Retrospection
The Strange History of Fake Harvard Students
Although social media was set ablaze this year with rumors of an impostor, there are records of people pretending to be Harvard freshman as far back as the 1960s.
The Ghost of Susan Sontag
“The Self as a Project.” That’s what Sontag told Charlie Rose she was working on when she wasn’t writing. The grand irony is that she took that noble aspiration of the liberal arts colleges she swore off and made it hers: teaching people how to think.
Astronomical Imperialism: Harvard In the Peruvian Skies
The data collected by Harvard College Observatory in Arequipa in the late 19th to early 20th century, is foundational in the study of astronomy and has furthered our understanding of the cosmos. But this type of cross-continental scientific undertaking cannot be separated from its impact on its workers — both the Indigenous people building Harvard facilities in Peru and the low-paid women astronomers in Cambridge.
Testing ‘God’s Law’: Advent of Recombinant DNA Research Struck Fear into Cambridge
Recombinant DNA research helped lay the groundwork for modern medicine. But, before Harvard could build a laboratory to do it, University scientists had to overcome the staunch fears that the pioneering technique was safe.