January-February 2024

On the cover: Illustration by Taylor Callery

Letters

Cambridge 02138

Letters about the Middle East war and campus upheavals, the energy transition, legacies, and more

Harvard Sundered

Amid the Middle Eastern crisis, preserving room for reasoned debate

Three Cheers

Welcoming the magazine’s new publisher and two editorial colleagues

January-February 2024

January-February 2024

On the cover: Illustration by Taylor Callery

Features

The Philosopher of the Real World

Susanna Siegel moves beyond dialectical debates.

by Lydialyle Gibson

Zelia Nuttall

Brief life of a remarkable anthropologist (1857-1933)

by Merilee Grindle

Break Every Chain

How black plaintiffs in the Jim Crow South sought justice

by Max J. Krupnick

How to Make a Mammal

Studying the fates of cells, Sharad Ramanathan comes closer to understanding the biology of development.

by Jonathan Shaw

RIGHT NOW Harvard research and ideas

Values and Voting Patterns

Thinking globally versus locally is predictive of political views

What Makes Fish Fast?

George Lauder investigates nature’s solutions to underwater speed.

Deciphering Lyme Disease

Whole-genome analysis exposes the sophistication and vulnerabilities underlying Lyme disease.

John Harvard's Journal University news

The Dogs of War

Harvard’s reactions to Hamas’s terrorism and Israel’s response

Tom Hyry

What Harvard's special collections librarian has learned from athletics, activism

Regearing Ph.D. Education

Rethinking advising, and financial needs, as doctoral training evolves.

On Your Behalf

Honoring Harvard Magazine contributing writers and artists

Financial Fitness

Harvard sustains a fiscal 2023 operating surplus—and endowment returns turn (modestly) positive.

Yesterday’s News

Harvard Law School: the skating rink

FAS: Faculty and Fisc

The Faculty of Arts and Sciences’s fisc—and aging professoriate

News in Brief

Nobel laureate in economics, public-health dean, breaking ground in Allston, and more

Back on Top

An Ivy title—dimmed by defeat in the Game

Montage Books, creative arts, performance and more

Thinking Archaically

The earthly permanence of Romolo Del Deo’s sculpture

Democracy Endangered

American democracy endangered by minority rule

Living the Science Fiction Fantasy

Novelist Catherine Asaro’s space operas

Off the Shelf

Recent books with Harvard connections

Educational Ascent

Ruth Simmons on her ascent from sharecropper’s daughter to scholar

Behind the Scenes

The quirky surrealism of production designer Sue Chan

Harvard Squared What to do in Boston, Cambridge and beyond

No Sleepy Coastal Town

Visiting Portsmouth in winter

Bats, In Fact

Peabody Essex Museum dispels negative myths around these nocturnal creatures 

Fresh Takes on the Caribbean

The ICA/Boston's exhibit offers views from the diaspora  

No Sweat

How to create the home gym of your dreams

University People Harvardians far and wide

The Tangible Past

How Philip C. Mead enlivens American history

Battling Eating Disorders

A medical student’s cause

Is Pedagogy About Us?

Questioning the intellectual rigor of bringing identity into the classroom

Greg Stone, An Emerging Novelist at 70

Late-life inspiration leads to pulpy noir novel