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sabbatical; an advisory committee is be- Just a month before FAS acted, the Na- ing formed to assist in the decanal search. tional Institutes of Health (NIH) an- University People nounced that it would become the first Overseer Leaders major research funder with an OA man- College Dean Designated Roger W. Ferguson Jr. ’73, J.D. ’79, Ph.D. date. Its previous voluntary policy led to Rosenkrantz professor of the history of ’81, former vice chairman of the Federal participation rates that hovered “between science and of African and African Reserve Board of Governors, will preside 4 and 7 percent,” explains Alexa McCray, American studies Evelynn M. Ham- over the Board of Overseers for the 2008- deputy director of Harvard Medical monds, Ph.D. ’93, will become dean of 2009 academic year. He succeeds former School’s Countway Library. (Because the Harvard College on June 1, succeeding Vassar president Frances D. Fergusson, NIH doesn’t make grants to individuals Ford professor of human Ph.D. ’73. Pauline Yu ’71, except through their institutions, the in- evolution David Pilbeam, president of the American stitutions will be responsible for tracking who has served on an in- Council of Learned Soci- authors’ compliance with the new pol- terim basis. Since 2005, eties, becomes vice chair of icy.) That policy requires that publicly Hammonds has been se- the Overseers’ executive funded papers be placed in PubMedCen- nior vice provost for fac- committee, succeeding at- tral, an OA repository of full-text articles, ulty development and di- torney William F. Lee ’72. says McCray. She adds that pending legis- versity, gaining a Univer- lation would require all federal funding sity-wide perspective on Development(s) agencies with grant budgets in excess of faculty recruiting and sup- Paul Keenan ’85 has been $100 million to adopt a policy similar to

port for faculty, graduate ROSE LINCOLN/HARVARD NEWS OFFICE appointed senior associate NIH’s—making the Harvard move seem students, and postdocs Evelynn M. Hammonds dean and director of devel- prescient indeed. struggling to balance work and family opment for the Faculty of Arts and Sci- The director of MIT’s library, Anne obligations. “Those issues will always be ences (FAS). He succeeds Scott Abell Wolpert, calls the FAS open-access policy a focus for me,” she says. “I just won’t be ’72, dean for FAS development, who is “bold and visionary”—a collective action doing them for central administration.” retiring at the end of the academic year. that “allows Harvard to support its fac- Her new job has two major projects teed Linda Fates becomes associate dean for ulty.” Under the current system of schol- up: renewing the undergraduate Houses resource development for the School of arly publishing, she says, faculty mem- (see Brevia, page 69) and launching a new Engineering and Applied Sciences. And bers’ intellectual content is “freely general-education curriculum to replace a quartet of senior development o∞cers donated to private ownership.” the Core. She also wants to enrich the has been formed into a new high-level College’s arts offerings—curricular and University Principal Gifts Team: Roger otherwise—and undergraduates’ science Cheever ’67, M.L.A. ’77, associate vice Race in a education and research opportunities. president; Charles Collier, M.T.S. ’73, senior philanthropic adviser; Joe Dono- Genetic World Engineering Deanship Ends van ’72, director; and Shirley Peppers, School of Engineering and Applied Sci- director. “I am an African American,” says Duana ences (SEAS) dean Venkatesh Narayana- Fullwiley, “but in Africa, I am white.” To murti announced on February 15 that he Currier do fieldwork as a medical anthropologist would relinquish the post in September, Captains in Senegal, she says, “I take a plane to concluding a decade of service. He had in- An expert on France, a seven- to eight-hour ride. My tended to step down in 2006, but stayed primate be- race changes as I cross the Atlantic.

on during transitions in University and havior and COURTESY OF RICHARD WRANGHAM There, I say, ‘Je suis noire,’ and they say, ‘Oh, Faculty of Arts and Sciences leadership to human evo- Elizabeth Ross and okay—métisse—you are mixed.’ Then I fly Richard Wrangham oversee the elevation of his unit’s status lution, Rich- another six to seven hours to Senegal, and from a division to a school (see “‘First Day ard Wrangham, Moore professor of an- I am white. In the space of a day, I can of School’ for Engineer- thropology, and Elizabeth Ross have change from African American, to métisse, ing,” November-Decem- been appointed master and co-master, to tubaab [Wolof for “white/European”]. ber 2007, page 74). SEAS respectively, of Currier House, e≠ective This is not a joke, or something to laugh faculty ranks increased July 1. The couple, who have three chil- at, or to take lightly. It is the kind of social by 50 percent during his dren, have worked extensively in recognition that even two-year-olds who tenure; graduate-stu- Uganda, where Wrangham founded the can barely speak understand. ‘Tubaab,’ dent enrollment surged. Kibale Chimpanzee Project and Ross is they say when they greet me.” STEPHANIE MITCHELL/HARVARD.NEWS OFFICE Venkatesh Narayanamurti will re- executive director of the Kasiisi Project, Is race, then, purely a social construct? Narayanamurti turn to teaching after a which supports primary schooling. The fact that racial categories change from one society to another might suggest it is.

62 May - June 2008 But now, says Fullwiley, assistant profes- DNA: the paternally inherited Y sex chro- for known Mendelian traits or conditions sor of anthropology and of African and mosome that only men carry, and mito- (such as Huntington’s disease) only a African American studies, genetic meth- chondrial DNA, which is passed exclu- fraction of people with a gene variant ods, with their precision and implied accu- sively from mothers to their children. linked to a disease actually become ill. racy, are being used in the same way that Scientists favor these markers with good Lost in the discussion about genes, she physical appearance has historically been reason: because only one parent can pass fears, are “epigenetic” influences: factors used: “to build—to literally construct—cer- them to o≠spring, they are not subject to that a≠ect gene expression but are not part tain ideas about why race matters.” recombination, the reshu±ing of genetic of one’s genetic code, such as prenatal nu- Genetic science has revolutionized biol- data that normally occurs in each genera- trition (which may influence rates of heart ogy and medicine, and even rewritten our tion. But they represent less than 1 percent disease late in life). Such biosocial fac- understanding of human history. But the of a subject’s DNA, and each tells about tors—environmental, cultural, and eco- fact that human beings are 99.9 percent only one ancestor per generation. Two nomic—can sometimes be more influential identical genetically, as Francis Collins and generations back, a customer might learn than genes. Fullwiley questions, for exam- Craig Venter jointly announced at the about one of four grandparents; three gen- Duana Fullwiley White House on June 26, 2000, when the erations back, about one of eight great- rough draft of the human genome was re- grandparents; and by 10 generations back leased, risks being lost, some scholars fear, (roughly 250 years ago), such genetic tests in an emphasis on human genetic di≠er- reference just one of the 1,024 ancestors in ence. Both in federally funded scientific re- that generation. It doesn’t take long to search and in increasingly popular prac- reach the point when, mathematically, a tice—such as ancestry testing, which often person’s ancestors start to outnumber the purports to prove or disprove membership sum total of all people who have ever lived. in a particular race, group, or tribe—ge- Nor can genetic tests verify a person’s netic testing has appeared to lend scientific race or ethnicity. Genes that a≠ect skin credence to the idea that there is a biologi- pigmentation or blood proteins involved in cal basis for racial categories. malarial resistance, the authors note, may In fact, “There is no genetic basis for not measure direct and unique ancestry race,” says Fullwiley, who has studied the (for example, a founder e≠ect), but reflect ethical, legal, and social implications of instead an evolutionary response to the human genome project with sociolo- “shared environmental exposures.” Fur- gist Troy Duster at UC, Berkeley. She thermore, the tests are based on compar- sometimes quotes , now isons to databases of DNA from living pop- professor of and Agassiz professor ulations, and are therefore vulnerable to of zoology emeritus, who said much the “systematic bias” because of “incomplete same thing in 1972, when he discovered geographic sampling” or the fact that “pre- that of all human genetic variation (which sent-day patterns of residence are rarely we now know to be just 0.1 percent of all identical to what existed in the past.” One genetic material), 85 percent occurs within testing company even uses an underlying geographically distinct groups, while 15 model that “reinforces the archaic racial percent or less occurs between them. The view that four discrete ‘parental’ popula- issue today, Fullwiley says, is that many tions (Africans, Europeans, East Asians, ple, if the prevalence of diabetes among Na- scientists are mining that 15 percent in and Native Americans) existed in the past” tive Americans on reservations, or of search of human di≠erences by continent. even though “there is little evidence that asthma among U.S. Latinos, is only genetic. Last October, Fullwiley and colleagues four biologically discrete groups of hu- Her research in Senegal has reinforced that from 14 academic institutions around the mans ever existed….” doubt. Scientists have long searched for a country articulated some of their con- Recently, Fullwiley’s concerns have genetic di≠erence that would explain why cerns about ancestry testing in Science centered on a new kind of genetic testing. many Senegalese experience a relatively magazine. More than half a million people For a substantial fee, companies such as mild form of sickle cell disease. Fullwiley’s have paid between $100 and $900 for such 23andMe will “tell you what your pro- work suggests that many of them may in- tests, and for some—those seeking to es- pensity is for hypertension, schizophre- stead be mitigating their symptoms with a tablish membership in a Native American nia, breast cancer, lactose intolerance, and widespread cultural practice: phyto- tribe poised to open a lucrative casino, for high or low IQ,” she says. But the studies therapy—the ingestion of roots from a example—the stakes can be high. Unfor- that have established links between genes plant that, preliminary studies suggest, tunately, the Science authors noted, the and these outcomes are probabilistic, she triggers production of fetal hemoglobin, tests have serious limitations. says, and convey, like ancestry tests, what a blood-cell type that doesn’t sickle. Most tests focus on just two types of might be called a false precision. Except “When environmental history, or evolu-

Photograph by Stu Rosner Harvard Magazine 63 JOHN HARVARD’S JOURNAL

gration out of Africa,” about some of the African-American DNA noted Wells. “You share testing companies purporting to trace you that with the Australian back to your ancient tribe.” Ancestry is aborigines.” An African- actually more complex for the average American student with an- African American, he says, not only be- cestors from East Africa cause people in West Africa (where most carried a genetic signature of the slave trade occurred) have moved characteristic of that re- around a lot in the last 500 years, but also gion. But an Asian-Ameri- because “group composition within Africa can student was surprised has changed over time.” Furthermore, be- to find that she carried al- cause only a small number of humans sur- most the same genetic vived the journey out of Africa some markers as a Mexican- 50,000 years ago (and the slave trade on American student. Wells that continent was relatively localized), explained, “There is only “there is more diversity in the average one change, but you are African village,” Wells notes, “than there fairly di≠erent because is outside of Africa combined.” your lines diverged a long tionary history, gets reduced to Spencer Wells tells time ago. Still, you are part When asked about the question of race, racial or ethnic di≠erence,” she student volunteers of the same branch of the Wells’s answer was unequivocal. “Racism of the Harvard says, “that’s a big mistake.” Foundation about their tree”: the Native Americans is not only socially divisive, but also sci- deep ancestors’ who populated the West- entifically incorrect. We are all descen- Not all genetics projects are so ancient migrations. ern Hemisphere originally dants of people who lived in Africa re- potentially divisive, however. In came from Asia. cently,” he says. “We are all Africans under February, Spencer Wells, Ph.D. ’94, a for- The aims to tell the skin.” The kinds of di≠erences that mer Lewontin student, came to Harvard people “where their ancestors were living people notice, such as skin pigmentation, to tell a story of human connectedness. as indigenous people” at di≠erent points limb length, or other adaptations are “ba- Wells, who heads the joint National Geo- in time, but can’t, for example, tell most sically surface features that have been se- graphic Society-IBM nonprofit Geno- African Americans precisely where in lected for in the environment. When you graphic Project, spent an afternoon with Africa they are from because, Wells ex- peer beneath the surface at the underlying student members of the Harvard Founda- plains, “the database isn’t quite there yet.” level of genetic variation, we are all much tion, which represents 72 student organi- Echoing Fullwiley’s reservations about all more similar than we appear to be. There zations “from the Albanian Society to the such tests, he says he’s “a bit concerned are no clear, sharp delineations.” Vietnamese Society,” says director S. Allen Counter. Wells had previously invited the students to participate in the Geno- Markers, Male and Female graphic Project by sending in cheek swabs with their DNA for analysis. “The idea,” Genetic tests have limits, even as tools for tracing ancient migrations. Because says Counter, “was to show a diverse men don’t move around as much as women do in patriarchal societies—contrary to group of students how they connect to popular belief, says Spencer Wells, Ph.D. ’94, who heads the joint National Geographic the rest of humanity.” Society-IBM Genographic Project—the Y chromosome is the best marker for charting Wells has created a human family tree migration patterns until it dead-ends about 60,000 to 90,000 years ago in one man who that traces “” (as he ti- lived in Africa. To trace earlier migrations, scientists use mitochondrial DNA, which tled his 2002 book) in populating the entire passes exclusively from mother to child. That trail leads back 200,000 years to one planet from a homeland in Africa. The pro- woman. The striking di≠erence in the time frame, Wells notes, reflects the fact that, his- ject has used linguistic and genetic studies torically, “most women have an opportunity to reproduce, but only a few men do”— to guide its sampling of indigenous popula- and thus a more diverse sampling of the earliest female human lineages has survived. tions from around the globe—many of Wells says genetic evidence “tells us something about the who, the where, the them isolated and remote—and now has when. But to make sense of the how and the why (which is the fun part), you have the world’s largest and most representative to draw in archaeology, anthropology, paleoclimatology, linguistics—all these other anthropological database of human DNA. fields.” Climate shifts have been an important factor, though not the only one: he’s At Harvard, a Pakistani-American stu- recently turned up a genetic impact of the Crusades on the gene pool of the Middle dent whose family had always told her they East. “We can actually trace Christian lineages in Lebanon back to source popula- were originally from an area near the Ara- tions in Europe,” he says. “That sort of resolution has never been possible before be- bian Sea had this confirmed by her DNA re- cause we didn’t have a large enough sample size.” sult. “Your family was part of the first mi-

64 May - June 2008 Photograph by Romana Vysatova ©2008 National Geographic Fullwiley’s own ethnographic research among genetic scientists suggests that Yesterday’s News much of current medical genetics may re- From the pages of the Harvard Alumni Bulletin and Harvard Magazine inforce ideas of racial di≠erence. Because certain diseases occur at higher frequen- 1928 Following Harvard’s first spring ceremonies that are conducted by cies in some populations (sickle cell ane- reading period, the College Library re- officials of other religions. mia in blacks, Tay-Sachs disease in Jews ports about 650 more visitors than in of eastern European ancestry), they have the previous year. 1963 What begins in the Winthrop become linked to the idea of race, even House courtyard as a prank by 20 or so when the disease does not result from 1933 In response to a New Yorker arti- Radcliffe students “hotly perpetrating common ancestry. Sickle cell trait, for ex- cle which “describes the lamentable de- the first Great B.V.D. Raid in Harvard ample, has arisen independently in sev- crease of hurdy-gurdies licensed by the history” (according to the Bulletin’s eral populations as an evolutionary re- city of New York,” the Bulletin’s editors undergraduate column) escalates into a sponse to malaria. The genetic change cite the welcome increase in street per- riotous event involving close to 2,000 appeared first in India and then in Africa; formers and the variety of street music undergraduates and onlookers by the it is also found in Greeks and Italians. But in Cambridge. time the action reaches Harvard Square. in the , Fullwiley says, The shouting, chanting masses finally dis- sickle cell trait is very much linked to 1938 After noting that Harvard appears perse at the Radcliffe Quad. No Radcliffe African-American racial identity through to be the first institution of higher learn- women are officially penalized, but five the history of medicine. ing to enter into a contract with a na- Harvard men spend the night in jail. She says the potential for racialization tional labor union, the Bulletin reports of medical genetics has been institutional- that nine employees’ units have partici- 1983 Student activists have set up “E ized because “you can’t get a grant from pated in perhaps the first official election for D,” the Endowment for Divestiture, the NIH unless you recruit in racial to determine the bargaining agent be- and are urging seniors and alumni to groups, label people by census category, tween a university and its workers. send their class-gift contributions to its and then report back the data in terms of escrow account rather than to Harvard outcomes by racial type.” The original in- 1958 Upon the recommendation of until the University adopts a policy of tent—to counter the widespread use of the chairman of the University’s Board complete divestiture of its South African the white male body as the working re- of Preachers, the Harvard Corporation holdings or until the UN lifts its eco- search norm—is “fine and good,” she says, has voted to permit Memorial Church nomic sanctions again that country’s but there “ought to be some flexibility to to be used on certain occasions for pri- apartheid regime. these race categories, and some thinking vate, non-Christian about what they mean. This new con- struction of race…is socially inflected— but it is not solely a social construct be- cause biology is front and center.”

Prescription: Music Nowadays, no one from Faulkner Hospital bothers Stephen Wright ’64 on Thursday nights. But when he joined the Longwood Symphony Orchestra (LSO) in 1993—before he became Faulkner’s chief of medicine and could pick his hours—he kept a pager on his belt during rehearsals. If it went off, he had to put down his bassoon and take the call. Sometimes, after the three-hour re- hearsal, he went back to the hospital instead of going home. “I maintain that you make time for what you want to do,” he says. “And I really want to do this.” Wright wasn’t the only one to bring a pager to rehearsals. A group of

Illustration by Mark Steele