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.
How wild, really, is Albert Bierstadt’s wilderness in Rocky Mountains, "Lander’s Peak"? Curatorial intern Saffron Sener will discuss this American landscape.
A presentation from 2023–2024 Evelyn Green Davis Fellow Francesca Wade
At Radcliffe, Wade is completing her second book, "Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife," a new biography of Stein told through the story of her posthumous legacy. She will also begin work on a new project, exploring the intersecting lives and work of several women poets and activists in 1970s New York.
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...
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...
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...
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...
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....
Harvard Graduate School of Design, Gund Hall, Piper Auditorium (48 Quincy St., Cambridge)
This lecture explores how developments in the earth sciences—specifically geology, evolutionism, and biogeography—ushered in advances in design methodologies for large public–realm landscapes in late nineteenth-century Boston.
Speaker: Anita Berrizbeitia Berrizbeitia is a Professor of Landscape Architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. She served as Chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture between 2015-2022 and as Program Director of the Master in Landscape Architecture Degree Programs between 2012-2015. Her research explores...
Join Jen Thum and Caitlin Clerkin for a conversation about a recently refreshed display of ancient Egyptian reliefs from tombs, which places the spotlight on ancient people and processes, as well as provenance.
In conjunction with the exhibition Objects of Addiction: Opium, Empire, and the Chinese Art Trade, join the Harvard Art Museums for a discussion about the opioid crisis, featuring specialists in addiction medicine, harm reduction, and public health policy.
Join associate curator Sarah Laursen for a lecture on opium and Chinese art—two influential commodities traded in China, the British Empire, and Massachusetts between the 18th and early 20th centuries.
Join curatorial fellow Talitha Maria G. Schepers for an interactive talk that explores why 17th-century Dutch artists decided to draw female nudes from life, the conventions they broke while doing so, and why they used blue paper. The talk will focus on a recent installation of Dutch drawings in the 17th-Century Dutch and Flemish Art Gallery.
Join Jen Thum and Caitlin Clerkin for a conversation about a recently refreshed display of ancient Egyptian reliefs from tombs, which places the spotlight on ancient people and processes, as well as provenance.
Join curator Joachim Homann for an in-depth discussion about works in the exhibition American Watercolors, 1880–1990: Into the Light, on view from May 20 to August 13, 2023. Homann will share insights about the making of the exhibition, which seeks to inspire conversations and enrich today’s practitioners of watercolor.
Join exhibition curator and Houghton librarian Dale Stinchcomb for a 30-minute guided tour of the Royal Chicano Air Force posters currently on display in Houghton's lobby gallery. This will include discussion of the themes of the exhibition, highlights from the materials on display, and ample time for participant questions.
Join frames conservator Allison Jackson and senior conservation technician Adam Baker for a closer look at a selection of artworks in the exhibition American Watercolors, 1880–1990: Into the Light, on view from May 20 to August 13, 2023. Jackson will share insights about the variety of frames she treated for the exhibition.
Join Elisa Germán, curator at Colby College Museum of Art, for an in-depth discussion about works in the exhibition American Watercolors, 1880–1990: Into the Light, on view from May 20 to August 13, 2023. Homann will share insights about the making of the exhibition, which seeks to inspire conversations and enrich today's practitioners of watercolor.
Join curator Elisa Germán for a closer look at a selection of artworks in the exhibition American Watercolors, 1880–1990: Into the Light, on view from May 20 to August 13, 2023. Germán will share insights about the museums' collection of American watercolors from the mid- to late 20th century, focusing on a selection of drawings that reveal how this practice evolved into a new contemporary American medium.