SUMMER 2019

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ILLUSTRATOR: PATRICK GEORGE SUMMER 2019 colloquy

10 10 Unboxing CRISPR The new gene-editing tools that are poised to 22 transform humanity

16 Lighting the Spark Harvard signals its investment in quantum science

22 Fearless Advocates, Trusted Leaders The 2019 Centennial Medalists

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4 Talking Points Veritalk podcast, Alumni Day, Commencement

6 Student Advocates The Hogles step down as faculty deans

8 Conversation Emilio Kourí, PhD ’96, on Mexican history

24 Noteworthy Alumni updates and recent publications

28 Connect Upcoming GSAS events

COVER ARTISTS: KAI AND SUNNY SUMMER 2019 colloquy 1 greeting

colloquy SUMMER 2019

Emma Dench dean Jennifer Flynn senior director of global outreach Jon Petitt director of alumni relations and events Ann Hall editor Andrea Volpe writer 2COMMUNIQUÉ creative direction & design Colloquy is published two times a year by the Graduate School Alumni Association (GSAA). Governed by its GRADUATE STUDENTS face a number of chal- Alumni Council, the GSAA represents and advances lenges as they work toward their degrees, but the interests of alumni of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences through alumni events and publications. none can be more overwhelming than those CONTACT associated with mental health. Because of The Graduate School Alumni Association 1350 Avenue, Suite 350 this impact on the graduate student ex- Cambridge, MA 02138-3846 617-495-5591, [email protected] perience, GSAS partnered with Harvard gsas.harvard.edu/alumni University Health Services to conduct men- Access current and back issues of Colloquy, as well as a range of other alumni services and information, tal health surveys in a variety of programs. Thanks to excellent at gsas.harvard.edu/alumni.

response rates, we’ve learned a great deal about the scope of LETTERS TO THE EDITOR We welcome your feedback and ideas. Write to: Colloquy, mental health problems throughout our student body. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, 1350 Massachusetts Avenue, Suite 350, Cambridge, MA But this is not an issue limited to GSAS. Over the past sev- 02138-3846; or email [email protected].

eral years, institutions of higher education across the country GRADUATE SCHOOL ALUMNI have seen an increase in reports of mental health issues from ASSOCIATION (GSAA) COUNCIL AS OF JULY 1, 2019 students and in their subsequent use of related services. As part Alexandra Amati, PhD ’95, music G. “Anand” Anandalingam, PhD ’81, applied sciences of the University’s ongoing efforts to address this issue, Harvard Reinier Beeuwkes, COL ’62, PhD ’70, medical sciences Lisette Cooper, PhD ’87, geology has taken a leading role in convening a task force on managing Mia de Kuijper, MPA ’83, PhD ’83, economics Stacy Dick, AB ’78, PhD ’83, business economics student mental health, charged with examining how Harvard can A. Barr Dolan, AM ’74, applied sciences best address the mix of academic, social, and institutional issues Richard Ekman, AB ’66, PhD ’72, history of American civilization; chair that have the potential to influence student mental health. I’m Yonatan Eyal, PhD ’05, history John C. C. Fan, SM ’67, PhD ’72, applied sciences pleased to report that the task force includes students as well as Gerard Frabolot, AM ’78, economics Mary Gurak, PhD ’17, applied physics faculty and administrators, and their input will be crucial as we R. Stanton Hales, PhD ’70, mathematics develop University-wide solutions. LaVaughn Henry, PhD ’91, economics Fiona Hill, AM ’91, regional studies–USSR, PhD ’98, history In addition to serving on the steering committee, I am leading Karen J. Hladik, PhD ’84, business economics Onoso Imoagene, PhD ’11, sociology the working group on graduate and professional students. GSAS Daniel R. Johnson, AM ’82, regional studies–East Asia, GSA ’85, business economics students comprise a third of this category, and our PhD students Gopal Kadagathur, PhD ’69, applied sciences Gyuri Karady, PhD ’80, applied sciences are unique at the University in that they usually take five years or Peter Kim, PhD ’18, government more to earn a degree. The information we’ve already gathered Imad Kordab, PhD ’09, applied mathematics Jill Levenson, PhD ’67, English and American literature through our mental health surveys will help inform the develop- and language Edlyn Levine, PhD ’16, applied physics ment of a broad strategy, one that can effectively support all stu- See-Yan Lin, MPA ’70, PhD ’77, economics Abraham Lowenthal, AB ’61, MPA ’64, PhD ’71, government dents. I also intend to consider these results as part of the advising Suzanne Folds McCullagh, PhD ’81, fine arts project GSAS will launch during the upcoming academic year. John J. Moon, AB ’89, PhD ’94, business economics Sandra O. Moose, PhD ’68, economics I am pleased that the University is focusing on this important Betsy M. Ohlsson-Wilhelm, AB ’63, PhD ’69, medical sciences Maury Peiperl, MBA ’86, PhD ’94, organizational behavior part of the student experience. Ultimately, this is about improv- David Staines, PhD ’73, English and American literature and language ing the lives of students—their lives as scholars and their lives as Marianne Steiner, MEng ’78, SM ’78, applied mathematics Dennis E. Vaccaro, PhD ’78, medical sciences human beings. I’m particularly drawn to a line in the document Cammi Valdez, PhD ’14, medical sciences that lays out the task force’s role: “Mental health is not a prob- Donald van Deventer, PhD ’77, business economics Kimberly A. Wagner, PhD ’94, medical sciences lem to address in a few students but an element of well-being to Nancy Wilker, PhD ’97, medical sciences Sean Yu, SM ’95, engineering sciences, AM ’03, urban planning cultivate among all.” That is very well said and something we all Gustavus Zimmerman, PhD ’80, physics

should bear in mind as we address this critical work. Moving? Please email your new address to [email protected] or send your Colloquy mailing label and your new address to Alumni & Development Services, 124 Mount Auburn Street, 4th Floor, Cambridge, MA 02138-3654. Colloquy is printed by PrintResource/DS Graphics.

—EMMA DENCH DEAN

2 colloquy SUMMER 2019 PHOTOGRAPHER: KATHLEEN DOOHER discourse colloquy

REMARKS What’s the most helpful advice you received

from an advisor or mentor? —COLLOQUY, WINTER 2019

The most helpful—the best—advice I received while at Harvard came from my advisor Otto Eckstein, a brilliant and pragmatic member of the economics Faculty, after defending my thesis. I had gone to the Maine Woods and returned with a unique method for estimating the unpriced value of outdoor recreation. His comment was, “Now, don’t spend the rest of your life on your thesis.” As it happened, I went from Harvard to a Washington think tank that had other plans for me. I never managed to get back to the thesis, but others picked up my technique, made further elaborations, and created the field of “Contingent Value Analysis.” Otto was right. Without lifting another finger, I became known as the pioneer in a flourishing new field. Instead of burnishing one small gem, I have had a rich and varied career that has taken me to many fascinating locations starting, I suppose it is fair to say, with the Northern

Maine Woods and the support of Otto Eckstein. —ROBERT DAVIS, PHD ’63, ECONOMICS

Advice received in 1963: “A wise person thinks twice before saying nothing.”

—LAWRENCE LITT, PHD ’71, PHYSICS

LETTERS ENGAGE Harvard has a helluva long way to go toward in- gender will have severe consequences and clusivity. Here and there in Colloquy you might life-long losses, such as loss of any chance to mention the women who gained nothing from become a biological parent. So, such children What did Harvard except lecture courses, use of the li- should routinely be offered psychotherapy, braries and collections, and finally that piece of which might restore normal self-concept. paper in a tube, called a diploma. Harvard has Hall’s article revealed no such interest in you do to remained oblivious of the women in my cohort helping via psychotherapy. Rather, the idea in spite of the significant research and many of “categorization” is demeaned as though it take a break publications, even presidencies in our profes- is wrong to categorize a child as a male or as sional organizations, that we have achieved. a female. Olson cannot be fully helpful if she “Nevertheless, she persisted” characterizes us. fails to accept the natural biology that governs from your

—ALICE BECK KEHOE, PHD ’64, ANTHROPOLOGY, over 99 percent of all people. It only seems PROFESSOR OF ANTHROPOLOGY, liberal and humanistic to accept and support academic EMERITUS, MARQUETTE UNIVERSITY the child’s own definition of his or her gender, despite pathologic sources. [Kristina] Olson is compassionate in support- For example, imagine dealing with children work? ing children who believe that their gender has who pictured themselves as “witches” or “de- been wrongly determined. Fears and anxieties monic agents.” It would not be kind to support Let us know! Email [email protected] may underlie such dysphoria…. Accordingly, that type of dysphoria. Olson’s clients should we should not accept gender dysphoria in a also be helped to better lives and better futures.

reflex manner. Transferring to the opposite —HERBERT S. CARON, PHD 1953, PSYCHOLOGY

Share your story with us! Email [email protected]. Or write Colloquy, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University, 1350 Massachusetts Avenue, Suite 350, Cambridge, MA 02138-3846.

ILLUSTRATOR: ERIC HANSON SUMMER 2019 colloquy 3 talking points

YOUR WINDOW INTO THE MINDS OF HARVARD PHDs Will climate change force us all to eat vegan diets? Can King Kong do a backflip? RESEARCH OF THE NEXT GENERATION Who decided that tuxedos Sea sponge–inspired architecture. The true story of the Library of Alexandria. What makes should be black and white? a blue jay blue. These are three of eight topics delivered by the 2019 Harvard Horizons If there’s a question scholars at a symposium held in April. Each year, eight PhD students are chosen to receive you’re curious about, chanc- in-depth, personalized mentoring and coaching designed to enhance their presentation es are there’s a Harvard skills before delivering their brief, compelling talks from the Sanders Theatre stage. PhD student who has the an-swers. On the GSAS pod- Missed Harvard Horizons? Watch the symposium at gsas.harvard.edu/horizons2019. cast Veritalk, you can hear the latest big ideas across the humanities, sciences, and social sciences in just 15 minutes. Subscribe to YOU CAN GO HOME AGAIN Veritalk and get stories about Alumni returned to campus in April for a everything from mermaids weekend of engagement at Alumni Day and the to microbes delivered direct- Harvard Biophysics Graduate Program Alumni ly to your mobile device. Reunion and 60th Anniversary Celebration. In multiple sessions at the biophysics Veritalk recently won a Gold reunion, alumni shared their perspectives on Circle of Excellence Award the journey from graduate school to their current from the Council for the profession as well as their proudest successes Advancement and Support of and the inevitable missteps they made along the Education, which noted that way. The program included the North American GSAS “has made academics premiere of When DNA Makes Loops, performed seem normal and everyday by the Callithumpian Consort and composed in a very good way.” by Amir Bitran, PhD candidate in biophysics. At Alumni Day, keynote speaker and Pro- Search for “Veritalk” in fessor of Sociology Frank Dobbin shared the your favorite podcast app or results of his research into faculty diversity visit gsas.harvard.edu/veritalk. programs as he considered the question “Why, if we are seeing disciplines across the country turning out women and minorities with PhDs, are we seeing so few getting tenure 10 years out?” Afternoon sessions included discussions of narcissism in public life, social science in the classroom, and viruses, proteins, and cells.

Read recaps of the events at gsas.harvard.edu/ news/stories/alumni-day-2019 and gsas.harvard.edu/ news/stories/biophysics60.

Save the date for the next Alumni Day: April 4, 2020.

4 colloquy SUMMER 2019 PHOTOGRAPHER: TONY RINALDO Find additional content, or continue the conversation online

Students, faculty, and other mentors “have given me the confidence to pick battles, go after the more robust yet less flashy science, continue to seek appropriate feed- back from others, JUBILATION and come back to On Thursday, May 30, 2019, GSAS students gathered with their families and friends to celebrate the 368th Harvard University Commencement trusting my gut.” Exercises. The culmination of years of study and research, Commencement

—VINIDHRA MANI, PHD ’19, IMMUNOLOGY marked the transition from students to alumni as graduates move on to STUDENT SPEAKER FOR THE DIVISION OF diverse careers in industry, the nonprofit sector, government, and academia. MEDICAL SCIENCES HOODING CEREMONY

CONTINUING TRANSFORMATION Since the October 2018 announcement that Dudley House would transition to the GSAS Student Center for graduate students and the for undergraduates, GSAS has been gathering information about what students and alumni would like to see in the newly envisioned Center. GSAS Dean Emma Dench has met with student leaders and affinity group members to hear their perspectives, and several students are serving on a committee to choose the Center’s inaugural executive director. GSAS also surveyed alumni for their thoughts. Enhanced programming and improved space topped the list of sugges- tions from alumni, with many sharing the positive impact that activities, such as intramural sports and connecting with students from other fields, had on their graduate stu- dent experience. All information gathered will be considered as the review and implementation process continues over the next academic year.

PHOTOGRAPHER: TONY RINALDO; ILLUSTRATOR: BRIAN STAUFFER SUMMER 2019 colloquy 5 talking points

Advocates for a Balanced Life

GSAS BIDS FAREWELL TO JIM AND DOREEN HOGLE have made history DUDLEY HOUSE FACULTY DEANS at Dudley House. Through 17 years of JAMES AND DOREEN HOGLE distinguished service, they have become, by a significant margin, Dudley’s longest- BY KELLY HAHN serving faculty deans; in fact, they are among the longest-serving across Harvard’s entire House system. But their legacy cannot be measured merely in Dudley has always been the most years. In everything they have done, the unconventional member of Harvard’s Hogles have embodied warmth, open- possible by such an incredibly talented undergraduate House system. It had its ness, integrity, boundless energy, and and committed student body. The Hogles origins in 1936 as the College’s non- true interest in and care for those around made sure that students had a chance to residential undergraduate student them. They have touched the lives of utilize their many strengths and inter- center, before becoming a House in 1958 thousands of students, staff, and alumni. ests, and they were totally accessible in and incorporating all GSAS students in When the Hogles became co-masters every way.” 1991. During their tenure, Faculty Deans of Dudley House in 2002, they succeeded Margot Gill, who served for more Jim and Doreen Hogle strengthened Everett Mendelsohn and Mary Anderson, than 20 years as administrative dean of Dudley’s identity as a place for all who describe the Hogles’ leadership as GSAS, sees the Hogles’ openness and students—from different backgrounds, exemplary. “Jim and Doreen came into accessibility as defining features of their following different paths, and with a the mastership of Dudley House with leadership. “I think of Jim Hogle on stage wide variety of interests, both academic smiles on their faces and with genuine at Sanders Theatre at Orientation, every and personal—to come together and enthusiasm for what they knew would be single year, welcoming graduate students build well-rounded lives at Harvard. an adventure,” Everett and Mary recall. to Dudley House,” Gill says. “He would As the Hogles step down from their post, “Over the years, as we checked in on say it with such energy and warmth and they will be remembered for their impact activities and events at Dudley House, we enthusiasm; it was just genuine. He’d put on students—graduate students and saw that Jim and Doreen both main- on his Dudley hat and his Dudley T-shirt, undergraduates—and for their unfailing tained this enthusiasm and beautifully and he just embodied the open invitation enthusiasm for the importance of expanded the roles they filled. Their time to every single graduate student. What spending time away from academics. at Dudley House represented the best of could be better than that?” the original concept of the House.” The Hogles made every year at Dudley When Allan Brandt thinks back on House one to remember. At Discover his GSAS deanship, from 2008 to 2012, Dudley, the annual start-of-year theme he puts the Hogles at the top of his list of party, they have donned unforgettable people who did things of real significance costumes—Jim’s turn as the Lorax is for students. “They understood how legend—and encouraged incoming stu- important it was to make the Gradu- dents to explore the House and its many ate School a supportive and generous resources. The Hogles have been enthu- environment,” Brandt says. “The history siastic participants in student-faculty of graduate education was for students to dinners, Senior Common Room gather- be isolated in their departments, without ings, and a wealth of activities planned the socio-intellectual opportunities made by the Dudley Fellows, a dedicated team

6 colloquy SUMMER 2019 PHOTOGRAPHER: MARTHA STEWART have found it deeply meaningful to Co-op, others who live off-campus, and have a senior member of the faculty so visiting undergraduates. Doreen has committed to encouraging them to have presided over undergraduate Com- fun and live full lives at Harvard. As Zeba mencement exercises, and she and Jim Wunderlich, PhD ’08, reflects, “Gradu- have enjoyed many meals at the Co-op ate school is inevitably a stressful time and have opened their home and their for most, and the atmosphere at Dudley hearts to undergraduates in need of House was always a breath of fresh air, support. Karen Flood, who served for due to Jim and Doreen’s dedication to seven years as Allston Burr Resident bringing some balance to graduate school Dean, notes that the Hogles have always life. I know I am a much better person had a special fondness for undergradu- for having had the opportunity to serve ates who take an unusual path through as a Dudley Fellow.” college. “Jim and Doreen respected the In recognition of the Hogles’ lasting additional responsibility that Dudley contributions to student leadership de- Co-op and off-campus students took velopment at GSAS, the position of head on,” Flood says, “and they respected our Dudley Fellow has been named in their students’ activism in university, local, of 26 graduate students who organize honor. Lindsey Brown, a PhD candidate and national politics. They also had a everything from film nights and music in applied mathematics, will serve as lot of empathy for students who were performances to outings and athletic the first Hogle Coordinating Fellow next experiencing distress of any kind. The events—all helping to connect students year. “I have been fortunate to work with idea of the whole student is something who share common interests, regardless Jim and Doreen and experience firsthand that they lived and breathed.” of academic department. At year-end their leadership of the Fellows team,” The Hogles’ Harvard family extends dinners at the historic Commander’s Brown says. “It is such an honor to carry beyond the graduate and undergradu- Mansion in Watertown, Jim has paid their name forward into the leadership ate students of Dudley House. For the tribute to the unique contributions of of the GSAS Student Center, and I am past seven years they have been faculty each and every Dudley Fellow. grateful that, no matter where their directors of Harvard’s Graduate Com- The Hogles have been superb ad- retirement travels may take them, a piece mons Program and residents of Pea- vocates for graduate students, in part of them will always be here leading the body Terrace, where they have hosted because they have firsthand knowledge Fellows team.” monthly open houses and worked to create a full sense of family and home within the Harvard University Hous- ing community. They have also been a “They understood how important constant inspiration to alumni and staff who share their mission. it was to make the Gradu­ate Susan Zawalich, who served Dudley’s graduate student community for 26 School a supportive and years as House Administrator, is among those who have worked most closely generous environment.” with the Hogles, particularly with Jim and the Dudley Fellows. “The Hogles are

—ALLAN BRANDT, AMALIE MOSES KASS PROFESSOR OF THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE wonderful, warm, and precious people, devoted to supporting students as whole human beings,” Zawalich says. “They’re of what graduate school is like: Doreen is In addition to their unflagging sup- beloved by the people that they work an accomplished lawyer, and Jim is Ed- port of graduate students, the Hogles with, and they’re enormously positive ward S. Harkness Professor of Biological have been deeply invested in the three role models for students. Anyone who Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology branches of Dudley’s undergraduate has been a student while they’ve been at . Students population: residents of the Dudley here has been lucky.”

SUMMER 2019 colloquy 7 conversation

IMAGINED PAST

EMILIO KOURÍ, AB ’84, PHD ’96, Would you say that the history of Mexico is It sounds as though the area was fertile STUDIES THE SOCIAL AND a history of farming and land ownership? and profitable. What happened after the ECONOMIC HISTORY OF RURAL For thousands of years, the life of people Spanish arrived? MEXICO SINCE INDEPENDENCE. in the Mexican region—particularly The identity of Mexico is largely tied to HE IS PARTICULARLY INTERESTED in the center and the south—has been the story of indigenous people living in IN THE IDEA OF THE “INDIAN bound to agriculture. It is the birth- villages that governed themselves. The PUEBLO,” CREATED BY THE place of corn cultivation, and a series of arrival of and conquest by the Spaniards SPANISH BASED ON PRE-HISPANIC cultures that arose and continue today changed everything dramatically, but it INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES. were built around the consumption and did not change the centrality of agricul- THE MYTHOLOGY OF THESE cultivation of corn. Prior to the Spanish ture. A huge percentage of the native pop- COMMUNITIES CONTINUES TO conquest, village life and agricultural life ulation—some say up to 90 percent—died RESONATE IN MEXICO TODAY. were the center of everyone’s existence. from epidemics, violence, war, and dis- Even after Independence in the 19th ruptions, but most of those who remained century, Mexico remained centered on continued to live in the countryside. agriculture. I’m interested in that agrar- What did change was that the Span- ian path because it’s really at the core of iards reorganized land tenure. From the the lived experience, back to the origins existing pre-Hispanic communities, the of agriculture—maybe 5,000 years before Spanish created pueblos that were en- the common era until a short while ago. dowed with lands by the King of Spain.

8 colloquy SUMMER 2019 ILLUSTRATOR: DANIEL BAXTER “These imagined communities were reinvented...without a political component.” —EMILIO KOURÍ

Much of the political and social history on an understanding of the past that CURRICULUM VITAE since the Spanish conquest and into the was, in some ways, defective. Communal 19th century is really about the fate of property is connected to romantic social University of Chicago those communities: the lands, the polit- qualities: egalitarianism, reciprocity, and Professor of History ical rights, the efforts to fend off inter- solidarity working harmoniously until, and the College lopers from the neighboring states that in the second half of the 19th century, Chair, Department the Spaniards controlled. This is a core politicians pushed them to dissolve as a of History part of the history, but it’s also a core part path to progress and modernity. Director, Katz Center of that idea of the past—that this was a In fact, it was a much more complicat- for Mexican Studies place of natives and later mixed commu- ed story. As land holding units, they were nities who held the land that way. from the start very unequal, very strati- Harvard University fied. Their real virtue lies in the way they AB in Philosophy, How long did these communities last? became the foundation for local political cum laude, 1984 That structure stood in place until the power and organization. When these PhD in History, 1996 second half of the 19th century, when “imagined communities” were reinvented modern ideas of social progress and the by the government, they were reinvented idea of the individual farmer took hold without a political component. And I say in Mexico. Politicians abolished col- imagined communities because, although lective or communal property because they did exist as communal land holding they thought that it was a drawback to communities, the meaning of communal- Mexico had a single party in power from economic and social progress. ism in pre-Hispanic times was often not the 1940s until the year 2000, and the In part, the disruption, the disposses- the same as the romanticized version. political foundation of that stability came sion, and the disaffection produced by largely from these captive communities that major transformation in the histor- How has that lack of political engagement that had no other political form of redress. ical status of communal property led to affected Mexico? the agrarian outbreaks around the Mex- Land reform was a huge political Did that absence of political power and de- ican Revolution of 1910. Certainly, some achievement. By the late 1930s, it had velopment of a single party have negative of the groups that rose to fight during the led to the destruction and dissolution of impact on the country as a whole? revolution wanted the restoration of the the old estates that had arisen after the Agricultural reform was one example communal status of village lands. After Spanish conquest in the 16th and 17th of a neglect that has had long-term the revolution, profound agrarian reform centuries, and those lands were distrib- consequences. Municipal or city power in the 20th century created new commu- uted into a newly created communal was stripped out of politics in the land nities imagined to be like the old ones, land holding association of the sort that I communities and elsewhere, and that but, in fact, they were quite different. mentioned. That is, historically, without weakened the fabric of local society. The question, quite significant. The issue is revolution initially promised to reverse Does your research address this difference? why they didn’t lead, in the countryside, that but, in fact, did not and continued My work is, in part, about how that to the kind of prosperity and progress the process of weakening local power. reform was predicated on certain ideas that people once hoped they would. And many of Mexico’s problems—not about the past: about the nature of those The absence of the political element just the ones related to agriculture—in communities, what held them together, left them unable to establish or fight for localities that feed the violence of drug and how they worked. I argue that some what they needed and, through a kind dealing and so on are connected to the of the difficulties that 20th-century land of growing clientelism, they essentially sense of abandonment of space at the reform faced have to do with the imple- became wards of the state when it came local level. Sooner or later, that is going mentation of policies that were based to political rights and representation. to have to be restored.

SUMMER 2019 colloquy 9 Un boxing

10 colloquy SUMMER 2019 ARTIST: NAME HERE The new gene-editing tools that are poised to transform humanity Un boxing CRISPR THE WORLD OF SCIENCE FICTION is full of cau- what nature intended for humans. tionary tales that chronicle the consequences of But in the real world, genetic modification tinkering with the human . The movie in some form or another has been practiced Gattaca explored the societal effects of genetic for millennia, for example, through selective BY ANN HALL choice, imagining a world that had divided hu- breeding and artificial selection. When Gregor ILLUSTRATION BY manity into those considered worthy of success Mendel conducted his experiments on peas JODY HEWGILL and those banned from it because of their “infe- more than 150 years ago, he inspired the new rior” nature. In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, it field of modern genetics, which led, ultimately, was discovered that a character had undergone to experiments designed to understand and im- a genetic therapy to boost his intelligence, a prove the human genome. Over time, techno- procedure outlawed when genetic engineering logical advances have challenged society’s belief was banned after the Eugenics Wars. These systems and raised ethical concerns, spurring stories and a multitude of others portray the public debate over ideas that once seemed dangers, often deadly, of “playing God” with confined to fiction.

SUMMER 2019 colloquy 11 The latest disruptive technology to take aim at our genetic makeup is known as CRISPR: Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats. Discovered in the 1980s and initially dismissed as “junk DNA,” CRISPR has emerged as a tool with the power to eradicate disease, and it is transforming scientific research throughout the world. Turns out, that “junk” plays a key role in immunity to reinfection, a discovery made through bacterial DNA research. Bacterial DNA is made up of repeats and spacers—the CRISPR—along with a CRISPR-associated, or Cas, enzyme. When a virus invades, Cas enzymes attack and snip off portions of the virus’s ge- nome. These bits are stored in the spacers so that the bacterium “remembers” what attacked it in case the virus returns. , PhD ’89, and her colleague Emmanuelle Charpentier of the Max Planck Institute for Biology in Berlin, realized that they could FIRST, DO NO HARM capitalize on this defense system and Medical harm is what Jacob Moses, a PhD use it as a tool for directed gene editing. student in the history of science, focuses Their technique involves combining a his research on. “I’m interested in chang- guide-RNA produced by CRISPR with ing notions of medical harm: what it is, a specific enzyme called Cas9 to form who defines it, and how it has changed a Cas9 complex. The guide-RNA is over time,” Moses explains. “I’m looking programmed to find a specific section of at moments of therapeutic reversal, where DNA, and when it does, Cas9 cuts it out. something widely practiced and thought But there’s a drawback: Sometimes, to constitute good care comes to be seen the scissors don’t stop and continue as a harmful form of intervention.” along, modifying similar genetic material As a Vassar undergraduate studying and causing unintended consequences. science, technology, and society, Mo- Though research to thwart these “off- ses became intrigued by efforts to use target effects” is promising, until they genetic technology to modify humans. can be eradicated, the technique could After graduation, he worked for a bio- lead to circumstances that harm patients. ethics research institute but ultimately And this leads to an important question: decided that he wanted to conduct his What are our ethical responsibilities own research and develop an identity as Jacob Moses studies the changing notions when new technologies arise and are a scholar. PhD studies in the history of of medical harm. implemented as quickly as CRISPR? science seemed a perfect fit.

12 colloquy SUMMER 2019 “In debates about genetics, synthetic curtailed.” He gives an example from his organismic and evolutionary biology biology, or emerging biotechnologies own research into radical mastectomies, and a leader in the ’s like CRISPR, many of the participants once common practice until surgeons Infectious Disease and Microbiome invoke the past,” he says. “By studying came to recognize new harms in light of Program, they use CRISPR technolo- these debates, you can find areas of patient activism and advocacy. gy, but one that takes advantage of a overlap, agreement, or differences that Whether CRISPR as a therapeutic tool different protein. “There are many Cas present challenges for ethics and gover- faces the same fate is anyone’s guess, as proteins out there,” Myhrvold explains. nance. It provides opportunities for us debate over its ethics is ongoing. “I think “We work mostly with Cas13, which is to clarify fundamental issues of how we that people are excited and concerned different from Cas9 in that it targets want to live and what our future will be about CRISPR because of visions of the RNA instead of DNA.” as a society.” future informed by science fiction,” Moses Cas13 was identified about two years At first glance, the potential for harm says. “Many of the scientists I know are ago, and its discovery has enabled Freije can seem an obvious ethical reason for thinking about the possibilities and what and Myhrvold to target infectious viruses not using a particular technology. But the the risks and future harms could be, too.” that use RNA as their genetic material, reality is far more complicated. “You have as well as develop diagnostic tools for cases of patients advocating for accelera- LUCKY NUMBER 13 viruses. Cas13 operates differently than tion of the availability of certain thera- The desire to reduce harm is what fuels Cas9 and many other proteins that have pies; HIV/AIDS is the central example research undertaken by Catherine been discovered. “We like to think of of that,” Moses says. “But you have other Freije, PhD student in virology, and CRISPR as a toolbox with different tools cases where patient advocates suggest Cameron Myhrvold, PhD ’16. Based in for different applications,” says Freije. that a practice should be abandoned or the lab of , professor of “Cas13 is another tool in that box.”

PHOTOGRAPHER: JOHN SOARES SUMMER 2019 colloquy 13 While Freije and Myhrvold initially worked on developing a diagnostic tool to inform treatment, the next step is to target and destroy a virus. “The ultimate goal would be to develop a drug with Cas13 designed to cure a disease caused by a certain pathogen, and allow a pa- tient to recover faster,” says Freije. “But we’re far away from that at the moment.” And that toolbox is a game changer. “It’s revolutionizing research in many FLOATING ALL BOATS ways,” says Myhrvold. Harm isn’t the only ethical consideration Freije and Myhrvold decided to start in the conversation about CRISPR and with Zika and dengue, two viruses that other forms of genetic modification. For are often found in the same region and some, new technologies provide altruistic are notoriously difficult to diagnose. opportunities. “I believe we have an eth- Using Cas13, they and their colleagues ical obligation to maximize benefits and developed a diagnostic platform that cor- minimize harm,” says George Church, rectly identified when the Zika or dengue PhD ’84, professor of genetics, Blavat- viruses were present in a patient sample, nik Institute, Harvard Medical School. with minimal sample processing. After “If we have an opportunity to eliminate Forbes included they published their results in Science, infectious and genetic diseases, or some Catherine Freije and they received a nod from Forbes maga- subset of them—even one of them—then Cameron Myhrvold in the 30 under 30 zine, which named them one of their 30 we should pursue it.” list for 2019. under 30 for 2019. Church is a world-renowned geneti- cist whose research runs from age reversal and disease reduction to wooly mammoth resurrection and ge- netic modification for space travel. Each project is evaluated for potential risks and benefits, with an eye to risk reduc- tion. And while some may raise concerns about the dangers of augmenting hu- mans, Church believes that the practice should be pursued—but fairly. “I don’t think there’s an ethics of aug- mentation, other than it should be equita- bly distributed,” he says. “It should be in- expensive. It should be safe and effective, both short and long term.” Church points out that CRISPR isn’t the first method to precisely edit the genome but rather is simply the latest in a series of technolo- gies that have existed and been debated since the 1980s. The game-changing aspect of genome editing is a possible 10,000-fold improvement in the number of edits that can be made at high effi- ciency. Multiplexing, or making multiple

14 colloquy SUMMER 2019 PHOTOGRAPHER: MICHAEL BUTTS, BROAD INSTITUTE OF MIT AND HARVARD “I believe we have an ethical obligation to maximize benefits and minimize harm.” —GEORGE CHURCH

edits at once, is something that Church A BETTER FUTURE has investigated for years, and this type It is hard to find a positive representation of editing could completely eradicate the of genetic modification in science fiction. potential for certain diseases. His lab All stories tease a benefit that is stripped recently announced a breakthrough in away, replaced by a doom-filled future. multiplexing, where 13,200 edits were But in a world where debate is informed made in the genome of a single cell. by scholars like Moses, where research by This breakthrough hints at the scientists like Freije and Myhrvold could possibility of improving human health limit or eliminate harm for patients to a state where diseases—at least those ravaged by viruses, a more positive future encoded in our genes—could be elimi- of the kind Church works toward seems nated. As a stopgap against the dystopian more likely. futures prophesied in fiction, Church As a comparison, Church points to believes that we should ensure that the development of life-saving vaccines such a technology not be limited to the for smallpox and polio and notes that the wealthiest. “One of my team’s obsessions diseases’ extinction will be completely is reducing the price of technologies,” he egalitarian because everyone in the world says. “I’m not particularly motivated by will benefit. “They won’t have to get the helping the rich get yet another advan- government to pay a penny for them to tage, fair or unfair. I’m motivated by get vaccinated because the world is free floating all boats.” of it,” he says. “That inspires me.”

PHOTOGRAPHER: STEPHANIE MITCHELL, HARVARD UNIVERSITY SUMMER 2019 colloquy 15 16 colloquy SUMMER 2019 ARTIST: NAME HERE BY ANN HALL ART BY KAI AND SUNNY

LIGHTING SPARKTHE HARVARD SIGNALS ITS INVESTMENT IN QUANTUM SCIENCE

IMAGINE, FOR A MOMENT, that you could forget everything you ever knew about the way our reality works. That two objects hundreds of miles apart could communicate instantaneously. That the act of measuring something could change what is being measured. That something—a cat, perhaps—could be both alive and dead at the same time. But this actually is the way our reality works. Or at least it does at the microscopic level. When you look at smaller and smaller objects— objects at the atomic and subatomic levels—quantum effects seem to make interactions between objects operate differently than predicted by the kind of classical physics most of us learned in high school. The quantum world is so counterintuitive, so strange, that even Max Planck (who coined the term quanta) searched for an alternative explanation for his results.

SUMMER 2019 colloquy 17 ore than a century later, quantum theory may seem mysterious to the lay person, but mathematically, it’s 100 percent calculable. “Quantum mechanics tells you what is going to happen, very precisely,” says John Doyle, Henry B. Silsbee Professor of Physics in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS). “When you do the calculations, there’s no mystery about it at all. The mystery is only that microscopic physics behaves differently than what we see in our daily lives.” Doyle is one of the co-directors of the Harvard Quantum Initiative (HQI), a cross-disciplinary community dedicated Hu deliberately uses the term “quan- to expanding research, development, and tum science” and “quantum engineering” education on quantum information and its instead of “quantum physics.” While possibilities. Launched in November 2018, early breakthroughs in quantum science HQI forms part of a larger effort in the came from theoretical physicists, the to advance understanding next generation of quantum scientists of quantum science and technology and has come from physics, computer sci- initiate the development of innovative ma- ence, chemistry, and mathematics. This terials and devices for high-speed comput- broader collaboration is expected to, in ing, networking, and ultra-precise sensing. turn, accelerate and enrich progress in Doyle and his colleagues—co-directors these fields, but in ways that cannot at Evelyn Hu, Tarr-Coyne Professor of Ap- the moment be easily predicted. “Break- plied Physics and of Electrical Engineering throughs often happen at the interfaces at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of of traditional disciplines,” says Lukin. Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), and Mikhail Lukin, George Vasmer Lever- SPOOKY ACTION UP CLOSE ett Professor of Physics at FAS—see the ad- Those breakthroughs will rely on a vancement of quantum science as a radical strong foundation of basic science, built effort to expand scientific boundaries and in part by faculty, graduate students, and rethink how research is accomplished. recent graduates from Harvard. Srujan “We believe that quantum science Meesala, PhD ’19, is emblematic of the represents a profound change in the young scientists whose work sits at the understanding of what information is, intersection of multiple fields. Meesa- which will affect everything we do moving la studied electrical engineering as an forward,” says Hu. “That change will affect undergraduate, and though he wanted to how we measure, how we compute, and focus on physics for his graduate work, how we communicate.” By embracing he’s grateful for the hands-on experi- the physics that operates at the quantum ence he brings to his research. “There level, researchers can tackle problems—or is a need for engineers who think about reinvestigate old ones—in groundbreaking making devices to study interesting phys- new ways that hold transformative poten- ics,” he says, “and for people from hard tial. “For people in the sciences, this is a physics backgrounds to become more tremendous opportunity to create novel engineering oriented.” Meesala brought applications and instrumentation that his expertise to the lab of Marko Loncar, John Doyle, Evelyn Hu, and Mikhail Lukin lead the can be used to further enable scientific the Tiantsai Lin Professor of Electrical Harvard Quantum Initiative. research,” Hu says. Engineering at SEAS.

18 colloquy SUMMER 2019 Meesala wanted to discover how to use quantum effects to transfer informa- tion. To conduct this research, he’s using sound and flaws in an unlikely source— diamonds. “My research uses defects inside diamonds, called color centers,” he explains. Diamond crystals are made of “ We believe that quantum carbon atoms. By removing one carbon atom and replacing a second with another science represents a element—nitrogen or silicon, for exam- ple—he can create an individual quantum system inside a solid. “This is interesting profound change in the for quantum information applications be- cause you can store and process informa- understanding of what tion at the level of the atom inside a solid.” Experiments on color centers have shown certain quantum effects, such as information is, which will when two quantum particles interact and become interdependent, a process known as entanglement. Einstein found the phe- affect everything we do nomenon so startling that he famously called it “spooky action at a distance.” moving forward.” —EVELYN HU

PHOTOGRAPHER: KRIS SNIBBE, HARVARD UNIVERSITY SUMMER 2019 colloquy 19 “Entanglement is hard to observe in nature. You need to engineer very specific quantum systems to see it.”

—SRUJAN MEESALA

Meesala used sound in an effort to induce these interactions. “You can quantize sound at the quantum level into particles called phonons,” he says. “I wanted to determine if we could get one color center to interact with another by exchanging sound waves.” In their exper- iment, Meesala and his colleagues carved a thin string out of diamond, then ap- plied voltage to stretch it and study how sound waves couple to a defect called the silicon vacancy center. They envisioned that sound can move along such a string like a pressure wave, causing some of the atoms to compress and others to elon- gate, essentially transferring information from defect to defect. “Entanglement is hard to observe in Meesala was able to conclude that a nature. You need to engineer very specific silicon vacancy center provides a good quantum systems to see it,” Meesala ex- system for testing the sound-mediated plains. “Isolating and manipulating these transfer of quantum information, which individual defects is one way to do that.” could be applied in quantum computers By taking advantage of color centers, and networks. The work was published researchers have measured the entan- last year in Nature Communications. glement of particles in two diamonds located a kilometer apart by using the ALONG THE WAY light emitted by the defects. Di Wei, PhD ’19, has taken a different But while quantum entanglement has approach to solving the problem of been generated between diamond color information transfer at the quantum centers at a distance, it is hard to achieve level, but one still grounded in basic between two defects in the same dia- science research. As an undergraduate mond. “To perform local quantum oper- working in a condensed matter lab at the ations with these color centers, we would University of Denver, she connected with At right: Di Wei engages in fundamental ideally put a number of color centers on scientists like her whose inquisitiveness research questions. one chip and have them interact.” drove them to solve problems for their

20 colloquy SUMMER 2019 PHOTOGRAPHER: JOHN SOARES own sake. “I’m of the school of thought from site to site, which can be used to first transport measurement of spin that you should do basic research for the send information with less heat than is waves in a graphene quantum hall ferro- sake of basic research, and that technolo- currently generated by traditional elec- magnet,” Wei says. “They were predicted gy will arise from that,” she says. “Special trical methods used in computerized de- to exist in this system but were difficult relativity is my favorite example of that vices. “A superfluid of spins would allow to detect with electronic methods be- because it’s so abstract, but it is the rea- for the transfer of spins with no energy cause they are excitations of an insulating son we have technologies like GPS today.” loss, which would be a fundamentally material.” In October 2018, she was lead These energizing collaborations new kind of system to study,” she says. author on a paper about these findings, fueled her decision to pursue graduate Yacoby and colleague Bertrand Halp- which appeared in Science magazine. studies at SEAS, where she continues to erin, Hollis Professor of Mathematics Although Wei wasn’t able to demon- satisfy her curiosity about physics. Wei and Natural Philosophy, Emeritus, had strate spin superfluidity with certainty, joined the lab of Amir Yacoby, professor postulated that superfluidity could be her results do establish graphene as wor- of physics and of applied physics at FAS found in graphene, and Yacoby and Wei thy of further study. “Often, the original and SEAS, where she found numerous set out to test this theory. Using a type of idea that researchers set out to test doesn’t opportunities to engage in fundamental magnetic material known as a quantum work, but they are still able to find inter- research questions. One of Yacoby’s proj- hall ferromagnet, they observed some in- esting things along the way,” she says. ects involved looking for spin superfluid- triguing physics that could help measure ity in graphene, a two-dimensional sheet exotic quantum states via a process called A CHANGING WORLD of carbon atoms. electron interferometry. “The first thing Doyle, Hu, and Lukin believe that Har- “Spin superfluidity is a magnetic we saw was an interesting interference vard is well positioned to make advance- analog to superconductivity, using the pattern between electrons,” Wei says. ments in quantum science and engineer- electron’s spin as carriers of information “The pattern confirmed that graphene ing through the work of researchers like as opposed to their charge,” Wei explains. was a good platform for electron inter- Meesala and Wei—large enough to tap “You can think of each spin as a local ferometry.” This work was published in existing intellectual prowess and small magnetic moment that can interact with Science Advances in August 2017. enough to act on ideas and move more neighboring spins. If the spin at one site Next, Wei used an electric current quickly that other institutions. “A new is tilted, its reorientation is felt by nearby to generate spin waves through the discipline is being created right in front spins.” This tilting creates a spin wave graphene and was able to detect those of our eyes,” says Doyle. that can transfer angular momentum waves via an induced voltage. “It’s the “It’s obvious that this is a special time,” Lukin continues. “We have a very special community of world-leading researchers. Harvard is home to the most powerful quantum machines ever made.” He notes that hundreds of young leaders who trained at Harvard are now conducting their own cutting-edge research at insti- tutions around the world, pushing the boundaries of what is currently known about the quantum realm. And while this new discipline holds tremendous potential—so much so that Harvard, the US, and the world are will- ing to invest in its promise—it’s impos- sible to anticipate what the ultimate im- pact will be. “No inventor could predict how the world would use their inven- tion,” says Hu. “We don’t know where the spark will be lit, a spark that will burn a pathway to new applications.”

PHOTOGRAPHER: THOMAS BROENING SUMMER 2019 colloquy 21 FEARLESS ADVOCATES, The achievements of the 2019 Centennial Medalists made fundamental and TRUSTED lasting contributions to knowledge, to their disciplines, to their colleagues, and to society.

Read more about the LEADERS medalists: gsas.harvard.edu/ news/stories/fearless-advocate

Jane Lubchenco, PhD ’75, Organismic and Evolutionary Biology “JANE LUBCHENCO is deeply and morally Marine ecologist and founding figure in the science of environmental sustainability, University Distinguished Professor and Marine Studies grounded in this notion of stewardship Advisor to the University President at Oregon State University and responsibility for the planet, and she is not reluctant to share her passionate commitment to stewardship, both in the interest of the environment and in the interest of people.”

—BILL CLARK, HARVEY BROOKS PROFESSOR OF INTERNATIONAL SCIENCE, PUBLIC POLICY, AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT,

22 colloquy SUMMER 2019 PHOTOGRAPHER: TONY RINALDO Carroll Bogert, AM ’86, Regional Studies–East Asia International journalist “CARROLL BOGERT understands the power and human rights advocate, of a true story well told. A first-rate president of The Marshall Project international journalist and human rights advocate, she has demonstrated that when Joseph Nye, PhD ’64, we are bold enough to bring to light stories FEARLESS Government Authority on foreign policy and power, that really matter, they can move the world.” Harvard University

Distinguished Service Professor, —2019 CENTENNIAL MEDALIST CITATION Harvard Kennedy School

“JOE NYE has been a pillar of strength at Harvard for 55 years, earning universal praise for his scholarship, his influence upon “ Our nation will always be international relations, his grateful for ROGER FERGUSON’S leadership of University steady hand at a moment of institutions, his service to country, and critically, his maximum peril, when much high standards of ethics and of the financial system’s LEADERS integrity. He has become a infrastructure was destroyed living embodiment of all by September 11. Capable, that Harvard aspires to be.” Roger Ferguson, PhD ’81, Economics confident, yet shunning the —DAVID GERGEN, PUBLIC SERVICE American economist, spotlight, Roger Ferguson is PROFESSOR OF PUBLIC LEADERSHIP, president and chief HARVARD KENNEDY SCHOOL executive officer of TIAA a model of public service.”

—LARRY SUMMERS, PRESIDENT EMERITUS AND CHARLES W. ELIOT UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR

Lael Brainard, PhD ’89, Economics Expert in international trade, member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

“LAEL BRAINARD has been a trusted advisor to two presidents, a first responder in re-regulating markets after the 2008 financial crisis, and a shrewd observer of global systems, widely regarded as being ahead of the curve in recognizing changes in financial markets.”

—2019 CENTENNIAL MEDALIST CITATION

SUMMER 2019 colloquy 23 noteworthy

TESTING IDEAS

Jessica Levin Martinez, PhD ’04, history of art and architecture, has been named director of Cornell University’s Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art. Martinez formerly served as head of the Division of Academic and Public Programs at the . “I want the museum to be a site for research and development, a place where people can test ideas,” Marti- nez said in the announcement of her appointment. “Nearly 400 classes are already visiting the Johnson Museum each academic year, and Martinez at the Harvard that constant flow of opportunity Art Museums in front of with new students, fresh eyes, and Rothko’s Harvard Murals. bold questions is exciting to me.”

24 colloquy SUMMER 2019 PHOTOGRAPHER: DAVID SALAFIA ALUMNI UPDATES

S. M. Blinder, PhD ’61, chemical Emery N. Brown, PhD ’88, Paula Goldman, PhD ’10, Michelle Murphy, PhD ’98, physics, professor emeritus of statistics, of Harvard Medical anthropology, has joined history, won the Ludwik Fleck chemistry and physics at the Uni- School, MIT, and Massachusetts Salesforce as the company’s Prize for Economization of Life, versity of Michigan, Ann Arbor, General Hospital, won Carnegie first chief ethical and humane a critique of the global political remains actively engaged in sci- Mellon University’s Dickson use officer, focused on develop- and economic system created by entific activities and is currently Prize in Science for 2018, award- ing strategies to use technology Western nations that puts profit a senior scientist for Wolfram ed annually to the person who in an ethical and humane way at ahead of people. The Fleck Prize Research. During his career, has made the most progress the company. Goldman previ- is awarded by the international he has produced nearly 200 in the scientific field in the US. ously served as vice president, Society for Social Studies of research publications and seven The award announcement global lead, Tech and Society Science for an outstanding books in mathematical physics noted that Brown’s research Solutions Lab at Omidyar book in the area of science and and theoretical chemistry, most on anesthesia “has been ‘truly Network, a social impact invest- technology studies, and Murphy recently cowriting Twenty-First transformative’ to that field,” ment firm, and is the founder becomes the first academic to Century Quantum Mechanics and the team he directs “is and director of Imagining win the Prize twice. and editing Mathematical Physics deciphering the neuroscience Ourselves at the International in Theoretical Chemistry. of general anesthesia.” Museum of Women.

The Freedom Bank of Virginia Mark Peterson, PhD ’93, history, Frank Popper, PhD ’72, gov- Wendy Raymond, PhD ’90, bio- announced the election of Maury has moved from the University ernment, continues to teach chemistry, became the president of Peiperl, PhD ’94, organizational of California, Berkeley, where he land-use planning at Rutgers and Haverford College on July 1, 2019. behavior, to the company’s board served as chair of the History Princeton. He and his wife, Deb- Formerly vice president for aca- of directors, citing his “deep Department from 2015–2018, to orah Popper, have kept up their demic affairs and dean of faculty leadership experience and vast Yale University, where he joined work on declining rural regions, at Davidson College, Raymond has domain knowledge.” Peiperl is the history faculty in Septem- such as the US and Canadian had a distinguished career as a dean of the George Mason Uni- ber 2018, teaching colonial and Great Plains, and declining large molecular biologist. For 19 years, versity School of Business and a revolutionary American history. cities, such as Detroit and Cleve- she served on the faculty of member of the Graduate School His new book, The City-State of land. Their vision for the Plains’ Williams College and dedicated Alumni Association Council. He Boston: The Rise and Fall of an environmental prospects, the herself to diversity, equity, and has previously taught at or led Atlantic Power, 1630–1865, was Buffalo Commons, continues to inclusion in higher education, schools of business in the UK published by Princeton Universi- materialize and, in their opinion, becoming Williams’ first associate and Switzerland. ty Press in April 2019. will win out in the end. dean for institutional diversity.

PHOTOGRAPHER: PERRY KING/UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO (MICHELLE MURPHY) SUMMER 2019 colloquy 25 noteworthy

AUTHOR PROFILE BEYOND ACCESS

Anthony Abraham Jack earned a PhD in sociology In my research, I saw a pattern emerge between from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in those students who went to private schools and 2016. A junior fellow in Harvard’s Society of Fellows were poor, who I came to call “the privileged poor,” and assistant professor of education at the Harvard and those who went to public school and were poor, Graduate School of Education, Jack holds the Shut- the “doubly disadvantaged.” The modal experiences zer Assistant Professorship at the Radcliffe Institute of the two groups diverged in high school, and they for Advanced Study. His book, The Privileged Poor: experience college very differently. The “privi- How Elite Colleges Are Failing Disadvantaged leged poor” are economically poor but socially and Students has galvanized national conversations culturally privileged in the sense that they’ve had about inclusion in American higher education. the academic and social experiences of the top 1 percent. The doubly disadvantaged have less access In The Privileged Poor, you distinguish between to that cultural capital. access and inclusion. Access is getting in. Inclusion happens once stu- Your research also shed new light on the ways in which dents get on campus. It refers to the processes by university policies shape student lives. which students are made to feel not just that they Universities are not passive receivers of students. belong, but also that they are full members of the There’s a social component and a structural compo- community and are entitled to all the rights and nent to college. Academic life is inherently social. privileges of that membership. Students learn material in class but master it in the dining hall, in the common room, in office hours. Your research broke new ground by identifying a previ- The reason I always say office hours are such an ously invisible distinction between disadvantaged stu- important part of a student’s academic experience dents that originates with their high school experiences. is because it is often in office hours that professors As a graduate student, I was interested in cul- become advisors, and advisors become mentors. But ture and inequality. I wanted to understand how the language we use in everyday ways is incredibly social class shapes how students loaded. Not all students arrive on campus under- navigate college. It was a re- standing what “office hours” means. search question born of my own The process I call “structural exclusion” demon- experience. What I was reading strates how official university policies push lower- in the sociology literature about income students to the margins. Spring break is one lower-income students told a example: When colleges and universities shut down monolithic story of poor family, dining halls and assume all students can afford to poor neighborhood, poor school. leave campus, they are putting already financially This was not my experience as a and sometimes emotionally stressed students into student at Amherst College and even more precarious positions. as a diversity intern in the ad- missions office. It also came from What’s next? realizing that a group, especially Next year I’m back at Harvard’s Society of Fellows. at selective colleges, was missing I’m going to start my next project, which is on the from sociological research. No world of work among undergraduates. We know one was talking about the ways what happens to students after college, but we don’t in which lower-income students actually investigate the experience that students have Anthony Abraham Jack were entering private school and working in school. I want to know how that shapes prep school. their identity and how they move through college.

26 colloquy SUMMER 2019 PHOTOGRAPHER: KRIS SNIBBE, HARVARD UNIVERSITY RECENTLY PUBLISHED

Below are recently published books written or edited by GSAS alumni.

Frank Bergon, PhD ’73, English FEATURED REVIEW and American Literature and Lan- When Hanna Holborn Gray (PhD ’57, history) and her husband, Charles, left Harvard in 1960 guage, Two-Buck Chuck and the for his appointment teaching history at the University of Chicago, she was unsure about her Marlboro Man: The New Old West, own future in the academy. A scholar of Reformation and Renaissance political thought, she University of Nevada Press, 2019 had been an assistant professor at Harvard and the first female head tutor of History and Literature, but her gender barred her from or walking through the front door Edythe Haber, PhD ’71, Slavic of Harvard’s faculty club. By 1964, she would be tenured in Chicago’s history department and Languages and Literatures, Teffi: would go on to have an illustrious academic career, subsequently serving as dean of the Col- A Life of Letters and of Laughter, lege of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern and provost and acting president at Yale. From 1978 I.B. Tauris, 2019 to 1993, she served as president of the University of Chicago—the first woman president of a major American university. Emily Oster, PhD ’06, Economics, In An Academic Life: A Memoir, Gray traces her intellectual legacy as part of a refugee Cribsheet: A Data-Driven Guide to scholar “second generation.” Her family had fled Germany after Hitler’s rise in 1933. Her Better, More Relaxed Parenting, mother was a classical philologist; her father taught German history at Yale for 35 years. Her from Birth to Preschool, Penguin family’s home was a waypoint for refugee intellectuals, including Paul Tillich, Erwin Panofsky, Press, 2019 Herbert Marcuse, and Hannah Arendt. Gray majored in history at Bryn Mawr (where she interviewed T. S. Eliot for the college paper). While studying at Oxford on a Fulbright, she was Sophia Rosenfeld, PhD ’96, befriended by E. H. Gombrich and his wife. History, Democracy and Truth, She also sets her personal story against the backdrop of dramatic transformations in University of Pennsylvania American higher education in the second half of the 20th century, sparked by the GI Bill, Press, 2019 co-education, and politics, from the Red Scare to Vietnam, which illuminates her service to Harvard. Gray was a member of the Harvard Corporation from 1997 to 2005 and the Board of Nancy Shatzman Steinhardt, PhD Overseers from 1988 to 1994, spanning the presidencies of Derek Bok, Neil Rudenstine, and ’81, Fine Arts, Chinese Architecture, Larry Summers. Her experience at Radcliffe in the 1950s, when “women at Harvard were, at Princeton University Press, 2019 best, second-class citizens” was a formative one that would make her a champion of coeduca- tion and motivate her to help negotiate the Harvard-Radcliffe merger in 1999. Cynthia Wachtell, PhD ’98, Gray also offers an important perspective on the university’s relationship to politics through History of American Civilization, her discussions of the repercussions of the Red Scare at Harvard and as addressed by The Backwash of War, Johns Chicago’s 1967 Kalven Report. She is a critic of consumerist attitudes toward and instrumental Hopkins University Press, 2019 defenses of the university and a passionate defender of freedom of expression: The univer- sity ought to “resist speaking as a corporate entity when its principal purpose is to create the Donald Wesling, PhD ’65, English conditions under which members can speak individually and freely for themselves, whatever and American Literature and their view on topics of common concern.” Language, Animal Perception The common cause of Gray’s family legacy and her extraordinary stewardship of the uni- and Literary Language, Palgrave versity as an institution is revealed in the book’s closing pages: Her faith in academic freedom Macmillan, 2019 and dedication to the academy, she writes, was motivated by watching her parents and fellow academic refugees “survive the most extreme assault ever launched against universities from Ellen Winner, PhD ’78, Psychology, a totalitarian regime.” How Art Works: A Psychological Exploration, Oxford University Press, 2019

Would you like your book considered for inclusion? Send it to Colloquy, Graduate School of Arts and Kristin Wobbe, PhD ’91, Biochem- Sciences, Harvard University, 1350 Massachusetts Avenue, Suite 350, Cambridge, MA 02138. Questions? istry, Project-Based Learning in the Email [email protected]. First Year, Stylus Publishing, 2019

SUMMER 2019 colloquy 27 connect

Victoria Hwang, a fi fth-year PhD candidate in CONNECT WITH GSAS AND applied physics, took to the Harvard Horizons stage DEAN DENCH to explain why blue jays look blue. Sounds simple, AT UPCOMING but her research on structural colors in nature is EVENTS incredibly complex. Luckily, she knows how to

Hong Kong: break it down for a broad audience. “The Horizons September 17, 2019 program gave me the communications skills

essential to building a successful career,” says Taipei: September 18, 2019 Victoria. “I am so grateful for the personalized mentoring and training from faculty.” Beijing: September 20, 2019 Support emerging scholars like Victoria. Make a gift today and join our community Delhi and Bangalore: of alumni donors, who provide fl exible, November 17–22, 2019 annual support to invest in our outstanding Silicon Valley, Seattle, graduate students. and Portland: January 20–24, 2020

Miami: February 11, 2020

Baltimore: March 3, 2020 BE A PART Philadelphia: April 14, 2020

On the Road For more information, visit gsas.harvard.edu/alumni DEAN EMMA DENCH HIGHLIGHTS PARALLELS BETWEEN OF HER THE ROMAN EMPIRE AND TODAY DURING ALUMNI ROADSHOW

AT ALUMNI EVENTS HELD THROUGHOUT THE WORLD during the 2018–2019 academic year, GSAS Dean Emma Dench underscored the leadership TRAINING lessons that can be learned from her scholarship of the Roman Empire. During the events, Dench discussed the parallels between ancient Rome and the modern day, particularly with regard to blind spots, diversity, and soft vs. hard power. She also highlighted how her experience as a scholar in- forms her leadership of GSAS and how she prepares students to be leaders. The alumni roadshow allowed Dench to connect with alumni in 11 cities, from Athens to Zurich, as she explained the role of GSAS within the University and its impact across all of Harvard’s Schools—as well as how Dean Emma Dench with Sarah Rugheimer, PhD ’15, the research conducted by GSAS students fuels innovative solutions to at an event in London. some of today’s most urgent problems. Support GSAS students today: alumni.harvard.edu/give-to-gsas

28 colloquy SUMMER 2019 PHOTOGRAPHER: PAUL CLARKE

FAS 19-6836

FAS 19-6836 Colloquy Ad Sumr 2019 F.indd 1 5/31/19 11:07 AM Victoria Hwang, a fi fth-year PhD candidate in applied physics, took to the Harvard Horizons stage to explain why blue jays look blue. Sounds simple, but her research on structural colors in nature is incredibly complex. Luckily, she knows how to break it down for a broad audience. “The Horizons program gave me the communications skills essential to building a successful career,” says Victoria. “I am so grateful for the personalized mentoring and training from faculty.”

Support emerging scholars like Victoria. Make a gift today and join our community of alumni donors, who provide fl exible, annual support to invest in our outstanding graduate students. BE A PART OF HER TRAINING

Support GSAS students today: alumni.harvard.edu/give-to-gsas

FAS 19-6836

FAS 19-6836 Colloquy Ad Sumr 2019 F.indd 1 5/31/19 11:07 AM GRADUATE SCHOOL ALUMNI ASSOCIATION COUNCIL 1350 Massachusetts Avenue, Suite 350 Cambridge, MA 02138-3846, USA

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:

IMAGINED PAST: AN ALTERNATE HISTORY OF MEXICO

FEARLESS ADVOCATES: GSAS HONORS ALUMNI LEADERS

BEYOND ACCESS: THE PRIVILEGED POOR AND THE DOUBLY DISADVANTAGED