![Victoria Zambrano ’27 (clockwise from bottom left), JaKayla C. Harris ’27, Ida Chen ’27, and Kodi Kim ’27 working together during “Introductory Electromagnetism Physics.”](https://news.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/090524_First_Week_Deslauriers_0026.jpg)
Victoria Zambrano ’27 (clockwise from bottom left), JaKayla C. Harris ’27, Ida Chen ’27, and Kodi Kim ’27 working together during “Introductory Electromagnetism Physics.”
Niles Singer/Harvard Staff Photographer
Unfolding the academic year
Students sample classes across campus, offering them a taste of what lies ahead
Marking the start of the fall semester, thousands of students set off for their first class last week.
“I was immediately amazed to see the diversity of students coming from many different U.S. territories and countries,” Amber Henry, assistant professor in African and African American Studies, said. “I’m excited to have people with so much experience in countries outside of the United States in the class, bringing that richness of experience as we’re thinking about what travel and tourism might look like, and its alternatives, both in places in the Americas and also some of continental Africa.”
Henry is teaching “The Politics of Paradise: Tourism in Latin America & the Caribbean,” a lecture course in the Barker Center that discusses how different experiences of power are tied to tourism, the notion of paradise, and how the concept of paradise has been mobilized in search of the “ideal place.” For the first day, Henry’s students were asked to bring an item that presents the most generic tourist representation of a place.
“It was a wonderful opportunity to think about what types of experiences people are invited to have when they visit a place as a tourist location, and how those experiences might diverge from a kind of deeper, more intimate history that might be gleaned from someone who has a longer experience living there,” she said.
Across campus, students in Louis Deslauriers’ “Introductory Electromagnetism Physics” class were treated to dynamic physics experiments. “You always get lots of clapping,” joked Deslauriers, director of Science Teaching and Learning in FAS and senior preceptor in physics, about the flashy demonstrations which deal with electricity and magnetism.
The core course for physics concentrators largely welcomes first-years and sophomores and covers several topics, including electric currents, Maxwell’s equations, magnetic fields in materials, and some notions in kinetic theory. The goal, Deslauriers notes, is to master this introductory knowledge.
“I make them a promise, that by the end of the course, they’re going to feel powerful,” he said. “By powerful, I mean that when you objectively have a better understanding of the world around you, there’s a power that comes from that.”
![Senior preceptor in physics Louis Deslauriers offers students demonstrations during “Introductory Electromagnetism Physics.”](https://news.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/090524_First_Week_Deslauriers_0109.jpg)
Senior preceptor in physics Louis Deslauriers offers students demonstrations during “Introductory Electromagnetism Physics.”
Niles Singer/Harvard Staff Photographer
![A student works on an iPad during a physics class taught in the Science Center Hall A.](https://news.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/090524_First_Week_Deslauriers_0045.jpg)
A student works on an iPad during a physics class taught in the Science Center Hall A.
Niles Singer/Harvard Staff Photographer
![Spencer Lee-Lenfield, postdoc and incoming assistant professor in the Department of Comparative Literature (left), teaches “Exploring Translation Studies: History, Theories, the State of the Art.”](https://news.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/090424_First_Week_SM_27.jpg)
Spencer Lee-Lenfield, postdoc and incoming assistant professor in the Department of Comparative Literature (left), teaches “Exploring Translation Studies: History, Theories, the State of the Art.”
Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer
![Lee-Lenfield gathers with students in a Barker Center classroom.](https://news.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/090424_First_Week_SM_10.jpg)
Lee-Lenfield gathers with students in a Barker Center classroom.
Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer
![Graduate student Claire Koeppen.](https://news.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/090424_First_Week_SM_07.jpg)
Graduate student Claire Koeppen.
Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer
![Graduate student Camellia Pham.](https://news.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/090424_First_Week_SM_22.jpg)
Graduate student Camellia Pham.
Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer
![Graduate student Yam Traiber.](https://news.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/090424_First_Week_SM_05.jpg)
Graduate student Yam Traiber.
Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer
![](https://news.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/090424_First_Week_SM_26.jpg)
A student takes notes during class.
Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer
![Graduate student Luis S. Pabón Rico.](https://news.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/090424_First_Week_SM_24.jpg)
Graduate student Luis S. Pabón Rico.
Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer
![Assistant Professor of Music Jessie Cox teaches “Music to Re-imagine the World: From Afrofuturism to Experimental Music across Planet Earth.”](https://news.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/090424_First_Week_SM_39.jpg)
Jessie Cox teaches “Music to Re-imagine the World: From Afrofuturism to Experimental Music across Planet Earth.”
Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer
![A detail of the chalkboard in the Music Building.](https://news.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/090424_First_Week_SM_32.jpg)
A detail of the chalkboard in the Music Building.
Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer
![Gabriela Vasquez Rosado ’26.](https://news.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/090424_First_Week_SM_36.jpg)
Gabriela Vasquez Rosado ’26.
Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer
![Amber Henry, assistant professor in the Department of African and African American Studies, teaches “The Politics of Paradise: Tourism in Latin America & the Caribbean.](https://news.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/090324_First_Week_Henry_0134.jpg)
Amber Henry, assistant professor in the Department of African and African American Studies, teaches “The Politics of Paradise: Tourism in Latin America & the Caribbean.
Niles Singer/Harvard Staff Photographer
![Ayah Khan '25 (left) and Adrian Munoz '25 laughing during class in the Barker Center.](https://news.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/090324_First_Week_Henry_0423.jpg)
Ayah Khan ’25 (left) and Adrian Munoz Krans ’25 laugh during class in the Barker Center.
Niles Singer/Harvard Staff Photographer
![Joshua Greene, professor in the Department of Psychology, teaches “Free Will, Responsibility, and Law” in William James Hall.](https://news.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/090924_First_Week_Greene_0124.jpg)
Joshua Greene, professor in the Department of Psychology, teaches “Free Will, Responsibility, and Law” in William James Hall.
Niles Singer/Harvard Staff Photographer
![Andrew Danielson, assistant professor in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, (standing) teaches “First Civilizations: History and Archaeology of the Ancient Near East.](https://news.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/090324_First_Week_Danielson_0148.jpg)
Andrew Danielson, assistant professor in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, (standing) teaches “First Civilizations: History and Archaeology of the Ancient Near East.
Niles Singer/Harvard Staff Photographer
![Danielson’s class is held in the Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East.](https://news.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/090324_First_Week_Danielson_0336.jpg)
Danielson’s class is held in the Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East.
Niles Singer/Harvard Staff Photographer
![A slide displays “Ancient Records” during the class presentation.](https://news.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/090324_First_Week_Danielson_0348.jpg)
A slide displays “Ancient Records” during the class presentation.
Niles Singer/Harvard Staff Photographer