day sunset, the sun never clearing the horizon. The boat, which …
Tough Love
Editor's Note: Nicholas Dawidoff '85 has just published The Fly Swatter: How My Grandfather Made His Way in the World , a richly detailed portrait of Alexander Gerschenkron, the economic historian who was a member of the Harvard faculty from 1948, when he …
Issue: July-August 2002
Controversial Reunioner
The urbane Ernst "Putzi" Hanfstaengl '09 was Hitler's crony and foreign press chief during the Führer's ascendancy, and played the piano for him soothingly. He later fell out of favor and fled to the United States, where he worked against the Nazis for …
Issue: September-October 2004
Who Let the Dogs Out?
The Yale bulldog, muzzled by Harvard for five straight years, broke loose at the Stadium on November 18 and went on a tear. Closing out an Ivy League season made memorable by the exploits of Crimson running back Clifton Dawson, Yale’s 34-13 victory gave …
Issue: January-February 2007
Thank the Rich for Low Rates?
Could wealth accumulation by the rich in the United States have contributed to a savings glut so great that it has forced down interest rates? The inexplicably low cost of borrowing that has persisted worldwide for nearly two decades is often attributed …
Issue: January-February 2022