March-April 2024

On the cover: Illustration by Jennifer Carling/Harvard Magazine

Letters

Cambridge 02138

The campus sundered, stem cell research, voting, and more

A Look in the Mirror

Challenges for Harvard governance and leadership

March-April 2024

March-April 2024

On the cover: Illustration by Jennifer Carling/Harvard Magazine

Features

Why Americans Love to Hate Harvard

The president emeritus on elite universities’ academic accomplishments—and a rising tide of antagonism

by Derek Bok

How Birds Lost Flight

Scott Edwards discovers evolution’s master switches.

by Veronique Greenwood

Winthrop Bell

Brief life of a philosopher and spy: 1884-1965

by Jason Bell

Diagnosis by Fiction

The “Healing Quartet,” by “Samuel Shem,” probes medicine—and life.

by Craig Lambert

RIGHT NOW Harvard research and ideas

Controlling AI Influence over Consumers

When pricing algorithms take advantage of an individual’s ignorance, legal scrutiny is in order.

Computational Control of a Living Brain?

How an AI agent learned to guide an animal to food—and what it might mean for Parkinson’s patients.

Fictions about the Forces Driving Migration

Glenda Carpio on the new migration narrative

John Harvard's Journal University news

A Presidency’s End

Controversies over terrorism and antisemitism, free speech, plagiarism, and broader cultural currents bring a brief presidency to a traumatic end.

George Sarrinikolaou

Provost for climate and sustainability’s journey from Athens to Harvard

Talking about Talking

Fostering healthy disagreement

Yesterday’s News

The Carpenter Center celebrated

Reengineering Arts and Sciences

Spurring innovation, rethinking departments, tapping centers—and Ph.D. support

Applying AI—How and Why

Using AI in pedagogy, research, and University administration

News in Brief

Education dean and football coach step down, a significant art acquisition, and more

Board of Overseers and HAA Elected Director Candidates

The slates for this spring’s ballot

Montage Books, creative arts, performance and more

Making Space

The natural history of Junko Yamamoto’s art and architecture

The Happy Warrior Redux

Hubert Humphrey’s liberalism reconsidered

A Dogged Observer

Novelist and psychiatrist Daniel Mason takes the long view.

Off the Shelf

Revolutionizing French fashion, early Chinese writing, and more

Spellbound on Stage

Actor and young adult novelist Aislinn Brophy

The Essential Educator for His Time

A life of Princeton’s Bill Bowen

Harvard Squared What to do in Boston, Cambridge and beyond

Vacationing with a Purpose

New England “summer camps” for adults

Capturing the American South

Photographs at the Addison Gallery of American Art 

Go Wild

How often have you wandered the Arnold Arboretum or a Trustees property, longing to bring that serenity and lush beauty to your own yard? 

University People Harvardians far and wide

Leading with Care

Michael Hill strikes the right balance.

Strategic Planning

A chess player’s moves on AI safety

AWOL from Academics

Behind students' increasing pull toward extracurriculars

At 75, Murray Dewart Reflects on His Career as a Sculptor

Thinking about what it means to be an artist through the years