Humanities

Explore the intellectual and creative pursuits within philosophy, history, literature, and the fine arts at Harvard.

Ken Burns on America’s Unfinished Revolution

At Radcliffe, the filmmaker joined Harvard historians to discuss what the nation’s founding means today.

by Lydialyle Gibson

Alain Locke as activist aesthete

Rediscovering Alain Locke and the project of black self-realization

by Adam Kirsch

Brew’s clues: profile of Theresa McCulla, the Smithsonian's "beer historian"

A historian tracks the craft-beer boom, and the evolution of American taste.

by Bailey Trela

Excerpt from "The Annotated African American Folktales"

The power and legacy of African-American folktales

Frederick Wiseman gives Harvard's first Norton Lecture on Cinema

Documentarian Frederick Wiseman is the first filmmaker to deliver a Norton Lecture.

by Sophia Nguyen

Bryan Stevenson on the Evolution of White Supremacy

“I don’t think slavery ended in 1865 —I think it just evolved. I think it turned into decades of terrorism and violence and lynching.”

by Lydialyle Gibson

Critic and poet Fred Moten, profiled by Jesse McCarthy

Fred Moten’s subversive black-studies scholarship

by Jesse McCarthy

A New Cast for the Harvard Semitic Museum

A replica of the Dream Stele, part of Egyptologist Peter Der Manuelian’s efforts to revitalize the museum

by Sophia Nguyen

The Secrets of Haiti’s Living Dead

 A Harvard botanist investigates mystic potions, voodoo rites, and the making of zombies.

by Gino Del Guercio

FAS’s Inequality Initiative

The initative includes interdisciplinary conversation, annual symposia, and a postdoc program. 

by Marina N. Bolotnikova

Sunil Amrith, Kate Orff, and Damon Rich Awarded MacArthur “Genius” Grants

A faculty member and two GSD affiliates are honored.

by Marina N. Bolotnikova