Search
What to Expect
As the summer solstice approaches on June 20—the sun high, with shadows sharp and short—shadows of a different kind loom over the University and its community, as a fall semester unlike any other draws nearer. People across Harvard are working furiously …
Oscar Does a Plié to Natalie Portman
Natalie Portman ’03, star of the film Black Swan, recently profiled in Harvard Magazine, won the 2011 Academy Award for best actress. Portman played a driven, tortured ballerina in the tense psychological thriller, directed by Darren Aronofsky ’91, who …
Can Disinformation Be Stopped?
“Stop the Steal” was first trotted out during the 2016 Republican primaries. As the Republican National Convention approached, Donald Trump’s campaign consultant Roger Stone coined the phrase, urging people to resist the allegedly corrupt “establishment” …
Issue: July-August 2021
In Defense of Academic Freedom
“These are complicated days,” said Howard Georgi, Mallinckrodt professor of physics, on Tuesday morning, as he welcomed the audience in Sanders Theatre to the 231st Phi Beta Kappa (PBK) Literary Exercises, which marks the traditional start to Commencement …
The End of Shopping Week
During their last regular meeting of the academic year, on May 3, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences voted by a 3:2 margin to replace the “shopping” period—the beginning-of-term week in which students sample courses before making their selections—with a …
Issue: July-August 2022
Alice Hamilton
When Alice Hamilton arrived at Harvard in 1919, the University had never admitted a woman to the faculty. Not everyone was happy she was there. Her male colleagues congratulated her with gritted smiles and asked her to confirm that she would not use the …
Issue: May-June 2025
The Context: Affirmative Action and Harvard
This is the seventh post of "The Context"—a biweekly series of archival stories—offering our readers a useful background to some of the most important subjects in the news today. We hope you enjoy it. “Can Affirmative Action Survive?” That’s the …
When free isn't free...
During its first century, Harvard Magazine was, well, a magazine. But since 1996 we’ve tried to serve you by becoming, as well: a website a vigorous online news source (with timely articles reported and edited to our highest standards) an email …
“The Heart of Teaching”
Howard Gardner ’65, Ph.D. ’71, first walked through Radcliffe Yard, where he today addressed the Graduate School of Education’s class of 2024, as a College freshman in 1961. Since then, the Hobbs research professor of cognition and education reflected, …
Brevia
… funding course development; it plans universal coverage by 2025.…Brown University has announced BrownConnect, to make …
Issue: January-February 2015
A Gift of Munch Artworks
A bequest from Philip A. Straus ’37 and his wife Lynn G. Straus of 62 prints and two paintings by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch (1863-1944) has made the Harvard Art Museums’ collection of that artist’s work “one of the largest and most significant” in the …
Harvard Adopts Quantitative Reasoning, Studies Preregistration
Facing an unusually full agenda during its last full meeting of the academic year, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) this afternoon: legislated a new committee to “improve the current system” of undergraduate course registration; adopted the …
Wheat and War in Ukraine
In 1933, Joseph Stalin engineered a genocide that led to the death by starvation of an estimated four million Ukrainians. Stalin set unreachable grain production quotas on farmers, and then, when the quotas were not met, confiscated all the grain to feed …
Addressing Disability
The voices of disabled Harvard community members are finding new strength amidst a recent surge in student- and alumni-led accessibility initiatives. Last year, students across the University formed The Harvard Student Alliance for Disability Action, and …
Harvard’s Lowered Voice
In late May , when Harvard adopted the recommendation of its Institutional Voice Working Group —that the University and its leaders should not make official statements about public matters that do not directly affect the core academic functions of …