The Dark Room Collective Kindling a Literary Movement Move Forward
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Animal Law • Musical Theater • The Eugenics Era March-april 2016 • $4.95 The Dark Room Collective Kindling a literary movement Move forward. With confi dence. No matter how complex your business questions, we have the capabilities and experience to deliver the answers you need to move forward. As the world’s largest consulting fi rm, we can help you take decisive action and achieve sustainable results. www.deloitte.com/confi dence Audit | Tax | Consulting | Advisory Copyright © 2016 Deloitte Development LLC. All rights reserved. 160307_Deloitte_ivy.indd 1 1/15/16 11:59 AM MARCH-APRIL 2016 VOLUME 118, NUMBER 4 FEATURES 32 Elbow Room | by Sophia Nguyen The Dark Room Collective and a generation of African-American writers 40 Are Animals “Things”? | by Cara Feinberg p. 16 The evolving law of animal welfare—and rights 46 Vita: Caleb Strong | by Richard D. Brown Brief life of an exemplary politician: 1745-1819 48 Harvard’s Eugenics Era | by Adam Cohen When the academy embraced scientific racism, immigration restriction, forced sterilization, and suppression of “the unfit” JOHN HARVard’s JournAL 16 The Kennedy School’s crane, debating diversity and inclusion, laugh-out-loud computer scientist, the crew on ice, an Overseers’ challenge slate, augmenting the Corpora- tion’s academic ranks, “flyover-state” students, netminder from Alberta, and an up-and-down season for men’s basketball p. 40 DEPARTMENTS 2 Cambridge 02138 | Letters from our readers—and comments on the College’s curricular challenges 3 The View from Mass Hall AVILLA 8 | Scarcity and school choice, litigating for veterans’ rights, D Right Now climate change and human history 12A Harvard2 | A calendar of spring events, Arts First, World War II artifacts, OSNER; MIGUEL R head-over-heels for high heels, woolworkers, and premier pastries 53 Montage | The “bad boy of musical theater,” mammal species’ limited life span, Damon & Naomi’s multichannel creativity, Hoon Lee’s royal roles, Thomas Hart Benton’s reach, Thomas Jefferson’s “fractal” governance, and more OKERUD/GETTY IMAGES; STU T 63 Alumni | Amid Mexico’s drug crisis, a move toward decriminalizing marijuana — AMILLE C plus Overseer and other candidates, Club and other honorands, and “Our John Harvard” p. 55 68 The College Pump | Gossiping about rhetoric in the College, c. 1819, and a youthful cat-averse experiment On the cover: Photograph © 2016 Elsa Dorfman, RI ’72-’74 . From left to right: John Keene, Danielle Legros Georges, 76 Treasure | From each ancient ocarina, “a story and a sound” Janice Lowe, Tisa Bryant, Major Jackson, Sharan Strange, Thomas Sayers Ellis, Artress Bethany White, Patrick 69 Crimson Classifieds Sylvain, and Tracy K. Smith, 2013 CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: JIM HARRISON; www.harvardmagazine.com LETTERS EDITOR: John S. Rosenberg SENIOR EDITOR: Jean Martin MANAGING EDITOR: Jonathan S. Shaw Cambridge ART DIRECTOR: Jennifer Carling ASSOCIATE EDITORS: Marina Bolotnikova, Migration, capital punishment, House “master” Sophia Nguyen STAFF WRITER/EDITOR: Lydialyle Gibson ASISTANT EDITOR-ONLINE: Laura Levis JUDGE POSNER First, I think the label “pragmatist,” even ASSISTANT EDITOR: Nell Porter Brown I have to praise Lincoln Caplan’s ar- if Posner’s own self-description, is not only BERTA GREENWALD LEDECKY ticle on Judge Richard Posner (“Rhetoric misleading but unfair to William James. I UNDERGRADUATE FELLOWS and Law,” January-February, page 49) for see Posner’s approach as far closer to John Jenny Gathright, Bailey Trela largely avoiding the gushing worshipfulness Dewey’s perversion, “instrumentalism.” EDITORIAL INTERN: Olivia Campbell of the typical Harvard Magazine piece. But I Second, I think his approach is funda- still must demur on some points. mentally wrong, even dangerous, for a CONTRIBUTING EDITORS John T. Bethell, John de Cuevas, Dick 7 WARE ary 15-24 this year, is a sort of anti-curricu- lum that occupies part of the hole opened Friedman, Adam Goodheart, Curricular Conundrums in the College calendar when schedules Elizabeth Gudrais, Jim Harrison, During the past decade, the Faculty of Arts were synchronized across the University Courtney Humphries, Christopher S. and Sciences (FAS) has labored mightily and in the 2009-2010 academic year. Offer- Johnson, Adam Kirsch, Colleen Lannon, at length to construct a workable general- ings range from interesting international Christopher Reed, Stu Rosner, Deborah education component for undergraduates’ academic immersions to campus Winter- Smullyan, Mark Steele course of study. At present, Gen Ed comprises session events proper: a wilderness first- HARVARD MAGAZINE INC. eight courses intended to lift young scholars’ responder course, various bootcamps, PRESIDENT: Margaret H. Marshall, Ed.M. eyes from their fields of concentration and résumé writing, ice climbing, ballroom ’69. DIRECTORS: Peter K. Bol, Jonathan connect them to the civic and ethical chal- dance, Japanese sword fighting, chats with L.S. Byrnes, D.B.A. ’80, Scott V. Edwards, lenges of the twenty-first-century life they high-profile alumni, ceramics, and so on. Thomas F. Kelly, Ph.D. ’73, Ann Ma- will encounter Out There. As the faculty’s But one cannot help but think that the own review committee reported, the effort early promise of innovative intellectual rie Lipinski, NF ’90, Lars Peter Knoth has fallen significantly short, for reasons and other forms of outreach and experi- Madsen, John P. Reardon Jr. ’60, Bryan E. from the profound (real differences of opin- mentation has not been realized—and Simmons ’83 ion about how best to structure such an edu- that lack of resources (and the committed cation) to the parochial (differences in how attention it would take to secure and ap- BOARD OF INCORPORATORS graduate students in the sciences and in the ply them well) again is a factor. For many This magazine, at first called the Harvard Bulletin, was founded in 1898. Its Board of Incorporators was char- arts and humanities are paid)—for details, students and their families, the result is tered in 1924 and remains active in the magazine’s see harvardmag.com/gened-16. Moreover, just a weird hole in the calendar after ex- governance. The membership is as follows: Stephen too few resources were made available when ams: too late for seasonal employment; a J. Bailey, AMP ’94; Jeffrey S. Behrens ’89, William I. Bennett ’62, M.D. ’69; John T. Bethell ’54; Peter K. Bol; the program came into being during the fi- five-week annoyance for some; and—when Fox Butterfield ’61, A.M. ’64; Sewell Chan ’98; Jona- nancial crisis. Harvard’s academic year finally ends with than S. Cohn ’91; Philip M. Cronin ’53, J.D. ’56; John de Cuevas ’52; James F. Dwinell III ’62; Anne Fadiman The emerging proposal to revivify Gen its festival rites —an unnecessarily delayed ’74; Benjamin M. Friedman ’66, Ph.D. ’71; Robert H. Ed triangulates visions of the current pro- summer break. Giles, NF ’66; Richard H. Gilman, M.B.A. ’83; Owen Gingerich, Ph.D. ’62; Adam K. Goodheart ’92; Phil- gram into what might be deemed a Lite Harvard wants to be known for edu- ip C. Haughey ’57; Brian R. Hecht ’92; Sarah Blaffer version, imposing fewer requirements cational excellence alongside its research Hrdy ’68, Ph.D. ’75; Ellen Hume ’68; Alex S. Jones, NF on students and faculty members alike, ’82; Bill Kovach, NF ’89; Florence Ladd, BI ’72; Jen- prowess, and for what the College dean nifer 8 Lee ’99; Randolph C. Lindel ’66; Ann Marie and allowing somewhat more freedom of calls a transformative student experience. Lipinski, NF ’90; Scott Malkin ’80, J.D.-M.B.A. ’83; choice among courses—discussed further Perhaps it is time for some undergraduates Margaret H. Marshall, Ed.M. ’69, Ed ’77, L ’78; Lisa L. Martin, Ph.D. ’90; David McClintick ’62; Winthrop at harvardmag.com/curriculum-16. The and teaching-focused faculty members to L. McCormack ’67; M. Lee Pelton, Ph.D. ’84; John P. report outlining this reform specifies the point out, to those on high, these obvious Reardon Jr. ’60; Christopher Reed; Harriet Ritvo ’68, Ph.D. ’75; Henry Rosovsky, JF ’57, Ph.D. ’59, LL.D. ’98; places where resources are needed to make opportunities to do better on campus dur- Barbara Rudolph ’77; Robert N. Shapiro ’72, J.D. ’78; it work, even at this reduced scale. ing the academic year. Theda Skocpol, Ph.D. ’75; Peter A. Spiers ’76; Scott H. Stossel ’91; Sherry Turkle ’69, Ph.D. ’76; Robert H. Meanwhile, Wintersession, held Janu- v john s. rosenberg, Editor Weiss ’54; Jan Ziolkowski. 2 March - April 2016 THE VIEW FROM MASS HALL Better Together he new York times described it as the “first rigorously tested insight into the biology behind any common psy- chiatric disorder.” I regard it as an exemplary demonstra- tion of the unmatched potential of the Harvard medical Tecosystem. Steven McCarroll, associate professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School (HMS); working with Aswin Sekar, an MD-PhD student; drawing on the resources and human genome analysis of the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT; and joining together with Beth Stevens, an assistant professor of neurology at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard, has provided what the Times hails as “a showcase of biomedical investigation at its highest level.” Their work offers unprecedented insight into how, through a process called synaptic pruning, genes can increase an individual’s risk of developing schizophrenia. This advance in the understand- ing of a devastating disease has the potential to lead ultimately to treatments and perhaps even cures. HMS, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Harvard hospitals, and the Broad Institute joined together in this discovery as participants in an environ- found in the body and produces data that is analyzed in real time ment in which both researchers and pathbreaking science thrive. to predict when a clot will form.