ALUMNIQUARTERLY ColloquyThe graduate school of arts and sciences | harvard university winter-spring 2011 A leading critic on why reading poetry is not your duty A Hollywood tale: From science to the screening room Exciting twists and turns at the Cohen Lab Why Mentoring Matters A student-led initiative connects women scholars across generations, aiming to open the pipeline to careers — and lives — in the sciences The graduate school of arts and sciences • harvard university Colloquy ALUMNI QUARTERLY The Big Picture, the Details, and Allan M. Brandt 2 Everything in Between dean How a student-run mentoring program is helping Margot N. Gill women PhD candidates prepare for careers — administrative dean and lives — in the sciences Elisabeth Nuñez director of publications and alumni relations Bari Walsh editor Putting Poetry in Its Place 6 Reading a poem shouldn’t be like eating your Sametz Blackstone Associates vegetables, says Stephen Burt, a delightful design companion to the form Graduate School Alumni Association (GSAA) Council Naomi André, PhD ’96, music Reinier Beeuwkes, COL ’62, PhD ’70, division of medical sciences Thomas Davenport, PhD ’80, sociology Mia de Kuijper, MPA ’83, PhD ’83, economics Colloquy with Valerie Weiss, PhD ’01 Stacy Dick, AB ’78, PhD ’83, economics 8 A. Barr Dolan, AM ’74, applied sciences On science, film, and Losing Control Richard Ekman, AB ’66, PhD ’72, history of American civilization John C.C. Fan, SM ’67, PhD ’72, applied sciences Neil Fishman, SM ’92, applied sciences Kenneth Froewiss, AB ’67, PhD ’77, economics Homer Hagedorn, PhD ’55, history, ex officio R. Stanton Hales, PhD ’70, mathematics David Harnett, PhD ’70, history George Heilborn, AM ’58, physics Karen J. Hladik, PhD ’84, business economics Twisting the Light Fantastic Daniel R. Johnson, AM ’82, East Asian history, AM ’84, 10 Lifelong tinkerer Adam Cohen opens the door to business economics Gopal Kadagathur, PhD ’69, applied sciences creative discovery in the lab Alan Kantrow, AB ’69, PhD ’79, history of American civilization Gyuri Karady, PhD ’80, applied sciences Robert E. Knight, PhD ’68, economics Felipe Larraín, PhD ’85, economics, ex officio Jill Levenson, PhD ’67, English and American literature and language See-Yan Lin, MPA ’70, PhD ’77, economics Suzanne Folds McCullagh, PhD ’81, fine arts John J. Moon, AB ’89, PhD ’94, business economics Alumni Books 14 Sandra O. Moose, PhD ’68, economics Fatherhood, gardening, revolution, and the history F. Robert Naka, SD ’51, applied sciences of English as global lingua franca — our alumni Betsy M. Ohlsson-Wilhelm, AB ’63, PhD ’69, medical sciences Maury Peiperl, MBA ’86, PhD ’94, organizational behavior authors tackle those topics and more M. Lee Pelton, PhD ’84, English and American literature and language Nancy Ramage, PhD ’69, classical archaeology, ex officio John E. Rielly, PhD ’61, government Allen Sangínes-Krause, PhD ’87, economics; chair Charles Schilke, AM ’82, history Sidney Spielvogel, AM ’46, economics, MBA ’49, ex officio Harvard Is . David Staines, PhD ’73, English and American literature and language 17 For PhD candidate (and filmmaker) J. P.Sniadecki, HARVARD IS Marianne Steiner, MEN ’78, SM ’78, applied mathematics GSAS resources provide the chance to do “serious Dennis Vaccaro, PhD ’78, division of medical sciences a creative community w art-making at the graduate level” Donald van Deventer, PhD ’77, economics extraordinary resources Lee Zhang, AM ’01, medical sciences a formula for serious fil Gustavus Zimmerman, PhD ’80, physics On the cover: In the foreground, professor Patricia D’Amore and PhD candidate Irene Kim, photographed by Martha Stewart. See page 2. from the dean Allan M. Brandt Dean, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences; Amalie Moses Kass Professor of the History of Medicine, Harvard Medical School; professor of the history of science, Harvard Alumni Association Faculty of Arts and Sciences Appointed Directors John E. Rielly • Daniel R. Johnson GSAA Council Ex Officio Drew Gilpin Faust president of Harvard University Getting a Life — and Keeping It Michael D. Smith dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences This year, the Graduate School of Arts and which GSAS is interested in building Allan M. Brandt Sciences is celebrating the 20th anniversary community for our graduate students. We dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Margot N. Gill of Dudley House as the graduate student also support an integrated residential administrative dean of the Graduate School of center. This spring, Dudley Fellows from community called the Graduate Commons Arts and Sciences each of those 20 years were invited to Program, administered by Harvard Real Michael Shinagel PhD ’64, English and American literature and language, a reunion at the House, and next fall, we’re Estate Services. This program, which involves dean of Continuing Education and University Extension planning a gala dinner for the Harvard handsome new buildings along the Charles John P.Reardon Jr. community to mark the official anniversary (at 10 Akron Street and 5 Cowperthwaite AB ’60 executive director of the Harvard Alumni Association of the House’s dedication. Street), houses students from all of Harvard’s You’ll read more about the Fellows graduate and professional schools. It creates Reunion in the next issue of Colloquy, but opportunities for interdisciplinary collabora- The GSAA is the alumni association of Harvard University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. for now I can tell you that the response of tion, social interaction, recreation, and Governed by its Council, the GSAA represents and our former fellows, many of whom traveled a University-wide sense of community. advances the interests of alumni of the Graduate School by to campus from far-flung locales to celebrate The GSAS Student Services Office and sponsoring alumni events and by publishing Colloquy four times each year. this festive milestone, has validated, yet the resident advisors who keep our own four again, my appreciation for the tremendous residence halls running — with creative Graduate School Alumni Association resource that is Dudley House. programming and exciting outings — also Holyoke Center 350 1350 Massachusetts Avenue As we’re fond of noting around here, foster connection and a sense of identity, Cambridge, MA 02138-3846 Dudley makes a difference. The House is the something particularly important to first- phone: 617-495-5591 • fax: 617-495-2928 hub of student life at the Graduate School, and second-year students just getting to [email protected] • www.gsas.harvard.edu with offerings — recreational, social, and know Harvard and Cambridge. Colloquy on the Web intellectual — that span every discipline and And through our Graduate Student Access current and back issues of Colloquy, as well as every conceivable interest. This term, the Council, GSAS supports more than 50 a range of other alumni services and information, at www.gsas.harvard.edu/alumni. House and its fellows have sponsored an student organizations, groups that bring evening of Persian poetry, a clean-up project students together based on professional or Letters to the Editor at the Charles River, an exclusive tour of the scholarly affinities, countries of origin, or Colloquy does not print letters, but we welcome your thoughts and story ideas. Write to: Colloquy, Harvard new American wing of Boston’s Museum of extracurricular interests. These organizations University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Holyoke Fine Arts, dissertation bootcamps, a foray provide not only a key point of connection, Center 350, 1350 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA into the music of West Africa, an Indian but also a way for faculty, deans, and admin- 02138-3846; or e-mail [email protected]. cooking class, and a viewing party for istrators to tap into the ever-expanding Moving? the world cup of cricket — and that’s just talents and interests of our students. Please send your Colloquy mailing label and your new for starters. Graduate school, as those of us who address to Alumni Records, 124 Mt. Auburn Street, 4th Floor, Cambridge, MA 02138-3654. As this roster indicates, the House is have survived it often recall, can be an isolat- also place where the global diversity of ing experience. Doing advanced research for Colloquy is printed by PrintResource/DS Graphics. our student population is fully expressed. a dissertation, discovering new knowledge Students from many nations and ethnicities and new points of view, is an endeavor that come together to share important cultural demands hours of solitary investigation. But and gastronomical traditions, helping to our students are endlessly, and quite broadly, reinforce their own community and extending creative and engaged, and their interests do it by welcoming newcomers. In this way, as not narrow as they complete their degrees. disciplines, experience, and interests blend, Despite the demands of their work, we Dudley House becomes a key microcosm of encourage them to continue to follow their the broader opportunities, and the diverse passions and build a whole life at Harvard. resources, of Harvard itself. We know that they, and our entire community, But the House is not the only way in will be the richer for it. Colloquy 1 Winter-Spring 2011 MENTORINGSECTIONTITLE Jonathan Jonathan Ruel The Big Picture, the Details, How a student-run mentoring program is helping women PhD candidates prepare for careers& — and lives — in the sciences By Jennifer Doody and Bari Walsh When Emily Gardel arrived at Harvard to Gardel could have floundered, and her precisely the kinds of challenges she experi- start a PhD program in applied physics, she decision to change labs in her third year could enced early on. admits to experiencing “a bit of a culture have derailed her. Instead, she thrived. Five What got her over the hurdle? It’s reduc- shock.” Gardel had come out of an undergrad- years into her program, she is the winner of an tive to point to any single factor, of course.