Join associate curator Horace D. Ballard as he discusses the ideas and objects featured in the special exhibition De los Andes al Caribe: El arte americano desde el imperio español / From the Andes to the Caribbean: American Art from the Spanish Empire, on view through July 30, 2023.
Online or at Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford St., Cambridge
The continental interior of the United States—home to many Native American communities—is a region rich in fossils. Since the nineteenth century, fossils found on Native lands have been removed and placed in museums and universities without the consent of, or proper collaboration with Native Tribes.
Lawrence Bradley will discuss the history of fossil dispossession from Sioux lands and the legal frameworks—or lack of—that allowed it to occur. He will also examine the role that fossils taken from these lands have played in establishing vertebrate paleontology as a scientific...
Explore a display about early 20th-century excavations of the ancient city of Samaria-Sebaste, with curatorial fellow Caitlin Clerkin. You’ll learn how photographs and payroll records help us rewrite the history of archaeology—one that acknowledges the people behind the excavation of the objects on display.
Online or at Houghton Library, Harvard Yard, Cambridge
The Poetry Room is proud to present a lecture by Julie Dobrow, author of After Emily: Two Remarkable Women & the Legacy of America's Greatest Poet (Norton, 2018), who will explore the complicated path to publishing Dickinson's first collection and the instrumental role that Mabel Loomis Todd played, including her pioneering use of typewriters in the transcription process.
Online or at Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford St., Cambridge
In ancient Egypt, iron harvested from meteorites was used to create ritual objects associated with royalty and power. An iron dagger from the tomb of King Tutankhamun is one of the oldest Egyptian objects verified to be of meteoritic origin.
In this lecture, Almansa-Villatoro will discuss Egyptian texts, iconography, and religious writings that associate iron with the sky and stars, indicating that ancient Egyptians were aware that meteorites came from space. This knowledge—most likely shared with other ancient civilizations that connected iron and sky in their texts—was lost...
In this tour, associate curator Horace D. Ballard will explore the complicated history of 19th-century portraits of Indigenous delegates to Washington, D.C., by painter Henry Inman, and the recurring display of a selection of the paintings at the Harvard Art Museums.
Harvard Graduate School of Design, Gund Hall, Piper Auditorium (48 Quincy St., Cambridge)
Situated Objects, published in 2020, is a book of buildings, drawings and projects realized by Stan Allen since 2012. Well known for his essay "Field Conditions," and for work at the scale of the city, these projects represent a complementary approach that addresses nature, the ex-urban landscape, design process and construction through a series of small-scale works on rural sites.
The book—and the lecture—argue that buildings are best understood as "situated" objects: object-like in that they have fixed limits and stand free; situated, in that buildings always...
Harvard Radcliffe Institute is pleased to welcome Elisa Loncón Antileo to deliver the Rama S. Mehta Lecture for 2022–2023. In 2021, Loncón was elected as one of the representatives of the Mapuche people to the Chilean Constitutional Convention, and was then named the Convention’s first president (July 2021–January 2022).
The Fall 2022 Philip and Frances Hofer Lecture at Houghton Library will be given by Linda Simpson, drag queen and editor/publisher of the underground gay magazine My Comrade, whose production archives were acquired by Houghton in 2021. My Comrade served as a symbol of hope and frivolity in New York City’s East Village during the AIDS crisis by celebrating the queer community in its cut-and-paste mishmash of articles and photo spreads. Simpson’s lecture will recall the zine’s history, New York’s avant-garde drag scene in the 1980s and 90s, and the queer activism and...
Join curatorial fellow Caitlin Clerkin and Lissette Jiménez, assistant professor of museum studies from San Francisco State University, for a virtual conversation on how grief is expressed in ancient Egyptian portraits and teaching about loss.
Funerary Portraits from Roman Egypt: Facing Forward is a collaborative effort drawing from the expertise of staff across the museums and other members of our community. The exhibition invites visitors to reflect upon...
Harvard Art Museums, Menschel Hall, 32 Quincy St., Cambridge
At the top of a painting of a Crucifixion by Pietro Lorenzetti (c. 1280–1348), an angel holds in one hand an unfurled scroll and in the other a bloody tunic. Never previously noted, let alone explained, this unique combination of motifs provides the key to understanding the panel’s unusual imagery. It sheds fresh light on the complex nexus between art, piety, and theology in 14th-century Italy, in particular at Assisi—the site of the mother house of the Franciscan order, where the panel most likely was made.
Join paintings conservator Sally Woodcock and conservation scientist Narayan Khandekar for a virtual conversation on how grief is expressed in ancient Egyptian portraits and teaching about loss.
Funerary Portraits from Roman Egypt: Facing Forward is a collaborative effort drawing from the expertise of staff across the museums and other members of our community. The exhibition invites visitors to reflect upon objects that represent the deceased and were once...
Online or In-Person at Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford St., Cambridge
In ancient Egypt, one of the final steps in the mummification process was to equip the body with a permanent face covering that helped protect the head and also ritually transform the deceased into a god. The earliest examples of these were stylized masks, later replaced by more realistically rendered painted portraits. Using evidence from the archaeological record and the Book of the Dead—a series of spells meant to guide the dead as they sought eternal life—art professor Lorelei Corcoran will discuss the production and function of the "mummy portraits" that were popular throughout...
CGIS South, Belfer Case Study Room S020, 1730 Cambridge St., Cambridge
What is the role of art in deeply unequal societies? Are aesthetics political? Can artists challenge dominant orders? Please join us for a conversation between eminent Carnatic vocalist and activist T.M. Krishna, social and cultural historian Shailaja Paik, lawyer and social critic Suraj Yengde, and jazz musician and scholar Vijay Iyer. The event will be moderated by Ajantha Subramanian, Mehra Family Professor of South Asian Studies and Professor of Anthropology and South Asian Studies, Harvard University.
Davis Center for Russian & Eurasian Studies—Online
The myriad effects of Russia’s war on Ukrainian women and the women’s movement. Participation has ranged from military service to humanitarian and volunteering initiatives, including extraordinary actions by many women and girls. How have Ukrainian feminists and the transnational women’s movement responded? What was the effect of feminist anti-war manifestoes? As the war continues, how has its impact on women evolved?