At a meeting of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences on Nov. 4, 2025, the following tribute to the life and service of the late Ralph Mitchell was spread upon the permanent records of the Faculty.
The day before she visited Harvard, Louise Arbour, the United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights, was criticized by the U.S. Ambassador to the UN, John Bolton. Arbour had just issued a statement on terrorists and torturers, in which she said that the absolute ban on torture, a cornerstone of the international human rights edifice, is under attack. The principle once believed to be unassailable … is becoming a casualty of the so-called war on terror. To which Bolton responded that it was inappropriate and illegitimate for an international civil servant to second-guess the conduct that were engaged in in the war on terror. The next day, Dec. 8, Arbour visited the Kennedy School of Government (KSG) to have an informal, public conversation with Michael Ignatieff, Carr Professor of Human Rights Practice.
From the perspective of Harvards 369-year history, the gates in and around the campus are a relatively new phenomenon. For more than two-thirds of its existence, Harvard had nothing more to guard its perimeter than a low post-and-beam fence. When the Johnston Gate – the initial component of the present-day enclosure – went up in 1889, many decried its towering piers and elaborate ironwork as a pretentious imposition on the schools austere Puritan heritage. But as time went on and succeeding Harvard classes raised generous sums to extend the fence and punctuate it with stately apertures, the structure grew to be as familiar and beloved as any of the schools more venerable monuments.
The 50th anniversary conference of the Fairbank Center for East Asian Research took place over three days (Dec. 9-11), attracting hundreds of scholars from around the world, who gathered to hear and participate in panels on Chinas domestic politics, international relations, economy, social conditions, literature, and philosophical traditions.
Patricia A. King, the Carmack Waterhouse Professor of Law, Medicine, Ethics and Public Policy at Georgetown Law Center, has been elected to become the newest member of the Harvard Corporation, the University announced Sunday (Dec. 4).
This stained glass window at Memorial Hall reminds the viewer of a time when the word ‘awesome’ referred to something that filled one with reverence, wonder, and awe.
Although there have not yet been any reports anywhere of human-to-human transmission of avian influenza, administrators from across the University gathered at Maxwell-Dworkin on Monday (Dec. 5) for a two-hour presentation by the Universitys Incident Support Team (IST) to further planning for dealing with a possible pandemic of the bird flu.
Dec. 29, 1627 – John Harvard enters Emmanuel College, Cambridge University, England. Dec. 20, 1672 – Leonard Hoar, Class of 1650, is formally installed as Harvard’s third President and the…
Following are some of the incidents reported to the Harvard University Police Department for the week ending Dec. 5. The official log is located at 1033 Massachusetts Ave., sixth floor, and is available online at http://www.hupd.harvard.edu/.
A weeklong stay in a French villa, lunch with the lieutenant governor, a tour of the San Francisco mayors office, and four tickets to a Chicago Cubs baseball game are among the items up for bid at the 20th annual Student Internship Fund (SIF) auction at Harvards Kennedy School of Government (KSG). The auction will be held today (Dec. 8) at the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum, 79 JFK St. The silent auction will begin at 5:30 p.m. with the live auction starting at 7 p.m.
At a party hosted by President Lawrence H. Summers at his Elmwood Avenue home, he talks to some of his 80 guests – students studying at Harvard University after their schools were closed because of Hurricane Katrina.
Belva Brown Jordan has a passion for Volkswagen Beetles. It all started about 15 years ago: I was sitting on an airplane one day, said Jordan, and I opened up one of those airplane magazines where you can order stuff and there was this picture of a Franklin Mint Volkswagen Beetle, a classic Beetle, and I thought, Wow, look at that, thats really cool! She ordered the car and, when it arrived, she said it felt like Christmas or her birthday.
Two fellows at Harvard Law Schools Berkman Center for Internet and Society – Rebecca MacKinnon and Ethan Zuckerman – were recently awarded Best Journalistic Blog in English by Deutsche Welle for Global Voices Online, the nonprofit media project they co-founded and run (http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/globalvoices/). The award recognizes the tremendous contribution made to citizens media in the past year.
The Fairbank Center for East Asian Research will celebrate its 50th anniversary with a three-day conference at the Center for Government and International Studies (CGIS), South Building (1730 Cambridge St.), Dec. 9-11. The conference, titled Studying Modern China: Past, Present, and Future, will feature distinguished scholars from Harvard and other institutions in academic panels and roundtable discussions on topics ranging from the evolution of the field of Chinese studies, to Chinas economy, literature, and philosophy.
Two juniors awarded Tazuko Ajiro Monane Prize Harvard College junior Nitipat Pholchai and senior Carly Cohen have recently been named co-recipients of the 2005-06 Tazuko Ajiro Monane Prize. Given annually,…
PBH gift drive under way Through Dec. 15, the Phillips Brooks House (PBH) will be accepting donations for its annual holiday gift drive. Members of the Harvard community are invited…
In honor of the 80th birthday of Higgins Professor of Biochemistry Jack Strominger, Harvards Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology is holding a major scientific symposium this Saturday (Dec. 10) at the New Research Building Conference Center (77 Ave. Louis Pasteur, Boston).
Speed beat out size in a big way this past Saturday (Dec. 3) at Lavietes Pavilion, as the visiting Central Connecticut State University (CCSU) mens basketball team served Harvard hoops its first setback of the season by a tally of 87-79. The loss snapped a five-game win streak for the Crimson club, who were off to their best start since the 1997-98 campaign.
Men, women icers stand ground in poll On the strength of a three-game win streak, the Harvard women’s hockey team moved up a spot in this week’s U.S. College Hockey…
The defining mark of narrative journalism is the personality of the writer, the voice of the knowing ally – whole, candid, not speaking on behalf of any institution, corporation, government, ideology, chamber of commerce, or travel destination. … The genres power is the strength of its voice, writes Mark Kramer, organizer of the Nieman Narrative Conference.
You may not have noticed, but the smallest revolution in world history is under way. Laboratories and factories have begun to make medical sensors and computer-chip components smaller than a single blood cell or the periods on this page.
William H. Bond, who served for nearly two decades as librarian of Houghton Library, died Nov. 18, at Emerson Hospital in Concord, Mass., following a brief illness. He was 90.
Lee Breuer remembers visiting an ancient theater in Turkey where Greek tragedies were performed and asking the guide the purpose of a particular stone.
David Roy Shackleton Bailey, Pope Professor of Latin Language and Literature Emeritus at Harvard University, died at 9:45 a.m. on Nov. 28, at the age of 87. Since his retirement from Harvard in 1988 he had been a resident of Ann Arbor, Mich., where he had taught and continued to write as an adjunct professor in the Department of Classical Studies at the University of Michigan.
On September 27, 2004 John Mack was struck and killed by a car in London, a vehicle operated by a man under the influence of alcohol. He would have turned 75 years-old the following week, an event which friends, colleagues, and students were eagerly anticipating to celebrate. His tragic and unanticipated death, at a time when he was still vitally active and pursuing his many interests, abruptly ended a unique and most distinguished life and career.
U2 lead singer Bono (center), co-founder of Debt AIDS Trade Africa (DATA), meets with Harvard students and faculty on Tuesday (Dec. 6) to discuss the impact of AIDS and poverty in Africa. Over lunch, the singer, who was invited to the University by President Summers, discusses a cluster of issues with, among others, Summers (left) and Jennifer Leaning.
While Divinity School student Zachary Warren drives his unicycle, what is driving him? A love of laughter, says the juggler, trick cyclist, and entertainer known as the Jolly Juggler. In fact, last summer Warrens love of laughter drove him all the way to Afghanistan.
Accomplished architect Sinisha Brdar has been named a 2005 Canada-U.S. Fulbright Student, a prestigious title reserved for a select few in Canada and the United States. Brdar, who was working as an urban designer and architect for Workshop – Architecture + Design, is currently studying at the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD).
Leveraging the resources of the private sector, local nonprofits, and universities was the focus of discussion Friday morning (Dec. 2) during the final day of the 16th biennial seminar on Transition and Leadership for Newly Elected Mayors held at the Kennedy School of Government.
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