Conversations
Fifteen Questions: David Atherton on Japanese Literature, Creativity, and Remembering to Breathe
The literary scholar sat down with Fifteen Minutes to discuss Edo-period writing and his experience returning to Harvard as a professor. “How can we find and contribute and generate interesting humanistic questions and different ways of thinking about things like literature and culture,” he says, “that are not bound by region at all?”
Joe Harris 15Q
Joseph D. Harris ’72 is a mathematician in the field of algebraic geometry and Harvard’s Math 55 professor.
Fifteen Questions: Joe Harris ’72 on Math 55, the Dudley Co-op, and Failure
The mathematician sat down with Fifteen Minutes to discuss Math 55’s notorious reputation and his own experience at Harvard. “In math, it’s rare that you would decide to fix on a specific concrete goal, and then either achieve it or not,” he says. “Usually, it’s a matter of exploration.”
Fifteen Questions: Manja Klemenčič on Student Agency, Pre-Professionalism, and Small Acts of Kindness
The sociologist sat down with FM to discuss the most pressing issues in higher education today and student agency, even in the smallest acts. “You don’t need to change the entire world already while you’re at Harvard,” she says. “You can do small things every day and that matters also.”
Anna Delvey
Depending on who you ask, Anna Delvey is a deft con woman, a study in performance, a self-taught mimic of the upper class
Up-Close and Personal with Painting Conservator Kate Smith
Her intimate proximity to paintings differs from the plebeian museum goer’s protocol: don’t-touch-don’t-blink-don’t-breathe-that-looks-expensive. For Smith, getting up close and personal with the artwork is necessary to conserve a piece while staying true to the artist’s original artistic vision.
Anna Delvey Is Over It
From mainstream journalists to Netflix binge-watchers to students at the Harvard Business School, everybody wants to make sense of the Anna Delvey phenomenon — everybody, it seems, except for Anna Delvey.
Fifteen Questions: Melanie Matchett Wood on Number Theory, Failing, and Her Lifetime Supply of Hagoromo Chalk
The mathematician sat down with Fifteen Minutes to talk about breaking barriers for women in pure math. “If you’re not ever getting rejections or failing, you’re not trying hard or interesting enough things,” she says.
Helen Piltner profile shot.
Piltner is known as a “Harvard influencer,” having amassed almost 40,000 subscribers on Youtube and thousands of followers on Instagram and TikTok.
Helen Piltner, Harvard Influencer
As her content meets both support and skepticism from those on and off campus, Piltner is still figuring out her place as a student with a public platform.
Fifteen Questions: Morgan Ridgway on Urban Indigeneity, Solange, and Linear Time
The historian sat down with Fifteen Minutes to discuss the way their archival work, poetry, and performance art inform each other. “I think less about events happening sequentially, and more about these moments of aspiration,” they say.
Fifteen Questions: Soyoung Lee on Harvard Art Museums, Korean and Japanese Ceramics, and Her Lost British Accent
Harvard Art Museums’ head curator Soyoung Lee chatted with Fifteen Minutes about her background, the curatorial process, and museum highlights. “That’s how I see museum work: it’s about translating the things that I’m familiar with for others,” she says. “It’s about the absorption of knowledge and partnerships and context of communications.”
Fifteen Questions: Glenda Carpio on Humor, Hum 10, and the Failure of “Success” Stories
The Chair of the English Department sat down with Fifteen Minutes to discuss rethinking the literary canon and immigrant narratives. “I was the lucky one, I survived,” she says. “What happens to those who are undone by the violence of having to be uprooted?"
Fifteen Questions: Rakesh Khurana on Pizza, Veritas, and “Squishy Things”
The Dean of the College sat down with Fifteen Minutes to discuss how Harvard has transformed him and the challenges he sees ahead. “I’m not saying that we’re a perfect institution, but we’re trying to be good for the world,” he says.