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Disinformation In my opinion, much of the messaging by Sidney Powell, Rudy Giuliani and, yes, President Trump, regarding the 2020 election was both shameful and a good example for the case against misinformation and the role of the internet in its …
Issue: September-October 2021
Quantum Leap for Engineering
Harvard’s Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences (DEAS) may soon become a full-fledged school of engineering, under a plan presented in May to the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) by the division dean, Venkatesh Narayanamurti. During his …
Issue: July-August 2006
The Context: Universities Pushed to Reckon with Slavery
This is the third 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. In the past few years , universities across the country …
General Counsel Diane Lopez to Retire
Harvard’s vice president and general counsel Diane Lopez will retire at the end of February, the University announced today. She has served in the role since 2019—a tenure that has encompassed a high-profile admissions lawsuit , an investigation into …
Lester Named New Yorker Managing Editor
Amelia Lester ’05 has been named managing editor of the New Yorker , the New York Observer reported yesterday. As a Berta Greenwald Ledecky Undergraduate Fellow at Harvard Magazine , Lester, a native of Sydney, Australia, wrote her first column for the …
Harvard Medical School Dean Flier to Step Down
Jeffrey S. Flier , dean of Harvard Medical School (HMS) since 2007 , today announced that he would step down on July 31. Flier, an endocrinologist who specialized in the causes of obesity and diabetes, wrote a brief note to his colleagues conveying his …
The Rights of Nature
Happy is 54 years old , 8,500 pounds, and, notably, an elephant. Nonetheless, in 2018, a group called the Nonhuman Rights Project sued on Happy’s behalf, arguing that she is a legal person (like a corporation or a ship), and therefore should be able to …
Animal (Code) Cracker
The July-August cover story about efforts to decode the click communication of sperm whales prompted numerous letters, including one that detailed the involvement of a talented undergraduate, Peter Bermant ’19, in the project’s origins. He ultimately …
Off the Shelf
The Art of Cloth in Mughal India , by Sylvia Houghteling ’06 (Princeton, $65). To wide public knowledge of Mughal masterpieces in painting and architecture, Houghteling now adds comprehensive appreciation of the textiles created and traded at the height …
Issue: July-August 2022
Systems Biological and Quantitative
Gary King , Florence professor of government, and Marc W. Kirschner, Walter professor of systems biology, have been named University Professors, Harvard’s most distinguished faculty position. King, founder and director of the Institute for Quantitative …
Issue: September-October 2009
A Quartet of Crises
In retrospect, Harvard’s crisis during and after the Great Recession of 2008-2010 was a piece of cake. Yes, the University lost $11 billion to $14 billion in endowment and other assets, and had to incur costly debt, and devote more resources to financial …
Issue: November-December 2020
Peabody Museum Discovers Possible Slave Remains in Its Collections
The Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology has found among its holdings the remains of 15 people of African descent who were likely alive when slavery was legal in the United States, University president Lawrence S. Bacow announced in an email today. …
A Gate of Whimsy
By Harvard standards, the gate outside Lamont Library wasn’t really a gate. “It was just an extension of the fencing,” says Nazneen Cooper, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences’ assistant dean of campus design and planning. Unlike the Yard’s other notable …
Issue: March-April 2021
Polishing off Plastic Pollution?
“There’s a great future in plastics.” The iconic line, advice to a fresh-from-college ingenué played by Dustin Hoffman in the 1967 film The Graduate , was intended for laughs. But in 2023, it highlights a grim reality. The world’s economies generate …
Issue: September-October 2023
Benjamin Porteous, Latin Salutatory
In Honorem Iohannis Martini Annenbergensis Praeses Bacow, Decani, Professores doctissimi, Hospites ter-honorati, Alumni Alumnaeque eminentissimae, pro nobis permulta passae familiae, et praecipue vosmet, condiscipuli carissimi, salvete! …