2020 Mar 03
International Womxn’s Day Lecture: Dr. Vandana Shiva
6:30pm to 8:00pm
Location: 
Gund Hall, Piper Auditorium, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge
Dr. Vandana Shiva is trained as a Physicist and did her Ph.D. on the subject “Hidden Variables and Non-locality in Quantum Theory” from the University of Western Ontario in Canada. She later shifted to inter-disciplinary research in science, technology and environmental policy, which she carried out at the Indian Institute of Science and the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore. In 1982, she founded an independent institute, the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology in Dehra Dun dedicated to high quality and independent research to address the most...
Read more about International Womxn’s Day Lecture: Dr. Vandana Shiva
2020 Mar 03
Who Discovered Evolution?
6:00pm
Location: 
Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford St., Cambridge
Charles Darwin is commonly cited as the person who “discovered” evolution. But, the historical record shows that roughly seventy different individuals published work on the topic of evolution between 1748 and 1859, the year that Darwin published On the Origin of Species. These early thinkers, now almost entirely forgotten, included biologists, geologists, horticulturists, physicians, clergymen, atheists, philosophers, teachers, and poets.
William Friedman will discuss the ideas of these pre-Darwinian evolutionists, place Darwin in a broader historical context, and...
Read more about Who Discovered Evolution?
2020 Mar 02
The Pursuit of Happiness
3:30pm to 5:00pm
Location: 
Harvard Business School, Klarman Hall, Batten Way, Boston
Join this thought-provoking talk by Arthur Brooks who distills 40 years and hundreds of social science research studies on happiness, into a surprising set of answers to questions like: What percentage of the population is happy? What brings us happiness? Who is happier, men or women? How much of happiness is genetically determine?
How can we pursue the surest path to happiness? Arthur has the answers.
The event will have a show opener featuring a performance by the Faculty band: Indie Folk rock, including:
Mike Norton: vocals, guitar, bass
...
Read more about The Pursuit of Happiness
2020 Mar 02
Lecture: Seed Sovereignty and ‘Our Living Relatives’ in Native American Community Farming and Gardening
12:00pm to 1:30pm
Location: 
Gund Hall, Stubbins Room 112, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge
Native heirloom seed varieties, many of which have been passed down through generations of Indigenous gardeners or re-acquired from seed banks or ally seed savers, are often discussed by Indigenous farmers as the foundation of the food sovereignty movement, and as helpful tools for education and reclaiming health. This presentation explores how Native American community-based farming and gardening projects are defining heirloom or heritage seeds; why maintaining and growing out these seeds is seen as so important, and how terms like seed sovereignty should be defined and enacted. Many of...
Read more about Lecture: Seed Sovereignty and ‘Our Living Relatives’ in Native American Community Farming and Gardening
2020 Feb 27
Saving America’s Cities: The Past, Present, and Future of Urban Revitalization
6:30pm to 8:00pm
Location: 
Harvard Graduate School of Design, Gund Hall, Piper Auditorium, 48 Quincy St., Cambridge
Can past efforts to revitalize America’s cities inform contemporary strategies to address the problems of economic inequality, unaffordable housing, segregated neighborhoods, and deteriorating infrastructure?
That question, in part, informs Saving America’s Cities: Ed Logue and the Struggle to Renew Urban America in the Suburban Age, a new book by Lizabeth Cohen, Howard Mumford Jones Professor of American Studies at Harvard University and former Dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.
Cohen will discuss this history and will be joined in...
Read more about Saving America’s Cities: The Past, Present, and Future of Urban Revitalization
2020 Feb 27
The Ancient Maya Response to Climate Change: A Cautionary Tale
6:00pm
Location: 
Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford St., Cambridge
Ancient Maya civilization suffered a major demise between the tenth and eleventh centuries. The causes continue to be investigated and debated. Paleoenvironmental research over the past twenty years has revealed that the demise coincided with a prolonged, intensive drought that extended across the region, providing compelling evidence that climate change played a key role in the collapse of the Maya. Billie Turner will examine this evidence and the complex social and environmental conditions that affected Maya societies.
...
Read more about The Ancient Maya Response to Climate Change: A Cautionary Tale
2020 Feb 27
The New Geopolitical Order
4:15pm
Location: 
Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Knafel Center, 10 Garden St., Cambridge
The new geopolitical environment taking shape in many parts of the world tends toward increasing authoritarianism and nationalistic competition. In this lecture, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, an international human rights advocate and the former United Nations high commissioner for human rights, will argue that the world’s people deserve better. Despite the demagoguery and isolationism that some leaders are pursuing, he believes it is possible to pursue thoughtful diplomacy and a system of connectivity, coalitions, and partnerships to reform institutions and change polices.
...
Read more about The New Geopolitical Order
2020 Feb 26
Olfaction in Science and Society
6:00pm
Location: 
Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge
The sense of smell plays a critical role in human behavior, from warning us of potential dangers to attracting us to certain foods, places, and people. Harvard scientists Catherine Dulac and Venkatesh Murthy study the molecules, cells, and brain circuits that underlie olfaction and the social behaviors that aromas can elicit. In this program, they will engage in a conversation with internationally recognized olfactive expert Dawn Goldworm to discuss how neurobiological research on olfaction relates to our everyday experiences.
...
Read more about Olfaction in Science and Society
2020 Feb 26
Conducting Oneself: Choreographing Bodies and Identities On and Off the Podium
4:00pm
Location: 
Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Knafel Center, 10 Garden St., Cambridge
At Radcliffe, Daniel M. Callahan is beginning his second book, “Conducting Oneself,” which examines how the bodies, identities, and repertoire of orchestra conductors produce, legitimate, and limit their movements on the podium and off, from conservatories to coveted positions. Drawing on movement analysis, oral history, and affect theory, the project explores how conductors visibly embody their empathy with scores while simultaneously projecting expertise and power.
...
Read more about Conducting Oneself: Choreographing Bodies and Identities On and Off the Podium
2020 Feb 25
Lecture: Plants in the Design Imagination
6:30pm to 8:00pm
Location: 
Harvard Graduate School of Design, Gund Hall, Piper Auditorium, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge
Please join the Harvard Graduate School of Design for the Sylvester Baxter Lecture featuring a discussion by landscape architects Ron Henderson, Julian Raxworthy, and Douglas Reed, and moderated by Danielle Choi.
Learn more about Lecture: Plants in the Design...
Read more about Lecture: Plants in the Design Imagination
2020 Feb 25
Lecture: Humanizing Drug Discovery
5:00pm
Location: 
Knafel Center, 10 Garden St., Cambridge
In this lecture, David Altshuler, the chief science director of Vertex Pharmaceuticals, discusses the promise of precision medicine and gene-editing therapy to potentially cure serious genetic illnesses.
Learn more about and register for Lecture: Humanizing Drug Discovery.
Read more about Lecture: Humanizing Drug Discovery
2020 Feb 20
Infectious Cancers in Tasmanian Devils
6:00pm
Location: 
Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford St., Cambridge
The Tasmanian devil is the world’s largest living carnivorous marsupial. This species was once abundant in Australia, but today is only found on the island of Tasmania, where it is at risk of extinction due to two rare, contagious cancers. Mark Margres will discuss how this species is adapting in response to these diseases, whether there is any hope for the Tasmanian devil to avoid extinction, and what can be learned about human cancers from studying the disease in other animal species.
...
Read more about Infectious Cancers in Tasmanian Devils
2020 Feb 20
History Reconsidered: Poetry Reading and Discussion
4:15pm
Location: 
Knafel Center, 10 Garden St., Cambridge
Join the Radcliffe Institute for a poetry reading and discussion with Clint Smith.
Clint Smith is a doctoral candidate at Harvard University and an Emerson Fellow at New America. He has received fellowships from the Art For Justice Fund, Cave Canem, and the National Science Foundation, while his writing has been published in the New Yorker, the New York Times Magazine, the Atlantic, Poetry Magazine, the Paris Review, and elsewhere. His first full-length collection of poetry, Counting Descent, was published in 2016. It won the 2017...
Read more about History Reconsidered: Poetry Reading and Discussion
2020 Feb 13
Opening Lecture: Painting Edo
6:00pm to 7:15pm
Location: 
Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy St., Cambridge
As part of the Harvard Art Museums' opening celebration for Painting Edo: Japanese Art from the Feinberg Collection, SOAS University of London art history professor Timon Screech will present "Into the Kaleidoscope: Painting in Edo Japan."

Tickets are required for the lecture and may be acquired in person, by phone, or online for a small fee through the Harvard Box Office. Limit of two tickets per person.
...
Read more about Opening Lecture: Painting Edo
2020 Feb 13
Ancient Egyptian Culture and Its Continuity in Modern Egypt
6:00pm
Location: 
Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Egypt’s recorded history spans six thousand years and is therefore one of the longest and best known in the world. Today, Egyptians practice several religious, artistic, and social traditions that can be traced to ancient Egypt, demonstrating the power and longevity of cultural memory. Drawing on research in archaeology, Egyptian art, writing, and culture, Fayza Haikal will examine Egyptian society’s cultural expressions from antiquity to the present, focusing on language, spirituality, superstitions, funerary traditions, and folklore.
...
Read more about Ancient Egyptian Culture and Its Continuity in Modern Egypt
2020 Feb 13
Opening Celebration: Painting Edo
5:00pm to 9:00pm
Location: 
Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy St., Cambridge
Join the Harvard Art Museums to celebrate the opening of Painting Edo: Japanese Art from the Feinberg Collection, on view from February 14–July 26, 2020.
Be among the first to see over 120 works included in the Harvard Art Museums' latest show, which celebrates the rich visual culture of Japan's early modern era. The galleries are open late, and admission is free for...
Read more about Opening Celebration: Painting Edo
2020 Feb 12
Lev Rubinstein: Readings, Conversations about Russia Today
5:00pm to 6:30pm
Location: 
Davis Center, Knafel Building, Room K262, 1730 Cambridge St., Cambridge
Moscow writer Lev Rubinstein will read from his work and engage in a wide-ranging conversation in a special Davis Center seminar.
Rubinstein exemplifies a striking aesthetic response to life in repressive times, one that emphasizes the artist’s freedom of expression and the power of humor in the face of lies. He has won multiple prizes at home and abroad and has a readiness to push at the boundaries of literary norms. Author of more than a dozen books in Russian, Rubinstein has been more active as an essayist since the start of the 2000s. He has also emerged as a public figure...
Read more about Lev Rubinstein: Readings, Conversations about Russia Today
2020 Feb 12
Lecture: no noise disturbed the quiet of the morning
4:00pm
Location: 
Knafel Center, 10 Garden St., Cambridge
As a Radcliffe fellow, Anthony Romero (RI '20) is working on a multimedia research and visual art project that includes a collection of related but discrete works which attempt to articulate how indigenous populations, under European colonial rule in Australia, South Asia, and the United States, were controlled through the criminalization and legislating of native sound and music practices. Taken together, these histories reveal how carceral and criminalizing strategies sowed the seeds for the ongoing over-policing of black and brown communities.
...
Read more about Lecture: no noise disturbed the quiet of the morning
2020 Feb 11
What Makes Chocolate "Good?"
6:00pm
Location: 
Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford St., Cambridge
The social and environmental values underlying artisanal chocolate production have become increasingly important in its marketing. Good taste is paramount, of course, but how does one measure "social goodness," and what additional value does it add for the consumer? Chocolate makers’ interests often diverge from those of cacao producers, and industry stakeholders have not clearly addressed these concerns. Carla Martin will examine the cacao-chocolate industry and highlight the often conflicting goals that can create gaps in social and environmental responsibility.
A...
Read more about What Makes Chocolate "Good?"
2020 Feb 11
Lecture: Diary of a Tap Dancer
4:15pm
Location: 
Knafel Center, 10 Garden St., Cambridge
During her fellowship, Ayodele Casel (RI '20) is working on Diary of a Tap Dancer, a theatrical work positioning tap dance as the driving force of the narrative. This project aims to create a fuller and more accurate picture of the legacy of the art form by centering the voices of its unnamed women within a broader historical context. Diary explores shared themes of hoofers past and present with stories illuminating the struggle and joy of expression, communication, the evolution of jazz music, gender inequality, and the personal and culturally devastating implications for women...
Read more about Lecture: Diary of a Tap Dancer

Pages