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Your independent source for Harvard news since 1898

November-December 2017

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Letters

Readers comment on criminal injustices, alumni who died in Vietnam, political correctness, and more.

President Drew Faust describes Harvard’s efforts to evaluate how well—and what exactly—its students learn.

Articulating a vision and refining a strategy for Harvard

The College Pump

Photograph by Harvard Magazine/JC

Boosting museums, and novel architecture

Treasure

The lenses of the Bruce telescope mounted for display

The lenses of the Bruce telescope, mounted for display

Photograph by Jim Harrison

The telescope that helped define Earth’s place in the universe

In this Issue

Stuart Harris 
Photograph by Jim Harrison, with special thanks to New England Base Camp

Stuart Harris and the austere practice of wilderness physicians

Illustration by Robert Neubecker

Illustration by Robert Neubecker

How market forces have made American higher education radically unequal

Davenport at home in 1975, with two of his own works behind him. An image of Ezra Pound by Richard Avedon partners Davenport’s portrait.

Davenport at home in 1975, with two of his own works behind him. An image of Ezra Pound by Richard Avedon partners Davenport’s portrait.

Photograph by Guy Mendes

Brief life of a polymathic stylist: 1927-2005

Photograph by Kevin Ma and Pakong Chirarattanonon, Robert Wood Laboratory

Photograph by Kevin Ma and Pakong Chirarattanonon, Robert Wood Laboratory

The push to build flying, thinking, robot swarms

A young girl jumps rope on the sidewalk next to her family’s belongings after they received a court order of eviction that was carried out by McLennan County deputy constables in Waco, Texas. Families like hers are the kind of clients badly in need of legal representation—and most often unlikely to receive it.

Photograph by Larry Downing/Reuters

America’s unfulfilled promise of “equal justice under law”

Letters

Readers comment on criminal injustices, alumni who died in Vietnam, political correctness, and more.

President Drew Faust describes Harvard’s efforts to evaluate how well—and what exactly—its students learn.

Articulating a vision and refining a strategy for Harvard

Right Now

Illustration by Taylor Callery

Machine learning may raise the potential for predicting where—and when—an earthquake might strike.

Pakistanis eating rice, a staple crop and major source of protein in South Asia.

Photograph by A Majeed/AFP/Getty Images

How global warming can change crop nutrition

Illustration by Jon Berkeley

Research from HBS shows that by buying themselves out of negative experiences, people gain time for happiness-inducing activities like learning a language, or socializing.

Harvard Squared

Cooking lessons at the French Cultural Center

Photograph courtesy of the French Cultural Center

Greater Boston’s cultural centers offer a lot more than language classes.

Photograph courtesy of the Boston International Book Fair

Photograph courtesy of the Boston International Book Fair

Rare books and ephemera at the Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair

Celebrating Thanksgiving at Old Sturbridge Village

Photograph courtesy of Old Sturbridge Village

Celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas at Old Sturbridge Village  

Image courtesy of the Houghton Library

Harvard’s Houghton Library explores “Altered States: Sex, Drugs, and Transcendence.”

Photograph courtesy of Moldova

A Moldovan restaurant in Newton reflects rich culinary traditions.

John Harvard's Journal

The Winthrop House library

Photograph by Peter Vanderwarker

Undergraduates return to newly improved digs.

Rachel L. Gable
Photograph by Harvard Magazine/JC

How some colleges help first-generation and low-income students succeed

Nicco Mele

Nicco Mele
Photograph by Jim Harrison

The director of the Shorenstein Center on how the Internet came to mean so much to him. 

Michelle A. Williams

Photograph by Ben Gebo/Courtesy of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Michelle Williams, a year into her role as Public Health School dean

Illustration by Mark Steele

“Vagabonding,” Harvard Student Agencies, and more from the Harvard Alumni Bulletin and Harvard Magazine

Click to see full chart

CEO N.V. Narvekar assesses Harvard Management Company’s most recent fiscal-year performance, and the road ahead.

Harvard’s leaders stress community values at the start of the academic year.

A “visiting fellow” invitation provokes an uproar.

Unrecognized single-gender social organizations dominate another Faculty of Arts and Sciences monthly meeting.

Bob Dylan in 1965. Already, the classical world was starting to influence his writing.

Photograph from Granger

In a new book, classicist Richard Thomas explores Bob Dylan’s literary ties to ancient Greece and Rome.

James E. Ryan

Photograph by Kris Snibbe/Harvard Public Affairs and Communications

Deans departing, sexual-assault standards, and a Lowell House bell

Illustration by Guido Scarabottolo

Reflections on the ups and downs of peer counseling

At Rhode Island, junior powerhouse Charlie Booker III rumbled for gains of 50 and 57 yards en route to a game- and career-high 139.

At Rhode Island, junior powerhouse Charlie Booker III rumbled for gains of 50 and 57 yards en route to a game- and career-high 139.

Photograph by gil Talbot/Harvard athletic communications

An Ivy win and a terrible injury mark Harvard football's early season.

Merrick Madsen

Merrick Madsen
Photograph by Jim Harrison

Merric Madsen was the brick wall in net for last season’s Frozen Four team.

Montage

Portrait of Ashley Fure

Fure focuses during a July workshop for The Force of Things: An Opera for Objects.

Photograph by Marina Levitskaya/ Courtesy of Peak Performances @ Montclair State University

Composer Ashley Fure wants people to listen to noise.

Clifton Fadiman

Photograph from the Everett Collection Inc./Alamy Stock photo

Anne Fadiman ’74 recalls her father, Clifton, in an excerpt from The Wine Lover’s Daughter

Maureen Freely

Photograph by Andre Avanessian

Maureen Freely ’74, longtime translator of Orhan Pamuk, shares the nuances of bringing a text from one language to another.

Kaey Nakae, of the champion Santa Barbara Condors, gets “totally horizontal,” exhibiting the Ultimate form David Gessner admired.
Photograph by Tom Kennedy

Recent books with Harvard connections

Stephanie Burt, recently named co-editor of poetry at The Nation, in her office at Harvard

Photograph by Stu Rosner

Stephanie Burt ’94 is the kind of poetry critic who provokes anger in other poetry critics.

Among the nineteenth-century frauds Kevin Young explores are the pseudo-scientific Great Moon Hoax.
Photograph from Chronicle/Alamy

From the Missouri Compromise to the 2016 election, Kevin Young's Bunk takes stock of American hoaxes, con men, and race fantasies.

Correspondence on not-so-famous lost words

Alumni

Hedden in the northern section of Utah’s Bears Ears National Monument. Behind him are cliffs, or mesas, above Indian Creek.

Photograph by Tim Peterson

A Utah activist reflects on 40 years of land conservation—and what’s coming next.

Photograph courtesy of the Harvard Alumni Association

Harvard seniors help Houses thrive.

Alumni are honored for undergraduate admissions work.

Six alumni are recognized for long-time volunteer service to the University.

The College Pump

Photograph by Harvard Magazine/JC

Boosting museums, and novel architecture

Treasure

The lenses of the Bruce telescope mounted for display

The lenses of the Bruce telescope, mounted for display

Photograph by Jim Harrison

The telescope that helped define Earth’s place in the universe