Arts & Culture
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There may be several on your beach reads list. Ever wonder why?
Mysteries blend puzzle-solving with kind of catharsis, according to scholars, writers
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A life — and afterlife — in poetry
For Christian Wiman, ‘dead on the table’ more than once, suffering is no longer the only authentic thing
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7 hours later, they didn’t want it to end
Who watches a 439-minute movie in an age of epic distraction? We asked.
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‘Black Swan’ as a musical?
New adaptation of dark, psychological thriller film premieres at American Repertory Theater
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Iranian history in tableaux
Photographer brings 11 key scenes from 20th century to life in Peabody exhibit
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Want to avoid being replaced by AI? Think fresh verbs.
Former Pulitzer-winning Post dance critic explains how to level up writing in new book
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A call to action, amid acting
A.R.T.’s “Prometheus Bound” ties the ancient Greek play to modern human rights.
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The digital pioneers
A Harvard center helps to write the script as the arts and humanities confront an emerging age of digital scholarship.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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‘Poetic Urbanisms’
An experimental exhibit at Harvard’s newest arts space gathers and displays overlooked images and ideas from city life.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Troubled youth
Linda Schlossberg’s debut novel, “Life in Miniature,” depicts a mother’s mental illness and a daughter’s coming of age.
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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.
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Art by degrees
Three Harvard graduates, now practicing artists, bring home lessons learned, along with a quirky exhibit.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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American tune
Ethnomusicology graduate student Sheryl Kaskowitz talks about her dissertation on cultural shifts in the meaning of Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America.”
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Contemporary sounds of Istanbul
Exploring the beauty behind dissonance and her native country, pianist Seda Röder, an associate in Harvard’s Department of Music, uses her new CD to highlight an emerging generation of Turkish composers.
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Eyes on the stage
Harvard’s Learning From Performers (LFP) program began in 1975 “to facilitate direct engagement between Harvard students and gifted artists.” Today, LFP hosts 15 to 20 virtuosos each year who lead master classes in music, dance, theater, and other performing arts.
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Bucky on stage
Inventor and futurist R. Buckminster Fuller, thrown out of Harvard College twice in the early 20th century, returns in the center of a one-man play on the “history (and mystery) of the universe.”
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Inside Dumbarton Oaks
More people are enjoying the treasures of Harvard-owned Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C., in part because of the opening of new library and museum facilities, and because of fresh efforts to increase connections with Harvard’s Cambridge campus and reach out to political, educational, and cultural leaders in Washington.
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Art in the making
Barberini Faun, a rare plaster model at Harvard Art Museums, offers lessons in how ancient classical sculpture was restored in the 17th century.
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The landscape of slavery
Harvard historian and Radcliffe fellow Walter Johnson explored the intersecting landscapes of slavery in a talk at the Radcliffe Gymnasium.