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Being Alive Together
On Friday, November 26, the lyricist and composer Stephen Sondheim died, on the same day the Omicron variation of the COVID virus made headlines. That evening in New York, I had tickets to the new adaptation of Sondheim’s musical, Company . Although I …
Harvard Goes Remote for January Term as Pandemic Intensifies
Students, faculty, and staff were advised on Saturday, December 18, that Harvard will shift to remote operations during the January term (“wintersession”), because of rapidly rising COVID-19 cases. In a letter from the president, provost, executive vice …
"Lots of Reasonable 99c Lunches"
Found in this magazine’s basement: a sheaf of pages listing Cambridge and Boston restaurants from a guide for students that evidently dates from the early 1960s. Here are the greasy-spoons: Waldorf, Hayes-Bickford’s, Hazen’s, and Albiani’s. Old …
Issue: May-June 2006
Ballots, Please
This spring, Harvard degree holders can vote for new members of the Harvard Board of Overseers and elected directors of the Harvard Alumni Association (HAA). For detailed coverage of the Overseer candidates’ views, read their responses to Harvard Magazine …
Issue: May-June 2022
How to Protest Effectively
“Almost everything that we have,” said legal scholar and civil rights attorney Gloria Browne-Marshall during a Tuesday evening event at the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), “somebody had to protest for us to have it.” She gestured toward the multi-racial …
On Commencements
Harvard’s Commencement guest speakers have delivered some memorable addresses, (and forgettable ones). But the oration at the Phi Beta Kappa literary exercises, on the Tuesday morning before degrees are conferred on Thursday, sets an intellectual tone for …
Issue: May-June 2022
University People
Danielle S. Allen Photograph by Kris Snibbe/HPAC Dani Rodrik Photograph by Stephanie Mitchell/HPAC Honor Roll Conant University Professor Danielle S. Allen has been awarded the Kluge Prize for Achievement in the Study of Humanity. The prize, announced …
Issue: September-October 2020
Extracurriculars
The University and its environs offer a robust mix of activities this fall, ranging from watching boat races on the Charles River and feasting on bratwurst in the Square to viewing rare images by Ansel Adams and attending a reading by President Lawrence …
Issue: September-October 2005
“Something Is Very Broken”
Telling the broccoli story, even now, makes Usha Thakrar burn. It was nearly dark, she recalls, when a 53-foot tractor trailer packed with the fresh produce rolled into Stonefield Farm, headquarters of the Boston Area Gleaners, in exurban Acton. As …
Issue: May-June 2023
A Look in the Mirror
On December 12, the Harvard Corporation declared its unanimous support for President Claudine Gay. The statement came a week after Gay and other presidents were berated for their testimony during a charged congressional hearing on free speech and alleged …
Issue: March-April 2024
At Home with Harvard: Supporting Local Businesses
This is the sixth installment in Harvard Magazine ’s series “At Home with Harvard,” a guide to what to read, watch, listen to, and do while social distancing. Read the prior pieces, featuring stories about Harvard’s Arnold Arboretum, famous and …
Slow and Steady
Scott Kline , J.D. ’88, thought he might run fast in the Hartford Marathon. Not fast fast, but fast for a 60-year-old retired lawyer. The early November weather in Connecticut was supposed to be mild, and he was feeling well-rested despite having run two …
“A Grinding War”
During a discussion on campus Thursday evening, Marie Yovanovitch, the American ambassador to Ukraine from 2016 to 2019, advocated strongly for continued U.S. military assistance in the Ukrainian war effort and said that in retrospect, the United States …
Cambridge 02138
A Note on Standards As an essential service to readers, Harvard Magazine publishes letters to the editor on its contents and on Harvard matters, broadly defined. Beyond printing a representative sample of letters received in each bimonthly magazine, …
Issue: March-April 2024
Words with No Freedom
“Free should the scholar be,” claimed Ralph Waldo Emerson in 1837. “Free even to the definition of freedom.” Speaking to Harvard’s Phi Beta Kappa Society, the writer was inviting students to engage in debate and inquiry unrestrained by any kind of …