Commentary

In-depth perspectives and critical analysis from faculty, editors, and readers on public affairs, higher education, and Harvard’s evolving mission.

Javier Ortega-Hernández wearing a straw hat and blue scarf stands in a vast, arid landscape.

Five Questions with Javier Ortega-Hernández

A professor of evolutionary biology on what shaped life more than 500 million years ago

by Olivia Farrar

Endowment Enigmas

Risky entanglements in the political arena—and the potential for major new academic investments

Campus, Interrupted

The Undergraduate returns to student life, altered by the pandemic and a year spent apart. 

by Rebecca E. J. Cadenhead , Swathi Kella

Divest Harvard signs hangs from Mass. Hall.

Has Harvard “Divested”?

Interpreting President Bacow’s recent statement on climate change

by John S. Rosenberg

Photograph of Kit Parker on duty in Afghanistan, spring 2003, with a village leader in Kandahar Province

Afghanistan Will Be What It Always Was

But will we be better? A veteran’s reflections

by Kit Parker

How will Harvard change post-coronavirus?

Opportunities in admissions, online degrees, research, and more

“/Gaishay focusing the camera,” a photograph taken during a 1957-58 ethnographic expedition in Namibia, shows three indigenous boys, one standing behind a camera on a tripod

Documenting New England’s Unseen

Seeking mentorship as a student of color, and finding a calling in the arts

by Che Applewhaite

An illustration showing a professor held back by ivy vines, representing traditional and reluctance to change

Forum: Is Harvard Complacent?

Considering fundamental change in the wake of the pandemic

by Brian Rosenberg

Letters from our readers

Restorative justice, Radcliffe rebranded, endowment reparations

Photographic portrait of Harvard president Lawrence S. Bacow

ManyVoices

On speaking out—on Harvard’s behalf

by Lawrence S. Bacow

Michael Porter

Governance Reform and Shared Value

Michael Porter on the new business agenda

by Juliet Isselbacher