Events

    2024 Jan 16

    Hybrid Lecture: The Fascinating Feathers of the Sandgrouse

    6:30pm to 8:00pm

    Location: 

    Online or at Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston

    The birds that populate the Arnold Arboretum rarely have to go far to find water. In the deserts of Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa, it's a different story, and the sandgrouse that lives in these arid environments has developed a fascinating adaptation to stay hydrated: these birds have a unique ability to absorb and hold water inside of their feathers. The chicks can't yet fly the long distance from their nests to the watering hole, so adult males make the long journey with the lifesaving water secreted away in their feathers. But how do their feathers hold water so efficiently? Dr...

    Read more about Hybrid Lecture: The Fascinating Feathers of the Sandgrouse
    2023 Dec 08

    Water Stories with the Artist Alia Farid

    12:00pm

    Location: 

    Johnson-Kulukundis Family Gallery, Byerly Hall, 8 Garden St., Cambridge

    Join the artist Alia Farid for a tour of Water Stories: River Goddesses, Ancestral Rites, and Climate Crisis and a discussion of the artwork Chibayish, 2023. Chibayish is part of a larger group of works that Farid has developed since 2018, focused on the impact of extractive industries on southern Iraq and Kuwait's ecological and social fabric.

    ...

    Read more about Water Stories with the Artist Alia Farid
    2023 Dec 08

    Art Study Center Seminar: Versos and Marks—Exploring the Past of Paintings

    11:00am to 12:00pm

    Location: 

    Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy St., Cambridge

    Join curatorial assistant Casey Monahan to explore how investigating the verso (reverse side) of a painting can sometimes help construct the history and provenance of a work. Monahan will share how details such as labels, numbers, and other elements that are normally “unseen” are essential for curators as they research and catalogue works in the collections.

    ...

    Read more about Art Study Center Seminar: Versos and Marks—Exploring the Past of Paintings
    2023 Nov 18

    Water Stories with the Artist Evelyn Rydz

    1:00pm to 3:00pm

    Location: 

    Johnson-Kulukundis Family Gallery, Byerly Hall, 8 Garden St., Cambridge

    Join the artist and educator Evelyn Rydz for an afternoon of conversation and collective artmaking within the exhibition Water Stories: River Goddesses, Ancestral Rites, and Climate Crisis, on view September 18–December 16, 2023.

    The exhibition presents artworks that tell alternative stories of water experience in the context of climate change, while encouraging viewers to appreciate the multivalent meaning of water and their own relationship to it. Rydz has repeatedly observed the increasing impacts on natural and cultural ecosystems throughout her various field...

    Read more about Water Stories with the Artist Evelyn Rydz
    2023 Nov 06

    Soil to Foil: Aluminum and the Quest for Industrial Sustainability

    6:00pm to 7:00pm

    Location: 

    Harvard Museums of Science & Culture—Online or at Haller Hall, 24 Oxford St., Cambridge

    In Soil to Foil (Columbia University Press, 2023), Saleem Ali tells the extraordinary story of aluminum. He reveals its pivotal role in the histories of scientific inquiry and technological innovation as well as its importance to sustainability. He highlights scientists and innovators who discovered new uses for this remarkable element, ranging from chemistry and geoscience to engineering and industrial design. Ali argues that aluminum use exemplifies broader lessons about stewardship of nonrenewable resources: its seeming abundance has given rise to wasteful and destructive...

    Read more about Soil to Foil: Aluminum and the Quest for Industrial Sustainability
    2023 Nov 06

    View from Above with Colonel Terry Virts

    3:30pm to 5:00pm

    Location: 

    Klarman Hall, Harvard Business School, Kresge Way, Boston

    This talk features astonishing aerial images of Earth from Colonel Terry Virts' book and takes of life from the edge of the atmosphere.

    Colonel (USAF retired) Terry Virts has spent over seven months in space during his two spaceflights, piloting the Space Shuttle Endeavour in 2010 and commanding the International Space Station in 2014/2015. He served in the US Air Force as a fighter pilot, test pilot, NASA astronaut, and is a graduate of the US Air Force Academy, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, and Harvard Business School General Management Program.

    ...

    Read more about View from Above with Colonel Terry Virts
    2023 Nov 03

    Responsibility and Repair: Legacies of Indigenous Enslavement, Indenture, and Colonization at Harvard and Beyond

    9:00am to 5:00pm

    Location: 

    Online or at Harvard Radcliffe Institute, Knafel Center, 10 Garden St., Cambridge

    This conference, “Responsibility and Repair”—led by Harvard University’s Native American Program in collaboration with Harvard Radcliffe Institute—will bring together Native and university leaders to advance a national dialogue, expand research, and establish and deepen partnerships with Indigenous communities. Using the landmark Report of the Presidential Committee on Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery (2022) as a starting point, the conference and its participants—activists, scholars, Native leaders, tribal historians, and others—will explore the responsibility of...

    Read more about Responsibility and Repair: Legacies of Indigenous Enslavement, Indenture, and Colonization at Harvard and Beyond
    2023 Nov 02

    Responsibility and Repair: Legacies of Indigenous Enslavement, Indenture, and Colonization at Harvard and Beyond Evening Event

    7:30pm

    Location: 

    Online or at Harvard Radcliffe Institute, Knafel Center, 10 Garden St., Cambridge

    This conference, “Responsibility and Repair”—led by Harvard University’s Native American Program in collaboration with Harvard Radcliffe Institute—will bring together Native and university leaders to advance a national dialogue, expand research, and establish and deepen partnerships with Indigenous communities. Using the landmark Report of the Presidential Committee on Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery (2022) as a starting point, the conference and its participants—activists, scholars, Native leaders, tribal historians, and others—will explore the responsibility of...

    Read more about Responsibility and Repair: Legacies of Indigenous Enslavement, Indenture, and Colonization at Harvard and Beyond Evening Event
    2023 Nov 01

    Rachel Dorothy Tanur Memorial Lecture: Angela D. Brooks, "No Place Like Home"

    6:30pm to 8:00pm

    Location: 

    Harvard Graduate School of Design, Gund Hall, Piper Auditorium (48 Quincy St., Cambridge)

    Join the Harvard Graduate School of Design for a Rachel Dorothy Tanur Memorial Lecture presented by Angela D. Brooks.

    Angela Brooks is the Director of the Illinois office of the Corporation for Supportive Housing and the President of the American Planning Association. She currently serves on the Chicago Board of Zoning Appeals, the Illinois Affordable Housing Advisory Commission, and is co-chair of the national Housing Supply Accelerator, helping communities meet the housing needs of residents.

    ...

    Read more about Rachel Dorothy Tanur Memorial Lecture: Angela D. Brooks, "No Place Like Home"
    2023 Oct 26

    Fall 2023 Hofer Lecture | Writing the History of Bookbinding: The Suave Mechanicals Essay Series

    5:30pm to 7:00pm

    Location: 

    Houghton Library, Harvard Yard, Cambridge

    Houghton Library welcomes conservator Julia Miller, editor of the Suave Mechanicals history of bookbinding series, who will give this fall's Philip and Frances Hofer Lecture on the Art of the Book.

    The lecture covers the inception of Suave Mechanicals, its goals and challenges, with a brief description of how the series is managed—the nuts and bolts of editing and publishing nine volumes of essays over twelve years (2013–2025). Miller describes the series' impact on research and writing on the history of bookbinding and the history of the book, as viewed through its broad...

    Read more about Fall 2023 Hofer Lecture | Writing the History of Bookbinding: The Suave Mechanicals Essay Series
    2023 Oct 24

    Jaqueline Tyrwhitt Urban Design Lecture: Manuel Salgado, "City-Making"

    6:30pm to 8:00pm

    Location: 

    Harvard Graduate School of Design, Gund Hall, Piper Auditorium (48 Quincy St., Cambridge)

    “City-making” can be approached from different points of view and disciplines, whether starting from global theoretical reflections or from a particular and pragmatic approach to solving concrete problems. One can contribute to ‘city-making’ as a thinker, sociologist, economist, legislator, planner, developer, policymaker, or even an agitator. Architect Manuel Salgado will discuss how he has contributed to this process in three different ways: as a planner, architect, and policymaker.

    ...

    Read more about Jaqueline Tyrwhitt Urban Design Lecture: Manuel Salgado, "City-Making"
    2023 Oct 24

    Call, Respond, and Serve: The Role of Spirituality in Public Theology and Politics

    6:30pm

    Location: 

    Online or at Harvard Divinity School, James Room (Swartz Hall), 45 Francis Ave., Cambridge

    Major religious traditions call on their adherents to respond to the causes of suffering, those who suffer, and the prevention of suffering. The ways we respond and serve can take many forms including activism and holding political office. How does spiritual practice support the difficult work of speaking truth to power as well as being in positions of power without losing focus on the relief of suffering?

    In this book talk and conversation, Lori E. Lightfoot, Esq., 56th Mayor of Chicago, and Pamela Ayo Yetunde, J.D., Th.D., author of Casting Indra's Net: Fostering Spiritual...

    Read more about Call, Respond, and Serve: The Role of Spirituality in Public Theology and Politics
    2023 Oct 19

    WAX POETIC: Audre Lorde LP Launch Party with Tongo Eisen-Martin

    5:30pm to 7:00pm

    Location: 

    Woodberry Poetry Room, Lamont Library, 11 Quincy St., Cambridge

    The Woodberry Poetry Room invites you to a launch party for Audre Lorde at Fassett Studio, 1970, our latest collaborative release with Fonograf Editions: Here to help us celebrate is current Poet Laureate of San Francisco and Lorde LP contributor Tongo Eisen-Martin, author of Blood on the Fog (City Lights, 2021) and Heaven Is All Goodbyes (2017).

    Eisen-Martin will get the event rolling with a brief reading of his own poems (and a selection of Lorde's works) and then we will cue up the record for its premiere on the Aalto turntables. Come one, come all to this evening of...

    Read more about WAX POETIC: Audre Lorde LP Launch Party with Tongo Eisen-Martin
    2023 Oct 19

    Astronomy is for All of Us: Celebrating Women Astrophysicists and the History of Cosmic Discovery

    5:00pm to 8:00pm

    Location: 

    Harvard College Observatory Plate Stacks, 47 Concord Ave., Cambridge

    During Massachusetts STEM Week, join us for an evening celebrating remarkable women in astronomy from across the galaxy. Enjoy a dynamic lecture on exciting applications of astronomy, explore a captivating exhibition in the Great Refractor, engage in family-friendly STEM activities, and cap off the night with fall refreshments and stargazing.

    • Remarks from Professor Lisa Kewley, Director, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian
    • Welcome remarks from Lt. Governor Kim Driscoll, highlighting...
    Read more about Astronomy is for All of Us: Celebrating Women Astrophysicists and the History of Cosmic Discovery
    2023 Oct 17

    Loeb Lecture: David Gissen with Sara Hendren

    6:30pm to 8:00pm

    Location: 

    Harvard Graduate School of Design, Gund Hall, Piper Auditorium (48 Quincy St., Cambridge)

    The Architecture of Disability, David Gissen’s newly published book, situates experiences of impairment as a new foundation for the built environment. With its provocative proposal for “the construction of disability,” this book fundamentally reconsiders how we conceive of and experience disability in our world. Gissen will be joined by GSD alum Sara Hendren for a conversation surrounding the publication and how we might look beyond traditional notions of accessibility to positively reimagine the roots of architecture.

    ...

    Read more about Loeb Lecture: David Gissen with Sara Hendren
    2023 Oct 16

    Houghton-Medieval Studies Lecture in Early Book History: "Arthurian Immobilities: Disabled Kings and Nobles in the Lancelot Prose Cycle"

    5:30pm to 7:00pm

    Location: 

    Houghton Library, Harvard Yard, Cambridge

    Houghton Library and the Standing Committee on Medieval Studies present Christopher Baswell on "Arthurian Immobilities: Disabled Kings and Nobles in the Lancelot Prose Cycle."

    While the lived reality of disability in the Middle Ages was surely a wretched one, at the same time we encounter persistent associations between disabled and royal or aristocratic bodies in medieval culture, its imagery, and narratives. Nowhere is this truer than in the Arthurian world, at whose core there lies a powerful but immobile figure, the Rich Fisher King. In this talk, Christopher Baswell will...

    Read more about Houghton-Medieval Studies Lecture in Early Book History: "Arthurian Immobilities: Disabled Kings and Nobles in the Lancelot Prose Cycle"
    2023 Oct 11

    The Living Dead in Ancient Egypt

    6:00pm to 7:00pm

    Location: 

    Online or at Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford St., Cambridge

    “Oh Unas, you have not gone away dead, but alive.” The Pyramid Text quoted here tells us that the ancient Egyptians believed in the continued influence of the dead in the lives of the living. The dead in ancient Egypt were supernatural intermediaries, folk heroes, and some were even deified, worshiped as gods in the Egyptian pantheon.

    This talk will build on the research found in Dr. Troche’s first book, Death, Power, and Apotheosis in Ancient Egypt (Cornell University Press, 2021) and invite audiences to learn about the spectrum of deceased actors in ancient Egypt....

    Read more about The Living Dead in Ancient Egypt

Pages