Arts & Culture

All Arts & Culture

  • Notes from underground

    Historian and former Quincy House tutor John McMillian’s new book chronicles the massive ’60s “youthquake” and the rise of radical underground publications.

  • Cities on a hill

    Edward Glaeser, the Fred and Eleanor Glimp Professor of Economics, who was raised in New York City, is an advocate of the metropolis, and upends the myths that cities are unhealthy, poor, and environmentally unfriendly in his book “Triumph of the City.”

  • Constructing the International Economy

    Rawi Abdelal, the Joseph C. Wilson Professor of Business Administration, and co-editors parse the ways political and economic forces are interpreted globally by agents, and seek to understand just how the economy is constructed.

  • Imagination and Logos: Essays on C.P. Cavafy

    Panagiotis Roilos, professor of Modern Greek studies and of comparative literature, edits this volume of essays by international scholars exploring the work of C.P. Cavafy, one of the most important 20th century European poets.

  • Putting things in their place

    Two professors shake up Harvard’s museum collections with a new course and exhibit that aim to challenge the ways in which tangible things are classified in traditional categories.

  • Buy-In: Saving Your Good Idea from Getting Shot Down

    Understanding attack strategies and how to prepare for them will help get your idea off the ground, according to this book by John P. Kotter, Konosuke Matsushita Professor of Leadership Emeritus, and co-author Lorne Whitehead.

  • Hooray for Harvardwood

    As a liberal arts college, Harvard doesn’t train its students for jobs in Hollywood. But student clubs, a liaison network, and individual drive prompt some toward entertainment careers, a fact reflected in this year’s Oscar nominees.

  • A call to action, amid acting

    A.R.T.’s “Prometheus Bound” ties the ancient Greek play to modern human rights.

  • The digital pioneers

    A Harvard center helps to write the script as the arts and humanities confront an emerging age of digital scholarship.

  • Whistling through the darkness

    Authors offer perspective on finding meaning in a secular age, using literature as a lens through which to understand how people found solace in the past.

  • Planetary Loves: Spivak, Postcoloniality, and Theology

    Mayra Rivera Rivera, assistant professor of theology and Latina/o studies, and Stephen D. Moore compiled these essays by theologians and biblical scholars who react to Spivak’s postcolonial studies and theology.

  • American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us

    Robert D. Putnam, the Peter and Isabel Malkin Professor of Public Policy, and co-author David E. Campbell, plumb America’s modern history of religion, including the shift towards atheism, and current youth culture’s acceptance of diversity.

  • Art for art’s sake

    Students stepped outside their comfort zones and explored their creative sides as part of a new range of programs offered during winter break.

  • Witchcraft and Magic in the Nordic Middle Ages

    Professor of Scandinavian and Folklore Stephen A. Mitchell examines witches, wizards, and seeresses in literature, lore, and law, as well as surviving charm magic directed toward love, prophecy, health, and weather.

  • He’s got a head start

    In his new book, evolutionary biologist Daniel Lieberman traces the human head’s perpetual makeover as it developed through the hominin fossil record.

  • Shakira named Artist of the Year

    Renowned Colombian singer, songwriter, and philanthropist Shakira has been named the 2011 Artist of the Year by the Harvard Foundation of Harvard University.

  • ‘Poetic Urbanisms’

    An experimental exhibit at Harvard’s newest arts space gathers and displays overlooked images and ideas from city life.

  • Saving snapshots of history

    Four Russian conservators visit the Weissman Preservation Center for 10 days to learn techniques to assess, treat, and preserve rare photos and other treasures.

  • The Weissman Center at work

    The Weissman Preservation Center, an arm of Harvard Library that recently hosted a group of Russian conservators for training, celebrated its first decade last year.

  • A window into African-American history

    Commemorating February as Black History Month, this collection of historical and contemporary photographs offers glimpses into the dynamic lives of African Americans over time.

  • Troubled youth

    Linda Schlossberg’s debut novel, “Life in Miniature,” depicts a mother’s mental illness and a daughter’s coming of age.

  • In the Light of Evolution: Essays from the Laboratory and Field

    Jonathan Losos, Monique and Philip Lehner Professor for the Study of Latin America, edits this collection of essays by leading scientists, including Harvard’s Daniel Lieberman and Hopi Hoekstra, Harvard historian Janet Browne, and many others.

  • Art by degrees

    Three Harvard graduates, now practicing artists, bring home lessons learned, along with a quirky exhibit.

  • Scholarship beyond words

    Harvard classes and a new journal embrace an emerging wave of doctoral learning beyond the written word that uses film, photo, audio, and other communication channels.

  • Glimpses of screenwriting

    Harvard grad Roland Tec, a filmmaker, writer, director, producer, and Harvard graduate, explored the inner workings of his craft during a January arts intensive.

  • An Errant Eye: Poetry and Topography in Early Modern France

    Tom Conley, Abbott Lawrence Lowell Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures and of Visual and Environmental Studies, studies how topography, the art of describing local space and place, developed literary and visual form in early modern France.

  • What Is Mental Illness?

    Richard McNally, a professor of psychology, explores the many contemporary attempts to define what mental disorder really is, and offers questions for patients and professionals alike to help understand and cope with the sorrows and psychopathologies of everyday life.

  • The master’s chair

    Liz Glynn is this year’s Josep Lluis Sert Practitioner in the Arts, a visiting artist position in place at VES since 1986. The idea: welcome a working artist for a week of intense interchange with students.

  • Identity issues

    In what many participants called a “historic moment,” scholars from around the world gathered for three days at Harvard to explore issues of race, racial identity, and racism in Latin America.

  • Hide and seek

    A new Harvard exhibit aims to challenge how things are categorized by delving into the University’s vast museum and archival collections.