Conversations
Hey Professor: Mikhail D. Lukin
The chance to channel your inner Obi Wan Kenobi might be closer than you think.
Talking Back: Harvard Reacts to TFA Criticism
Grad school for academics, Goldman for bankers, McKinsey for consultants—all of these post-grad paths are well trod by Harvard alums looking to jump-start high-powered careers right out of college. Another default option is often Teach For America, a selective organization that places 11,000 corps members in teaching positions across the country, promising a chance to explore education, leadership, and public service. But TFA’s methods and results have long generated controversy: Is TFA the panacea for socioeconomic inequality as some say, or are the corps members’ stress and sleep deprivation all for naught?
The Future of Journalism
In this day and age, information abounds, but it is increasingly difficult to discern what information is accurate and reliable. What does this mean for the future of journalism? FM decided to ask the experts. Luckily, 24 of the world’s most accomplished journalists are right here at Harvard’s Nieman Foundation for Journalism, which celebrated its 75th anniversary this weekend. We asked some of the Nieman Fellows to describe in 100 words what they envision for the journalism of tomorrow.
Locked Away: A Tour of Harvard Yard’s Neglected Gates
The first day of classes this year, I became confused when I tried to exit Canaday through the large semi-circular gates behind the dorm. The gates were locked. How odd.
Jonathan Alter Shares Insight on Obama, Media
Jonathan Alter ’79 entertained a group of Harvard students on Thursday with colorful stories of recent presidential campaigns and the personal life of President Obama, explaining that our president is “fundamentally different in private and public.”
15 Questions with Margaret Atwood
Margaret Atwood takes her seat behind a desk in a back room of First Parish Church. She has 30 minutes until her sold-out Harvard Book Store reading—and hundreds of books to transform into retail-ready Signed Copies before she can begin. She gets to work.
2+2, 2+3
This year, the junior class is getting a taste of the fun, thanks to a new deferred admission program that offers Harvard students the chance to apply to Harvard Law School during their junior year. Known as the Junior Deferral Pilot, or 2+3, the new initiative was introduced last spring and is modeled along the same lines as Harvard Business School’s 2+2 Program, which began in 2007.
10 Questions with Interim Dean Donald H. Pfister
Those who read the first email that Interim Dean Donald H. Pfister sent to the college may recall that he’s a big fan of fungi jokes—just don’t tell him a fungi “fun-guy” joke (the man’s heard it before, and is looking for something new). But, who is Pfister really? Eager to hear more of Pfister’s stories and quirks, FM sat down with him in the lawn chairs outside Hollis Hall.
From Expos to the Pulitzer
Ten years ago, Paul Harding was known as a talented, if demanding, Expos preceptor and erstwhile member of a rock band called Cold Water Flat. Back in town this week for a reading upon the release of his second book, “Enon,” the Pulitzer Prize-winning author bore little resemblance to his former self.
Hey Professor: David E. Sanger on Syria
In a prime-time speech on Tuesday, President Obama addressed the nation to make the case for intervention in Syria and outline recent developments
A Conversation with Former Senator Tim Wirth
FM sat down with the former Senator of Colorado Tim Wirth '61 to chat about politics, Harvard life, Gov 1310, and of course, Hillary Clinton.
7 Questions with Neil Gaiman
Near the end of his guest lecture in Folklore and Mythology 90i, Neil Gaiman informs the students that he doesn’t like doing interviews because it takes up time he could be using to work on a story, write a screenplay, or author a graphic novel. My gut drops when I then introduce myself as the reporter who’s going to prevent him from writing for the next half-hour. He smiles and shrugs, “We ought to get started then.”
Mapping Our Cities: A Conversation with Becky Cooper '10
I realized that those maps, in series, told an interesting story about my life that summer. They told an interesting story of the city. In some ways, it was a more honest story than the one I was building [for my boss] because it was celebrating the subjectivity of the mapmaker. Those two realizations, coupled with my having read Italo Calvino’s “Invisible Cities” the year before, grew into this: I wanted to give really small, limited maps to as many New Yorkers as possible and have them map their New Yorks. And then, in series, have a New York emerge from there.
The Fundamental Mira Nair
“I wanted to recomplicate what is so reductive, what has been so reductive and so simple: the bad guys and the good guys,” filmmaker Mira Nair ’79 says. I’m sitting with Nair and two other journalists in a conference room at the Charles Hotel, discussing Nair’s new film, “The Reluctant Fundamentalist,” which comes out in May. “I wanted very much to have that complexity of the human being in both characters—not just two countries, not two flags, but two real people.”
Thinking Outside the Solo Cup
On Harvard’s campus, as on those of other colleges, alcohol is by all accounts accessible and abundant. A red Solo cup is a ubiquitous accessory to many social events. Yet despite the presence of alcohol on campus, a number of Harvard students choose not to drink. For many of these students, this decision is based on a variety of personal factors, all challenging the assumption that social life in college necessarily involves alcohol.
10 Questions with Benjamin B. Ferencz
On April 10, Ferencz returned to Harvard. “Tell me your problems,” Ferencz says to me, trying to distract me from the impending interview. I tell him that I have none, that I want to hear his story. The interview begins before Ferencz can sneak back into the servery for dessert.
7 Questions with Jon Huntsman
Ultimately the marketplace will decide whether there’s a need for a third party.
15 Questions with Jason Alexander
Jason Alexander, the “Seinfeld” star and Tony Award-winning Broadway actor, wears a beige tweed coat low on his shoulders and speaks with a confidence that seems worlds away from his notorious television alter-ego, George Costanza. His teenage son, who accompanied him on the trip, chats with a few Folklore and Mythology professors in the adjacent room. They later tell us that our laughs were impressively loud coming through the Warren House’s burly 19th century walls.
Concussed: Down and Out
Chris J. Nowinski ’00 was never supposed to be on the sidelines. As a Crimson linebacker and later a WWE wrestler, Nowinski threw mind and body into his opponents to send them to the ground. Now, 10 years later, his life is dedicated to protecting players from the sports he loved.
5 Questions With Matt Birk
Matt R. Birk ’98 was the starting center for the Super Bowl XLVII Champion Baltimore Ravens. The Harvard graduate and economics concentrator has received multiple athletic honors. He was an All-Ivy League player at Harvard, a two-time NFL All-Pro and six-time Pro Bowler, and recipient of the Ed Block Courage Award and Walter Payton Man of the Year Award. FM spoke with Birk about his success on and off the field shortly after he won his first Super Bowl in New Orleans this past February.
Dubstep: Classical Style
Name your favorite dubstep song (Skillrex? Avicii?) and Kristina S. Hu ’16 can instantly turn it into a classical piano ...