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Tackling Teaching and Learning
For the third time in a decade, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) is addressing its educational mission. During the December 7 faculty meeting, dean Michael D. Smith talked at length about “teaching and learning,” initiating both a website dedicated …
Issue: March-April 2011
The Economic Agenda
I have been privileged to watch the 10 previous presidential elections closely. In the course of each of them, it was said that this was a uniquely important presidential election—that the country was at a turning point, that the decisions that were going …
Issue: September-October 2008
India's Promise
Things have never been as good for India as they appear to be today. Its economy has grown by nearly 6 percent annually for the past quarter-centuryvirtually unprecedented for any sizable democratic polity. In contrast to the near-famine conditions …
Issue: July-August 2005
Brevia
Vanishing Visas Post-9/11 delays in granting visas for foreign nationals intending to study in the United States have begun to inhibit the flow of talent to universities, particularly in the sciences. Applications are down by 10 percent or more at most of …
Issue: July-August 2004
The Mirage of Knowledge
Several years ago , Tom Nichols started writing a book about ignorance and unreason in American public discourse—and then he watched it come to life all around him, in ways starker than he had imagined. A political scientist who has taught for more than a …
Issue: March-April 2018
A Nation, Building
On a recent Monday morning, during a class on global trade, the professor reviewed the effects of nations’ limits on such commerce: tariffs, quotas, and the “voluntary” restraints exporting countries impose on their shipments to eager customers (lest …
Issue: May-June 2014
The Constancy of Change
Great Universities endure —in the United States, none more so than Harvard. It is startling to read through the list of 102 academic symposiums presented during the University’s 350th anniversary extravaganza and to recognize how many of the participants …
Issue: September-October 2011
Teaching Humanities at West Point
When President Drew Faust visits the United States Military Academy at West Point today, she is scheduled to meet with an interdisciplinary colloquium of faculty and staff members who have been reading her acclaimed 2008 book, This Republic of Suffering: …
Girl Power
When Dan Kindlon watches the Tigers play softball, he sees the legacy of feminism for girls. “My daughter’s concentrating on catching the ball, and this other girl just slams into her, slides under,” he recalls. “Julia got hurt a little bit, she got …
Issue: January-February 2008
Cambridge 02138
ART MUSEUMS IN A NEW WORLD As aformer student in Harvard's fine arts department and now a professorof art history, I eagerly read Janet Tassel's " Reverence for the Object "(September-October, page 48) on the program and its influence ongenerations of art …
Issue: November-December 2002
New Social Entrepreneurs
Graduating seniors are “definitely interested in making an impact on the world,” says Robin Mount, director of Harvard’s Office of Career Services. “They are poised to combine fresh ways of approaching a problem, including using digital and technological …
Issue: January-February 2013
Designs for a New India
There are two Hyderabads. One, a historic city in the heart of India, established with a hilltop fort built by Hindu rulers in the fourteenth century, is rich with ancient palaces, tombs, and mosques built by the Muslim rulers who came later. The other is …
Issue: May-June 2012
Analysis: Pedagogy, Practice, and Teaching Innovation at Harvard
By chance, the Boston Globe on October 16 ran comments by President Faust and her three predecessors on the occasion of Harvard’s 375th anniversary, looking ahead to its 400th. Focusing on a theme he has sounded for decades, Derek Bok , president from …
The Corporation’s 360-Year Tune-Up
The Harvard Corporation’s self-review of its operations and organization- -begun in 2009 and first disclosed to the community that December 15 by President Drew Faust --has culminated in a series of measures to modernize and, in part, refocus the work of …
Issue: January-February 2011
Twenty-eighth, and First
Honored historian, seasoned scholar steeped in universities’ distinctive role, adept academic administrator—Drew Gilpin Faust forcefully took possession of her Harvard presidency during inaugural celebrations and a formal installation ceremony on October …
Issue: November-December 2007