Conversations
Diana Eck 15Q
Diana L. Eck, Professor of Comparative Religion and Indian Studies, served as Lowell’s Faculty Dean alongside her wife Dorothy A. Austin for 20 years.
Fifteen Questions: Diana Eck on Interfaith Dialogue, Lowell’s Russian Bells, and Her Favorite Poetry
The Comparative Religion professor sat down to discuss religious pluralism in the United States as well as on Harvard’s campus. “It is not the godless Harvard that people used to speak of, in the old days,” she says.
American Ninja Warrior Takes on the Classroom
Levin finally made it onto the eighth season of American Ninja Warrior in 2016 and was named Rookie of the Year. He returned again in 2017 and 2018, each time making it to national finals. This year, for season 14, Levin returned to the American Ninja Warrior stage for the first time since 2018, falling just short of the $1 million dollar prize.
Fifteen Questions: Taeku Lee on Political Science, Civic Engagement, and His Stint as a Premed
The Government professor sat down to discuss his decision to pursue political science in graduate school and the development of ethnic studies at Harvard. “I keenly felt like there was something fundamentally misguided about my pursuit of thinking about politics and political science without understanding at a very fundamental level the history of racial politics in the United States,” he says.
Fifteen Questions: Marc Lipsitch on Covid Modeling, Open-Access Science, and Latte Art
"Being very clear about the scientific rationale for advice, what are the limitations of what we know, and what public health authorities are doing to understand the things they need to know to make better advice — all these go a long way."
Harvey Mansfield Horizontal
Harvey C. Mansfield has taught political philosophy at Harvard for over half a century. One of the few outspoken conservatives on the faculty, he has been a sharp critic of political polarization on campus.
Fifteen Questions: Harvey Mansfield on Ideological Diversity, Trumpism, and his Signature Fedora
One of the University’s most prominent conservative faculty members sat down with Fifteen Minutes to discuss political polarization on campus. “The Harvard Commencement is something like the Democratic National Convention,” he says. “And that’s a hell of a way to run a university.”
Fifteen Questions: Andrew Berry on Fruit Flies, LS1b, and Harvard-Yale
The evolutionary biologist and historian of science sat down with Fifteen Minutes to discuss his scientific inspirations and his approach to pedagogy. “I have one great virtue as a teacher, which is I’m pretty dumb,” he says.
Matine Khalighi is on the Move
Freshman Matine Khalighi is one of only three undergraduate fitness instructors and teaches seven to nine classes per week.
Condition that Bod 2
Matine Khalighi '25 teaches seven to nine fitness classes per week at Harvard's Recreation facilities.
Avi Loeb's Galileo Project Reaches for the Stars
There may be more Earth-like planets in the universe than grains of sand on all of Earth’s beaches combined, researchers predict. “The extraordinary claim is to say that we are special and unique,” Loeb says.
Meet Julie Fiveash, Harvard's First Librarian for American Indigenous Studies
Their position carves out a distinct space in the world’s largest academic library system to focus exclusively on organizing, spotlighting, and acquiring materials in a field that has long been neglected.
Avi Loeb
Avi Loeb, pictured here in 2017, is a Harvard professor an astrophysicist who founded the Galileo Project, a controversial center dedicated to unearthing evidence that objects made by extraterrestrial life are in our solar system.
Fueled by Coconuts and Adrenaline, Swati Goel '25 Lives Her 'Biggest Dream' on Survivor
For Goel, the show has been a comfort since middle school — like “chicken soup,” she says. “It’s just the thing I would watch whenever I was upset or sad.” Auditioning for the show was a bucket-list item for her.
Lindsay Sanwald, Her Loop Pedal, and Her Surf Board
A Masters of Divinity candidate graduating this spring, Sanwald lets her spirituality manifest in a variety of ways: the psychedelic indie-rock one-woman show she performs under the stage name Idgy Dean,; the Patreon account she runs to offer sermons, spiritual guidance, and meditation to monthly subscribers, and, as of late, surfing.
Swati Goel 1
Swati Goel '25 competed on the 42nd season of the hit CBS reality competition show "Survivor."
How Not to Die Alone, According to Relationship Expert Logan Ury
This counterintuitive revelation — that the road to love can be paved with scientific rationality — is the foundation of Ury’s book, as well as her career more broadly.
An Antique Bookstore for the 21st Century
The Brattle Book Shop in Boston, full of rare and antique books, is one of America’s oldest and largest used bookstores.
How David Foster Grew the Harvard Forest to New Heights
The forest, Foster says, “is one of those kinds of resources that no other university has, so it’s something that Harvard should really cherish.”
Benjamin Bolger Has No Post-Graduation Plans
“Other people might read a magazine article in The Economist,” Bolger says. “Maybe I'll do a master’s degree instead on the topic.”
Benjamin Bolger
Benjamin B. Bolger holds 16 post-graduate degrees from some of academia's most prestigious institutions from Harvard to Oxford.