Tutor Style GSAS Students As Mentors, Teachers, and Friends in the Harvard Houses Psi47622 Magazine.Qxd:Psi47725 Magazine 11/23/10 10:28 PM Page 2
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
psi47622_magazine.qxd:psi47725_magazine 11/23/10 10:28 PM Page 1 ALUMNI QUARTERLY ColloquyThe graduate school of arts and sciences | harvard university fall 2010 Beyond the brush: A fresh take on Chinese art Rap as poetry? Cellular detective Susan Mango Tutor Style GSAS students as mentors, teachers, and friends in the Harvard Houses psi47622_magazine.qxd:psi47725_magazine 11/23/10 10:28 PM Page 2 The graduate school of arts and sciences • harvard university Colloquy ALUMNI QUARTERLY China Now and Then Allan M. Brandt 2 Curating an important new show at Boston’s dean Museum of Fine Arts, GSAS PhD candidate Hao Margot N. Gill Sheng offers a striking reinterpretation of China’s administrative dean artistic tradition. Elisabeth Nuñez director of publications and alumni relations Bari Walsh editor The Art of Science 6 MacArthur winner Susan Mango sees the beauty Sametz Blackstone Associates in cellular biology. design Graduate School Alumni Association (GSAA) Council Naomi André, PhD ’96, music Reinier Beeuwkes, COL ’62, PhD ’70, division of medical sciences Thomas Davenport, PhD ’80, sociology Mia de Kuijper, MPA ’83, PhD ’83, economics Colloquy with Adam Bradley and Stacy Dick, AB ’78, PhD ’83, economics 8 A. Barr Dolan, AM ’74, applied sciences Andrew DuBois Richard Ekman, AB ’66, PhD ’72, history of American civilization The authors of The Anthology of Rap make the case John C.C. Fan, SM ’67, PhD ’72, applied sciences for rap as a poetic art form. Neil Fishman, SM ’92, applied sciences Kenneth Froewiss, AB ’67, PhD ’77, economics Homer Hagedorn, PhD ’55, history, ex officio R. Stanton Hales, PhD ’70, mathematics David Harnett, PhD ’70, history George Heilborn, AM ’58, physics Karen J. Hladik, PhD ’84, business economics Making the House a Home Daniel R. Johnson, AM ’82, East Asian history, AM ’84, 10 GSAS students play a key role in the life of business economics Gopal Kadagathur, PhD ’69, applied sciences Harvard College as resident tutors in the under- Alan Kantrow, AB ’69, PhD ’79, history of American civilization graduate Houses. Gyuri Karady, PhD ’80, applied sciences Robert E. Knight, PhD ’68, economics Felipe Larraín, PhD ’85, economics, ex officio Jill Levenson, PhD ’67, English and American literature and language See-Yan Lin, MPA ’70, PhD ’77, economics Suzanne Folds McCullagh, PhD ’81, fine arts John J. Moon, AB ’89, PhD ’94, business economics Alumni Books 14 Sandra O. Moose, PhD ’68, economics God, sex, and politics dominate this issue’s F. Robert Naka, SD ’51, applied sciences collection of notable books by GSAS authors. Betsy M. Ohlsson-Wilhelm, AB ’63, PhD ’69, medical sciences Maury Peiperl, MBA ’86, PhD ’94, organizational behavior M. Lee Pelton, PhD ’84, English and American literature and language Nancy Ramage, PhD ’69, classical archaeology, ex officio John E. Rielly, PhD ’61, government Allen Sangínes-Krause, PhD ’87, economics; chair Charles Schilke, AM ’82, history Sidney Spielvogel, AM ’46, economics, MBA ’49, ex officio David Staines, PhD ’73, English and American literature and language Marianne Steiner, MEN ’78, SM ’78, applied mathematics Dennis Vaccaro, PhD ’78, division of medical sciences Donald van Deventer, PhD ’77, economics Lee Zhang, AM ’01, medical sciences Gustavus Zimmerman, PhD ’80, physics On the cover: Chunbai Zhang, MPH ’09, and his wife, Jade D’Alpoim Guedes, a PhD candidate in anthropology, in the courtyard at Adams House, where they live as resident tutors. psi47622_magazine.qxd:psi47725_magazine 11/23/10 10:29 PM Page 1 from the dean Allan M. Brandt Dean, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences; Amalie Moses Kass Professor of the History of Medicine, Harvard Medical School; professor of the history of science, Harvard Alumni Association Enhancing the Graduate Faculty of Arts and Sciences Appointed Directors Experience John E. Rielly • Daniel R. Johnson GSAA Council Ex Officio One of my priorities as dean has been to benefit from multiple perspectives, because Drew Gilpin Faust connect more strongly with the remarkable the DGS often becomes a de facto second president of Harvard University Michael D. Smith faculty members who serve as directors of advisor, especially early on in a student’s dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences graduate study in the 57 degree-granting program, when he or she is still making basic Allan M. Brandt programs that comprise the Graduate School decisions about scholarly direction. dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Margot N. Gill of Arts and Sciences. And DGSs are much more attuned to administrative dean of the Graduate School of I’ve instituted a regular schedule of the stresses of graduate life than many of us Arts and Sciences retreats and meetings for our DGSs, and in probably perceived our own advisors as Michael Shinagel PhD ’64, English and American literature and language, these venues we exchange views on key being. Our best DGSs grapple daily with the dean of Continuing Education and University Extension issues and common problems. We’ve explored quality of the graduate experience at John P. Reardon Jr. various strategies for building a more robust Harvard, seeing it as their mission both to AB ’60 executive director of the Harvard Alumni Association advising structure, for example, and talked support their individual students and to through ideas on how to best prepare inter- endorse the broader aims of our program national students to lead sections in an here, in a political and economic climate The GSAA is the alumni association of Harvard University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. American classroom. where those aims may often be subject to Governed by its Council, the GSAA represents and questions about cost and value. advances the interests of alumni of the Graduate School by With a hand in everything from recruiting It is appropriate that DGSs take such sponsoring alumni events and by publishing Colloquy four care. The world — and the world of graduate times each year. to advising to requirements and overall education — is far more complex these days Graduate School Alumni Association student progress, DGSs are helping to than it was a generation or two ago. In Holyoke Center 350 a restricted and highly competitive academic 1350 Massachusetts Avenue foster a very different graduate experience Cambridge, MA 02138-3846 job market, and in an overall economy that phone: 617-495-5591 • fax: 617-495-2928 than the one many of us will recall. remains frustratingly sluggish, the pressure [email protected] • www.gsas.harvard.edu to succeed in graduate school can feel over- Colloquy on the Web It has been wonderful to see this com- whelming. Our DGSs are there to help Access current and back issues of Colloquy, as well as munity grow and to push collectively against students manage that pressure, assess their a range of other alumni services and information, at www.gsas.harvard.edu/alumni. the sorts of boundaries that might once have own progress, and to have the “difficult been insuperable. Overhearing the DGS from conversations” that may come out of those Letters to the Editor history talking to his counterpart from chem- assessments, as our DGS in Classics, Emma Colloquy does not print letters, but we welcome your thoughts and story ideas. Write to: Colloquy, Harvard istry about dissertation defense practices — Dench, has put it. University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Holyoke to cite one example of this new interaction — This year, I will begin a series of disci- Center 350, 1350 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA has renewed my conviction that we must not pline-based meetings of our directors of 02138-3846; or e-mail [email protected]. fail to make use of the resources that Harvard graduate study, which I think will be crucial Moving? University, across its many disciplines, offers to our programs as they define particular Please send your Colloquy mailing label and your new to us. These gatherings underscore for me the challenges that are arising within their own address to Alumni Records, 124 Mt. Auburn Street, 4th Floor, Cambridge, MA 02138-3654. common mission that engages all of us — the professional spheres. These smaller conversa- mission to build and share new knowledge. tions will be especially critical in the human- Colloquy is printed by PrintResource/DS Graphics. Our directors of graduate study personify ities, as we reassert the significance of those the Graduate School’s daily focus on support- fields in a 21st century liberal arts education. ing our students. With a hand in everything When I’m with our directors of graduate from recruiting to advising to requirements study, I get an on-the-ground understanding and overall student progress, DGSs are of what’s really going on in our programs, helping to foster a very different graduate of the successes and challenges of graduate experience than the one many of us will education today. This vantage point is recall. No longer are students confined to crucial, since my task — our shared task — a single track, depending upon a single advisor is to articulate and affirm the value of our to guide them intellectually and support them enterprise, never more critical at Harvard emotionally (or not). Today, our students and in the larger society around us. Colloquy 1 Fall 2010 psi47622_magazine.qxd:psi47725_magazine 11/23/10 10:29 PM Page 2 HUMANITIESSECTION TITLE Collection of the artist, courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Arts, courtesy Museum of Fine Collection of the artist, CHINA NOW AND THEN In an important new show at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, a GSAS curator asks contemporary Chinese artists to respond to masterworks of the past, illuminating China’s shifting identity Harvard University 2 GSAS psi47622_magazine.qxd:psi47725_magazine 11/23/10 10:29 PM Page 3 Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Arts, © Museum of Fine Photograph Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Arts, © Museum of Fine Photograph Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.