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“I Want to Hear About You”
President Lawrence S. Bacow opened last Friday’s Harvard Initiative for Learning and Teaching (HILT) conference —convened this year over Zoom—by talking about vulnerability, human connection, and the coronavirus’s disruptions of everyday routines. …
Immigrant Workers— America’s Engine?
Immigration is one of the most polarizing issues of the 2024 presidential election campaign—but not a new point of contention in America politics. From the late nineteenth through the early twentieth centuries, waves of immigrants, mainly from Europe, …
Brevia
Spotlight on Slavery On April 6—drawing on research conducted by the student-inspired Harvard and Slavery Project—Corporation Senior Fellow William F. Lee , President Drew Faust , and U.S. Representative John R. Lewis , LL.D. ’12, spoke to an audience at …
Issue: July-August 2016
The Fish in Harvard Square
In the middle of Harvard Square, with pedestrians bustling by, there’s a fish sitting in a bathtub. He’s patient, watching everything unfold from behind a window. His name is Septimus, and he’s a sculptural character within Tired Clichés , a solo …
“O” for Opportunity
Imagine, against all the evidence, that the Supreme Court, which is hearing arguments on October 31 in the anti-affirmative-action lawsuits Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) has brought against Harvard and the University of North Carolina , rules for …
Issue: November-December 2022
Advancing the Allston Enterprise Campus
The University announced today that Steven D. Fessler will become head of enterprise real estate, effective April 18. The appointment to this new position signals progress toward developing a 36-acre Allston parcel designated for development of an …
Fall Comes into Focus
When students begin arriving in Cambridge, about three weeks hence, they will enter a community temporarily transformed by the coronavirus. The College announced on July 6 that only about 40 percent of the 6,700 undergraduates would be permitted to be in …
Flocking Together
Lila’s Mountain Farm sits in a scenic corner of western Massachusetts, on rolling pastures with sweeping views of the Berkshires. In early February, during lambing season, snowstorms and a cold snap have turned the fields into icy white plateaus. Winds …
Issue: May-June 2025
The Uses of Discomfort
“As we sit here tonight, we are not just spectators, but active participants,” Roeshana Moore-Evans, executive director of the Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery Initiative, told those gathered Tuesday evening at the Cambridge Public Library for the first in …
The Professor Who Quantified Democracy
In the weeks and months after Donald Trump’s second inauguration, the number “3.5 percent” kept showing up—like a mantra, or maybe a prayer—in different corners of the internet. It was repeated in social media posts, long Reddit threads, online …
Issue: July-August 2025
Cambridge 02138
Elena Kagan in Dissent I got a good laugh out of the recent article on “ Justice Elena Kagan, in Dissent ” (November-December 2022, page 28). For many people, the Court lost its legitimacy 60 years ago when the Warren Court started making up rights out of …
Issue: January-February 2023
Why Can’t We Move?
The nomination of Boston as the U.S. host city for the 2024 summer Olympics preceded much public discussion of the potential benefits and costs. Andrew Zimbalist, Ph.D. ’74, is perhaps the foremost analyst of public investments in sports facilities and …
Issue: July-August 2015
FAS Details Debt, Financial Challenges
In preparation for a faculty meeting on December 9, Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) dean Michael D. Smith released an " FAQ About the Endowment " on December 5. It follows up and considerably extends the discussion and questions raised at the November …
Harvard Basketball's Sibling Stars
On a Friday this October, Mason ’22 and McKenzie ’23 Forbes were standing outside Lavietes Pavilion, bobbing to music and smiling as their friends played cornhole and noshed on pizza. With temperatures lingering in the 60s, it seemed as though they could …
The Causes of Long COVID
Although Americans have survived more than 93 million cases of COVID-19, the disease is not yet fully understood. And for an estimated 10 to 30 percent of those afflicted, the unanswered questions are even more vexing, because their recovery has not been …
Issue: September-October 2022