The Surprising Skull Evolutionary Biologist Daniel Lieberman Take It with You

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january-february 2011 • $4.95 The Surprising Skull Evolutionary biologist Daniel Lieberman Take it with you.

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HUECU_DYOC_HarvardMagAd.indd 1 11/29/10 2:10:56 PM january-february 2011 Volume 113, number 3 meredith keffer meredith page 57 features departments Head to Toe 2 Cambridge 02138 24 Communications from our readers The rapid and revealing evolution of the human skull 7 Right Now Virus-sized intracellular transistors, by Jonathan Shaw more sensitive measures of poverty, games children play—to master their Vita: Kermit Roosevelt emotions 30 Brief life of a Harvard conspirator: 12A New England 1916-2000 Regional Section by Gwen Kinkead Seasonal events, “Third Age” careers, page 36 and a novel take on Chinese cuisine jake bryant jake 32 A Tragedy and a Mystery 13 Montage Psychologist Matthew Nock tries to understand and devise solutions for Natalie Portman and the dark side

ox S earchlight Pictures / F ox avernise suicidal and self-injurious behaviors

T of dance, Sondheim’s sidekick, mind-

iko N iko ful travel, ratifying a constitution— page 13 by Elizabeth Gudrais then and now, a Daniel Patrick Moynihan collection, the troubadour of Telegraph Avenue 36 Models—and Mud—in Amazonia Immersed in gritty feld research, students and professors derive the data and 59 The Alumni Memoir of a prison librarian, refne the models that project the Amazon’s future as the world’s climate changes Crimson members of Congress, and by Jonathan Shaw gatherings that highlight Asian, Cuban, and Middle Eastern ties 43 John Harvard’s Journal 64 The College Pump The Corporation initiates signifcant changes in the A polychrome portrait gallery— structure and conduct of University governance, and a vivid lesson in racism squash coach’s secrets, women in the professori- 72 Treasure ate—and gaps in the junior-faculty ranks, imagining Inuit for “Good dogs!” a universal digital library, when movies came to the 65 Crimson Classiﬁeds Square, fnancial results sans surprises, the Fogg Art On the cover: Professor of human Museum stripped to its shell, the Undergraduate evolutionary biology Daniel Lieberman, a contemporary H. sapiens, framed and her mom both hit the books, distinguished by two objects of his study: an early contributors honored, and a convincing victory H. erectus from Kenya (rear), and an early H. sapiens, the “Old Man of Cro-Magnon.” in The Game highlights a second-place

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Editor: John S. Rosenberg Senior Editor: Jean Martin Cambridge  Managing Editor: Jonathan S. Shaw Deputy Editor: Craig Lambert The psyche, kindergarten, more mushroom verse Associate Editor: Elizabeth Gudrais Production and New Media Manager: Mark Felton Assistant Editor: Nell Porter Brown Associate Web Developer: Blaise Freeman

OBAMA’s DEMOCRACY Art Director: Jennifer Carling By selecting favorable evidence and Berta Greenwald Ledecky ignoring other sources, you can prove al- Undergraduate Fellows most anything. That’s what James T. Klop- Madeleine Schwartz, Sarah Zhang penberg did in his biased glorification Editorial Intern: of President Obama (“A Nation Arguing Sarah Berlow with Its Conscience,” November-Decem- ber 2010, page 34). Additionally, phrases Contributing Editors like “the philosophy of pragmatism” and John T. Bethell, John de Cuevas, Adam Goodheart, Jim Harrison, Courtney “deliberative democracy” are coarse food Humphries, Christopher S. Johnson, for intelligent readers. If you insist on Adam Kirsch, Colleen Lannon, publishing such obvious propaganda, you Christopher Reed, Stu Rosner, should at least balance it with an oppos- Deborah Smullyan, Mark Steele ing piece. Charles Block, A.M. ’52 Editorial and Business Office Greenwich, Conn. 7 Ware Street, Cambridge, Mass. 02138-4037 Tel. 617-495-5746; fax: 617-495-0324 Website: www.harvardmagazine.com Reader services: Rediscover harvardmagazine.com 617-495-5746 or 800-648-4499 Our companion website has been re-imagined and redesigned to serve you better. All the current news appears in its accustomed position, in the left-hand column. Harvard Magazine Inc. But now you can easily find related stories of interest—on research, say, or student President: Henry Rosovsky, JF ’57, Ph.D. ’59, LL.D. ’98. Directors: life, arts or athletics, your fellow alumni or historic Harvardiana—by using the naviga- Suzanne Blier, Robert Giles, NF ’66, tion bar at the top of every page. Complementing this topical organization of con- Leslie E. Greis ’80, Alex S. Jones, NF ’82, tents, keywords appear in the left-hand margin, helping you find other articles about Thomas F. Kelly, Ph.D. ’73, the same subject. And the search tool lets you pursue other avenues of discovery. Randolph C. Lindel ’66, Tamara Elliott Beyond the current magazine and 15 years of back issues, beyond the steady Rogers ’74, A. Clayton Spencer, A.M. ’82 stream of online news dispatches, harvardmagazine.com has increasingly enriched its Harvard Magazine (ISSN 0095-2427) is published bimonthly presentation of multimedia features: original audio and video recordings, readings by by Harvard Magazine Inc., a nonprofit corporation, 7 Ware Street, Cambridge, Mass. 02138-4037, phone 617-495-5746; fax featured authors, slide shows, and more. The new website design makes it more con- 617-495-0324. The magazine is supported by reader contribu- venient to find this material and to enhance your exploration and enjoyment of the tions and subscriptions, advertising revenue, and a subven- tion from Harvard University. Its editorial content is the re- doings of Harvard people worldwide, from nearby sponsibility of the editors. Periodicals postage paid at Boston, Mass., and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send ad- studios to athletic venues to remote health clinics dress changes to Circulation Department, Harvard Magazine, in rural Africa. 7 Ware Street, Cambridge, Mass. 02138-4037. Subscription rate $30 a year in U.S. and possessions, $55 Canada and Mexico, $75 A brief guide to some of these new features ap- other foreign. (Allow up to 10 weeks for first delivery.) Sub- scription orders and customer service inquiries should be pears in this issue, on pages 18-19. But the best sent to the Circulation Department, Harvard Magazine, 7 Ware guide is harvardmagazine.com itself; we believe you Street, Cambridge, Mass. 02138-4037, or call 617-495-5746 or 800-648-4499, or e-mail [email protected]. Single will find it easy and intuitive to use. We hope you copies $4.95, plus $2.50 for postage and handling. Manuscript submissions are welcome, but we cannot assume responsibil- find it rewarding to do so. And of course we wel- ity for safekeeping. Include stamped, self-addressed envelope come your comments and suggestions, as we work for manuscript return. Persons wishing to reprint any portion of Harvard Magazine’s contents are required to write to serve you, in print and online, as effectively as in advance for permission. Address inquiries to Irina Kuksin, acting publisher, at the address given above. possible. vThe Editors Copyright © 2011 Harvard Magazine Inc.

Letters

Professor James Kloppenberg explains that in understanding the thought of James Madison and other founders, many scholars in recent decades have rejected the emphasis on “realist pluralism” and noted the importance to the founders of “democratic deliberation.” Among recent scholars named, Kloppenberg might have included the late Harvard professor Sam- uel Beer. Madison’s emphasis on “government by discussion” was a theme of Beer’s To Make a Nation: The Rediscovery of American Federalism (1993). But Beer added another dimension. He pointed out that Madison and other founders envisioned the Consti- tution not only as a restraint, but also as having affirmative objectives in promoting the general good, including prosperity and security. Highlighting the founders’ emphasis on democratic deliberation also expands our understanding of American ideas about justice. In Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do? (2009), Bass professor of government Michael Sandel suggests three approaches to justice: free choice, utility, and reasoning together about the common good. In conceiving of democracy in terms of deliberation, or what Beer called government by discussion to promote the general good, the founders brought together these three ideas of justice. Paul Joffe ’69 Washington, D.C.

I presume you are aware that “Obama’s Democracy” is a red flag to most Ameri- cans. His “democracy” is not ours. In accordance with Harvard Magazine’s policy of fairness, are you planning to have a reply- ing article in the next issue even though it will be after the election? It astounds to me that you would include the article immediately before a national election. That is a violation of your ethical obligation and I strenuously object on behalf of a majority of Americans. George Burditt ’44, LL.B. ’48 Ohana Family Camp Chicago Create lifetime memories for your Editor’s note: The article was designated family this summer on peaceful Lake Fairlee in Vermont. Cozy cabins a “Forum,” the magazine’s category for with fireplaces. Farm-fresh meals. faculty-written essays expressing views Swimming, sailing, canoeing, on contemporary issues, based on their kayaking, fishing, hiking, biking, research. The timing of the excerpt was tennis, crafts, and more. Delighting determined by the book’s publication, generations of families since 1905. over which the magazine exercises no Imagine your family right here. control. It was chosen for excerpting as an interesting, thought-provoking intel- www.OhanaCamp.org

Harvard Magazine 3 letters lectual-historical analysis, not as a parti- racy, without any provision for women’s san article, in keeping with the magazine’s participation, they deprived women of standards. the opportunity of having any governing power in the United States for well over a It didn’t take me long to find disagree- century. Perhaps we need not only histo- Acting Publisher: Irina Kuksin ment with James Kloppenberg’s piece. rians, but Freudian psychologists as well, Director of Circulation and Fundraising That’s probably because he gauges Presi- to provide us with deeper insights into Felecia Carter dent Obama based on Obama’s writings the Constitution and its framers. Director of Advertising and speeches. I gauge him by what he does Frank R. Tangherlini ’48 Robert D. Fitta or what he says when the teleprompter San Diego New England Advertising Manager is off. Abigail Williamson So, when Kloppenberg writes that psYchic postures Designer and Integrated Marketing Obama “insists that all propositions, po- As a leg-crossing woman psychologist Manager: Jennifer Beaumont sitions, and policies must be subjected to I was, at first, dismayed to learn that this Classified Advertising Manager continuing critical scrutiny,” I ask: how pose marks me as a “low-power” type (see Gretchen Bostr0m does that square with Obama during the page 52 within “The Psyche On Automat- Circulation and Fundraising ic,” November-December 2010, page 48). healthcare debate, when he insisted on Manager: Lucia Whalen rapid passage of a 2,000-plus page bill that Good thing I already have a job, or I’d be Gift Processor: Sarha J. Caraballo lawmakers hadn’t even read? at risk competing with one of those wide- Kloppenberg goes on to laud Obama as stance men. Fortunately, before the dol- “very much an intellectual” for his “well- drums hit, I turned the page and—lo and Ivy League Magazine Network informed” and “sophisticated” thinking behold—there was low-power Drew Faust Tel. 617-496-7207 on political philosophy. But how intel- conversing with Charlie Gibson, both of Associate Publisher, Sales Lawrence J. Brittan, Tel. 631-754-4264 lectually sophisticated is the philosophy, them crossing their legs and smiling warm- New York Advertising Sales articulated by Obama impromptu when ly at each other (page 54). Whew! Beth Bernstein, Tel. 908-654-5050 responding to a question by the now- Marian Kaplun Shapiro, Ed.D. ’78 Mary Anne MacLean, Tel. 631-367-1988 famous Joe the Plumber, of “spread the Lexington, Mass. Travel Advertising Sales wealth around”? Northeast Media Inc., Tel. 203-255-8800 Obama is no deep thinker; he only pre- I really enjoyed Craig Lambert’s ar- Midwest Advertising Sales tends to be because he knows intellectu- ticle on Amy Cuddy’s research into first Nugent Media Group, Tel. 773-755-9051 als will lap it up. Kloppenberg certainly impressions. In fact, I’ve shared the article Detroit Advertising Sales has. with others as part of my work coaching Heth Media David McKenna, M.L.A. ’85 executives. Cuddy’s work reinforces the Tel. 248-318-9489 Marietta, Ga. guidance I’ve long given high-ranking Southwest Advertising Sales leaders: to spend more time focusing on Daniel Kellner, Tel. 972-529-9687 I noticed a significant omission in Pro- sustained eye contact with their audience West Coast Advertising Sales Virtus Media Sales, Tel. 310-478-3833 fessor Kloppenberg’s list of “deeply flawed members rather than worrying about the institutional structures put in place by precise words they use in an important Board of Incorporators the Constitution.” The flaws he lists as presentation. Anecdotally, the results have This magazine, at first called the Harvard Bulletin, was founded in 1898. Its Board of Incorporators was char- “most serious” were two: the “failure to been powerful time and again. tered in 1924 and remains active in the magazine’s address the outrageous practice of slav- The thing I found fascinating, perhaps governance. The membership is as follows: Stephen J. ery,” and “the second antidemocratic fea- even ironic, about the story was Cuddy’s Bailey, AMP ’94; Jeffrey S. Behrens ’89, William I. Ben- nett ’62, M.D. ’69; John T. Bethell ’54; Peter K. Bol; Fox ture ...was the provision of electing two cover photo, where she appears to assume Butterfield ’61, A.M. ’64; Sewell Chan ’98, Jonathan S. senators from each state.” a “low power posture” with closed arms, Cohn ’91; Philip M. Cronin ’53, J.D. ’56; John de Cue- It seems to me that there was a third a position Cuddy herself has observed to vas ’52; Casimir de Rham ’46, J.D. ’49; James F. Dwi- nell III ’62; Anne Fadiman ’74; Benjamin M. Friedman major flaw: the failure to provide any- be much more likely found in women than ’66, Ph.D. ’71; Robert H. Giles, NF ’66; Richard H. Gil- where in the Constitution until 1920 for men. Lifelong habits and ingrained culture man, M.B.A. ’83, Owen Gingerich, Ph.D. ’62; Adam K. the existence of women in the United can be hard to change, even with knowl- Goodheart ’92; Max Hall, NF ’50; Philip C. Haughey ’57, Brian R. Hecht ’92; Sarah Blaffer Hrdy ’68, Ph.D. States, and the role they might play in edge and awareness. ’75; Ellen Hume ’68; Alex S. Jones, NF ’82; Bill Kovach, its government. It might be argued that Grace Migliaccio, M.B.A. ’89 NF ’89; Florence Ladd, BI ’72; Jennifer 8 Lee ’99, An- the role of women in government was New Hope, Pa. thony Lewis ’48, NF ’57; Scott Malkin ’80, J.D.-M.B.A. ’83; Margaret H. Marshall, Ed.M. ’69, Ed ’77, L ’78; Lisa far beyond the thinking of the time, but L. Martin, Ph.D. ’90; David McClintick ’62; Winthrop that isn’t the case at all. The framers of I read with great interest the article L. McCormack ’67; John P. Reardon Jr. ’60; Christo- the Constitution were very much aware about Amy Cuddy’s findings on the di- pher Reed; Harriet Ritvo ’68, Ph.D. ’75; Henry Roso- vsky, JF ’57, Ph.D. ’59, LL.D. ’98; Barbara Rudolph ’77; that women could even be heads of state, mensions of how one perceives others. Robert N. Shapiro ’72, J.D. ’78; Theda Skocpol, Ph.D. such as Queens Elizabeth I and Anne of She suggests that those seen as both com- ’75; Peter A. Spiers ’76; Scott H. Stossel ’91; William O. Taylor ’54; Sherry Turkle ’69, Ph.D. ’76; Robert H. England, Empress Catherine the Great petent and warm are well liked—in fact, Weiss ’54; Elizabeth Winship ’43; Jan Ziolkowski. of Russia, etc. In [their] thrust to democ- admired. She also mentions the “mommy

4 January - February 2011

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Letters

penalty” phenomenon, whereby there is There’s no question that, unconscious or a seeming contradiction along the two conscious, belligerence and the desire to dimensions. If you are seen as embracing hurt is common among humans. Academic motherhood, you are seen as nice but your and lawyerly euphemisms don’t deal with perceived level of competence is decreased! that. For that matter, why do we devote so I submit that there is yet another vari- much to preparing and waging war, and able among women that works against so pitifully little to waging peace? Oh, we how they are seen in the workplace. It must be always on our guard and have an has been my observation that my com- excellent “defense.” War is much more fun travel the world with fellow petence has been fully appreciated and and certainly more lucrative. alumni and harvard study leaders. esteemed by male interviewers and older Tom Blandy ’54, M.Arch. ’60 a 2011 triP samPling females, but not among same-age, female Troy, N.Y. peers. Could it be that females of the same age feel envy or contempt for women who AddendUM and Erratum seem too smart or too invested in success- Susan meiselas (“A Lens on History,” ful outcomes on tasks? This would be a November-December 2010, page 41) re- great inquiry! ports that the documentary Pictures from a Mandy Stern, Ed.M. ’96 Revolution was a collaborative effort involv- Beverly Hills, Calif. ing both her filmmaking partner, Alfred Guzzetti (now Hooker professor of visual the five ’stans: kazakhstan Monetizing kindergarten arts), and Richard Rogers ’67, Ed.M. ’70. In kyrgyzstan, uzbekistan, tajikistan, turkmenistan “Kindergarten Matters” (November- addition, a comment by one of her Nicara- may 13 – may 30, 2011 | with laura adams: Co-chair of the program on Central asia and the Caucasus December 2010, page 13) presents Raj guan interviewees was misreported in our Chetty’s thesis that “those who had the article. The text should have read: “…things best kindergarten teachers make more were little better under the Sandinistas money.” My granddaughter attends kin- than under Somoza, especially with the dergarten at a public school in Eugene, rise of the Contras—who, said one man, Oregon. Her teacher, Polly Moak (who Justo, had cut off thealas, the wings, of the graduated Harvard Divinity as Polly An- revolution.” We regret the error. derson), has a different goal in mind. Polly visited in the homes of all 23 children in Amanita encore himalayan kingdoms: tibet, her class before school began. She told “Don’t Eat Amanitas” (September-Oc- nePal and bhutan may 28 - june 14, 2011 | with leonard van der kuijP: them they are all writers. They begin mak- tober 2010, page 72) put me in mind of a Professor of tibetan and himalayan studies ing wavy lines and hash marks (from left poem I wrote years ago. to right) and soon are forming letters and Alan L. Boegehold, Ph.D. ’58 numbers. I believe Polly’s students will Providence, R.I. learn to write and love doing it. That will enrich their lives whether or not they real- Who Made Up All Those Names Anyway? ize “a gain of $1,000 a year” in adult life. Crepidula fornicata, lovely name, The Reverend Fred Fendon ’58 coracle shell on a glinting strand, Concord, Calif. edible all rwanda and uganda torture except for a small gorilla safari On the letters (November-December indigestible ball june 15 - june 24, 2011 | with zarin maChanda: lecturer on human evolutionary biology 2010, page 2) with, to my eye, torturous of teeth. book now - gorilla trekking permits sell out! justifications for torture: do we ever see With over 50 trips annually! a suggestion that the energy that goes Amanita phalloides, deadly bane, into torture requires a sadistic attitude? fleshy thrust from autumn duff, VIsIT Us ONlINE aT Heaven, my friend, WWW.alumni.harvard.edu/haa/travel speak up, please from you forfend Harvard Magazine welcomes letters the downward trend on its contents. Please write to “Let- of a bite. ters,” Harvard Magazine, 7 Ware Street, Cambridge 02138, send comments by e- Amanita vaginata, blushing dame, mail to yourturn@harvard.edu, use our No hurtful herbs in her dear cup, website, www.harvardmagazine.com, only be sure BOOK YOUR NEXT TRIP or fax us at 617-495-0324. Letters may when tasting her 800.422.1636 be edited to fit the available space. you’re not with Sir Look-Alike. [email protected]

6 January - February 2011 Right Now The expanding Harvard universe

man and machine device can actually communicate with a living organism, has been an explicit goal from the beginning, but has proven tricky. Virus-Sized Transistors At its simplest, the problem was insert- ing a transistor constructed on a flat plane (think of the surface of a computer chip) magine being able to signal an im- sign and synthesis of nanoscale parts that into a three-dimensional object: a cell per- mune cell to generate antibodies that will enable him to build tiny electronic haps 10 microns in size. Merely piercing would fight bacteria or even cancer. devices (see “Liquid Computing,” Novem- the cell was not enough, because transis- I That fictional possibility is now a step ber-December 2001, page 20). Devising a tors need a source wire from which elec- closer to reality with the development of biological interface, in which a nanoscale trons flow and a drain wire through which a bio-compatible transis- they are discharged. tor the size of a virus. Hy- The key, Lieber says, was man professor of chemistry figuring out how to introduce Charles Lieber and his col- two 120-degree bends into a leagues used nanowires to linear wire in order to create create a transistor so small a “V” or hairpin configuration, that it can be used to enter with the transistor near the and probe cells without tip. Getting the entire struc- disrupting the intracel- ture off the surface on which lular machinery. These it had been created was easier: nanoscale semiconductor Lieber integrated the nano- switches could even be wire probes with a pair of bi- used to enable two-way metal, layered interconnects. communication with indi- Joined strips of two different vidual cells. metals that expand at differ- Lieber has worked for ent rates have been used in the past decade on the de- thermostats for years—when the temperature changes, Hyman professor of one metal swells or contracts chemistry Charles Lieber more than the other, bending has created a transistor so the thermostat to the oppo- small it can be used to penetrate cell membranes site side to accommodate the

t y and probe their interiors, expansion. Lieber used this without disrupting function. principle to lift the transistor The transistor (yellow) sits up and out of the flat plane on near the bend in a hairpin- shaped, lipid-coated which it was created. silicon nanowire. Its scale When he finally engineered is similar to that of intra- the tiny device and tried to cellular structures such as organelles (pink and blue insert it into a cell, howev- orbs) and actin filaments er, he had no luck: pressing er, Harvard Universi Lie b er, Harvard and C.M. B.Tian (pink strand). hard enough to disrupt the

Harvard Magazine 7 right now cell membrane, he reports, killed the cell “pretty quickly.” But when his team coated the hairpin nanowire with a fatty lipid layer (the same substance cell membranes are made of), the device was easily pulled into the cell via membrane fusion, a pro-

cess related to the one cells use to engulf t y viruses and bacteria. This innovation is important, Lieber explains, because it indicates that when a man-made structure is as small as a virus or bacteria, it can behave the way biological structures do. Tests of the device indicate that it could be used not only to measure activity within

neurons, heart cells, and muscle fibers, for Universi Lie b er, Harvard and C.M. B.Tian example, but also to measure two distinct A V-shaped silicon nanowire (above) that they dominate our daily lives,” Lieber signals within a single cell simultane- is attached to bimetal connectors that points out. “When scaled down, the dif- lift the entire structure up out of the ously—perhaps even the workings of in- horizontal plane on which it is made, to ference between digital and living systems tracellular organelles, the functional units facilitate penetration of three-dimension- blurs, so that you have an opportunity to within cells that generate energy, fold pro- al structures such as cells (above right). do things that sound like science fiction— teins, process sugars, and perform other things that people have only dreamed critical functions. (When those processes biological-digital computation, or deep- about.” vjonathan shaw stop working, the breakdown can lead to brain stimulation for Parkinson’s patients, diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, or or serve as an interface for a prosthetic charles lieber e-mail address: Tay-Sachs.) And because a transistor also that requires information processing at the [email protected] allows the application of a voltage pulse, point where it attaches to its owner. charles lieber website: such devices might one day provide hybrid “Digital electronics are so powerful http://cmliris.harvard.edu

STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT, AND CIR- CULATION. Publication title: Harvard Magazine. Publication no. college 0095-2427. Filing date: 10/8/2010. Issue frequency: bi-monthly. Number of issues published annually: 6. Annual subscription price: $30. Complete mailing address of known office of publication and headquarters or general business office of the publish- prep er: 7 Ware Street, Cambridge MA 02138. Contact person: Fele- Harvard cia Carter, 617-496-6694. Acting Publisher: Irina Kuksin, Harvard Magazine, 7 Ware Street, Cambridge MA 02138. Editor: John Rosenberg, Harvard Magazine, 7 Ware Street, Cambridge MA 02138. Managing Editor: Jonathan Shaw, Harvard Magazine, 7 Ware Street, Cambridge MA 02138. Owner: Harvard Magazine Inc., 7 Ware Street, Cambridge MA 02138. Known bondholders, mortgagees, or other security holders: none. The purpose, function, and nonprofi t status of this organization and the exempt status for federal income tax purposes have not changed during preceding 12 months. Issue date for circulation data below: September-October 2010. Avg. no. copies Single issue each issue nearest to preced. 12 mos fi ling date A. Total no. of copies (Net press run) ...... 242,864 244,812 B. Paid and/or requested circulation 1. Paid/req. outside-county mail subscriptions stated on Form 3541...... 239,613 241,955 2. Paid in-county subs ...... 0 0 3. Sales through dealers and carriers, street vendors, In this selective summer program, high school counter sales, and other non-USPS paid distribution ...... 1,197 1,142 students can: 4. Other classes mailed through the USPS ...... 0 0 Earn undergraduate credit in classes with C. Total paid and/or requested circulation ...... 240,810 243,097 college students. D. Free or nominal rate distribution by mail 1. Outside-county as Meet students from around the world. stated on Form 3541 ...... 145 149 2. In-county as stated on Prepare for college through college visits, Form 3541 ...... 0 0 3. Other classes mailed workshops, and admissions counseling. through the USPS ...... 0 0 4. Free or nominal distribution outside the mail ...... 271 0 E. Total free or nominal distribution...... 416 149 F. Total distribution...... 241,226 243,246 Secondary School Program G. Copies not distributed...... 1,638 1,566 H. Total...... 242,864 244,812 Percent paid and/or requested circulation...... 99.8% 99.9% www.ssp.harvard.edu I certify that the information above is true and complete. Irina Kuksin, Acting Publisher

8 January - February 2011 right now

qualitative measures ample of the victims of the recent floods in Pakistan: their reduced income would be noted, but the difficulties they face during Who Is Poor? resettlement, he says—the deleterious effects on education and on the availability of proper medical care—“would not be f poverty means more than just the far a person has to walk for clean drink- captured in an income measure like GDP weight of a wallet, the world’s poor may ing water, while the World Bank’s mea- per capita” (the metric commonly used by be more numerous than previously be- sure is based solely on income, defining economists). “All these would be captured I lieved. World Bank estimates put the anyone who earns less than $1.25 a day as in a properly multidimensional measure.” population of global poor at 1.44 billion poor. By the World Bank standard, for ex- An important watershed in the defini- people—but a recent poverty index based ample, only 39 percent of the population tion of poverty occurred this year when on the work of Nobel laureate Amartya of Ethiopia would be considered poor; by the MPI was included as one of three new Sen, Lamont University Professor and MPI calculations, the figure is 90 percent. indices in the UNDP’s Human Development professor of economics and philosophy, Conversely, 46 percent of Uzbekistan’s Report 2010, all three serving as a comple- raises that number to 1.71 billion. population would be classified as poor ment to its Human Development Index The differences lie in how poverty is using the $1.25-a-day measure, but only 2 (HDI), a highly influential measure fo- measured. The Multidimensional Pov- percent meet the criteria under the MPI. cused on health, education, and standard erty Index (MPI), published in July by A change in how the poor are counted of living that is used by policymakers researchers from the United Nations De- could vastly improve the effectiveness of charged with the allocation of aid. The an- velopment Program (UNDP) and Oxford international aid organizations as they nual report, which celebrated its twenti- University’s Poverty and Human Devel- allocate resources among impoverished eth anniversary last year, included an in- opment Initiative, factors in living stan- people globally. troduction by Sen, who is credited with dards ranging from sanitation and the “This dollar-a-day measure doesn’t take playing an integral role in assembling the composition of household flooring (dirt, into account many variations that influ- original HDI. sand, or dung) to child mortality and ence the conversion of income into good Sen’s interest in alternative poverty years of schooling. The MPI asks how living,” Sen points out. He offers the ex- measures began in the late 1950s at the

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Harvard Magazine 9 right now

When poverty is defined as living on begun to institute the measures on a na- late 1980s—for example, the effect of ter- g es $1.25 or less a day, about 40 percent of both Ethiopians and Uzbekistanis are tional level. In 2009, Mexico instituted a rorism on personal security—he believes considered poor. But by multidimensional multidimensional measurement of poverty the index has stood the test of time. Find- measures that capture living standards, levels, to better formulate national policy. ings from a long-term study of HDI results almost 90 percent of Ethiopians live A year earlier, French president Nicolas included in the recent Human Development in poverty, while only a small percentage of Uzbekistanis do. Sarkozy commissioned Sen and fellow Report revealed broad improvements across Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz to define most developing countries. Sen is happy University of Cambridge, when he and fel- measures for a survey of his fellow citizens’ with these successes, but he says much low student Mahbub ul Haq (later a policy general well-being. (The resulting report, work still remains to ensure that such director at the World Bank and Pakistan’s released last fall, suggested that the French gains not only continue, but spread across minister of finance) began discussing an government should adopt a multidimen- a wider spectrum of criteria that improve tt y Im a D enis S inyakov/Ge Mi ch ae l Hanson/Cor b is; : alternative to the GDP per capita bench- sional approach that focused not solely on human quality of life around the globe. mark. Haq argued for the usefulness of a income, but on a range of quality-of-life vdan morrell m l e ft Fro simple, easy number, but Sen saw that as measures.) coarse. “What you need,” Haq told him, “is Even though there are now dimensions amartya sen website: something as vulgar as GDP except con- of poverty that didn’t exist to the same ex- www.fas.harvard.edu/~phildept/sen. centrated on something meaningful like tent when Sen was crafting the HDI in the html human life.” Their conversations laid the groundwork for what would become the HDI. “It was never intended to be a sub- COOL HAND stitute for all the multitude of tables that the Human Development Report presents,” says Sen. “It’s a kind of appetizer and, indeed, a Gaming the Emotions general alternative view in a highly simple form—to indicate that, in order to concen- trate on human life, you do not have to get ideo games may have a reputa- fication: they wear a monitor on one pin- into such complexity that people go back tion for being violent and overly kie that tracks heart rate as they play. If to using GDP unalloyed.” stimulating, but in a new study that indicator rises above resting levels— Although income-based measures like V led by Harvard psychiatry pro- signaling that they’re overexcited—play- GDP and per capita income can still domi- fessors, one video game appears to help ers lose the ability to shoot. nate discussions of poverty measurement, kids with severe anger problems gain con- The study subjects are patients in Chil- there are signs that the kinds of multidi- trol of their emotions. dren’s inpatient psychiatric unit. “These mensional models that Sen has long advo- The pilot study at Children’s Hospital are kids who have high levels of anger and cated are beginning to gain influence. The Boston tests an intervention that features hostility, often with explosive behavior,” MPI’s Oxford developers credit Sen’s work a video game based on the 1980s arcade fa- explains assistant professor of psychiatry as their foundation, and other researchers vorite Space Invaders. Players shoot down Joseph Gonzalez-Heydrich. They com- are following his lead; governments have space aliens, but with an important modi- monly resist psychotherapy, and usually

10 January - February 2011 right now don’t want to try anger-management tech- to experiment to see which strategies aid hypothesis that children with severe anger niques such as relaxation, “yet they will their game play. problems have what amounts to a learning spend hours trying to master a computer Gonzalez-Heydrich developed the game disability, triggered by flaws in portions of game,” Gonzalez-Heydrich continues. with Jason Kahn, a software developer the prefrontal cortex responsible for emo- Succeeding at the game, known as RAGE and postdoctoral fellow at Children’s, tional regulation. Over Control (Regulate and Gain Emotional hoping that it would both engage kids time, the game may Control), is a careful balancing act. “You and allow them to practice these skills strengthen these brain Visit harvardmag.com/ need to learn how to control your level in ways that translate into other areas of areas in the same way extras for a video of of arousal,” he says, “but just enough that life. Typical anger-management therapy that physical therapy the anger management you can still react rapidly and make quick teaches patients to step away from dif- helps a stroke pa- game in action. decisions.” ficult situations and use techniques such tient regain use of a limb. “We’re giving Participants play during sessions with as visualization to imagine themselves in that part of the cerebral cortex and the Peter Ducharme, a licensed clinical social a calm setting. In contrast, RAGE Control network that connects it a way of getting worker who has adapted traditional an- requires patients to soothe themselves in exercise,” Gonzalez-Heydrich says. “Our ger-management therapy to complement the midst of a high-pressure activity while theory is that this will help these kids improve.” If their heart rates rise above resting The researchers are less than halfway through this small pilot study led by as- levels—signaling that they are overexcited— sistant professor of psychiatry Elizabeth Wharff. Although it’s too soon for defini- players lose the ability to shoot. tive conclusions, patients so far have enjoyed the game, and “their heart rates dur- the game. During the course of five hour- simultaneously exercising key executive ing the game have shown improvements long sessions, he teaches kids strategies to functions, such as the ability to “inhibit,” with each round, which indicates their regulate their emotional states—includ- or stop shooting, when friendly spacecraft ability to learn self-regulation with target- ing deep breathing and progressive muscle swoop across the screen. ed practice,” Ducharme says. relaxation—and then encourages them This study is based on a long-standing The team plans to apply for funding to

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Harvard Magazine 11 right now launch a longer con- zalez-Heydrich hope trolled trial eventually that RAGE Control at Boston’s Manville may eventually offer School, which serves an alternative to the children with emo- powerful psychotro- tional and behavioral pic medications often disabilities. They’re used to treat these also developing a mul- children. He concedes tiplayer version of the that a shooting game game for family ther- is a surprising way apy, which may help to address anger dis- address the dynam- orders, but points out ics that contribute to that RAGE Control angry outbursts. The lacks the “graphic entire family will wear reality” of many cur- heart-rate monitors, rent video games. “We and if anyone’s pulse have to meet these escalates, everyone kids where they are,” loses the ability to he stresses. “If we had shoot. “The trick is to a game where they not only get yourself were, say, picking calm, but also promote emotional regula- the right approach is to say something daisies in a field, these kids just wouldn’t tion in your family members,” Gonzalez- supportive.” Many parents, he adds, will be interested.” verin o’donnell Heydrich says. “The usual response of benefit from the emotion-regulation prac- these kids would be to yell at their moth- tice as well. joseph gonzalez-heydrich e-mail address: ers, which makes Mom’s heart rate go The enthusiastic response from pa- Joseph.Gonzalez-Heydrich@childrens. even higher. We hope kids will learn that tients, parents, and therapists gives Gon- harvard.edu pri gg ee m i lt

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12 January - February 2011 Montage Art, books, diverse creations

14 Chapter and Verse 15 Storytelling with Sondheim 16 A Story Curled Inside 17 American Ratification 21 Off the Shelf 23 Telegraph Avenue Troubadour

Natalie Portman dances as the Dark Beauty White Swan in Swan Lake (far left), and the sensuous Black Swan (left). Above: a scene with A tense thriller, with ballerinas actor Vincent Cassel, who plays the company’s artistic director. by Craig Lambert dience home with unresolved Lily (Mila Kunis), another beautiful questions to ponder. n the new film Black Swan, Natalie dancer who becomes Nina’s friend and Aronofsky began to consider this story Portman ’03 plays Nina, a prima bal- rival, catalyzes this metamorphosis. In 15 years ago. In fact, “It all started with my lerina in New York who dances the the hands of tenebrous film director Dar- sister, who was a ballet dancer when I was Swan Queen in Tchaikovsky’s Swan ren Aronofsky ’91 (The Wrestler, Requiem for a kid,” he says; he witnessed her gruel- Lake as her first starring role. That a Dream), the story becomes one of almost ox S e a rchlight P ictures ver n ise / F ox ing training regime. When he completed Ta Imeans portraying both a White Swan who unrelieved tension, a thriller that probes his M.F.A. at the American Film Insti- radiates innocence, sweetness, and light, psychological, artistic, and even spiri- tute Conservatory, he was already think- and a darker Black Swan—seductive, dan- tual allegories as Nina finds herself in the ing about making two companion films, gerous, and evil. An overprotected, driven midst of what is tantamount to a ner- one set in the world of pro wrestling, perfectionist, Nina readily takes to the vous breakdown. Black Swan’s most char- one in that of professional ballet. “Some white swan, but must endure a kind of acteristic shot is a close-up of Portman’s call wrestling the lowest of art forms, personal purgatory to claim the dark side captivating face, her eyes flickering with and some call ballet the highest of art phs courtesy of Niko of Niko a phs courtesy All photogr of both the ballet role and her personality. anxiety. Even the final scene sends the au- forms, yet there is something elementally

Harvard Magazine 13 MONTAGE

Left: Fox Music president Robert Kraft, at the piano, works with film director Darren Aronofsky. Above: Aronofsky directing Cas- sel on the ballet-studio set.

it at the elite level. Every small gesture has to be so specific and so full of lightness

cy Alle n N an cy and grace.” ox S e a rchlight P ictures ver n ise / F ox At the start of the film, Nina is a “bun- Ta Nina must endure a personal purgatory to claim head”—dancers’ unflattering term for a Niko ballerina so obsessively devoted to her the dark side of the role and of her personality. art that she has no life outside it. A Signet Society member and psychology concen- the same,” Aronofsky explains. “Mickey she danced 90 percent of the film’s ballet trator at Harvard, Portman saw Nina as Rourke as a wrestler was going through scenes herself. (American Ballet Theatre “being caught in a cycle of obsession and something very similar to Natalie Portman soloist Sarah Lane performed some exact- compulsion. The positive side of that for as a ballerina. They’re both artists who ing point work and turns as Portman’s artists and dancers is that by focusing so use their bodies to express themselves double.) “It’s incredibly challenging, try- hard you can become a virtuoso, but then and they’re both threatened by physical ing to pick up ballet at 28,” Portman says. there’s a much darker side, an unhealthy injury, because their bodies are the only “Even if you’ve taken dance lessons before, side, in which you can become completely tools they have for expression. What was you just don’t realize how much goes into lost. That’s where I had to take Nina.” interesting for me was to find these two connected stories in what might appear to be unconnected worlds.” In Black Swan, c hapter & verse “We wanted to be tense, and to make a thriller,” he explains. “To have the horrific Correspondence on not-so-famous lost words elements contrasting with the beauty and sexuality of ballet made for an interesting construction.” J.P. Akins requests the complete text “…easier to imagine the weather put- Long before the screenplay was ready, of a poem he remembers from his youth ting something off because of Miss ….” Aronofsky had decided that Portman was about the Harvard-Yale game and the way “…like one of the seven deadly sins the right actress for the lead. The two had it “releases us, changed and changeless, wrapped up in the cloak of the other six.” met for coffee in Times Square more than into the November evening. ” He thinks “Alas, we would no longer be able to 10 years ago to talk about the idea. Port- it may be the work of the late David Mc- listen to the music of Mozart.” man studied ballet as a child and has con- Cord ’21, L.H.D. ’56. “Cynicism is the fruit of disappointed tinued to dance to stay in shape; she told hopes that were never well justified to the director that she had always wanted From our archives, here are more as- begin with.” to play a dancer. To prepare for the film, yet-unsourced phrases and aphorisms, in “Lust is the lamp that lifts the gloom./ she undertook 10 months of intense physi- hopes that a reappearance, in print and Lust is the light that fills the room.” cal training that consumed five hours a online, will yield identifications. day, including swimming, weight lifting, “Whereas the music of Beethoven as Send inquiries and answers to Chap- and other cross-training, as well as in- pires to heaven, the music of Mozart was ter and Verse, Harvard Magazine, 7 Ware tensive dance work with choreographer written from there.” Street, Cambridge 02138, or via e-mail to Benjamin Millepied, a principal dancer “…and rain, that graybeard sing….” [email protected]. with the New York City Ballet; in the end,

14 January - February 2011 MONTAGE

Music figures heavily in establishing It was glorious. It sounded as beautiful as score infuses Black Black Swan’s atmosphere of foreboding. I had dreamed.” Mansell explains that he Swan with its magic. “It became clear that this was a tremen- wanted the Swan Lake music to haunt Nina Filled with themes of Visit harvardmag.com/ dously musical film,” says Robert Kraft during her stormy passage. “Tchaikovsky’s ego and alter ego, im- extras to see a clip from the filmBlack Swan. ’76, president of Fox Music, who was in- score is so wonderfully complex,” he says. ages of mirrors, and volved in the relevant decisions for the “It tells the story in every note. But mod- paradoxes of the psyche, Black Swan it- Fox Searchlight Pictures release. “You ern film scores are more subdued, more self explores aspects of the art that cre- have Tchaikovsky’s incredible ballet mu- minimalist if you will, so I had to almost ated it. “There are lots of ideas about the sic and a fantastic original underscore deconstruct the ballet.” Aronofsky adds, artistic process in the film,” Aronofsky written by [English composer] Clint “Clint took Tchaikovsky’s masterpiece says. “There’s a struggle between control Mansell. I was in London with Darren for and turned it into scary movie music.” and letting go. In any craft, you have to every minute of the orchestral recording. The dark beauty of the Russian master’s learn to do both.” Storytelling with Sondheim Librettist John Weidman writes books for the best.

ct I: John Weidman ’68 spends the first 13 years of his life A in Westport, Con- necticut, where he plays Little League baseball and dreams of turning pro. Then he realizes: “There are no major league players from Westport.” His revised attitude about the future: “Wait and see.” Act II, Scene 1: Weidman (wide-man) at Harvard. His father is a writer (the novelist and

ges dramatist Jerome Weidman, author of I Can Get It for You Whole- sale), so it’s only natural that he befriends Timothy Crouse ’68, the son of playwright Russel Crouse, who coauthored the book for The Sound of Music. In 1966, on a lark, they write the Hasty Pudding show A Hit and a Myth. (“Nothing seemed at stake. And we got to go to Bermuda.”) Act II, Scene 2: Weidman graduates. He extends his “Wait Composer Stephen Sondheim (left) and librettist John Weidman and see” credo by applying to in 2010. The copies of Playbill showcase two of their collaborations, law school. Facing the draft, he Pacific Overtures (1976) and Assassins (1990). ph by B e n H ider/ G etty I m a a ph by P hotogr Weidm an ; of Joh n courtesy ybills

P l a chooses not to attend Yale immediately, and instead teaches for a few postscript: “I have an Act II, Scene 3: Prince meets with years at a New York public school. Then idea for a play about the opening of Japan; Weidman for 15 minutes before giving him he heads to New Haven to join Clarence can we talk about it?”—goes to Broadway a contract (and $500) to write the play. In Thomas in the Yale Law class of 1974. producer-director Hal Prince. Weidman: the summer of 1973, Weidman completes Certain that the law is not for him, “At Harvard, I majored in East Asian his- a draft of Pacific Overtures. Prince decides Weidman writes two letters, seeking an tory—I thought I knew something no one it needs to be a musical—and convinces internship. The first goes to Bowie Kuhn, else did. I had no ambition to write a play. Stephen Sondheim to turn the play into commissioner of Major League Baseball, I had no training. I just thought: I can do one. Weidman: “It was so surreal I didn’t who blows him off. The second—with a this while I’m at Yale.” stop—at least not too often—to think

Harvard Magazine 15 MONTAGE

o p e n b o o k In an era of headphone-wearing, smart-phone-watching pe- destrians, utterly unattuned to A Story their surroundings, Tony Hiss ’63 makes the case for mindful, aware attention to one’s envi- Curled Inside rons—even the most ordinary ones. His new manifesto, In Mo- tion: The Experience of Travel (Knopf, $26.95), follows by many years—and generations of enabling, distracting technology—his The Experience of Place (and his beloved New Yorker railroad wanderings, with Rogers E. M. Whitaker, collected as All Aboard with E. M. Frimbo). From the beginning of chapter 1, “Deep Travel,” a revelation outside the front door:

Although I was only leaving the house of focus. Each thing I looked at seemed for a few minutes and only to run a few now to have a story curled inside it, errands (mail a couple of bills; pick up an and to represent something that many iced coffee at the local bagel shop), and people from many places and times had although it was a perfectly ordinary day, thought about over long periods and like hundreds of others that unfold in with great care and deliberation and a any year, year after year, something was kind of intelligence that takes genera- that I was working with two giants of the no longer the same. Before the door tions to accumulate and then get sifted theater.” Pacific Overtures opens in 1976. Re- had even closed behind me, the familiar through and refined and pared down. views are mixed. But the marquee says it world outside immediately seemed— The corner mailbox, for instance. I all: Prince. Sondheim. Weidman. unexplored. That comes closest to de- live in Greenwich Village, in New York Act III, Scene 1: Weidman writes for scribing the unexpected sensation that City—have done so for most of my the National Lampoon, which leads to sever- had arrived. “Fresh” and “new” were life—and the corner mailbox has been al years of screenwriting. In 1978, he mar- part of it, but only a part, even though there for as long as I can remember. ries a Yale classmate, Lila Coleburn, who there were undoubtedly now some Battered, blue, durable, unprepossess- soon abandons law herself for clinical things present that hadn’t ever previ- ing—already obsolete some might say. psychology. Two children follow. Watch- ously appeared on my block, such as the Square on the bottom with a rounded ing Sesame Street with his daughter, he particular play of light on the buildings top and a squeaky pull-down handle that decides that working across the street, and the array of zig- needs a certain decisiveness to there would be honest zaggy clouds in the sky open and close, it was labor, and he begins to Visit harvardmag.com/ overhead, and the pat- something I’ve often write sketches for the extras to see interview clips with John Weidman terns formed by the used but had never show. and clips from Assassins various groups of at any time given Act III, Scene 2: In and Sesame Street people walking by. the kind of close the mid 1980s, Anna But it was the examination that Crouse, Russel’s widow, decides that the familiar objects, it in fact—what? reason there has been no first-class pro- the ones that needed; deserved; duction of her late husband’s Anything were still what wanted? Want- Goes since 1934 is that the book isn’t good they had always ed—that seemed enough. (Howard Lindsay and Crouse re- been, that seemed as close to it as wrote the P.G. Wodehouse/Guy Bolton the most trans- anything. I was at book for the Cole Porter musical.) For formed. It wasn’t as the moment wide- $1,000 each, she hires Weidman and her if they had changed awake in a way that son to rewrite it. Despite a mixed review shape or color, but reached out in all in the New York Times from Frank Rich ’71 they now seemed directions. Aware- (“The corny, sporadically amusing one- charged with pur- ness and attention liners…give the script the collegiate air of a pose, beckoning, had been intensified, Harvard Hasty Pudding show”), the show calling out, and al- reorganized, rede- is a hit and runs for two years. most glowing or ployed, and I was Act III, Scene 3: Along the way, Weidman shimmering, with abruptly eager to and Sondheim become friends. Periodically, each detail etched know more. they meet to kick around ideas. In the late in the sharpest kind ’80s, Sondheim mentions his interest in the men who have tried to kill a U.S. president.

16 January - February 2011 MONTAGE

Above: Weidman, Sondheim, and Frank Rich ’71 (at right) meet for a 1976 television interview in Sondheim’s study. From left, clockwise: a Road Show CD cover; a souvenir program for Contact; a 2004 Assassins poster; and four New York firefighters with Weidman and Sesame Street character Elmo in 2001.

nominated for the Tony a circle, doesn’t it? Weidman shrugs it off; Award for best book for unlike many theater people, he seems to a musical three times have no ego, no urgent drive, no need to (Pacific Overtures, Big, be noticed. From his 2008 Harvard class and Contact), and wins report: “The success my career has af- a 2000 Tony for the dance musical forded me, both psychic and material, has Weidman is Contact. For his Sesame Street work, he wins not been spectacular, but it has been sub- equally in- a dozen Emmys. And, for a decade, he’s stantial and, more importantly, enough for trigued; their president of the Dramatists Guild. He is me.” Unspectacular? “That’s the first time I collaboration becomes Assassins. Weidman: one of only three writers to have had sev- wrote intimately about myself—ever. And w eidm an “I was a Camelot kid. After Kennedy was eral collaborations with the great Sond- it’s not false modesty. That’s an entirely shot, I went to Washington and stood on heim. accurate description of how I feel.” Then the sidewalk as his cortege passed by. And The Critic’s Turn: In March, Anything what’s the payoff? “I like writing dialogue. I thought—as Steve did—how can one Goes will be revived on Broadway, with I like the solitary part. I like collaborating. small man cause so much grief? We opened Joel Grey and Sutton Foster—in a theater I just really enjoy the work.” ges courtesy of j oh n ges courtesy at Playwrights Horizons and were mostly named for Stephen Sondheim. Completes vJesse Kornbluth

All im a vilified, but I’ve never enjoyed anything as much as working with Steve on that.” Sondheim: “Ordinarily, I start reading the librettist’s work after he has written one or two scenes, but John never offered American Ratification to show them to me. I assumed that his re- The great experiment in constitution-making luctance to show me anything came from uncertainty. I should have known better by jack rakove from the man who wrote Pacific Overtures. Within five minutes of reading, I knew magine that, a few years from now, by a passion to restore the pre-New Deal the reason for John’s hesitation in showing Americans are suddenly plunged into version of the Commerce Clause (which me what he was writing: far from uncer- a constitutional crisis. Imagine an treated commerce tainty, he knew exactly what he was do- economyI still muddling in recession; a merely as the phys- Pauline Maier ’60, Ph.D. ing, and he was on a white-hot roll.” government rendered inept by the com- ical movement of ’68, Ratification: The People Act III, Scene 4: Assassins (1990) polariz- plete collapse of the Senate as a serious goods across state Debate the Constitution, es reviewers, as does Road Show (2008), his institution of deliberation or a contin- lines); a militant 1787-1788 (Simon and third collaboration with Sondheim. Oth- ued division between House and Senate; Tea Party move- Schuster, $30.) er shows provoke no ambivalence. He is a conservative Supreme Court gripped ment convinced

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“Hope to Achieve Beauty”: A Class> Day Talk at the Graduate School of Design THEATER Architect Denise Scott Brown recommends hitchhiking Onstage, for Once— Set Designer Derek Scenes From and the brave results that can emerge from tackling > hard problems. McLane AUDIO VIDEO BOOK EXCERPT Award-winning theatrical set designer Derek McLane The Game > more Off the page—and’80 will speak about his Telegraph Avenue Gaming Emotions > Books behind Bars > work at Harvard on October 14. > A gallery of images FILM > This Play’s the Thing draws on the work of many Indie Film Blues From Orchids to Octopi Troubadour > Film producer Mynette A video game helps Read a passage from MOST READ online only.Harvardians and putsThis paleontologist Farish icon Jenkins on ’97 on films, from the 2010 Harvard- Louie stage. audiences, and the quest > to connect them. Visual Conjurer Download a track by children with anger- Avi Steinberg’s memoir points to rich contentCarl that Sprague ’84 designs we sets for local can’ttheater Yale football game companies and Hollywood movies. 1. FAS Dean Smith Conﬁ rms Scientiﬁ c > management issues. of life as a prison Brattle Theatre to Screen "Children of singer-songwriter David > Theatrical Chiaroscuro SPORTS | 11.23 print on Invention"paper. Image Fredricgalleries, Wilson’s book The Theatrical World audio of Angus Boston-area readers can catch the film in Harvard McBean collects British midcentury theater images. Berkeley. See how it works. librarian. Misconduct by Marc Hauser > Square starting this weekend. Producer Mynette Louie

’97 will appear at some screenings. > interviews,Video music,Clips: Children of Invention and videos add new Despite winning multiple prizes, the film—produced by Harvard 28, Yale 21 > 2. The Mindfulness Chronicles > Mynette Louie ’97—has struggled to find an audience dimensionsor turn a profit to in an uncertain the time for indie magazine’sfilm. articles. Harvard Anthropologist's> Book Inspires The football team wins Oscar-Nominated Film 3. One-Quarter of Eligible Professors Accept Kimberly Theidon’s book on female victims of Peruvian, violence was the basis for The Milk of Sorrow its fourth straight over nominated for best foreign-language film. Retirement Program > the Elis. MUSEUMS & COLLECTIONS > Y Is for “Yell” 4. The Psyche on Automatic A sampler from the Harvard University Library’s online collection Reading: Harvard SPORTS | 11.21 Views of Readers, Readership, and Reading History. 5. President Faust on Finances, Scientiﬁ c > William James: Summers and Semesters ROTC Revisited > A conference and an exhibition at Houghton Library showcase the legacy of the pioneering psychologist and Misconduct, the Martin Peretz-Muslim Furor, philosopher. > Gut Renovation President Faust says VIDEO VIDEO PHOTOS and More > Harvard renews an older building to create new labs in Cambridge for stem-cell research. > Urban Utopias Two Beijing photographers interpret China’s breakneck change from Communist revolution to market-based the program “ought to Dark Beauty > Squash Mike Way’s Scenes from The consumerism. more > LITERARY LIFE be fully and formally Comedy, View a clip from Black Way > Game > FASHION > Harvard, and > Real Fashion Police Hollywood present” on campus. Should U.S. fashion Three articles from Harvard Swan: a tense thriller, The squash coach A gallery of images designers enjoy the same Magazine’s archives copyright protection as explore the roles Harvard fellow creative artists—and with ballerinas. their European alumni have played in the entertainment industry and gives a lesson on the from the 2010 Harvard- their influence on comedy. counterparts? > > What Books Are For drop shot. Yale football game SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION Highbrow Lingerie The Radcliffe Institute’s “Why Books?” conference Fashion designer Laura Mehlinger draws on touches on a timely theme. > inspirations ranging from Vladimer Nabokow to Prince.

> Video: Modern-Day Romanticism Sexy Struts In her latest book of poems, April Bernard aims to Start with a stance that points the heel of one foot capture the intensity of the Romantic Era. Watch as she toward the middle of the other. Stand up tall, your back discusses, and reads from, her work. slightly arched. Stride forward… > Y Is for “Yell” > more A sampler from the Harvard University Library’s online Reading: Harvard Views of Readers, ROTC Revisited > collection Readership, and Reading History. FOOD Flour Bakeries Rising > President Faust says Baker Joanne Chang ’91 has a new cookbook out, with recipes from her Flour the program “ought to Bakery + Café.

> Reliably Enterprising be fully and formally Vee Vee in Jamaica Plain turns out innovative food that is fresh, healthy, delicious, and modestly priced. present” on campus. > Local Bounty A cookbook writer and anthropologist, apple ice wine makers, and a fermentation aficionado celebrate New England food. > Fresh Italian Delights The South End’s Coppa offers tasty tapas.

DANCE Theater As If It Matters > Diane Paulus, the new artistic director of the American Repertory Theater, has an ambitious

populist vision. > Jete Propelled Heather Watts says that she prepared for teaching her Harvard course, “George Balanchine: Ballet Master,” the same way she used to… > Designs for the Dance When impresario Serge Diaghilev launched his Ballets Russes in Paris in 1909, he injected into the tired corpus of European ballet a massive…

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ROTC Revisited > President Faust says the program “ought to be fully and formally present” on campus. MONTAGE that the Tenth Amend- ment imposes real limits on the lawmaking power of Congress, and is not simply a hollow “truism” saying that Congress can only do what it is consti- tutionally empowered to do. These days, conjuring up such a vision is not so hard. Imagine that some- how the belief took hold that what the Constitu- tion needed was not a revision here or there, but wholesale replacement. How would such an act of constitutional change, a modern-day invocation of the people’s fundamental right “to alter and abolish governments,” actually oc- cur? Numerous scholars have written about the changes they would favor. But explaining how those changes would be adopted, either by a drafting convention or the popular ratification to follow, remains a terribly daunting task, not to men- line Maier’s much-awaited study of rati- Amos Doolittle cheekily depicted the passions over ratification in this 1787 tion a downright scary prospect. fication, a book that finally enlarges and engraving with watercolor, with “Feder- The prospect grows even more distress- completes our understanding of how als” (business interests), left, and agrarian ing when we contrast our own vexed poli- Americans adopted the Constitution. Her “Antifederals,” right, differing over cur- rency and Connecticut’s debts: a mired of co n gress L ibr a ry tics with the one splendid example from earlier work American Scripture: Making the wagon being pulled in opposite directions. our history of how an old system can be Declaration of Independence illuminated this rejected and a new constitutional regime country’s other founding document, and needs to go. The result is a story that re- established. Histories of the framing of the similarly emphasized the way in which the veals how seriously Americans took the Constitution in 1787 continue to be written Declaration revealed not only the quirks of constitutional project, and how hard each (three in the last eight years). Yet our ac- Thomas Jefferson’s mind, but the concerns of the state conventions had to work to counts of this process have always tilted in and contributions of Americans in com- determine exactly how its own discus- one direction, toward the debates of the 55 munities across the country. In her new sion of the Constitution should proceed. framers at Philadelphia, and away from the book, Maier—’60, Ph.D. ’68, now Kenan The idea of submitting the Constitution 11 months of popular deliberation required professor of American history at MIT— to the people marked a momentous in- to get the Constitution ratified. That story pays special attention to the four populous novation in the practice of constitutional of what the people did with the Constitu- states of Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Vir- government and the very meaning of the tion has never received the full attention it ginia, and New York, where the debates Constitution itself. Yet this was a develop- deserved. True, several collections of schol- ran hot and partisan maneuvering proved ment for which neither history nor politi- arly essays came out during the Bicenten- fierce. The last three states get two well- cal theory offered any helpful guides. True, nial of the 1980s, and numerous articles developed chapters each, and Maier re- one critical precedent was set in 1779-1780, interpret the rival viewpoints of the Con- peatedly asks readers to consider how the when Massachusetts became the first stitution’s Federalist supporters and Anti- debate took the course it did. state to adopt a constitution drawn up by Federalist opponents. But save for a lone Maier conceived her project as a book a specially appointed convention and then volume by Robert Rutland, a former jour- for the serious general reader, and in many submit the finished text (mostly the work nalist turned historian, the idea of making ways Ratification is just that. Yet she is also of John Adams) to the towns for ratifica- ratification its own proper story has never just too good a historian, with too keen an tion. But pursuing a similar task within received the attention it deserves. eye for the complexity of the subject, not a compressed period among the nine All that has now changed with Pau- to allow her curiosity to take her where it states that the Constitution required

20 January - February 2011 MONTAGE

to “The Calculus as Algebra and scenes, histories, works of art, and his Selected Writings.” The author, Vermont environs. From “Ladybug”: “But Off the Shelf Pitzer professor of mathematics at look at them now. Octobered/they wait to Pitzer College, is a prizewinner in Recent books with Harvard connections revive in sunlight./No longer in orbit they her field. Through all the inevitable sit as if/on verandas; grow grayish, scarce/ formulas, she aims “to reclaim the awake until their papery bodies/white now Daniel Patrick Moynihan: A Portrait context of mathematics from the hard- and flightless roll away/not fit to give color in Letters of an American Visionary, ware store with the rest of the tools and to the world.” edited by Steven R. Weisman (PublicAf- bring it back to the university”—and to fairs, $35). The scholar (former professor the history of Western thought. Outrageous Fortunes, by Daniel Alt- of education and urban politics), adviser, man ’96, Ph.D. ’00 (Times Books, $25). ambassador, bow-tie wearer, and U.S. Seeing Patients: Unconscious Bias in The economics columnist and consultant senator, LL.D. ’02, was also a prolific cor- Health Care, by Augustus A. White III peeks ahead at 12 global trends and sug- respondent and memo writer. This rich and David Chanoff (Harvard, $27.95). gests, inter alia, that a hierarchical China selection (with a succinct biography by The lead author, Gordon Distinguished “will get richer, and then it will get poor- the editor, a former New York Timesman) Professor of medical education, an or- er again,” and that the European Union is, includes many Harvardians, and is studded thopedic surgeon, and the first African- as an economic entity, toast. with characteristic detonations. On aid to American department chief at a Harvard India, for example, in 1974: “The more we teaching hospital, grew up in Jim Crow Moneymakers, by Ben Tarnoff ’07 (Pen- do for them, the more they will hate us. Memphis. He speaks directly and per- guin, $27.95). The title is literal: Tarnoff Can one not accept this? It is a democ- sonally about disparities in care. vividly recounts “The Wicked Lives and racy. Democracies behave that way.” Surprising Adventures of Three Notori- American Grace: How Religion Di- ous Counterfeiters” in early America, be- What Is Mental Illness? by Richard J. vides and Unites Us, by Robert D. Put- fore financial fraud assumed its modern, McNally, professor of psychology (Har- nam, Malkin professor of public policy, credit-default-swap mantle. vard, $27.95). “Madness, it seems, is ram- and David E. Campbell (Simon & Schus- pant in America,” the author notes—but ter, $30). Putnam (of Bowling Alone fame) Wisconsin’s Own, by M. Caren Con- what does that mean? As an adviser on and Notre Dame’s Campbell undertake nolly, M.L.A. ’82, and Louis Wasserman, phobia and posttraumatic stress disorder a data-filled survey of faith and conclude M.Arch. ’74 (Wisconsin Historical Soci- for the American Psychiatric Associa- that devotion and tolerance of religious ety Press, $45). A remarkable coffee-tation’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of diversity happily coexist—the latter to ble celebration of 20 Wisconsin homes, Mental Disorders–IV, he is in position to a degree “far more expansive than any- built between 1854 and 1939, ranging offer a lucid meditation on the sources, thing imagined by the Founders.” from a fabulous lakeside Queen Anne definition, and impact of mental illness. painted lady to Frank Lloyd Wright’s God-Fearing and Free, by Jason W. Ste- Wingspread. The authors run an archi- Blessed and Beautiful, by Robert Kiely, vens, assistant professor of English (Har- tectural practice based in Milwaukee. professor of English emeritus (Yale, $40). vard, $39.95). A scholarly “spiritual histo- Why is a critic of modernist ry” of the Cold War, employing Hidden Mark: Exploring Christian- fiction suddenly immersing motifs such as original sin to ity’s Heretical Gospel, by John Killinger, himself in the subject of interpret the democratic B.D. ’59 (Mercer University Press, $18). “Picturing the Saints” struggle with internal A well-traveled, much-published minister (the subtitle)—as they self-doubt and external, and academic theologian offers a Gnostic were so repeatedly de- totalitarian threats. interpretation. picted in Renaissance painting? No matter: his Overlook, by Stephen Alone Together, by Sherry Turkle ’69, time at Villa I Tatti was Sandy, Ph.D. ’63 (Loui- Ph.D. ’76 (Basic, $28.95). As its subtitle well spent, and the re- siana State University, suggests (“Why We Expect More from sult is lushly gorgeous. $19.95 paper). In this Technology and Less from Each Other”), twelfth collection of this third volume in a trilogy (after The A Historian Looks spare poems, the au- Second Self and Life on the Screen), a cou- Back, by Judith V. Gra- thor reflects on persons, ple of decades into the computer revolu- biner, Ph.D. ’66 (Math- tion, finds the author still a professor at ematical Association Sassetta, The Ectasy of MIT, but more skeptical about what per- of America, $62.95). Saint Francis, 1437-44, Villa I Tatti, Settignano. sonal technology is doing to persons and Of course historians From Blessed and Beau- their real-world relationships with one look back—but here, tiful, by Robert Kiely. another.

Harvard Magazine 21 MONTAGE for approval proved far more challenging. lying skepticism, as satisfactory resolu- The entire process got off to a rocky “men of little faith” tion. Inadvertently or start, Maier explains, because of Penn who could never ful- not, Maier’s account sylvania, the first state where the Consti ly grasp, much less of what was actually tution was seriously debated. Pennsyl- answer, the compel- said explains why vania was also the most bitterly divided ling political science latter-day originalists state politically, primarily because of con- of the Federalists— like Justices Antonin tinuing controversy over its radical state whose intellectual Scalia and Clarence constitution of 1776. That earlier constitu- champions, after all, Thomas, who treat tion’s critics also led the state’s Federal- were James Madison the final text of the ist movement, and they treated this new and Alexander Ham- ratified document as debate as a convenient opportunity to ilton. Not Maier. She uli n e m a ier sacrosanct, reveal so humiliate their opponents. With a two- refuses to call the little serious or sus- to-one majority in the state convention, Constitution’s op- Pauline Maier tained interest in the the Federalists did everything they could ponents Anti-Feder- of Pa C ourtesy actual debates that to prevent Anti-Federalist views from re- alists, a disparaging label imposed by the adopted the Constitution—indeed, why ceiving a fair hearing or even reaching the other camp. She carefully reconstructs the “originalists” now prefer to play language public. As Maier carefully explains, the re- debates within the states, not merely to il- games about what the Constitution must sulting suspicions of Federalist purposes lustrate their special concerns, but also to have meant to ordinary readers rather than and tactics set the uncertain legacy that demonstrate the difficulties they faced in reconstruct how it was actually framed and other states worked hard to avoid. struggling to decide exactly how the Con- debated. What worked in Pennsylvania, how- stitution was to be judged. Yet in the second place, one finally ever, would never do in the three crucial But Maier is not merely a careful student comes away from Maier’s story with a states where nervous Federalists strug- of these remarkable debates. She brings profound respect for the political enter- gled uphill to achieve their ends. In Mas- alive the participants as well. One striking prise and intellectual commitment that feature of her made ratification a sublime inaugural mo- Any number of our Constitution’s treatment is ment of American democratic politics. By the emphasis any standard, what the first generation provisions could sensibly be improved. she gives to of our national citizenry accomplished George Wash- in framing and ratifying the Constitution sachusetts and Virginia, Anti-Federalists ington. Most accounts of Federalist poli- in little more than a year was remarkable. enjoyed near or potential majorities, and tics give greater attention to Madison and That does not mean that every decision they were in outright control in New Hamilton, the main coauthors of The Feder- they took was correct, or should remain York. In Massachusetts, the Constitu- alist, and the leading tacticians in Virginia secure from our criticism. Our Constitu- tion’s opponents lacked effective lead- and New York. By placing Washington tion is riddled with problems and defects, ership, a factor that enabled the state’s at the center of the Federalist movement, and any of a number of its provisions popular but gout-ridden governor, John Maier reminds us how much this consti- could be sensibly improved. If I were the Hancock, to intervene decisively when the tutional moment belonged to those who lawgiver, I would abolish the equal state outcome was still in doubt by endorsing best knew, from their wartime experience, vote in the Senate tomorrow, and the the Constitution and a limited set of pro- why a national government working inde- Electoral College the week after that. Yet posed amendments. In the other two key pendently of the states had to be created (a whether our contemporary politics could states, however, the opponents could rally fundamental point that our current politi- sustain the task of constitutional revision around the soaring, attack-on-every-front cal debates strangely ignore). But numer- is an idea we very sensibly doubt. Maier’s rhetoric of Patrick Henry in Virginia and ous lesser lights appear as well, some more account of ratification thus explains not the political cohesion of Governor George cranky than intelligent, but all illuminat- only what happened back then; it also Clinton’s political machine in New York. ing what it meant to turn the Constitution makes clear why this episode merits the Tracing the shifting strategies in the dif- over to the people’s delegates for debate. brilliant treatment it has finally received. ferent states and explaining how rules of In an understated way, Maier’s perspec- procedure and key speeches shaped de- tive also supports two distinct views of the Jack Rakove, Ph.D. ’75, is Coe professor of history bate, Maier provides a remarkably patient, meaning of ratification. One cautions us not and American studies, professor of political sci- clear-eyed, and deeply balanced account of to ascribe too much interpretive authority ence, and professor of law at Stanford. He is the au- this great experimental year of constitu- to the opinions expressed in 1787-1788. The thor of Revolutionaries: A New History of tional politics. She is the first historian to “original understandings” of the delegates the Invention of America; The Annotated take full advantage of the massive Documen- to the ratification conventions were filled U.S. Constitution and Declaration of In- tary History of the Ratification of the Constitution with gaps and misconceptions the debat- dependence (Harvard University Press); and (21 fat volumes published already, with ers never resolved. Sometimes debates were the Pulitzer Prize-winning Original Meanings: another eight to go). Most commentators carefully focused, but at other times they Politics and Ideas in the Making of the treat the Anti-Federalists with an under- ranged anywhere and everywhere with no Constitution (1996).

22 January - February 2011 MONTAGE Telegraph Support Harvard Magazine As a special thank-you Avenue for a donation of $100 or more, you can receive the newly designed Memorial Church Troubadour Weld Boat House Singer David Berkeley’s songs 2010 Edition Harvard Harvard Stadium Glasses, satin-etched the Pump glow with a strange light. with four new Harvard he groom planned a surprise for his fiancée: a slideshow dur- scenes. ing the rehearsal dinner. A mix Tof songs accompanied images of their time together. The last song was one of her favorites: “High Heels and All,” by David Berkeley ’99. As it played, Berkeley himself entered and finished the song live. The bride-to-be loved it.

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Intensive 4-day Camp August Summer 2010 2011 Join us in Boston The cover of David Berkeley’s newest CD, Some Kind of Cure.

An established indie folk artist, Berke- ley (www.davidberkeley.com) savors private concerts, but most of them aren’t serenades—they’re birthday, anniversary, and engagement parties, or intimate shows in museums, churches, and tem- ples. “At a club, people quickly put the 6 music into predefined boxes,” he says. “In ® some atypical performance spaces, you catch people without their walls up. They feel my songs more fully.” Berkeley is about to release his fourth ® studio album exploring love, struggle, Application Boot Camp places, and moments. He has toured many ApplicationBootCamp.com times in the United States, the United 1-781-530-7088 Email: [email protected]

Harvard Magazine 23 MONTAGE

seven years, Berkeley and his wife, Sarah Davis ’99, have, too. Berkeley began performing young— singing door-to-door with his babysitter, an Avon saleswoman—but he never studied music. At Harvard, he concentrated in literature, performed sometimes with the band of Tyler Gibbons ’99, and busked in alleyways. Managing Gibbons’s band led him into the music business. Today he performs solo, in a duo with trumpet and banjo player Jordan Katz, or in a trio. He’s just finished a book,144 Goats and a Guitar, a collection of essays exploring the roots of songs on his new record, Some Kind of Cure. In it, he describes his writing process: “Songs begin as lines jotted into a book I carry. Often they start from something quite small: a strange or un- comfortable story or situation, perhaps n shbur

wa just a mood or a hope—a wish for escape, a need for comfort, an

David Berkeley tthe w

m a overwhelming surge of love for my fam- Visit harvardmag.com/ “At this moment I’ve said all that I’ve had to ily, a burning desire to extras to download a make things in their track by David Berkeley. say,” Berkeley says. “It’s a great feeling.” lives okay.” A big break came when he was hired Kingdom, and France. His “lustrous, Harvard classmates know him as David to write his song “Fire Sign” to fit the melancholy voice” invokes shades of the Friedland; Berkeley is his middle name. climactic moment in an episode of the late British and American singer-song- “My parents lived in Berkeley [Califor- CBS series Without a Trace. The layering of writers Nick Drake and Tim Buckley, nia] before I was born in the ’60s,” he Berkeley’s delicate finger picking over a wrote Jon Pareles of the New York Times. says. “They named me David Berkeley as horrifying onscreen situation—a hang- “As his melodies ascend to benedictions a pledge to move back after having moved ing boy, his feet still kicking—added and consolations, the music shimmers to New Jersey.” His parents did move back suspense, and Berkeley’s slow, sorrowful and peals.” and, after five moves and two children in tenor haunted the scene. The dramatic Berkeley’s velvety tenor at times can placement of the song propelled his music leap cleanly into falsetto. In “George into the mainstream. Though he wasn’t Square,” for example, from his forthcom- credited, viewers discovered that he was ing CD, he sings: “She was walking quite the singer-songwriter and bought 500 slowly all alone/All the lights in the win- CDs that night. dows were aglow/But the statues they Berkeley has independently produced were so silent/With the rain splashing and released five albums, most recently their heads/How bad she wanted to hear Strange Light. Some Kind of Cure is due out in them tell her which way was best.” Then January. “At this moment I’ve said all that he sings the first word of the chorus in fal- I’ve had to say,” he says. “It’s a great feel- setto: “Oh girl, don’t change your dress for ing. I’ve never had that before.” Still, he me now/I am on your side.” The flash of won’t stomach being called successful. “If falsetto heightens the desperation of the I were looking for money and some sort plea. Berkeley says it’s not a move he al- of conventionally measurable level of suc- ways plans, though he does like choruses cess, I’d be an idiot to do what I’m doing.” to “lift” with energy: “There’s an inherent His fans have bought more than 30,000 willingness to be vulnerable that allows CDs, and donated at his website to defray me to do it. It’s not objectively flattering, the production costs of the new album. and it certainly isn’t ‘manly.’ I do believe And Berkeley gives back—in personal that it carries a different realm of emo- sse answering-machine messages, phone ser- tions—softer, sadder, more humble, more s P r a enades, and cover songs. And in private obi a pleading.” T concerts. vEliza Wilmerding

24 January - February 2011 New England Regional Section

ered: Contemporary Chinese Landscapes. Extracurriculars • Continuing: I Was Not Waving but Drowning features 14 photographs that theater dance capture Indian artist Atul Bhalla’s sub- www.americanrepertorytheater.org http://ofa.fas.harvard.edu/dance mergence in the Yamuna River. 617-547-8300 617-495-8683; Harvard Dance Center • Continuing: “Re-View.” More than 600 Visit the website for specific show times. 60 Garden Street objects from the collections of the Fogg, • January 15 through February 5 • February 18 at 7 p.m. Busch-Reisinger, and Sackler museums. R. Buckminster Fuller: The History (and The Boston Ballet Dance Talks series Peabody Museum of Archaeology Mystery) of the Universe, written and di- features that company’s artistic director, and Ethnology A rboretum rected by D.W. Jacobs. Actor Thomas Der- Mikko Nissinen, and performances by its www.peabody.harvard.edu; 617-496-1027 rah takes the audience on an adventure dancers. Free and open to the public. • Opening March 2, reception from 5 p.m. through Fuller’s life and times. to 7 p.m. • February 12 through March 12 Exhibitions House of Love: Photographic Fiction,

Ajax. A new translation of Sophocles’s Carpenter Center for the Arts Dayanita Singh explores the human con- M ig h ty/ A r n o ld oberto play reveals that modern-day grappling www.ves.fas.harvard.edu dition through images—linked to poetry with violence and war is nothing new. 617-495-9400/2317 and prose—shot mostly in India. A book of • February 25 through March 25 • January 27 through February 20. Open- Singh’s work will be published in Febru- Prometheus Bound. A new rock-musical ing night reception with the artists. ary by the Peabody Museum Press. version of this Aeschylus classic, directed VES Alumni Exhibition • Continuing: The museum’s “Visible Lan- by Diane Paulus, illustrates one man’s Alumnae Liz Glynn ’03, Amy Lien ’09, Mer- guage” series offers lectures on the origins struggles against a ruthless dictator. edith James ’04, and Xiaowei Wang ’08 of Maya writing, responses to literacy, and will discuss their work and life after VES. more. Visit the website for details. music The exhibit includes video, drawings, and Harvard Museum of Natural History • February 18 at 8 p.m a reconstruction, made from detritus gath- www.hmnh.harvard.edu; 617-495-3045 www.harvardclub.com; 617-536-1260 ered from the renovation of the Fogg Mu- 26 Oxford Street 374 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston seum, of Le Corbusier’s iconic furniture. • January 27 at 6 p.m. The Harvard Club of Boston Jazz Combo Harvard Art Museums “Head’s Up! How and Why the Amazing ub; R d c l ub; h arvar l History; d M useum o f Natura d Fox/Harvar Davi t: Festival showcases student ensembles. www.harvardartmuseum.org; 617-495-9400 Human Head Evolved to Be the Way It Is” • Free and open to the public. Continuing: Brush and Ink Reconsid- launches the “Evolution Matters” lecture Le f From From left to right: The Harvard Museum of Natural History reopens its Africa Gallery; students perform at the 2010 Harvard Club Jazz Festival (from left, Greg Johnston ’13, Alex Rezzo ’10, and Carl Pillott ’12); CoExist by Roberto Mighty is displayed at the Arnold Arboretum.

Harvard Magazine 24A New England Regional Section

series with professor of human evolutionary biology Daniel Lieberman, author of the new book, The Evolution of the Human Head (see page 25). Free and open to the public. • Continuing: Headgear: The Natural History of Horns and Antlers Discover why and how these protuberanc- es developed, and what roles they play in various cultures.

Nature and science The Arnold Arboretum www.arboretum.harvard.edu; 617-495-2439 • Opening January 22, reception 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. Trees of My City: Photography by Roberto Atlifecare Brookhaven living is as good as it looks. Mighty explores the forms and purposes of dormant, dead, and decaying trees. Brookhaven at Lexington offers an abundance of opportunities for • January 19, 6:30 p.m.-9:30 p.m. intellectual growth, artistic expression and personal wellness. Our residents The Buzz on Beekeeping, with Nancy share your commitment to live a vibrant lifestyle in a lovely community. Bentley Mangion, owner of the Beekeep- Call today to set up an appointment for a tour! ers’ Warehouse. A $45 fee and registration A Full-Service Lifecare Retirement Community are required. www.brookhavenatlexington.org • February 1, 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. (781) 863-9660 • (800) 283-1114 Working with Stone: Creating a Connec- tion with the Spirit of Place, with master dry-stone mason Dan Snow, highlights the uniquely artful character of stone. At Trini- ty Church, Boston. Fee and registration required; contact the arboretum for details. The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics www.cfa.harvard.edu/events.html 617-495-7461; 60 Garden Street • January 20 and February 17 at 7:30 p.m. Skywatching, weather permitting, and lectures. Free and open to the public.

film The Harvard Film Archive http://hcl.harvard.edu/hfa; 617-495-4700 Visit the website for listings. Schlesinger Library Movie Night www.radcliffe.edu/schles/movie_night. aspx; 617-495-8647 10 Garden Street, Radcliffe Yard • February 2 at 6 p.m. The Heart of the Sea: Kapolioka’ehukai (2002), by Lisa Denker and Charlotte Largarde, tells the story of Hawaiian legend Rell

ial Jew Sun, a pioneer of women’s surfing. LUX BOND & GREEN fic el f e O r

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Work in the Key of Life

Third-agers seek deeper meaning and social contribution • by Nell Porter Brown

But she persevered, knowing it was the right path for her. “The thing I heard at my last class reunion was that we are all probably living longer than our parents did,” she says. “We can do lots of things in life and it’s important to remain open to different things at different times.” Piltch has created what’s increasingly known as a “Third Age” or “encore” career. The Third Age concept, which originated in France and is popular in Europe, refers to that expanding period in the human life cycle after middle age and before old age. In the United States, that stage is currently populated by the baby boomers, many of whom, surveys show, intend never to “retire” as their parents did. Instead, many are seeking more meaningful occupations later in life, says career/ life coach Margaret Newhouse, M.A.T. ’65, a pioneer in the field of “Third-Age life crafting” and founder of the Life Planning f anyone had told me that I was go- career and focus on integrative mind-body Network. At a time when life’s tradition- ing to become a reiki master teacher,” therapies. al goals have been reached—children are says Cynthia Ann Piltch ’74, “I would She now spends her days performing grown, mortgages are paid, career duties have said, ‘There’s a better chance of many forms of massage on clients, along have lessened, and the pressures of world- the “pope becoming I Jewish.’ I am a scien- with reflexology, craniosacral therapy, ly accomplishment have receded—there is tist. The idea of healing arts was just so myofascial release, and reiki, a Japanese more flexibility for people to explore what alien to me.” form of hands-on energy healing, which else life has to offer, and what else they Most of Piltch’s working life was spent she also teaches. “I withstood a lot of chal- can offer of themselves. “You have more as a public-health researcher, first in the lenges when I went back to school for freedom in an actual sense,” Newhouse upper levels of the U.S. Department of massage therapy [in 1999],” says the Lex- adds. “But more importantly, I think, is a Health and Human Services, and later as ington, Massachusetts, resident. “People psychological freedom that comes with a specialist in women’s health, the topic actually said things like, ‘You have such a age—having a greater perspective on of her doctorate. But in 2005, at the age of fine mind, why don’t you want to use it?’ what’s important in life and a willingness 52, Piltch made the decision to curtail that One person’s reaction was, ‘You will be to just be that person—without regard to Above: Massage is among the healing arts the most educated prostitute I know.’ It what other people think. For many, there Cynthia Ann Piltch studied for a new career. was extremely hard to hear those things.” is a newfound spiritual element involved.

24D January - February 2011 Photograph by Jim Harrison LaPlacaCohen 212-675-4106 Publication: HARVARD MAG Insertion date: JANUARY, 2011 7.525 X 9.75 4C MAG 11/22/10 5:07 PM

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You’re likely to be much less egoistic.” For encore-career participants, money is less of a motivator than enjoyment, “staying active and productive,” and a desire today at canyon ranch to contribute to society, according to a recently published study by the Families and a busy mom let herself be taken Work Institute in Manhattan and the Sloan care of for a change, read a book Center on Aging and Work at Boston Col- (with no interruptions!), had the lege. The number of older workers is also on best massage of her life and the rise; the study found that 75 percent of workers who are 50 or older expect to have promised herself more “retirement jobs” in the future. moments like these. Civic Ventures, a San Francisco think- and-do tank that promotes encore careers for the social good, found in a 2008 survey This Is Your Moment. that 9.5 percent of people between 44 and 888-288-3850 70 were already engaged in such work— and another 44.7 percent were interested in it. “That’s about 40 million people,” half the roughly 80 million baby boomers, says Civic Ventures executive vice president Jim Emerman ’72. “Our belief is that if we can provide the work that this group wants, then we are talking about a huge infusion share the ranch and save of talent to address social problems.” When two guests who have never been to a Canyon Ranch health resort share Civic Ventures defines encore careers accommodations at Canyon Ranch in Tucson, Arizona, or Lenox, Massachusetts, as those that combine “continued income, each saves 15% on the all-inclusive vacation of a lifetime.* Simply mention personal meaning, and social impact.” In addition to conducting research on “two new, too terrific” when you reserve your stay. 888-288-3850 the topic, the organization has a fellows *Valid through June 30, 2011. Some restrictions and blackout dates apply. program, started in 2009 and expanding nicely, through which former corporate employees are paid a stipend and matched for a year with nonprofits in need of their expertise. The interest in this, from both potential fellows and nonprofits, is far be- life enhancement resorts tucson, arizona | lenox, massachusetts yond what Civic Ventures can currently provide, and Emerman says there is hope hotel & sPa miami beach of finding ways to scale up the program. wellness | fitness | spa | medical | nutrition | canyonranch.com For now, he says the goal is to expand to include 150 to 200 fellows by the end of 2011. This effort might soon include a Bos- ton component run by Discover What’s harvard magazine Next, a Newton, Massachusetts-based organization also focused on third-age TRAPPISTINE UALITY CANDY occupations. “We’re looking at the larg- trappistinecandy.com • 1.866.549.8929 special secti ns est demographic in society, in terms of Insider offers and exclusive listings for our readers. the boomers,” Emerman adds, “and if even a small portion of those people decide to use this period of time to work on issues that are important to them—working with youth, in education, community outreach, or healthcare—instead of seeking freedom from work, then it’s a huge wind- www.harvardmagazine.com/specialsectionsThe perfect holiday gift! fall for society.”

24F January - February 2011 New England Regional Section

For those seeking change in their third- age work lives, the inevitable risks and rewards are often impossible to foretell. “What’s fun about the process of deciding what else you want to do in life is when people really discover new pieces of themselves—or pieces that have been dormant for a long time,” says Cambridge career counselor Phyllis R. Stein ’63, Ed.M. ’70. She specializes in career changes and has helped Piltch, whom she first met as an undergraduate, at various transitions along the way. “This is an exciting thing to do,” adds Stein, who made her own dif- Cambridge...Renovated single family in East Cambridge... A private estate on Professor’s ficult decision, at 55, to leave her post as Cambridge. Visit www.136Thorndike.com. Row near Harvard. Newly renovated director of the Radcliffe Career Services 3 brs, 2 baths, delightful yard and parking. by Copley Design & Development. Visit Office after 21 years to open a solo prac- $850,000 www.63Francis Avenue.com. $4,250,000 tice. “It can also be scary and challenging. Making these changes at later ages takes a lot of motivation and persistence.” Anita P. Hoffer ’61, Ph.D. ’69, describes her own moves—out of academia, and then corporate business development— to her longstanding passion as “a leap of faith.” “I was afraid of failing, of crash- ing and burning, of social disapproval, of burning bridges in my professional life and not being able to go back,” she says. “Those are the risks.” With a background as a scientific researcher at Harvard Medi- Cambridge...Spacious SF near campus, Cambridge...Minutes to Davis Square, cal School, she had most recently been Porter T, and Mass. Ave. restaurants. DR/ “Churchill Square” condos feature deeded negotiating multimillion-dollar contracts LR w/fp; 3 beds + 2 studies, 2.5 baths; 3rd fl parking, separate yards/decks, open floor between university researchers and phar- deck; yard and patio. $799,000 plans, central air & much more. maceutical companies. “It was fascinating $415,900-$697,000 to be working with brilliant scientists and sponsoring important research, but it gets awfully dry and contentious,” Hoffer says. “We are a litigious society and we express our worry about outcomes through thinking about where the comma should go in a contract. But finally I decided life was too short to do that anymore.” At 67, the Brookline, Massachusetts, resident went back to school to get a doctorate in sexology. She now lectures on sexual behavior, attitudes, and literacy, Cambridge...Classic condo with 3 bedrooms, Belmont...An exquisite 12-room renovated runs women’s workshops, and counsels 2 baths near Harvard Observatory. Granite, Queen Anne with beautiful gardens. New- private clients, with a special focus on stainless steel, marble, hardwood. Parking. er kitchen. Original detail. A wonderful older women. She also continues to con- $619,000 marriage of old and new! $1,795,000 duct research, recently surveying Rad- cliffe alumnae for a forthcoming paper on “The Sexuality Profiles of Women www.hammondre.com between 60 and 75.” “I’ve never looked Cambridge, Belmont, Watertown & Somerville back—lord, no!” she says of her decision Residential, Commercial, Rentals & Property Management to change occupations later in life. “I am Cambridge Office 617-497-4400 • Belmont Office 617-484-1900

Harvard Magazine 24G New England Regional Section

so much more alive now than I was. And I longstanding interest in sex and repro- did research on male infertility in order to am giving back; I can’t tell you how many duction; her first doctorate is in anatomy, find a way to develop a male birth-control people thank me for helping them!” her thesis adviser was a spermatology pill—“For political and legal reasons, I Hoffer sees her change as a return to a specialist, and for years she ran a lab that can tell you it ain’t going to happen,” she quips—before she “got siphoned off” into GUIDES TO THE THIRD AGE the corporate world. Becoming a Life Change Artist: Seven The Mature Mind: The Positive Power of But it took internal strength to build on Creative Skills That Can Transform Your Life, by an Aging Brain, by Gene Cohen her original interest and earn another ad- Fred Mandell The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work, by vanced degree from what she calls a “non- Chapters: Mastering Change in Life and Alain de Botton traditional, non-Harvard program” at the Work, by Candice Carpenter Your Life as Art, by Robert Fritz Institute for the Advanced Study of Hu- Composing a Further Life: The Age of Active Wisdom, by Mary Catherine Bateson Websites man Sexuality in California. “For me, it was Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, by Harvard Business School: www. about courage and daring to take a chance,” she says. “It was not your typical career pur- Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Document1Document1 11/20/03 advancedleadership.harvard.edu 11/20/03 11:51 11:51 AM AM Page Page 1 1 Getting Unstuck, by Timothy ButlerDocument1 Civic11/20/03 Ventures: 11:51 www.civicventures.org AM Page 1 suit, so I worried about people raising eye- In The Third Chapter: Passion, Risk, and and www.encore.org brows—and some have. But they have come Adventure in the 25 Years After 50, by Sara University of Connecticut: http://con- around because they see that I love what Lawrence-Lightfoot tinuingstudies.uconn.edu/professional/non- I am doing—I’m enough of a rebel to be Opening the Eight Gates of Wisdom, profit/emerging_leaders/instructors-el.html drawn to this topic—and I’m helping peo- by Angela Arrien Discovering What’s Next: www.discov- ple with a topic that many consider taboo. ” Slow Love: How I Lost My Job, Put on My eringwhatsnext.com Many resources, including professional Pajamas, and Found Happiness, by Margaret Newhouse: www.passionand- Dominique Browning purpose.com and www.lifeplanningnet- support, exist for what can seem a monu- The 4-Hour Workweek, by Timothy Ferriss work.org. mental decision (see sidebar). Numerous books are published on the specific topic

ASSISTEDASSISTEDLIVINGLIVINGRETIREMENTRETIREMENTCOMMUNITYCOMMUNITY ASSISTEDRetirementLIVING RETIREMENT CommunityCOMMUNITY Here’sHere’sHere’sAssisted what what what people Livingpeople people are are are saying about us. Whatsayingsaying Do Harvard about about us. Alumnius. Have in Common? Cadbury Commons An Uncommon Senior Residence

2 omance! The Harvard alumni who R chose CadburyName:Name:MiltonMilton Commons R. R. Occupation:Occupation:Name:PostalPostal Supervisor,Milton Supervisor, R. Retired Retired Hobbies:mayOccupation:Hobbies: haveReading,Reading,Postal retired Walking, Supervisor, Walking, Exercisingfrom Exercising Retired Wh wait or work,Hobbies:Lifestyle:Lifestyle: butReading,Independent, notIndependent, Walking,from Activelife. Exercising Active The y f ChoiceChoiceLifestyle: of Senior/Assisted of Independent,Senior/Assisted Living: Active Living: differenceChoiceCadbury ofCadbury Senior/Assisted is Commons people–those Commons Living: Valentine’s Da ? Cadbury Commons “Therewho“There is alive is stable a stablehere and and gentle and gentle atmosphere the atmosphere y of “Therestaff helpof help that isand a and stable empathyserves empathy and them. throughout gentle throughout atmosphere Our the the community.ofcommunity. help I and feel I feelassured empathy assured that throughout thatI am I partam part of the of others’community.programsothers’ lives, lives, as I theyfeel as will theyareassured ofengageare mine. ofthat mine. For I youram Formyself, part myself, of Indulge tonigh I feelothers’interests,I feel that lives, that Cadbury as Cadbury ourthey Commonsare professional Commonsof mine. provides For provides myself, a a $t wellI well feeltrained trained that and Cadbury andcaring caring group Commons group of people of provides people who who a arewellstaff interestedare trained interested is sensitive in and my in caring welfare.”my welfare.”to group your of people needs. who are interested in my welfare.” CallCall (617) (617) 868-0575 868-0575 to arrange to arrange a personal a personal tour,CallCalltour, (617) or(617) visit or 868-0575 visit868-0575 www.cadburycommons.com www.cadburycommons.com to arrangeto arrange a personal a personal tour, tour,or or visit visit www.cadburycommons.com www.cadburycommons.com 8 Holyoke! Street, Cambridge, MA WhereWhere The The Emphasis Emphasis Is On Is OnLiving Living Where The Emphasis Is On Living 617-497-5300 • www.sandrines.com 66 Sherman6666 Sherman Sherman Street, Street, Street, Cambridge, Cambridge, Cambridge, 66 Sherman Street, Cambridge, EQUAL EQUAL MA 02140◆ ◆ (617) 868-0575 HOUSING HOUSING MAMA 02140 02140 (617)• (617)868-0575 868-0575 OPPTYEQUALOPPTY MA 02140 ◆ (617) 868-0575 HOUSING 12345678 OPPTY 24H January - February 2011 8 9 0--!@ # $- New England Regional Section of later-life occupations, and workplace facets of your life: health, relationships, newcomers to a field, or on those whose psychologists, such as Timothy Butler, finances, and how other passions relate to skill sets do not precisely match their cri- director of career development programs work—or not,” she advises. “Some people teria, Stein says. “People over 50 need to at Harvard Business School (and author jump into wanting a job without doing understand the concerns of employers— of Getting Unstuck), offer assessment tools this other piece of soul-searching first. that older employees are going to cost (www.careerleader.com). The University The primary lens through which to look more, be sick more, not going to be as up also runs the interdisciplinary Advanced at this time in life is really possibility, not to date with technology, not learn as fast,” Leadership Initiative, which was begun in loss or challenge,” but it’s also critical to she says. “It behooves career-changers to 2009 and is chaired by Arbuckle professor keep in mind that “Life is short and get- address these fears in their presentations.” of business administration Rosabeth Moss ting shorter the older I get!” Meanwhile, those who decide to hang out Kanter. The fellowship program prepares a shingle face their own set of challenges. seasoned leaders in their third age to take Even after soul-searching has helped Stein encourages people to identify on new challenges in the public social sec- someone determine that a career switch what’s truly motivating them. “What does tor. is desirable, and ideas about what field or a career change really mean about your Newhouse and Stein, along with Kit job to pursue are in play, serious obstacles life? What do you want from working? Is Harrington Hayes, author of Managing Ca- can arise: particularly the weak economy this the aspect of life to change, or is some- reer Transitions, take a holistic approach and age discrimination. “I’m not discour- thing else making you unhappy?” she asks. to helping older people find work that’s aging people from trying to make a career Examine everything you have done in life aligned with new or long-buried values. change; I just want them to be very realistic and analyze carefully what brought fulfill- For Hoffer, the possibility of this third-age about what it’s going to take on their part,” ment and why. “Look for a thread, if there is career entailed “generativity and finding Stein says. “Competition is incredible.” one,” she advises. “It’s important to identify my voice.” No career choices should be In a tight job market, when employees what you want work to give you. Whether made in a vacuum, Newhouse says, es- are expected to do more with less, em- you do this thinking intuitively or method- pecially those in later life. “Deal with all ployers are less willing to take a chance on ically, it has to be a planful process.”

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If you would like to list a property in our March-April issue, contact Abby Williamson: 617.496.4032

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24J January - February 2011 tastes and tables

Nouveau Chinese A Cambridge restaurant offers multisensory delights.

and forearms in sturdy kitchen whites bus- tle about amid vats and steam. Tang worked at other Cambridge “real food” favorites—T.W. Foods and the Hun- gry Mother—before envisioning his own place, which has drawn excited attention among food-lovers and recently earned him the title “Best Up-and-Coming Chef” in Bos- ton Magazine. We started with the napa cabbage salad ($6), which a companion deemed “skunky” in the best sense: crisp and pun- gent, with thin radishes and scallions and wet chunks of pink grapefruit dressed in a honey-pepper vinaigrette. An ascetic, almost astringent concoction, it was interesting to contemplate—and to look at, with its pale greens and florid fruit. It was also the perfect foil for the hot pork ragout Warm colors and innovative culinary over thick noodles with a poached egg on combinations in Inman Square top ($11), a rich mélange of juicy, salty, fill- ast by Northeast by of E ast courtesy ing food with a spicy kick. ast By Northeast is not a typical spiced just right with scallion slivers? It’s The salad also came in handy as a com- Chinese restaurant. Rather, the in- a blend of apple and onion essence. Tang, plement to the incredible rice croquettes timate Inman Square eatery serves who studied East Asia and studio art in ($7). Crispy-fried on the outside, with a E “seasonally driven Chinese-inspired college before heading to culinary school, risotto-like texture inside, these treats cuisine” that pleases the palate—and tick- engages the mind as much as the mouth. were “meaty” and vegetarian. The scal- les the intellect. Owner and chef Phillip Everything is fresh; the meat comes from lion pancakes ($7) amplified with bits of Tang is a thoughtful cook who magically sustainable farms and the winter menu other vegetables were also terrific: not at merges Asian comfort food, in the form reflects locally grown produce like celery all greasy, and served with a bold, roast- of hand-rolled noodles, bread, and dump- root, rutabaga, carrots, parsnips, and ap- ed-garlic-and-chili dipping sauce. Try all lings, with an intricate mix of textures and ples. Everything is served tapas-style, en- forms of the noodles—the long wide ones flavors in dishes that defy pigeonholing. couraging sharing and tucking into much and the stubby ones—with the range of Take the salad of Asian pear, pink beets, of what’s on the short but satisfying menu. meats and sauces; we loved the lamb with scallions, cashews, and slabs of silky This communal feel is accentuated by chunks of carrots and delicata squash tofu ($7). It’s cold and spicy, crunchy and the dining room, which seats 24 people, at ($12). Above all, don’t neglect those tricky slick…and sweet and sharp. Or consider most, plus four at high-backed stools at the veggies, Brussels sprouts ($7). Never have that dainty yellow floret of cauliflower bar. Carefully selected wines and beers are they tasted this good: Tang serves up this served with the “duo of buns” (a variation served, along with refreshing home-made chewy roughage infused with garlic, thick of the standard Chinese steamed buns): sodas with flavors like lemony ginger and bits of hand-cured bacon, lemon zest, and the floret, tart and tender with a berga- cilantro with lime. The walls are rich saf- spiced rutabaga relish. mot-like flavor, deftly sets off the mini- fron and blood-red, reminiscent of Tibetan East By Northeast serves a small com- meaty treats of pulled pork and smoked monks’ robes, and the lighting is nicely dim. plimentary dessert, which varies. One ham ($8). And that An opening in the night, it was a cube of basil- and lime- earthy purée be- East by Northeast back wall offers en- infused coconut panna cotta over crispy neath the succulent 1128 Cambridge Street, Cambridge tertaining views of rice; a fittingly novel end to this “Chinese- pork dumplings 617-876-0286; http://exnecambridge.com the kitchen; torsos inspired” meal. vn.p.b. Dinner: Tuesday-Saturday, 5 p.m. to 10 p.m., and Sundays, 5 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Harvard Magazine 24K How do you measure your bank?

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47804-10_10CTC145_WM_Ad_FP4C_v04.indd 1 7/27/10 6:42:35 AM BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN 47804-10_10CTC145_WM_Ad_FP4C_v04.pgs 07.27.2010 06:39 Head to Daniel Lieberman tracks the evolution of the human head. Toe by jonathan shaw

Beneath shelves of books on much of our sensory biology—are in the biology of bone, a collec- the head,” Lieberman explains. “It tion of skulls and running is the size of a soccer ball, and think shoes lies in a jumble on what it does”: seeing, hearing, tast- a countertop. The skulls ing, smelling, balancing, thinking, come in a range of sizes speaking, chewing, swallowing, and shapes, from the tiny breathing, and regulating body and sharp-toothed, with temperature. Lieberman’s book large orbits for the eyes, considers in detail how each of to the hefty and human- these functions works from a oid. The shoes are like- biomechanical perspective, wise varied, from brightly and then theorizes how each colored Nikes, to fluores- evolved, simultaneously with cent ASICS, to slipper-like the others, as part of an inte- Vibram FiveFingers™ with grated whole. separated toes—like a “The head presents an in- glove—intended to mimic teresting evolutionary para- barefoot running. These col- dox,” explains Lieberman, lections neatly bracket the chair of the new department research interests of Daniel Lie- of human evolutionary biol- berman, human evolutionary bi- ogy, “because on the one hand Human ologist: a head-to-toe interest in the (H. sapiens) it is so complicated that if anything human body, its morphology (the sci- goes wrong, the organism dies. On ence of an organism’s form, including the study of specific the other hand, it is where natural se- structural features), its development, and its evolution. lection can and has acted powerfully “I do seem to end up working on the two ends of the body, to make us what we are.” Everything and not so much in between,” he muses. “I never thought that is closely connected. For example, the would happen in my career. It’s bizarre.” roof of the orbits is the floor of the brain—if one chang- But the apparent dichotomy is bizarre only in the abstract, be- es, they both do. cause Lieberman’s interest in feet—and human endurance run- “How is it,” he asks, “that something so complicated and so ning—began with his interest in heads. The two subjects are vital can also be so evolvable?” One explanation involves modu- deeply linked. The theory that humans evolved to become endur- larity and integration. Not only do heads contain many modules ance runners so talented that a team of barefoot hunters on a hot (instructions for building an eye to see, for example, or an ear to African savanna could actually run a large antelope to ground listen), but each module is itself “intensely integrated in terms of is based in part on skeletal evidence from the head—a subject development, structure, and function….Changes to the size, the about which Lieberman has just published a weighty book, 15 shape, or the relative timing of development of each of the head’s years in the making. many modules offer a variety of opportunities for change.” Study- “Many of the things we value most—our big brains, speech, ing the head’s modules, Lieberman writes, may help us under-

Photographs by Jim Harrison, unless otherwise noted Harvard Magazine 25 A skull session with human evolutionary biologist Daniel Lieberman in the fossil room at the Peabody Museum. Millions of years of natural selection have shaped the human head. From left to right: a Neanderthal; Homo erectus; Homo habilis; Australopithe- cus africanus; Pan troglodytes (common chimpanzee); Homo sapiens (human). “Gonzo,” a Neanderthal skeleton, stands in the back.

pg 124 human vs chimp

26 January - February 2011 courtesy of Daniel lieberman “How isitthatsomethingsocomplicatedandvitalcanalsobeevolvable?” T complex structures.” ways in opment the evolution of and permit thatfunction affect devel with - tinkers how nature for “exploring opportunity an It the lineage.” diverged chimpanzee’s lineage from alsoprovides our since human head haschanged substantially whystand “the chanical stresses, so he decided to study the ofchewing effects stresses,chanical sohedecidedto study factor. As grow, bones shaperespondto their sizeand biome whether of soft food might diet be a contributing the modern wondered atimeforevolutionshort to explain—Lieberman have span of recorded in the history—too brief become smaller yearsago, nine About while why contemplating human faces isone. biomechanics Experimental work.) ashisown as well ofmany (Theniques. draws book onthe expertise scholars processed food. In Why food. processed short: doesthe head lookthe way itdoes? teeth the that and foreating brain, under aresuitable only tucked knows), (nobody chins to running), really faces that are small questions,ing aswhy such humans have bignoses(there isalink ofinterest he avers. sorts Nevertheless, takesupall Lieberman Head hough written To probe suchmysteries, uses avariety of tech Lieberman (Harvard University Press) “is not meant to notmeant beabestseller,” University (Harvard Press) “is so anyone read can it,The Evolution of the Human - - - involves much lessforce. than undertheheel, and the balloffoot, rather strike originatesunder of impactinaforefoot magnitude anddirection runners shows thatthe comparison ofbarefoot the ground. Bottom: A the runner’s foot strikes shoes aloneaffect how cal inbothcases; the legs andfeet isidenti- Middle: The positioningof when wearing shoes. but withthemidfoot forefoot whenunshod, the ground withthe running barefoot strikes athlete whogrew up Top: An eliteKenyan lobe is about 25 percent larger, 25percent lobe isabout relatively) to order ask in ques- human which (in for example, to that ofamodern the temporal ape’sskull, an within compare the volume orsizeofastructure easily and theirthree shapesin dimensions, lethimstudy bones other and of skulls scans research. Computerized mechanical the to bio complement modeling and comparative morphology B lifts to simulatehighheels. lifts with balsawood fitted onthethem sheepand put plasticbooties to seehowthat would affect develop,” how the joints sohisteam wearing high heels change the angles of theirWe joints. wanted sheep of “soundscrazy,” kind people admits, Lieberman “but shoeson employed sheep.of shoesonskeletal growth, Putting changed howmuchwe muscles.” derizing use chewing our invented,” hesays, we- “and want ten and howcooking to know was howhumansto managed cooking know to eatmeatbefore muscles “We using oftheir chewing electrodes. the activity want versus cookedgoat—a meat—and tough, measuring game-like faces jaws and leave forteeth. room too little ofmolarimpactions”—small heads our in terms nowin shift anything day long,”hesays. all “You seethe of effects can that now. many “Ithink peopletoday never chew have to actually they foodthan processed do access to high-energy had greater Andhumans, have out, softfood. hepoints neverhigh-quality very jaws chewing smaller between regularly and is there a link larger.suggestedthe pigs hardfoodgrow eating that The study other. made Thelower ofchewing and the jaws upper stresses of ofpigs,food to onegroup hardfoodto- an hefed soft mal In species. oneexperiment, various in - ani development ofthe skull andhard versus softfoodonthe growth that,” hesays, though analysis isnotyetcomplete. ofthe data “We beable the to effectfrom extrapolate of shoes wearing will ack inhisoffice “We that the sheepwere soondiscovered off muchbetter onthe effects experiment, biomechanical recent Another Recently humans raw by that feeding probing shift hehasbeen

in the in Peabody uses Museum, Lieberman puted axial tomography (CT) scans. puted axial rate ofthe shodsheepusing com- wereers able to the measure growth over the place.” shoes all would there bewould and comein themkicked off. In youthe morning wear them atnight,butthey always “Wetreadmill. to get them tried to ona feetrunning and on their front the day spent then wearing the shoes the The shoes.” then them and sheep hewould putthe then socksand on hislap in down the sheepwould lie developedence this method where sci- veterinary in adegree with mine the thought. “A postdocof wonderful smile plays across Lieberman’s face at wearing socks their with shoes.” A After afew months,After the research- H arvard M agazine 27 (La Ferrassie)(La Neanderthal -

Common chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes)

courtesy of Daniel lieberman runners are about 5 percent more economical than shod runners, shod moreeconomical than runners, 5percent are about runners economy. to running measure Lieberman barefoot out “It turns oxygen respirator formeasuring use allows afull-face ted with erectus fit by Homo amodelin testing ” Asecondtreadmill sapiens. apply to us, them and sowe estimate can the biteforceofHomo Newtonian and physics ofbiomechanics but the sameprinciples australopithecine orHomohow an habilis orHomo erectus behaved, because skeletonsexplains, have “We changed. can’t measure to development anatomy. and And ultimately, to evolution,” he jaw.chewing “We function and biomechanics tieforcesin can the way all on joints upto the He hips. a dothe samewith can to calculatethe forces Lieberman allows joints, the apparatus runner’s attachedmarkers fluorescent at a that track infrared space, preciselocationin and their own calculate that can cameras red video - infra high-speed from imagery with arecombined data theWhen treadmill bone.” of the growth how they affect the that applystrains to see that beamand “Wehe explains. the measure then can that asks, ‘How a beam?’” is a bonelike develop.and “We mighttestamodel man towork testmodelsofhowbones - Lieber allows the ground foot strikes the forceofimpact when arunner’s 28 Au.

J afarensis (Hadarreconstr F anuary -F H. MA=0. MA=1. n erectus(KNM-WT15000) F n 7 9 In anearby laboratory, that measures atreadmill ebruary 2011 F F g g tions about humantions about evolution. of CTscans stages of growth lethimposedevelopmen- stages ofgrowth atprogressively laterfetal human skulls uction) tal questions focusing on trade-offs in thetal questions focusing on trade-offs posed to another. expansion of one part of the skull asop- ofthe skull ofonepart expansion H. erectus(Zhoukoudianreconstr F H. n habilis(KNM-ER1813&OH13) MA=1. MA=1. F n ridges andnochins. faces, withbrow have large, protruding chins. Neanderthals retracted andinclude faces are smalland lemon-shaped. Human rounded, ratherthan human cranialvaultis Neanderthals. The of skulls ofhumansand differences between There are notable 2 8 F g F g uction)

- running,” Lieberman says. Lieberman yearsago, This wasrunning,” million two about ablethat the arebetter motionscaused torapidpitching sense by heads develop [the canals] semicircular ofbalance larger organs “We climates. arid the alsoseein fossilrecordwhen can human air, incoming air, exhaled to humidify the ability ordehumidify in severalin ways breathing, that adaptations may during increase that nasalcavities createturbulence inner short with combined Humans alsohavenosesrunning. external helpstheently head to remain stable during that appartached- atthe back ofthe skull, at the nape ofthe neck, at special ligament amongapes,of Utah. humans Alone have a the Universityhead Bramblefrom conjunction in Dennis with out “Wewhy.” to figure aretrying even you after account forthe weight ofthe shoe,”hereports. If you study the pharynx just from the just perspective from oflanguage the pharynx If you study ofit. has to do all yet that and onetube important incredibly ofthose things are All thermoregulation. breathing, and lowing, involved ofmuscles—“and of dozens somuch: in speech,swal- the elaborate inglydescribes interplay book complicated”—the “It’s he says, just a tube,” “but would walking orrunningthan balancing theheadwhile had amuch easiertime havespecimens would the three Homo that forcesof inertial show Biomechanical analyses to differences infunction. Differences ofform lead Lieberman’s his research on with the began in running interest Australopithecus. Early Modern Human Modern Early (Zhoudoudian 101)

nose is the most charismatic part. ofwhich the tobook the pharynx, heatstroke. from to ers chasepreyuntilitcollapsed lowed hunt early human endurance thatheads, al- may befeatures all morebalanced nose,along with and These changes the in ears, neck, when meat. eating humans began He devotes ofhisnew achapter wow! What a tube. It What is so a dizzy tube. - (La Ferrassie) Neanderthal about skullsandshoes. extras towatchvideos Visit harvardmag.com/ - -

courtesy of Daniel lieberman pens in conjunction with everything else.” else.” conjunction in everything pens with hap- the in everything head, preceded another; hard to say “It berman. that isvery onechange says problem,” Lie- that itisachicken-and-egg force). of facial reduction is challenge fun “The makes human jaws producing at moreefficient itchew (because tract); howwe and the vocalshortens itspeech (because thermoregulation; ing respiration and dur- of turbulence the amount pharynx; face affects the small the head. Having a connectedness in - the notionofinter way ofunpacking facestracted isanother hominins* other than ers of human evolutionary change: energy, change: ofhuman evolutionary ers driv to the speculateabout most important the Butin final head. pages, himself heallows in modules the relationships amongdifferent evolutionary developmental, and functional, to hisnewbook the in complex the discussion F conditions. the necessary all meets australopithecine head that ate ahypothetical cre possibilities—and the evolutionary with himto toyof speech.Suchmodelsallowed forthe development the possibilities strain systems the locatedin head orcon- to limit the life-supporting using modelsofall ment, - to engageina thought experi this strategy heemployed the book, to live.” writing When merely cal tractmustforaperson order doin the things other that avo all velopment, and de and respiration and of swallowing of speech, but also in terms the about youvocal notjust tract and terms dothatin by thinking “Butyouhe notes. have that to inference, around putprobabilities fairly impressive speech, but probably asours,” notasarticulate probably Neanderthals like had avocal that tract was capable of the evolution human example. relatives “Close ofspeechasan ofthe whole misspart story.” you will or thermoregulation affect howthejointsdevelop.” heels changetheanglesoftheirjoints.We wantedtoseehowthatwould Putting shoesonsheep“soundskindofcrazy, butpeoplewearinghigh placing orangutans in their own subfamily. their in own placing orangutans led to a reorganization of the Hominoid family by that orangutans ies ofchimpanzees, and gorillas, - molecularstud recent placefollowing in ofhominid, * Hominin, ahuman orhuman ancestor, isnowused or themost part, The fact that humans have smaller, morere the advantagesHe approach explains ofthisby holistic using Lieberman confines Lieberman the cranium. remains tucked under smaller humanface projecting, whilethe up tobecomemore faces grow outand and taller, butchimp cies, facesgrow wider growth. Inbothspe- in patternsoffacial highlight differences and humanskulls of adultchimpanzee Front andsideviews - - - -

courtesy of Daniel lieberman Human adul - graduate could go all day eating everything through dayastraw.” go could everything eating graduate all becauseeating ithasto chewraw, tough while food, - under an day half its spends Achimpanzee it. cooking itand processing we by foodand make iteven quality in higher high-quality really We’re food. animals eat low-quality animals that eat big-bodied energetically. creatures are “bizarre Forexample, mostbig-bodied is the most interesting of these, he says,Energy because humans habitat, speech. change, and open climate t Jonathan ’89ismanaging editor of Shaw this magazine. right?” speculating, some fun saysberman alaugh, with “You’ve got to have energy.” Pausing ofthoughts, histrain in Lie- new ways new and ways to get energy to use alot ofhuman evolutionI think was about ogy, of reproductive and ofcooking, shifts— technol- ofprojectile gathering, hunting and of ofbipedalism, origins “The he stresses. don’t even grow heads Our shift. energy an cessed foodsignals pro foreating fact thatteeth our aredesigned for the hasramifications body.whole ergy The sues: the fact that the- uses brain somuchen ofthe ofthe tis- costs thesee in head terms in thatman believes. issomething you “Ithink you energy,” about think tion unless - Lieber fat—are fat compared to primates. other body has10to 15percent cal hunter-gatherer - “Evenspecies. the thin amongst us—a typi Notsurprisingly,ance. we therefore, areafat - endur and forreproduction stored energy of ties, he continues, humans needreservoirs am—but amarathon.” my never dogcould run but pathetic atspeed:“My I than dogisfaster says. Most humans aregood at endurance, fiverun to 10 miles, let alone a marathon,” he willingly few animalsthat will arevery “There ning, aredistinctive another human feature: Now, we have can single year.” them every have three years. them every hunter-gatherers years.zee motherHuman six has babies every “A apeisasfecund. great no other - chimpan that constantly,” And out. points Lieberman The hasto brain expensive. have “incredibly supply atany moment— energy essential ofthe body’s 25percent ofthe bloodand cent Homo brain draws sapiens as much as 15 per The reproduction. and function brain in agant to locomotion,extrav regard in thrifty diture: “You simply can’t human evolu understand To capaci- power these extraordinary - run Energetic abilities, asendurance such - expen Humans arealsounusual energy in

properly because of cooking,” properly because ofcooking,”

H arvard M agazine 29 erectus Homo - - - -

Vita Kermit Roosevelt Brief life of a Harvard conspirator: 1916-2000 by gwen kinkead

risscrossing the Middle East, assessing governments and sevelt had himself smuggled into the royal palace for midnight talks. plotting coups over lime rickeys and tennis, “Kim” Roos- A CIA colleague who spent hours watching Roosevelt persuade Cevelt ’38 led the CIA overthrow of Iran’s first semi-demo- governments and Arab agents to take risks for the United States cratic government. Few Americans know this, and that’s how throughout the Middle East recalled, “He spoke as if he’d just had a Roosevelt wanted it. The United States is still haunted by the con- conversation with the [U.S.] president.” Historian Ervand Abraha- sequences. mian says, “Roosevelt told the shah the U.S. would support a new In 1953, President Eisenhower had just taken office, pledging to government.…He believed Roosevelt. Why? He was a Roosevelt.” contain Communism. The enemy had seized eastern Europe, won Still, the shah dallied while the usually confident Roosevelt China, invaded South Korea, and exploded an A-bomb. The Cen- sweated it out in hiding—smoking, swimming, and listening to tral Intelligence Agency was faltering against the Soviet menace. “Luck Be A Lady.” When the shah finally did order Mossadegh’s Roosevelt was its Middle East expert. He spoke neither Ara- removal, the plot leaked and the shah fled Iran. bic nor Farsi, but Theodore Roosevelt’s 37-year-old grandson be Roosevelt then improvised a new coup, bribing army officers friended kings, tribal leaders, and heads of state as easily as he dined with hundreds of thousands of dollars, as he gleefully recounted at the White House with cousin Franklin and Winston Churchill. in his memoir, Countercoup. He helped circulate a story that the He had served in the Office of Strategic Services (the CIA’s World shah had fled because Mossadegh tried to seize his throne. When War II predecessor) in Cairo before participating in the Allied inva- Roosevelt’s Iranian agents called a second coup attempt too dan- sion of Italy; he also visited the Levant and Iran. Postwar experience gerous, he used bribery and death threats to gain their obedience. in the region led to a book, Arabs, Oil, and History. When he joined the CIA money may have attracted even the religious leader Ayatollah CIA in 1950, his task was to damage the Soviet sphere of influence. Kashani, a former Mossadegh ally and speaker of the assembly. Af- Opportunity arose in Iran. Prime minister Mohammed Mossa- ter two days of street battles, tank units defeated the troops pro- degh, an elderly lawyer with ulcers who often conducted business tecting Mossadegh. Several hundred people died in the turmoil. in his pajamas and wept in public, was a secular democrat who had On August 22, the shah reclaimed power: “the beginning of a 10- nationalized Iran’s oil industry in 1951. The infuriated British gov- year period in which the U.S. undertook to remake Iran and place ernment—whose entrepreneurs had located and developed the oil it firmly in the Western camp in the Cold War,” says a leading reserves, then the world’s largest—drew up plans to invade. scholar of the coup, Mark Gasiorowski. In 1954, Eisenhower se- Britain also sought U.S. help for a coup, warning that Iran could cretly awarded Roosevelt the National Security Medal. With the fall to the Communists. In the Cold War atmosphere, U.S. policy- coup, the United States gained 40 percent of Iran’s oil production makers ignored a national intelligence estimate that concluded that and leadership in the Middle East for a quarter-century, until the ges) Iran’s fractious Communist party was incapable of a takeover in the blowback: the 1979 revolution that toppled the shah. near term. (“The American intelligence in the field got it right, but Roosevelt’s encores met mixed success: the CIA aided Egypt’s as the intelligence moved up the ladder, officials read into it what Gamal Abdel Nasser, then plotted to overthrow him; a coup Roos- vi ( G etty I m a they wanted to justify a coup,” says the historian Maziar Behrooz.) evelt fomented in Syria in 1957, led by another agent, failed spectac- a hl Secretary of State John Foster Dulles called Mossadegh a “madman” ularly. He left the CIA in 1958 to work for American oil and defense who had to go in order to safeguard the Persian Gulf for oil exports firms, often visiting former operatives, and the shah, in Iran. and prevent a Communist takeover. The U.S. government didn’t acknowledge the coup until the year Initially, Eisenhower disagreed and declared Mossadegh “the Roosevelt died. Just before the New York Times published a leaked only hope for the West in Iran.” But as British operatives laid the CIA history in April 2000, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright groundwork for a coup, bribing key Mossadegh allies, arranging admitted: “The coup was clearly a setback for Iran’s political devel- the murder of Tehran’s police chief, and fomenting riots to create opment. And it is easy to see why many Iranians continue to resent the appearance of rising unrest, the president approved a joint the intervention by America in their internal affairs.” Roosevelt of rez a p the exception with ted P ress U.K.-U.S. coup—the U.S. government’s first regime change. had already provided an assessment of his own for his fiftieth-re- Roosevelt slipped back into Iran in July 1953. He meshed Brit- union report: “I have had a satisfactory, often exciting life, of which ain’s networks with his own and manipulated public opinion: local I am appropriately proud.” newspapers soon accused the Iranian leader of being corrupt and pro-Communist. CIA-paid rioters demanded his resignation. To Gwen Kinkead ’73, co-winner of a George Polk Award, is working on a book

induce Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi to dismiss Mossadegh, Roo- about twentieth-century international history. a Associ a phs from All photogr

30 January - February 2011 Kim Roosevelt in 1950. At right (from top): Loyal troops guard the victorious shah’s palace; equipment from a Communist newspaper burns in a Tehran street; Mohammed Mossadegh; Mohammad Reza Pahlavi reviews troops; pro-shah rioters tear down the Iran Party sign from its headquarters. At far right: Supporters of the shah march in Tehran. A Tragedy and a Mystery understanding suicide and self-injury by elizabeth gudrais

soldier who’s just returned from Iraq, unable to shake What drives people to harm themselves, and how best to dis- depression and violent flashbacks, ends his own life. A suade them from doing so, remains a mystery, says professor of Ayoung mother, sleep-deprived and stressed by the emo- psychology Matthew Nock. “More people die by their own hand tional demands placed on her, harbors persistent thoughts of sui- than by someone else’s”—suicide is more common than homi- cide. A 19-year-old college student, referred to a clinical psycholo- cide. “It’s a huge societal problem, a huge clinical problem, a huge gist after her roommate walks in to find her cutting at her wrists research problem, and we know so little about it.” with a pocket knife, refuses to see the therapist, saying that cut- The desire to unravel the mysteries of suicide and self-injury ting provides more emotional relief than counseling ever has. drives Nock’s work, which investigates the roles played by genes,

32 January - February 2011 Photograph by Stu Rosner environmental stressors, and mo- conscious thoughts and prejudices. The Stroop test, used in mentary physiological experiences. psychology since the 1930s, tests attention by asking subjects to He examines factors, such as gen- override their most immediate thought processes and use higher- der, culture, and age, that affect order thinking to identify the ink color of the printed name of a suicide risk, and asks why certain different color—for instance, to say “red” when the word “green” populations (members of the U.S. appears in red ink. Nock has used this test—measuring subjects’ Army, for one) are especially vul- speed at naming the ink colors of suicide-related words—and nerable. He aims to improve on has found that with each millisecond of increase in the time it existing treatments for suicidal takes to respond to such words (indicating greater attention to- and self-injurious thoughts and ward the words) came a 1 percent increase in the odds of the sub- behavior, and to bring treatments ject’s making a suicide attempt within the next six months. that are already known to work to Nock also adapted the Implicit Association Test—developed by a larger number of patients. Cabot professor of social ethics Mahzarin Banaji to measure peo- His research involves a population ple’s subconscious prejudices against various groups, including the that is inherently difficult to study, overweight, the disabled, Arabs, and the elderly—for use in detect- but Nock has viewed this challenge ing whether people are predisposed to attempting suicide. When as an opportunity to innovate: to taking his test, those who are thinking about suicide respond more develop new methods and test novel quickly when asked to pair suicide-related words with personal- applications for old ones. Work in ly relevant words (e.g., “self”) than with non-personally relevant his lab integrates methods from psy- words (e.g., “them”). These tests are not ready for widespread use chology, neurobiology, and epidemi- yet—for one thing, their predictive validity has not been proven ology toward the goal of alleviating for people who have not previously attempted suicide—but Nock suffering and preventing the need- is hopeful that one day they will be part of psychologists’ toolbox less and devastating loss of life that for assessing suicide risk in distressed patients. suicide represents. It spans basic Acknowledging Nock’s expertise in un- methodological research, inquiries derstanding who is at risk for suicide, a new Visit harvardmag.com/ into the nature and contributing partner recently called on his research team extras to learn more about how these tests factors of suicide and self-injury, and for help: the U.S. Army. The number of suicides work and see examples. assessments of treatment effective- in that branch of the military set new records ness. This is what makes his work in 2007, 2008, and 2009 (topping out at 162, up from 106 four years unique, says Jack Shonkoff, who di- earlier). In June 2010 alone, the branch had 32 suspected suicides. rects Harvard’s Center on the Devel- If accidental death through risky behavior—such as drinking and Matthew Nock sits in his oping Child, where Nock is part of a driving, or drug overdose—is included, more soldiers now die by lab’s control room, where researchers record subjects’ working group on translating men- their own hands than die in combat. (From 2004 to 2007, the num- behavioral and physiological tal-health research to policy. For ber of deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan across all military branches responses during experiments. someone “at the forefront of knowl- regularly approached or exceeded 100 per month, but the number of For example, they might edge generation,” such an interest combat deaths has lessened in recent years.) measure whether people who engage in self-injury show in translation is rare, says Shonkoff, The researchers believe accidental deaths are rightly consid- greater emotional distress, but Nock brings “an intellectual ered related to suicide, because such deaths often reflect soldiers’ in response to frustrating flexibility and sense of adventure” mental health and indicate problems that accompany suicidal tasks, than people who do not. (Nock’s lab manager and a that are “refreshing and energizing.” thinking and behavior. “Alcoholics get into more accidents,” says postdoctoral fellow are seen Ronald Kessler, a professor of healthcare policy at Harvard Medi- in the adjoining room through About 12 percent of Ameri- cal School who is also part of the research team (see Harvard Por- one-way glass.) cans report having had suicidal trait, November-December 2005, page 59). “It’s an accident, but thoughts at some point in their there’s something systematic about it.” Traditionally, the military lives. Suicide itself often follows months or years of impaired suicide rate has been below that of the general population, Kes- productivity and quality of life, of strained relations with family sler points out: “People in the military are screened very heavily” members, as a person struggles with mental-health issues such as for mental-health problems. But that balance has switched: at anxiety, depression, or substance abuse. Over the course of a life- Fort Hood, Texas, the largest army base in the United States, the time, 5 percent of people attempt suicide, and about 1.4 percent suicide rate is four times the national average. of the U.S. population die this way. Alarmed by these statistics, the army is giving researchers from Among people with suicidal thoughts, about one-third will the University of Michigan, Columbia, and the Uniformed Servic- make an attempt. To try to predict which third, Nock first looked es University of the Health Sciences, as well as Nock and Kessler, to a population whose high risk was obvious: those who have unprecedented access to the data it collects on soldiers. The army already attempted suicide. (Two-fifths of those who kill them- keeps records on “virtually every aspect of a soldier’s life,” says selves have tried before.) Nock; those records will be used to see what can be learned about For this purpose, Nock has adapted two computerized tests, suicides that have already occurred. In some cases, researchers will both of which have been used for other purposes to detect sub- even examine brain sections of soldiers who committed suicide.

Harvard Magazine 33 If accidental death through risky behavior is included, more army soldiers now die by their own hands than die in combat.

Beginning this month, they will also gather new data: they will it is an inherently difficult phenomenon to study: “It’s not like invite 90,000 active-duty soldiers and all new recruits—80,000 to depression, where people may experience the condition consis- 120,000 per year—to volunteer biological data (e.g., information tently for months or years at a time,” and thus can more easily on genetic risk and protective factors gleaned from blood sam- participate in studies that aim to understand the condition. “Sui- ples) and to grant access to their psychological histories and sur- cide happens quickly and unexpectedly.” vey responses. The researchers will consider each soldier’s history For this reason, and because the overall incidence is so low, of deployment and exposure to combat and trauma; family sta- most countries lack sound statistics. To try to understand more bility and childhood adversity; relationship problems and other about differences among countries, Nock directs the suicide sources of stress in the recent past; social support; and personality workgroup for the World Health Organization’s World Mental traits and temperament, as well as demographic characteristics. Health Survey (which Kessler leads). That study—the first large- The initial term of the study is five years, though there is po- scale, cross-national study of suicidal behavior—has thus far com- tential to extend it and follow the soldiers longer. Given the ro- piled data from 28 countries, many of which never gathered such bustness of the data and the potential for long-term analysis, the statistics before. The study is especially valuable because it in- researchers believe this study’s impact could rival that of the fa- cludes thousands of people who have attempted mous Framingham Heart Study, which monitored thousands of suicide; often, studies include so few suicide residents of Framingham, Massachusetts, for decades and shed attempters that it is almost impossible to ob- Visit harvardmag.com/ light on risk factors for heart attack and stroke, implicating hy- tain statistically significant results. extras to read an in-depth feature pertension, high cholesterol, and lifestyle factors. The data already gathered have revealed article on suicide from That study, notes Kessler, “had to wait an awfully long time striking country-to-country differences a 1983 issue of for people to have heart attacks. We don’t have to wait a long whose explanations are not well understood: Harvard Magazine. time. We’re hopeful that we’re going to be able to make not only the United States ranks in the middle when important discoveries, but relatively rapid discoveries.” As re- it comes to suicide rate, but it is among the highest (along with sults emerge, they will be used promptly to develop interven- New Zealand, surprisingly) in the number of people who contem- tions; Nock notes that the army is already adding cognitive-skills plate suicide. China and Italy are among the countries with the training for soldiers, making a statement about the importance lowest rates of both suicidal thinking and suicide attempts. In of mental and emotional, as well as physical, fitness. He and his most countries where statistics have been collected, women are colleagues will be able to evaluate army interventions and sug- more likely to attempt suicide, but men are more likely to suc- gest improvements, based on their own studies’ emerging results, ceed—typically by a ratio of 4:1—except in China, where more even as data collection continues. women than men take their own lives. And the study has already yielded one finding that overturned Much remains unknown about suicide, and Nock admits that conventional wisdom. Because there is a strong association between depression and Mapping Suicide suicidal thinking, the Annual suicide rate per 100,000 population. Data shown are for the most recent year available, ranging from psychology community 1990 to 2008. The World Health Organization compiles data that countries provide; country-to-country differ- assumed that depression ences may be due to actual variation in suicide rate, or to differences in reporting (e.g., where cultural taboos would also be associ- discourage talking about suicide), Matthew Nock warns. ated with suicide itself. Instead, Nock and his colleagues found that among people who are thinking about suicide, those who were depressed were no more likely to make an attempt than the others; rather, the factors that 24+ predisposed to attempt- 19-23.9 ing suicide were anxiety,

14-18.9 agitation, poor impulse control, and use of alco- 11-13.9 hol and other substanc- 8-10.9 es. This pattern held 5-7.9 true in all 21 countries Under 5.0 examined. “In hindsight, No Data Source: World Health Organization 34 January - February 2011 monitoring device called the LifeShirt, a mesh vest (worn be- Studying Self-Injury neath clothing) that records vital signs so the researchers can f many questions about suicide remain unanswered, even compare physiological changes to the subjects’ reports of their less is known about nonsuicidal self-injury. In the United own mental states and behavior. IStates, an estimated 4 percent of adults and 21 percent of Childhood adversity is known to be a risk factor for self- adolescents engage in such behavior; its incidence has not been injury; to investigate this link, Nock designed a study that well studied in other countries. Research has not yet revealed examined parents’ style of talking about their children. “We a treatment approach that works reliably. Self-injury is under brought parents into the lab and asked each to talk about his or consideration for inclusion as a phenomenon in the next edition her child for five minutes,” he explains. “That’s essentially the of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), but, only instruction we gave them.” The parents of children who says professor of psychology Matthew Nock, “There’s no agree- engaged in self-injury “were much more hostile and critical in ment right now on the threshold”—in terms of frequency or se- the way they talked about their children,” he says, suggesting verity of self-injury—“that requires treatment.” that children may internalize this hostility and criticism and People who engage in self-injury report feeling relief after- inflict it on themselves physically. ward, but little is understood about the physiological effects As recently as three years ago, there was no standardized of such behavior. It is assumed that there is some sort of en- form for interviewing patients about self-injurious thoughts dorphin rush related to the body’s survival response, similar to and behavior. Nock developed one; since its 2007 publica- what people experience after non-self-inflicted injury, but that tion, it has been downloaded thousands of is only a hypothesis. times and translated into languages includ- Work in Nock’s lab has shown that people who engage in ing Swedish, German, and Japanese. Nock Visit harvardmag.com/ self-injury have higher pain thresholds: when their hands are edited the 2009 volume Understanding Nonsui- extras for a link to this compressed in a vise, it takes them longer to experience pain, cidal Self-Injury; now, researchers in his lab are interview form and other relevant links and they have higher pain tolerance. And this tolerance is not studying whether self-injury has a social and from this article. related to the length of time they have been engaging in self-in- communicative, as well as a physiological, jury, or the frequency—suggesting, says Nock, that the height- function: whether it replaces verbal communication as an out- ened pain threshold “is not a consequence of self-injury, but a let in people who have poor verbal skills or whose family and precursor.” friends are not receptive to communicating about emotions. Studying people at the moment of self-injury—for a detailed Although self-injury accompanies other mental-health disor- analysis of the biological markers it triggers—is difficult, but ders—such as anxiety and depression—Nock believes it is not Nock is trying. He and Wendy Berry Mendes (formerly an as- just a symptom of these other disorders, but worth studying, un- sociate professor at Harvard, now at the University of Califor- derstanding, and treating in and of itself. For one thing, he says, nia, San Francisco) are measuring what happens in the bod- “We know that engaging in self-injury significantly increases the ies of adults who engage in self-injury by using an ambulatory likelihood that someone will make a suicide attempt.” it makes perfect sense,” Nock says. “Being depressed, being sad, ter on the Developing Child. Avenues for possible action may ruminating on negative thoughts—it makes sense that that would involve working to change accreditation standards for training get somebody thinking about suicide, but not necessarily acting.” programs; amend licensing exams for clinical psychologists; and alter insurance reimbursement policies. Nock hopes this work on Although the suicide rate in the United States has not behalf of suicidal children will eventually translate into similar budged in the last hundred years, that is not because effective work for adults. treatments don’t exist, Nock says. Two specific approaches— He once thought he would be practicing such treatments him- cognitive behavioral therapy (which focuses on changing pat- self. “I wanted to learn about suicide because I thought it was terns of negative thinking) and dialectical behavioral therapy probably the most difficult thing I would face as a clinician,” he (which is similar, but incorporates a focus on accepting and tol- recalls. He expected to find research dull, but once he realized erating difficult emotions)—have been shown to diminish the he enjoyed it, he changed course. “Seeing a patient in my office rate of suicide attempts among people who have already tried to for one hour once a week, I can certainly have an impact—I can kill themselves. The first has been in use since the 1960s, although observe it immediately—but the impact is not going to be as its effectiveness with suicidal patients was shown only in 2005; deep or as broad,” he says. (He did see patients for seven years, the second was proved effective nearly two decades ago. But but gave up his clinical practice in 2005.) Nock first embarked on Nock says that “the majority of practicing psychologists aren’t research to develop and evaluate treatments, but soon turned to using these treatments.” more basic investigations of why people resort to suicide and self- Nock believes that all psychologists who treat suicidal patients injury. “If we can understand the behavior and develop better should use these approaches, which are laid out, specifically and ways of detecting it and assessing it and preventing it and treat- clearly, in manuals that set forth what to do in each treatment ing it,” he says, “we can help people all over the world.” session. In his effort to bring the treatments into wider use, he is starting with children, through his affiliation with the Cen- Elizabeth Gudrais ’01 is associate editor of this magazine.

Harvard Magazine 35 Models—and Mud— Students grapple with the fate in Amazonia of the rainforest in a changing climate. by jonathan shaw

obert Newell climbed carefully, hand over hand, up The plan had been to monitor the respiration of the forest, us- the side of a 14-story meteorological tower in the middle ing a weather balloon to measure CO2 and record meteorologi- of the Amazon jungle. A pulley at the top had jammed. cal conditions. But in a series of mishaps, a lightweight analyzer For more than an hour he’d been clambering up and for measuring the gas had failed to clear Brazilian customs, and down the metal structure, installing flexible plastic tub- its replacement—an older, heavier version of the equipment— ing at heights of 5, 10, 20, 30, and 40 meters—part of the weighed too much for the weather balloon to lift. Hence the need preparations for an experiment that would begin sam- to move the gas-sampling portion of the experiment to the tower pling atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) and gathering weather while launching the balloon and its weather instrumentation Rdata that evening. He and some of the other students enrolled from the nearby road. Newell, a junior concentrating in evolu- in Earth and Planetary Sciences 74 (“Field Experiences”) were tionary biology (who at that moment might have been contem- scheduled to stay awake all night to do the work. plating why humans hadn’t adapted better to climbing), focused

36 January - February 2011 Photographs (unless otherwise noted) by Jake Bryant for a National Science Foundation-funded PIRE program jonathan shaw jonathan jonathan shaw jonathan

Scenes from the Amazon, left to right: Bernardo Flores, Rafael Tapajós, and Hannah Horowitz ’11 learn how to analyze data gathered from a weather balloon under the supervision of Professor Steven Wofsy; Robert Newell ’12 climbs the 42-meter tower at ZF-2; the sleeping quarters at Ducke, the main camp; Lissandra Souza at Ducke—even without Internet access, computers are vital field-research tools.

on the pulley, which was critical for raising the tubing to the right heights on the tower. Beneath the midday equatorial sun, he had already become slightly dehydrated, and his arms were tir- easy. Eleven days earlier, after visa complications forced him off ing from clinging so long to the tower’s skeletal metal frame. He one flight, Newell had flown from Denver to Atlanta to meet the proceeded carefully, alternately clipping and unclipping a pair of other American students and instructors in the field course. From carabiners attached to his body harness, as he had been trained Atlanta, they flew to Manaus, a city of two million with few roads to do. Finally he reached the pulley and freed the rope. The air connecting it to the rest of Brazil—the one unbroken highway leads above the rainforest canopy was still, but, he recalled recently, north to Caracas, Venezuela, more than a thousand miles away. The “The tower shook a little whenever I moved.” practical way in or out is by boat—a 900-mile trip on the Amazon River—or by plane. The students landed after midnight, with- ewell and his fellow students—in all, two under- drawing Brazilian reals from airport ATMs so they could purchase graduates and 18 graduate students from several American mosquito netting and hammocks (redes, pronounced “hedgies” in N and Brazilian universities, working with scientists from Brazilian Portuguese) at the local market the next day. both countries—were experiencing firsthand the gritty practi- Once in the jungle, the students would have no use for cash. cal challenges, large and small, of doing science in the field. Their From Manaus, the group was driven about 30 kilometers to the research, meanwhile, was demonstrating how getting the small Ducke base camp, a rainforest research reserve run by an agency things right can bear profoundly on a huge problem: understand- of the Brazilian government. There they spent a hands-on week ing how global climate change will affect the Amazon. learning field-research methods: for example, how to operate the Just getting to the research station—in the central Amazon ba- scientific instruments that gather data on the complexities of gas sin about two hours’ drive from the city of Manaus—had not been exchange among plants, the soil, and the atmosphere. Language

Harvard Magazine 37 jonathan shaw jonathan

Clockwise from left: a sonde for gathering weather data—and a spare—under shelter at ZF-2; Newell and Horowitz walk the weather balloon to the launch site; Flores, Tapajós, and Rosa Maria Nascimento dos Santos attach a tether to the balloon prior to launch; after an all-night experiment, dawn illuminates the balloon while the students take a final set of measurements.

common in deeply shaded lowlands, the other more prevalent

in montane habitat. Harvard graduate student Matthew Hayek, shaw jonathan barriers didn’t hamper communication much: the Americans an atmospheric scientist originally trained in physics, joined the learned the rudiments of português brasileiro, while their hosts got a third group, measuring the natural rate of emission of the pow- chance to practice English. erful greenhouse gas nitrous oxide from rainforest soil in order In the second week, they split into four groups, each focused to establish a baseline that would help researchers distinguish on its own project. Marcos Longo, a Harvard graduate student anthropogenic sources of the gas. The fourth group, including from Brazil who typically works with mathematical models of Newell and Hannah Horowitz ’11, a concentrator in earth and ecosystems, joined a group that left for a patch of intact forest planetary sciences, set out for research site ZF-2 to learn how to surrounded by abandoned pasture, to study differences in emis- measure the rainforest’s uptake and release of carbon, and how to sions of volatile organic compounds between plants growing at link information about forest growth to meteorological data. the rainforest’s edges and those found at its center. “For me, the The students soon learned that researchers in the Amazon must Amazon was a bunch of numbers on a computer screen,” he said, contend with much more than high humidity and heat. Travel on when thinking back on his relationship to his subject before the local access roads can be tricky: their clay surfaces are slick when course. “This was a great opportunity because it raised questions wet, so professional drivers in four-wheel-drive vehicles handled about things that make sense on your computer, but that—when transportation. And because the forest itself is dynamic—trees you get to the forest—make you realize, ‘Well, it is not quite like grow and die rapidly—it is not uncommon to find a vine-shroud- that.’” A second group studied differences in the photosynthetic ed trunk in the way that must be cleared with ax and machete. capacity of two species of understory palms around Ducke: one As a precaution, the students were required to be immunized

38 January - February 2011 “Measurements don’t always work out the way you expect. In fact, they usually don’t.”

for decades, and in the Amazon for more than 20 years, though, he is well versed in the likely hazards, as are the other instructors, who work hard to mitigate them. “I’m proud of our safety record,” he says. “This is not a classroom study. It exposes the students to different cultures and environments and ways of doing things, because people are an inescapable part of the system. The course combines those experiences with a scientific, knowledge-seeking framework.” The students, enrolled at Harvard, the University of Arizona, the Universidade de São Paulo, the Universidade Estadual de Campinas, and the Universidade Federal do Oeste do Pará, had come from the United States, Mexico, against typhoid, yel- the United Kingdom, and Brazil as part of a U.S. National Sci- low fever and hepatitis. ence Foundation- and Brazilian government-funded Partnership They carried anti-malaria in International Research and Education (PIRE) program. PIRE medications and doused projects are designed to train and educate students in interna- themselves in insect re- tional research collaborations. This one, now in its third year, is pellent to avoid getting organized by the University of Arizona and run jointly with Har- mosquito-borne dengue vard to focus on a very important question: what will become of fever (for which there is the Amazon rainforest under climate change? no vaccine) and leishman- Wofsy showed the students at ZF-2 how to make vertical iasis (a potentially dis- profiles of the atmosphere below and above the forest canopy: figuring disease carried measuring temperature, humidity, pressure, wind speed and di- by the local sandflies). rection, as well as the concentration of atmospheric CO2. Such Snakes are common in the measurements allow scientists to link meteorological conditions forest and also turn up in to rates of respiration and long-term plant growth. camp—a venomous one Because the students would be collecting data all night, they was killed by members spent the day in preparation. While Newell worked on the CO2 of the camp staff outside measuring equipment on the tower, the other students—Horo Horowitz’s cabin one witz and Brazilians Kenia Wiedemann, Tapajós, and Bernardo morning—so everyone Flores—learned to calibrate and operate the sonde suspended was instructed to wear beneath the balloon. (Like an instrumented weather vane, the ankle-to-knee snake gai- sonde gathers meteorological data and beams it wirelessly to a ters. They dusted their computer at the base of the tower.) Raising the balloon right ankles with sulfur diox- next to the tower would allow them to integrate the weather and ide to deter pesky chig- CO2 measurements. The students tested the winch that raised gers, and trod carefully to and lowered the balloon, running numerous practice flights; avoid stepping on tarantulas, centipedes, or scorpions. Newell, small mistakes were made, such as forgetting to turn on the who at first had trouble sleeping in a hammock, awoke on his sonde’s power or the light that lets the researchers keep track of mattress on the floor one night to the sensation of stinging in his the balloon in the darkness. They also had to monitor the wind back: he was covered with ants. (He got used to the hammock.) speed above the forest canopy carefully. Although there is little or He also spotted a wild boar, larger than a pony, one day on a side no breeze at ground level in the rainforest, above the treetops the path, while out walking at ZF-2 with Rafael Tapajós, one of the night winds can blow briskly at five or more meters per second; Brazilian students. Such boars frequently travel in packs, tram- the lightweight weather balloon could easily be blown into the pling everything in their path. This one, fortunately, was alone nearby trees, ending the experiment before it had even begun. and tuskless. The camp dog was less lucky: he’d lost an eye to a Before nightfall was the time to iron out potential problems. jaguar the month before. Fieldwork requires real versatility—careful preparation, the creativity to solve problems of all kinds, doggedness, and ield work can be dangerous,” acknowledges Rotch pro- the will to work long hours. The wilting heat made everything fessor of atmospheric science Steven Wofsy, a leader of harder. During the day, little had moved except the research- “F the course and one of the world’s foremost gatherers of ers: a blood-sucking leech inching across the road, a meter- empirical data about how the biosphere and the atmosphere long earthworm writhing nearby, and army ants streaming by interact. After conducting research at sites around the world busily in double rows. By late afternoon, when the students

Harvard Magazine 39 finally finished their first set of tasks, their day was still not ofsy himself has been doing fieldwork since the 1970s, over: there was an entire suite of additional technical skills to when as an associate professor he studied greenhouse- master—necessary for handling the data, which was gathered Wgas sources in aquatic systems, visiting the Delaware and on floppy disks (almost a Stone Age technology to these young Potomac rivers—outfalls of urban Newark, Philadelphia, and students)—as well as the next day to plan. During a break, Washington, D.C. His first trip to the Amazon, in 1983 aboard Wofsy taught them the rudiments of “R,” a programming lan- Jacques Cousteau’s Calypso, involved a similar program of study. guage in which he quickly wrote a script to extract the data He now runs several research sites that have tracked carbon from the floppies. uptake in forests around the world for two decades. (The bio- At 6:15 p.m., just past sundown, the bats came out. Tapajós sphere sequesters about a quarter of all human-generated CO2 raised the balloon to 60 meters, then 80, then 100. From the base emissions, mostly in mid-latitude forests). The Amazon is of par- of the tower, Horowitz called out the wind speed: “Four meters ticular interest because recent climate-model simulations have per second, 4.5, 5.2.” After all the preparations, there was ex- predicted that this tropical rainforest ecosystem—home to the citement in the students’ voices. “Relative humidity 87 percent, greatest variety of living things on the planet—may collapse by temperature 24.81 C, pressure 990 millibars.” After taking CO2 the middle of this century and be replaced by grasslands, taking measurements at 8 p.m., the group broke for dinner, returning at its extraordinary biodiversity with it. 10, when the air was hazy and thick with moisture. Lightning Transformation of the rainforest into a savanna would not only flashed on the horizon. They took more CO2 measurements at lead to the extinction of tens of thousands of species of plants and 11 and midnight. But the next reading was negative—an im- animals that exist nowhere else, but also severely harm the Bra- possibility that indicated the equipment was no longer work- zilian economy: the Andes-Amazon region is the world’s largest ing properly. Then the device shut off completely. Unable to river basin, and the source of one-fifth of the earth’s fresh water, do anything about that, they continued the meteorological ob- providing hydroelectric power to coastal cities like São Paulo servations with the balloon. Around 1, the atmosphere cleared, and water for irrigation to the vast agricultural region of Mato and the star formations of the Southern Hemisphere appeared, Grosso. (Brazil is the world’s largest exporter of soybeans, and a breathtaking sight. Under Wofsy’s supervision, the students the second-largest exporter of beef.) Loss of the rainforest might passed the time between readings laughing and joking, making even dry out the entire South American continent significantly. lots of noise to frighten off wild animals. Wofsy told of how a Training the next generation of scientists to help figure out what low-flying plane had once passed under one of his balloons, nar- is happening in the Amazon is therefore of great importance. rowly avoiding the wire tether. He later learned that the pilot The predictions of potentially catastrophic drought have had reported seeing a UFO. drawn the attention of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, By 4 a.m, half the students were dozing in plastic chairs which runs an Andes-Amazon initiative seeking to maintain the brought up from the camp; excitement had ebbed into exhaus- ecological function and representative biodiversity of the Ama- tion. Around 5 a.m., the screams of howler monkeys, rising and zon basin. The foundation has spent millions acquiring biodiver- falling in eerie unison, sounded in the distance. Then, a half-hour sity hotspots in the region to prevent them from being deforested before sunrise, the instruments recorded an imperceptible rise (mainly by cattle ranchers), but even that strategy will fail if the in the temperature. Infrared radiation from the sun bounces off climate-change predictions for the region are accurate—and so the atmosphere to heat the ground even before the visible light the foundation began pondering the stark possibility that the arrives, Wofsy explained. Finally, at sunrise, with their work Amazon basin might dry up. done and not a few feet dragging, everyone loped down the hill Two years ago, the foundation turned to Wofsy’s colleague for breakfast. “That balloon launch was my favorite part of the Paul Moorcroft, professor of organismic and evolutionary biol- course,” said Horowitz later. “All the little steps we had to take ogy, an ecologist, and asked him to determine if the most widely to get there, and seeing everyone so excited, even though we had used climate-change model’s predictions of Amazonian savanna- to change our plans midstream—that happens a lot.” vization were correct. Moorcroft studies the long-term dynamics “Measurements don’t always work out the way you expect,” of terrestrial ecosystems: working with empirical data painstak- said Wofsy during an interview back in Cambridge. “In fact, they usually don’t.” This is one of the lessons of a field experience in which “students are challenged to make measurements and then actually do something with them.” Furthermore, he noted, “Never having had an experience of people in other cultures, or of working in their environment, is a big disadvantage for students who wish to do science—or anything else.” “The pedagogy of science is critical,” he continued. “We are trying to provide the students an education which ranges from the experiential to learning how to use statistical applications to learning about instrumentation and how to make their own direct measurements. And then they have to try to figure out what they can make out of those data, with all their imperfections. It covers a whole range, it is a lot to do in two and half weeks, and I think it was quite successful.”

40 January - February 2011 ingly collected from small-scale, intensively studied ecosystem a complex ecosystem like the Amazon as though it were a large sites, he plugs the data describing what is known about how green carpet, heterogeneities are lost.” Furthermore, big-leaf different types of plants grow and compete with each other un- models can’t easily be linked to actual, detailed data—about for- der various environmental conditions into a model. Then he uses est growth, carbon uptake, and local weather—of the kind that mathematical approaches to formally scale up this information, Wofsy has gathered for decades. both in time and space, in order to describe the behavior of entire Moorcroft has worked extensively with Wofsy’s data from large-scale ecosystems across decades or even centuries. northern temperate forests and developed an “ecosystem dynamics” This approach is very different from how ecosystems are repre- model that accurately predicts forest growth not only at the site for sented in current climate-change models (which originated with which it was developed, but also at other sites in North America global-scale computer models of the weather first developed in with different mixes of conifers and hard- and softwood trees. Al- the 1980s). The latter represent ecosystems by dividing the earth though he does most of his modeling work at Harvard, Moorcroft into grid cells that typically cover two degrees of longitude by frequently visits the Amazon and other rainforests, where he has two degrees of latitude—equivalent to tens of thousands of begun setting up meteorological data-gathering stations. Field- square kilometers—and treat everything within that area as a course director Scott Saleska, a Wofsy postdoctoral fellow before single plant. It is these older, so-called big-leaf models that pre- moving to the University of Arizona, invited Moorcroft to Ducke to dict the drying out of the Amazon rainforest by the middle of speak to the students about how his modeling work can be used to the century. But as Marcos Longo, a graduate student working improve the analysis and collection of empirical data. with both Moorcroft and Wofsy, points out, “When you treat The reasoning behind the big-leaf climate models’ predictions Facing page: Veteran field course instructor Scott C. Stark, a of drought for the region is relatively straightforward, Moor- graduate student at the University of Arizona, explains the use of croft explained to the students. In the Amazon, as much as half equipment for measuring photosynthesis. Clockwise from the rainfall derives directly from the local biosphere: when the bottom: Newell descends the tower while Kenia Weidemann acts as spotter; during a break at Ducke, Flavia Durgante, Horowitz, Harvard graduate student Matthew Hayek, and Henrique Oliveira discuss plant identification; Professor Paul Moorcroft measures photosynthesis in an understory palm.

jonathan shaw jonathan Harvard Magazine 41 multitude of plants “breathe” (transpire) during photosynthesis, the site to construct a quantitative model that describes how they release moisture into the atmosphere, which then falls back the rainforest’s behavior and composition change under these to earth as rain. But higher levels of atmospheric CO2 threaten experimentally imposed drought conditions, and then test the to disrupt this cycle because plants no longer have to keep their model against data from an eight-year drought experiment at stomata (the tiny gas-exchange holes found mostly on the un- another tropical forest site several hundred kilometers to the dersides of leaves) open as long to obtain the CO2 they need for north. They will then use the calibrated model to gauge the like- photosynthesis. Closed stomata prevent moisture from escaping ly regional-scale impacts of drought stress in the Amazon during the coming decades. Recent climate-model simulations have predicted that this tropical “In general, many scientists who make measurements are inherently suspicious rainforest ecosystem—home to the greatest variety of living things of models, but you can’t do experiments on the climate,” Moorcroft pointed out during on the planet—may collapse by the middle of this century and be the ride to Ducke, “so you have to use models. We have shown that the formal scaling replaced by grasslands, taking its extraordinary biodiversity with it. approaches we are using in our ecosystem model work better than the big-leaf models from plants, thereby drying the atmosphere, which can in turn at capturing the ecosystem dynamics observed under current produce a feedback effect—the plants close their stomata even climate. This give us good reason to think that our approaches more in response to the stress of drought. So the big question, should also be better than the big-leaf models at capturing the Moorcroft pointed out to these scientists-in-training, is wheth- range of possible outcomes for a forest under different climate- er actual forests are going to respond in the way that current cli- change scenarios.” Fundamentally, this is because they connect mate-change models suggest. Because a hectare (about 2.5 acres) more directly to actual measurements of how plants grow and of Amazonian rainforest is about 100 times more diverse than a respond to their environment. “By bringing models and data to- hectare of northern temperate forest, he explained, “Among the gether,” he emphasized, “we can slowly but surely get the big thousands of species here, some might survive or even thrive in picture, and get it right”—so he stressed to the students the im- drought conditions, which could mean that the forest may sur- portance of empirical work: “We need more meteorological data, vive, albeit with a markedly altered composition and structure.” and we need good data on forest composition across the Ama- In either case, Moorcroft suspects that the CO2 emissions to zon basin.” the atmosphere “will be substantial.” But the impact of the loss of this ecosystem on plants, animals, and humans, he asserted, ncluding ecosystem models in a field would be “unparalleled.” course exposed the students to an impor- Moorcroft showed the students how his ecosystem dynamics Itant scientific tool. As Wofsy has said in Visit harvardmag.com/ model, calibrated using just two years of species data from the the past (see “The Great Global Experiment,” amazon for an ATV ride through the rainforest, a Harvard Forest, could accurately predict a decade of growth in November-December 2002, page 34), the panoramic view from the several different mid-latitude forests, when observed meteoro- usual paradigm—in which a scientist makes top of a 14-story tower, logical data (e.g., rainfall, sunshine, temperature) were plugged a hypothesis and then devises an experiment a time-lapse sequence in. His model can approximate forest growth from Connecticut to test it—doesn’t hold in the field of climate of a balloon launch, a meter-long earthworm, to Canada—but can he develop one that describes the ecosystem science: because there is a lot of natural fluc- a tailless whip scorpion, dynamics of the Amazon? tuation in the system, researchers would and more. Perhaps 25 species of trees live in a northern temperate forest: need to subject multiple earths to greenhouse most are deciduous, with a few conifers, all clustering in favorite gases and leave several others alone as controls. The models also habitats. The ecosystems of the Amazon basin are vastly more allowed the students to translate their empirical observations diverse and the trees have different characteristics than their into “an inference of long-term, large-scale ecosystem responses,” northern counterparts. The soils are poor, with most of the nu- Moorcroft later reflected. “I think letting students see and under- trients in the living ecosystem rather than in the soil. The season- stand how the piece of the jigsaw puzzle that they are working ality alternates between wet and dry, rather than hot and cold. on is part of a larger picture is important and transcends national And under current climate conditions, moisture is not a major origins.” limiting factor on plant growth. “The models took the work to another level,” said Newell. At In order to develop a credible prediction for the Amazon’s the same time, they underlined the fact that future climate im- fate, Moorcroft explained that he needs to know how different pacts in the United States are expected to be much less severe species within the forest react to a given change in the environ- than in Brazil. “Brazilians have more on the line than we do,” he ment—a drought, for example. To that end, he told the students, said. “Climate change is a global problem, but the Amazon is their he is incorporating data from a two-year-long experiment that backyard.” Still, meeting the Brazilians made him feel more opti- excluded water from a hectare-sized research site in the Tapa- mistic about the odds of addressing that challenge. “It was great jós National Forest near Santarem, Brazil—using an elaborate to meet so many smart people who care about the same things.” system of panels, gutters, and drains to prevent rainfall from reaching the ground—to see how the forest responds. During Support from a generous gift for international reporting enabled managing edi- the next two years, his team will use the measurements from tor Jonathan Shaw ’89 to travel to Brazil to research this article.

42 January - February 2011 John Harvard’s J o u r nal

President Drew Faust and Senior PresidentGellow Drew Robert Faust D.and Reischauer Senior discussin Fellow tjeRobert g D. Reischauer discussing the governance changes on December 5

The Corporation’s 360-Year Tune-Up mined that the University has full authority to make the changes voted this week- THE HARVARD Corporation’s self-review others, including the treasurer). The ap- end by the governing boards. Harvard has of its operations and organization—begun pointments required to fill out the new also conferred with the Office of the -At in 2009 and first disclosed to the commu- membership are expected to be made torney General for the Commonwealth of nity that December 15 by President Drew within the next two to three years. Massachusetts, which saw no reason why Faust—has culminated in a series of mea- It has been long assumed that any such the University could not exercise its au- sures to modernize and, in part, refocus change in governance would require ap- thority to adopt these changes.” the work of the University’s senior gov- proval by the Massachusetts legislature. • Term limits. There will be a presump- erning board (formally, the President and But according to Senior Fellow Robert tion of terms of service (“[W]e envision Fellows of Harvard College). The changes, D. Reischauer ’63, “We have reviewed the that ordinarily members will serve for six discussed with the Board of Overseers dur- matter thoroughly, both internally and years, with the prospect of their service ing the review and then aired and adopted with outside counsel, and have deter- being extended for up to six years”). jointly in a series of votes on December 4, are outlined in a five-page “Report to the University Community” by the Harvard In this Issue Corporation Governance Review Commit- tee, released on December 6. 45 Harvard Portrait 51 Brevia • Membership on the Corporation will 47 Where the Women Are— 54 The Undergraduate increase from the University’s president and Aren’t 56 With Warm Thanks and treasurer plus five Fellows (as con- 49 A Digital Public Library? 56 Sports stituted ever since the Charter of 1650), to 49 Yesterday’s News 59 Alumni a 13-member group (the president and 12 50 No Surprises 64 The College Pump

Photograph by Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard News Office Harvard Magazine 43 John Harvard’s Journal

This is a modification of open-ended constituents, in both formal and informal sity five and 10 years hence. appointments and of the informal recent settings”—an effort to improve its access Faust said that Richard P. Chait, re- practice that Corporation members have to information and diverse views—and will search professor of higher education at the tended to step down after a decade or so, through the president or Senior Fellow “re- Graduate School of Higher Education—an or at or about age 70. (Although the report port to the community at least four times” expert on higher-education governance does not say so, the enlarged member- annually on its work. and leadership who served as a counselor ship, the expectation of limited terms, and • Strategic planning. In conducting its to the review committee (and was also a some specialization—see below—may in work, the Corporation will endeavor in- participant in this magazine’s 2006 round- combination make Corporation service creasingly to “focus its attention on stra- table)—had spoken memorably of boards’ feasible for a broader range of candidates, tegic priorities and plans, high-level policy role as a source of “insight” and “fore- at different stages of their careers.) matters, and core fiduciary concerns.” sight,” as well as “oversight.” Reischauer • Formal, substantive committees. The Among those identified are “ways in which said that establishing committees focused newly enlarged Corporation will form the different parts of the University can on some of the Corporation’s foremost fi- standing, substantive committees (as op- not only flourish individually, but draw duciary obligations—groups that could posed to acting almost exclusively as a com- still greater strength from one another.” “drill deeper” into financial and capital- mittee of the whole), including: a Commit- In a December 5 conversation about the planning issues, and distill information tee on Finance; a Committee on Facilities changes, Senior Fellow Reischauer charac- and provide options to the other mem- and Capital Planning; and a Committee on terized the Corporation-Overseers meet- bers—would enhance “immeasurably” the Governance, chaired by the Senior Fellow, ing of the prior day as “a historic gathering Fellows’ capacity to deal with strategic to address “matters of trusteeship,” ensure in many respects.” President Faust, who priorities and longer-term issues. a smooth flow of work between and among is an historian, amplified, noting that the Overall, Faust said, the Corporation- the Corporation and its committees, and participants were “exhilarated”—fully Overseers discussion of the changes had assure “periodic future assessments of the aware that on the verge of the University’s resonated with “the spirit of consequen- Corporation’s operations.” 375th anniversary (next year), they were tiality and possibility” for Harvard. Reis- Significantly, the first two committees modifying a set of procedures, put in place chauer said the formal changes in gov- will consist “principally” of Corporation in the 1650 Charter, to better “situate us ernance were of a piece with enormous members, but each “may also enlist the for the next 375 years.” Reischauer, a former changes within the central administration service of others with especially helpful Overseer, said that the package of reforms in the past few years—“in the capacity of professional expertise, drawn from among was but “one step among many that we’ve the center to do good for the rest of the accomplished alumni, including current taken” in the past few years that will lead University” in spheres ranging from in- or former Overseers, and others.” to a closer relationship between the two formation technology to capital planning • Alumni affairs and development. governing boards. In voting to enact the to enhanced “rationality” in the budget- With the Overseers, the Corporation will changes (the two boards had never before ing process. All of those improvements, form a new Joint Committee on Alumni observed each other casting votes), the he said, were important to the Univer- Affairs and Development. (It will exist appointed Fellows and elected Overseers sity’s core educational, research, and aca- alongside three already existing joint com- sensed they were “all part of doing some- demic mission. In this sense, Faust said, mittees: on Inspection, which is the audit thing they wanted to do for the best inter- “Strengthening the Corporation strength- and risk-management committee; on Ap- ests of Harvard, together.” ens the context in which to undertake pointments; and, in an advisory capacity, Fundamental to the success of the re- those activities” at the heart of Harvard. on Honorary Degrees.) view, Faust said, was focused consider- As to practices, the report outlines sev- ation of the simple but difficult question: The Rationale for the Review eral subtle, but significant, reforms. “What is the work of the Corporation?” IN ITS REPORT, the Governance Review • A lead trustee. The Senior Fellow will As Harvard has changed, in a world itself Committee (the Corporation members act as “a lead player within the board,” changed by closer international connec- plus Frances D. Fergusson, Ph.D. ’73, presi- who will be “expected to take a more ac- tions, information technology, and other dent emerita of Vassar College and Over- tive part in framing Corporation agendas factors, that question drove much of the seers president in 2007-2008; Robert N. and setting priorities for its work,” a role thinking about changes in organization Shapiro ’72, J.D. ’78, a former president of that has heretofore been the president’s and processes. “Once we began our self- the Harvard Alumni Association and now (as discussed in a Harvard Magazine round- examination,” Reischauer added, “the chair of the Overseers Committee on In- table, “Governing Harvard” May-June nature of the agendas at the Corporation stitutional Policy; and Seth P. Waxman 2006, page 25). The Senior Fellow will, meetings began to shift”—toward strate- ’73, a former U.S. Solicitor General and moreover, be chosen for the role by fellow gic considerations bearing on the Univer- current Overseers president) stressed the Corporation members, rather than merely Corporation’s “principal fiduciary respon- inheriting it through longevity; and will Visit harvardmag.com/governance sibility for Harvard’s institutional well- chair the new governance committee. for more extensive coverage of the being” and noted that the review “focused • Outreach and communications. The changes in governance, including historical context and on assuring its capacity to fulfill its role as Corporation and its members “will engage links to the committee report and letter from President effectively as possible.” Faust and Senior Fellow Reischauer. more with a broader range of University When she first broached the subject

44 January - February 2011 publicly, at a Faculty of Arts and Sciences meeting in December 2009, President Faust harvard portrait suggested that the review would encompass processes and procedures: the Corpo- ration’s agendas and use of its meetings, its access to information and interaction with University constituencies, its relations with the central administration and the Board of Overseers, and its use of advice made available to it. In a conversation last Septem- ber, she said the review would encompass what Corporation members and those with whom they consulted thought needed to be done in order to address “what the absences or omissions have been.” The timing for the review was right, according to the report, as a matter of routine good practice; because the financial crisis had prompted all parts of the Uni- versity to examine their roles and operations (and therefore, Faust said on Decem- ber 5, it was fitting for the Corporation to model the same discipline itself); and because “the past decade has been a time of unusual challenge, growing complexity, and consequential change both for Har- vard and for higher education at large.” According to the report, changes in Corporation structure and operations are based on several premises. • Capacity. The Corporation’s “collective capacity needs to be commensurate with the University’s scale, scope, and complexi- Mike Way ty”—suggesting that a body comprising the president, treasurer, and five Fellows is too As a young man in Nottingham, England (“Robin Hood country”), Mike Way was small and too limited in expertise to fulfill obsessed with two stringed instruments: the squash racquet and the classical guitar. its responsibilities relative to the twenty- Now, at age 56, he plays guitar rarely and, he says, “badly,” but he has become one first-century research university. of the world’s top squash coaches. This fall he took over Harvard’s program. As an Note that the review did not recom- athlete, “I did everything wrong that you could possibly do wrong,” he recalls, then mend something wholly different. It adds, grinning, “That stood me in good stead as a coach.” In his twenties he became concerned the Corporation, not Harvard the fourteenth-ranked player in England, and rose as high as number five in Canada, governance or administration overall. where he moved in 1981 to accept a six-month coaching job at a Toronto club. He The review did not call for a single, larger stuck around, becoming head pro at venues like the Toronto Racquet Club, home board of trustees superseding both the of Canada’s National Squash Training Centre, which he helped found in the 1990s. Corporation and the Board of Overseers, “If I’m going to be a coach, why not be a bloody good one?” he thought. “I was like with or without elections for some or all a sponge—I learned from anyone and everyone.” Way’s way is to distill the common of those trustees. Reischauer observed on elements from the games of top pro players. He strives for “depth” in coaching—the December 5 that the dual board structure duration of ball contact with strings, the feel and sound of a shot. He developed a raft “is a strength of Harvard,” and has the po- of Canadian juniors and coached Jonathon Power, who became squash’s world cham- tential to become even more so, given the pion in 1998. Way also loves working with coaches and has produced four coaching boards’ different memberships, sizes (the DVDs. For years, college squash’s juggernaut has been Trinity College, where recruiting Board of Overseers has 30 members, plus and admissions policies, and other guidelines, differ drastically from the Ivy League’s. the president and treasurer), and skills. “We need to accept that, recruit the best we can, and help our ath- Although the Corporation will grow, letes develop their squash games,” says Way. (His significant other, the “collegiality and the ability to have Beth Zeitlin, an assistant squash coach, trains the squads in fitness.) Visit harvardmag.com/ frank discussions” that characterize its Though he claims kiteboarding as his sole addiction, teaching might extras for a lesson on the operations will not be compromised, he be another: “If you’re an interested player, I’m there with bells on.” drop shot with Mike Way said. In the meantime, the enlarged num-

Photograph by Stu Rosner Harvard Magazine 45 John Harvard’s Journal ber of Fellows will “allow us to augment tain the separation he identified, while the Corporation ought to routinely over- the Corporation with some specific skills simultaneously building bridges to im- come the “warping effects of opaqueness” and backgrounds and experiences that portant alumni and donor constituents (in Chait’s term) by issuing statements on maybe we don’t have.” through the new joint committee, which its activities, briefing the community on its • Fiduciary responsibilities, broadly de- will comprise Fellows, Overseers, and “se- operations and priorities, or otherwise in- fined. Given its statutory responsibility, lected others.” stituting regular channels of outreach. and its self-understanding, as the Univer- • Strategic vision. Fiduciary matters and sity’s “principal fiduciary body” (as the attending to “pressing issues of the mo- Implications new governance review puts it), the Cor- ment” aside, the governance review reports, IN ONE SENSE, the Corporation review is poration places “special emphasis on the it is “imperative” that the Corporation an exercise in modernization. Instituting stewardship and development of the insti- make time to “weigh the major strategic committees dedicated to finances and to tution’s financial and physical resources” challenges and opportunities facing Har- facilities and capital planning is a sound and on matters of “organizational design vard.” The Corporation must be vigilant practice for a fiduciary board of trust- and dynamics.” Reiterating the point, against paying too much attention to “mat- ees—all the more so after the jarring fi- the review says that fulfilling the institu- ters transactional, transient, or tactical.” nancial experiences of the past two years. tion’s core academic purposes “depends • Governance. Consistent with these Moreover, these committees align with integrally on securing and maintaining views of its responsibilities, the Corpora- improvements in Harvard’s administra- the resources entrusted to us, and on con- tion is “fundamentally a governing board, tion of the sort that Senior Fellow Robert tinually seeking a proper balance between not a management committee.” Gover- Reischauer mentioned. A University-level serving immediate needs and assuring the nance can “monitor, guide, and enable Financial Management Committee now institution’s long-term health.” sound management, without conflating coordinates budgeting, financial planning, The latter responsibility is a famil- the two.” cash management, and Harvard Manage- iar one: stewardship of the endowment This issue has arisen repeatedly in re- ment Company’s investment operations. through the Harvard Management Com- cent Harvard history. Faust said that Pres- And as reported, executive vice president pany’s investment activities, and deter- ident Neil L. Rudenstine described the Katie Lapp has made creating a capital- mining the funds to be distributed in sup- Corporation functioning as a “plural ex- planning and -budgeting process one of port of current operations. ecutive” during his administration, meet- her highest priorities (see “No Surprises” The other role, of “securing” resources, ing frequently and engaging in all sorts page 50). These steps, in the central ad- differs from past perceptions of the Cor- of transactional and other matters. She ministration and on the Corporation, poration’s work. Some presidents have la- said that during the past few years, that should make uncoordinated or especially mented that Fellows and Overseers have “collective-executive” role had lessened, in risky construction and financing deci- not, or not sufficiently, engaged in fundrais- her experience, as the Corporation appro- sions less likely than in the past; put posi- ing. The new report, in discussing the new priately prepares to undertake a different, tively, the University should be in a better Joint Committee on Alumni Affairs and De- more strategic, kind of work. position to identify and pursue some of its velopment, refers explicitly to preparations • Managing risk. Following a decade highest priorities for critical facilities and to “mount an ambitious University-wide in which Harvard propounded ambitious other investments, come what financial campaign.” visions for growth, but suffered when it circumstances may. In light of recent financial reverses and discovered it had assumed unrecognized Turning to the present, the Corporation current ambitions, it is understandable risks (notably, financial risks), the Cor- is emphasizing the importance of a large that the Corporation might want to be poration restated its need to be “atten- capital campaign—both because Harvard’s more clearly organized for and involved tive not only to opportunity but also to last campaign concluded in 1999, and be- in fundraising—and more directly sup- risk.” Accordingly, “ambition and innova- cause current circumstances (the reduced portive of the president, on whom the tion must go hand in hand with carefully endowment, increased scholarship support, enormous task of raising billions of dol- calibrating and managing risk, especially and the likely pressure on federal spon- lars ultimately falls. On the other hand, as as the University navigates a more con- sored-research funds) make it urgent. Professor Chait has pointed out, a great strained and volatile economic environ- The arrival of new Fellows, in short or- strength of Harvard’s governing boards ment and faces rising outside scrutiny of der, could be energizing for the Corpora- is that they have managed to separate higher education.” tion, while the cycling off of current mem- “governance and philanthropy” to a de- • A mutual opening-up. Finally, the bers in future years would create a more gree unique among nonprofit institu- Corporation took note of “the desire on standardized, understood sequence of tions. “Most other boards that deal with the part of many members of our commu- succession and renewal, Reischauer said. governance are…warped by issues of phi- nity to understand better” what the board As new members arrive and acclimate lanthropy,” he said in 2006, with donors is and does, and of “the value the Corpora- themselves to the Corporation, their per- gaining board seats for their wealth and tion derives from its members’ opportuni- spectives and questions might naturally generosity, not for the expertise and ex- ties to hear and learn directly from people help the board keep itself and its practices perience they might bring to governance. across the Harvard community.” fresh. (The new membership and renewal The Corporation, counseled by Chait, A principal idea emerging from this mag- processes will also assure some Corpora- surely appreciates and intends to main- azine’s roundtable on governance was that tion continuity between presidential ad-

46 January - February 2011 Elena Kramer ministrations, while affording each president the opportunity to be involved in Where the Women recruiting and appointing some Fellows.) Are—and Aren’t What today seems perhaps the fuzzi- est of the Corporation’s professed new Women now hold 27 percent of the as- aims—the commitment to “weigh the ma- sistant, associate, and full professorships jor strategic challenges and opportunities in Harvard’s faculties—a new high. And facing Harvard”—may, in time, become 22 percent of tenured (full) professors are the most important outcome of this self- female—also a new high, up about one examination. The University president is percentage point each two academic years always enormously busy—all the more so from 18 percent in 2003-2004. The propor- as students, scholars, and alumni are action of junior-faculty members who are tive around the world, and particularly women, currently 36 percent, is slightly during preparations for and the subse- below the 2008-2009 peak. Asian and Pa- quent launch of a major capital campaign. cific professors make up about 12 percent Harvard remains highly decentralized ac- of the total faculty—but blacks, Latinos, ademically. There is rarely enough time for and Native Americans make up less than administrators to undertake thoughtful, 7 percent. These data, among others, come deliberate strategic planning. from the 2010 annual report of the senior The University has much to gain from vice provost for faculty development and the president and administration engag- diversity, Judith D. Singer (see www.fac- from the Ranks,” page 48). Most depar- ing broadly in such strategic planning, too, ulty.harvard.edu). tures in any period are from the far more above and beyond whatever work is done In an interview, Singer noted “steady diverse junior ranks, complicating efforts to identify immediate priorities for a capi- progress” in diversifying the faculty, but to broaden the faculties’ composition. tal campaign. The Corporation is organiz- acknowledged that the pace is slow be- The effects of that attrition were made ing itself to look forward strategically. And cause “95 percent” of the professors pres- vividly clear within the Faculty of Arts the Overseers have progressively broad- ent in any one year were at Harvard the and Sciences (FAS) during an October 19 ened their oversight visits from focusing prior year. More than two-thirds of the presentation by professor of biology Elena on individual departments and schools to University’s faculty members are tenured; Kramer, chair of its Standing Committee examining overarching subjects, such as given a fulfilling profession and place to on Women. In two divisions accounting the libraries, the College, the social scienc- work, retirements are scant (see “Retiring for about 60 percent of FAS’s ranks, attri- es, the natural sciences, and so on. tion for those junior-facul- 120 120 Up or Out: Promotions and Departures ty members hired between Looking Ahead Assistant Professors Hired 1998-2003 1998 and 2003 totaled 72 Looking further ahead, the Harvard ■ Active ■ Departed (Assistant) ■ Departed (Associate) ■ Tenured percent (arts and humani- of 2020 will likely be still more interna- 100 100 ties) and 85 percent (social tional than it is today, its libraries more sciences). Even though a digital and accessible, its departments tenure track for assistant and disciplines both deeper and more col- and associate professors, laborative. The University may have made 80 80 introduced in 2005, is be- tangible progress in realizing Faust’s vi- coming a reality (after de- sion for extensive growth in a wide range cades of external recruit- of creative and performing arts within the ing for full professors as curriculum. And it may be on the verge of 60 60 the norm), structural is- identifying wholly new priorities as well. sues affecting employment How well it pursues those opportuni- in those fields, and cultural ties depends of course on the caliber of issues within Harvard’s its faculty members, the engagement of 40 40 departments, Kramer sug- its students, and the size of its purse. But gested, still make a major those outcomes also depend on success- difference in translating ful governance. After a period of “intro- junior appointments into spection and review,” Reischauer said, the 20 20 successful ascents up the governing boards are now in a stronger faculty ladder. position to help the president and other Kramer told her col- Harvard leaders. Together, the governing leagues that “most tenure- 0 0 entities should be “better able to meet the Female Male Total Female Male Total track faculty” in FAS’s needs of the University as they evolve and (N=23) (N=36) (N=59) (N=31) (N=39) (N=70) non-science divisions from Arts & Humanities Social Sciences change over time.” the years studied “simply Source: fas Standing Committee on Women

Photograph by Stu Rosner Harvard Magazine 47 John Harvard’s Journal did not stay through to the tenure review. ulty representation is well below the share peer institutions’ departments in junior- Given that the gender balance is so much of doctoral degrees women are earning. faculty gender balance. better at the tenure-track level in these Looking at individual units within so- What accounts for the loss of junior- divisions, that’s unfortunate.” In contrast, cial sciences, the history department’s faculty appointees in some fields but not she noted that junior-faculty members junior appointments in the past half- others, and for the highlighted depart- within the sciences division and School of decade track well compared to the share ments’ weak relative standing on this Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) of doctorates earned by women, but the measure of diversity? for the most part remained at Harvard and large government and economics depart- In a subsequent conversation at her gained tenure. ments have lagged behind. In the arts and office in the Biological Labs complex, The “pipeline” data—the proportion humanities, within both English and phi- Kramer outlined several factors that may of doctorates being awarded to women— losophy, tenure-track women were signif- explain some of the differences. In the sci- largely align with the representation of icantly underrepresented compared to the ences, she noted, individual faculty mem- women among assistant professors in arts pipelines for each field. In fact, in those bers are rooted by their facilities (it is not and humanities and SEAS. But in social sci- four departments, Harvard ranked nearly unusual to spend $1 million to fit up the ences and in science, the female junior-fac- at the bottom (or absolutely so) among space and equipment for a new appointee) and their research teams of postdocs and Retiring from the Ranks response to this pilot offering, FAS and graduate students. Both the junior fac- the divinity and public-health schools have ulty and the schools make their decisions Of the 176 senior professors in the Fac- already made plans to unveil continuing about an appointment carefully, in light ulty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) and four retirement programs for their professors, of these costs, and both are loath to have a professional schools who were offered a beginning in December 2010. (FAS’s pro- performing faculty member depart. These retirement program in December 2009, gram, unveiled December 1 and available frictional forces are much less significant 46—or 26 percent—have enrolled. “for the foreseeable future,” offers pro- in the humanities and social sciences. FAS had the greatest stake in the re- fessors aged 65 to 72 two- and four-year Moreover, Kramer pointed out, the tirement program: 127 of its approxi- phased retirement options. Older faculty research record for scientists and engi- mately 720 faculty members met the members can avail themselves of a half- neers—who typically serve as postdocs criteria (age 65 by September 1, and at time transition to retirement.) for some years before their first faculty po- least 10 years of Harvard service). The Singer noted that the median age of sition—is gradual and accretive (in a se- program allowed them to choose to re- those who accepted a retirement op- ries of published papers), and typically far tire after one, two, or four years, with tion was 70, and that those who enrolled more extensive than that of a young schol- various teaching and service require- primarily chose the longer-term plans: ar in humanities (where a single book may ments during those periods and com- more than half elected the two-year take years to prepare). The social scien- mensurately stepped-down salaries (but path, and another one-third selected the tists publish more papers, but their track with pension contributions intact). Thir- four-year path. The self-selection, she records, too, are shorter than the scien- ty-two FAS professors accepted the of- said, was “good for the faculty and good tists’, and they are being evaluated earlier. fers—25 percent of those eligible. Four- for the institution.” There are also sharp differences in job teen of 49 eligible faculty members in Her annual report notes that 40 of markets. In science-related fields, Kramer the schools of divinity, education, medi- the 46 participants (87 percent) are said, a good young researcher can pick cine, and public health decided to partic- white males, four are white women, and among multiple offers. In humanities and ipate. The results of their decisions were two are minorities—proportions rough- social sciences, there are far more candi- published on November 15 in the 2010 ly equal to the demographic composi- dates than job openings, so prospective annual report of the senior vice provost tion of tenured professors in the eligible faculty members have a strong incentive for faculty development and diversity. age cohort. to accept Harvard’s offer—and then, even During the past five years, according The retirements thus may have some as associates (who are not tenured at Har- to Nina Zipser, dean for faculty affairs small effect on the affected faculties’ di- vard), to accept recruitment to tenured and planning within FAS, an average of versity. During the past academic year, positions at other institutions. To the ex- seven FAS professors have retired annu- the annual report says, Harvard hired 64 tent that Harvard loses these people, it is ally: a bit less than 1 percent of the total new faculty members externally: 44 as- writing down a long investment (perhaps population. (Under the retirement pro- sistant professors, 7 associate professors, two years for a search and recruiting, and gram, that rate will tick up to about 10 and 13 full professors. Of that cohort, six years of assistant and associate profes- annually.) Singer said, 30 are white males (47 per- sorship) to zero. Senior vice provost Judith D. Singer cent), 22 are women, and 21 are mem- The result, Kramer said, is a sort of self- noted that the program was experimen- bers of identified minorities (4 blacks, 4 fullfilling prophecy: “Departments with a tal: since the legal abolition of mandatory Latinos, 12 Asians, and one dual-counted functional tenure track have much more retirement for professors in 1994, only under current standards)—clearly, more success in recruiting, retention, and te- the Business School has offered a regular diverse than the retirees. But not all will nuring.” Those with no record of internal retirement program for faculty. Given the win tenure. promotion to tenure have less success in persuading their junior members to wait

48 January - February 2011 it out at Harvard. “Why would you stay?” Kramer asked. Some departments have Yesterday’s News made no internal promotions to tenure within living memory. From the pages of the Harvard Alumni Bulletin and Harvard Magazine “It’s a real disparity across the divisions,” she observed. Indeed, even before 1911 The College Library expects to President Conant urges passage of the the tenure track was created five years ago, be without money to buy new books for Universal Military Service and Training the fierce competition in many of the sci- the next several months. Bill, partly because “the U.S. monopoly ence departments for the best colleagues of the bomb has ended [and] Soviet al- resulted in successful appointments of ju- 1926 Construction under way in- lies have shown a readiness to gain their nior colleagues who were expected to do cludes Straus Hall, the Fogg Art Museum, ends by force.” well, and did—overwhelmingly realizing McKinlock Hall (a freshman residence full professorships. fronting the Charles), and the Business 1961 President-elect John F. Kennedy Elsewhere, “It’s just a very different School complex, a gift of George F. Baker. ’40, LL.D. ’56, is mobbed by enthusiastic mindset,” she said—resulting in a culture, *** Harvard students as he arrives to attend a job market, and a tradition that will have The first movie theater in Cambridge is a meeting of the Board of Overseers. to be changed over time before the more-di- about to open across from the Yard. verse junior-faculty cohorts make an impact 1966 The Cambridge City Coun- on those humanities and social-sciences 1931 The masters of Adams, Kirkland, cil approves Harvard’s request to con- departments (which are especially heavily Leverett, Eliot, and Winthrop, the five struct, at its own expense, a six-lane weighted toward tenured professorships). new Houses, have joined the masters underpass at the western end of Cam- That makes it more important, Kramer of Dunster and Lowell in apportioning bridge Street, north of the Yard. said, that Judith Singer’s efforts to “educate a cross-section of current sophomores *** departments on how to search, how to re- and juniors to each House for the com- Linda McVeigh ’67 becomes the first fe- tain, and how to promote” pay off. And it ing year. The Bulletin reports that the male managing editor of the Crimson. explains Singer’s realism: even as Harvard proportion of public-school graduates is makes its tenure track more effective, and approximately the same in all the Hous- 1986 Backed by Alumni Against becomes more systematic about offering re- es, as is the distribution of students from Apartheid, John Plotz ’69, Gay Seidman tirement options for senior professors, she different sections of the country. ’78 (the first woman president of the said, progress on the path toward a more di- *** Crimson), and Kenneth Simmons ’54 verse faculty “is all at the margins.” The Corporation declines a Bos- collect enough signatures to run ton lawyer’s bequest of $25,000 as petition candidates for the for a lectureship designed to Board of Overseers, seek- prove that the “modern feminist ing to press Harvard to di- A Digital Public Library? movement…[impairs] the family as a vest its holdings in basis of civilization and its advance….” companies doing The dream of creating a national business in South digital library, free to all, began to seem 1936 Harvard has established a Africa. much less like a fantasy in early Octo- laboratory at Glen Cove, Long Island, ber. In a private meeting convened by to study the origin, spread, and eradica- Pforzheimer University Professor Robert tion of various plant diseases, especially Darnton—arranged by the Radcliffe Insti- Dutch elm disease. tute for Advanced Study, and funded by a private foundation—42 leaders of research 1951 A survey of Bulletin readers libraries, major foundations, and national finds that only one in four subscribers cultural institutions met in Cambridge owns a television set. to discuss how to work together toward *** the creation of a Digital Public Library of America. “I was amazed by the response,” says Darnton, who is director of the Harvard University Library, but was acting as a public intellectual and longtime cham- pion of the idea, rather than in his official capacity. “Everyone I asked said instantly, ‘This is a great idea, we’ll be there.’” As Darnton declared in his welcoming re- marks, the library would be “the digital

Illustration by Mark Steele Harvard Magazine 49 John Harvard’s Journal equivalent of the Library of Congress... the project in 1996, has entered into a No Surprises bringing millions of books and digitized partnership with Google to digitize more material in other media within clicking than 160,000 public-domain books from The Harvard University Financial Report for distance of public libraries, high schools, the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the fiscal year ended last June 30 appears colleges, universities, retirement commu- with Google paying for the cost of digiti- to fulfill administrators’ hopes: it conveys nities, and any individual with access to zation. Among the lessons learned from essentially no surprises. In this, the mid- the Internet.” the Dutch, Kennedy said, is that preserva- October report contrasts sharply with the Darnton has argued in the past that a tion costs are difficult to predict, and that fiscal 2009 version, which disclosed nearly “united front of foundations,” if persuad- copyright issues are a significant chal- $3 billion of previously unreported losses ed that creating a digital library would be lenge. sustained from investing Harvard’s cash re- in the interests of the American people, Experts on copyright also made pre- serves alongside the endowment and from could overcome any financial hurdles to sentations. Darnton hopes that bipartisan unwinding interest-rate swaps intended to launching such a resource. That intuition support in Congress may eventually lead buttress financing for future campus con- was correct. “The very first session con- to some sort of accommodation or change struction in Allston. (The swaps backfired cerned costs,” he reports. Even though to copyright laws that would allow more badly, given the recession and record-low estimates ranged widely, depending on books still in copyright to become part interest rates; see “Further Financial Fall- what the library would hold (and in par- of the digital library. Innovative techno- out,” January-February 2010, page 45.) ticular the cost of digital preservation: see logical solutions that enable limiting the Nonetheless, the 2010 report outlines a “Gutenberg 2.0,” May-June 2010, page 36), number of loaned copies of books in digi- new state of University financial affairs. “everyone agreed that it is a feasible proj- tal form may also play a role in facilitating Operating revenue declined to $3.72 billion, ect and the funding is not the major ob- a digital public lending library. Darnton down from $3.81 billion in 2009, and oper- stacle.” For example, a project to digitize imagines “a core which you could think ating expenses were modestly lower, too: all books in the public domain (no longer of as a huge digital database that would $3.73 billion, down from $3.76 billion. Dur- in copyright) as well as so-called orphan expand indefinitely over time.” Other re- ing the five fiscal years from 2005 to 2009, books (those published between 1923 and sources might be added later, such as the revenues had risen by more than a billion 1964 for which no copyright owner can be database of newspapers from all 50 states dollars (from $2.80 billion to $3.81 billion), found) might cost $1 billion, Darnton says. already digitized by the Library of Con- and spending had kept pace (climbing Given a coalition of foundations, each gress. from $2.76 billion to $3.76 billion). The days contributing a share across five years, he Such details will doubtless be worked of an 8 percent compound annual growth says, “There is no question but that we out at subsequent meetings. For now, the rate in spending—of $200-million increas- could afford it.” group has come up with what Darnton es in annual outlays—are over. Mary Lee Kennedy, executive direc- calls “the beginnings of a strategy.” Two Fiscal 2010’s 2.2 percent decrease in tor of the Business School’s Baker Li- follow-up conferences are planned: one revenue is a surprisingly good result. The brary, presented research on the national of foundation leaders, in order to organize Corporation had directed an 8 percent re- digitization efforts of 21 countries, with their support; and a second, much larger, duction in the endowment funds distrib- particular emphasis on models in Nor- public conference in Washington, D.C., uted for operations during the year—the way and the Netherlands. The ambition this spring intended to organize support source of 38 percent of operating revenues of the Dutch, for example, is to digitize among the great cultural institutions in in fiscal 2009. The fiscal 2010 report indi- every Dutch book, newspaper, and pam- the nation’s capital. Of the Harvard gath- cates that the actual reduction came in at phlet from 1470 to the present. Interest- ering, Darnton said, “We just provided an 7 percent ($1.32 billion, down from $1.42 ingly, their national library, which began occasion to get things started.” billion); the slight difference reflects the buffering effect of distributions on new Unifying Harvard’s Libraries gifts to the endowment. “Decapitaliza- tions” of endowment principal remained After “exhaustive analysis,” an implementation work group of nearly level, at $237.4 million in fiscal 2010; the Task Force on University Libraries has recommended creat- the “administrative assessment”—for- ing a coordinated management structure for the entire Univer- Is the book an merly called the “strategic infrastructure sity library system (see “Libraries on the Edge,” January-February endangered species? fund,” a half-percent annual levy on the 2010, page 41). A new position, executive director of the Univer- Visit harvardmag.com/ endowment for University expenses as- whybooks to read about sity library, will report to a board of directors, chaired by Pro- a Radcliffe Institute sociated with Allston campus develop- vost Steven Hyman, comprising Pforzheimer University Professor conference on the history ment—apparently declined to about $130 Robert Darnton, currently director of the Harvard University and future of the book. million from fiscal 2009’s $176 million. But Library, and deans (or their designates) and faculty members there were offsetting pockets of strength: from Harvard’s schools. This new administrative structure seeks to preserve local au- tuition income from graduate- and pro- tonomy—by serving scholarly interests within specialized areas of study such as busi- fessional-degree programs rose a robust ness or medicine—while facilitating the “global strategic, administrative, and business $23 million, and nearly $15 million from processes” of the library system as a whole. continuing-education and executive programs; and federal support for sponsored

50 January - February 2011 B-School Building Boomlet will hold an endowed chair—based in Although other University construction either the school’s department of health in Allston has been suspended, Harvard care policy or of global health and social Business School (HBS) announced on Brevia medicine, with a secondary appointment October 14 that it would build a large in an affiliated hospital—will oversee new executive-education facility on the efforts to convene experts worldwide lawn at the eastern edge to advance primary of campus facing Sol- care. The center will diers Field Road. Dean also coordinate fund- Nitin Nohria and Bos- ing for scholarship on ton mayor Thomas M. healthcare policy and Menino were joined innovation in systems by Ratan Tata, a 1975 of delivering primary graduate of the school’s care. Advanced Management Program and chairman Studying “Institu- of Tata Sons Ltd., whose tional Corruption” $50-million naming gift The Edmond J. Safra (the largest from an in- Center for Ethics ternational donor in announced in mid HBS history) will under- October that it had write about half of the secured permanent projected cost; construc- funding for its gradu- tion may begin next ate fellowships, and spring, for occupancy the resources neces- in 2013. Simultaneously, sary to underwrite Nohria announced that the first five-year re- HBS would invest $15 search project under- million to $20 million to convert the va- FOGG FACADE. The Fogg Art Museum taken by its new Lab, under professor of cant WGBH building, on Western Av- renovation, seen in December, has now law Lawrence Lessig, who became cen- reduced the building enue, into the Harvard to a three-sided ter director in 2009. A gift of $12.3 mil- Innovation Lab, serving shell, into which lion from Lily Safra, who has continued entrepreneurial profes- Renzo Piano’s new Visit harvardmag.com/ Edmond Safra’s philanthropies since his design for expanded extras to see more sors and students from facilities will be fitted. images. death in 1999, enables the researchers to throughout Harvard, and explore what Lessig calls “the causes and s ine ss chool bu y of harvard ultimately, members of ing at halftime. Ursinus College alumnus consequences of institutional corrup-

s courte the wider community in Aakash K. Shah (of Cliffside Park, New tion”: not violation of norms of right and Ratan Tata Boston. Jersey, now a first-year Harvard Medi- wrong, but the effect cal School student), also won a Rhodes on public institutions Stellar Scholars Scholarship. Seniors Kenzie Bok (of Bos- (Congress, auditing au- Seniors Zachary M. Frankel (of Brook- ton and Pforzheimer House), a history thorities, pharmaceutical lyn and Quincy House, a physics and concentrator, and Jonathan Walsh (of regulators, medical edu- y of the C enter for E thic s y of mathematics concentrator); Daniel E. Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and Lowell cators) of depending on

Lage (of Miami and Winthrop House, a House), a government concentrator, have money from sources af- s courte history of science concentrator who ex- been awarded Marshall Scholarships. fected by their work. Lily Safra pects to earn his A.B. and A.M. degrees in May); and Baltazar A. Zavala (of El Primary-Care Physicians Ivies’ Aid “Arms Race” Paso and Kirkland House, an engineering Harvard Medical School has established Inside Higher Education reported a “New sciences and neurobiology concentrator) a Center for Primary Care, following Tactic in the Aid Arms Race”: Cornell have been awarded Rhodes Scholarships. the recommendations of an academic has offered students admitted for next Zavala, a four-year walk-on football advisory group and receipt of a $30-mil- fall, who are also admitted to Harvard, player for the Crimson, flew from Hous- lion anonymous gift. The center will as- financial support that matches the pack- ton, the site of his Rhodes interview, sure that all students are better educated ages extended by Harvard (or any other the morning of Saturday, November 20, about primary-care systems, and sup- Ivy); and Dartmouth athletics has post- and dashed from Logan Airport to the port those who aim to pursue practice ed a letter to football supporters promis- Stadium to suit up for The Game, arriv- or research in the field. A director, who ing to “eliminate the differential” in aid

Harvard Magazine 51 John Harvard’s Journal

offers when an admitted athletic recruit fashion” and is to review support for stu- on assistant professor of chemistry and is wooed with “a more favorable projec- dents who experience familial, peer, or chemical biology and of physics Adam tion from an Ivy competitor.” cultural challenges resulting from their Cohen; assistant professor of systems sexual orientation and/or gender iden- biology Peng Yin; assis- Nota Bene tity. It is expected to make recommenda- tant professor of neuro- Senior social scientist. Peter V. Mars- tions to the dean during the spring. biology Sandeep Robert den, Geisinger professor of sociology and Datta; instructor in sur-

a Harvard College Professor, has been Knowles acknowledged. In recogni- gery Nathalie Agar; and y s imon dove named dean of social science—one of the tion of Jeremy R. Knowles, the eminent instructor in dermatol-

substantive, divisional deanships within chemist and late dean of the Faculty of ogy Conor Evans. s courte the Faculty of Arts and Sciences—effec- Arts and Sciences, a seminar room at Simon Dove tive January 1. A member of the faculty Wadham College, at Oxford University, Miscellany. Ted Mayer, who became di- since 1987, he has twice chaired the so- was named in his honor in a ceremony rector of dining services in 1997, has been ciology department. Marsden succeeds held on September 30, 2010. Knowles was promoted to assistant vice president for Lindsley professor of psychology Ste- a fellow at Wadham from 1962 to 1974, hospitality and dining services. He over- phen M. Kosslyn, who has become di- and then an honorary fellow. sees 14 undergraduate dining halls, a rector of Stanford’s Center for Advanced dozen retail-dining units, catering, and Study in the Behavioral Sciences. Special scientists: Six senior faculty the Faculty Club.…Jeffrey R. Williams members have won Transformative Re- ’78, M.B.A. ’82, who was president of the Library leaders. Ann Baird White- search Project Awards from the National Shenzhen Development Bank from 2004 to side has been appointed librarian of Institutes of Health, recognizing their 2006, has been named executive director of the Graduate School of Design’s Loeb “truly daring” approaches to advancing the Harvard Center Shanghai (see “Global Library and assistant dean for informa- innovative science: Mallinckrodt pro- Reach,” May-June 2010, page 51). There, he tion resources. Matthew J. Sheehy has fessor of chemistry and chemical biol- will oversee Business School executive- been appointed director of the Harvard ogy Sunney Xie and professor of chem- education partnerships, faculty research, Depository, where more than one-third istry and chemical biology and of physics student internships, and Harvard China of the University’s 16 million library Xiaowei Zhuang, for work on protein Fund ventures.…The Committee on Af- books reside. He had been acting direc- function in the cell (see “Shedding Light rican Studies (www.africa.harvard.edu) tor for reference and research services at on Life,” May-June 2008, has been recognized as a national resource the New York Public Library, where he page 40); assistant pro- center by the U.S. Department of Educa- oversaw that institution’s off-site stor- fessor of stem cell and tion; it is eligible for $2.5 million to support

age facility (shared with Columbia and w ei zhuang regenerative biology and travel, programs, and outreach during the

Princeton). y xiao of surgery Paola Arlotta, next four years.…The Radcliffe Institute associate professor of pa- has appointed Alison Franklin ’90 direc-

BGLT task force. Harvard College dean s courte thology J. Keith Joung, tor of communications. A former press Evelynn M. Hammonds in early October Xiaowei and Junior Fellow Feng secretary and political-campaign veteran, Zhuang formed a working group on bisexual, Zhang, for work on ner- she was most recently director of commu-

gay, lesbian, and transgender student vous-system regeneration; and assistant nications for City Year.…Anthony P. Mo- life. The group was charged with rec- professor of pediatrics Simon Dove, for naco, Ph.D. ’87, M.D. ’88, a neuroscientist ommending ways “to address the needs work on nanoRNAs. Separately, New In- and geneticist who is pro-vice-chancellor of BGLT students in a more systematic novators Awards, which support junior at the University of Oxford, has been scientists early in their named the thirteenth president of Tufts careers, were conferred University, effective next summer. ork308317

Death to Debt. As the nation labors under trillions of dollars of excessive leverage, Harvard Business School’s Baker Library has mounted an exhibition entitled Buy Now, Pay Later: A History of w olv u s ine ss School. Personal Credit. As the catalog observes, seeking credit was often Print C ollection, B leichroeder c. 19th , early seen in the pre-industrial West as “a sign of moral weakness,” and

making a business of credit was “an enterprise suited only to the B H arvard . greedy and predatory.” Among the recurrent themes in early prints and engravings is “the death of credit,” sometimes depicted as a corpse. Here, “Crédit est Mort,” an early nineteenth-century French print, showing an artist, a musician, and a soldier (three “bad payers”) who have killed a fourth man, representing credit. The image stems from postings dating back to the Middle Ages—a warn- C ollection s torical ing from shop-, tavern-, and lodging-keepers that they discouraged customer requests for credit. The exhibition remains on display s C hez G enty (Publi s her), Pari t M ort.” through June 3, and online at www.library.hb.edu/hc/credit. ibrary H i s aker L ibrary B rédit e s “ C rédit

52 January - February 2011 research—augmented by national stimu- • Sharp savings were effected in dis- essentially cut in half, to $324 million. Al- lus appropriations—soared 11 percent, in- cretionary expenses, with non-sponsored though work continues at the Law School creasing almost $62 million. costs for supplies and equipment, utili- and on renovations of the Fogg Art Muse- The report breaks out expenses in a ties and building maintenance, travel, and um and the Fairchild Biochemistry Build- new way. The 1 percent decline in total purchased services reduced by $88 mil- ing (to outfit it for stem-cell researchers), spending reflects the 8 percentincrease in lion. The University did most of its bud- the $1.4-billion Allston science complex direct sponsored spending and a 2 percent get dieting here, rather than in permanent has been suspended. For the foreseeable decline in “non-sponsored outlays.” In their changes in the workforce. Accordingly, it future, these projects and renovation of section of the report, vice president for fi- is now notably more challenging to add the physical plant seem likely to be the nance Daniel S. Shore (Harvard’s chief fi- employees or to fill vacancies (the term of major capital initiatives. A new capital- nancial officer), and University treasurer art is “position control”). planning process, overseen by execu- James F. Rothenberg characterize the lat- But other expenses rose. Total interest tive vice president Katie Lapp and meant ter as “more squarely within the Univer- expense increased 26 percent, to $265 mil- to provide a University-wide, five-year sity’s control, and…demonstrat[ing] prog- lion (accounting for more than 7 percent building program, will shape future com- ress made in planned cost reductions.” of the University’s spending in the year). mitments Harvard will make; there will Excluding “certain costs that tend to be Total indebtedness, $2.85 billion in fiscal surely be pressure to restrict new debt fi- fixed in the near term (i.e., tenured faculty 2005, climbed steadily in subsequent years nancing, despite current low interest rates compensation, financial aid, depreciation, before ballooning to $5.98 billion in fiscal (see “Back to the Bond Market,” below). and interest)” and adjusting for one-time 2009, when Harvard placed $2.5 billion of (To manage the process, Mark R. John- items in both fiscal years ($59 million of new debt issues to restore its impaired li- son has been appointed vice president for fiscal 2009 expenses for retirement incen- quidity, refinance variable-rate debt, and capital planning and project management. tives and severance and benefits costs as- unwind some of the costly interest-rate His planning responsibilities span Cam- sociated with layoffs; and a $52-million swaps. Interest expenses not associated bridge, the Longwood Medical Area, and item in fiscal 2010, discussed below), Har- with specific capital projects rose to $89.4 Allston, and he will vard’s “controllable non-sponsored oper- million in fiscal 2010, up from $56.6 million direct the resulting ating expenses decreased by 6 percent,” in the prior year (and just $13.3 million in construction proj- from $2.30 billion to $2.17 billion. In other fiscal 2008), reflecting the burden of ser- ects—all within Har- words, expense reductions valued at $130 vicing these new University-level obliga- vard’s financial re- million were realized during the year— tions. Bonds and notes payable at the end sources. Johnson has not an easy feat after routine increases in of fiscal 2010 increased modestly, to a total worked at Harvard spending. Among the salient details: of $6.28 billion, reflecting new issues, prin- since 2002, managing ne ws office kri s nibbe/harvard • Mark R. Given workforce reductions and a fiscal cipally to pay for construction projects in turn the Business Johnson 2010 salary freeze for faculty and nonunion such as the Law School’s Northwest Cor- School’s Baker Li- staff members, non-sponsored salaries and ner building. brary/Bloomberg Center project and now wages declined 3 percent, or $31 million. During the year, capital spending was the Northwest Corner building under construction at the Law School, where he has also led campus master planning and a Back to the Bond Market five-year capital plan.) The University issued $601 million of tax-exempt bonds and $300 million of tax- Among other items of interest, during able bonds in early November. Because the former issues refinance existing debt and fiscal 2010, the University entered into long-term borrowing under Harvard’s commercial-paper program, total debt out- $695.5 million of additional swap agree- standing rose to $6.6 billion from $6.3 billion at the end of the last fiscal year (June ments, all designed to offsetexisting swaps 30). The refinancing may enable the University to reduce higher rates incurred earlier, and so to reduce further long-term risk of to fix the rates on variable-rate obligations that could rise in the future, or both. loss if interest rates stay low or decline Harvard initially filed to sell about $741 million in the refinancing, but the market de- even more. It did so without laying out teriorated by the time the offering was made. Interest expense increased 26 percent, additional cash, by agreeing to new con- to $265 million, during fiscal 2010. tracts that offset the terms of the original The $300-million sale of new bonds will finance various capital projects, including ones—but giving up the opportunity to the wholesale reconstruction of the Fogg Art Museum. It is the first such financing recover past losses should rates increase since Harvard borrowed $480 million last January, in part to pay for construction of over the life of the original contracts. To Harvard Law School’s Northwest Corner project. The two projects, with a combined the extent possible, the University is get- cost estimated at more than $600 million, each attracted major gifts, but required ex- ting out of the business of bearing inter- ternal financing as well. They are, presumably, among the last projects of their size for est-rate risk for those past contracts. which the University intends to resort to significant debt financing. Continuing the emphasis on enhancing Moody’s Investors Service rated both bond offerings Aaa. That indicates that Har- liquidity that was announced last year, vard’s financial adjustments since the sharp decline in the value of the endowment, the General Operating Account (GOA)— and other losses, in 2008 have enabled it to retain its top-tier credit rating. Harvard’s cash and operating funds—is now relatively less heavily invested along-

Harvard Magazine 53 John Harvard’s Journal side the endowment. Of its current net tration. Realizing such savings will take there is too much uncertainty about all asset value of $3.75 billion, liquid assets time; the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, sources of revenue—tuition net of finan- held outside the University’s General In- he noted, is on a two-year path to elimi- cial aid, endowment investment income, vestment Account have risen to approxi- nate its remaining budget deficit, using and federal research funding—to relax mately $1 billion; two years ago, when the reserves to fund the work in the interim. any efforts to identify and pursue efficien- GOA totaled $6.57 billion, the cash portion (Retirements may help; see page 48.) cies. That is the University’s financial out- was $300 million. The “de-risking,” as it is For the foreseeable future, Shore said, look, and priority, for the next few years. called, will continue: gaining liquidity, at the cost of lower potential returns. Finally, a review of the “fair value” of in- the undergraduate vestment assets in the footnotes suggests that the portfolio as a whole (for endowment and other holdings) is more oriented to liquid holdings. At the same time, the Comparing Notes portfolio managers are redeploying funds into certain areas that they deem attrac- tive—notably certain kinds of new real es- by madeleine schwartz ’12 tate, commodities, and natural-resources holdings. ast June, as we were both pre- visit during Freshman Parents Weekend, I In all, said Shore in a conversation, fis- paring for our summer intern- swiped her into Lamont on the pretext that cal 2010 was “a good year.” Harvard set ships, my mother and I traded she was touring the library. Instead, we sat out to make progress in addressing con- fashion advice. We had each gone side by side in the big, open room on the trollable expenses, and did so, relatively shoppingL for the first day of work (I at a first floor—she diligently taking notes on quickly. He also pointed to the improved weekly magazine, she in a judge’s cham- a huge red volume that she had lugged from risk profile of financial resources, espe- bers), and now we were comparing outfits New York City on the train, I casually read- cially in light of the University’s debt load. in the living room. My skirt and blouse ing about Greek myths. Eventually I left to And the growth in tuition and sponsored- were quickly assessed (“Needs ironing”) meet friends, and she stayed at the wide funding revenues demonstrated, he said, and hung back in the closet. But my moth- desk alone, papers spread out. that Harvard is “quite resilient” in its core er walked around the living room shrug- operations, teaching and research. ging her gray suit on her shoulders. My I asked my friend Erika Pierson, a ju- The current year poses new challenges. words of encouragement—“You look pro- nior history and literature concentrator in Employee benefit costs are still rising, the fessional!”—seemed to have little effect. Lowell House, what it’s been like seeing salary and wage freeze has ended, and a “Should I really wear this? Are you sure it her mother get a master’s in costume de- further reduction in endowment distribu- doesn’t look too square?” sign while she’s been at college. “My mom tions for operations will subtract $130 mil- My mother started law school at the didn’t have a set career when I was growing lion or more from revenues. same time I started college, and because up,” she told me, “so I had never seen her do Two factors will offset about half that hers is a four-year night program, our something she was really passionate about.” apparent gap. First, fiscal 2010 expenses school schedules are synched. We take Now her mother drives around San Diego are inflated by a one-time $52-million our exams during the same busy weeks taking measurements and buying fabric, charge associated with restructuring the and experience similar relief at the end and Erika is thrilled at how enthusiastic her Broad Institute, a genomics-research cen- of December and May. Last spring, we mom is: “It’s been an inspiration because ter, into an independent entity. Second, compared notes on cover letters and in- it’s an unconventional career. And it’s been the sponsored-funding awards under the terviews for our job applications. We will a great support system. She knows college federal stimulus program should provide probably graduate within days of each better than most people.” The only inconve- an additional $20 million in revenue this other. nience? “When I left, she took over my desk year. As students, we’ve shared study habits as a sewing station. I’ll go home for vaca- Dealing with the rest, Shore suggested, (take notes by hand), general truths (You tions, and my house looks like a scene from requires further “administrative aggrega- can’t avoid having a few bad professors), Project Runway. The closet in my bedroom is tions” of functions (from human resources and encouraging platitudes (It’s okay! No full of princess costumes.” and communications to information tech- one will care how you did on your “Sci- It’s true that a parent in school can nology) to effect longer-term expense sav- ence of Cooking”/“Constitutional Law” bring certain advising advantages. I know ings. Savings in fiscal 2009 and 2010 were midterm!). Where she’s listened to my that my mother has felt the frustration of realized principally within each school complaints about freshman-year room- a paper that won’t write and the excite- and unit; the current opportunities, he mates and dining-hall food, I’ve helped her ment of mastering a difficult topic. I don’t suggested, lie in identifying better ways buy textbooks online and wished her luck need to explain my elaborate theory that I to work between and among those au- in moot-court practice. Occasionally, we’ve am a “bad test-taker”—she’s said the same tonomous units and the central adminis- even studied together. When mom came to thing about herself. And talking with her

54 January - February 2011 is a good way to get per- her interest in history, my spective on those occa- roommate is still pre-med: sional hurdles that crop in part, she told me, “be- up in college. Although cause I really like the idea we are both taking a of knowing the next step.” substantial course load, I am sure that others have Mom is also working a had similar gut reactions full-time job in the fi- when told how common it nancial industry. is to be undecided: “I’m not Sometimes, though, I the average American. I’m wonder whether we are Madeleine Schwartz!” a little too enmeshed in I admire the dedica- each other’s scholastic tion of someone who fol- lives. This usually occurs lows a dream, even when to me about twice a year, doing so is challenging. when my mother calls to When Mom decided that inform me of her grades. she wanted to go back to Once, she reached me school, she called up the in the middle of a date pre-law tutor in her old (“I got my first A! Aren’t House, Dunster. One law you going to congratu- school required a dean’s late me?”), and often, letter, which would be when the news has been difficult to obtain, she ex- disappointing, I haven’t plained, because her dean known how to respond. had been dead for several Last fall, I was chas- years. The scene struck tised for passing along a me particularly acutely speculative tidbit I had because it came around heard in the Kirkland the time that I was look- dining hall—that, because of grade infla- their family members lose jobs or change ing for my own letters of recommendation tion, GPAs once considered good might be them. Gone is the time when you start for college. Wherever you end up, I remember viewed with new scrutiny. “Madeleine has out at a company and work there for the thinking, make sure you put your letters on file. informed me that ‘B is the new F,’” Mom rest of your life.” And this kind of frustration is routine for announced at Thanksgiving. The Harvard Freshman Week, in one of the welcom- older students, who have to learn how to College Handbook for Students, which is quite ing speeches, our Yard dean mentioned study all over again. Mom once described verbose on the subject of grades, is con- that many of us might have grown up the experience of taking classes with spicuously silent on how to counsel par- thinking that “doctor, teacher, lawyer” students half her age after 30 years in the ents about them. were our only options. The dean told us workforce: “What’s most challenging is how important it was to follow our pas- that you come in to class knowing how Changing careers later in life is no lon- sions—even if they led us to unexpected to make a soufflé—but you’re all there to ger a rarity, so it is not uncommon for places. A spirit of adventure, she sug- make omelets.” students and their parents to be toying gested, was key to making the most out of with big decisions at the same time. Nei- college. The talk made its mark on my pre- Harvard offers many resources for ther the Office of Career Services (OCS) med roommate. “I actually did think those students who want to figure out where nor the Harvard Alumni Association were the only options,” she told me as we their future lies. Advisers, tutors, and has concrete data on how often Harvard walked out of the Science Center. OCS keep their doors open to help un- graduates change jobs or when they go But talking about passions is one dergraduates embark on this kind of dis- back to school. Class surveys, though, thing—actually following them is an- covery. It seems that every day I get an- indicate that the majority of Harvard other. By the time I started to think about other invitation to talk about “the next alumni have shifted directions when it what professional directions I might want step” with a Harvard affiliate. The peo- comes to their careers. With the finan- to take, I had heard “The average Ameri- ple who are actually useful, though, are cial collapse of 2008, such shifts have be- can changes careers seven times” so often those who offer thoughtful conversation come more widespread. “That mindset that it was hard not to become numb to and don’t just dispense advice. One can’t of a flexible career is even more preva- its message. The last thing that an en- find one’s passions in a booklet on sum- lent today than among students five or thusiastic Harvard student wants to do mer internships or a list of possible ca- 10 years ago,” says Robin Mount, director is to imagine flitting from job to job until reer paths. It’s a gradual process that in- of career, research, and international op- she lands somewhere by chance, especially volves sharing thoughts and then coming portunities at OCS. “Students have seen when the economy is so uncertain. Despite back to them; a discussion that doesn’t

Illustration by Dan Page Harvard Magazine 55 John Harvard’s Journal always have its end goal in mind. In the course of my time at Harvard, it has been With Warm Thanks just such a give-and-take—with profes- The editors proudly recognize three superb contributors to sors, with friends, and with my moth- Harvard Magazine during 2010, awarding each a $1,000 honorari- er—that has slowly shaped my ideas of um for distinguished service to readers. who I might want to be. The McCord Writing Prize (named for David T.W. McCord ’21, Though sometimes a quick bit of ad- A.M. ’22, L.H.D. ’56) recalls his fresh prose and verse composed vice is all one really needs. A few weeks for this magazine and for the Harvard College Fund. Phoebe Kos- ago, I found myself caught in a familiar man ’05, a former Ledecky Undergraduate Fellow at this magazine recently promoted pattern: a difficult essay and a long day to associate publicity manager at Harvard University Press, showed that the rigors of ahead, the kind of situation that always employment have not dulled her spirited take on College life. We celebrate her funny, seems to bring up the question, “And pointed “Great Trepidations,” on fifth-reunion anxiety, from the May-June 2010 Com- what am I going to do with my life any- mencement & Reunion Guide. way?” “What am I supposed to do now?!” Illustrator Miguel Davilla, who created the memorable cover I despaired in an impassioned voicemail and inside illustration for “After Our Bubble” (July-August), vividly to my mother. Her response came via depicted the anxieties and problems associated with the contem- text message: “In class. Can’t talk. Don’t porary American economy in its global context—the subject of worry. Be happy.” From anyone else, the managing editor Jonathan Shaw’s feature on Harvard economists’ answer might have seemed trite or silly. analysis of our current dilemmas. But I took her at her word, shut down Among other challenging assignments, Stu Rosner—one of the my computer, and walked down to the magazine’s regular photographers–did particularly distinguished Kirkland courtyard to see what might be work this year in conveying the activities of hyperkinetic students happening there. (“Nonstop,” by deputy editor Craig Lambert, March-April) and the research of equally active faculty scholars who investigate social Berta Greenwald Ledecky Undergraduate Fellow networks (“Networked,” by associate editor Elizabeth Gudrais, Madeleine Schwartz ’12 wishes it were still warm May-June). We warmly thank all three for their invaluable work in these pages. enough to sit in the Kirkland courtyard.

SPORTS ball to receiver Adam Chrissis, Chrissis tossing it back to Winters, and Winters throwing a 46-yard pass to Iannuzzi. That set up a short-yardage touchdown by Gino Four in a Row Gordon, the team’s all-Ivy running back. Iannuzzi was on the field again after breaking a collarbone in the season’s third A spectacular kickoff return inspirits another triumph over Yale. game. With a four-inch plate screwed to his clavicle, he’d been cleared to play just two days earlier. Resuming his role as the annuzzi’s runback. If you wit- This year the teams met as also-rans. team’s ranking kick-return specialist, he nessed it, you know. If you didn’t, be Beset by injuries to key players, Harvard fielded the second-half kickoff at his own advised that Marco Iannuzzi’s 84-yard had lost its Ivy League opener to Brown, 16-yard line, cut toward the Harvard sidekick return in the 2010 Harvard-Yale and had paid dearly for special-teams line, and ran 84 yards for a touchdown. Igame will stand as another high moment misplays in a 34-14 loss to league-leading “All I saw were red jerseys,” he said later. in the fabled series, as memorable as Bob Penn. Yale had lost to Penn by a single “That’s a good feeling for a kick returner.” Cochran’s juggling catch in the 1954 game, touchdown and had defeated its other Ivy Iannuzzi’s run dazzled the capac- Mike Lynch’s fluttery field goal in 1975, or opponents. ity crowd and pumped up his team. On Clifton Dawson’s end-zone rush at dusk in For two periods at the Stadium on No- Yale’s second possession of the half, tackle the triple-overtime thriller of 2005. vember 20, Yale’s hour seemed to have Josué Ortiz threw Eli quarterback Patrick Unlike those late-game heroics, Ian- come round at last. The Blue looked un- Witt for a 12-yard loss and then blocked nuzzi’s runback came with 30 minutes stoppable. Yale ran twice as many plays an attempted punt. Harvard took over at to play. But it turned the tide of a game as did Harvard, and its aggressive defense Yale’s 23-yard line and scored a go-ahead that Yale had controlled from the outset, held the Crimson to three first downs and touchdown six plays later, with Gordon igniting a second-half rally that put the 15 yards rushing. Yale had a 14-7 lead at slicing into the end zone from two yards Crimson on top, 28-21. The victory was halftime, and seemed certain to widen it. out. In the final quarter, a weak Yale punt Harvard’s fourth straight over Yale, and its Harvard’s only score had come late in allowed Harvard to score again, this time ninth in the last 10 meetings between the the first quarter, on a trick play that had on a 12-yard pass from Winters to receiver archrivals. quarterback Collier Winters flipping the Alex Sarkisian. Harvard now led, 28-14.

56 January - February 2011 www.gocrimson.com Ortiz and his defensive linemates repeatedly broke into the Eli backfield, sacking quarterback Witt twice in the first half and four times in the second. Linebacker Nick Hasselberg was in on 20 tackles, tying a Harvard single-game record. Yale’s only second-half score came late in the game, when end Tom McCarthy recovered a fumble inside the Harvard 20-yard line and back Alex Thomas went in for his third short-field touchdown of the afternoon. Though Harvard was victorious, the game was statistically one-sided. The Blue led in total offense, 337 yards to 178; controlled the clock for 37 minutes and 42 seconds; and ran 81 plays to Harvard’s 48. “We had to make the most of very few plays,” said head coach Tim Murphy after- ward. “It was uphill all day.” He praised Iannuzzi as “the epitome of a difference- maker. They are hard to find, and he made a difference today.” Iannuzzi came to Harvard from Cal- gary, Alberta, and was the team’s senior figure—24 years old and married, with a two-year-old daughter. Quick feet, good quarterback. By midseason, six of the Quarterback Collier Winters completed hands, and tenacity are his most conspicu- league’s eight teams had lost a starting 13 of 16 passes against Yale. His longest throw, a 46-yard pass to receiver Marco ous attributes. He applied to Harvard signal-caller. Iannuzzi, set up Harvard’s first score of three times before being accepted, and Harvard was hard hit. Junior Collier the day. Back in action after breaking a had three surgeries in four years of var- Winters, a second-team all-Ivy quarter- collarbone in the season’s third game, sity football. His final season had begun back in 2009, tore hip and groin muscles Iannuzzi returned the second-half kickoff for a game-changing touchdown. convincingly, with touchdown catches in the squad’s first practice session, and against Holy Cross and Brown, and a 95- appeared to be lost for the season. He was yard kickoff runback for a second touch- replaced by senior Andrew Hatch, a trans- Tavani would say later. “I ran it back may- down at Brown. He bows out as Harvard’s fer from Louisiana State University (see “A be 20 times. I couldn’t believe it wasn’t a career leader in kickoff returns, averaging Man for One Season,” November-Decem- penalty—and I couldn’t believe he got up.” 26.5 yards per kickoff. He expects to take ber 2010, page 71). Hatch made his debut in Sophomore Colton Chapple took over his degree in architecture and environ- the opener against Holy Cross, completing for Hatch and did creditably, directing mental sciences. 20 of 25 passes, three of them for touch- the offense in one-sided victories over Determined to get into The Game, Ian- downs, in a 34-6 rout. But a helmet-to- Lafayette and Cornell. But the injury list nuzzi arranged for more than 50 Canadian helmet collision at Brown a week later cut was growing. Three games into the sea- family members and friends to attend. short what might have been a scintillating son, Harvard had lost Iannuzzi, senior re- They got their money’s worth. coda to Hatch’s college football career. ceiver Chris Lorditch, and three starters The hit occurred on Harvard’s first from the defensive secondary. “There’s no Injuries were endemic in Ivy League series of the game, and although Hatch moaning about it, there’s no use even dis- football this year, and especially so at stayed on the field, his play was affected. cussing it,” said coach Murphy. “[Others] Harvard fell behind early and are going to step up, and we’re going to Final Ivy League Standings Brown prevailed, 29-14. Post- find out what we’re made of.” Ivy and overall records / Points for/against game testing revealed that Chapple’s third start was a 21-19 loss to Penn 7-0 9-1 290 145 Hatch had received a concus- Lehigh, the eventual Patriot League cham- Harvard 5-2 7-3 273 187 sion. pion. With high winds gusting through Yale 5-2 7-3 224 211 Watching film to prep for the Stadium, a 17-0 lead went by the board Brown 5-2 6-4 247 210 his team’s upcoming game as the Mountain Hawks scored three Dartmouth 3-4 6-4 264 212 with Harvard, Lafayette coach passing touchdowns in the third period. Columbia 2-5 4-6 222 228 Frank Tavani was taken aback. Hatch received medical clearance to start Cornell 1-6 2-8 124 274 “That shot was one of the at Princeton a week later, but he was some- Princeton 0-7 1-9 165 334 worst helmet-to-helmet hits times out of sync with his receivers and was I’ve ever seen on videotape,” intercepted twice in the first half. With

Photograph by Meredith Keffer Harvard Magazine 57 John Harvard’s Journal The 2010 Football Season Harvard holding an uncertain 21-14 lead, receiver Mike Cook Holy Cross W 34-6 it, no Harvard player coach Murphy made a surprise move and connected on a 31-yard at Brown L 14-29 had returned two kick- sent Winters out to start the second half. pass that Cook wres- at Lafayette W 35-10 offs for touchdowns Working intensively with the team’s tled away from a Penn Cornell W 31-17 in a single season.…A trainers, Winters had made an unexpect- defender. The kick- Lehigh L 19-21 blocked-punt touch- edly quick recovery, and he came through return team could have at Princeton W 45-28 down at Princeton was with two touchdown passes—one of used Iannuzzi in this at Dartmouth W 42-21 the Crimson’s first since them on his first throw of the day—as one: Penn’s outpouring Columbia W 23-7 1992.…Harvard hasn’t Harvard struck back with 24 points to de- of points in a 34-14 run- at Penn L 14-34 lost at Dartmouth’s Me- feat the win-hungry Tigers, 45-28. Hatch, away had the Quakers Yale W 28-21 morial Field since 1993. who had also suffered a concussion at kicking off seven times. GWTW: High LSU, was not cleared to play again after Penn dispatched winds were a fac- the Princeton game. Cornell, 31-7, a week later, to win the Ivy tor in Lehigh’s 21-19 win at the Stadium. The return of Winters lifted the team. title outright for the second straight year. The Mountain Hawks scored the win- “He basically willed himself back to the Harvard (5-2 Ivy, 7-3 overall) tied with ning touchdown after a Harvard punt got playing field,” Murphy would tell theBoston Yale (5-2, 7-3) and Brown (5-2, 6-4) for sec- caught in the jet stream, took a Lehigh Globe. “He was rusty against Princeton, but ond place in the league standings. bounce after falling to earth, and rolled back to the line of scrimmage. Tidbits: Harvard leads Yale, 30-24-1, in All-Ivies: Three Harvard players—run- games played since the formalization of ning back Gino Gordon, tackle Josué Or- Ivy League play in 1956. The Blue’s only tiz ’12, and defensive back and captain success of the past decade was a 34-13 Collin Zych ’11—made first-team all-Ivy. win at the Stadium in 2006.…The seniors Ortiz led the league in quarterback sacks on the 2010 team were the first in Harvard and tackles for loss, while Zych tied for annals to defeat Yale, Princeton, and Dart- the team lead in tackles with 79. Gordon mouth over a four-year stretch. and Zych were first-team selections in First things first: One senior was late to 2009.…Linebacker Alex Gedeon, of Hud- The Game. Baltazar (Zar) Zavala, a reserve son, Ohio, and Lowell receiver from El Paso, Texas, had gone to House, will captain Houston for a Rhodes Scholarship in- next fall’s team. He Visit harvardmag.com/ extras to see scenes from terview. He took an early-morning flight made 49 tackles in The Game 2010. back to Boston, reached the field at half- 2010, and was one of time, and found out after the game that he eight Crimson players named to the all- Saturday’s hero: Marco Iannuzzi and his was one of four Harvard Rhodes-winners Ivy second team. family before The Game. Left to right, his wife, Jenn, his parents, Tony and Cathy, and (see page 51). An engineering sciences and Attendance records: Paul I. Lee ’46, on his two-year-old daughter, Isla. neurobiology concentrator, Zavala will hand for his sixty-eighth Harvard-Yale study neuroscience at Oxford. game, was presented with a replica of the against Dartmouth [the next weekend] he GG: Senior Gino Gordon, the team’s Little Red Flag. From 1950 to 2000, the really increased our synchronicity, tempo, top ground-gainer, ran for more than 100 original flag went to the alumnus who and just our overall confidence as an of- yards in six of the team’s games, scored a had seen the most Yale games. The custom fensive football team.” Winters played the 74-yard touchdown at Lafayette, and had lapsed, but a self-appointed committee entire game at Dartmouth, scoring twice on a 204-yard day at Princeton. He rushed led by Spencer Ervin ’54 has resurrected short-yardage keeper plays and throwing a for 1,059 yards and 10 touchdowns, and it (see “Football Flag,” November-Decem- touchdown pass in a solid 30-14 victory. received the Crocker Award as the team’s ber 2010, page 6).…Yale was the four- A 23-7 win over Columbia, with Winters most valuable player. His career average hundredth consecutive home game at the hitting on 25 of 38 pass attempts, gave Har- of 5.3 yards per carry is Harvard’s all-time Stadium for John H. Norton, a Concord, vard a clean sweep against the Ivy League’s best.…Yale held Gordon to 36 yards, but Massachusetts, resident who attended second-tier teams. But a Penn squad that couldn’t keep him out of the end zone: Dean College. He saw his first one, a 13-0 would finish unbeaten in league play pre- he scored both the team’s rushing touch- defeat of Amherst in October 1940, as a sented a stiffer challenge, and hopes of downs. He left the game after a helmet-to- toddler. Norton has viewed games not forcing a share of the Ivy title expired at helmet hit in the final quarter. only as a spectator but also as an usher, Franklin Field on November 13. Misplays Strong arm: Quarterback Collier Win- program-seller, spotter, and statistician. by the Crimson’s punting and field-goal ters was spot-on in the Yale game, com- He still keeps archival records of each units helped Penn to a 17-point lead, and pleting 13 of 16 pass attempts for 124 yards season. two third-period touchdowns on consecu- and a touchdown. In the five games he …and counting: Tim Murphy is now 12-5 tive possessions put the game out of reach. played, Winters had a completion rate of against Yale. No previous Harvard coach Harvard was unable to score until the 61 percent, tops among Ivy passers. has posted more than 10 wins over the Eli. fourth quarter, when Winters and senior For the record: Until Marco Iannuzzi did v“cleat”

58 January - February 2011 Photograph by Gil Talbot/Harvard Athletics Harvard Hillel. Growing up, “there was always reading, and conversations about books; we’d pull one out to talk about it. And there was a willingness to argue. That’s part of the Jewish tradition: arguing that doesn’t lead to conflict.” Raised Orthodox, Steinberg went to the Maimonides School in Brookline, where he channeled his “considerable adolescent hooligan rage into, of all things, intense To- rah study.” That included Torah summer camp in the West Bank, where whole days and nights were spent in the beit midrash, the House of Study. In an assigned table spot surrounded by the Talmud (a stack of Avi Steinberg has six volumes), a Hebrew Bible, a set of Mai- faith in the power of monides’ Code, and Hebrew and Aramaic books and writing to help transform lives. dictionaries, Steinberg’s teenage years were taken up by studying and praying: “I loved wrestling with the ancient books, having them speak to me in their original Alumni mysterious languages,” he writes. This library living continued at Har- vard. “I wanted to study all day—and not for the grades or exams, all of which are Books behind Bars absent in yeshiva, but just for the love of it,” he explains. A history and literature concentrator, he “basically just went into Avi Steinberg’s memoir of life as a prison librarian Widener Library and emerged bleary- eyed a few years later.” n “earnest yeshiva boy,” Avi have a dire need to connect—with other At the prison, inmates nicknamed him Steinberg ’02 never thought he’d people, with estranged loved ones, with “Bookie.” With no library-related degree spend his days in prison. But their past, with themselves.” At the same and only a modicum of in-house training, in 2005, when offered the post time, the library is the only place, apart Steinberg threw himself into the union Aof librarian at the Suffolk County House from solitary confinement, where inmates job. His boyish face and Harvard creden- of Correction in Boston, he took it, glad can experience any quiet in a social set- tials marked him as the “youngest, green- to trade writing obituaries for the Boston ting; carpeting and books dull the roar est of staff members”—as no one ever Globe as a freelancer for a more secure job and screams of prison life that reverberate failed to remind him. Advice came from with dental insurance and a surplus of against all that steel and concrete. It was all sides: “Trust no one,” “Be careful,” and live, albeit caged, bodies. He was eagerly within this context of books—of writ- “Watch your back.” unaware of what was in store. “I knew ing, reading, and thinking—that Stein- Any assumptions about the ease of book this would be a stretch, and I went there berg aspired to create “a space where you learning quickly disappeared. “As a prison searching for something,” he adds. “But I can make people open up instead of close librarian, you need to fight for the space, didn’t know what that was.” down, to awaken people instead of numb- fight to purchase the books, fight to keep For nearly two years he promoted ing them,” he explains. “Everywhere else books on the shelves, fight for people to be books and creative writing to a range of in prison is a place of shut down, lock able to come to the library, fight to keep students: pimps, prostitutes, junkies, down, literally.” The library allows people people coming back to the library,” Stein- thugs, robbers, con men, and even killers. to relax, briefly, away from the power- berg says of his daily struggles. “It takes His recently published memoir, Running mongering and threats of physical harm, a lot of effort to bring the Books: The Adventures of an Accidental Prison and reminds them “that they are more books alive for people. Librarian (Random House), is a rich medi- than criminals, if they choose to be.” To me, this was not Visit harvardmag.com/ tation on this wild experience and the obvious before.” extras to read an excerpt related nuanced questions about morality was fa- In the subculture of from Avi Steinberg’s The job’s immediate milieu memoir. and humanity that he confronted armed miliar enough: “Libraries feel like home,” the library he found with little more than his own sensitivities Steinberg says. Born in Jerusalem, he and a “prison crossroads, a place where hun- and book learning. his family lived in Cleveland until mov- dreds of inmates come to deal with their “A prison library is a fascinating place,” ing to Cambridge in 1993, when his father, pressing issues”: pending legal cases, il- Steinberg says in retrospect. “People there Bernard Steinberg, became director of literacy, stalled educations, nonexistent

Photograph by Jim Harrison Harvard Magazine 59 John Harvard’s Journal careers. “There is no wake-up call more separately) inside books in the stacks. according to Steinberg. “For each person effective than 25 convicts in matching These notes are contraband, as are any seeking spiritual guidance or the devel- uniforms coming at you first thing in the weapons made from hard-bound books, opment of a political conscience, like morning,” Steinberg writes. “The chaos such as knives, mallets, or simply blunt in- Malcolm, there was a cold materialist, begins right away.” struments. Also banned in cell blocks are studying how to employ violence more ef- The library is also a hidey-hole, a place pens, tape dispensers, CDs and DVDs, pa- ficiently…Just like Whitey,” he writes. The where inmates can sneak into the stacks per clips and staples. Magazines, though library is not allowed to carry the most- to engage in illicit activities: hatching not banned, have been known to be rolled requested book: Robert Green’s The 48 Laws plans, or passing notes. Such “kites”—let- up tight with duct tape—to become fear- of Power, an update on Machiavelli’s The ters filled with love promises, soap-opera- some billy clubs. Prince, made famous on the streets by rap- worthy jealousies, and not a few erotic Inmates were intrigued by two of the per Tupac “Makaveli” Shakur. Steinberg poems—are usually passed between men most famous Boston prisoners who edu- found the laws a bit unnerving: “Strike the and women (who live in sex-segregated cated themselves while incarcerated, shepherd and the sheep will scatter”; “Get prison quarters and must use the library Malcolm X and gangster Whitey Bulger, others to do the work for you, but always take the credit”; “Use selective honesty and generosity to disarm your victim”; and Crimson in Congress “Despise the free lunch.” The Republican resurgence of 2010 Meanwhile five alumni first elected in Faith and religion led to perhaps the decreased alumni ranks—defined for 2008—John Adler ’81, J.D. ’84, of New richest conversations and debates at the this exercise as graduates of or matricu- Jersey; Bill Foster, Ph.D. ’83, of Illinois; library. Inmates were fascinated by Stein- lants in a degree program at the Univer- Alan M. Grayson ’78, M.P.P. -J.D. ’83, G berg’s background and by Hasidism, sity—overall on Capitol Hill. Two years ’87, of Florida; Dan Maffei, M.P.P. ’95, of which Steinberg (no longer fully obser- ago, 38 Harvardians took their seats New York; and Walter C. Minnick, M.B.A. vant) came to see as not dissimilar to the in the 111th Congress; Al Franken ’73 ’66, J.D. ’69, of Idaho—lost their seats, as street gangs that shape many prisoners’ later boosted that number to 39, until did House veteran Chet Edwards, M.B.A. lives. “In their minds, Hasidism embodied the death of Edward Kennedy ’54, LL.D. ’81, of Texas. the ideals of thug life,” he writes: “a repu- ’08, in 2009. In the 112th Congress, the The line-up at press time (asterisks tation of viewing the world as us-versus- likely total at press time appears to be mark newcomers): them, and running their businesses and 31, reflecting a net gain of one for the Senate Republicans: Michael D. community institutions without any re- Republicans, a net loss of eight for their Crapo, J.D. ’77 (Id.); *Pat Toomey ’84 gard for a system of law imposed by out- rivals. Representative Jane Harman, J.D. (Pa.); David Vitter ’83 (La.). siders, persecutors of their community. ’69, Democrat of California, remains the Senate Democrats: Jeff Bingaman And what’s more, they did it in style. They only woman in the group. ’65 (N.M.); *Richard Blumenthal ’67 dressed their own way, talked their own In the Senate, the Harvard contin- (Conn.); Al Franken ’73 (Minn.); Herbert way, walked their own way.” gent added both a Democrat, Richard H. Kohl, M.B.A. ’58 (Wisc.); Carl Levin, Blumenthal ’67 of Connecticut, and a LL.B. ’59 (Mich.); John F. (Jack) Reed, Steinberg found the best approach to Republican, former congressman Pat M.P.P. ’73, J.D. ’82 (R.I.); John D. Rocke- inmates was to ask the simplest question: Toomey ’84 of Pennsylvania. Incumbent feller IV ’58 (W.Va.); Charles E. Schumer “What are you looking for?” Many sought Democrat Russ Feingold, J.D. ’79, of ’71, J.D. ’74 (N.Y.); Mark R. Warner, J.D. what was elusive: finding peace with Wisconsin lost his reelection bid, while ’80 (Va.). themselves. Despite repeated warnings, Republicans Michael Crapo, J.D. ’77, of House Republican: Thomas E. Petri those were the people Steinberg drew Idaho and David Vitter ’83 of Louisiana ’62, LL.B. ’65 (Wisc.). close to. This caused him no end of worry won theirs. House Democrats: John Barrow, about the boundaries between prisoner In the House, Republican Thomas Pe- J.D. ’79 (Ga.); Gerry Connolly, M.P.A. ’79 and jailer, but also honed his conscience— tri ’62, LL.B. ’65, of Wisconsin, remains (Va.); James H. Cooper, J.D. ’80 (Tenn.); and spurred a maturity—in a way he the sole member of his party to have Barney Frank ’61, G ’62-’68, J.D. ’77 never could have done by himself in the graduated from Harvard. Randy Altschul- (Mass.); Jane Harman, J.D. ’69 (Calif.); Bri- library of the yeshiva, or even at Harvard. er, M.B.A. ’98, of New York, came close an Higgins, M.P.A. ’96 (N.Y.); Jim Himes “It takes a lot of courage to be kind to to joining him, but ultimately conceded ’88 (Conn.); Ron Kind ’85 (Wisc.); James anyone in prison,” he says. “Kindness on December 8, losing by 263 votes out R. Langevin, M.P.A. ’94 (R.I.); Sander M. was literally outlawed.” Strict bureau- of more than 194,000 cast. Levin, LL.B. ’57 (Mich.); Stephen F. Lynch, cratic rules applied, as did an unwritten On the Democratic side of the aisle, M.P.A. ’99 (Mass.); James D. Matheson ’82 “us versus them” mentality; nobody was Artur Davis ’90, J.D. ’93, of Alabama, (Utah); John P. Sarbanes, J.D. ’88 (Md.); explicitly trusted, no one was a “friend.” withdrew to mount a failed gubernato- Adam B. Schiff, J.D. ’85 (Calif.); Robert C. Policies precluded staff from sharing“ any rial bid, and Joseph A. Sestak Jr., M.P.A. Scott ’69 (Va.); Bradley J. Sherman, J.D. item, no matter how small, with an in- ’80, K ’82, Ph.D. ’84, of Pennsylvania, ran ’79 (Calif.); Christopher Van Hollen Jr., mate,” Steinberg writes. “This was what for the Senate but lost to Pat Toomey. M.P.P. ’85 (Md.); David Wu, M ’81 (Ore.). made the prison library—a lending library after all—such a radical concept.” And

60 January - February 2011 www.alumni.harvard.edu

John Harvard’s Journal was Steinberg himself a teacher, mentor, the back and killed, apparently because Steinberg—“You’re the book guy!”—the jailer, or baby-sitter? Sometimes he “qui- he had inadvertently crossed into enemy mugger still took Steinberg’s wallet and etly permitted modest amounts of danc- gang territory with his brother. At this ran, turning back to yell, “Hey, I still owe ing in the library,” or did online searches news, Steinberg shut the library for the you guys two books!” for inmates, or allowed loans of prohibited day. “Then I closed my eyes and was initi- books, such as the black, urban pulp fic- ated into an ancient club, those who cry Five months later, Steinberg left the tion novels of Triple Crown Publications. alone in the darkness of prison.” library. For him, that incident “encapsu- Once, breaking serious rules, he brought By that time he had developed seri- lated the humor and sadness of prison life, in a chocolate cupcake for a man celebrat- ous stress-related back injuries and had and the fact that not everything has a re- ing a lonely birthday and allowed him to had some unsettling run-ins with a few demptive ending. It made my decision to eat it in private in the library office. “Even guards. One deliberately set off a foul- leave a little clearer.” the toughest guys I met said that anyone smelling spray to disrupt Steinberg’s He is now a full-time writer in Philadel who tells you they didn’t cry in the early most constructive movie discussion (on phia, still sorting through the depth of his days of imprisonment, or still don’t, some- Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet, a modern prison experience. Much of what he saw times by themselves in the dark of night, is take involving Verona Beach street gangs and heard he did not write about, prefer- lying,” Steinberg notes. shown during the library’s Shakespeare ring to focus on the “human stories” be- Among those he became closer to was a Festival). That caused chaos and justifi- cause “I want people to see that this place former drug dealer turned aspiring televi- able fury among the inmates. Meanwhile, cannot be reduced to a message or, as it is sion chef, Chudney; Steinberg helped him he writes, even though the “book-slinging so often, a political spin.” The guards, for develop a plan of action, track down reci- sheriff persona still worked wonders at example, deserve a whole book to them- pes, and plow through extensive applica- cocktail parties,” the reality “was starting selves: “I know they encounter inmates tions to cooking schools. Another inmate, to give me acid reflux. I wasn’t a visitor in in much more trying circumstances than C.C. Too Sweet, a short, loud-mouthed this prison. I held a key and was beginning I saw in the library.” Still, he suspects attention-seeker, was writing his magnum to feel infected by it. Frankly I was fall- his book will not be on the shelves of the opus: an autobiography detailing his rise ing apart, headed toward something of a Suffolk County House of Correction—or from a childhood of physical abuse by his mental and physical breakdown.” To top touted by his Orthodox schools. mother to a successful career as a pimp. He things off, he was mugged at knifepoint In the book, he details an episode from and Steinberg together edited and shaped on his way home one night by a former Torah camp in which he and two friends hundreds of pages of a handwritten manu- library patron. Though he recognized unwittingly trespassed into a Palestin- script over the course of a year. (Inmates may write only in prison-issued notebooks, using specially designed bendable pens.) Heritage and Service One inmate Steinberg befriended was CAUSA crystallized in 1994 when Cesar Conde ’95 and Carlos Zumpano ’96 Jessica, an addict and a Sylvia Plath fan (as bumped into each other in the Yard and discovered they’d had the same idea: Cuban- were many women inmates) who came to American students at the College needed a core around which to focus their joy in his creative-writing class. She longed to celebrating and sharing their heritage, and their efforts to promote a free and demo- reunite with the baby son she had left in a cratic Cuba. Since then, the Cuban-American Undergraduate Student Association at church pew with a note—who had turned Harvard (www.harvardcausa.org) has been a model for similar groups at other univer- up on the male side of the prison. From sities and has reached out to Cuban Americans in the graduate schools and to alumni. the library window, she silently watched On October 1-3, CAUSA’s current members, led by co-presidents Daniel Balmori him play basketball in the yard, but never ’11 and David Garcia ’11, convened the group’s first alumni conference: to foster new came into contact with him. Surely one avenues for service and activism and build bridges across generations. “A Community of her tasks, as Steinberg points out, was of Experiences” combined the serious—including talks by former Miami mayor Man- “to come to terms with the crime she was ny Diaz, a fellow at the Institute of Politics; Modesto A. Maidique, president emeritus never charged with—abandoning her of Florida International University, a visiting professor at the Business School; and son.” He urged her to compose a letter Jorge I. Domínguez, vice provost for international affairs and Madero professor of and another inmate spent weeks draw- Mexican and Latin American politics and economics—with breaks for networking, ing her portrait, both of which Steinberg Cuban fare, and an evening of dominoes, music, and dancing. had ambivalently agreed to deliver to her CAUSA’s mission statement calls for “passionately promoting” its goals; the gath- son. But as this once-removed encounter ering reflected that. Alumni stressed the duty, and satisfaction, of sharing the ben- drew near, Jessica ripped up the letter and efits of a good education. Conde (now president and chief operating officer of Univi- portrait and was transferred to another sion Networks) and Zumpano described their projects to help low-income Hispanic prison without saying good-bye. A few youths; Suzanne Besu ’01 told of home visits to persuade protective Cuban-Ameri- months later, shortly after her release, she can parents to send their high-achieving children to cold and distant Cambridge. The was dead of a drug overdose. undergraduates proved their passion in mounting the conference. Their hard work, Later on, Steinberg found out that an- said Teresita Alvarez-Bjelland ’76, M.B.A. ’79, the Harvard Alumni Association’s first other recently released inmate, Chud- Hispanic president, left her feeling “invigorated, inspired, touched, proud, and hopeful.” ney, the aspiring chef, had been shot in

62 January - February 2011 ian farmer’s field and were suddenly confronted by his sons. “They were tough and Harvard Arab Weekend courageous. We, on the other hand, played The Harvard Arab Alumni Association and the Middle East and North African adventure video games in air-conditioned Groups (MENA) at Harvard hosted a fourth annual gathering at the University on suburban palaces.” His friend Moshe took November 18-21. Among the major speakers were Queen Noor of Jordan, who out a well-worn copy of the Torah and gave the opening speech, and Prince Turki Al Faisal Al Saud, who presented “A Saudi gave the book to the Arab boys’ leader, Foreign Policy Doctrine for the New Decade.” Panel discussions focused on the indicating it was a gift. Steinberg was global economy in the Middle East, as well as on career opportunities in medicine, ashamed at the time because it is taboo in public health, design, and education. For additional details, visit www.harvardarab- Jewish tradition to give away a holy book, alumni.org/MENAweekend/index.php. especially to an enemy. Prison helped changed Steinberg’s view Asian student at Harvard was a rarity. ary and cultural studies, who helped de- of that incident. “We had been taught to Yet by the time Jane Bock ’81 arrived on velop the Asian-American studies minor place the Other on a narrow spectrum of campus in 1977, a critical mass of Asian- track in the East Asian studies program, pity, suspicion, and hate….But Moshe… American students was ready to be po- was among the speakers, as was Athena knew the holiness of the book was in shar- litically organized. They worked to gain Lao ’12, who helped with that effort and ing it.” In prison, as on the West Bank, minority status for Asians at Harvard, and is co-president of the Asian American As- he writes, book-sharing is taboo. “I met Bock’s sociology thesis, “The Model Mi- sociation (AAA) student group. The AAA people on the outside of prison who made nority in the Meritocracy: Asian Ameri- can help bring the more ethnically specific it clear they didn’t want their tax dollars cans in the Harvard/Radcliffe Admissions Asian cultural groups at Harvard togeth- funding a pretty library for violent crimi- Process,” prompted a Department of Jus- er, Lao says, and encourage students who nals.” Steinberg understands that, just as tice inquiry into the treatment of Asian- identify with the Asian-American com- he understands “the misery we had felt as American college applicants. The number munity “to say it proudly.” kids relinquishing our holy book to the en- of Asian-American students at Harvard Reaching across divides within that emy. It involved crossing a very real bound- doubled in the next four years. Not quite community was also a theme in the key- ary. What did we accomplish by it, or by 20 years later, HAAAA co-chair Jeff Yang note address by Chris Lu, who serves as running a library for convicts? Perhaps could point out that the group’s summit an assistant to his law-school classmate nothing. But there was a greater danger in venues on campus included both the Fong Barack Obama. Lu emphasized responsi- not doing these things—or, at least, in not and Tsai auditoriums. bilities beyond Harvard, pointing out that being willing to try.” vnell porter brown The summit’s 50 speakers and present- although the “model minority” stereotype ers ranged from Secretary of the Cabinet applied to all the Harvard graduates in Chris Lu, J.D. ’91, to novelist Gish Jen ’77 the room, it didn’t necessarily apply to the and professional poker player Bernard Lee Hmong high-school dropout. “Let us com- A Milestone for Asian ’92, A.L.M. ’94. There were panel discus- mit ourselves to those who have not fared sions on topics such as social entrepre- as well,” he said. American Alumni neurship and public service, film screen- Lu asked the audience to raise their Organized by the Harvard Asian ings, and an “elevator-pitch” competition. hands if their parents were immigrants, American Alumni Alliance (HAAAA), the Affirmative action and race-blind ad- and nearly everyone did. “My story is three-day Asian American Alumni Sum- missions were recurrent themes. Several your story. It’s the quintessential immi- mit on October 15-17 drew more than 400 speakers expressed concern that enroll- grant story,” he said, after narrating his people from six decades and all of Har- ment of Asian-American students at then 18-year-old father’s arrival in Amer- vard’s schools (http://summit.haaaa.net). the College, currently 17 percent, has re- ica, which included a five-day bus ride to “We are immeasurably diverse as a group, mained flat for the past 30 years despite Tennessee during which the traveler con- yet we share many of the same goals,” said that group’s growing representation in sumed nothing but hamburgers and milk, Jeannie Park ’83, who co-chaired the event the applicant pool. the only items he could name in English. with Jeff Yang ’89. The summit was also a forum to advo- Many other speakers also cited the impor- The summit celebrated progress made cate academic study of Asian-American tance of their immigrant parents’ having since the 1970s, when an Asian-American culture at Harvard. Eileen Chow ’90, for- given them the opportunity and, in some presence was virtually nonexistent on mer assistant professor of Chinese liter- cases, the freedom to pursue their dreams. campus, and examined remaining chal- All the same, if there’s any constant at lenges faced by Asian Americans today. Harvard’s 360th Asian-American alumni gatherings, it is During the opening plenary session, Commencement will take place jokes about overbearing parents. During “Where We Stand: The Changing Asian- on May 26. For information re- the panel “The Road Less Traveled: Asian American Experience at Harvard,” Wil- garding tickets, events, and alumni Americans in Atypical Careers,” Georgia liam F. Lee ’72, managing partner of Wil- Lee ’98, director of the filmRed Doors, said merHale and the first Asian American to gatherings, visit www.commence- her parents told her, “You can do anything serve on the Harvard Corporation, spoke mentoffice.harvard.edu. you want—as long as you are a biochem- of a time when encountering another ist, doctor, or lawyer.” vsarah zhang

Harvard Magazine 63 the college pump New Faces

sic and of East Asian languages and civili- came the first African American to com- zations, and Rabb professor of anthropol- pete against a white college in the South ogy emeritus Stanley J. Tambiah, from Sri when the Crimson traveled to Charlot- Lanka. The most recent portrait, unveiled tesville to play the University of Virginia. in December, is of an imagined Caleb A few weeks before the game, a Virginia Cheeshahteaumuck, A.B. 1665, of Martha’s athletic official called [Harvard director Vineyard, the first Native American to of athletics] Bill Bingham to suggest that graduate from Harvard. (He has had com- Pierce not make the trip, lest there be any “Your wooden arm you hold outstretched missions from other parts of Harvard as disturbances in the stands. To his credit, to shake with passers-by.” well: for example, from the Radcliffe In- Bingham made it clear that either the stitute for Advanced Study for a portrait whole Harvard team went or no one went. he white men hanging on of President Drew Faust.) A few Harvard players, Harvard’s walls are moving Coit ’71, M.B.A. ’77, of Cambridge, is an including captain Ken- over. With a $100,000 grant alumnus of Silicon Valley, where he was ny O’Donnell, later an Visit harvardmag.com/ from the president’s office, the a venture capitalist. He always liked to aide to President John extras to see a gallery THarvard Foundation for Intercultural and draw. In 1992, when he was laid up for F. Kennedy, wrote to of Coit’s Harvard Foundation portraits. Race Relations began in 2002 to commis- months with a bug, a friend gave him a the Virginia players re- sion oil portraits of minority and female box of pastels to experiment with. In iterating that Pierce was a member of the Harvardians. Foundation director S. Al- 1996, at the age of 48, he quit funding en- team and would play. The Cavaliers, many len Counter has said, “We simply wish trepreneurs to paint full time. of whom came from the Northeast any- to place portraits of persons of color and As an undergraduate, Coit looked at way, unanimously voted their agreement. others who’ve served Harvard among the the portraits in Lowell House, where “If the Virginia players were not a prob- panoply of portraits that already exists.” he lived, and thought them a lifeless lot. lem, the Virginia citizenry was. When a About 750 oil portraits occupy Harvard This November he added a portrait of his Charlottesville hotel manager insisted on halls, not counting the Law School, ac- own to their ranks (below). It is of fellow lodging Pierce in a black hotel, [head coach cording to a 2002 inventory. Some 60 are of Lowellian Chester M. Pierce ’48, M.D. ’52, Dick] Harlow moved the rest of the team white women. Only two are of minorities. professor emeritus of both psychiatry and there, as well. When a local restaurant The Boston Globe quoted Sandra Grindlay, education and a psychiatrist at Massachu- owner made Pierce use the rear door, the recently retired curator of the University setts General Hospital. entire Harvard team fol- Portrait Collection, as saying that the por- Last spring the hospital lowed. When the Crimson traits “have the power to represent the in- named its global psychi- entered the stadium on stitution, insofar as when some students atry division in Pierce’s Saturday afternoon, Har- look at them, they think, ‘If this is Har- honor. low ran in next to Pierce, vard, what am I doing here?’ ” A good story about staying on the side closest Counter assembled a committee to se- Pierce turns up in Foot- to the stands so that any lect portrait subjects who had worked at ball: The Ivy League Origins debris thrown might hit the University for at least 25 years, held a of an American Obsession him instead. Despite cat- competition, and chose a painter, Stephen (2001), by Mark F. Ber- calls from the bleachers, Coit. The first of 12 portraits Coit has nstein: “In 1947, [he] be- the game passed without done for the foundation is of the late Ar- incident….” chie Epps III, the College’s longtime dean Chester Pierce lecturing Harvard got a drub- in the Ether Dome at of students, who was African American. Massachusetts General bing, 47-0, but at the end He has also painted Rulan Pian, a Chinese Hospital. Apollo stands of the day was not shame- American who is professor emerita of mu- behind him. faced. vprimus v

64 January - February 2011

treasure Good Dogs For centuries, a simple technology permitted people to survive the Arctic.

inters in Kugaaruk, an ter, or discovered their innate talents for Inuit community on the the first time.” Gulf of Boothia in Cana- Nash, A.B. 1907, was a Boston stockbro- da’s Nunavut Territory, are ker and serial collector—of Colonial tools Wcold, very cold, and one wants one’s vehi- and furniture, New England coinage, and, cle to start reliably in the morning. An ex- in his seventies, Inuit art. His strong interest perienced Inuit hunter said to Maija Lutz in wildlife took him to Churchill, Manitoba, many years ago, when telling her about a known for its polar bears, beluga whales, tragic accident, “Ski-doos break down. and migrating birds, and there he had his My dogs never broke down.” first encounter with Inuit sculptures. Now retired as the librarian of the The piece shown here was made in Tozzer Library at Harvard’s Peabody Kugaaruk of carved ivory, leather, and Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, sealskin. It is 73/8 inches long. This com- Lutz is writing a book about the history munity was “especially well known for and development of contemporary Inuit its carvings of small ivory figures and tab- art, to be published by the Peabody Mu- leaux representing the daily lives of the seum Press. She is focusing on the mu- Inuit,” says Lutz. “As with many of these seum’s rich Chauncey C. Nash Collection objects, which were used as items of both of about 300 Inuit prints and sculptures trade and sale as early as the nineteenth acquired by Nash between 1959 and 1967, century, we do not know the identity of a time of “great experimentation among the artist.” This dogsled, she adds, “de- Inuit artists,” says Lutz, “as they explored picts a way of life that most Inuit living new methods, materials, and subject mat- today have only heard about.” v c.r. courtesy of the peabody musuem of archaeology and ethnology, harvard university harvard and ethnology, archaeology musuem of the peabody of courtesy

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