Your independent source for Harvard news since 1898

Your independent source for Harvard news since 1898

January-February 2016

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Letters

Why Harvard and MIT might join forces on climate-change research

Readers respond to articles on football, sexual assault, the Social Progress Index, divestment, and more.

A letter from President Faust about Harvard Law School

Honoring two exceptional authors and one artist

The College Pump

Illustration by Missy Chimovitz, from the book

Channeling Valentine’s Day—and sustainable oceans—via sexy sea creatures

Treasure

The chandelier ablaze
Photograph by Jim Harrison

In Sanders Theatre, a “constellation” of a chandelier

In this Issue

Syrian and Iraqi refugees arrive at Lesbos, Greece, from Turkey, on October 15, 2015.

Photograph by Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Harvard human-rights expert Jacqueline Bhabha critiques the inadequate response to the world’s migration crises.

Cora Du Bois in 1948

Photograph courtesy of the Tozzer Library, Harvard University. Cora Alice Du Bois Papers

Brief life of a formidable anthropologist: 1903-1991

Richard Posner

Photograph by John Gress/Corbis Images

The double life of Richard Posner, America’s most contentious legal reformer

Dr. James O’Connell, president of Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program and assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School
Photograph by Jim Harrison

James O’Connell has spent 30 years caring for the homeless.

Letters

Why Harvard and MIT might join forces on climate-change research

Readers respond to articles on football, sexual assault, the Social Progress Index, divestment, and more.

A letter from President Faust about Harvard Law School

Honoring two exceptional authors and one artist

Right Now

Illustration by Dave Plunkert

New thinking machines demand a new economic science.

The lung-on-a-chip mimics the mechanical and biochemical behaviors of the human organ.
Wyss Institute at Harvard University

The Wyss Institute’s organs-on-chips could transform drug testing and personalized medicine.

American activists unfurl a banner in front of the Supreme Court.
James M. Thresher/Washington Post/Getty Images

An historian tracks the death penalty’s persistence in America.

Harvard Squared

Buds, blossoms, and a hothouse of tropical trees brighten winter days at Tower Hill Botanic Garden.
Photograph Courtesy of Tower Hill Botanic Garden

Tower Hill Botanic Garden’s “Month of Flowers”

<p class="caption">Scenes from Wendy Jehlen’s “Movement Exploration” class</p><p class="credit">Photograph by Bill Parsons/Maximal Image®</p>

A long-time Cambridge arts organization is poised to grow.

Fruitlands Museum's hills and trails are opent to hardy souls of all ages eager to bundle up and play in nature.

Fruitlands Museum’s hills and trails are opent to hardy souls of all ages eager to bundle up and play in nature.
Photograph courtesy of Fruitlands Museum

Sledding, Nordic skiing, and art at Fruitlands Museum, in Harvard, Massachusetts

Julie Atlas Muz and Tony Torn bare (almost) all in portraying power-hungry aspiring royalty.

Photograph by Max Basch/ART

A new cabaret version of Alfred Jarry’s subversive 1896 Ubu Roi

<p class="caption">Chef Jason Martin extols the art of pasta-making at Dave's Fresh Pasta.</p><p class="credit">Photograph by Nell Porter Brown</p>

Greater Boston’s classes for aspiring and amateur cooks

John Harvard's Journal

The central diorama, a model of New England’s waters

Photograph by Jim Harrison

A lively exhibit debuts at the Museum of Natural History.

Thomas Hollister, vice president for finance, and Paul J. Finnegan, University treasurer Photographs from left: Paige Brown/Courtesy Tufts Medical Center and Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Public Affairs and Communications

The University's annual financial report

Stephen Blyth
Photograph by Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Public Affairs and Communications

Harvard Management Company makes extensive changes to enhance investment performance.

Constrained growth in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences

Alan M. Garber

Stephanie Mitchell/HPAC

The provost on the prospects for Harvard’s MOOCs, and other developments in teaching and learning

Portrait of Yosvany Terry

Yosvany Terry
Photograph by Stu Rosner

A well-traveled Afro-Cuban jazz musician lands at Harvard.

Martha Minow

Martha Stewart/Courtesy of Harvard Law School

Updates on The Harvard Campaign

Francis J. Doyle III

Photograph by Eliza Grinnell/Courtesy of Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

SEAS dean Frank Doyle shares insights.

Henry Rosovsky

Photograph by Jim Harrison

A tribute to Henry Rosovsky from Harvard Magazine

College race debates reach Harvard, admissions adjudication, again, the launch of the Harvard Global Institute, and General Education revisited

Babar receives an honorary degree from Harvard

Illustration by Mark Steele
With fond admiration to Jean and Laurent de Brunhoff

From the pages of the Harvard Alumni Bulletin and Harvard Magazine

Portrait of Harvard Medical School dean Jeffrey S. Flier

Jeffrey S. Flier
Photograph by John Soares/Harvard Medical School

Medical dean stepping down, Rhodes and Marshall scholars, more conservative Winthrop House addition, and more

A wall of formal portraits, five representing white male Harvard faculty and administrators, one representing a black undergraduate woman

Illustration by Chris Beatrice

Learning “what it means to be a walking disruption”

Despite the efforts of Yale linebacker Victor Egu, Crimson quarterback Scott Hosch ’16 managed a flip to freshman receiver Justice Shelton-Mosley, who took the ball the rest of the way. The 35-yard touchdown gave Harvard a 14-7 second-quarter lead in The Game.

Despite the efforts of Yale linebacker Victor Egu, Crimson quarterback Scott Hosch ’16 managed a flip to freshman receiver Justice Shelton-Mosley, who took the ball the rest of the way. The 35-yard touchdown gave Harvard a 14-7 second-quarter lead in The Game.
Gil Talbot/Harvard Athletic Communications

A fine finish to a nearly flawless football season

Montage

Carlton Cuse with a young Norman Bates (played by Freddie Highmore) on the set of Bates Motel
Photograph courtesy of Carlton Cuse

Television’s Carlton Cuse on what animates his work

Correspondence on not-so-famous lost words

Portrait of Richard Henry Dana Jr. in 1842

Richard Henry Dana Jr. in 1842
From Two Years Before the Mast (Houghton Mifflin Co,.1911)

How Richard  Henry Dana Jr. came to hate slavery and injustice

Lei Liang

Lei Liang
Photograph by Alex Matthews/Courtesy of Lei Liang

After “growing up in the archives,” a composer makes forgotten histories heard.

The mambo, danced professionally in New York City, 1954

Yale Joel/Life Magazine/Getty Images

Recent books cover the origins of mambo, American economic growth, cancer, landscape, and more

Portrait of Tania James

Tania James

Melissa Stewart/Courtesy of Tania James

A writer balances structure and spontaneity in her latest novel.

Alumni

Anthony Acciavatti beside the lake in Central Park, a body of water closer to home

Anthony Acciavatti beside the lake in Central Park, a body of water closer to home
Photograph by Robert Adam Mayer

A decade spent exploring India’s dynamic sacred river

Photograph of Dick Bolles, author of "What Color Is Your Parachute"

Dick Bolles

Glenn Jones

Job counselor Dick Bolles ’50 keeps “chugging away.”

Photograph of Ruth Kevess-Cohen

Ruth Kevess-Cohen
Photograph courtesy of David Cohen

Ruth Kevess-Cohen ’78 is boosting the international language online.

The College Pump

Illustration by Missy Chimovitz, from the book

Channeling Valentine’s Day—and sustainable oceans—via sexy sea creatures

Treasure

The chandelier ablaze
Photograph by Jim Harrison

In Sanders Theatre, a “constellation” of a chandelier