Humanities Division
What To Do When You Didn't Win the Lottery
So the course of your dreams—convenient time slot, knocks out a Gen Ed, cross-counts for concentration credit—has been lotteried, and the professor writes to you: "Looking forward to a great semester of this class—except without you in it." No need to panic just yet, though. On this Study Card Day Eve, Flyby's got you covered.
Introductory Humanities Courses Aim To Fill Gap
Introductory courses have long been the backbone of many a Harvard student’s undergraduate experience. But while science concentrators enroll in Life Sciences 1a and economics concentrators opt to take Economics 10, students interested in the humanities have not had the same opportunity to take a broad introductory course.
Greenblatt and Vendler Weigh In: What if We Abolished English Tomorrow?
Attention sophomores thinking about concentrating in English: Stop reading op-eds. This summer, it seems like English—not to mention most disciplines in the humanities—have been denigrated and abused by columnists, cash-strapped universities, and graphs everywhere. Despite the fervor over this certain oncoming apocalypse, level heads still exist: In a recent piece for The New Yorker, Adam Gopnik points out that "If we abolished English majors tomorrow, Stephen Greenblatt and Stanley Fish and Helen Vendler would not suddenly be freed to use their smarts to start making quantum proton-nuclear reactor cargo transporters, or whatever; they would all migrate someplace where they could still talk Shakespeare and Proust and the rest." But where would that place be? Flyby decided to find out.
Freshman Survey Part III: Classes, Clubs, and Concussions
One year after the announcement of the Gov 1310 scandal, 17 percent of freshmen surveyed by The Crimson admitted to having cheated on a paper or a take-home assignment before to coming to Harvard.
If You're a Harvard Freshman, You're Probably a Virgin
Apparently not everyone is doing it: 65 percent of members of the new freshman class recently surveyed by The Crimson admit to entering Harvard as a virgin.
National Humanities Medal Winner Has ‘Great Fun’ at White House
Harvard Kennedy School professor Robert D. Putnam, the author of Bowling Alone, a social science book on the deterioration of American community, on Wednesday received a prestigious award and met a really awful bowler.
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President Barack Obama laughs with Robert Putnam as he awards him the the 2012 National Humanities Medal during a ceremony in the East Room of White House on Wednesday.
Faculty Reports Call for Solutions to Predicaments Facing Humanities Scholarship
A set of three reports released Thursday by a faculty committee call for a vigorous response to the decline of humanistic study at Harvard, including the establishment of new curricular offerings, an internship program, a new undergraduate humanities center similar to the Harvard Innovation Lab, and a new humanities-minded organization roughly modelled after the Institute of Politics.
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Humanistic fields of study at Harvard and around the globe have experienced deteriorating enrollment due to changing attitudes toward the practicality of the humanities in modern society.
Revitalizing the Humanities at Harvard
As enrollment in the humanities has fallen, from 321 senior concentrators in 2010 to 284 in 2012, faculty and students are looking to counter what has proven to be a global shift away from the humanities.
Upcoming Report to Address Challenges Facing the Humanities
In order to address concerns of declining student enrollment in the humanities, the Harvard Arts and Humanities Division is preparing to release an in-depth report analyzing trends in the humanities and recommending ways to rekindle undergraduate interest in the liberal arts.
Panelists Discuss Future of Humanities
As the field of humanities seeks to assert its educational value and revive dwindling student interest, faculty and administrators from several universities gathered at the Knafel Gymnasium, formerly known as the Radcliffe Gymnasium, Tuesday afternoon to discuss the future of the humanities at Harvard and beyond.
The Translators Speak
Elvira DiFabio (right) listens to Edith Grossman (left) discuss the importance of translation. Panelists assembled Monday afternoon for the 33rd annual Raimundo Lida Memorial Lecture, this year titled "Questions in Translation:ask the Translator!"
