Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard—Online
On Radcliffe Day 2021—Friday, May 28—Harvard Radcliffe Institute will award the Radcliffe Medal to Melinda Gates.
Expert panelists will then discuss achieving gender equity in the United States, each offering her own perspective informed by deep expertise and unique experience. The discussion will be moderated by the distinguished American historian and Arthur Kingsley Porter University Professor at Harvard University Drew Gilpin Faust, who was founding dean of the Radcliffe Institute and the first woman to serve as president of Harvard.
The Southern Black community catalyzed the movement for free public schools for all children. This community also led the efforts to desegregate schools. Despite these efforts, the South remains home to some of the largest educational inequities within our nation. Yet, many discussions about educational equity are devoid of Southern representation. This is problematic considering that Southern states have higher rates of poverty and are home to one-third of all K-12 students, 56% of all Black students, and one-third of our nation’s ELL and migrant student populations.
In the third installment of the Future of Cultural Diplomacy Series, UNESCO’s Director-General Audrey Azoulay will offer her unique perspective on cultural diplomacy as the leader of one of the world’s largest multilateral agencies focused on education, scientific and cultural issues.
In a conversation co-moderated by Ambassador Nicholas Burns and Carla Dirlikov Canales, Director-General Azoulay will discuss UNESCO’s current priorities, including education, culture, gender equality, and freedom of expression, and discuss how UNESCO has provided multilateral approaches to...
Bruce Allyn applies insight from the fields of negotiation and mediation to define practical steps that both US and Russian sides can take today to realize both individual and shared interests in a relationship that has descended into bitter enmity. We will look at how to "zoom out" to big-picture strategy—realizing what is at stake—and how to "zoom in" to Vladimir Putin the negotiator: his formative years, his heroes, his psychology, his intentions and current aspirations.
Allyn will examine practical steps to break the cycle of offense and revenge that has...
The Harvard Global Health Institute & FXB Center for Health and Human Rights—Online
In March 2021, a record number of children arrived at the U.S./Mexico border, challenging capacity at US Customs and Border Protection facilities and placing newfound pressure on the Biden Administration to act promptly. However, this humanitarian crisis is not new, nor is it a direct result of a new U.S. government administration. For decades, the U.S. has failed to improve a system ill-equipped to handle the needs of vulnerable refugees and migrants. As children wait in overcrowded jail-like structures and COVID-19 remains a threat, concerns about who will continue to suffer at the...
Davis Center for Russian & Eurasian Studies—Online
May 21 marks the centenary of the birth of Andrei Sakharov, one of the great physicists of the twentieth century who was also one of the world’s most courageous and renowned proponents of freedom and human rights. His name nowadays is universally linked with the quest for human rights and democracy.
As the key figure in the Soviet Union’s development of a thermonuclear bomb, Sakharov could have enjoyed a life of privilege and luxury. But to do so would have meant closing his eyes to the injustice and repression around him. This was something that Sakharov, unlike the vast...
At a time when U.S. federal debt is at its highest level since World War II—and the post-COVID economic recovery around the world remains uncertain—join the Belfer Center’s Applied History Project for an open session of our Applied History Work Group. Its members—distinguished historians and public servants—study the past to illuminate the most pressing challenges we face today.
For this session, the Applied History Working Group is delighted to welcome Carmen Reinhart, the Vice President and Chief Economist of the World Bank Group, for a discussion on economic...
For the first time in the museum’s history, women who labored in the collections, offices, and labs of the Museum of Comparative Zoology in the late 19th century are being revealed in a unique online exhibit from the Harvard Museums of Science & Culture. The exhibit is curated by Reed Gochberg, Assistant Director of Studies and a Lecturer on History and Literature at Harvard University.
Women like Elizabeth Hodges Clark, Elizabeth Bangs Bryant, and Elvira Wood persevered diligently behind-the-scenes, gaining unparalleled expertise in what were previously thought to be men’...
Harvard Kennedy School, Carr Center for Human Rights Policy—Online
May 31, 2021 marks the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre, when a violent white mob nearly destroyed the formerly thriving and prosperous African American community in the Greenwood district of Tulsa (also known as Black Wall Street). Over 300 African Americans were killed, and thousands were displaced. Hundreds of homes and businesses burned to the ground. In the decades since this occurred, the massacre was covered up, local officials obstructed the redevelopment of Greenwood, and the local chapter of the KKK became one of the largest in the U.S.
Harvard-Yenching Library & University Archives—Online
Join us for a discussion on stories of navigating Harvard. Experts from the Harvard-Yenching Library and University Archives will share materials from Harvard's archival and library collections focused on Indigenous and Asian experiences throughout Harvard's past. The program will feature brief remarks from Martha Whitehead, Vice President for the Harvard Library and University...
Join the Harvard Graduate School of Education for a conversation between author Jarvis Givens, Assistant Professor at HGSE and the Suzanne Young Murray Assistant Professor at the Radcliffe Institute, and Joshua Bennett, Assistant Professor of English and Creative Writing at Dartmouth College.
Black education was a subversive act from its inception. African Americans pursued education through clandestine means, often in defiance of law and custom, even under threat of violence. They developed what Jarvis Givens calls a tradition of “fugitive pedagogy”—a theory and practice...
Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard—Online
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a disproportionate impact on communities of color in the United States. In addition, the uneven and unequal distribution of vaccines is raising the issue of mistrust and vaccine hesitancy in these same communities. Lack of trust in the US healthcare system among communities of color is inextricably linked to the history of systemic racism in this country. With fewer than half of Black American adults indicating that they will definitely or probably get vaccinated against COVID-19, understanding the roots of this hesitancy—which dates back centuries—is...
Harvard University Center for African Studies—Online
The event, moderated by Bruno Carvalho and Diane Davis, will bring together perspectives from different regions of the globe. AbdouMaliq Simone, Eric Klinenberg, and Hiba Bou Akar will present their views of the connections between the ongoing pandemic and urbanization. They will respond to questions from the moderators as well as attendees. Audience members will have a chance to present questions to the speakers during the event, and in advance at registration.
The American Chestnut tree used to comprise approximately one quarter of the forest canopy in the eastern United States. Then in the early 1900's, chestnut blight decimated the nearly four billion American Chestnut trees. The wildlife value and economic value of these trees was unparalleled. Today, scientists and supporters are working to restore the American Chestnut tree to its former glory. Join us for a panel discussion with expert scientists who will discuss the history of the American Chestnut as well as current research to restore the trees.
One of the best documented Egyptian rituals—occurring in both cultic and funerary contexts—is known as the Opening of the Mouth ritual. Performing this ritual was believed to animate statues and temples, while also restoring the senses of the deceased, thus ensuring that they could eat, drink, and breathe in the afterlife. Textual and iconographic references to the ritual are found in different time periods, from the Old Kingdom through the Roman Period.
In this lecture, Mariam Ayad uses the Opening of the Mouth ritual as a case study to illustrate the power of imagery and the...
