Campus & Community

New learning curve

Linsey Moyer teaches "Quantitative Physiology as a Basis for Bioengineering."

In the first week of classes at the Science and Engineering Complex (SEC) in Allston, Linsey Moyer, lecturer in biomedical engineering, teaches “Quantitative Physiology as a Basis for Bioengineering.”

Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer

3 min read

Seeking the familiar comforts of class and classmates

After 18 months away, Harvard students returned cautiously and excitedly to physical classrooms this past week. Masked up, they filled first-year seminars, General Education lectures, and performance studios, meeting their professors and one another — often for the first time. With strict public health measures in place, the circumstances of the new school year were far from the old normal, but September’s optimism was palpable everywhere from Harvard’s Robinson Hall to its new Science and Engineering Complex in Allston.

William Whitham walks with his students across Massachusetts Avenue.

William Whitham, lecturer in the Freshman Seminar Program, leads his class across Mass. Ave. to Harvard Yard.

Rose Lincoln/Harvard Staff Photographer

William Whitham teaches in the Yard.
Students from William Whitham's Freshmen Seminar learn outside.

William Whitham (pictured) teaches his Freshman Seminar, “Political Violence and Power,” under a tent in Harvard Yard.

Photos by Rose Lincoln/Harvard Staff Photographer

A student walks past Widener Library.

Harvard Yard during the first day of classes at Harvard University. A student walks past Widener Library. Students return to in-person learning, masking, and COVID testing.

Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer

Chelsea Xia ’24 (left) and Abdul Repon ’24 study inside The Science and Engineering Complex.
Melissa Jones ’24 studies inside The Science and Engineering Complex.

Chelsea Xia ’24 (left) and Abdul Repon ’24 and Melissa Jones ’24 (right) study in the new Science and Engineering Complex (SEC) during the first week of classes.

Photos by Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer

Linda Chavers teaches "How Did We Get Here? From Slavery to #MeToo."

Linda Chavers, lecturer on African and African American studies and assistant dean of Harvard College, teaches “How Did We Get Here? From Slavery to #MeToo” in Harvard Hall.

Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer

Students in Yaron Singer's "Adaptive Methods in Machine Learning" at the new Science and Engineering Complex.

Students in Yaron Singer’s “Adaptive Methods in Machine Learning” class at the Science and Engineering Complex in Allston.

Rose Lincoln/Harvard Staff Photographer

Yaron Singer teaches: "Adaptive Methods in Machine Learning."

Yaron Singer, Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics, (pictured) in the SEC classroom.

Rose Lincoln/Harvard Staff Photographer

Students head to class in the new Science and Engineering Complex.

Students head to class in the Science and Engineering Complex with kinetic art marking the way.

Rose Lincoln/Harvard Staff Photographer

Students pictured outside Sever Hall.
People walk past Memorial Church under three veritas banners.

Sever Hall and Memorial Church in Harvard Yard on the first day of classes.

Photos by Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer

Michael Bronski, Professor of the Practice in Activism and Media Studies of Women, Gender and Sexuality teaches "Power to the People: Black Power, Radical Feminism, and Gay Liberation."

In Emerson Hall, Michael Bronski, professor of the Practice in Activism and Media Studies of Women, Gender and Sexuality, teaches “Power to the People: Black Power, Radical Feminism, and Gay Liberation,” an introduction to the radical American social change movements of the 1960s and ’70s. At left is Clarisse Wells, lecturer on Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality.

Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer

Students listen during Michael Bronski, Professor of the Practice in Activism and Media Studies of Women, Gender and Sexuality teaches "Power to the People: Black Power, Radical Feminism, and Gay Liberation."
Students type notes on their laptop computers.

Students listen and take notes in Michael Bronski’s class, “Power to the People: Black Power, Radical Feminism, and Gay Liberation.”

Photos by Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer

Students gather in the transept before heading into the lecture.

Students gather in the transept of Memorial Hall before heading into class.

Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer

Charles Czeisler stands by the statue in Sanders Theatre during his lecture on Sleep.
Students listen to the lecture on Sleep.

Charles Czeisler (pictured) and Frank A.J.L. Scheer teach “Sleep” in Harvard’s Sanders Theatre.

Photos by Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer

Charles Czeisler and Frank A.J.L. Scheer teach "Sleep" in Sanders Theatre.

Charles Czeisler (right) and Frank A.J.L. Scheer, professors of sleep medicine, teach the Gen Ed class “Sleep,” which addresses how sleep affects your health, safety, and performance, and how the global COVID-19 pandemic has affected sleep.

Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer

People parade by the steps of Widener Library.

People pass by the steps of Widener Library on the first day of class.

Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer