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Princess Not-So-Charming
“Fairy tales have always tapped into the subconscious, bringing to light children’s deepest fears,” says Soman Chainani ’01. In his new fantasy-adventure novel, The School for Good and Evil, he has brought that tenet into the twenty-first century. The …
Issue: May-June 2013
Divest Harvard Makes Case for Dropping Fossil Fuels
A group of University community members—faculty, alumni, and the student group Divest Harvard—urged the University to divest its endowment from fossil fuels at a press conference in the Charles Hotel yesterday. The event marked the start of this year’s …
Off the Shelf
Interop, by John Palfrey ’94, J.D. ’01, and Urs Gasser, LL.M. ’03 (Basic Books, $28.99). Palfrey, formerly of the Law School and now headmaster of Phillips Academy Andover, and Gasser, executive director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, …
Issue: September-October 2012
Of Dumplings, Bok Choy, and the Politics of Emoji
In 2015, inspiration struck Jennifer 8. Lee ’99 like an apple from Newton’s tree. In her case, though, it was a dumpling. Lee and her friend Yiying Lu were texting about upcoming dinner plans. Lee sent over a picture of dumplings, and Lu went to her …
Peacemakers
If there is going to be a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," says Robert H. Mnookin, "the rough outlines of what the deal might be are not terribly difficult to sketch out. A number of people in recent years have done this." He …
Issue: March-April 2004
Reefs at Risk
Contemporary photographs by David Arnold Shallow-water coral reefs are best known for their beauty, and as home to rafts of colorful fish. That these complex ecosystems support a quarter of all marine species is less commonly appreciated. If the …
Issue: July-August 2011
Shaina Taub Shares Suffragists in Song
New York Times music critic Stephen Holden’s line about Shaina Taub—that she is a gravitational force “around whom others cluster like filings to a magnet”—came powerfully to mind on Monday night inside the Radcliffe Institute’s Knafel Center, where the …
Coming Apart Together
Like many writers , Shane McCrae, J.D. ’07, remembers clearly when he first took an interest in words, when the urge—and then the need—to write first grabbed him. It happened all at once, on October 25, 1990. He was 15 years old, living in Aloha, Oregon, …
Issue: November-December 2018
Cambridge 02138
The Power Problem Part of the problem in energizing a passive public about the carbon problem is that the term “global warming” is too tame. It hasn’t motivated people like me to acknowledge the severity and immediacy, yet solubility, of the problem. In …
Issue: July-August 2006
“Little Shards of Dissonance”
At some point , while preparing for the Rockport Chamber Music Festival, Davóne Tines ’09 and Michael Shachter ’09 were freshly struck by their circumstances. Their piece Were You There , a musical meditation on racial violence, starts with Handel and …
Issue: September-October 2018
Allston Agonistes
For three decades, “Allston” has represented what an investor might consider Harvard’s ultimate option. It is the way for an increasingly built-out, landlocked institution nearing its 400th anniversary to continue to dream and grow. But at some point, the …
Issue: September-October 2018
Highbrow Lingerie
Lingerie and literature don’t come together that often, but when naming her intimates brand, fashion designer Laura Mehlinger ’01 turned to Vladimir Nabokov. Lola Haze™ alludes to Lolita , the subject of Mehlinger’s senior honors thesis in English. “Lola” …
Issue: May-June 2010
Are Animals “Things”?
Jeremy and Kathryn Medlen have two children, but with eight-year-old Avery around, it often felt like three. A beloved mixed-breed mutt with flopped-forward Labrador ears, Avery was a member of the family, welcome on the couch, included on vacations, a …
Issue: March-April 2016
Lafayette 35, Harvard 18
With Halloween still two weeks away, hobgoblins were at play in Harvard Stadium on Saturday. Taking full advantage of early Harvard turnovers, dropped passes, and penalties at critical junctures, a determined Lafayette squad built a 28-3 halftime lead and …
Reforming Misdemeanors
Thirteen million times each year, American prosecutors file criminal misdemeanor charges. These crimes are often described as “minor,” ranging from “victimless crimes” (jaywalking and loitering) to harmful infractions (domestic violence and drunk …
Issue: January-February 2025