American instincts oscillate between the allure of the city and that of life free of city stress; between the temptations of the metropolis, and bucolic retreat from those very centers of civic life. Such oscillation, occurring across American history, have on the one hand enabled the building of Manhattan, the ‘Capital of Capitalism’ (and culture, too) and the invention of the ‘garden suburb’ where family grace was to dwell, prior to metastasizing into sprawl.
Online—Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard
The artists Marilyn Pappas and Jill Slosburg-Ackerman met at Radcliffe’s Bunting Institute in the 1980s. Decades later, their sustained friendship has led them to work in adjoining studios and teach generations of artists.
In this exhibition-opening discussion, Pappas and Slosburg-Ackerman will reflect on how their artistic practices have been shaped by friendship and the ways in which women’s art is shaped by the conditions of its making. Pappas and Slosburg-Ackerman will be joined in conversation by author Maggie Doherty.
Almost 200,000 acres of land in the fertile Mezquital Valley are irrigated with the untreated sewage of Mexico City. Every drop of rain, urban runoff, industrial effluent, and sewage in Mexico City is sent to the Mezquital Valley through a 60 kilometer pipe. Soils in this valley have been continuously irrigated with urban wastewater since 1901, longer than any other soil in the world. The capacity of these soils to produce conditions in which agriculture can be practiced safely and produce healthy crops depends on a complex negotiation between soil...
Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian—Online
Join the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian for a virtual Public Observatory Night with guest lecturer Donavan Moore, author of "What Stars Are Made Of: The Life of Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin."
It was not easy being a woman of ambition in early twentieth-century England, much less one who wished to be a scientist. Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin overcame prodigious obstacles to become a woman of many firsts: the first to receive a PhD in astronomy from Radcliffe College, the first promoted to full professor at Harvard, the first to head a department there. And, in what...
Join Harvard Graduate School of Design for a virtual lecture with Rafael Moneo and Sarah Whiting.
Rafael Moneo, AM '85, was born in Tudela, Spain, in 1937. He graduated in 1961 from the Architecture School of Madrid. He was a professor in the Architecture Schools of Barcelona and Madrid, and he was appointed Chairman of the Architecture Department of the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, where he is now Emeritus Josep Lluis Sert Professor in Architecture...
This lecture explores whether it is possible to achieve both social justice and environmental sustainability in efforts to mitigate urban flood risk. The expanding scale of urban flooding under climate change has renewed interest in large-scale restoration projects that make room for water in metro centers. However, ecologically functioning green infrastructure – unleashed rivers, sprawling wetlands – is inconsistent with the current governance landscape of fragmented local governments seeking to maximize local land values and minimize affordable housing. Moreover, even...
Author and journalist A’Lelia Bundles will read from her book "Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C.J. Walker" (originally titled "On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C.J. Walker" [Scribner, 2001]) and join Radcliffe Institute Dean Tomiko Brown-Nagin for a discussion followed by an audience Q&A.
This event is free and open to the public, but registration is required.
Adam Sella ’22 will consider different ideas of spirituality and how these are reflected in artwork we might not immediately consider to be spiritual.
The Ho Family Student Guide Program at the Harvard Art Museums trains students to develop original, research-based tours of the collections. These tours, designed and led by Harvard undergraduates from a range of academic disciplines, focus on select objects chosen by each student guide and provide visitors a unique, thematic view into collections.
Twyla Kantor ’22 will discuss storytelling in art and explore how the use of pose and body language can change an object’s narrative.
The Ho Family Student Guide Program at the Harvard Art Museums trains students to develop original, research-based tours of the collections. These tours, designed and led by Harvard undergraduates from a range of academic disciplines, focus on select objects chosen by each student guide and provide visitors a unique, thematic view into collections.
Tommy Mahon ’20 will focus on four artworks embodying aesthetic, political, and spiritual transformations.
The Ho Family Student Guide Program at the Harvard Art Museums trains students to develop original, research-based tours of the collections. These tours, designed and led by Harvard undergraduates from a range of academic disciplines, focus on select objects chosen by each student guide and provide visitors a unique, thematic view into collections.
Laura Murphy ’22 will delve into the ideas of home, memory, and longing in this journey through the collection, looking at works that evoke the natural beauty of a pre-industrial era.
The Ho Family Student Guide Program at the Harvard Art Museums trains students to develop original, research-based tours of the collections. These tours, designed and led by Harvard undergraduates from a range of academic disciplines, focus on select objects chosen by each student guide and provide visitors a unique, thematic view into collections.
In the 1870s, thousands of ancient terracotta figurines were discovered in cemeteries surrounding the small city of Tanagra in Greece. The figurines became a sensation with Victorian audiences. In this seminar, Frances Gallart Marques will discuss how the brightly colored figures of young women, at once lively and quiet, resonated with and inspired many works by 19th-century painters, musicians, and writers.
Music has played a large social function during the coronavirus pandemic: from the daily balcony concerts in Italy to the virtual performances of countless orchestras, it has helped tie communities together where social distancing has atomized us.
During this Radcliffe webinar, we will talk with musicians about their experience during the crisis—from the precarious position of performers without gigs to the healing role music can play.
Our world is awash in conflict and tension. The combusting mix of the pandemic, economic turmoil, political divisiveness, and emotional turbulence has turned negotiation on its head. What seemed easy to deal with in the old normal is no longer so. Why is this, and what can we do about it? Drawing on his global research in conflict resolution, Dr. Shapiro will explore a framework he has developed that illuminates underlying psychological complexities fueling present-day conflict—and will offer insight on how to move forward.
Although communities have been asked to stay home to stay safe, for many domestic violence victims, home can be a dangerous place. Spikes in intimate partner violence (IPV) and child abuse have been noted across the country and around the world since the onset of the COVID-19 stay-at-home directives as victims and witnesses of IPV and child abuse find themselves isolated within their homes and confronted with difficult decisions about when and how to seek care or shelter. In this Radcliffe webinar, scholars, public officials, community activists, and...
The HKS Women in Power Conference team invite you for a discussion and live performance with musician Madame Gandhi (HBS '15).
Madame Gandhi is an artist and activist whose mission is to celebrate gender liberation. She has toured drumming for M.I.A, Thievery Corporation and most recently Oprah Winfrey on her 2020 Vision Stadium Tour with morning dance party Daybreaker. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree from Georgetown University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. She has been listed as Forbes Music 30 Under 30 and is a 2020 TED Fellow. Her uplifting music and mathy beats...
In the early 20th century, Mexican artists embraced printmaking as a means of reaching a broader audience, creating works that expressed the sociopolitical concerns central to the nation’s 1910–20 revolution and its aftermath. In this seminar, curator Mary Schneider Enriquez will explore the topic through a range of works—from José-Guadalupe Posada’s broadsheets and the iconic, post-revolution images by muralists David Alfaro Siqueiros, José Clemente Orozco, and Diego Rivera, to the politically charged works of Leopoldo Méndez and the print collective Taller de Gráfica Popular.
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...
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...
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.