Cloudy, 45° F
History, Language & Culture
Irony and identity
Arts & Culture
By: Corydon Ireland/
November 5, 2009
Panel says higher education is freshened, expanded, and challenged in a networked age.
While Harvard the institution is picking up the pace on supporting the arts, Harvard the students — as ever — are busy making the arts their “irreplaceable instruments of knowledge.”
Students display results from a semester-long dig in Harvard Yard, including a musket ball, a slate pencil, and a piece of print type with the letter “o.”
A new exhibit at the Carpenter Center titled "ACT UP New York: Activism, Art, and the AIDS Crisis, 1987–1993" examines the history of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power through a series of powerful graphics created by various artist collectives that were part of the influential group.
History, Language & Culture Articles
Sort by: Date / Popularity
Sing sacred, and hide the flute
A timeline of the arts at Harvard begins in 1636, when Harvard was founded, the Massachusetts Bay Colony had barely 10,000 settlers, and wolves howled at the edge of the endless forests.
Radcliffe Fellow and anthropologist Heather Paxson is studying small artisanal cheese operations as “ecologies of production” that are both commercial and moral.
The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study launched a yearlong celebration of its first decade with an interdisciplinary symposium, “Crossing Boundaries.”
Harvard President Drew Faust served as guest lecturer for a Harvard Divinity School class, where she discussed her most recent book.
Longfellow online exhibition recognized by ACRL
The ACRL Rare Books and Manuscripts Section has selected the online exhibition “Public Poet, Private Man: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow at 200” as a winner of the 2009 Katharine Kyes Leab and Daniel J. Leab “American Book Prices Current” Exhibition Award.
Oldest-known fibers to be used by humans discovered
A team of archaeologists and paleobiologists has discovered flax fibers that are more than 34,000 years old, making them the oldest fibers known to have been used by humans.
As the new executive director of the Harvard University Native American Program, Shelly Lowe plans to help Native American students utilize the resources that are available to them through the University.
Nine Graduate Students Receive Loeb Fellowships
Harvard Divinity School (HDS) has announced nine recipients of John L. Loeb Fellowships for summer and term-time research in 2009.
Harvard-Yenching Institute selects 10 for 2009-10 scholarships
The Harvard-Yenching Institute has selected 10 students from major universities in Asia as fellowship recipients in its Doctoral Scholarship Program, Harvard-Yenching Institute and Regional Studies-East Asia Program, and training program in comparative literature at Harvard.
In 1788, Thomas Shippen of Philadelphia, a citizen of the world’s newest nation, visited the French royal court at Versailles. He was awed by its pomp, its riches, and – as he wrote – its “Oriental splendor.” But Shippen was also repulsed. He remarked on the arrogance and waste of royal life, and on the fact that it required great suffering among France’s unrepresented poor.
On the second floor of Harvard’s Science Center is a temporary exhibit of 75 patent models from the 19th century, a time of prolific American invention that produced the revolver, zippers, trolley cars, and cash registers.
Peabody Museum receives grant to preserve maps, plans, and drawings
The Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology has been awarded a $150,000 grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).
Seceding from the secessionists
Deep in Civil War Mississippi, where manicured plantations gave way to wild swampland and thick pine forests, a young white man named Newton Knight led a ragtag band of guerilla fighters against the Confederate Army. His story is one of personal bravery and unwillingness to adhere to the secessionist movement that all but surrounded him.
Two views of disparate cultures
Art historian Kellie Jones, the child of two writers, grew up in the 1960s and 1970s on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. It was a place of cultural ferment, creation, and comparative racial freedom. Jones is exploring new visual and literary ways to convey her personal history. Legal scholar Stacy Leeds, an expert in tribal law, once served on the Cherokee Supreme Court — the youngest ever to do so, and the only woman.
Libraries launch ‘Expeditions and Discoveries’
Harvard’s Open Collections Program has launched “Expeditions and Discoveries: Sponsored Exploration and Scientific Discovery in the Modern Age.” Through the new collection, Internet users can find thousands of maps, photographs, and published materials, along with field notes, letters, and unique manuscript materials on sponsored exploration and related scientific discoveries between 1626 and 1953.
How’d the Russians get the H-bomb?
Ever hear of Elugelab? Until Oct. 31, 1952, it was an island on Eniwetok Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. Then it vanished, consumed in the fireball of the world’s first hydrogen bomb.
On the road in the fifth century: Visions of heaven, hell
During the fifth century, travelers began to depart China more frequently than ever before, venturing outward from medieval cities to explore lands in Central and South Asia. A range of individuals eagerly took to the road, writing extensively about their journeys and returning home with elaborate accounts.
REISCHAUER INSTITUTE SEEKS PAPERS
The Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies is now accepting submissions for its 2009 Noma-Reischauer Prizes in Japanese Studies, given to the undergraduate and graduate students with the best essays on Japan-related topics. The submission deadline is June 30, and $3,000 will be awarded for the best graduate student essay and $2,000 for the best undergraduate student essay.
Oldest living Holocaust survivor speaks at Harvard
Aided by a wheel chair, his slight frame bent in part by a curvature of the spine since birth, in part by the passage of time, a man who endured unspeakable cruelty 70 years ago told his story of survival to a Harvard audience.
Imani was just 15 when soldiers from the rebel group Interahamwe found her on the road in a remote region in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
Multimedia Features
Up Close, part 3
In the fast pace of our daily lives we may overlook the details which, collectively, create a stunning backdrop for all that happens within the University. See the inner workings of Harvard's pianos up close, while enjoying a melodic feast for the ears.
Video
4:48 run time
May 7, 2009
Slideshow / Apr 30, '09
Slideshow / Feb 2, '08
Slideshow / Apr 15, '06
Current Issue
Subscribe to Email Updates
RSS Feed
© 2009 The President and Fellows of Harvard College.