Events

    2024 Mar 26

    Lauret Savoy, “Trace: Memory, History, Race, and the American Landscape”

    6:30pm to 8:00pm

    Location: 

    Graduate School of Design, Gund Hall Piper Auditorium

    Sand and stone are Earth’s fragmented memory. Each of us is also a landscape inscribed by memory and loss. Lauret Savoy’s Trace interweaves journeys and historical inquiry across a continent and time to explore how this country’s still unfolding history has marked the land, this society, and her. From twisted terrain within the San Andreas Fault zone to a South Carolina plantation, from national parks to burial grounds to names on the land, from “Indian Territory” and the U.S.-Mexico Border to the U.S. capital, Trace grapples with a searing national history to reveal the often-unvoiced...

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    2024 Feb 07

    Ocean Fever: Deep Thoughts on Water, Culture, and Climate Resilience

    12:00pm

    Location: 

    Virtual -- registration required for zoom link

    Robert Verchick is a legal scholar in climate change and disaster policy who designed climate-resilience programs in the Obama administration. In this lecture, Verchick will explore how we can harness the power of government, science, and local wisdom to rescue the oceans from climate breakdown. Verchick has written more than 60 articles and four books, including the award-winning Facing Catastrophe: Environmental Action for a Post-Katrina World. His podcast, Connect the Dots, is in its seventh season. Contact events@radcliffe....

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    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...

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    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...

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    2023 Nov 16

    Lecture: The Botany of Thanksgiving

    6:30pm to 7:45pm

    Location: 

    Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston

    Talking more than turkey: This lecture will celebrate the plants that bring Thanksgiving to life. From stuffing, to cranberry sauce, to potatoes, cloves, carrots, celery, lettuce and sage. Come and explore the biology of this annual feast with Dr. Pamela Diggle, professor in the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at the University of Connecticut.

    Learn more and RSVP.

    ...

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    2023 Nov 01

    Climate Justice Universities: Another Education Is Possible

    12:00pm

    Location: 

    Harvard Radcliffe Institute—Online

    A presentation from 2023–2024 Radcliffe-Salata Climate Justice Fellow Jennie C. Stephens.

    At Radcliffe, Stephens is completing her book manuscript, provisionally titled Climate Justice University: Another Education Is Possible (Johns Hopkins University Press, forthcoming), which reimagines how higher education could accelerate transformative social innovation toward a more just, healthy, and stable fossil fuel–free future. The book proposes a paradigm shift to leverage the untapped potential of institutions of higher education to advance systemic social change to reduce...

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    2023 Oct 08

    Tree Mob: Oaks on Peters Hill

    1:15pm to 2:00pm

    Location: 

    Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston

    Oaks are one of the most recognizable trees in New England, and one of the most ecologically important. Join Horticulturist Ryan Devlin for a Tree Mob on the Arboretum's oak collection on Peters Hill and get a closer look at this common but fascinating genus. Learn about oak reproduction, different oak species, mast years, and more through this short landscape talk.

    Learn more and RSVP.

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    2023 Oct 05

    Protecting the World’s Penguins

    6:00pm to 7:00pm

    Location: 

    Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford St., Cambridge

    Join Dr. Pablo Borboroglu, the 2023 Indianapolis Prize Winner for animal conservation, as he recounts his lifelong journey to save penguins. Dr. Borboroglu will highlight the challenges of conservation work, from protecting 32 million acres of ocean and coastal habitat to cofounding the Global Penguin Society, an international conservation coalition for the world’s penguin species. Hear about the risks and rewards he has experienced while trying to save penguins in some of nature’s wildest places.

    ...

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    2023 Sep 14

    Sylvester Baxter Lecture: Kongjian Yu

    6:30pm to 8:00pm

    Location: 

    Gund Hall, Piper Auditorium (48 Quincy St. Cambridge)

    Join the Harvard Graduate School of Design for a Sylvester Baxter Lecture featuring Kongjian Yu.

    Kongjian Yu, DDes '95, is Professor and founding dean of Peking University College of Architecture and Landscape, and founder and design principal of Turenscape. Yu’s guiding design principles are the appreciation of the ordinary and a deep embrace of nature—even of its potentially destructive aspects, such as flooding. His projects have won numerous international design awards, including 14 ASLA Excellence...

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    2023 Jun 16

    Biophilia and Topology: A Re-imagining of Landscape Architecture

    6:30pm to 7:30pm

    Location: 

    Online or at Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston

    At its best, landscape architecture merges ecology and design to create landscapes that work with the site, not against it. Dr. Anette Freytag, a professor of the history and theory of landscape architecture, argues that two concepts—biophilia and topology—can help society to better deal with our current environmental crisis and improve wellbeing for all.

    This event will also be livestreamed to YouTube. To sign up for the virtual livestream instead,...

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    2023 Jun 15

    Mobile Landscape Reading – American Wildflowers: A Literary Field Guide

    6:00pm to 7:30pm

    Location: 

    Online or at Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston

    Join editor Susan Barba for a mobile landscape reading of her new literary anthology, filled with classic and contemporary poems and essays inspired by wildflowers. What is a mobile landscape reading, you ask? Instead of sitting in a lecture hall, you will meander through the wildflowers of the Arboretum, stopping to hear beautiful poems and prose while surrounded by the wildflowers that inspired them.

    You can...

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    2023 May 13

    Science Spotlights

    2:00pm to 3:30pm

    Location: 

    Harvard Museum of Natural History, 26 Oxford St., Cambridge

    Meet up-and-coming scientists and learn about questions at the forefront of research today in this series of short talks. Perhaps you’ll discuss how studying dog reactions help us learn about the evolution of social behavior? Maybe you’ll consider the regrowth of a microscopic worm after injury and what that can teach us about any animal cell. Will you look at how trees manage the tradeoffs of building woody tissue or look for geological evidence of Earth’s first billion years? Each Science Spotlight in the series will include several short research talks.

    Ages 10–Adults....

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    2023 May 08

    Next in Food Sustainability and Climate Change

    2:00pm

    Location: 

    Online or at Knafel Center, 10 Garden St., Cambridge

    What does climate change mean for our food systems? How do our food production and consumption habits contribute to the climate crisis? Speakers will explore the complex interplay of food and climate change, challenging and illuminating our unsustainable relationships with meat and water, soil and sea.

    Learn more and RSVP.

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    2023 Apr 26

    Postindustrial Ecology: New Values in Recovering Marine Ecosystems

    12:00pm

    Location: 

    Harvard Radcliffe Institute—Online

    Joe Roman is a conservation biologist and researcher. In this lecture, he will examine how recent studies of animal ecology have changed our views of the role of marine vertebrates in ocean ecosystems through the lens of "postindustrial ecology"—a term he has coined for the transition from extractive industries to cultural and supporting services, such as ecotourism and recreational fishing.

    ...

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    2023 Apr 23

    PoeTREE: An Afternoon of Tree-Themed Poetry Readings

    1:00pm to 2:00pm

    Location: 

    Online or at Weld Hill Research Building, 1300 Centre St., Boston

    Join poets Jennifer Barber, Deborah Leipziger, and Charles Coe for an afternoon of tree-themed poetry readings and discussion. Each poet will read segments of their works, including the poetry anthology Tree Lines, interspersed with interactive dialogue with the audience. At the end of the event, audience members will be given prompts and encouraged to try their own hands at writing tree-inspired poetry.

    ...

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    2023 Apr 22

    Tour: Frederick Law Olmsted and the Arnold Arboretum

    10:30am to 11:45am

    Location: 

    Hunnewell Visitor Center, Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston

    Frederick Law Olmsted designed the Arnold Arboretum and played an important role in its genesis as a public park. Join docent Bill Beizer for a tour identifying the elements of the Arboretum that best reflect Olmsted's philosophy and design approach.

    Learn more and RSVP.

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    2023 Apr 12

    The Radicle Underground

    6:30pm to 8:00pm

    Location: 

    Online or at Weld Hill Research Building, 1300 Centre St., Boston

    Join Dr. Peter Del Tredici as he dives into the world of roots and fungi beneath the soil. How are tree roots structured, and how do they get water and nutrients from the soil into the tree itself? How do symbiotic mycorrhizal fungi promote the growth and survival of both individual plants and entire forests? Understanding the structure and function of a tree's root system will not only help the audience become better gardeners but will enhance their appreciation of how forests work.

    ...

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    2023 Apr 04

    Music in a Burning World

    4:00pm

    Location: 

    Online or at Knafel Center, 10 Garden St., Cambridge

    The 2023 Kim and Judy Davis Dean's Lecture in the Arts will feature the Pulitzer Prize- and Grammy Award-winning composer John Luther Adams. Motivated by a deep concern for the state of the earth and the future of humanity, he brings the sense of wonder we experience outdoors into the concert hall with the hope, and belief, that music can do more than politics to change the world.

    Learn more...

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    2023 Mar 23

    Plant Exploration: Then and Now

    6:30pm to 8:00pm

    Location: 

    Arnold Arboretum, Weld Hill Research Building, 1300 Centre Street, Boston

    The Arnold Arboretum has been collecting plants from around the world for 150 years, but plant exploration today looks very different than it did in the 1800s. From changes in collecting practices to an evolving relationship between the Arboretum and its international partners, a lot has changed in the last century. Join Head of the Library and Archives Lisa Pearson and Keeper of the Living Collections Michael Dosmann to learn what these trips were like in the days of yore, and what they are like now.

    ...

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