Wallace Shawn • Muscular Dystrophy • Afghan Newsman

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features tu rosner S The Gene Hunter page 51 22 Louis Kunkel’s 30-year pursuit of a cure for muscular dystrophy illuminates the departments promise—and limits—of genomic medical research by Victor K. McElheny 2 Cambridge 02138 Communications from our readers Vita: Bao Luong 9 Right Now 28 Rethinking the annual financial report, Brief life of a Vietnamese revolutionary: 1909-1976 enhancing African agriculture, polygny by Hue-tam Ho Tai problems

12A New England Regional Section 30 Quotable Harvard Seasonal events, “green” lawnscaping, and a high-end French restaurant Sayings and people prominent (and not)—and an invitation to nominate your own candidates 13 Montage by Fred Shapiro Charismatic conductor, behavioral ethics, Elizabeth Bishop’s oeuvre extended, kosher caterer, the advent of the Civil Famous Comedian, jim harrison War, a queen’s regal rhetoric, and musical 34 page 22 broadsides “Dangerous” Playwright Wallace Shawn is well known as a comedic character actor, 52 The Alumni Afghan media entrepreneur, Overseer and but his important dramatic works play to tiny audiences Harvard Alumni Association candidates, by Craig Lambert Crimson in Congress part two, and more

56 The College Pump 39 John Harvard’s Journal A spirit house at Adams House, and how The provost prepares to conclude his service, athletes tied one on Harvard’s frst library director, renewed focus 68 Treasure on teaching and learning, an international Why Harvard owns a century-old tortilla and other collectibles antismoking leader, prototyping House renewal, a burlesque queen on the evils of 57 Crimson Classifieds Communism, a University Professorship for On the cover (clockwise from top right): John a public-health pioneer, the Undergraduate Adams, Robert Frost, Susan Sontag, Norman faces an intellectual challenge, and a women’s Mailer, and W.E.B. Du Bois. Illustration by Tom

Mosser. Photograph by Stu Rosner. rodriguez jared tennis tandem page 34

www.harvardmagazine.com LETTERS

Editor: John S. Rosenberg Senior Editor: Jean Martin Managing Editor: Jonathan S. Shaw Cambridge  Deputy Editor: Craig Lambert Associate Editor: Elizabeth Gudrais Coup in Iran, Obama’s democracy, squash Production and New Media Manager: Mark Felton Assistant Editor: Nell Porter Brown Associate Web Developer: Blaise Freeman Suicide Elizabeth Gudrais’s otherwise excel- Art Director: Jennifer Carling lent article on Matthew Nock’s research on suicide and self-injury (“A Tragedy and Berta Greenwald Ledecky Mystery,” January-February, page 32) con- Undergraduate Fellows Madeleine Schwartz, Sarah Zhang tains a significant omission: the central- Editorial Intern: ity of the therapist-patient relationship in Maya E. Shwayder treating the suicidal patient. Competent, experienced psychodynam­ Contributing Editors ically oriented therapists explore the John T. Bethell, John de Cuevas, Adam suicidal patient’s inner world with dis- Goodheart, Jim Harrison, Courtney Humphries, Christopher S. Johnson, passionate, nonjudgmental interest that Adam Kirsch, Colleen Lannon, conveys several therapeutic meta-commu- Christopher Reed, Stu Rosner, nications: what you are feeling is not un- Deborah Smullyan, Mark Steele speakably bad, it is human; I’m interested in whatever you are thinking or feeling; I Editorial and Business Office appreciate the distinction between self- 7 Ware Street, destructive thoughts, feelings, and fanta- the “achieve- Cambridge, Mass. 02138-4037 sies and action; your anguish is not as dev- ments” of Kermit Roosevelt (Vita, Tel. 617-495-5746; fax: 617-495-0324 Website: www.harvardmagazine.com astating to me as it is to you; my strength by Gwen Kinkead, January-February, page Reader services: will be here for you to borrow if you need 30). Charming as he may have been, he 617-495-5746 or 800-648-4499 to; your therapy is a place where your de- helped engineer a coup in Iran designed to structive urges can be understood rather punish a newly formed socialist democracy Harvard Magazine Inc. than judged; I will try not to leave you for its nationalization of Iran’s oil industry. President: Henry Rosovsky, JF ’57, alone with your despair. And therapists Prior to Kermit’s coup, Iran’s oil had Ph.D. ’59, LL.D. ’98. Directors: Suzanne Blier, Robert Giles, NF ’66, also use the feelings their patients evoke in been controlled (since the 1920s) by Brit- Leslie E. Greis ’80, Alex S. Jones, NF ’82, them for therapeutic purposes. ish, French, and American oil interests Thomas F. Kelly, Ph.D. ’73, Nock advocates cognitive behavioral who took from Iran more than they re- Randolph C. Lindel ’66, Tamara Elliott therapy and dialectical behavioral thera- turned. In setting up the violent destruc- Rogers ’74, A. Clayton Spencer, A.M. ’82 py (DBT) for the treatment of the suicidal tion of Iran’s nascent democracy, Roosevelt Harvard Magazine (ISSN 0095-2427) is published bimonthly patient. While DBT does address the and the CIA recouped economic and po- by Harvard Magazine Inc., a nonprofit corporation, 7 Ware emotions of the (suicidal) patient, it does litical domination of Middle Eastern oil, Street, Cambridge, Mass. 02138-4037, phone 617-495-5746; fax 617-495-0324. The magazine is supported by reader contribu- so by providing strategies the patient may violated basic rules of national sovereign- tions and subscriptions, advertising revenue, and a subven- tion from Harvard University. Its editorial content is the re- use to control and contain painful and ty, and provided a model for CIA-driven sponsibility of the editors. Periodicals postage paid at Boston, destructive feelings. Psychotherapies in overthrows of democratically elected gov- Mass., and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send ad- dress changes to Circulation Department, Harvard Magazine, which the therapist-patient relationship ernments in Guatemala (1954) and Chile 7 Ware Street, Cambridge, Mass. 02138-4037. Subscription rate $30 a year in U.S. and possessions, $55 Canada and Mexico, $75 is seen as the primary therapeutic agent (1973), leading to dictatorships headed by other foreign. (Allow up to 10 weeks for first delivery.) Sub- should be added to Nock’s list of treat- people like Augusto Pinochet and Iran’s scription orders and customer service inquiries should be sent to the Circulation Department, Harvard Magazine, 7 Ware ments for the suicidal patient. own Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi. Street, Cambridge, Mass. 02138-4037, or call 617-495-5746 or 800-648-4499, or e-mail [email protected]. Single Jerome S. Gans, M.D. ’62 As a piece of journalism, Kinkead sets copies $4.95, plus $2.50 for postage and handling. Manuscript Wellesley, Mass. her brief profile against a complex and submissions are welcome, but we cannot assume responsibility for safekeeping. Include stamped, self-addressed envelope for violent U.S. foreign-policy precedent. Her manuscript return. Persons wishing to reprint any portion of Kermit Roosevelt once-over seems unprofessional, particu- Harvard Magazine’s contents are required to write in advance for permission. Address inquiries to Irina I was amazed that Harvard Magazine larly given her stature as journalist and a Kuksin, acting publisher, at the address given above. would publish such an unbalanced look at historian. Whether Iran’s new prime min- Copyright © 2011 Harvard Magazine Inc.

2 March - April 2011 The iMaGe of The Black in wesTeRn aRT / ediTed By daVid BindMan & henRy louis GaTes, JR.

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dickinson The naiVe and The poeTRy and The police seeinG paTienTs The eVoluTion of The Selected Poems and Commentaries senTiMenTal noVelisT Communication Networks in Unconscious Bias in Health Care huMan head helen VendleR oRhan paMuk Eighteenth-Century Paris auGusTus a. whiTe iii, M.d. daniel e. lieBeRMan RoBeRT daRnTon wiTh daVid chanoff now in paperback

The ReapeR’s addicTion how pRofessoRs MoRal The diVeRsiTy haRVaRd uniVeRsiTy pRess GaRden A Disorder of Choice Think diMensions of life WWW.HUP.HARVARD.EDU Death and Power in the Gene M. heyMan Inside the Curious World Permissibility, Meaning, edwaRd o. wilson BLOG: HARVARDPRESS.TYPEPAD.COM World of Atlantic Slavery of Academic Judgment Blame TEL: 800.405.1619 VincenT BRown Michèle laMonT T. M. scanlon letters ister, Mohammed Mossadegh, was “elder- an parliament, he emphasized democracy ly” seems irrelevant compared to Dulles’s and self-reliance. assertion (quoted by the author) that Mos- Did he nationalize Iran’s oil industry, sadegh was “a madman.” Demonization is the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company? Yes, but an old trick that is still practiced by Amer- Kinkead ignores the underlying cause, the Acting Publisher: Irina Kuksin ican governments in the name of American rapacity of the British. The 1919 Anglo-Per- Director of Circulation and Fundraising interests. But Kinkead glosses over it all. sian Agreement reduced Iran to the status Felecia Carter Nor does the author, in her flighty romp of a British protectorate under a vastly Director of Advertising through Roosevelt’s life and work, back up unequal revenue-sharing agreement. The Robert D. Fitta her claim that Iran’s election was “semi- company failed to honor a 1933 agreement New England Advertising Manager democratic.” Consider the source, not only to improve conditions for workers. Irani- Abigail Williamson of the comment, but the author’s and the ans at the Abadan refinery were paid 50 Designer and Integrated Marketing magazine’s seemingly thoughtless decision cents a day. They had no vacation pay, sick Manager: Jennifer Beaumont to allow simplistic banality. leave, or disability compensation, and lived Classified Advertising Manager Charles F. Degelman ’66 in a shantytown with no running water, Gretchen Bostr0m Los Angeles electricity, or sanitation. In the winter, the Circulation and Fundraising plain flooded; in the summer, torrid heat Manager: Lucia Whalen The profile of Kermit Roosevelt over- descended. In the British section, there looks the consequences of his campaign were air-conditioned offices, lawns, rose Gift Processor: Sarha J. Caraballo to overthrow Mohammed Mossadegh, the beds, swimming pools. secular democrat who might have led Iran In 1946, violent workers’ protests erupt- Ivy League Magazine Network into a future of peaceful co-existence. ed. The British rejected all attempts at fi- Associate Publisher, Sales The author notes that Roosevelt laid the nancial compromise, and the Iranian pub- Lawrence J. Brittan, Tel. 631-754-4264 groundwork for the coup, the U.S. govern- lic pressed for nationalization. On March New York Advertising Sales ment’s first regime change. His tactics in- 15, 1951, the parliament voted unanimously Beth Bernstein, Tel. 908-654-5050 cluded bribery, murder, and “yellow jour- for nationalization. Mossadegh became Mary Anne MacLean, Tel. 631-367-1988 nalism” in coordination with the British. prime minister, the hero of self-determina- Travel Advertising Sales More important, Kinkead caricatures tion and resistance to foreign power. Northeast Media Inc., Tel. 203-255-8800 Mohammed Mossadegh as “an elderly law- Forgetting that Britain was, at the same Midwest Advertising Sales yer with ulcers who often conducted busi- time, nationalizing major industries, the Nugent Media Group, Tel. 773-755-9051 ness in pajamas.” He was a skilled attorney West reacted with shock and attempts to Detroit Advertising Sales with a doctorate of law from Switzerland undo the inevitable. Roosevelt then led the Heth Media who spoke several languages. In the heat of U.S.-British Operation Ajax that unseated Tel. 248-318-9489 the Middle East, many wore loose-fitting Mossadegh; the shah returned. Iranian Southwest Advertising Sales garments, the erroneously described “paja- fury at the U.S. interference in domestic Daniel Kellner, Tel. 972-529-9687 mas.” As a member of the Majlis, the Irani- matters still rages. It led first to the hos- West Coast Advertising Sales Virtus Media Sales, Tel. 310-478-3833

Remembering Max Hall Board of Incorporators This magazine, at first called the Harvard Bulletin, was Max Hall died in Cambridge on January 12 at 100 years of age. He was a writer, founded in 1898. Its Board of Incorporators was char- teacher of writing, journalist, editor of scholarly books, and for many of his many tered in 1924 and remains active in the magazine’s governance. The membership is as follows: Stephen J. years, a contributing editor of this magazine. Each of his numerous articles was a Bailey, AMP ’94; Jeffrey S. Behrens ’89, William I. Ben- model of the ABCs of good journalism: accuracy, brevity, and clarity. His books in- nett ’62, M.D. ’69; John T. Bethell ’54; Peter K. Bol; Fox clude The Charles: The People’s River, which grew out of a cover article for the maga- Butterfield ’61, A.M. ’64; Sewell Chan ’98, Jonathan S. Cohn ’91; Philip M. Cronin ’53, J.D. ’56; John de Cue- zine; An Embarrassment of Misprints: Comical and Disastrous Typos of the Centuries; and vas ’52; Casimir de Rham ’46, J.D. ’49; James F. Dwi- Harvard University Press: A History. nell III ’62; Anne Fadiman ’74; Benjamin M. Friedman Max was employed as a journalist in Atlanta, New York, and Washington, D.C., ’66, Ph.D. ’71; Robert H. Giles, NF ’66; Richard H. Gil- man, M.B.A. ’83, Owen Gingerich, Ph.D. ’62; Adam K. including nine years with the Associated Press. He was awarded a Nieman Fellowship Goodheart ’92; Philip C. Haughey ’57; Brian R. Hecht at Harvard in 1949-50 for his labor reporting. In 1960 he came back to Cambridge ’92; Sarah Blaffer Hrdy ’68, Ph.D. ’75; Ellen Hume ’68; Alex S. Jones, NF ’82; Bill Kovach, NF ’89; Florence with his family for a long stint at Harvard University Press as social sciences editor. Ladd, BI ’72; Jennifer 8 Lee ’99, Anthony Lewis ’48, He brought his editorial skills and Southern manner to the task of persuading aca- NF ’57; Scott Malkin ’80, J.D.-M.B.A. ’83; Margaret H. demics that they could improve their writing. He had successes. He was a member of Marshall, Ed.M. ’69, Ed ’77, L ’78; Lisa L. Martin, Ph.D. ’90; David McClintick ’62; Winthrop L. McCormack the board of directors of this magazine in the mid 1990s, and an incorporator from ’67; John P. Reardon Jr. ’60; Christopher Reed; Har- 1992. When he was a director, he volunteered to take the minutes of board meetings, riet Ritvo ’68, Ph.D. ’75; Henry Rosovsky, JF ’57, Ph.D. and did so with such accuracy, brevity, and clarity that when his two terms had ex- ’59, LL.D. ’98; Barbara Rudolph ’77; Robert N. Shapiro ’72, J.D. ’78; Theda Skocpol, Ph.D. ’75; Peter A. Spiers pired, the board asked him to stay on as clerk on an informal basis, which he did. An ’76; Scott H. Stossel ’91; William O. Taylor ’54; Sherry obituary notice appears on page 56A. vThe Editors Turkle ’69, Ph.D. ’76; Robert H. Weiss ’54; Elizabeth Winship ’43; Jan Ziolkowski.

4 March - April 2011 letters tage crisis of 1979 when militants seized condoning the coup. The story notes that Burditt made the astonishing claim that the U.S. embassy in Teheran. It strength- the consequences included Iran’s Islamic “‘Obama’s Democracy’ is a red flag to most ened the prestige of the Ayatollah Kho- Revolution. There were more consequenc- Americans. His ‘democracy’ is not ours.” meini and the political power of those who es, too, many disastrous; Degelman is cor- While Obama’s approval rating is hover- supported theocracy. It continues today rect that the coup set a pattern for oth- ing around 50 percent in most polls, you’d with the opposition to normalization of ers—at least 10 by the CIA in the following be hard pressed to find any poll or study relations with the West. decades. that showed that the “majority of Ameri- All of this Kermit Roosevelt helped to cans,” whom Burditt claims to represent, engineer. His claim of being “appropriately Obama’s Democracy, redux believe that Obama’s vision of pragmatic proud” of his career seems questionable. Recently I have to believe that the let- governing is antithetical to their values. Cassandra Chrones Moore ’56, A.M. ’58 ters in Harvard Magazine prove that a Har- And then there’s David McKenna, who Palo Alto vard degree should not be considered argues that Obama’s off-the-cuff response an automatic indication of character or to Joe the Plumber in a town hall meet- Gwen Kinkead responds: In a short pro- critical thinking skills. The letters in the ing in 2008 is better evidence of Obama’s file of Kermit Roosevelt, the fascinating January-February 2011 issue written in intellect than the thousands of pages of Mr. Mossadegh, unfortunately, could not response to James Kloppenberg’s article political writings and speeches he has be covered in equal depth. As Cassandra on President Obama (“A Nation Arguing penned in the last 20 years—that Obama Moore notes, he championed Iran’s de- with Its Conscience,” November-Decem- simply “pretends to be” a “deep thinker.” mocracy, self-determination, and plural- ber 2010, page 34) seem to confirm my This sort of baseless, ad hominem insult is ism; sought to weaken its monarchy; and conclusion. what I expect in subpar political websites, wrested its vast mineral wealth from the Charles Block accuses Kloppenberg of and it saddens me to see such discourse in rapacious British. Would he have led an “selecting favorable evidence and ignor- Harvard Magazine. increasingly democratic Iran had the coup ing other sources” and writing “biased… Yes, I disagree with the politics of these failed? It’s tantalizing to speculate. propaganda.” Accusing a tenured profes- letter writers. But that is beside the point. Charles Degelman mistakes a factual sor of ethical lapses and scholarly lazi- One of the hallmarks of an excellent edu- account of how and why Roosevelt over- ness should be accompanied by some- cation, which Harvard is supposed to threw Iran’s constitutional democracy for thing besides vague attacks. George provide, is the ability to argue with skill.

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Harvard Magazine 5 Letters

These letters are insults and invective mas- Obama’s political philosophy could not querading as argument, and as someone have missed its point more. The excerpt who shares an alma mater with the writ- (and the book) trace the intellectual ers, I am embarrassed. sources of Obama’s thinking, and indeed Ted Gideonse ’96 of America’s unique contribution to that San Diego particular philosophy. One can disagree with that philosophy or contest whether Letter-writer George Burditt ap- Obama manifests it, but one searches in parently neglected math while studying vain for either comment in the critical let- TRAVEL THE WORLD WITH FELLOW law at Harvard. He claims that “Obama’s ters. What they seem to complain about, ALUMNI AND HARVARD STUDY LEADERS. America” was objectionable to “most” rather, is that the article casts the Presi- A 2011 TRIP SAMPLING Americans and objects to it “on behalf of a dent in an intellectually alive light. majority of Americans.” Leaving aside the To call that partisan says more about arrogance of claiming to speak for 155 mil- the critics (and their candidates, perhaps), lion people you don’t know, I call Burditt’s than about the editors of this magazine. attention to the fact that he and those like Bruce A. McAllister, LL.B. ’64 him constituted only 45.7 percent of those Palm Beach, Fla. who voted in the last presidential election, which hardly constitutes “most” or “a ma- Football and Race jority.” Even I, as one of the 1.5 percent who Before myth permanently replaces MAGNIFICENT SOUTHWESTERN CHINA: voted for someone other than Obama or history, let me offer some corrections of TIBET, SICHUAN & YUNNAN MAY 24 - JUN 5, 2011 | with PETER BOL: John McCain, can acknowledge that it was the College Pump’s account of the 1947 Charles H. Carswell Professor of East Asian Obama, with 52.9 percent of the vote, who Harvard football team’s trip to Virginia Languages and Civilizations was supported by the majority of voters. (January-February, page 64). Yes, Chester Burditt makes the strange claim that Pierce, the only African American on our “[Obama’s] ‘democracy’ is not ours.” Has team, broke the color barrier; almost ev- Obama been ruling by decree, and some- erything else in the story is untrue based how we missed it? Or have new laws been on my personal experience. I had the enacted by senators and representatives privilege of being Chester’s substitute, elected by people like Burditt and myself? my locker was next to his in Dillon Field Given the role of money in the elections House, and I was at his side during much MONGOLIA: LAND OF THE BLUE SKY and in the political process in general, not of that trip. I can be seen standing behind MAY 30 – JUN 11, 2011 | with MARK ELLIOTT: Mark Schwartz Professor of Chinese and to mention legal and regulatory restric- Chester in the photograph that appeared Inner Asian History tions on third parties and the undemo- in Time magazine back then. cratic practice of the filibuster, with its First, our captain was Vincent Moravec, resulting tyranny of the minority, I would not Kenneth O’Donnell as reported. personally argue that American “democ- Moravec, a bruising fullback, tore up his racy” is a mockery of actual democracy. But knee that day and was on crutches the those things have nothing to do with Presi- rest of the season. But he limped out for dent Obama, and somehow I doubt they’re the coin toss in our subsequent games. the things Burditt is objecting to, anyway. O’Donnell, an uncanny pass defender, was Steven L. Patt, Ph.D. ’75 elected captain the next year. That correc- SCANDINAVIAN SUMMER SOJOURN: SWEDEN, DENMARK & NORWAY Cupertino, Calif. tion is easily verified; as to the rest I can AUG 13 – 27, 2011 | with STEPHEN MITCHELL: only offer my personal memory. I cannot Professor of Scandinavian and Folklore Those letter writers who complained swear that Kenny O’Donnell did not write WITH OVER 50 TRIPS ANNUALLY! about the partisan nature of the excerpt to the Virginia football team insisting on from Kloppenberg’s article on President Chester playing, but I can say that was VISIT US ONLINE AT definitely not his style. Furthermore, no WWW.ALUMNI.HARVARD.EDU/HAA/TRAVEL speak up, please one I knew on the team was aware of such Harvard Magazine welcomes letters a letter at the time. Nor were any of us told on its contents. Please write to “Let- that the Virginia team had in response ters,” Harvard Magazine, 7 Ware Street, voted to let Chester play. I am more certain Cambridge 02138, send comments by e- that the team never changed to a “black mail to your­turn@har­­vard.edu, use our hotel” and we were never required to enter website, www.harvard­maga­zine.­com, the back door of a restaurant in solidar- BOOK YOUR NEXT TRIP or fax us at 617-495-0324. Letters may ity with Chester. In short, the citizens of be edited to fit the available space. Charlottesville, a university town, did not 800.422.1636 behave like Jim Crow bigots, nor did our [email protected]

6 March - April 2011 letters

Harvard team behave like civil rights activ- 55), I observe that there will be some 32 critical opinion would be expressed with- ists. Perhaps the College Pump might bet- members with Harvard degrees in Con- out any support. A little restraint in the ter serve “veritas” by focusing on the in- gress, and that 29 are Democrats. If the wording could have helped. stitutional racism at Harvard in 1947 that reader counts only the members with Col- Albert F. Gordon ’59 made Chester the only African American lege degrees, there will be 13 members of New York City on our team. The mythical self-congratu- Congress, 12 Democrats. The development latory version retailed in Harvard Magazine of independent and critical thinking in The Harvard Portrait on squash coach was, I believe, created out of whole cloth undergraduates should be a major goal of Mike Way had a predictably disparag- by members of the press many years after an education, otherwise the process is in- ing and condescending reference to an the actual events. doctrination. The statistics on the politi- athletic competitor: the Trinity College Alan A. Stone cal affiliations of the incoming Congress squash team that has dominated for over Touroff-Glueck professor of law and psychiatry suggest that this is not happening at Har- a decade a sport that Harvard had long Cambridge vard College. Could this be a reflection of claimed and thought it owned. Over the the ideological imbalance of the faculty? years, I have known a number of these The editors note: Professor Stone is correct Peter McKinney ’56 Trinity players—an extraordinarily tal- that Mark F. Bernstein’s Football (quoted Chicago ented group of student-athletes on the in the College Pump) wrongly identifies courts and in the classrooms at a rigor- Kenneth O’Donnell as captain of Har- Squash ous institution of higher learning. Yes, I vard’s 1947 football team. Other sources, To see the statement “For years, college have read similar negative comments in in particular an article by George Sullivan squash’s juggernaut has been Trinity Col- the past by the Crimson when the opposi- in the October 5, 1997, New York Times, pro- lege, where recruiting and admissions tion outperforms John Harvard. But how vide details of the other incidents resem- policies, and other guidelines, differ dras- unfortunate it is that Harvard Magazine bling those in the Bernstein excerpt. tically from the Ivy League’s” in the article descends to the same level of hypocrisy, on Mike Way, the new Harvard squash suggesting that “drastically” differing re- Crimson in Congress coach (Harvard Portrait, January-Febru- cruitment and admissions policies are In reference to “Crimson in Congress” ary, page 45), surprises me for its harsh- the sole reason for differing performance. (January-February, page 60; and see page ness. I would not have thought that such a Anyone familiar with Ivy League athlet-

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Harvard Magazine 7

W&F Harvard AdF:Layout 8 1/18/11 10:48 AM Page 1

Letters Charlie Haydock, CFA Adrienne Silbermann, CFA Chief Investment Officer Director of Research ics knows to raise an eyebrow when Har- A.B. 1974 vard plays the “admissions card”...as the undersigned did in reading those unfortu- nate and ill-advised comments. Thomas D. Lips, J.D. ’69 San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

Craig Lambert responds: There’s more to Trinity’s success than differing policies, of course. However, Harvard’s athletic programs must operate within the Ivy League’s quite stringent guidelines, in- cluding a prohibition of athletic scholar- ships; clear beginning and end dates for seasons; highly defined and limited off- season activities; an “academic index” that benchmarks the academic qualifications of incoming athletes to the institution’s freshman class; and others. None of these Ivy rules need impinge on Trinity’s modus Knowing wealth. operandi. Trinity matriculates some stu- The more you get to dents in January, including squash stars Knowing you. know us, the more who may play varsity matches within days; you’ll know why the Harvard, with rare exceptions, enrolls stu- bond we have with dents only in the fall. Trinity began pursu- our clients is so long-lasting. It’s because we create deep and trusting relationships with ing a strategy of achieving dominance in each client. After all, we’ve been right here in squash in the mid 1990s, using all the tools the heart of Boston for nearly two centuries, at its disposal, and has clearly achieved its personally guiding generations of New Englanders with conservative, yet forward thinking, invest- aims in this sport. ment management advice and sophisticated tax, trust and estate planning. Amplification and Erratum If you’re attracted to the true value of an “The Power of Touch” (Right Now, No- individual relationship with highly personalized vember-December 2010, page 15) seems service, please call Charlie Haydock ‘74 at incorrect to suggest “smooth sailing” is a 617-557-9800. “metaphor of touch.” As any sailor knows, AtWelch & Forbes, we know wealth. this refers to the sea state—the surface And we know you. of the water is smooth and the boat sails smoothly, unlike when the surface is rough. The sea state is something experienced primarily visually and with the vestibular 45 School Street, Old City Hall, Boston, MA 02108 system (hence seasickness), and to a less- Jay Emmons, CFA President T: 617.523.1635 | www.welchforbes.com er extent with hearing, touch, smell, and taste (if you have ever been in a storm on a sailboat, you will know what I mean). But even if touch plays a small role, in my view this cannot properly be called a “metaphor Ohana Family Camp of touch.” The primary touch experience of both smooth and rough water is that it is Create lifetime memories for your wet, and warm or cold as the case may be. family this summer on peaceful Maury Shenk ’88 Lake Fairlee in Vermont. Cozy cabins London with fireplaces. Farm-fresh meals. Swimming, sailing, canoeing, kayaking, fishing, hiking, biking, The photograph of four researchers in- tennis, crafts, and more. Delighting doors at Ducke on page 41 of our January- generations of families since 1905. February issue (“Models—and Mud—in Imagine your family right here. Amazonia,” page 36) misidentified the in- dividual standing at the right. He is Hen- www.OhanaCamp.org rique Sawakuchi. We regret the error.

8 March - April 2011 Right Now The expanding Harvard universe

One Truth A Revolution in Corporate Reporting

ary Kelly, CEO of Southwest ny’s operations (encompassing everything capital and social issues, awareness of nat- Airlines, is famous for saying, “I from a host nation’s political stability, to ural-resource limitations, a financial sys- want one version of the truth.” regulatory costs, to a company’s image in tem that keeps blowing up, and a better GThe philosophy behind this a community), corporate social respon- sense of the importance of managing and simple statement accords with his firm’s sibility, and information on the sustain- reporting on risk, have come together and recent move to integrated reporting—a ability of a firm’s business practices have given the concept of integrated reporting new format for reporting on all of a com- been published separately, often with di- a spontaneous, widespread boost.” pany’s activities—that if broadly adopted verse audiences in mind. Now, says Eccles, Eccles has written a case about South- could lead to profound change not only “Environmental consciousness, increasing west Airlines’ transition to an integrated in the way corporations do business, but recognition of the importance of human report, as well as three books on corpo- even in the way they view their role in society. “Companies—which in some cases have revenues that rival the gross domestic product of small nations—are starting to think more about how they use finan- cial, natural, and human resourc- es, and to take account of the positive and negative externali- ties their decisions create,” ex- plains Robert Eccles, a professor of management practice at Har- vard Business School. Integrated reporting, which unites tradi- tional, mandated corporate pub- lications such as annual reports to shareholders with voluntary, nonfinancial disclosures, is an obvious way to consolidate and discuss all dimensions of busi- ness performance in one place. In the past, reports on environ- mental, social, and governance performance, risks to a compa-

Illustration by James Kaczman Harvard Magazine 9 right now rate reporting including, most recently, is not without risk, Eccles acknowledg- about their role in society. “Integrated re- One Report: Integrated Reporting for a Sustain- es, because it forces tough decisions and porting,” he says, “instills the discipline able Strategy (Wiley). Although only a few conversations. A corporation might buy to be much more specific about the rela- American companies—including United electricity generated by nuclear power tionships between financial and nonfinan- Technologies and American Electric Pow- to reduce carbon emissions, but produce cial performance, and this will benefit all er, in addition to Southwest—have so radioactive waste instead. Integrated re- stakeholders.” vjonathan shaw far adopted the practice, these firms “are porting rapidly leads to the realization coming to it for the same reason,” he says. that “you can’t satisfy everybody,” he ex- robert eccles website: “It is like moving from an externally driv- plains. Ultimately, the resolution of such http://drfd.hbs.edu/fit/public/faculty- en sustainability strategy of being ‘green,’” trade-offs requires corporations to think Info.do?facInfo=ovr&facId=126059 meaning that a company operates in a way that is environmentally responsible as defined by regulation or social expecta- Friending farming tions, to “a sustainability strategy for the company”: a strategy that recognizes and accounts for the durability of a company’s An African Breadbasket? activities over long periods of time. How long, for example, will regulators allow a coal company to operate without account- eports of famine in Africa are one example, a partnership between mo- ing for the social or environmental costs so common that it becomes easy bile phone companies, governments, and of pollutants? Integrated reporting, Eccles to assume the continent will al- nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) says, “is going to lead to better resource- Rways face food shortages. But is creating a network of 5,000 automatic allocation decisions that will create value Calestous Juma, professor of the practice weather stations across Africa; the data over the long term, while allowing compa- of international development at the Har- they gather, when disseminated via mo- nies to take a more holistic view of their vard Kennedy School, says Africa could bile phone, will help farmers and fisher- role in society.” feed itself—and even become a net ex- men in their trades. Eccles says companies find that one of porter of food—within a generation. Juma bases his arguments on initiatives the first benefits of this emerging practice Despite worldwide advances in agricul- like this one. “Most studies of Africa tend is that it “enables them to take a more dis- tural technology, food production in Africa to be theoretical,” he said in an interview. ciplined and integrated approach across has actually fallen in the last 40 years—even “They’re based in models. But people can all the different organizational silos.” That as aggregate global food production has always construct a model that shows a dif- allows them to “improve the way they are more than doubled. Although the majority ferent outcome.” He believes innovative managed, to ensure that they have a sus- of the continent’s population derives its in- projects are showing how African coun- tainable strategy that will enable them to come from farming, “only 4 percent of Af- tries, through agriculture and the science, create long-term value for shareholders rica’s crop area is irrigated, compared to 39 technology, and entrepreneurship that and society.” Southwest Airlines, for ex- percent in South Asia,” Juma writes in his support it, can leave behind their role as ample, discovered that it didn’t have an book The New Harvest aid recipients and instead pilot new strate- easy way to track water and electricity us- (Oxford). Fertilizer gies that the rest of the world age in all its facilities. Now it has a system use per hectare might copy. in place to capture those data. in Africa is Agriculture was a part of Improved management is one reason for less than 10 life during Juma’s childhood moving to integrated reporting, but ex- percent of on the shores of Lake Vic- ternal forces can also play a role. Socially the world toria, in western Kenya. responsible investors increasingly demand average. His father was a information about environmental perfor- Fully 70 fisherman; his mance, and government regulation may percent of mother grew even require it. South Africa has mandated the popula- (and still does integrated reporting for the 450 publicly tion lives more grow) cassava. traded companies on the Johannesburg than two hours’ Juma first went Stock Exchange and on January 25 re- travel time from a market. to teachers college; leased a first-draft South African Frame- In Juma’s eyes, that means there graduate work on work for Integrated Reporting. According is plenty of room for improvement. renewable energy to Harvard Business School dean Nitin Inadequate infrastructure (transpor- at the Univer- Nohria, “Integrated reporting is a big idea tation, communication, energy) has sity of Sussex and the kind of idea HBS should support hampered large-scale agricultural led to his in- and practice.” production, but he notes that this terest in agri- Putting all a company’s (or a city’s or handicap also presents an opportu- culture. “You th e book g e l/from a university’s) information in one place nity for innovative solutions. To take can’t study fuel Ev e Si

10 March - April 2011 right now

alcohol,” he says, “without studying how integrate research and teaching, cane is produced.” In 1988, he founded the as well as practice; as it stands, African Centre for Technology Studies, the he says, most African educa- continent’s first NGO dedicated to promot- tion in agriculture includes no ing the application of science and technol- hands-on experience. ogy to sustainable development. Now, at As a model for what is pos- Harvard, he directs the Agricultural Inno- sible, he points to a non-African vation in Africa Project (funded by the Bill example. Costa Rica’s EARTH & Melinda Gates Foundation) and teaches University, founded in 1990 with courses such as “Technology and Sustain- international aid and foundation ability” and “Innovation, Development, and money, converted an existing ba- Globalization.” nana plantation on its campus to He believes African countries must re- sustainable and socially respon- think the assumptions that underpin their sible farming practices (buyers include Farmers often have to travel several education systems: agriculture should be the Whole Foods supermarket chain). hours to reach a village market like this one, in King’ori, Tanzania. treated “as a skill to be learned, valued, Students get hands-on experience on the

and improved upon from early childhood university’s farm and through internships multinational regional bodies should play Elizab e th G udrai s through adult careers,” he writes, not “as with local producers. An entrepreneur- a role, citing the West African Power Pool, a last resort for people who cannot find ship program offers loans for students’ through which the 14-member Economic the resources to move to a city and get an ventures, and they keep their profits after Community of West African States co- industrial job.” He calls for creating more repayment. operates on energy production and infra- s ity universities of science and technology that Juma cites initiatives within Africa as structure, and an effort by the Common well. Turning from educational reform to Market for Eastern and Southern Africa Students from Costa Rica and Uganda the benefits of improved infrastructure, he to bolster the inland fishing industry by learn about agriculture at EARTH University in Costa Rica. Juma points to lauds a project in Uganda that increased supporting development of new products, arth univ e r y of e arth the school’s hands-on learning approach agricultural productivity by building roads such as fish burgers for export to Europe. as a model. to link rural areas to markets, focusing on Juma says he wrote the book as a sort es court secondary roads, which boost of instruction manual for African govern- economic development more ments; he mailed an autographed copy to than the ribbons of new high- each African president. One critic noted way that may make a country that with the grab bag of solutions the book appear more developed. Mov- offers, it’s difficult for an African nation to ing on to technological in- know where to start. Juma’s response: “It novation, he notes that the doesn’t matter where you start, so long as use of genetically modified you get started.” velizabeth gudrais Bacillus thuringiensis corn and cotton has reduced pesti- agricultural innovation in africa cide use and increased crop project website: yields in Burkina Faso, South http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/ Africa, and Egypt. In catalyz- project/60/agricultural_innovation_ ing such changes, he believes in_africa.html

polygyny in practice Multiple Wives, Substandard Lives

n TV shows like Big Love and the doc- where plural marriage is illegal, family mom around to take care of the kids. umentary Sister Wives, polygyny—the members have to be careful about whom But who’s taking care of the moms? practice of a man marrying multiple they share their polygynist identity with. Rose McDermott, the 2010-2011 Bes- I women—looks like a pretty good deal But the wives on screen claim the bene- sell Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute and for everyone. Sure, it may be challenging to fits of their marriages outweigh the risks, a professor of political science at Brown, orchestrate meals with so many kids, or to particularly when it comes to parenting. has spent the last decade accumulating schedule a husband’s time evenly among If it takes a village to raise children, these data and stories from across the globe his wives, who occasionally feel jealous polygynists argue, then they have an edge bearing on this and other questions about of each other. And in the United States, on mainstream society: There’s always a polygyny, and has found evidence to con-

Harvard Magazine 11 right now tradict such rosy views. and unskilled. “They’re Her research shows the a high-risk group,” says practice is often linked to McDermott, noting that higher maternal mortality, young, unmarried men are lower life expectancy, sex more prone, statistically, trafficking, and increased to committing violent acts. domestic violence. In addi- She has found that tion, she says the phenom- many countries with high enon is tied to a propen- rates of polygyny, includ- sity for violence between ing Afghanistan, Barba- nations. dos, and Nigeria, also have She started her research large numbers of young after a 2001 conversation people. This can mean with Moore professor many young men won’t of biological anthropol- s / C orbi find a spouse, and “these ogy Richard Wrangham, societies have to do some- who asked her to test the thing with these men,” idea that the male control she says. Governments over women that exists in may encourage them to many countries rests on MUHAMMAD / Re ut e r BAZUKI join monasteries—or to practices like polygyny. “I become guns for hire, and thought it would be easy,” thus contribute to an in- she says. “But it turned out crease in interstate con- the data were almost im- flict. possible to obtain, particu- McDermott says ban- larly for poor regions of the ning polygyny outright is globe.” In 2002, she joined the most efficient way for the WomanStats Project, a countries to address the collaboration of research- negative consequences of ers from several American the practice, but admits and British universities that doing so could drive who study gender inequal- groups into hiding. Anoth- ity. (The project database, er approach—increasing available at http://wom- literacy among women—is anstats.org, now includes important, she says, but nearly 70,000 data points insufficient. She notes that from 172 countries for South Africa has taken a more than 260 variables re- different tack: amending

lated to women’s security.) es e phan G ladi u/ Ge tty I mag St its laws to protect women McDermott devised Top: Mohd Miqdad, a second-generation in plural marriages by giv- a five-point scale that weighs law and Malaysian polygynist, with two of his ing them rights to property and child cus- three wives and five of his six children. practice pertaining to polygyny in a given Bottom: Joe, a polygynist living in Utah tody. Such changes won’t prevent polygy- country: zero means the practice is illegal among monogamist families, has three ny, she says, but could help a woman leave and extremely rare, 4 that it is common wives and 21 children. her marriage if she wants to. Her goals for and legal under customary/religious law, in monogamous relationships. her own work, which she plans to publish with more than 25 percent of women in Anecdotal evidence bears out the fact later this year, are modest. She hopes oth- polygynous marriages. The data used to that polygynist communities don’t al- er researchers will use the WomanStats code each country come from hundreds ways take care of their own, she explains. database to explore other issues related of sources, both statistical and qualita- “One of the problems with polygyny is to women and children. And, she says, she tive. Analyzing her scale against other that it leaves out too many boys.” Mem- wants to “highlight some of the more sub- variables in the WomanStats database, bers of Fundamentalist Church of Jesus tle sources of violence against women.” McDermott found relationships between Christ of Latter Day Saints polygynist vkatharine dunn polygyny and a wide range of outcomes, enclaves in rural Utah and Arizona, for including health problems for women and example, sometimes toss boys out once rose mcdermott e-mail address: children, female genital mutilation, and they reach puberty because there simply [email protected] lower rates of education among children. aren’t enough wives to go around. The rose mcdermott website: Polygynists, she says, “are investing less outcasts from these largely agrarian com- www.psych.ucsb.edu/research/cep/ in the children they have” than parents munities often end up on the street, poor McDermott/McDermott.html

12 March - April 2011 New England Regional Section

The Harvard-Radcliffe Chorus performs Extracurriculars Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms, along with motets by Bach and Schütz. Seasonal Dancers’ Viewpointe 11: Point, View, www.ofa.fas.harvard.edu/arts Voice. Collaborative works combine con- Nature and science 617-495-8676 cert dance with performance art. The Arnold Arboretum • April 28 through May 1 www.arboretum.harvard.edu; 617-495-2439 The College’s annual Arts First Festival music • March 12 through April 24; opening day hosts events throughout Harvard Square www.ofa.fas.harvard.edu/boxoffice reception with the artist, 1 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. that feature more than 1,000 performers 617-496-2222 Tree Pieces: Painted Fabric Collages by and honors the 2011 Arts Medalist, pho- • March 5 at 8 p.m. Merill Comeau features large-scale inter- tographer Susan Meiselas, Ed.M. ’71. The Harvard Wind Ensemble plays works pretations of the natural world that use a by Alan Hovhaness. Lowell Lecture Hall. variety of castoff materials. theater • April 16 at 8 p.m. The Harvard-Smithsonian Center www.americanrepertorytheater.org The Harvard Wind Ensemble and the for Astrophysics 617-547-8300 Sunday Jazz Band offer works by under- www.cfa.harvard.edu/events/public_ • Through March 13 graduate composers. Lowell Lecture Hall. events.html; 617-495-7461 Ajax. Sophocles examines a warrior’s re- Sanders Theatre 60 Garden Street action to violence and the trauma of war. www.ofa.fas.harvard.edu/boxoffice • March 17 and April 21 at 7:30 p.m. • Through March 25 617-496-2222; all concerts begin at 8 p.m. Skywatching, weather permitting, and Prometheus Bound. A new rock-musical • April 1 lectures. Free and open to the public. version of this Aeschylus classic, directed Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum by Diane Paulus. performs Handel’s Israel in Egypt. film • April 9 The Harvard Film Archive dance Forty Years of Jazz at Harvard Univer- http://hcl.harvard.edu/hfa; 617-495-4700 http://ofa.fas.harvard.edu/dance sity features the Harvard Jazz Bands and Visit the website for complete listings. www.ofa.fas.harvard.edu/boxoffice guest jazz masters Benny Golson, Eddie • March 11 through March 25 617-496-2222 or 617-495-8683 Palmieri, and Roy Haynes. The Murderous Art of Claude Chabrol New College Theatre, 10 Holyoke Street • April 23 at 8 p.m. includes both New Wave titles and 1960s • March 25-26 and April 1-2 at 8 p.m. 617-496-2222 Hitchcock-esque thrillers. arboretum arnold ar ch ive; film Harvard L ibrary; College Harvard Left to right: From T.R. in Cartoon: The Art of Joseph Keppler, at Pusey Library; from Les Bonnes Femmes, part of the Harvard Film Archive’s festival The Murderous Art of Claude Chabrol; and a detail of a collage by Merill Comeau at the Arnold Arboretum

Harvard Magazine 12A New England Regional Section M useums

Atlifecare Brookhaven living is as good as it looks. A rt h arvard The Dog Wallah, circa 1825, from Company Brookhaven at Lexington offers an abundance of opportunities for to Crown: Perceptions and Reactions in intellectual growth, artistic expression and personal wellness. Our residents British India, at the Sackler share your commitment to live a vibrant lifestyle in a lovely community. • March 26 - 27 Call today to set up an appointment for a tour! Screening of the restored seven-part se- A Full-Service Lifecare Retirement Community ries, Hapax Legomena Cycle, by experimental www.brookhavenatlexington.org filmmaker Hollis Frampton. (781) 863-9660 • (800) 283-1114 Exhibitions Carpenter Center for the Arts www.ves.fas.harvard.edu 617-495-9400/2317 • March 1 through April 10 FAX is a traveling exhibition that reveals wide-ranging conceptions of the machine as a thinking and drawing tool. • March 3 through April 7 Muntadas: On Academia The Spanish artist Antoni Muntadas created a site-specific video project for Harvard that examines the “problem- atic relations between the production of knowledge and economic power.” Harvard Art Museums www.harvardartmuseum.org; 617-495-9400 • Opening April 8 Company to Crown: Perceptions and Re- actions in British India highlights a hy- brid Indo-European painting style. • Through April 2 I Was Not Waving but Drowning features 14 photographs that capture Indian artist Atul Bhalla’s submergence in the Yamuna River. Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology www.peabody.harvard.edu; 617-496-1027 • March 27, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

12B March - April 2011 HarvardMagAd-Jan11:Layout 1 1/21/11 1:43 PM Page 1

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Artist, cartographer, and author Ian Graham talks about his lively journey through Mayan sites, chronicled in his book The Road to Ruins. • April 2o at 5:30 p.m. The museum’s “Visible Language” lecture series offers “A Brief History of the Spec- tre of the Internet and the Death of Writ- ing.” Visit the website for details. Harvard Museum of Natural History www.hmnh.harvard.edu; 617-495-3045 Oxford Street • March 31 at 6 p.m. Anne Whiston Spirn ’69, author, photog- rapher, and professor of landscape archi- tecture at MIT, discusses “New Directions in Eco-Planning.” ollege library c ollege h arvard Portrait of George Washington with a plan of the city that bears his name, from Toward a National Cartography: American Mapmaking, 1782-1800, at Pusey Library harvard magazine Libraries www.hcl.harvard.edu/info/exhibitions TRAPPISTINE UALITY CANDY 617-495-2417 trappistinecandy.com • 1.866.549.8929 special secti ns Pusey Library Insider offers and exclusive listings for our readers. • Continuing: Toward a National Cartog- raphy: American Mapmaking, 1782-1800. • Continuing: T.R. in Cartoon: The Art of Joseph Keppler.

Events listings also appear in the Univer- sity Gazette, accessible via this magazine’s www.harvardmagazine.com/specialsectionsThe perfect holiday gift! website, www.harvardmagazine.com.

12D March - April 2011 Explorations

When Grass Isn’t Greener

Alternatives to the “perfect” lawn, at home and at Harvard • Nell Porter Brown

aced with large, unhealthy pine trees that grew too close to their home and had to come down, Hillary Wyon, A.L.M. ’08, and her neighbors joined forces to F redesign their abutting yards—nixing the ubiquitous suburban lawn. “The people who lived here before us had the perfect lawn; they were very much the Roundup mentality,” says Wyon, who lives in Bel- mont, Massachusetts. “But we wanted to be chemical-free because it’s better for our pets and vegetable gardens. And wa- tering lawns is such a waste.” Wyon and her partner, Paul William- son, had researched indigenous drought- tolerant grasses and ground covers, along with moss lawns. In the end they planted a combination of chamomile, thyme, and mint. “It’s really soft, low-growing green- ery,” Wyon notes. “And when you walk on it, the leaves get crushed and produce fragrance.” The two couples also added to the ex- isting low- and high-bush blueberries and raspberries, and put in serviceberry and chokeberry trees, which birds love. On their part of the property, Wyon ripped up most of the rest of the turf in front and on the side and put in two raised-bed veg- etable gardens. She plans to do the same in the backyard, using marigolds and other natural deterrents to animal cohabi- tants like rabbits, skunks, and squirrels. “I don’t like dandelions as much as anyone,” Wyon explains, “but getting rid of them is not worth pouring chemicals on the land that get into the air and the water and the environment.” Botanist Peter Del Tredici, senior re- search scientist at the Arnold Arboretum, notes that Americans’ “ideal lawn”—that shimmering expanse of velvety emerald softness first manifest around English man- or homes in the beginning of the 1700s—is, Above: caption caption caption caption cap- in fact, an artificially enhanced monocul- tion caption ture. It is a purely cosmetic landscape that

Illustration by Nicole Wong Harvard Magazine 12E New England Regional Section

“goes against the more heterogeneous natu- commercial entities spend on perfecting England, was critical to animal husbandry. ral landscape and requires tons of fertilizer, their turf, he adds. Why? “Lawns are of- “During the eighteenth century, Europe- herbicides, pesticides, gasoline for mow- ten about self-image; the identity with a an pasture plants including timothy and ing, and water, to be maintained,” says Del manicured lawn suggests higher status,” fowl-meadow grass and the legumes red Tredici. “Which is horrifying.” Butterfield asserts. “People think of golf clover and alfalfa were common as pas- Think of the scale. Of the 116 million courses and country clubs and mansions. ture grasses throughout the colonies,” ac- American households, only about 25 per- The big fertilizer companies really play cording to Redesigning the American Lawn: A cent do not have yards or grass to take into this with their commercials. The Search for Environmental Harmony, by F. Her- care of, says Bruce Butterfield, senior re- message is: If you have dandelions in your bert Bormann, Diana Balmori, and Gordon searcher for the National Gardening Asso- lawn, you’re a bad person; you’re lazy and T. Geballe. Native New England grasses ciation in Burlington, Vermont. If the typi- you’re an eyesore in the neighborhood and were not as easily grown or digestible by cal suburban lawn is 5,000 square feet, he you should be ashamed of yourself.” livestock, so seed combinations were of- says, that translates into a huge portion of ten imported from England. With the the American landscape, even if most are Lawns have been around in America in coming of the Industrial Revolution, new- Document1Document1 11/20/03 11/20/03 11:51 11:51 AM AM Page Page 1 1 individual “postage-stamp-sized” yards. some form since the turn of theDocument1 eighteenth 11/20/03ly middle-class 11:51 families AM whoPage could 1 afford According to an analysis of NASA satellite century, although they were minimal and to moved out of the cities, and detached data, turf covers about 49,421 square miles there to feed (and were maintained by) housing soon prevailed, preferably sur- of American land—representing three grazing animals. Thomas Jefferson and rounded by a green yard, which the own- times more acreage in the nation than ir- George Washington, among other well-off ers believed created “reservoirs of clean air rigated corn. landowners, were influenced by the majes- and healthy home environments.” Think of the money. In 2009, individuals tic grounds of contemporary English gentry The lawn, carrying the English conno- spent about $20 billion on lawn care in the and aspects of those landscapes, including tations of nature with it, became a sym- United States—which is only a fraction lawns, turned up on their own estates. bol of prestige in nineteenth-century of what the industrial, athletic, and other Grass, which grew much more easily in suburbs. Similarly, centers of towns in

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12F March - April 2011 l Jew icia e ff le O r

New England Regional Section

New England, the old “commons,” which “The big thing is to get people to stop had been the setting for such useful ac- tivities as rope-making, hay-growing, thinking that the turf has to be made up of military drills, and town fairs of the eigh- teenth century, were transformed from one species of grass.” bare stamped earth, cultivated fields, or cemetery grounds into lawned and treed The Garden Club of America, found- conjunction with chemical research as- parks, now called “greens.” ed in 1913, also promoted tidy personal sociated with World War II. In her 2008 New Yorker article, “Turf lawns and yards, running contests and War,” Elizabeth Kolbert credits Andrew publicity drives to promote “a plot with Anti-lawn sentiment has been build- Jackson Downing, a nursery owner, with a single type of grass with no intruding ing during the last two decades, however, publishing the first landscape gardening weeds, kept mown at a height of an inch given the climate crisis. Motivated by book for Americans in 1841, encourag- and a half, uniformly green, and neatly books like Redesigning the American Lawn and ing people to beautify their front yards edged,” reports Virginia Scott Jenkins in Sally and Andy Wasowski’s The Landscap- through careful plantings and sculpting The Lawn: A History of an American Obsession. ing Revolution: Garden with Mother Nature, Not of the landscape—ideas that influenced Also significant, Peter Del Tredici points Against Her—and by research on the ef- Frederick Law Olmsted’s grand lawns of out, was the collaborative research ven- fects of petrochemicals on drinking water Central Park, as well as planned suburban ture between the U.S. Department of Ag- and air quality—many people are calling communities like Riverside, Illinois. The riculture and the U.S. Golf Association for a radical rethinking of our entrenched prevalence of the more expansive, individ- that resulted, by 1930, in feasible combi- aesthetic views. “The big thing,” main- ually mowed lawn appeared in the later nations of lawn grasses that would grow tains Del Tredici, author of Wild Urban nineteenth century (the first push mower well in a variety of American climates. Plants of the Northeast, “is to get people to became available in 1870), along with the The marketing of herbicides, pesticides, stop thinking that the turf has to be made burgeoning American suburb. and fertilizers came later, sometimes in up of one species of grass.”

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He would argue that there is no true ing and no petrochemicals,” Del Tredici three acres of lawn mowed and uses no functional, natural, vegetative substitute points out. “Before herbicides were in- chemicals. “The primary question is, ‘How for the “soft carpet” of a well-maintained vented and promoted, people accepted do we approach this in a balanced way so lawn: “Ground covers and meadows do dandelions and clover and other flowers our landscape looks good and is good for not fit in that category.” Instead, he favors as the inevitable reality they are.” The the plants and earthworms and animals the “freedom lawn” concept discussed in problem is not the lawn, per se, he empha- and people?’” he adds. “Because for many Redesigning the American Lawn. That calls for sizes, but all the petrochemicals and wa- people in America, it’s not a choice wheth- a green expanse composed of a commu- ter used to keep it green and weed-free. er they’re going to have lawn. It’s ‘How are nity of plants that “sort themselves out Bruce Butterfield also sees this centrist we going to manage it?’” according to the topographical gradient approach to lawns as constructive. “To Harvard University faces this very ques- that is most peoples’ lawns,” he explains. me, there is a continuum from a highly tion when confronting its 80 acres of turf There are varying soil conditions, and manicured ‘golf course’ lawn to one that in Cambridge. Landscape manager Wayne spots that are sunnier or shadier, or wet- is not cared for at all,” he says. He rec- P. Carbone has overseen a significant ter or drier, areas closer to trees and other ommends Cornell University’s website, change in lawn care practices since 2007, root systems, et cetera. The freedom lawn www.gardening.cornell.edu/lawn/index. when a test patch in the Yard showed is not all grass, or even one kind of grass: html, for its reasonable guidance on lawn that organic techniques produced better it has dandelions, clover, and buttercups, care. Butterfield himself lives on 150 acres results in terms of soil improvements and too. “You can plant crocus and violets and in northern Vermont, having moved from enhanced microbial activity. That, in turn, ajuga. You can still walk on it and let them Burlington “because it was beginning to generated turf that was healthier and had spread on their own with minimal mow- look like New Jersey.” He keeps about a deeper root system because it was less dependent on fertilizer and irrigation. “It really opened my eyes,” says Carbone, who Greener Than Grass had been schooled in and practiced con- For alternatives to the idealized, traditional lawn, try these options. ventional, synthetic, chemical landscape Fescues. Closely related to ryegrass, fescues often come mixed into lawn grass maintenance for more than two decades. seed bags, but can be planted themselves for a wide range of effects. Some variet- “At home now I use compost ‘teas’ and ies are small and wispy, while others have a bolder look and help curtail soil ero- have eliminated synthetic fertilizers.” sion. They do not need fertilizers, herbicides, et cetera, to thrive. They are also fairly Most people do not understand what shade-tolerant and often grow in more interesting textures and forms than does cool-weather grass needs to grow health- Kentucky bluegrass. ily, says the Arnold Arboretum’s manager Sedge lawns, which are increasing in popularity, need only one initial mowing a of horticulture, Steve Schneider, A.L.M. season (but can take more to create a more manicured look). They require no fertil- ’10. By using too much fertilizer and water, izer or other chemicals, says Kristin Desouza, senior horticulturist with the New and mowing the turf too often, Schneider England Wildflower Society. The organization sells Carex pennsylvanica, the sedge va- says, they hurt root development—and riety native to the Northeast, which grows up to 10 inches tall, and withstands sun, shallower, weaker roots are more vulner- shade, and a fair amount of trampling. able to pests and invasive species and can- Meadows. The Society has also favored installing a native flower meadow. But not winter over properly. “When people Peter Del Tredici says urban and suburban gardeners need to know that establishing think their lawns don’t look good, it’s a really good-looking meadow takes work: “You cannot just buy a seed packet and often not because of grubs or insects or sprinkle it on the soil and sit back.” Meadows require soil preparation and consistent weeds, it’s because of poor watering and irrigation early on “or these little seeds all dry out.” It’s more effective to put in the mowing practices,” he reports. “But peo- plants themselves, although that is more expensive. But once in place, a meadow, ple don’t realize this, and tend to water even a small one, is natural, looks great, and attracts birds, butterflies, and bees. Peo- more and fertilize more. And they don’t ple can also walk in it, have picnics, or take a nap—but golf and soccer are out of the really think about what that means: chem- question. icals leaching off into the water supply Ground covers such as Pachysandra terminalis and Vinca minor can be a good solu- and bacterial ‘blooms’ that kill fish. Ulti- tion as long as they can dominate the landscape. Otherwise, says Del Tredici, “weed- mately, this leads to polluting our resourc- ing the ground covers is a lot more work than mowing the grass every two or three es. It’s a vicious cycle all because people weeks.” want lawns—which are not necessary.” Edible gardens. First lady Michelle Obama, J.D. ’88, is among the increasing num- Carbone has found that alternative or- ber of Americans bent on turning their turf into food. A National Gardening Associa- ganic practices—focused on soils man- tion survey found that seven million more households planned to grow their own agement, moisture retention, aeration, food in 2009 than in 2008, a rise of 19 percent. (See, as one example, the Edible Es- composting, and optimizing nitrogen and tates project, www.fritzhaeg.com/garden/initiatives/edibleestates/main.html.) nutrient cycling through microbes and fungi—have not only enabled his crews

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If you would like to list a property in our May-June issue, contact Abby Williamson: 617.496.4032 New England Regional Section to give up synthetic chemicals, but have universities, where expectations about ple still expect to see green grass.” also significantly reduced mowing and ir- containing nature run high. “It’s a lot eas- A more sustainable alternative to the rigation rates. “The grass is not growing ier to run a mower over a surface and be usual lawn has been installed outside as vigorously as it did when you’re apply- done with it than manage a water garden Harvard’s LEED-certified 46 Blackstone ing 36 percent nitrogen fertilizer on top or perennials or even a wildflower mead- Street building in Cambridge. The space of it. And our water use is down by about ow,” Schneider says, especially “when is hilly and contains various fescues—hay- three million gallons in Harvard Yard,” he you’re dealing with stakeholders who like grasses—that are low-mow (three reports. “We now take all the yard waste are walking by the site and don’t know times a year) and drought-resistant. But to the Arnold Arboretum and compost it’s supposed to be an educational ex- the new look has taken some getting used it with different recipes, depending on periment, or an environmentally friendly to; not everyone adores the less controlled what we want to do with the soil.” (The lawn, and start screaming that ‘Someone look, or the ryegrasses that were also crews use only nominal amounts of cof- hasn’t mown the lawn!’ Changing ideas planted initially and grew two to three fee and vegetable waste from the dining about the perfect lawn is really about re- feet high. “It could look like a hayfield, and halls for composting; much of that un- educating people to think in a completely people joked that I should get some goats eaten food is trucked to a pig farm. To different way.” out there,” Carbone reports. read more about Harvard’s program, visit Most of the grounds surrounding the Meanwhile, with the lawn mostly gone www.uos.harvard.edu/fmo/landscape/or- Arboretum’s new Weld Hill research fa- from the front of her house, Hillary Wyon ganiclandscaping.) cility consist of a new “metropolitan says her goals—“to not use so much water, The Arboretum has minimal manicured meadow mix” that includes various grass- use indigenous plants or those that grow grassy areas, which are mown but not es and hardy wildflowers. Schneider says easily here, and plant more fruits and veg- fertilized. But arboretums and botanical that it can be planted on any scale, “but etables”—are being met. “There are a lot gardens have more leeway for experimen- would Harvard Yard buy into it? Probably of alternatives,” she adds, “for having a tation and “messy” landscapes than do not, because in that setting it could look nice green space that is more natural than corporate headquarters, golf courses, and ‘unkempt’ because, psychologically, peo- a lawn.”

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nationally inspired entrées, ranging from the Italian tagliatelle “Bolognaise” with veal, beef, pancetta, and foie gras ($21) to the lighter roasted monkfish served with German spaetzle, Savoy cabbage, and Rus- sian “borscht” sauce ($28). We opted for the innovative Moroc- can spiced lamb saddle ($29) and the New York strip beef ($39), which were equally terrific. The lamb was encrusted with parsley, garlic, and other herbs and then rolled in toasted pistachios—a lus- cious combination of gamey flavors, fresh greenery, and downright satisfying crunch. The meat came cooked in its nat- ural juices, with sides of tangy tabbouleh, minted cucumber raita, and a mélange of baby carrots, beets, and turnips. The Black Angus steak, aged for four weeks and expertly cooked, was served atop a garlic soubise and Bordelaise sauce with bone marrow, alongside perfect goat- cheese-and-potato croquettes with an ideal crusty and velvety contrast, a tan- gle of slightly vinegary mushrooms, and euxave’s interior has a by co-owners Christopher Coombs (the sweet, colorful baby carrots. well-ordered, modernist feel executive chef) and Brian Piccini, who Desserts at Deuxave are just as crea- that belies a wildly enthusias- opened dbar in Dorchester. And although tive. Pastry chef Olivier Maillard takes tic reaction to its food. the menu seems pretentious in spots, and the modest pumpkin and spins it into DThe large space is clad in shades of uses some culinary terms unfamiliar to a wondrous plate of custard with an al- dove gray and walnut brown, with nearly many diners, the mainly French-style food mond crust, accompanied by pumpkin- floor-to-ceiling windows that look out itself is not overly fussy—just exception- seed brittle, a mound of milk and ginger onto Massachusetts Avenue, not far from ally good. gelée, and glace of rum raisins and tonka the Harvard Club of Boston. Chandeliers Start with the Scituate lobster with bean, a South American legume with and table candles make the plethora of juicy bites of gnocchi ($19), an unusual complex flavors of vanilla and cinnamon stemware glitter, and all is warmed by a dish with an Asian tinge that combines ($12). Or try the novel elderflower-yo- gas fireplace and the bottles of wine dis- mushrooms, curried walnuts, pearl on- gurt mousse ($13), served with an ultra- played as if in someone’s private cellar. It ions, and green grapes in a delicate citrus airy sponge cake, a citrus mélange with is an elegant, well-designed environment sauce. Also outstanding is Nine-Hour fresh grapefruit and preserved bits of befitting once-in-a-lifetime celebrations, French Onion Soup ($12), orange, lemon sorbet, and intimate dinners, or casual drinks with served with tantalizingly Deuxave an alluring pomegranate well-heeled friends at the marble-topped silky ribbons of onion, bob- 371 Commonwealth foam. It’s a bit of haute cui- bar, open until 1 a.m. bing beef-marrow croutons, Boston sine, but not over the top. Named for the two avenues on which it and a thick layer of bubbling 617-517-5915 And this is the balance that sits, Deuxave was opened last September Comté cheese, which lent a www.deuxave.com makes Deuxave so appeal- Above: Deuxave’s elegant ambiance. Inset: hint of sharpness. Dinner only ing: its ambitions are satis- photographs courtesy of Deuxave courtesy photographs New York strip beef with croquettes Deuxave also offers inter- fyingly delectable. vn.p.b.

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47804-10_10CTC145_WM_Ad_FP4C_v04.indd 1 7/27/10 6:42:35 AM BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN 47804-10_10CTC145_WM_Ad_FP4C_v04.pgs 07.27.2010 06:39 Montage Art, books, diverse creations

14 Open Book 15 Bishop Redux 16 Kosher Delights 17 And the War Came 18 Off the Shelf 19 Chapter and Verse 20 Volleys in F# Major

places this orchestra square- ly at the center of cultural and intellectual discourse.” The Philharmonic sounds better than it has in decades, too, because Gilbert has im- proved morale, changed the seating plan, and worked on details of tone and balance— even the much-reviled acoustics of Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center sound Alan Gilbert less jagged now. The conducting conductor is also pre-

Chris Lee the New York Pizzazz on the Podium Philharmonic pared to be surprised: at Avery Fisher to him, his job is both Alan Gilbert’s music that should be heard Hall in Lincoln to lead and take in Center what the musicians by Richard Dyer are offering. The unexpected hit of his first season ike his celebrated predecessor as diverse as György Ligeti and Wynton was Ligeti’s avant-garde opera, Le Grand Leonard Bernstein ’39, D.Mus. Marsalis, named a composer-in-residence Macabre, in a staging by visual artist Doug ’67, Alan Gilbert ’89 seems to en- (Magnus Lindberg), and started speaking Fitch ’81, a friend who had tutored art in joy whipping up a whirlwind and informally to the audience, as Bernstein Adams House when Gilbert was in col- then taking it for an exhilarating sometimes did. His programs are full of lege. To publicize the opera, Gilbert ap- Lride. Though only in his second year on interconnections and his seasons add peared in three homespun videos that the the job, the second Harvard-educated mu- up; Gilbert has said that every piece tells Philharmonic posted on YouTube; Death, sic director of the New York Philharmonic a story, and every program should, too. a principal character in the opera, was his has shaken things up at an orchestra that His stated intention is “to play the wid- costar in all three. In one, Death sported a had grown a bit stodgy under previous est range of orchestral repertoire as well makeshift Halloween costume and ate an conductors Kurt Masur and Lorin Maazel. as it can be played, while at the same time ice cream cone—“Pistachio,” he confided Gilbert has freshened the repertory with taking risks, striving to add to New York to Gilbert, who pointed out that Death new and unusual works by composers City’s artistic landscape in a way that had spilled some. In another, Gilbert and

Harvard Magazine 13 montage

Death staged a musical duel using instru- York Philharmonic insider; both his par- think you have something.” Today, Gilbert ments from the popular music video game ents played violin in the orchestra, and his is director of conducting and orchestral Guitar Hero. One can hardly imagine mother, Yoko Takebe, still does (his father studies at Juilliard. old-school maestros like Masur or Maa- retired a few years ago). A child violinist, In college, Gilbert joined the Harvard- zel doing such a thing (though Bernstein Gilbert studied music both at Juilliard in Radcliffe Orchestra and concentrated might have). In truth, Gilbert has been New York and Curtis in Philadelphia. At in music, even though “there were still omnipresent in the media: he told the New Juilliard, he had his first chance to con- people in the department who paradoxi- York Times where he buys his bagels, and duct during a reading session of the first cally believed that music should be seen has begun writing “Curiously Random,” movement of Dvorák’s Sixth Symphony. and not heard,” he recalls. “I gravitated an entertaining and informative blog that “That was a crucial experience, a powerful toward the faculty who were active in appears irregularly at www.musicala- experience, an eye-opening experience,” composition and performance—Earl Kim, merica.com. he says; Ronald Braunstein, the conductor Leon Kirchner, and Peter Lieberson.” As a The young music director is a New of the pre-college orchestra, told him, “I senior, he conducted the Bach Society Or-

In the wake of troubling decisions—cooking the books at Enron, going to war in o p e n b o o k Iraq on suspect grounds, making mortgage loans to indigent borrowers and pass- ing the risk on to others—scholars in many fields are examining how individuals and organizations conduct themselves relative to ethical standards. In Blind Spot: On Behavioral Why We Fail to Do What’s Right and What to Do about It (Princeton, $24.95), Straus professor of business administration Max H. Bazerman and Ann E. Tenbrunsel, Martin professor of business ethics at Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Busi- Ethics ness, seek answers not in philosophy, but through analysis of cognition and behav- iors, such as “ethical fading.” This excerpt is from chapter 1.

Could the financial crisis have been solved by giving all indi- this transgression to be less objectionable than did those who viduals involved more ethics training? If the training resembled saw another person commit the same transgression. This wide- that which has historically and is currently being used, the an- spread double standard—one rule for ourselves, a different one swer to that question is no. Ethics interventions have failed and for others—is consistent with the gap that often exists between will continue to fail because they are predicated on a false as- who we are and who we think that we should be. sumption: that individuals recognize an ethical dilemma when it Traditional approaches to ethics, and the traditional training is presented to them. Ethics training presumes that emphasiz- methods that have accompanied such approaches, lack an un- ing the moral components of decisions will inspire executives derstanding of the unintentional yet predictable cognitive pat- to choose the moral path. But the common assumption this terns that result in unethical behavior. By contrast, our research

training is based on—that executives make explicit trade-offs on bounded ethicality focuses on the psychological processes l Corne ius/getty i m ages R ay-Me between behaving ethically and earning profits for their organizations—is incomplete. This paradigm fails to acknowledge our innate psychological responses when faced with an ethical dilemma. Findings from the emerging field of behavioral eth- ics—a field that seeks to understand how people actu- ally behave when confronted with ethical dilemmas— offer insights that can round out our understanding of why we often behave contrary to our best ethical intentions. Our ethical behavior is often inconsistent, at times even hypocritical. Consider that people have the innate ability to maintain a belief while acting con- trary to it. Moral hypocrisy occurs when individuals’ evaluations that lead even good people to engage in ethically questionable of their own moral transgressions differ substantially from their behavior that contradicts their own preferred ethics. Bounded evaluations of the same transgressions committed by others. In ethicality comes into play when individuals make decisions that one research study, participants were divided into two groups. harm others and when that harm is inconsistent with these de- In one condition, participants were required to distribute a re- cision-makers’ conscious beliefs and preferences. If ethics train- source (such as time or energy) to themselves and another per- ing is to actually change and improve ethical decision-making, son and could make the distribution fairly or unfairly. The “alloca- it needs to incorporate behavioral ethics, and specifically the tors” were then asked to evaluate the ethicality of their actions. subtle ways in which our ethics are bounded. Such an approach In the other condition, participants viewed another person act- entails an understanding of the different ways our minds can ing in an unfair manner and subsequently evaluated the ethicality approach ethical dilemmas and the different modes of decision- of this act. Individuals who made an unfair distribution perceived making that result.

14 March - April 2011 montage

that are involved Opera for three years, beginning in 2003. Gilbert on the podium with the Philharmonic last year beyond creating His goal, says Gilbert, is to make a hu- an artistic event. man and spiritual connection between I emerged with a the music and the audience “in a natural sense of owner- and handmade way that is also sophisti- ship, and all that cated and elegant. It is more important experience has to make this kind of connection than to stood me in very try to get everything good stead.” right.” He adds, “The After gradu- decisions I am making Visit harvardmag.com/ ation, Gilbert here at the Philhar- extras for links to Alan played violin as a monic, good or bad, Gilbert’s Philharmonic videos. substitute in the are a function of being Philadelphia and myself. When decisions are made by com- Santa Fe orches- mittee, you can feel it. It is possible to de- tras and served as termine what people want and give it to

Chris Lee music director of them, but that is not the function of art, chestra. “The great thing about the Bach the adventurous Haddonfield Symphony which is to lead. A great orchestra like Society and about Harvard was that I had (now Symphony in C) in Camden, New the Philharmonic is a large operation, to create opportunities for myself; I got to Jersey, from 1992 to 1997. He was also assis- but you do not want people to think of do all kinds of things as a conductor and a tant conductor at the Cleveland Orchestra it as impersonal. The responsibility of an performer that I would never have had the and an active guest conductor in both the American music director is to give the chance to do at Juilliard—not to mention United States and Europe before taking orchestra a face.” coming up with plans, finding rehearsal the baton of the Royal Stockholm Philhar- space, arranging advertising and ticket- monic from 2000 to 2008—while working Richard Dyer, A.M. ’64, was for many years classi- ing, and all the other administrative jobs as well as music director of the Santa Fe cal music critic for the Boston Globe.

Elizabeth Bishop, 1956 Bishop Redux The poet’s portfolio, enlarged by adam kirsch ome writers have an uncanny about this fatten- way of becoming more prolific af- ing of Bishop’s ter their deaths than they ever were carefully dieted Swhile living. Elizabeth Bishop, body of work: who was born 100 years ago and taught “Had Bishop been poetry at Harvard from 1970 to 1977, pub- asked whether lished only four slim collections of poems her repudiated before she died in 1979. But love for those poems, and some poems—which include twentieth-century drafts and frag- American masterpieces like “The Fish,” ments, should be “Questions of Travel,” and “One Art”— published after has made readers eager for everything her death, she from Bishop’s pen. Her fiction and essays, would have re- several volumes of her letters, even her plied, I believe, watercolor paintings have all been post- with a horrified humously collected in books. Most con- ‘No.’” troversially, in 2006, a trove of Bishop’s un- Now, to mark published and unfinished poems appeared Bishop’s centena- in Edgar Allan Poe and the Jukebox, edited by ry, Farrar, Straus

Alice Quinn (see “Iambic Imbroglio,” Jan- and Giroux is l /Bett m ann/ c or b is Caste J.L. uary-February 2007, page 20). Porter Uni- adding three more titles to the list. Eliza- long relationship with the magazine that versity Professor Helen Vendler, writing beth Bishop and The New Yorker: The Complete published much of her best work. And in the New Republic, voiced strong doubts Correspondence documents her decades- the standard collections of her poems and

Harvard Magazine 15 montage

prose—long familiar to readers in their The rain begin suddenly all over the to comic effect. In 1971, Bishop inscribed salmon-pink and pale-green covers—are roof, some light verse on the title page of The being replaced by new, substantially ex- To feel the air suddenly clear Fannie Farmer Cookbook, in which she pokes panded editions. Poems, edited by Saskia As if electricity had passed through it fun at Claude Levi-Strauss’s recent an- Hamilton, includes everything that was From a black mesh of wires in the sky. thropological study, The Raw and the Cooked: in The Complete Poems: 1927-1979, and adds a All over the roof the rain hisses, group of “selected unfinished manuscript And below, the light falling of kisses. You won’t become a gourmet cook poems” as an appendix. As Vendler pre- By studying our Fannie’s book— dicted, most of these 28 items add little On the other hand, the “unfinished” Her thoughts on Food & Keeping to Bishop’s stature, though “It is marvel- work in Poems does not detract from Bish- House lous to wake up together” does offer a rare op’s masterpieces, either. Really, its pur- Are scarcely those of Levi-Strauss.... glimpse of her as an erotic poet: pose is to offer a tantalizing glimpse into Bishop’s poetic workshop. This effect is The Prose has grown even more than It is marvellous to wake up together heightened by the way Poems offers facsim- the Poems in this new edition. It incor- At the same minute: marvellous to hear iles of Bishop’s manuscripts—in one case, porates the full text of a book on Brazil

M e n U home, founded Bete’ Avon! (Hebrew for bon appetit; http://be- teavonkoshercatering.com) in 2007 to serve a niche market: a substantial local Jewish population, including summering New Yorkers, that wants to keep kosher despite the lack of Orthodox Kosher Delights stores, restaurants, or synagogues nearby. (She also runs the non- kosher Apogee Catering and Perigee, a restaurant in South Lee.) Last summer, Dawn LaRochelle, J.D. ’96, catered a 250-guest After five fairly uninspiring years practicing law in Manhattan, Jewish wedding in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts. she and her husband, Dennis LaRochelle, J.D. ’96, moved to the The bride, the daughter of a Reform rabbi, was a vegetarian and Berkshires right after 9/11. When the kosher-catering idea hit, many of the groom’s ultra-Orthodox family kept strictly kosher. she was 36, had three little boys, and had never cooked profes- “When the bride said she wanted an all-dairy wedding, my heart sionally. She had been her family’s chef growing up, however, and sank,” says LaRochelle, owner of Bete’ Avon!, the only kosher ca- wined and dined classmates in Cambridge, co-founding the Har- terer in the region. “Most seriously observant Jews don’t con- vard Law School Food and Wine Society. “Despite a lack of knife sider it a celebration unless there is some sort of meat.” skills,” she says, “I can make anything taste and look fantastic.” LaRochelle, who is Jewish and keeps “nominally kosher” at Annual sales of kosher food in the United States are about $14 billion; most of the consumers are not Jewish, but Muslims, Seventh-day Adventists, vegetarians, those with lactose or glu- ten intolerance, and health-conscious people who believe kosher food is of higher quality because it is more heavily vetted. Beyond the familiar rules—“No pork or shellfish,” “No meat and dairy served together”—kashrut laws can be complicated, and not just in reference to what parts of which animals to eat, who does the butchering, and when and how. Grape products made by non- Jews are prohibited, for example, including baking powders that contain cream of tartar, a by-product of winemaking. “But any cui- sine in the world can be prepared under kosher law,” LaRochelle avers, and with the right ingredients. Last summer’s client eventually decided that every dairy item at the wedding had to pass an even stricter measure of kashrut—cho- lov Yisroel—followed by about 1 percent of Jews. “It means that at certain parts of the processing of the dairy products, only an ob- servant Jew was involved,” says LaRochelle. “The products are very hard to find and very expensive—and the bride wanted a lot of different cheeses.” So LaRochelle drove Too many cooks in the kitchen? Not for for hours through traffic and summer LaRochelle and her heat to the Orthodox Jewish commu- staff, who are preparing nity of Crown Heights, Brooklyn, to the citrus-marinated grilled only qualified store whose cheese met mojo chicken with apple-raisin chutney for her own standards for taste. She also had a wedding banquet. to acquire new wedding china, “because greg N es b it greg

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that Bishop wrote for a series published oir,” as Schwartz writes in his editor’s by Life, as well as a selection of her trans- The “unfinished” work note. “In the Village,” with its terse rec- lations from Portuguese. (Both are fruits ollection of the way her childhood was of the many years Bishop spent in Bra- in Poems does not shadowed by her mother’s mental ill- zil with her partner Lota de Macedo ness, tells you more about the emotional Soares.) For Lloyd Schwartz, Ph.D. ’76, a detract from Bishop’s origins of Bishop’s poetry than anything poet, music critic, and professor of Eng- else she wrote. She makes the point her- lish at the University of Massachusetts masterpieces, either. self in the most significant new material at Boston, editing the Prose is the latest when she was sick in Stillman Infirmary. to appear in Prose: her exchange of letters expression of a lifelong dedication to “No one else she knew was in town,” with Anne Stevenson, the English poet Bishop and her work. Schwartz was a Schwartz recalls, “and I came to see her who wrote the first book-length study of graduate student in English in the 1970s, every day, all day, bringing her mail, and Bishop. Here, Bishop confirms that “‘In when Bishop was at Harvard (see Vita, just chatting about anything but poetry: the Village’ is accurate—just compressed July-August 2005, page 34), and he got movies, records, mutual acquaintances.” a bit”; when Stevenson mentions a “sense to know her over one Christmas break Later, Schwartz suggested that he write of loss” in her work, Bishop replies, “…it is his Ph.D. thesis on Bishop’s work: “To my probably obvious where it comes from.” surprise, because she never talked about These letters also include what is perhaps her work, even with friends, she not only Bishop’s best statement of her poetic— agreed (I think it was her motherly in- and more than poetic—creed: “Lack of stinct), but also offered to meet with me observation seems to me one of the cardi- regularly and answer any questions I had nal sins, responsible for so much cruelty, about her poems!” ugliness, dullness, bad manners—and Bishop was often more self-revealing in general unhappiness, too.” The three new prose than in verse; her stories “blur the volumes testify to Bishop’s lifelong obses- distinction between fiction and mem- sion with seeing things clearly. And the War Came people who keep cholov refuse to eat off At its sesquicentennial, a fresh, revealing narrative of kosher china that is not also cholov.” At 5 a.m. on the wedding day, the mashi- the advent of the Civil War l is Katsou H eather giah, who certifies that Bete’ Avon!’s by michael t. bernath events are kosher, had to “kashify” the large outdoor kitchens with industrial- e are in the midst of actually the history of 10 crucial months strength blowtorches because the site’s a perfect storm of new across two calendar years, October 1860 to generators had been down Friday and he Civil War books. With July 1861, as the nation—soon to become could not work on Shabbat. (Typically, this the bicentennial of Abra- two nations— entails running ovens at top heat for an W ham Lincoln’s birth in 2009 and this year’s teetered on and Adam Goodheart ’92, hour, shutting them off, and leaving them sesquicentennial of the beginning of the then crossed 1861: The Civil War Awakening closed all night.) In the end, the feast— conflict itself, historians have kicked into over the verge (Knopf, $28.95) including lemon truffle overdrive, threatening to overwhelm even of revolution. lollipops, zucchini rib- the most voracious readers. Still, Adam Rather than begin his story with the fir- bon rolls, pomegranate- Visit harvardmag. Goodheart’s engrossing 1861: The Civil War ing of the first shot on April 12, Goodheart honey glazed salmon, com/extras to see Awakening will not be lost in the crowd. purposefully opens his book months ear- and summer vegetable a video of Dawn LaRochelle at work. Many already know Goodheart from his lier as Major Robert Anderson raises the and feta turnovers—was frequent—and these days, it seems, al- Union flag over Fort Sumter, in Charles- enjoyed by all. Clients “won’t get borscht, most daily—historical pieces in the New ton Harbor, following his garrison’s secret chicken soup, or gefilte fish from me, al- York Times, but this book permits him to removal to the fort in the dead of night, though I love these foods and do them demonstrate the full range of his narrative under the noses of hostile and heav- very well,” LaRochelle declares. “They’ll powers.* ily armed South Carolinians. Goodheart’s get Delmonico steaks with roasted fresh Its title notwithstanding, the book is reasons for doing so say much about the figs and sherry parsley sauce—and they book as whole. *A former Undergraduate columnist for this mag- won’t even notice it’s all kosher!” azine, Adam Goodheart ’92 now directs the Starr For one, he wants to give the United vNell porter brown Center for the Study of the American Experience, States, not the Confederate States, the ini- at Washington College. tiative in the forthcoming struggle for na-

Harvard Magazine 17 montage

and Carlos Yu (Princeton, $35). A the Caribbean, India, and beyond. It be- political-economic history of, as gins with George Washington’s triumphal Off the Shelf the subtitle puts it, “How America entry into New York City on November Took, Built, Ran, and Ultimately 25, 1783, and bracingly proceeds to the Recent books with Harvard connections Gave Away the Panama Canal.” A losers’ tales. story of large-scale American in- Brunelleschi’s Egg: Nature, Art, frastructure, colonial ambition, successful The Future of Power, by Joseph Nye, and Gender in Renaissance Italy, by public management, diplomacy, and suc- Distinguished Service Professor (Public­ Mary D. Garrard, A.M. ’60 (University of cessful for-profit management. A very big Affairs, $27.95). The power of narratives, California, $60). A monumental, and copi- ditch indeed. and narrative power, on the world stage, ously illustrated, gendered reading of the now concern the author, former dean interplay of art and nature in the Renais- Quiches, Kugels, and Couscous, by of the Harvard Kennedy School. As the sance, by the American University pro- Joan Nathan, M.P.A. ’76 (Knopf, $39.95). United States faces shifts in economic, fessor emerita of art history. The delights The latest from PBS’s Jewish cooking ex- military, and political power, this perspec- range from the egg-shaped domes of the pert, this time on “My Search for Jewish tive—historical and analytical—is impor- major cathedrals to a Titian chalk of a Cooking in France.” It was a circuitous tant, if not always reassuring. mother bear licking her cub. route from the Kennedy School to this, via New York’s Ninth Avenue Short Cuts, by Alexander Humez, Nich- Food Festival, but the results— olas Humez ’69, and Rob Flynn (Oxford, both narratives and recipes— $19.95). Readers will be glad that the are enticing. authors determined to commit an amus- ing book-length exploration of “minia- Music for Silenced Voices: ture forms of verbal communication”— Shostakovich and His Fif- from oaths and ring tones to ransom teen Quartets, by Wendy notes and famous last words.

rt Li b rary A rt Lesser ’73 (Yale, $28). An un- usual biography of the “often du- Thinking in an Emergency, by Elaine bious and always divided” com- Scarry, Cabot professor of aesthetics poser through his less-studied and the general theory of value (Norton, chamber music, by the editor of $23.95). A small book on a large topic: the Threepenny Review. why democracies, in times of emergency, unthinkingly opt for action and executive Health Care Reform and power—and why thinking and rapid ac- American Politics: What Ev- tion are in fact compatible, and consis- eryone Needs to Know, by tent with the principles of democratic nited Kingdo m / T he Bridge an U nited London, a ll ery, Lawrence R. Jacobs and Theda governance. Skocpol, Thomas professor of government and sociology (Ox- The Use and Abuse of Literature, ford, $16.95 paper). For those by Marjorie Garber, Kenan professor of

Portrait G l Portrait N ationa who have already forgotten, a English and of visual and environmental Queen Elizabeth I in Coronation brief review of how the health- studies (Pantheon, $27.95). At a time of Robes, from the National Portrait care bill was enacted in 2009-10, and a instrumental thinking, a full-throated de- Gallery’s collections primer on what it means and how it fense of reading and of the enduring val- Elizabeth I: The Voice of a Monarch, would have to be implemented: useful ue of encountering literature as a deep, by Ilona Bell ’69 (Palgrave, $26 paper). reminders for those who will litigate or human experience. This volume in a series on “Queenship legislate against it, those who will try to and Power” studies Elizabeth through her put it into effect, and the 300-million-plus The Zombie Autopsies: Secret own words: speeches, reported conversa- other Americans who are affected. Notebooks from the Apocalypse, tions, poems. The author, Clarke professor by Steven C. Schlozman, assistant profes- of English at Williams College, finds the Liberty’s Exiles: American Loyalists sor of psychiatry (Grand Central, $19.99). young monarch creating her own reign in the Revolutionary World, by Maya If your kids (and perhaps you) are going and marriage—provocative acts, with con- Jasanoff, Loeb associate professor of the to watch that trash, might as well let the sequences for both England and English. social sciences (Knopf, $30). A ground- “avid observer of the living dead” teach breaking global history of the 60,000 you something via these purported dia- The Big Ditch, by Noel Maurer, associ- Loyalist refugees who fled the newly grams and lab notes. For example, “Spleen ate professor of business administration, independent United States for Canada, is enlarged and displaced.” And how.

18 March - April 2011 montage tional existence. Accounts The entry of Major that begin with the first Anderson’s command into Fort Sumter, as depicted shot, he maintains, make the in Harper’s Weekly “Union side into simply the passive target of the Confed- on a whirlwind tour of Civil eracy’s aggression” and tend War America (the northern to glorify “the ‘lost cause’ at two-thirds of it at any rate). the expense of the one that By looking beyond the East would win.” Goodheart’s Coast, and especially by in- book is certainly not guilty corporating events on the of that, for though white frontier and California, he Southerners do inhabit his brings a valuable new per- pages, his primary interest of c ongress l i b rary spective to the crisis—that and sympathy lie with those who would tension is palpable on every page. of fretful western Americans who watched, wear the blue, not the gray. In telling such a large story, Goodheart waited, and, in some cases, schemed from And Goodheart wants above all to em- faces some very real challenges, and his the other side of the continent. phasize the extreme uncertainty of these greatest achievement is his ability to con- But while the geographical sweep of the troubled days. The exchange of cannon tain this chaotic period within a coherent book is expansive, the focus is very much fire in April would bring war, but also and masterfully written narrative. The “full on the specific—on individuals. At heart, clarity to a very murky situation. It is the story” of the beginning of the Civil War, Goodheart is a storyteller, and the stories murkiness that he relishes. He is less in- he tells us, is not to be found in Charleston that fascinate him are those of “how indi- terested in advancing a new argument or and Washington alone. Rather, “it is neces- vidual Americans—both ordinary citizens uncovering new evidence than in trying sary to go much farther afield: to the slums and national leaders—experienced and to recapture a unique moment, a feel- of Manhattan and the drawing rooms of responded to a moment of sudden crisis ing, a sense of fundamental crisis. His Boston, to Ohio villages and Virginia slave and change as it unfolded.” The book ex- is a story of possibility—of terrifying, cabins, and even to the shores of the Pa- plores the greatest crisis in American his- revolutionary possibility “when almost cific.” Hence, each chapter opens in a dif- tory from the perspectives of well-chosen everything hung in the balance.” That ferent locale, as Goodheart takes readers representative men and women who are not just the usual cast of characters. Abra- ham Lincoln, Robert Anderson, and other key political and military leaders are here, c hapter & verse of course, but so are the craggy 104-year- Correspondence on not-so-famous lost words old Mainer and American Revolutionary War veteran Ralph Farnham; the cerebral More queries from the archive: gested as the original of this misquoted and idealistic James Garfield; the runaway, A request for the text of a short story couplet (first printed in the November- recaptured, and then ran-away-again Vir- called “The Field of Purple Bloom,” origi- December 1995 issue) the lines “Love, ginia slave Lucy Bagby; the indomitable nally read in serial form in a Midwestern which is lust, is the Lamp in the Tomb./ and brilliant Jessie Benton Frémont; the farm journal. Love, which is lust, is the Call from the flamboyant and ill-fated Elmer Ellsworth. And: “They are exiles when we invite Gloom,” which begin section xxi of the Goodheart is the master of the poi- them to dinner and refugees when we title poem in William Ernest Henley’s gnant vignette. In the anecdote that opens raise money for them.” collection Hawthorn and Lavender: Songs chapter 2, for instance, he unpacks an 1861 Also: “And by the way, whenever Cru- and Madrigals. advertisement in the Daily National Intelli- elty is in town, they have him over for a gencer announcing the public sale of “One sumptuous feast.” “No longer able to listen to the mu- Negro man” and “Also, one Gold Watch” sic of Mozart” (January-February). Dan to reveal the details of how this unfortu- “Stranger, go, tell the Spartans” Rosenberg traced this query from the nate slave, Willis, came to find himself on (September-October 2010). Making use March-April 1996 issue back to a Satur- the auction block following the death of of the Index of American Periodical Verse, day Review column (42:3; 1959) by Cleve- his master, a longtime Washington fix- David Myatt has identified the poem land Amory ’39 that relates the story of ture, Judge George M. Bibb. The writing “News from Thermopylae,” by How- an overzealous reporter querying Albert here beautifully illustrates the injustice ard Lachtman, originally published in the Einstein about the impact of nuclear war. and the callousness of slavery even in 1972 winter issue of Poet Lore (67:4; 345). places like the nation’s capital, where it Send inquiries and answers to “Chapter supposedly had been abolished. “Lust is the lamp that lifts the and Verse,” Harvard Magazine, 7 Ware Using small incidents like Willis’s sale, gloom” (January-February). Both Dan Street, Cambridge 02138, or via e-mail Goodheart explores the larger historical Rosenberg and Wendie Howland sug- to [email protected]. context surrounding his figures, and in so doing seamlessly incorporates political,

Harvard Magazine 19 montage social, economic, cultural, and intellec- detail, of the everyday life and experience and voices, its expansive vision, its seduc- tual history into his narrative. For the lay of nineteenth-century Americans. He tively authoritative perspective. reader, he provides a reasonably compre- demonstrates well the strengths of narra- But there are limits to narrative history. hensive treatment of the salient themes tive history at its best: its accessibility, its By their very nature, narratives are pro- and issues of the late antebellum period. artistry, its ability to engage readers inti- gressive and linear. With the benefit of But his greatest contribution lies in his mately with the past, its capacity to syn- hindsight, they impose a trajectory on the ability to recreate the texture, the sharp thesize a tremendous range of materials past. This is what makes them so com-

p e RF O RMA N C E sheets called “broadsides,” took root. These songs were played and sung in public. “Some were romantic,” says For- ster, “but many were satirical or just plain critical, reaming anyone from the hat-checker to the king.” Volleys in F# Major Their twentieth-century equivalents are protest songs from folk masters like Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger The musical guns are blasting on Broadsides: A Miscellany of ’40, and later Phil Ochs, Tom Paxton, and others who served as Musical Opinion, the new CD from singer-songwriters John For- paradigms for Forster and Chapin. The CD’s ster ’69 and Tom Chapin. In ragtime, rock, and reggae, the pair eponymous opening number salutes these explore a gamut of social ills, from the specter of a “Zombie artists and the broadside form itself, calling Visit harvardmag.com/ Bank” to the outsourcing of wars to private corporations (“To- it “A tough, melodic weapon/Packed with extras to listen to tracks tal Security Solutions, Inc.”) to white-collar crime, in “The Chief values we affirm.” Another muse is legend- from Broadsides. Executive Chain Gang.” ary satirist-songwriter Tom Lehrer ’47, A.M. The album began in 1999, when National Public Radio (NPR) ’47. “What Lehrer was doing, and what we’ve done here,” says invited Forster, an accomplished songwriter and shrewd satirist, Forster, “is what I call, ‘op-ed pieces with key signatures.’ ” and Chapin, a singer known for his music for kids, to submit The two men sought subjects that were timely but not ephem- songs to accompany segments of NPR’s “Morning Edition” news eral. “You try to get some perspective,” Forster says, “and write program. The radio network laid down two strict guidelines: the something big enough that it won’t be out of date a year from songs couldn’t be partisan or one-sided, and there had to be now.” Consider the track “Econo-Me-Oh-My,” a wry take on the a news hook. (The latter was a given, but to a satirist, the for- business cycle, with spoken asides, which the songwriters present- mer is a tight rein indeed.) “After we wrote the first few songs,” ed to their NPR editor while the economy was thriving. “She told Forster says, “we realized that the invitation provided us an op- us to hang on to it, and about six months later, AT&T announced portunity to create a very rare kind of album, one composed they’d laid off 10,000 people,” Forster says. “We called her and entirely of topical songs.” They went on to write dozens, 14 of said, ‘Remember that song?’ And it aired the next day.” which are on Broadsides. In a career that encompasses humor, children’s music, and The new CD, Forster and Chapin’s first collaboration for adults theater, with Grammy nominations and compositions recorded (they have recorded 10 children’s CDs), follows by artists ranging from Faith Hill to Judy Col- a tradition of populist storytelling and commen- lins to Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, Forster tary that dates back to sixteenth-century England, remains hooked on songwriting. “A song is where such ballads, printed on single-sided long an amazing thing,” he says. “By combining an idea with the emotion of music, you can feel John Forster (at keyboard, right) with a thought. It’s a magical process.” Tom Chapin (center) and his band, But can it make a difference? Though playing at the Turning Point in Piermont, New York. Inset: The Broadsides CD Broadsides will keep listeners chuckling and mulling, Forster and Chapin hope for more. “When you write topical stuff,” says Forster, “you always come across that underlying question: can a song change the world? Yeah, right. There’s a problem in Rwanda—we’ll write a song about it and everything will be great. No! But what part did ‘La Marseillaise’ play in the French Revolu- tion? And think about ‘We Shall Overcome.’” In the track “Broadside,” Forster and Chapin toast that song: “‘We Shall Overcome’ finally over- came,” they write, “’cause everybody sang along.” Forster explains: “The song became a component of the zeitgeist. It really can happen.”

vsusan hodara m C H a p in to and of John F orster c ourtesy

20 March - April 2011

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A Baltimore “Southern belle” shows Harvard Magazine’s Personals her loyalties, wearing a dress sewn with a Confederate flag, Harper’s Weekly, 6 September 7, 1861

rary of c ongress l i b rary pelling, but it can also lead to distortion. ® In Goodheart’s case, his story is of the beginning of something—a “Civil War Awakening”—which prompts the ques- tion: the beginning of what? In answering Application Boot Camp® it, he understandably gets a little ahead of ApplicationBootCamp.com himself. Northern victory, emancipation, 1-781-530-7088 classifi eds.harvardmagazine.com Email: [email protected] and a “new birth of freedom” for a greatly strengthened and united American na- tion seem almost foregone conclusions by July 1861 in this telling. Goodheart can hardly be criticized for foreshadowing— Support Harvard Magazine the very title of his book demands it— but it must be pointed out that there is a certain degree of ahistorical distortion As a special thank-you at work here, and it is ironic—given his for a donation of $100 or passion for highlighting the uncertainty more, you can receive Memorial Church and revolutionary nature of the con- the newly designed Weld Boat House flict’s early days—that the book tends to Harvard Stadium downplay the contingency and revolu- 2010 Edition Harvard The College Pump tionary impact of the cataclysmic events Glasses, satin-etched that would follow. That caveat aside, Goodheart’s book is with four new an impressive accomplishment, a delightful Harvard read, and a valuable contribution that will scenes. entertain and challenge popular and profes- sional audiences alike. Even for those of us very familiar with the period and the events and figures he describes, it is refreshing to have them presented in this fashion, and Goodheart’s narrative draws connections that might otherwise be missed.

Michael T. Bernath, Ph.D. ’05, is Tebeau assistant professor at the University of Miami and the author of Confederate Minds: The Struggle for In- To donate, please visit tellectual Independence in the Civil War South (University of North Carolina Press, 2010). www.harvardmagazine.com/donate

Harvard Magazine 21 Louis Kunkel in his laboratory at Children’s Hospital

The Gene Hunter Louis Kunkel’s 30-year quest to diagnose and cure muscular dystrophy by Victor K. McElheny ouis M. Kunkel is a wiry man of medium height with a search paradigm raises competing ethical concerns over privacy lot of energy, quiet passion, and notable persistence. The and patients’ rights to know whether they harbor a predisposi- professor of pediatrics and of genetics has very little inter- tion to an illness. The moment to resolve these big issues is nearer est in publicity, but nevertheless became a hero in the 1980s at hand than most people know. when he discovered not only a marker for the Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) gene, but the gene itself and When Kunkel began hunting for disease-related genes in the the protein it specifies, thereby facilitating the diagnosis early 1980s, he focused on one of the several thousand rare dis- of carriers and afflicted fetuses. Working at the nexus of eases linked to mutations in single genes, not common diseases lab research and clinical application during his 30 years like cancer or diabetes. But the conviction among scientists and at Children’s Hospital Boston, he is still in touch the public alike that genetics accounts for a large share of human with DMD patients and their families whom he disease risk was already common. Prenatal testing, starting with saw long ago. Their suffering has impelled him to such diseases as Down syndrome and Tay-Sachs, began spread- push the use of genetics and genomics in his quest to devise im- ing in the 1970s, and intensified in the 1980s after the isolation of proved methods of diagnosis and treatment. His story is a sober- genes linked to Huntington’s chorea, cystic fibrosis, breast can- ing tale of how high the barriers still are for scientists striving to cer, and hundreds of other afflictions, including Kunkel’s target: put genomics to work to attack a genetic disease. DMD. All this was happening barely a decade after biological DMD, the most common and severe of the two-score types of science had learned to isolate genes, to transfer them from one muscular dystrophy, condemns its victims—almost all boys— organism to another for research and industrial purposes, and to a succession of surgeries, as well as a course of steroids that to spell out the subunits of the code of life embedded in DNA. can do nothing more than delay their inevitable confinement to Speaking to a group of reporters in 1989, Kunkel said that medi- a wheelchair around the age of 10. They die in their twenties or cine had to that point focused on diseases caused by factors in- thirties when their heart and respiratory muscles fail. A third of vading from outside, and was only beginning to understand he- the victims also experience mental retardation. An added trag- reditary diseases and cancers that arise within us. edy is that the disease emerges only gradually, becoming evident Kunkel, in fact, is one of the researchers whose success in find- at the age of four or five when a child has trouble getting up or ing disease-related genes helped crystallize the idea of a Human running. As Kunkel quietly told a group of visiting journalists in Genome Project, the international drive to spell out all the sub- 1998, “Most Duchenne families are desperate. It’s pretty sad to in- units of human DNA. This largest of focused efforts in the history teract with them. I saw a boy at five. He’s now 19, in a wheelchair, of biology has indeed produced an intellectual explosion full of and needs a respirator. I took part in a benefit for his family. It’s surprises, such as a myriad of newly discovered genetic controls in unusual for a basic research laboratory to interact with patients. the genome itself and the proteins that wrap around it. Accompa- It puts everything in perspective. It adds a dimension other than nying technological advances are already enabling researchers to intellectual curiosity.” sample the genetic endowment of thousands of people and to read Despite that passion, Kunkel’s search for a cure for DMD un- completely the DNA of hundreds of individuals, not only to pin derlines how challenging the grand promise of genomics—to down more causes of disease but also to begin guiding therapeu- lay bare the causes of disease, and discover remedies—remains tic decisions in the clinic. Last October, Nature published a survey 10 years after the first human genome sequences were drafted. of 93 major genome centers around the world that are using, in all, His work also illustrates the determination of a rapidly growing some 1,250 of a new generation of ultrafast sequencing machines. number of researchers around the world to intensify, not slacken, The journal estimated that 2,700 human sequences would be com- the search for genome-based therapy and prevention. Biologists plete by the end of that month—and 30,000 by the end of 2011. working with those data seek the molecular causes, not just the Nonetheless, there is much impatience with the painfully slow symptoms, of diseases rare and common, in order to produce spe- emergence of genomics-based medical applications, resulting in cific methods for combating individuals’ illnesses. criticisms that the whole enterprise has been hyped. But despite huge advances in understanding the functions of many of the 20,000 human genes, researchers are finding that the In 1986, after Kunkel and three of his Children’s colleagues underlying genetic causes of a single disease may lie not only in cloned the gene for DMD, they immediately pressed forward simple substitutions of DNA subunits, but also in much larger on a year-long hunt for the gene’s product, a protein that they deletions, insertions, reversals, and variations in the number of named dystrophin. The mutation leading to DMD prevents the copies of repeated sequences. They are learning that diverse bio- manufacture of this molecule—a crucial member of a complex of chemical pathways in the living cell can lead to the same result. molecules that repairs muscles after the stress of frequent con- They confront the paradox that the multiplicity of causes may tractions. Without dystrophin, muscles tear and wear out pre- complicate understanding of a disease—and yet may open up maturely as they flex, and can’t be regenerated, leaving DMD pa- more opportunities to control or prevent it. tients with virtually no muscle at the end of their short lives. The bewildering array of genetic abnormalities that can im- As the Kunkel group discovered, dystrophin—like all the pair a biological system means that understanding disease from body’s tens of thousands of proteins, including those involved a genetic perspective will require scientists to sequence the ge- in hundreds of genetic disorders—is made up of its own unique nomes of vast numbers of individual patients—and then aggre- combination of the 20 types of small molecules called amino acids. gate, store, and link such data to individual medical histories on These amino acids are arranged in order according to the ge- a massive scale. As Kunkel and many others have realized, this re- netic code of DNA, itself spelled out by the four “bases” called ad-

Photograph by Jim Harrison Harvard Magazine 23 enine, thymine, guanine, and cytosine (A, T, G, and C) of muscle cells. Several forms of cell-transfer or that are strung along at right angles to the twin sugar- gene therapy have also been tried; all have phosphate strands of the DNA double helix. Triplets failed. As with many rare but catastrophic in- composed of these four individual bases form code herited diseases, the quest has been urgent, but words, or “codons,” each signifying that a partic- has proven long and frustrating. ular amino acid is to be installed at that point In the early 1980s, Kunkel’s group had con- in the chain-like protein. There also are co- fronted almost-universal predictions that it dons for starting and stopping, like the capi- would be impossible to map the X chromo- tal letter at the beginning of a sentence or some, already known to be the site of the ge- a period at the end. The string of DNA co- netic defect implicated in DMD. The old- dons spelling out a particular protein is fashioned molecular techniques for gene copied into a “messenger” (made of the mapping were cumbersome and lengthy. related chemical RNA) that moves out of DNA extracted from cells was handled and a cell’s nucleus to the globular protein- measured directly, and all the data were assembly platforms called ribosomes. punched into computers by hand. To lo- Dystrophin, composed of some 3,800 cate the specific site (which turned out to amino acids, is a cruelly easy target for be on the short arm of the chromosome), genetic mutations. Its DNA sequence they began “walking” in both directions is encoded by 79 separate stretches— along the strands of DNA, constantly com- called exons—that are scattered along paring each stretch to the corresponding two and a half million of DNA’s three area of normal DNA to find missing sections. billion “letters.” In DMD patients, a After three years, the first fruits were “markers” mutation adding or subtracting just near the culprit sequence; three years later, the gene one DNA letter shifts the “reading itself was found. frame” so that the rest of the message In the past 30 years, Kunkel’s ways of teasing out becomes gibberish. genetic contributions to disease have changed dra- Because dystrophin is such a barn-door of a genetic target, new matically, from a “wet” world of handling DNA sam- kinds of mutations keep springing up. In the 1980s, one-third of ples to a largely “dry” one of automated instruments, computers, the 600 or so boys born with DMD in the United States each year and elaborate software. These technological advances, certainly, were victims of a “sporadic” genetic change aris- have helped bring the finish line in the race for solutions ing in their mothers. In the remaining cases, the Below: Difficulty closer. But the exponentially increasing volume of electron- getting up from the mother had inherited the defect from her moth- floor is one of the ic data is creating huge challenges in interpretation. er. An estimated one woman in 5,000 is a carrier, early signs that a Kunkel admits that he never expected it to take so long but many still do not know that. Parents-to-be boy has DMD. Weak- for therapies to emerge. Yet he and many others in academia often lack a family medical history that might ened quadriceps and the pharmaceutical industry keep at it. Today, they force the child to alert them to have themselves or a fetus tested. first raise his poste- focus much attention on the very genetic machinery that By the time a boy is diagnosed with DMD, the rior from a position has gone wrong. Using a form of gene therapy that Kunkel physician’s sad duty is to tell the parents about on his hands and calls “gene correction,” they hope to trick the protein-syn- knees, and then walk the expected course of an illness with no cure. the hands up the legs thesizing machinery of muscle cells into creating at least

(Kunkel recalls one mother bringing her affected to raise his upper a truncated form of dystrophin. In one current approach, all rights reserved In c. ©elsevier, n etterimages.com. www. n from Netter illustratio four-year-old to the clinic at Children’s, with a body, in a series of researchers add special chemicals as an enzyme cop- younger, as-yet-undiagnosed son in tow.) steps called Gowers’ ies the DNA into messenger maneuver. Above: Kunkel and his colleagues’ search for a cure, in By age 15, due to RNA instructions for rivalry and cooperation with scientific groups scoliosis of the spine making the pro- across the world, focused on finding a way to sup- and contractures of ply the missing protein. But how? Injecting the nor- the hips, knees, and ankles that freeze mal form can’t work because dystrophin the joints, the boy is is so huge it cannot penetrate the walls wheelchair-bound.

24 March - April 2011 Even though progress in finding a treatment for DMD have seen her brother die of the disease. She can now have an in utero test and, if the male fetus is normal, carry it to has been slow, one area has benefited enormously: term. In-vitro fertilization, including genetic diagnosis be- fore an egg is implanted, is increasingly available. Genetic the process of locating and sequencing the genes and understanding has also made diagnosis less painful and their proteins has had a swift, dramatic, and increasing risky: muscle biopsies of newborns and young children can be replaced by simple DNA studies. This progress has effect on the quality of diagnosis. led to a sharp rise in the proportion of American women who know they are carriers of the critical defect in DMD. tein; that induces the copying enzyme to skip past enough of As a consequence, the frequent “sporadic,” de novo mutations in- dystrophin’s 79 exons to restore the correct reading frame of the volved in DMD now account for more than half the live-births of rest. The resulting shortened dystrophin, ideally, would modify victims, up from one-third a quarter-century ago. the severity of the patient’s disease from the Right: Dystrophin Genetic diagnosis has been driven by new tools for explor- Duchenne variant to another, called Becker, is one of a group of ing the body’s hereditary endowment. One of these is the “DNA that allows a longer and less painful life. proteins that sur- chip” (a small glass rectangle with a vast array of microscopic round muscle fibers (Becker victims are born with shortened dys- and keep them wells—a “microarray”—containing DNA samples that can sur- trophin proteins.) working properly. vey variations in an individual’s genome at a million points for Other approaches judged promising are The protein’s the use of chemicals to force the DNA to absence in DMD patients leads to “read through” a premature stop codon, so loss of muscle that it makes a more complete protein, and function. Below: an effort to boost the body’s natural produc- A light micro- tion of a related protein, utrophin, that might graph of a section through muscle do at least some of dystrophin’s work. Several tissue affected by of these methods have entered clinical trials DMD shows wast- in the United States and elsewhere. ing where healthy fibers (bright pink) Recently, Kunkel’s lab has focused on an- have been replaced other important front in seeking cures or by fibrous tissue palliation for DMD. This involves expand- (light pink). ing the number of suitable labo- ratory “model organisms”—in which possible muscular dystro- phy treatments can be tested— beyond genetically engineered mice. He and colleagues, includ- ing Jeffrey R. Guyon and Genri Kawahara, were excited to find that a form of muscular dystro- n associatio ystrophy phy occurs in one of the most- used organisms in developmental biology: the prolific, short-lived zebrafish, whose transparent embryos offer clear views of the of M uscular D courtesy effects of mutations on muscle. Seeking to reverse the zebrafish a cost of a few hundred dollars). Another is the DNA disorder, Kunkel’s lab is testing In c. R esearchers, P hoto sequencing machine. The attendant computers and a library of some 4,000 closely software have been increasing in speed and precision studied but outmoded or shelved at a dizzying rate, rapidly reducing the cost of mak- drugs and has already found sev- ing a complete sequence of a person’s genome. Less eral that look promising. associates/ biophoto than a decade ago it was on the order of $100 million or Meanwhile, even though progress in finding atreatment for more. (The first complete sequence of a named individual, DNA DMD has been slow, one area has benefited enormously: the pro- co-discoverer James Watson, cost Connecticut-based 454 Life cess of locating and sequencing the genes and their proteins has Sciences and its partner, the genome center at Baylor College of had a swift, dramatic, and increasing effect on the quality ofdiag - Medicine, $1 million or so in 2007.) At a pace even faster than that nosis. in electronics, several generations of competing new technolo- In medicine, where diagnosis tends to come before a cure, gies have cut the original price by four orders of magnitude to identifying a gene and its protein opens hitherto unavailable op- $10,000, with a further cut to $1,000 expected within a couple of tions. A woman who is a carrier of DMD, Kunkel points out, may years. (In 2010, San Diego-based Illumina cut its charge of $48,000

Harvard Magazine 25 down to $19,500 for an individual, $13,500 per person for a group participant model. Now Children’s has created the Gene Partner- of five, and $9,500 when prescribed by a physician.) Several aca- ship, in which participants will be able to see their results if they demic centers have also begun using a shortcut: sequencing only wish. The program began enrolling participants last spring, start- the “exome” DNA that codes for proteins—at a cost of about half ing with the hospital’s own developmental medicine department, that of a complete sequence—to find the exact genetic change and by late fall had recruited some 650 volunteers. The aspiration, causing an illness. Soon the cost of sequencing a person’s entire Kunkel says, is to sign up a total of 10,000 within “a year or two.” genome will likely equal the price now paid to test for a single ge- A primary goal of the Gene Partnership is to zero in on the netic defect, promising further wholesale advances in the scale of actual mutations that contribute to disease. But to muster the genomic analysis. statistical power necessary to detect these needles in a haystack, Kunkel, Kohane, and their colleagues know that they need to These rapid developments have convinced Isaac S. (Zak) persuade very large numbers of patients to enroll in similar stud- Kohane—a colleague of Kunkel’s at Children’s and director of ies. Researchers around the globe will need to be able to share the Countway Library at Harvard Medical School—and their co- such data widely, comparing patients’ medical histories with workers that medicine is entering a world in which tens of thou- their genetic profiles, while simultaneously recognizing Kohane’s sands, even millions, of patients are likely to become participants concerns: that stockpiling vast quantities of intimate biological in long-term genetic research. This trend intensifies concerns that information—the key to this new kind of medicine—in turn first troubled Kohane in the 1980s, when he was simultaneously raises new ethical dilemmas. pursuing an M.D. at Boston University and working toward a The Gene Partnership team foresees that when large numbers doctorate at MIT in artificial intelligence as it related to medical of people learn more about their risks of contracting specific dis- decision-making. He became convinced that a patient’s medical eases and their sensitivity to medications, they will likely engage data from all care providers must be not only centralized and eas- in new kinds of conversations with their medical caregivers. One ily available to the patient, but also easily accessible for research significant issue will be whether genetic-test results offer false alarms or hide real problems. This issue sharp- ened for Kunkel when a study of autism that he and Kohane were conducting seemed to show that two of the participating children had a mu- tation associated with leukemia. Kohane recalls losing “two nights of sleep” over whether or not to tell the parents. Although retesting the data revealed that the apparent leukemia link result- ed from an experimental artifact, Kohane, Kun- kel, and their co-workers began thinking about the practical details of a system that would convey risk information to patient-participants while maintaining privacy. The group has raised these issues repeatedly in print. A 2007 article in Science, in particular, esearchers, In c. R esearchers, L a n dma nn / P hoto atrick

P advocated “reestablishing the researcher-pa- and treatment—even as the patient’s privacy is respected. In the forelimb of an tient compact” by advocating what has become In a medical world with millions of patients participat- experimental mouse the Gene Partnership. They envisioned pa- with DMD, orange and ing in genetic research, prime goals of years and decades of yellow areas indicate tients adding samples and information as they cooperative study would be to tune treatments to people’s dead muscle fibers wished, or withdrawing from the cohort if they inherited characteristics, to keep track of whether people where dystrophin, chose. The patients would receive their own actually come down with a disease to which they are pre- indicated in green, medical records (as already happens at some has disappeared. After disposed, and to unravel the true mixture of genetic and treatment with a type healthcare facilities, including those operated environmental influences on disease. In contrast to the of gene therapy known by the Veterans Administration). Patient-par- usual practice in today’s genetics studies, participants as exon skipping, the ticipants would control when they were con- mouse regained normal would be able to retrieve their personal data if they want dystrophin levels and tacted by choosing when to “tune in” to alerts to, and receive genetic counseling. The aim is a new deal muscle function. The about discoveries and their potential clinical between volunteers and genetic researchers. Kohane and technique has not yet impact. These “broadcasts” aimed at the anony- his colleagues feel that this new deal is both imperative been tried in humans. mous subjects of the Gene Partnership would and technically attainable—if researchers and physicians incorporate carefully described characteristics will acknowledge that participants are capable of processing com- that recipients would recognize. The alerts might also include plex medical information. requests from the researchers for additional information or sam- Kunkel, who serves as a principal adviser to the Muscular ples. To make the scheme work, Kohane and the others admit, Dystrophy Association, a U.S. patient-advocacy group with a would require tackling problems of low “health literacy,” lack of $160-million annual budget, and also directs the genomics pro- access to the Internet, and hammering out principles of what to gram at Children’s, has been a strong advocate for such a patient- tell participants and when.

26 March - April 2011 In the last five years, through “genome- wide association studies,” researchers using DNA chips have uncovered several hundred genetic factors linked to common diseases— but most of these add only a small percentage to a person’s risk of a particular disease.

These plans are taking shape amid much skepticism about personalized medicine. Critics pointedly ask whether the read- outs from people’s genomes (early commercial versions are now available) are truly medically useful. Common diseases are n associatio ystrophy linked to several, even many, interacting genes, and to a com- plicated battery of controls that are just beginning to be stud- ied. The functions that many genes specify are still not clear. In the last five years, through “genome-wide association studies,”

researchers using DNA chips have uncovered several hundred of M uscular D courtesy genetic factors linked to common diseases—but most of these also because of the structure and regula- Kunkel with a six-foot- add only a small percentage to a person’s risk of a particular disease, tion of the pharmaceutical industry. The long map showing a portion of the area and most are just neighbors of the real suspects. Attention is turn- preferred pharmaceutical product is a where the dystrophin ing to the idea that the real villains are rare but “penetrant” muta- “blockbuster” drug that can be used by gene is located within tions, still largely undetected, that require a more powerful “micro- millions—a market big enough to defray the human genome. scope” than the chips provide. Thus, complete sequencing of all or the vast investments of time and money This framed, hand- drawn original was part of many individual patients’ genomes, at prices near that of a needed to develop drugs and carry them started in 1983 and CAT scan, is looking more and more attractive, even though under- through complex tests of safety and ef- published in 1986, in the standing the full impact of the genome on health lies in the future. ficacy in animals and then humans. Rare days before high-speed diseases such as DMD are not profitable DNA sequencing. Despite the slow implementation of gene-based treatment in under this regime. clinical settings, a firm belief in genomic medicine continues to But this calculus may be overturned someday; research in ge- drive both private and public sequencing research. The main nomics increasingly indicates that there is a genetic influence on unknown remains simply when large-scale changes will occur in the effectiveness of various drugs, from those used for cancer che- medical care. Of course, this was also the case when the organism motherapy to blood thinners like Plavix. The trend toward what responsible for tuberculosis was discovered in 1882, 40 years be- is called “genetic stratification,” a subject of increasing interest to fore a countervailing vaccine, and 60 years before a countervail- the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, runs against blockbust- ing drug, were developed. ers, pointing instead to a much more fragmented market in which The push toward medical applications looks difficult today drugs are tailored to the genetic characteristics of subgroups. In not only because of the biological complexities of disease, but cancer treatment, for example, insurance companies may increas- ingly see the point of genetic testing if a $50,000-a-year drug regi- men works on only a subset of the patient population. Two major Fixing Every Muscle centers of cancer treatment, Massachusetts General Hospital and The article “Mother Courage: A family tragedy and Sloan-Kettering in New York, have already begun implementing a scientific crusade,” by John Colapinto, in the Decem- plans to extend genetic testing gradually to all their cancer pa- ber 20, 2010, issue of the New Yorker (www.newyorker.com/ tients, and partial or complete sequencing of a person’s genome reporting/2010/12/20/101220fa_fact_colapinto), describes Pa- may eventually become the gold standard for patient care. tricia Furlong’s efforts to raise public awareness of muscular The genetic basis of most diseases is still not fully known, but dystrophy, and funding for research, and covers the trials of the finer sieve of whole-genome sequencing is already useful in drugs designed to fight the disease. Both her sons were di- diagnosing and addressing afflictions, like DMD, that involve rare agnosed with, and later died from, DMD. A cure is probably but significant genetic changes. That is why the global genomic decades away. As Lee Sweeney, scientific advisor to Parent enterprise is exploding in numbers, dollars, research sites, and Project Muscular Dystrophy, the foundation Furlong created, commercial commitment. Looking back at his career, Kunkel says told Colapinto, “It’s not just fixing one muscle. It’s fixing every simply, “The promise was there. I never said it would be easy.” muscle in the body. That’s the problem. Getting the cells to the right place and then getting them to do the right thing—it’s a Victor K. McElheny ’57, NF ’63, is the author of the recently published Draw- daunting engineering problem as much as anything else.” ing the Map of Life: Inside the Human Genome Project (Basic Books).

Harvard Magazine 27 Vita Bao Luong Brief life of a Vietnamese revolutionary: 1909-1976 by Hue-Tam Ho Tai

ne spring day in 1927, 18-year-old Nguyen Trung Nguyet­ chaired one of the meetings where the group decided to eliminate took advantage of her parents’ absence to travel alone to him, and her cousin was one of three men who carried out the deed. OSaigon, covering the 160 miles from Rach Gia by sampan, Her own role in the murder is ambiguous; in her memoir, which she boat, and train. She called herself Bao Luong (“Precious Honesty”), wrote in old age, she is vague about her movements that day. the pen name she adopted when she began writing poetry under The Sûreté might never have learned who was involved in the her father’s tutelage. At her age, most young Vietnamese women “Barbier Street crime,” but revolutionary politics intervened. The were expected to be married, but, raised in a patriotic family, she murder preceded the refusal of southern members of the Revolu- wanted to help overthrow French colonial rule. Such sentiment tionary Youth League to disband and join the new Communist Par- was running high then: a year before, students had been expelled ty, whose program they did not know and whose effectiveness was from school for wanting to stage a national funeral for a noted unproven. Months later, a letter to the Sûreté betrayed the league reformer. Growing up at a time of strict sex segregation, when few members, including Bao Luong. She suspected her former suitor, girls received an education, Bao Luong was eager to fight for the Nguyen Bao Toan. Ordered to liquidate the league, he had put the emancipation of women and the liberation of her country. revolutionary cause as he saw it above everything and everyone. In Saigon, she lived with a relative whose husband, Ton Duc Bao Luong was incarcerated for months while the Sûreté tried Thang, headed the southern section of the Vietnamese Revolution- to beat a confession out of her; she then spent a year in the Saigon ary Youth League. (Headquartered in Guangzhou, China, the league Central Prison awaiting trial. At the trial, she objected fiercely to had been created in 1925 by Ho Chi Minh as a first step toward the slurs cast on her comrades by the French judges. Challenged to forming a Vietnamese Communist Party; he judged that few Viet- explain how she, as a woman, was oppressed under colonial rule, namese then understood the meaning of revolution, or what kind of she retorted: “We women are the worst off. We are not allowed to society to strive for.) After four months, during which her potential go to school.” Her rebelliousness added another three years to the was surreptitiously assessed, Bao Luong was accepted for revolu- five years’ hard labor on which the judges had originally decided. tionary training. With several male comrades, she stowed away on Her cousin and two other men were condemned to death. Bao Lu- a boat, dressed as a boy, and arrived in Guangzhou that September. ong was unrepentant: “Loving one’s country is not a crime,” she Her single state nevertheless created awkwardness with her fel- told her lawyer. She was undaunted by the prospect of prison: “She low revolutionaries; she was repeatedly urged to marry in order had only seven more years to go,” her memoir ends. “She had no “to settle her status.“ But when Nguyen Bao Toan, the liaison be- reason to give in to self-pity.” tween Guangzhou and activists at home, asked her to marry him, When Bao Luong was released in 1938, she married the male she refused. “Our generation cannot afford to think of love,” she prison nurse who had cared for her as she suffered from maltreat- explained. “The promise we must make is not of marriage but of ment and malnutrition. As she had once explained to Nguyen Bao commitment to the revolution.” Toan, marriage was not compatible with revolution, and her own She returned to Saigon in late November and threw herself into marriage put an end to her revolutionary career, for she believed the task of recruiting women into the league. Pretending to sell in the traditional responsibilities of a wife and mother. Few who fabric, she traveled throughout the Mekong Delta, finding other met her in old age could imagine that she had once been willing young women who shared her feminism and patriotism. Ironically, to go against accepted notions of female decorum for the sake of they, like Bao Luong, enjoyed the full support of their families even revolution and women’s emancipation. She died only a few months as they called for the downfall of the patriarchal system: their before the two halves of the country were united as the Socialist revolutionary zeal owed much to family love and loyalty. To them, Republic of Vietnam, with her former mentor, Ton Duc Thang, as women’s emancipation meant access to formal education and free- president. The woman who had endured torture so as not to be- dom to choose their husbands. They hatched plans to campaign tray her comrades took to her grave whatever regrets and remorse against colonial rule through pamphlets, demonstrations, and pub- she might have felt. lic speeches. “How about an assassination?” one asked. A year later, an assassination occurred. A young recruit com- Hue-Tam Ho Tai is Young professor of Sino-Vietnamese history. Her biograph- plained that she had been pressured by a senior league member ical study of her aunt, Passion, Betrayal, and Revolution in Colonial to become his mistress. When he was criticized for this and other Saigon: The Memoirs of Bao Luong (University of California Press), transgressions, he threatened to go to the Sûreté (police). Bao Luong was published last spring.

28 March - April 2011 ai T am H o e), d’outre-mer, f ran c e), ANOM (ar c hives nationales ourtesy o f H ue- T c ourtesy smaller images two c hine, sûreté, dossier 65535; gouvernement général de l’indo main image: Copyright F R Copyright main image:

Three images of Bao Luong: at right, Nguyen Trung Nguyet (“Faithful Moon”) circa 1926, about a Harvard Magazine 29 year before she left home; at left, in the early 1970s; and center, after her arrest in 1929. Quotable Harvard Selected by fred shapiro / Illustrations by tom mosser

Though he edited both the Yale Book of Quotations and the Oxford Dic- in the Widener basement,” he has assembled 25 quotations by Harvard alum- tionary of American Legal Quotations and is an associate librarian ni. At the editors’ urging, he eschewed the most famous alumni soundbites— and lecturer in legal research at Yale Law School, Fred Shapiro, J.D. ’80, attri- “Ask not what your country can do for you…,” “The only thing we have to fear butes his interest in quotations partly to experiences he had while at Harvard is fear itself,” “Speak softly and carry a big stick,” “Taxation without repre- Law School. “Far from a model student,” he neglected his studies to haunt the sentation is tyranny,” “Love means never having to say you’re sorry”—and Widener stacks, where he stumbled upon a collection of old books on sports and emblematic Harvardisms like “You can always tell a Harvard man, but you games and became interested in tracing the origins of common pastimes. That can’t tell him much.” He chose less familiar examples that seemed provocative, enabled him to “antedate” the earliest uses of many sporting words as given in amusing, or otherwise striking. the Oxford English Dictionary, and he became a significant contributor “Some may find the list below revealing of my biases,” he writes. “In particu- to the dictionary’s Supplement. A few decades later, he decided to apply the lar, there is a tendency toward liberalism. In my own defense I note only that historical methods used by the OED to the compilation of a comprehensive it is not easy to find quotations of a conservative nature by Harvard people. quotation dictionary, having noted that existing collections, such as Bartlett’s There are some—such as ‘Any one may so arrange his affairs that his taxes Familiar Quotations, and Oxford’s own Dictionary of Quotations shall be as low as possible…there is not even a patriotic duty to increase one’s seemed to do little research into the first occurrences of sayings that lacked taxes,’ from Learned Hand, LL.B. 1896, or well-known starting-points. For his own collection, he used traditional meth- ‘States like those [Iraq, Iran, and North ods but was also “lucky enough to be compiling amid an explosion of searchable Korea] and their terrorist allies, consti- What historical text collections and online tools such as Google Books, ProQuest tute an axis of evil, aiming to threaten the is your Historical Newspapers, Newspaperarchive, and Eighteenth Century Collec- peace of the world,’ by David Frum, J.D. favorite quotation by tions Online.” As a result, he says, his Yale Book of Quotations was able ’87, in a speech written for George W. Bush, a Harvard person, or to “revolutionize our knowledge of M.B.A. ’75—but they are few and far be- about the University? quotation origins.” tween. I leave it to others to explain what Visit harvardmag.com/ Now, as a “token of historical and sociological factors may quotations to share gratitude to the Uni- underlie a Crimson slant to the left, or your selection and see versity that has as- whether there is some inherent correlation what other readers sembled all those between political and quotational innova- have submitted. great old books tion in general.” vThe Editors

We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we cannot have both. ­—Louis D. Brandeis, LL.B. 1877, quoted in Labor, October 14, 1941

There may be said to be two classes of people in the world: those who constantly divide the people of the world into two classes, and those who do not. —Robert Benchley, A.B. 1912, Of All Things (1921) Nobody dies from lack of sex. It’s lack of love we die from. margaret —Margaret Atwood, A.M. ’62, Litt.D. ’04, atwood The Handmaid’s Tale (1986)

30 March - April 2011 I must study Politicks and In the United States there War that my sons may have lib- erty to study Mathematicks and is more space where nobody Philosophy. My sons ought to is than where anybody is. study Mathematicks and Philoso- phy, Geography, natural History, That is what makes Naval Architecture, navigation, America what it is. Commerce, and Agriculture, in —Gertrude Stein, A.B. 1898, order to give their Children a right The Geographical History of America (1936) to study Painting, Poetry, Musick, Architecture, Statuary, Tapestry, and Porcelaine. Our inventions are wont to be pretty —John Adams, A.B. 1755, LL.D. 1781, toys, which distract our attention Letter to Abigail Adams, May 12, 1780 from serious things.…We are in great haste to construct a magnetic A memorandum is written not to inform telegraph from Maine to Texas, the reader but to protect the writer. but Maine and Texas, it may be, have —Dean Acheson, LL.B. ’18, nothing important to communicate. quoted in the Wall Street Journal, September 8, 1977 Gertrude Stein —Henry David Thoreau, A.B. 1837, Walden (1854) What we’ve got here is failure to communicate. —Frank Pierson ’46, screenplay for Cool Hand Luke (1967)

Not even a Harvard School of Business can make greed into a science. —W.E.B. Du Bois, A.B. 1890, Ph.D. 1895, In Battle for Peace (1952)

When you see something that is technically sweet, you go ahead and do it and you argue about what to do about it only after you have had your technical success. That is the way it was with Frank Pierson the atomic bomb. —J. Robert Oppenheimer ’25, S.D. ’47, quoted in In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer: USAEC Transcript of Hearing Before Personnel Security Board (1954)

j. robert oppenheimer Harvard Magazine 31 To say that war is madness is like saying that sex is madness: true enough, from the standpoint of a stateless eunuch, but merely a provocative epigram for those who must make their arrangements in the world as given. —John Updike ’54, Litt.D. ’92, Self-Consciousness (1989)

Taxes are what we pay for civilized society. —Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., A.B. 1861, LL.B. 1866, LL.D. 1895, Compañía General de Tabacos de Filipinas v. Collector of Internal Revenue (dissenting opinion), 1927

In my youth…there were certain words you couldn’t say in front of a girl; now you can say them, but you can’t say “girl.” —Tom Lehrer ’47, A.M. ’47, G ’66, quoted in the Washington Post, January 3, 1982 Tom lehrer Meek young men grow up in libraries, believing John updike it their duty to accept the views, which Cicero, which Locke, which Bacon, have given, forgetful that Cicero, Locke, and Bacon were only young men in libraries, when they wrote these books. —Ralph Waldo Emerson, A.B. 1821, LL.D. 1866, The American Scholar (1837)

Go to where the silence is and say something. —Amy Goodman ’84, on accepting an award for coverage of the 1991 massacre of Timorese by Indonesian troops, quoted in the Columbia Journalism Review, March/April 1994

Presidents of two Poetry is what is lost in different oil companies. translation. It is also what is ­—Bob Shrum, J.D. ’68, lost in interpretation. on the Republican Party’s idea —Robert Frost, of diversity on their ticket, class of 1901, Litt.D. ’37, quoted in the quoted in Louis Untermeyer, Los Angeles Times, July 27, 2000 Robert Frost: A Backward Look (1964)

32 March - April 2011 amy goodman Writing is easy. Just put a piece of paper in the typewriter and start bleeding. —Thomas Wolfe, A.M. ’22, quoted in Gene Olson, Sweet Agony (1972)

What pornographic literature does is precisely to drive a wedge between one’s existence as a full human being and one’s existence as a sexual being. —Susan Sontag, A.M. ’57, Litt.D. ’93, “The Pornographic Imagination” (1967)

The king was pregnant. —Ursula Le Guin ’51, The Left Hand of Darkness (1969)

What religion a man shall have is a historical accident, quite as much as what language he shall speak. —George Santayana, A.B. 1886, Ph.D. 1889, The Life of Reason (1905)

Summer afternoon—summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language. thomas —Henry James, Law School 1862-63, Litt.D. 1911, wolfe quoted in Edith Wharton, A Backward Glance (1934)

Although the special manifestations of religion may have been absurd (I mean its creeds All the security and theories), yet the life of it as a whole is around the American George mankind’s most important function. santayana —William James, M.D. 1869, LL.D. 1903, president is just to Letter to Frances Morse, April 13, 1900 make sure the man who shoots him gets A democracy—that is, a government of all the people, caught. by all the people, for all the people. —Norman Mailer ’43, —Theodore Parker, Divinity School 1836, quoted in the Sunday speech at Anti-Slavery Convention, Boston, May 29, 1850 Telegraph, March 4, 1990

Harvard Magazine 33 34 March - April 2011 Famous Comedian, “Dangerous” Playwright

Ubiquitous on film and TV, Wallace Shawn writes plays that pack the house —with 20. by craig lambert

Though internationally renowned as a “character” actor in comedy roles, in real life Wallace Shawn ’65 acts deliberately, thoughtfully, and with a native New Yorker’s intensity. Both a playwright and stage actor, he has been one of the busiest performers in contemporary film and television, with no fewer than 135 credits since 1979, when he played Diane Keaton’s ex-husband in Woody Allen’s filmManhattan and was in Bob Fosse’s All That Jazz. The next year he appeared in Louis Malle’s Atlantic City, beginning a film relationship that would continue inMy Dinner with André (1981) and last for the rest of the French auteur’s career. Shawn has worked with directors ranging from James Ivory (The Bostonians, 1984) to Rob Reiner (The Princess Bride, 1989).

He’s made scores of television appearances on programs ranging thing about acting and so took nine months of classes at the HB from The Nanny and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine to Sex and the City, Des- Studio in Manhattan. “Technique, scene study, voice, movement, perate Housewives, Family Guy, ER, The Daily Show, and Gossip Girl. speech, and singing,” he recalls. “If I had known I would become Then there is his playwriting. Shawn does not take things a professional actor and make a living at it, I probably would have lightly, tackling his projects with a seriousness that might in- been ambitious—I would have learned fencing, gone to the gym, spire awe. He has written only five plays sinceMarie and Bruce lost my speech defects. I’d have studied Shakespeare and today I’d (1979), which will be re-staged this March off-Broadway at the be trying to get someone to let me play King Lear. I’ve acted more New Group’s Acorn Theatre on West 42nd Street with Marisa than an awful lot of people who went to drama school. But on the Tomei and Frank Whaley in the title roles. Shawn’s stage works other hand, if someone today said, ‘I think you should play King include Aunt Dan and Lemon (1985), The Fever (1990), and The Desig- Lear,’ I’d feel that I’ve never studied it and I don’t know how to.” nated Mourner (1996), which was also filmed with Mike Nichols On the TV teen drama Gossip Girl, Shawn appears as the lawyer and Miranda Richardson reprising the lead roles they took in the Cyrus Rose, the stepfather of one of the privileged Upper East Side play. His only new play since Designated Mourner has been Grasses private-schooled girls who anchor the series. “When they want of a Thousand Colors (2008). Between plays, he usually takes a few me for an episode, I’m overjoyed, jumping for joy,” Shawn says. “I years off or, he explains, “I would be repeating myself.” very much enjoy being an actor—I love it. If the project is not fun, Shawn wrote his first play and decided to get involved in the- it’s less fun. But I’ve been very lucky. When I was more popular I ater in 1967. (“One of my favorite people growing up was very up- had the opportunity to turn down more things, the ones that were set when I started writing plays,” he says. “She said, ‘Wallace, you sickening. Now, I’m not offered much, and not offered much that would have made such a wonderful judge!’”) Though acting has be- is sickening. I’m a known quantity in some ways and people don’t come his livelihood, at the outset he wasn’t interested in a perform- imagine me in certain things. What comes easiest to me is natu- ing career. But he felt that as a playwright he should learn some- ral comedy, so I did some wonderful sitcoms: the Cosby Show, Murphy

Photograph by Jared Rodriguez Harvard Magazine 35 Brown, Taxi—that suited me very well. Clueless—the movie and a year Harvard, agrees that Shawn has written some of the best plays in of TV episodes—I think I did a pretty good job in all of those.” America, and calls Marie and Bruce his masterpiece, but notes that Shawn “doesn’t jump to mind when you think of our 10 best play- Though Shawn’s comedic acting has made his face famil- wrights” because each one of his plays is different from the oth- iar to millions, his plays are much less well known. They aren’t ers. “He’s elusive,” Brustein says. “It’s so hard to identify him—he light comedies, but disturbing works hasn’t developed his own distinctive that challenge audiences, and he con- and unique style. I don’t know why siders them his most important cre- Gregory calls him “Our he isn’t more respected, because his ations. In a 2009 review of Grasses of a work is as intelligent as anything be- Thousand Colors, the New Yorker’s theater very finest playwright ing written today.” critic, John Lahr, called Shawn “…a For Frank Whaley, a seasoned stage, singular American talent who had and one of our greatest film, and television actor who will play been marginalized in his own coun- Bruce in Marie and Bruce this spring, try. In the United States, Shawn, as a character actors. I do not Shawn “is overlooked in general, and playwright, is a relatively unknown it’s completely unfair. There’s nobody quantity without an artistic home; know, except for Molière, like him. He talks about things that in England, his works, which prey on are usually shied away from—in Ma- both consciousness and conscience, of a great playwright rie and Bruce, the way people really feel are published under the rubric of about each other, the gritty truth, the ‘contemporary classics.’” who is also a great actor.” gnawing facts. Nobody else writes André Gregory that way, and the ’56, the theater language is really director, actor, juicy. There are and playwright 100 other people who has been who write like Shawn’s friend David Mamet, as well as profes- but no one else sional collabo- writes like Wal- rator ever since ly.” Whaley feels they first met in that Marie and 1970 (when the Bruce “is danger- New Yorker writ­ ous for an actor. er Renata Adler, It’s a huge chal- A.M. ’66, a mu- lenge. These are tual friend, ar- not what one ranged for them would think of to meet), has as likable char- directed him in acters, and they two of Shawn’s are in the death own plays and in throes of their Chekhov’s Uncle marriage. It’s

Vanya . Gregory C o r bis Jack/ Robbie something you calls him “our very finest playwright and one of our Shawn performing in his can jump into and not know what you’re going to greatest character actors. I do not know, except for play Grasses of a Thou- find when you hit the pool; for an actor, that’s hard sand Colors in London Molière, of a great playwright who is also a great ac- in 2009, with actresses to come by these days.” Gregory calls Marie and Bruce tor.” When Gregory was in London to direct Grasses Emily McDonnell, “one of the most moving and harrowing plays about of a Thousand Colors, British critics and theater people Miranda Richardson, and the relationships between men and women. I’d com- told him that they regarded Harold Pinter, Arthur Jennifer Tilly pare it to Bergman’s Scenes from a Marriage.” Miller, Caryl Churchill, and Wallace Shawn as the four greatest Shawn himself suggests that the quality of his audience mat- contemporary playwrights working in English. “There’s always ters more than its size. “I have a little coterie, mostly people I a strong frightening element in his plays, about the shape of know personally, whom I have persuaded to look to me in the things to come,” Gregory says. “The Designated Mourner was about same way that society as a whole would look to Philip Roth or someone like George W. Bush and his administration, although David Mamet, or any other respected author,” he says. “To me, they weren’t here yet. Grasses is about the destruction of the en- these people are ‘the public,’ and they actually are eagerly await- vironment. Wally has a clarity about whatever the dangers are ing my next work, although their friends and loved ones may that are coming.” laugh at them for that, and find it rather sad that they follow a Playwright and author Robert Brustein, founding director of false prophet.” He notes that “there’s a very large gap between the American Repertory Theater and senior research fellow at my arrogance and the world’s opinion of my work.”

36 March - April 2011 Still, consider the dedication embedded in a marathon proj- are certain individual actors who can do that unbelievable thing. ect Shawn and Gregory began in the late 1990s. For 13 years now, I’m just going to say that when I go to the theater, in most cas- they, with other players, have been rehearsing a new version of es it sounds like they’re shouting, so I can’t take the characters Henrik Ibsen’s The Master Builder, using Shawn’s adaptation of Ib- too seriously. I grew up on movies and television [where actors sen’s script. They have yet to perform it in public, though that speak in normal tones]—and I can’t believe [theater] is real life, may happen sometime this year. “André and I both like to take because in real life, people are not ‘projecting’ their voices, much scripts [like The Master Builder] that are not written in a naturalis- less shouting. The type of theater we do really can’t be done for a tic style, and make them seem as believable as kitchen-sink real- big audience. And you have to admit, it can’t pay for itself. It can’t ism,” Shawn explains. “That’s an exciting challenge. be seen by thousands and thousands of people because there’s a “In a play, there’s a certain amount of dog work—physical la- limit to how many times you can perform. So it’s sort of indefen- bor—in delivering your performance to an audience,” he contin- sible, but if you happen to see it, you might admire it.” ues. “There’s the performance, and then there is the ‘UPS’ aspect For their play Vanya on 42nd Street, Shawn and Gregory spent of delivering the performance. In a film there’s just the performance. many months, spread over three years in the early 1990s, rehears- I’m a lazy person and ing Chekhov’s Uncle don’t particularly enjoy Vanya, mostly in rented the UPS aspect, so in lofts; they eventually general, I’d rather be in performed the play in a movie or on TV. But an abandoned, run- the stuff I have done down theater on 42nd with André is in a com- Street in Manhattan. pletely different cat- “We never intended egory; the UPS aspect to do it onstage,” is just not there.” Shawn says. “Well, we Gregory and Shawn did do it, but only for strive to create a the- 20 people at a time. atrical ambiance that We acted the way we feels to the audience d / C o r bis outline Ravi Joyce would have if there like unmediated reality. “Movies are called a was a camera there.” And eventually there realistic medium, but you are not really look- was. As his final cinematic work, Louis Malle ing at people, you’re looking at a very specific directed Vanya on 42nd Street (1994), a film of the selection of shots,” Shawn explains. “Somebody theatrical production that Gregory directed; else is telling you where to look—and not just the screenplay was credited to Chekhov and suggesting it, but enforcing it. A play can be much David Mamet, with Shawn in the title role. more engrossing and exciting: you can actually g es “That’s a performance of a different order see people changing in front of your eyes. The- from all of Wally’s other performances,” says ater is potentially an incredibly thrilling me- screenwriter and lyricist Jacob Brackman ’65, dium—as close as you can come to being able a friend of Shawn’s since college. “His normal to watch life. If we were, say, having dinner in a r e/Getty I ma antato self-consciousness has completely receded

restaurant, it would be impolite—unthinkable, r io C Da and he becomes the character, the way actors really—for me to stare at you in the focused, possibly Top: Director Louis are supposed to. I told Wally this, and he said, ‘Louis even cold way I can stare at a person in a play. And I Malle, Shawn, and ac- tricked me.’” tress Julianne Moore can’t stare at myself because it is impossible. I couldn’t on the set of the film One of Shawn’s best-known turns is in My Dinner watch the scenes that happened in my family between Vanya on 42nd Street, with André, in which he and Gregory play characters me and my brother and my parents, because I was in in 1993. Above: based on themselves. The movie memorably captures the scene. But when I go to A View from the Bridge, I can André Gregory and Shawn at a screening the two men’s relationship on celluloid, distilled in watch that family and observe them very closely in a of their conversation- an exhilarating 90-minute dialogue conducted over way that I wish I could have done with my family, but al film My Dinner with a meal, ranging across topics including experimental couldn’t.” André at Lincoln theater, the role of art in the world, the somnambu- Center in 2010 The collaborations of Shawn and Gregory are dif- lism of American life, mysticism and spirituality. “We ferent from almost any play you are likely to see in a large theater. decided to do a film that would be talking heads, based on our- Both men are drawn to “a sort of very small-scale hyperrealism in selves,” Shawn recalls. “The jumping-off point would be André’s acting,” Shawn says. “We share an interest in an indefensible and years of self-exploration and my complicated reactions to that. somewhat outrageous form of artistic activity: theater in which So we met with a tape recorder a few times a week for several the style of acting is more like film acting.” He elaborates: “In a months. We thought perhaps we could do a TV film, and had large theater, the actors must either have microphones or ‘proj- a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting—which ect’ their voices. Now, there are a lot of people who will tell you was quite artistically adventurous at that time—to transcribe that actors who have been trained properly can be heard in the those conversations. The script took off from those transcripts back row, without shouting the lines. And I concede that there and we memorized it and rehearsed it for many months. Before

Harvard Magazine 37 the shooting we did three weeks of performances for audiences you think a human being is? A human being happens to be an of 60 at the Royal Court Theatre in London. We tried to fool you, unprotected little wriggling creature…without a shell or a hide to make it look spontaneous. As with Uncle Vanya, all of that re- or even any fur, just thrown out onto the earth like an eye that’s hearsal allows you to achieve a certain spontaneity. It produces been pulled from its socket, like a shucked oyster that’s trying to a type of acting I like to see. It feels natural. I don’t like to see crawl along the ground. We need to build our own shells.” actors struggling. I like to feel that it is easy, and to see actors not Shawn attended Manhattan’s Dalton School, which at that tense, but relaxed.” time was “very progressive, bohemian.” Progressive education continued at the Putney School in Vermont; being in the country “You’re not aware of the unusual characteristics of your was another shock for the New York boy, but Shawn fell “ecstati- childhood until it’s over and you can look back on it,” Shawn says. cally in love with the landscape” and liked Putney’s coed atmo- He grew up on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, the firstborn child sphere (“I’ve never been happy in an all-male atmosphere and of William Shawn, editor of the New Yorker magazine from 1952 don’t really like to be with more than two men if no women are until 1987. His brother, Allen Shawn ’70, is a composer based at present. Things degenerate.”) and its practice of having students Bennington College; the two have collaborated on an opera. (Al- do farm work, including chores like mucking out the stable. len’s twin sister, Mary, diagnosed with both autism and mental His father, who dropped out of the University of Michigan retardation, has been institutionalized since age eight; his new after one year, “had a very, very romantic view of Harvard,” book, Twin: A Memoir, tells that family story Wallace explains. The elder Shawn imag- and explores several issues it raises.) “I’m happy to say ined Harvard to be like “ancient Greece…a William Shawn, a man of delicate sen- place of learning where people selflessly sibilities, became squeamish even at the that those were did quiet scholarly work in this rustic, mention of bodily functions, as Allen leafy landscape.” Wally arrived in Cam- Shawn writes in his 2007 book, Wish I Could the worst years of bridge in 1961 as a devotee of John F. Be There: Notes from a Phobic Life. “Seeing one Kennedy ’40, filled with idealistic ambi- of Wally’s early plays, like Our Late Night my life. They say tion to serve humanity, but on his first [1975], performed in the round with Wil- day in the Yard was rudely awakened liam Shawn seated in the front row, had that old age is no by the Crimson’s Confi Guide to Harvard Oedipal overtones,” says Brackman. “Mr. courses. “It mocked the learned scholars Shawn was being subjected to this extreme fun, so something and openly derided scholarship in favor material—like a three-page monologue of taking courses that would be easy to on masturbation, the kinds of things that worse than Harvard pass—if you had to work hard, that was would never appear in his New Yorker. At the a bad thing rather than a good thing,” he same time, he was being subjected to the may be looming recalls. “And so many of the students scrutiny of his colleagues and subordinates seemed to be athletically minded young at his son’s premiere. It must have been an in my future.” men who scorned the ‘eggheads’—I was ordeal for him.” completely nonathletic myself. The way “I was raised very, very gently,” Shawn says. “My parents did the boys talked about women was utterly flabbergasting to not believe in toughening up children, exposing them to the a student from Putney, which was founded by a very radical brutal reality of life. The brutal realities of life have been a tre- woman, Carmelita Hinton. It was as shocking as going back mendous shock to me. Obviously, I am not a mature adult. I have to a plantation where slavery was practiced. I’m happy to say the mind of an adolescent—in my mind I am still 15 years old that those were the worst years of my life; all subsequent years and trying to figure out what to do—and I am still shocked that have been better. They say that old age is no fun, so something things are rougher out there than they were in our living room.” worse than Harvard may be looming in my future.” A signal event took place at pubescence. “I went away to camp Shawn concentrated in history, played violin in the Harvard- at age 13,” he says. “I was so shocked to find that there were bru- Radcliffe Orchestra, lived in Kirkland House with five room- tal people out there. I had never before encountered an adult who mates, and can recall going on only one date as an undergradu- swore or used bad language. I thought this was a gallery of the ate. (Several years after college, he settled down with the fiction most grotesque criminals gathered in a nightmarish hell—but writer Deborah Eisenberg, who has sometimes acted in his plays; they were regular folks! One day, one of the they have lived together since 1972, and have no children.) “I was boys in my cabin left a can of soda pop lying a very, very unhappy recluse,” he says. “I stayed in my room and Visit harvardmag.com/ around and when it came time for inspection, read books.” His history honors thesis, which took the then-in- extras for links to our cabin was marked down for it. The coun- novative approach of writing a biography of an ordinary person Wallace Shawn film selor in charge, an adult, instructed us to go of the early twentieth century, scored with one reader but got clips and interviews. and beat up that boy who had left the soda can thumbs down from two others, one of whom wrote, “This isn’t out! I couldn’t believe such a thing could occur history, it is a little vignette or a New Yorker profile.” on planet Earth—and then it turned out it was the norm! I don’t Nonetheless, he did attend his twenty-fifth class reunion de- think I’ve recovered from it still—I’m walking around every day spite a “Pavlovian response” to “terrible memories” in Cam- saying, ‘Is this really true? Is it really like this?’” John Lahr’s review bridge—in much the same way, Shawn says, that he would be up- of Grasses quotes a powerful moment from The Fever: “What do set “if I visited the Pentagon. There are (please turn to page 65)

38 March - April 2011 John Harvard’s JJ oo uu rrnalnal

Steven E. Hyman

Back to the Lab Bench end of the academic year. The office was the center of the University’s efforts to fa- created in its modern Harvard form un- cilitate collaborative, interdisciplinary re- Steven E. Hyman, M.D. ’80, a neurobi- der President Neil L. Rudenstine in 1992; search and teaching. Hyman plans to take ologist who has served as University pro- Hyman’s decade of service makes him the a sabbatical year at the Broad Institute, vost since 2001, announced in December longevity champion, and gave him the op- the Harvard-MIT genomics center—he is that he would relinquish the post at the portunity to define the position, now at a member of the Harvard Medical School (HMS) faculty—to explore returning to In this Issue active science, and to create a course for undergraduates on neuroscience, ethics, 41 Harvard Library’s First Director 47 Brevia policy, and law. The search for a new pro- 42 Tackling Teaching and Learning 49 The Undergraduate vost began in January (see page 40). 43 Harvard Portrait 51 Sports “I have deeply valued my partnership 44 Prototyping House Renewal 52 Alumni with Steve,” said President Drew Faust 45 Yesterday’s News 56 The College Pump in a statement as part of the news release

Photograph by Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard News Office Harvard Magazine 39 John Harvard’s Journal about Hyman’s decision. “He has spurred gies); in early December, he was named to from something in bad times,” and the fresh thinking and important initiatives in chair the new board of directors for the University has emerged from its recent areas ranging from the sciences to the hu- Harvard library system. (For more on the financial challenges with “a very effective manities, from the museums to the librar- libraries, see “Harvard Library’s First Di- president who is in command and a very ies.…In all of these areas and more, he has rector,” page 41.) strong staff—including the vice presi- approached his role with intelligence, pas- dents and certainly with the addition of sion, and wit, and with a devotion to the In a conversation in his Massachu- [executive vice president] Katie Lapp. highest academic standards.” setts Hall office on December 14, Hyman And we have a remarkably strong cadre Early in his career, Hyman was a pro- described his decision to step down as he of deans.” Later he noted that with a large fessor of psychiatry at HMS and served entered “the tenth year of a five-year com- University capital campaign in the offing, as the first faculty director of the Univer- mitment” in personal terms. He indicated “President Faust deserves in whoever will sity’s Mind, Brain, and Behavior Initiative. to Faust last July, he said, that he thought be provost someone who will serve for the He was subsequently appointed director this should be his last year as provost. duration, in mint condition.” of the National Institute of Mental Health During his service, he said, “I have mostly When he became provost, Hyman re- (1996-2001); during that initial period of stayed out of searches for other positions called, the office was new at Harvard and administrative service, he maintained a outside of Harvard,” and had arrived at consisted of a “collection of projects,” not laboratory and continued to publish sci- the decision that he did not want another yet resembling the post of chief academic entific papers (activities he has had to put administrative position, at least for the officer that the title signals at other re- aside during his decade as provost). The near term. “I fell down the administrative search universities. Today, he said, it is interfaculty initiative served as a useful well rather early, in mid career” as a scien- “well on its way to becoming a modern introduction to Harvard’s interdisciplin- tist, he said. During his sabbatical year at research university provost’s office, but ary, multischool programs and projects— the Broad, he said, he hoped to “see what with a Harvard flavor.” That Crimson col- a principal focus for his work as provost. I can do effectively in the sciences” after a oring strongly reflects the traditional de- Of late, he has been associated with such long layoff from the laboratory bench; he centralization of the University’s schools. University-wide initiatives as the effort to conceded, smiling, “I may not be rehabili- They retain their autonomy, and the pro- rethink the libraries’ operations and ad- tatable.” vost’s office has strong, direct interactions ministrative organization (for budgetary The time also seemed suitable, he con- with each, Hyman said, but “the most im- reasons and to adapt to digital technolo- tinued, because “You shouldn’t walk away portant thing we do is to work tirelessly across schools and across disciplines.” Wanted: Corporation Members, Provost There is a “lot of life left in the disci- plines, and lots of rigor,” he added—but it In the wake of the Harvard Corpo- former CEO of Vertex Pharmaceuticals would be curious if inquiry today aligned ration’s early December decision to and chair of the Harvard Medical School entirely with departmental and profes- increase its membership from seven— Board of Fellows; Diana Nelson ’84, di- sional-school boundaries established a the President, Treasurer, and five Fel- rector of the Carlson Companies and century ago. Thus the provost’s office sup- lows—to 13 (see “The Corporation’s former co-chair of the Harvard College ports the departments and schools (for 360-Year Tune-Up,” January-February, Fund; and Robert Shapiro ’72, J.D. ’78, a instance, through University-wide efforts page 43), nominations for candidates to partner at Ropes & Gray, past president to encourage faculty diversity, to support serve on the senior governing board are of both the Harvard Alumni Association international research and learning, and now being sought. An early-January an- and the Harvard Law School Association. to oversee research—all of these now di- nouncement from President Drew Faust (Shapiro also served on the governance- rected by vice provosts), but seeks “not to and Senior Fellow Robert D. Reischau- review committee.) allow them to become limiting intellec- er solicited ideas and names from the Faust and Reischauer reiterated their tual silos. It falls to the provost’s office to Harvard community at large; they may earlier expectation that the Corpora- facilitate bottom-up efforts at boundary be submitted to corporationsearch@ tion’s expanded membership would be crossing.” Some 30 interdisciplinary ef- harvard.edu or by mail to Corporation put in place within the next two to three forts now receive funding. Search Committee, Harvard University, years. In his letter to the community announc- Loeb House, 17 Quincy Street, Cam- A week later, Faust announced the ap- ing his decision, Hyman wrote, “The bridge 02138; all communications will be pointment of a faculty advisory commit- world well recognizes Harvard’s overall held in confidence. tee to help her search for a successor academic strength, but less well under- Consistent with the Corporation’s to Provost Steven E. Hyman. Comments stood is the collaborative spirit of our fac- earlier steps to include members of from the wider Harvard community on ulty members and students and their de- the Board of Overseers in its review the provost’s role and nominations of sire to pursue important intellectual and of its governance structure and proce- candidates may be sent in confidence to practical problems wherever they lead— dures, the search for new Corporation [email protected] or by letter often across the boundaries of disciplines members will include three Overseers: addressed to her at Massachusetts Hall, or of individual schools.” Joshua Boger, Ph.D. ’79, founder and Harvard University, Cambridge 02138. As examples, he cited the first inter­ school department (Stem Cell and Regen­

40 March - April 2011 Harvard Library’s First Director

Helen Shenton, an experienced innovator from the British Library who was deputy director of the Harvard University Li- brary this past year, became executive director of the new, con- solidated Harvard Library in mid January. “What we will be do- ing,” she said in an interview at Wadsworth House, “is creating something new…the concept of one Harvard library.” Recalling visits to Harvard’s 73 libraries when she first arrived at the Uni- versity a year ago, she said she noted “a lot of enthusiasm” for the idea among library staff, who “want to work together in bet- ter ways” but have struggled to do so across “false boundaries.” Patrons, she added, also seek simple ways to access all of the collections once they are in a library or logged in to the system. Helen Under a management structure more than a year in the mak- Shenton ing (as part of a provost-initiated review of Harvard’s librar- ies), Shenton will report to and work with a new library board Lapp. Shenton, who focused on collection care at the British Li- that has been given “strategic and decision-making authority brary during an analogous period of consolidation, reiterated for the whole of the Harvard Library. That’s very radical,” she that “We must do this for the benefit of our patrons. It is for said, when compared to the coordinated decentralization of now, but it is also very much for the future.” the past. But during a “revolutionary time” in which people are She emphasized that even as the planning continues, local de- changing how they access and use information, she explained, cisions will remain important. “We need to balance shared ser- “We have got to not only respond, but be ahead of it, for the vices with the best of the local,” she said, “because the libraries good of pedagogy and learning and research.” have incredibly knowledgeable, specialized staff who work ex- Shenton credited a yearlong effort by the Library Implemen­ tremely closely with academic programs and with faculty, and tation Workgroup (chaired by Divinity School professor of know their subjects well. We must keep that whilst moving to philosophy and theology David Lamberth) for gathering tre- some element of harmonization.” mendously useful information about the entire library system, Shenton has wasted no time in taking action, announcing in “which had never been looked at as a whole.” In order to ef- late January that Harvard would be joining Borrow Direct, an fect necessary changes, she has identified several “strands of interlibrary loan program among the Ivy League universities work” that, as of late January, were being pulled into a transition that gives users access to a catalog of 50 million items for de- plan—involving issues of governance, funding, information tech- livery in just four to five business days. “Borrow Direct,” she nology, organization, and use of space—under the supervision explained, “strongly reflects the aspirations that guide the new of provost Steven E. Hyman and executive vice president Katie Harvard Library.” erative Biology, under the Harvard Stem grees, before turning to medicine.) These tenure ultimately rest with the president, Cell Institute); the interdisciplinary collaborations, he said, are “what I am the provost now runs “somewhat more Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired proudest of.” than half” of the review committees, he Engineering (linking HMS, affiliated hos- Hyman also oversees affiliated cultural said—in the heady days before the recent pitals, the School of Engineering and Ap- institutions, ranging from the museums to economic difficulties, one per week, across plied Sciences, and Faculty of Arts and the American Repertory Theater (ART)— all the faculties. He marveled at “what you Sciences departments such as chemistry a responsibility not common to provosts can learn” as provost from engaging with and physics); and an increasingly Uni- elsewhere. He cited with enthusiasm the the faculty members through those re- versity-wide Humanities Center, build- reconstruction of the Fogg Art Museum, views. ing on humanities efforts in each school. now under way, to “create a true teaching (Hyman’s own career is an archetype of museum,” and the activities of the ART; Looking ahead, Hyman said his most boundary-crossing. A 1974 Yale gradu- both institutions’ directors were appoint- important piece of unfinished business is ate in philosophy and the humanities, he ed through searches under Hyman. ensuring that the restructuring of the li- then journeyed to the University of Cam- Finally, he said, “The greatest privilege brary system proceeds and gains momen- bridge as a Mellon Fellow in the philoso- for me is chairing committees related to tum. The new University library board phy of science, earning B.A. and M.A. de- faculty promotion.” Although decisions on has been appointed, an executive direc-

Photograph by Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard News Office Harvard Magazine 41 John Harvard’s Journal tor named, and work will continue to colleagues who care about institution- portunity not formally part of the job: implement the recommendations arrived building” and about securing the future teaching “breathtaking” undergraduates. at during the past year of reviews of the of the University. Second, he said, defying He cited his freshman seminars, a neuro- library system’s operations and collecting external views of Harvard as “terminally biology lecture course, and, more recent- needs and practices. siloed and tied down like Gulliver,” when ly, a neurobiology junior tutorial. Those What was most fun about the posi- instead the University is creating new in- experiences underlie his plan to develop a tion? First, Hyman said, “working with terdisciplinary units—“that feels really, new neurobiology course for the College’s some remarkably talented and dedicated really good.” And third, he said, is an op- General Education curriculum.

Tackling Teaching Tier Teaching,” March-April 2007, page texts. The first is as an FAS academic pri- 63). The task force succeeded the earlier ority in the forthcoming University capital and Learning review of the undergraduate curriculum. campaign (alongside House renewal, see For the third time in a decade, the That extended review had led to change page 44, and goals such as financial aid Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) is ad- in course content, as the Core curriculum and scholarly initiatives). The second is dressing its educational mission. During was succeeded by the new General Educa- the national debate over the effectiveness the December 7 faculty meeting, dean tion offerings and course requirements for of higher education—as for-profit schools Michael D. Smith talked at length about students. But it focused little on pedagogy expand, public universities’ budgets “teaching and learning,” initiating both a per se, beyond advocating smaller section shrink, and parents and students examine website dedicated to the subject (www. sizes and alternative classroom layouts to the costs and benefits of a wide range of fas.harvard.edu/home/content/teaching- accommodate new teaching styles. private institutions. “Overall,” Smith told and-learning) and what he hopes will be Smith’s decision to highlight teaching colleagues, “my goal is to establish in the discussions intended to “identify how and learning anew illustrates both the im- public consciousness our position as an best to support pedagogical and curricular portance of the subject and the difficulty of undisputed leader in pedagogical and cur- excellence today and for the future.” defining what that means, measuring per- ricular excellence in America today.” Smith drew on the work of the Task formance, and effecting improvements. His Force on Teaching and Career Develop- starting point—“Harvard is an institution In a recent conversation, Theda Skocpol, ment, a 2006-2007 effort during the in- of truly great teachers”—set a high stan- who chaired the 2006-2007 task force, terim presidency of Derek C. Bok and dard for what he described as the progress said that the compact aimed to recast the deanship of Jeremy R. Knowles, the result the faculty had made since the compact prevailing view of teaching as an essen- of which was the faculty’s “compact on was promulgated, and for its aspirations. tially private, individual activity: an art teaching and learning” (see “Toward Top- He placed those aims in two larger con- for which one had or lacked the knack. Instead, said the Thomas professor of government and sociology, the compact’s premise is that teaching, like scholarship, News from Our Website can advance through peer review, inquiry into effective instruction and learning, Harvardmagazine.com brings you continuous coverage of University and alumni and incentives—all aimed at promoting news. Log on to find these stories and more: evaluation and continuous improvement. Business Curriculum Changes Skocpol was then dean of the Gradu- Supplementing the case method with international field ate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS), experiences and other new teaching formats a post affording perspective on graduate harvardmag.com/business-curriculum-changes education, the training of teaching fellows for their significant role in undergraduate New Summer Research Programs for Students classes, and her own College courses. Undergraduates will have opportunities to explore During a late-January interview, Smith social science across the disciplines, and business- reviewed progress in implementing the related topics. harvardmag.com/new-research-programs compact. Faculty members’ annual self- reports on their activities now request Nabokov’s Butterfly Theory much more detailed accounts not only of The Russian author had a passion for butterflies; new findings their research, but also of their teaching, from Harvard biologist Naomi Pierce confirm his theory mentoring and advising, and pedagogical about the winged creatures’ migration and evolution. innovation. Deans and department chairs harvardmag.com/nabokov-butterflies use those data in setting salaries, he said. In making faculty appointments and pro- Visit harvardmagazine.com to get news as it happens. motions, Smith said, “We ask a lot more” about teaching, drawing on the Q Guide stay connected - harvardmagazine.com (student course critiques) and depart-

42 March - April 2011 mental evaluations of lecture, seminar, and graduate-student teaching. Dossiers harvard portrait accompanying tenure proposals now in- clude a “teaching statement” so candi- dates’ work as educators can be assessed. Finally, he said, in a few departments, “peer support” was under way: a first step toward the compact’s recommendation that faculty members invite colleagues to their classes to monitor, evaluate, discuss, and learn from effective teaching tech- niques, or to correct deficiencies. The effort is far from systematic to date: Smith characterized the measures overall as “lots of little things,” all of which need to be pursued to effect broad improve- ments in teaching. Along the way, all sorts of complicated issues arise. A basic one is the proper expectation for teaching in a research university. During the review of the un- dergraduate curriculum, then-FAS dean William C. Kirby wrote, in his 2005 an- nual letter, “We can equal the best small colleges in teaching and inspiration.” There are no exact metrics for deter- mining such rankings: the best, crude measure is students’ response to “sat- isfaction” surveys—but those available give the nod to learning contexts where students have most contact with faculty members, and where professors’ obliga- tions are most focused on teaching. Har- vard’s senior survey, reported recently in Gregory N. Connolly the Crimson, generally shows greater sat- isfaction in smaller concentrations, with Surprisingly, the director of the Center for Global Tobacco Control at the Harvard smaller classes, than in the very largest School of Public Health was once a smoker himself. Working with emphysema pa- ones, with greater reliance on large lec- tients at Boston’s Carney Hospital inspired him to quit. He has since taken up health- tures. The 31-member Consortium on ier hobbies—he and his wife, Susan, have a 70-acre farm in Vermont and, he says, “I Financing Higher Education surveys stu- could cut wood all day long”—but he’s devoted his career to freeing others from dent satisfaction with academic experi- nicotine addiction. His work has taken him all over the world to advise countries ences at select, private schools (including on curbing smoking. Although that is his long-term goal, he admits that places like Harvard and the other Ivies). The results Greece and Armenia, with some of the globe’s highest smoking rates, are “nirvana” are confidential, but those who have seen for researchers. (In Massachusetts, where only 14 percent of people report smoking them say liberal-arts colleges score high- daily, doing research “is really, really hard. We just don’t have the subjects.”) Con- er than universities, and institutions like nolly has led studies in settings from pubs (measuring airborne particles pre- and Princeton—with lesser commitments to post-smoking ban) to playgrounds (using GPS data to show that tobacco companies professional schools, and a culture focused were targeting children with billboards). He has lectured to Major League Baseball on undergraduate teaching—rank higher players about the dangers of smokeless tobacco—earning the nickname “Dr. Chew” than peers. Although reliable data are from one team. He spent 17 years with the Massachusetts Department of Public scarce, much of the teaching in FAS is con- Health, overseeing a comprehensive tobacco-control campaign, including ads that be- ducted by people other than tenured or came a national and international model, and leaving just before the tenure-track faculty: a 2010 study of “non- state enacted its 2004 ban on smoking in public places. He soon ladder” appointees indicates that nearly ran afoul of the ban in his new role as professor of the practice of Visit harvardmag. com/extras to see 50 percent of arts and humanities enroll- public health: to allow smoking in his lab, so he could study new anti-smoking ads that ments were taught by lecturers, precep- theories of nicotine addiction, he recalls, “We were told, ‘You’re aired in Massachusetts tors, and others (for instance, in language breaking state law.’ We had to get an exemption.” and Armenia. classes, Expository Writing, and many tu-

Photograph by Stu Rosner Harvard Magazine 43 John Harvard’s Journal torials)—and these figures mayunderstate thinks a great deal about teaching, says and now president of the Spencer Foun- the actual role of teaching fellows and as- that he envisions his role in a course more dation, a leading supporter of education sistants. as a producer—creating a framework for research—has a particularly broad per- Should that be otherwise? Skocpol the subject, assembling an array of guest spective on just these issues (and helped points out that there are all kinds of teach- speakers and other sources of informa- organize a Harvard forum on innovation ing excellence—that Harvard should tion, and marshaling technology—and in higher education; see “A Collage of Col- not aspire to emulate a Williams or an only secondarily as a performer at the front leges,” January-February 2006, page 57). Amherst, and that some of the classes of the class. And Michael S. McPherson, That said, FAS can find plenty of op- students like most are large, successful speaking bluntly, puts the matter this way: portunities to challenge itself. At Harvard lectures. FAS faculty members are explic- “Good undergraduate education is not Business School, the compact task force itly charged with leadership in research, Harvard’s most important product,” com- noted, junior faculty members’ teaching is graduate education, developing doctoral pared to its role in fostering world-chang- rigorously evaluated by senior colleagues, students’ teaching skills, and undergradu- ing ideas. McPherson—former professor of through classroom observation and fol- ate teaching. Diker-Tishman professor higher-education economics and dean at low-up reviews—a prerequisite for ten- of sociology Christopher Winship, who Williams, president of Macalester College, ure. Throughout the professional schools

Prototyping House Renewal

Renovation of the 12 undergraduate Houses—likely the Col- lege’s highest physical priority, and its most costly and logisti- cally complex—will advance under a plan, announced in mid January by Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) dean Michael D. Smith, to empty and redo “Old Quincy,” one part of the Quincy House complex, at the corner of Plympton and Mill streets. During the test project, which is expected to require 15 months—a full academic year and the summers before and after, beginning in June 2012—180 students will reside in swing spaces from the Harvard Real Estate inventory of nearby properties. According to the announcement, “Old Quincy House, about half the size of most of the neo-Georgian Houses and without In preparation for Old Quincy (originally Mather Hall) its own dining hall or master’s residence, provides a valuable this project, we have was erected as an addition to Leverett House. The U-shaped, opportunity to test design concepts, while limiting disruption of identified a funding Georgian Revival structure, built

the House community.” Preliminary plans have been drafted by plan composed of a in 1930, was transferred to magazine harvard the architectural firm KieranTimberlake (whose many higher- mix of University in- Quincy House when its larger, education assignments include the recent renovations of six vestment and donor modern companion building was constructed in 1958. undergraduate residences at Yale); they will now be reviewed support. The upcom- with House constituencies and made final. Then, according to ing University campaign will be critical to our ability to en- the announcement, Smith expects to present a funding plan for list the donor support we would need to launch the larger the work to the Corporation this fall, and to proceed to con- project of renewing all the Houses. As was true when the struction in mid 2012. Houses were built, this project will require philanthropy on In a briefing for the faculty last October, Smith identified a transformational scale. House renewal as his principal building objective for a Uni- The full construction program—expected to cost more than versity capital campaign (see “Time to ‘Change the Channel,’” $1 billion during an extended period in which undergraduates November-December 2010, page 63). He called the Houses the would have to be successively relocated—has been postponed “cornerstone” of the undergraduate experience, and stressed in the wake of the financial and market reverses in 2008 that that they needed to be reconstructed to make them fit for reduced the value of the endowment and caused budget cuts twenty-first century education and life. to be instituted throughout FAS and the University. Because While physical and programmatic planning for House re- FAS took on considerable debt to build large science laborato- newal has continued, and now may proceed to this pilot project, ries during the middle of the last decade, reducing its financial full construction is not yet scheduled. The new announcement flexibility today, Smith has sworn off further substantial borrow- makes clear that system-wide House renewal would be tied di- ing for capital projects; hence the need to raise funds for this rectly to the availability of funding. The dean said in the release: long-anticipated undertaking.

44 March - April 2011 (and in GSAS), faculty members or teach- ing appointees are expected to do their Yesterday’s News own teaching and grading of students’ From the pages of the Harvard Alumni Bulletin and Harvard Magazine work (unlike the delegation of grading to teaching fellows in many College courses, and the greater reliance on ancillary ap- 1911 Harvard College dean Byron 1971 The Harvard Corporation pointees for much teaching). And at in- S. Hurlbut notes in his annual report sanctions the Harvard-Radcliffe “non- stitutions like Williams and Macalester, that students in the past year averaged merger” merger previously approved McPherson says, student evaluations of more than 30 class absences apiece. The by the Trustees and Council of Radcliffe. each teacher precede consideration for Bulletin’s editors remark that all colleges The plan is designed to facilitate “full and tenure; the process, he says, is “taken very contain students too stupid to gain any- equal participation of Radcliffe students seriously” by students and faculty alike. thing near a perfect course grade, “but in the informal as well as the academic Some of these processes may be useful for even stupidity is no obstacle to perfec- life of the College.” Concurrently, Rad- FAS, others not. As Smith observed, the tion in regularity of attendance.” cliffe president Mary I. Bunting announc- faculty will have to move forward with es plans to resign in 1972. the steps its members endorse. 1926 The athletic authorities of Yale, Even within the teaching-oriented elite Princeton, and Harvard agree to charge 1976 The Lampoon celebrates its colleges, McPherson says, it is “not com- $5 a ticket for their football games, centennial with “a weekend extrava- mon” to find systematic efforts to enhance prompting an alumnus to write: “I decid- ganza,” seceding from the Union, desig- teaching. In the annual report on his in- edly revolt against the idea of a son of nating itself the State of Lampoon, and terim presidency, Derek Bok (who had re- mine…going to a college that is symbol- applying for membership in the United cently addressed teaching and learning in ized by a $5 football ticket.” Nations. (Secretary General Kurt Wald- his book Our Underachieving Colleges) noted heim allegedly refuses admission on the professors’ interest in new courses and 1951 Burlesque queen Sally Rand grounds that the UN is “enough of a other innovations but observed, “Unfor- appears at the Freshman Smoker and circus already.”) Undaunted, the State of tunately, faculties show much less initia- lectures the class of ’54 on the evils of Lampoon presents the Funniest Profes- tive when it comes to seizing chances to Communism. sor of the Century Award to John Ken- adopt more effective teaching methods or neth Galbraith, who receives a purple- to look for other ways to enhance student 1956 With women now admitted and-gold Eldorado Cadillac, a trip to Las learning”—for instance, by embracing to morning prayers in Appleton Chapel, Vegas, and $10,000. “active, problem-based instruction.” (See the Preacher to the University reports “Taking Teaching Seriously,” November- that attendance is up so sharply, he may 1986 In an article on “Building Bet- December 2006, page 60, and Bok’s report move the service to Memorial Church. ter Professionals,” the editors note at harvardmag.com/bok-report). that the M.B.A. candidates Of course, there are individual cham- graduating in June are the pions of innovative teaching. Cabot pro- first class required to use fessor of biology Richard M. Losick, who personal computers for is also head tutor in molecular and cel- assignments. lular biology, has been funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) to enhance science edu- cation. He and colleagues have re- vised the introductory life-sciences course; pioneered ways to illustrate problems and principles with graphics and animated tools; and paired entering students from rela- tively less strong secondary schools with faculty members for shared re- search, cementing the undergraduates’ interest in studying science to a remark- able degree (see “The Excitement of Sci- ence,” July-August 2006, page 56). In “Changing the Culture of Science Education at Research Universities” (Sci- ence, January 14), Losick and fellow HHMI professors wrote about overcoming the valorization of research at the expense of

Illustration by Mark Steele John Harvard’s Journal teaching. They noted the common use of may await capital-campaign funding: the that students are responsible for academic the derogatory term “teaching load,” and center’s initial spend-down gift is exhaust- engagement, too. He cited research pub- the recognition and rewards associated ed, Smith notes, and its activities now fo- lished last summer by Philip Babcock with research breakthroughs versus the cus on helping teaching fellows acquire and Mindy Marks (of the University of relative neglect of distinguished teaching. basic skills, and offering remedial help for California’s Santa Barbara and Riverside “Educate faculty about research on learn- faculty who have encountered some prob- campuses) indicating that students spend ing,” was their first recommendation. “No lem.) Finally, Smith is sponsoring a series approximately 50 percent less time study- scientist would engage in research with- of faculty discussions this semester, where ing than they did four decades ago. In a out exploring previous work in the field, professors will share their experiences in January Doonesbury, a professor lamented yet few university educators read educa- various classroom approaches. that “most of you are either online or tion research. Universities can demon- In a national context, the Spencer texting right now”—puzzling given that strate that they value teaching by treating Foundation’s McPherson points to early “the lecture you’re not listening to right it as a scholarly activity…predicated on… indicators of success in promoting better now is costing you or your parents $175.” education theory, tested practices, and teaching. Faculty members in biology and It was an amusing take on a problem that methods to assess learning.” physics, he says, have done a notable job is not unknown in the College: students In a conversation at the Biological Labo- in advancing the cause. One missionary is using their laptops to e-mail or search ratories, Losick amplified: “We spend a lot Nobel laureate in physics Carl Wieman, for airfares for a ski trip. More seriously, of time at Harvard talking about what stu- who has devoted most of his time since Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College dents should learn, and far less about how 2007 to the University of British Columbia Campuses, by sociologists Richard Arum they should learn and what they do learn.” and the University of Colorado at Boul- and Josipa Roksa, published in January, He hoped to see Harvard “known not only der, leading science-education initiatives, depicts four-year college students doing as outstanding in science, but in science rather than emphasizing further research so little writing and reading that nearly education.” One way forward would be to (see www.cwsei.ubc.ca). McPherson says half show no gain in critical thinking and invest in a program on college-level learning Wieman has set the standard for immers- reasoning skills after two years of higher at Harvard Graduate School of Education ing himself in the social-science literature education, and more than one-third score and then disseminate the findings. Similar- on pedagogy and applying its lessons rig- that poorly after four years. ly, he said, insights from psychology profes- orously to devise effective teaching ap- Whatever the relevance of the Arum- sors who understand cognition and learn- proaches informed by clear focus on what Roksa sample to students like those at ing ought to inform campus educational students should learn, how they can best Harvard, the issue of assessment is ris- practice. And teaching ought to be tied to do so, and assessments of the results. That ing to the fore. During the past year, the rigorous assessment far beyond the Q Guide. example may be particularly effective in a Chronicle of Higher Education has highlighted Losick’s department is one of the few community of research-minded professors debates over educational outcomes. But where “peer review” of teaching prac- like Harvard; Losick says a Bok Center as Bok wrote in 2007, “efforts to promote tice is in place. The results, he said, ben- appearance by Wieman drew a large and assessment at Harvard (and other uni- efit not only the junior professors who rapt audience. versities) have encountered much pas- are developing their classroom skills, but At the other end of the spectrum, sive resistance.” He signaled interest in also tenured professors who are exposed McPherson said, there is evidence from the subject by arranging to have the Col- to colleagues’ successes. Deploying such Carnegie Mellon and elsewhere that “re- legiate Learning Assessment (CLA, the practices broadly and making the most of ally high-quality” interactive, online in- tool used in Academically Adrift) adminis- the University’s potential as a center for struction may, in some instances, be more tered on a trial basis to a cohort of stu- educational excellence, he suggested, de- effective than the best classroom teaching dents, as well as a vehicle for measuring pends on “inspiring leadership” by depart- known. That, he suggests, may be a useful writing competency. The experiment in ment chairs, deans, and the president. spur to reflection and innovation among using the CLA—the efficacy of which is Smith is betting on faculty initiatives interested professors. However Smith’s contested, particularly at the most selec- to spur enthusiasm for improved teach- teaching enterprise unfolds, McPherson tive schools—has not been repeated, but ing. His address to the faculty meeting, says, what happens in Cambridge matters: writing assessments, and an evaluation his website, and an associated catalog of “Harvard is one of the few places that can of the General Education curriculum, are teaching and learning innovations put his actually change the common definition of being planned or discussed. personal stamp on the subject. His online high-quality education.” Dean Smith acknowledged the student presentation refers to harnessing research side of the relationship, noting that some in education, neuroscience, and cognitive Doing so will also require addressing faculty colleagues thought his initiative psychology to advance teaching. He high- learning. Christopher Winship emphasizes ought to be called “learning and teaching.” lights the potential for the Bok Center for Students, he said, “have to put in their ef- Teaching and Learning to be revivified, Harvard Magazine invites alumni, fort in the same way the faculty have to faculty, and students to share under faculty leadership, as a center for re- examples of innovative teaching, effective learning, put in theirs.” How should learning be search on education, and for delivering ser- or suggestions for improvements the University should measured? The Q Guide, he indicated, is vices to apply that research—a vision that pursue: harvardmag.com/teaching-and-learning “important but not sufficient.” Although could fulfill some of Losick’s hopes. (That questions remain about what metrics will

46 March - April 2011 ROTC after DADT new funds (up to $4 million per year will In the wake of the U.S. Senate’s vote on be required) to pay public higher-edu- December 18 to end “don’t ask, don’t Brevia cation costs for any local public-school tell”—the policy that kept openly gay student who meets academic, atten- people from serving in dance, and public-service the military—Presi- standards. Yale is also dent Drew Faust issued exploring a joint ven- a statement observing, ture with the National “Because of today’s ac- University of Singa- tion by the Senate, gay pore to establish a new and lesbian Americans residential liberal-arts will now also have the college there.…The five- right to pursue this hon- year, $1.75-billion Aspire orable calling, and we campaign at Princeton as a nation will have the had raised $1.26 billion benefit of their service,” as of the end of Septem- consistent with her ear- ber.…Cornell received an artners in health artners in health lier remarks on the is- p $80-million gift for a cen- sue (see harvardmag. ter that will underwrite com/rotc-revisited). As gtmael/ interdisciplinary research a result, she continued, an A on sustainability, span-

“I look forward to pur- Peter V ning 220 faculty mem- suing discussions with military officials Public Health Professor: Paul bers and 55 academic departments. The and others to achieve Harvard’s full and Farmer, M.D. ’88, Ph.D. ’90, has been gift, from Cornell alumnus David R. At- appointed the first Kolokotrones Uni- formal recognition of ROTC.” Most other versity Professor. He had been Presley kinson and his wife, Patricia Atkinson, universities that had refused to sanction professor and chair of the department is the largest from an individual to the ROTC officially while military policy of global health and social medicine at Ithaca campus.…Stanford has dedicated conflicted with campus antidiscrimina- Harvard Medical School and a professor a 200,000-square-foot stem-cell research in the department of global health and tion policies also moved toward official population at Harvard School of Public building at its School of Medicine. The recognition, either administratively or Health. Farmer has worked on com- facility, underwritten with a $75-million by faculty legislation; among them are munity strategies to deliver healthcare; gift and funding from the state’s regener- health and human rights; and the role Brown, Columbia, Stanford, and Yale. of social inequalities in determining ative-medicine institute, has space for 33 disease and health outcomes. He is research labs; it is described as the larg- Admissions Angst widely known as co-founder of Partners est of its kind in the country. Harvard College received about 35,000 in Health, which has been particularly involved in delivering care in rural Haiti applications for admission to the class and in addressing AIDS and tuberculosis Nota Bene of 2015, according to data released in mid among poor populations—work South asia’s scholarly status. The Fac- January—a nearly 15 percent increase described in the bestselling book ulty of Arts and Sciences on December over the 30,489 applications received last Mountains beyond Mountains, by Tracy 7 unanimously approved a new iden- Kidder ’67 (excerpted in these pages year. With a targeted freshman class size in November-December 2003). For a tity for the former department of San- of approximately 1,640, it is conceivable more detailed report, see harvardmag. skrit and Indian studies. Effective July that the admissions rate (6.9 percent last com/farmer-appointment. 1, it will be known as the department of year) will decrease to less than 6 per- South Asian Studies. The motion, pre- cent—a painful measure of the pressure decade plan envisions new laboratories, sented by department chair Diana L. facing applicants to the most competitive education and arts facilities, and hous- Eck, is more than terminological, she ex- colleges and universities. Among other ing. Henry R. Kravis, the private-equity plained. The field at Harvard has grown schools reporting, Brown received about leader, pledged $100 million to the uni- from a single office in Widener Library 31,000 applications (up about 3 percent); versity’s business school to support and a focus on instruction in a few lan- Columbia 34,587 (up 32 percent); and construction of its new facilities on the guages to burgeoning expertise in litera- Stanford 34,200 (up about 7 percent). planned new campus. Having raised $3.9 tures, culture, history, anthropological billion toward a $4-billion capital cam- inquiry, and a still widening array of hu- Higher-Education Update paign goal a year ahead of schedule, Co- manities and social-science disciplines Columbia University has won final ap- lumbia raised its sights to $5 billion and extending across the dynamic subcon- peals concerning the use of eminent extended the effort two years, to 2013.… tinent as a whole (see www.fas.harvard. domain for the assembly of its 17-acre Yale announced that it would under- edu/~sanskrit for the detailed faculty and campus expansion in Harlem. The multi­ write the “New Haven Promise,” raising course listings).

Harvard Magazine 47 John Harvard’s Journal

Shutterbug honorand. The Office for sachusetts General Hospital and, subse- and he was defeated in the Republican the Arts has announced that photogra- quently, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospi- primary for Kentucky’s open U.S. Sen- pher Susan Meiselas, Ed.M. ’71, will re- tal. The Church announced the Reverend ate seat last year.…Knafel professor of ceive the Harvard Arts Wendel W. Meyer had rejoined its staff music Thomas Forrest Kelly has been Medal during the annual as associate minister for administration decorated as a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts Arts First Celebration to fill in during Gomes’s absence. Gomes et des Lettres (Knight of the Order of Arts (this year, April 28-May is widely known for his benedictions at and Letters) of the French Republic, 1). Meiselas, whose work the Morning Exercises each Commence- that nation’s highest recognition for sig- has documented New ment, where he reads a prayer that he had nificant contributions to arts and litera- England carnival strip- L evin M eryl concealed in his cap. ture.…Dennis M. Ritchie ’63, A.M. ’65, pers, Nicaraguan San­ Susan G ’68, who concentrated in physics and Meiselas dinistas, and the Kurdish Miscellany. Harvard Business School’s then switched to ap- people (see Harvard Magazine’s November- Coleman professor of financial manage- plied mathematics as a December 2010 profile, “A Lens on Histo- ment Peter Tufano ’79, M.B.A. ’84, Ph.D. graduate student, was ry”), will receive her honor from President ’89, will become dean of the University awarded the Japan Prize Drew Faust on April 29 in a ceremony at of Oxford’s Said Business in January, along with the New College Theatre. School, effective July 1. Ken Thompson, with

Tufano’s research has whom he developed the R itchie o f dennis m. courtesy Professor summers. Upon completion focused on consumer be- UNIX computer op- Dennis M. of his service as director of the National havior and the use of in- erating system in 1969, Ritchie Economic Council at year-end, Law- centives and regulations when they were both researchers at Bell

rence H. Summers resumed his posi- to help unsophisticated p owell tracy Labs.…Villa I Tatti has conferred the I tion as Eliot University Professor, based investors and poor citi- Peter Tufano Tatti Mongan Prize—for scholarship in at the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), zens save safely and effectively (see “Save Italian Renaissance and other arts—on where he will also become co-director, Yourself,” March-April 2009, page 8). He Elizabeth Cropper, dean of the Center with HKS executive dean John A. Haigh, also conceived the new Harvard Innova- for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts at of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for tion Lab, in Allston, and is a member of the National Gallery of Art. The prize is Business and Government. the three-person Allston Work Team, named in honor of the late Agnes Mon- seeking alternatives for development gan, curator of drawings and then direc- Ministering to the minister. The Rev- of Harvard-owned property there (see tor of the Fogg Art Museum, and Eliza- erend Peter J. Gomes, harvardmag.com/innovation-allston).… beth Mongan, a connoisseur and curator Plummer professor of Michael P. Burke, formerly HKS direc- of prints.…Adam Wheeler, who notori- Christian morals and tor of admissions and registrar, has been ously forged his academic record to gain Pusey Minister in the appointed the new registrar for the Fac- admission to the College and later pla- Memorial Church, suf- ulty of Arts and Sciences.…Trey Grayson giarized essays and used them to win fered a heart attack and ’94, a two-term Kentucky secretary of prizes and research grants, in December subsequent stroke in state, has been appointed director of the pleaded guilty to 20 counts of larceny, arvard N ews Off ice Fred Field/ H arvard Peter J. early December, and was Institute of Politics; the state’s term lim- identity fraud, and other charges. He was Gomes being cared for at Mas- its prevented him from running again, sentenced to 10 years of probation and ordered to make restitution of nearly $46,000 to the University; he must con- tinue in psychological treatment.

Publishing a nobelist. Harvard University Press will publish the first English-language anthology of writings by the imprisoned winner of the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize, the Chinese democracy advo- cate Liu Xiaobo. The collection, compiled by his wife, Liu Xia, herself under house arrest, and by Independent Chinese PEN Center president Tien-ch’i Liao, is scheduled for release in September. In the photo, the chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Com- mittee, Thorbjoern Jagland, sits next to the

ssociated Press ssociated diploma and medal placed on the empty chair in Oslo City Hall December 10, 2010, to honor Liu Xiaobo in absentia during this year’s Nobel Prize award ceremonies. eiko Junge/ A H eiko work, he noted that there are “faculty selves, transform education at Harvard dozens of disciplines, with diverse meth- proponents for being much more explicit overnight. But Light reports that other odologies and forms of knowledge, and about learning outcomes.” faculties are showing interest: the Gradu- with the dual obligations of undergradu- Until consensus forms on some stan- ate School of Education’s dean Kathleen ate education and graduate training in dard measurements of learning, home- McCartney, for instance, and the FAS academic scholarship. In making teaching grown assessment tools might be the administrators involved in evaluating and learning a focal priority, Dean Smith way to go. Gale professor of education General Education. An emerging theme, says, he is “starting to see the recognition” Richard J. Light has been developing he says, is a serious effort to devise statis- among colleagues that the faculty can and such protocols with colleagues at the tically valid assessments that can drive want to understand the opportunities Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), where sustained improvements in teaching and better, to determine “what works within he also teaches. Light has long collabo- learning. the Harvard culture,” to undertake proj- rated with Derek Bok on research aimed The challenges are great enough within ects that advance educational effective- at understanding undergraduates’ ex- the relatively focused professional schools. ness, and to spread the successes across periences at Harvard—the basis of his They are greater still in FAS, with its the professoriate as a whole. popular book Making the Most of College (see “The Storyteller,” January-Febru- ary 2001, page 32)—and with Michael undergraduate McPherson on the college-innovation project. His recent work, described in a January conversation, is based on the premise, Light says, that “innovative The Frisson of Friction pedagogy” is not the same thing as “what students are learning.” Changes in a cur- by sarah zhang ’11 riculum, or new course content, or even updated ways of delivering that content, cannot be assumed to affect learning. The n the evening of my twen- The clock was ticking past midnight, only way to know, he says, is to assess ty-first birthday, I was in the and I was still at work on a problem set the results rigorously. basement of the Science Cen- for Computer Science 50: “Introduction HKS dean David Ellwood and aca- ter searching for a misplaced to Computer Science I” (CS 50). Hope- demic dean Mary Jo Bane have supported semicolon.O If you think editors are stick- lessly mired in code, I had set up camp a Strengthening Learning and Teaching lers about semicolons, try dealing with a at the course’s office hours in the Sci- Excellence (SLATE) initiative, as part computer. In many programming languag- ence Center. (Semicolons were only one of which—in a professional-education es, semicolons mark the end of a line of of my many bugs.) A teaching fellow had context—Light and colleagues have be- code, so a single misplaced semicolon will brought cupcakes with Microsoft logos gun trying to assess learning. For ex- cut off every; emblazoned in the frosting, probably left ample, they are administering “before” See what I mean? over from a recruiting event. I took one— and “after” exercises: at the outset of an my substitute for birthday cake—and academic year or course, they present resumed my search. the students with a complex problem in Before enrolling in CS 50 as public administration (how to respond an elective this past fall, to an offer to purchase a municipal my programming asset, how to assume leadership experience of an early-education program). The amounted to results are evaluated, on a blind basis, exactly zero. by outside readers. The same exer- The large intro- cises are administered at the end ductory course of the class, and then evalu- is open to students ated again. The differences of any level, but its Q in scores are analyzed statisti- Guide ratings (com- cally to determine whether the piled from student students recorded a “gain” in pro- evaluations) boast a ficiency, and if so, how large. (In the “workload” score (4.1 early trials, happily, the value added by out of 5) only slightly the classes has been very large; but, Light behind those of Math says, he and his colleagues would have 55 and Intermediate been equally interested to learn that the Sanskrit I. And unlike courses required revision.) most survey courses Such experiments will not, by them- in the General Edu-

Illustration by Miguel Davilla Harvard Magazine 49 John Harvard’s Journal cation curriculum, CS 50 is also the gate- extracurriculars is so competitive and Silicon Valley—the creators of technol- way course for prospective concentrators. why being a math concentrator with- ogy—seem extraordinarily happy: “The It has “hacker”-level problem sets for the out having taken calculus in high school act of creation is maybe the most frictive programming whizzes among my class- seems nigh impossible. thing going. Using the stuff is meant to be mates. This is Harvard. Of course there Yet there are exceptions. My friend Riva frictionless, but making it isn’t. And their would be programming whizzes. Nathans is a theater geek who can always happiness comes from friction. Most hap- Each fall I’d bookmarked CS 50 as a find an occasion to quote from her favorite piness probably comes from friction.” course option, and each fall I’d found some play, Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia. So I was sur- Indeed there were times for me when excuse to put it off. The real reason was prised to learn that she had first readArca - the process of fixing a bug scraped along my reluctance to take a course in which I dia the summer after her sophomore year, like sandpaper. When I read the article felt behind even before it began. My initial and that only after falling in love with that over winter break, I was working out a fears were somewhat allayed by David Ma- play did she begin doing theater in earnest. few kinks in my CS 50 final project be- lan’s first lecture. He did something that Prior to and for the first couple years of cause I wanted to publish it online for no instructor I’ve had before ever did: he college, Riva danced, and it was through other people to use. My project is an ex- encouraged us to take his course pass/fail. dancing that she got her first theater role. tension for Google’s Chrome, a Web He invoked his own trepidation when, as “In dance, I wouldn’t worry about audi- browser that allows users to search and an undergraduate in 1996, he had enrolled tioning and not getting anything,” she said. visualize their own browsing histories. in CS 50. “Even I probably wouldn’t have “But when I went to theater, in which I There are thousands of such Chrome ex- taken it if I hadn’t taken it pass/fail,” he tensions available for download, most told us. “I literally switched it to letter- “The real reason was created by individuals for free. Last I graded on the last possible day.” Of course, checked, there are just over 100 users of now he teaches it. my reluctance to my extension. This is far fewer than the Among Harvard courses, CS 50 is fairly number of people using the most popular unusual in being both demanding and en- take a course in which extension (AdBlock, with 1,626,216 users tirely accessible to the beginner, which is at that point), but also far more than the Malan’s goal. He made clear that the course I felt behind even number of people who usually read my pa- was not graded on a curve. Even the exis- before it began.” pers (my TF, 1). The hours I spent on the tence of those “hacker” problem sets speaks project, both before the due date and after, to the course’s aim of catering to students had no experience, I had the first experi- over winter break, far exceed the amount of all levels. Last year, Malan proposed hav- ence of failing at auditions.” She felt con- of time I’ve spent on any other final paper ing CS 50 graded satisfactory/unsatisfac- flicted between what she was good at and or project. There was also a lot of friction. tory for all students. Though unsuccessful, what she wanted to do. Plenty of people could have coded the that did send a message about the course At the start of fall semester, Riva was same extension more elegantly and in less around campus. “I think at Harvard there fretting about her application to a creative- time. I will never be as good a programmer just isn’t a culture of taking courses pass/ writing class—another area at Harvard in as—to set the standard absurdly high— fail,” he says, “and there just isn’t a culture of which the high barrier to entry can discour- Mark Zuckerberg. But accomplishments can exploring courses beyond your own field of age beginners. By then, she had worked on be measured in terms relative to ourselves, concentration and areas of interest.” several shows and stage-managed a very rather than to others. Rather than sticking to The clichéd advice we all received at successful production of The Pillowman. She what we’re already good at as the surest path high-school graduation was that college got into the class. At the end of the semes- to résumé-worthy achievements, we should is a time to explore. At times though, like ter, she said to me, “I finally turned an idea see the value in novel challenges. How else Malan, I’ve found a mentality at Harvard I had into a play for my writing class and will we discover possibilities that lie just be- that subtly discourages this. It is not a realized that is what I would like to be do- yond the visible horizon? lack of opportunity—opportunities com- ing—more than anything else.” I eventually found the misplaced semi- pete for space on every poster board on colon that night. With the bug fixed, my campus—but perhaps a way that high- When I was at home over winter program was finished. I would properly achieving Harvard students tend to think. break, reflecting on the past semester and enjoy my twenty-first birthday the follow- It comes down to opportunity cost. In bored enough to pick up magazines for ing weekend, but I had another occasion to high school, each of us found things we which I am decidedly not in the target au- celebrate on the actual date. Even the best were relatively good at, and it made sense dience, I ran across an article in GQ about birthday cake is no substitute for the deep to continue pursuing those things until Silicon Valley start-ups. Programmers like satisfaction of accomplishing what we had we became great at them. (Programming to talk about friction as a measure of dif- previously deemed impossible—whether is not one of those things for me.) We have ficulty—the number of clicks it takes to it’s writing a program or writing a play. limited time at Harvard, so why jump into register for a service, for example—so the Also, that cupcake was pretty good. something new—something we probably ultimate goal is to reduce friction. This aren’t good at by virtue of its being new? is the wrong way of going about things, Berta Greenwald Ledecky Undergraduate Fellow Harvard usually caters to the very best. says the article’s author, Devin Friedman, Sarah Zhang ’11 usually prefers em dashes to semi- This is why comping the most esteemed while noting that the people he meets in colons—not a choice when coding, though.

50 March - April 2011 Sports coach Gordon Graham. Before long, she was unpacking her bags in the Yard. Meanwhile, Rosekrans was prospering in American junior tournaments, reaching Strokes in Parallel the finals of the national “Little Mo” tour- nament of the Maureen Connolly Brinker Tennis Foundation each year from ages Tennis co-captains Rosekrans and Cao converge on the court. eight to 11. As a teen, traveling to tourna- ments on weekends meant, of course, “a Born roughly a year apart on op- ents.) Cao, too, has had a one-coach career, big sacrifice in your social life,” she says. posite sides of the Pacific Rim—one in mentored entirely by her father. Both her Still, she became one of the top juniors in Woodside, California, near Palo Alto, and parents were university lecturers in China, northern California, and at 16 was among one in Shanghai—Samantha Rosekrans and her father played on the university vol- the nation’s top 20. She was friendly with ’11 and Holly Cao ’12 developed as tennis leyball team. He wanted his only child to former Harvard varsity player Stephanie players in parallel ways. They now co-cap- become a professional athlete. Schnitter ’08, and “knew I wanted to end tain the Harvard women’s varsity and have For a while, Cao seemed headed that up here,” she says. enjoyed considerable success as a doubles way. She played her first tournament at She did, and it has worked out. As co- team in the past two years, though they seven, only nine months after hitting her captains, Rosekrans and Cao feel they can partner with other teammates as well. first ball. Before long, she made the quar- lead this squad to an Ivy championship, The pair reached the round of 16 at the terfinals of a state tournament in New something the Crimson last tasted two Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s (ITA) South Wales, where the family lived, and years ago when they shared the title with Northeast Regional tournament last fall, “Dad said, ‘Next year, you’re going to win Princeton. The pair get on well both on and and in its preseason poll, the ITA ranked this tournament.’” She did. She also won a off the court, on occasion getting to a movie them at number 40 nationally. Currently, national 12-and-under event at Melbourne or a play together. In tennis style, Cao hits Cao plays in the top singles position for Park, site of the Australian Open, and the ball flat, whereas Rosekrans favors a the Crimson, while Rosekrans competes played in junior events at the Open itself. topspin forehand, but when you grow up on in the fourth slot. By 2006 she had become the top-ranked separate continents—well, there are bound Both are tall: Rosekrans stands 5 feet, junior girl in the country, and even had a to be some differences. vcraig lambert 11 inches; Cao is 5 feet, 9½. Their games professional ranking of 699 complement each other in doubles. “Nor- after playing a few events on mally, I just hit hard from the back, and the Women’s Tennis Associa- Sam finishes at the net,” says Cao, who tion schedule. “Up until I was owns a ferocious two-handed backhand. 15, my goal was to go pro,” Cao “She has great volleys.” Rosekrans con- says. “So college didn’t even en- firms that strategy: “Holly excels at her ter my mind.” (In Australia, as groundstrokes, and I prefer taking charge elsewhere outside the United at the net. When we’re in a groove, I’m States, intercollegiate athletics able to be intuitive and read where she’ll do not exist.) hit it—we can be very much in sync. I can Around age 15 or 16, howev- sense when she lobs.” er, having played a few inter- Rosekrans’s mother, Pam, actually national junior tournaments, played tennis on the very day Samantha “I realized that I was not was born (prior to delivery, to be sure). good enough. I wasn’t up to Both her parents were rated in their scratch,” Cao says. “And also, younger years at 5.0 on the United States I didn’t love tennis as much as Tennis Association’s official scale, placing I should to pursue it at a pro them among the elite of club tennis play- level. I was keeping up with ers. Peter Rosekrans, a landscape archi- my studies and doing well at tect, first put a racquet in his daughter’s school. I decided that further- hand when she was five years old. By age ing my education and playing seven, she had found Jeff Arons, the tennis tennis at the same time would coach who has been with her ever since. be the best option for me.” Cao (pronounced “cow”) first touched Australian player Melissa An- a racquet at age six, the day after she first derson ’06 (see “Down-Under set foot in Australia. (She was joining her Dominator,” July-August 2006, parents, Charlie Cao and Sylvia Yang, who page 72) mentioned playing Holly Cao (left) and had emigrated seeking a better life, leav- for the Crimson, and Cao con- Samantha ing her for three years with her grandpar- tacted then-Harvard women’s Rosekrans

Photograph by Stu Rosner Harvard Magazine 51 John Harvard’s Journal

alumni ghanistan endeavors comes from the U.S. Agency for International Development.) The media revolution in Afghanistan has been dramatic. In 2001, with the Tali- Air Afghanistan ban in charge, the country had only one radio station—the government-operated Voice of Sharia, dominated by Islamic pro- Radio news and the “journalism of hope” thrive in a dangerous place. gramming—and television was banned. Today, dozens of radio, TV, and telecom- munications antennae sprout from the n many ways, Afghanistan’s out- ghanistan. It’s often called “the National highest point in Kabul, known as “TV look is grim. The war with the Tali- Public Radio of Afghanistan,” with 10 Hill.” Around 80 percent of the nation’s ban drags into its tenth year, and is million listeners (close to a third of the households own radio receivers, and half merely the latest episode of what can population) within broadcast range. Sev- that many have television sets. Afghani- sometimesI seem like a history of war in- eral of its affiliated stations rank at the stan now boasts more than 300 print pub- terrupted by anomalous intervals of peace. top of their markets, and several more are lications, more than 100 radio stations, and To many Afghans, Hamid Karzai’s central the only radio stations in their areas. Four more than 30 television outlets. Because government is illegitimate. Corruption is are completely female-staffed. Internews about three-quarters of the citizens are il- so deeply and widely ingrained that, ac- (www.internews.org), the international literate, radio, followed by TV, is the pri- cording to one United Nations report, Af- media-development organization that mary way Afghans get their news. “One ghans paid $2.5 billion, nearly a quarter of founded Salam Watandar, is considering problem is that each faction and each their GDP, in bribes in 2009. not only spinning it off as an independent warlord tries to establish its own publica- Nonetheless, “in the last few years, Afghan organization during the course tion—TV, radio, or newspaper,” says Abdul one of the few bright spots is the media,” of this year, but also launching a televi- Wahid, an Afghan and a current Nieman says Masood Farivar ’94. “The long-term sion version. (California-based Internews, Fellow at Harvard. Since 2001, Wahid has role that media outlets play in terms of founded in 1982, is a nongovernmental or- worked as a Kabul-based local reporter public education, unifying the country, ganization that has worked in more than for the New York Times. To have some kind offering people an outlet to air their dif- 70 countries; major funding for its Af- of independent news medium like Salam ferences rather than resorting Watandar, he says, “is extremely to violence—these things are significant for the country.” extremely important.” “Not a week goes by now with- To be sure, Farivar (fah-ree- out a radio station being set up var) has seen his share of vio- somewhere in Afghanistan,” Fari- lence. In Confessions of a Mullah var notes. “But given our tough Warrior (Atlantic Monthly Press, terrain and geography, there is 2009), he describes two teenage still no shortage of areas with- years when he fought as a guer- out access to independent media. rilla against the Soviet occupa- They’re all FM stations, whose tion. But Farivar also calls him- signals cover 40 to 60 kilometers self a born optimist. “Afghans from the source, and they are are believers, people of faith,” he clustered in cities and small ur- says. “But the way things have ban areas. Internews has always been going for the last couple focused on underserved areas and of years does not inspire a lot remote parts of the country, so of confidence in the future. It our stations are mostly in prov- might even drive some people inces and distant places where to give up, and it’s important to they’re often the sole source of prevent that. The negativity that news and information.” you see so much of in the media Although Salam Watandar can put journalists out of touch emphasizes news and public af- with their audience.” fairs, its programming runs the Farivar is general manager of gamut. Farivar took six months Salam Watandar (the phrase to develop an agricultural ver- means, roughly, “Hello, coun- sion of Car Talk, National Pub- tryman!”), a radio-program- lic Radio’s long-running hit in producing organization that Masood Farivar which two brothers, Boston- serves a network of 42 news- based mechanics, banter with oriented stations around Af- callers and solve auto problems.

52 March - April 2011 Photograph by Stu Rosner Their Afghan counterparts are not broth- at the network. But he did have a strong ers, but “they have the right chemistry,” track record in journalism, a Harvard edu- he says. “They’re very funny, entertaining, cation, and a native’s understanding of his and extremely knowledgeable. That show country. Born in 1969 to a middle-class is one of my proudest achievements— family (his father is a Soviet-educated

we’re going to take it on the road, and re- Farivar o f M asood courtesy Afghan, a petroleum engineer), at 13 he cord it in the provinces.” moved with his fam- “No doubt we have one of the freest, if ily to Pakistan as refu- not the freest, press in the region,” Fari- Farivar enjoys gees from the Soviet var adds. “Of course, governments, even watermelon with a invasion. Enrolled in a U.S. diplomat­ and, democratically elected governments, don’t at right, gives U.S. madrasah, a religious always like having a free press. It’s a tricky ambassador Karl school, he lived in two issue. There is some self-censorship, some Eickenberry a tour worlds there, he says: lines you cannot cross. Islam is a subject shortly after the the deeply religious one latter’s arrival in that you cannot touch: you can’t piss off Afghanistan. of his grandparents, the mullahs, can’t offend people’s faith. and the far more secu- And sometimes you can’t offend the pow- team: they rose from lar one of his parents. ers that be. But Afghan journalists contin- number 130 in the In 1987, at 18, he re- ue to push the envelope. The satire writers world to number Farivar o f M asood courtesy turned to Afghanistan are at the forefront. We have a very funny 14 in the span of 16 months—remarkable! to join the resistance as one of the anti- satire show that takes on powerful people. We knew the broadcast would be well Soviet insurgents known as mujahedin. It exposes fraud, ineptness, corruption. At received, but we were not ready for the He was given a gun and participated in times some satirists have landed in jail.” voracious response—during each match, about a dozen hit-and-run guerrilla mis- Afghanistan is one of the world’s most hundreds would call us to cheer for the na- sions in the countryside over the next challenging environments for journalists. tional team and to thank us. They couldn’t two years. “It was exciting, and frighten- “It can be a dangerous business to get into,” believe their ears. The moral of the story ing,” he recalls. “I also felt I had a mission Farivar explains, “but there are far more is that listeners are interested in hearing and a duty to take part in a jihad for God dangerous places for journalists. After three about more than violence. The calls we got and country. I was moved more by patri- decades of war, Afghan journalists have the came in from all over the country.” otic feelings than religious ones. street smarts to avoid getting killed.” “That’s been the history of Afghanistan Shortly after Farivar arrived at Salam When his predecessor suddenly de- for 2,000 years: fighting off invaders,” he Watandar, a news anchor told him, “I can’t parted in 2007, Farivar, with no radio continues. “That lesson, unfortunately, do this any more—everything I read is vio- experience, became general manager of has not been heeded by foreign forces lence, bombs, explosions, suicide attacks. Salam Watandar after only two months with designs on Afghanistan. As soon I’ve become numb.” Farivar condoled with the man, A Special Notice Regarding Commencement Exercises then told him, “‘There’s Thursday, May 26, 2011 more to news than bombs Morning Exercises and war. There is another To accommodate the increasing number of those wishing to attend Harvard’s Commencement Exercises, the follow- aspect that’s not being re- ing guidelines are proposed to facilitate admission into Tercentenary Theatre on Commencement Morning: ported—let’s also cover • Degree candidates will receive a limited number of tickets to Commencement. Parents and guests of degree candi- stories that give people dates must have tickets, which they will be required to show at the gates in order to enter Tercentenary Theatre. Seating hope.’ I have come to call capacity is limited, however there is standing room on the Widener steps and at the rear and sides of the Theatre for view- it ‘the journalism of hope.’ ing the exercises. In a country at war, jour- Note: A ticket allows admission into the Theatre, but does not guarantee a seat. Seats are on a first-come basis and can nalists have a moral obli- not be reserved. The sale of Commencement tickets is prohibited. • Alumni/ae attending their reunions (25th, 35th, 50th) will receive tickets at their reunions. Alumni/ae in classes be- gation to report on things yond the 50th may obtain tickets from the College Alumni Programs Office by calling (617) 496-7001, or through the an- that give people hope.” nual Tree Spread mailing sent out in March with an RSVP date of April 29th. Take sports. “This year, • Alumni/ae from non-reunion years and their spouses are requested to view the Morning Exercises over large-screen we carried the first-ever televisions in the Science Center, and at designated locations in most of the undergraduate Houses and graduate and pro- live radio broadcast of a fessional Schools. These locations provide ample seating, and tickets are not required. cricket match in Afghani- • A very limited supply of tickets will be made available to all other alumni/ae on a first-come, first-served basis through the Harvard Alumni Association by calling (617) 496-7001. stan,” Farivar says. “Crick- et is a big sport in South Afternoon Exercises Asia: Afghan refugee kids The Annual Meeting of the Harvard Alumni Association convenes in Tercentenary Theatre on Commencement brought it back from Paki- afternoon. All alumni and alumnae, faculty, students, parents, and guests are invited to attend and hear Harvard’s Presi- dent and featured Commencement Speaker deliver their addresses. Tickets for the afternoon ceremony will be available stan. And Afghanistan through the Harvard Alumni Association by calling (617) 496-7001.vJacqueline A. O’Neill, University Marshal has an up-and-coming www.haa.harvard.edu Harvard Magazine 53 John Harvard’s Journal

He was a staunch supporter of the Afghan job with Internews: teaching journalis- cause.”) One summer, he worked for the tic skills to young Afghan reporters. That Harvard Student Agencies’ travel guide soon morphed into his position at Salam Let’s Go—The Southwest United States. Watandar. The next year he settled into an Commencement Day in 1994 was anti- arranged marriage with his wife, Malalai. climactic, Farivar says: “I felt I had com- They named their son, born in 2010, after an pleted my American mission and would American: “Muhammad Ali—The Great-

asood Farivar o f M asood courtesy go home to serve. But in 1994 there was a est,” says Farivar. “He is one of my heroes, as an athlete and as a champion. Ali is very well known as a Muslim. We are a Muslim family, and I’m proud of it.” Above: Farivar, at right, with Farivar’s assessment of his countrymen’s Northern Alliance leader and mood now is that “No one wants the Tali- vice president Marshal Fahim. Right: Interviewing former ban back. That was a brutal regime. I think NATO commander Dan McNeill there’s still a great deal of support for the U.S. presence in Afghanistan. It’s impor- as you’re seen as an occupation tant for American officials to separate the force, your future in Afghanistan long-term civilian commitment to Afghan- is doomed.” Eventually, Farivar istan from the military involvement.” involved himself with a news- Farivar o f M asood courtesy Kabul, which he characterizes as a boom gathering outlet set up by the town, “goes through phases,” Farivar ex- U.S. government (“Soviet atrocities were vicious civil war in Afghanistan and it was plains, “but it is generally not as dangerous not getting enough exposure”) where he too dangerous to go back.” (His parents as it seems from afar. The attacks you hear worked with other mujahedin as report- and three sisters had relocated to Eng- about are targeted, not random, so unless ers—his first exposure to journalism. land.) So he made a postgraduation choice you’re in the wrong place at the wrong A Briton of Greek descent, the late Car- that sounds classically American: he took time, you’re generally safe. There was a los Mavroleon ’82, a convert to Islam who a year off to drive cross-country with a major attack in January [2010] that hap- worked as a Wall Street trader before go- classmate, doing things along the way like pened less than a hundred yards from our ing to Afghanistan to join the mujahedin, working at a youth hostel in Arizona. office—of all the windows in the building, met Farivar on a military operation and In 1995, Farivar landed his first full-time the only one blown out was in my office. I encouraged him to consider a Harvard job, with a news-sharing joint venture run was woken up at 6:00 a.m. that day and di- education. He enrolled at the Lawrence- by the Associated Press and Dow Jones, rected the coverage from home. There was ville School in New Jersey as a 20-year-old publisher of the Wall Street Journal, in New also a big attack on the Italians, only 150 “postgraduate” student, and found the York City. Though the job was “the fast- yards away from where I live. I went home experience “overwhelming. The culture est track to becoming a foreign correspon- and found that all the windows on our shock was immense.” There were many dent,” Farivar’s work visa didn’t allow him block had been shattered. The window- changes from the strict schooling he’d had to go abroad on stories. He did the next makers made a killing that day.” in Pakistan. To take one small example, at best thing and covered the United Na- Yet life goes on. He used to put in 12- the madrasah, he had never played sports, tions; he also wrote a daily column on the hour days; since his marriage, he has but at Lawrenceville he joined the track energy market for both the Journal and the managed to cut them down only to 10- team (though he was too old to compete), Dow Jones news wires. His international or 11-hour days, six days a week. “I gave and picked up Ulti- background and language skills helped: up an active social life in New York, but mate Frisbee. in addition to English, he knows classical Visit harvardmag.com/ In 1990, he arrived Arabic, Uzbek, Urdu, and the two Afghan extras to hear an in Harvard Yard as national languages, Dari and Pashto. He Return to Harvard Day excerpt from the Masood invites all reunion-year Farivar interview. a 21-year-old fresh- spent 12 years as a single New Yorker, liv- The HAA man. He did not see ing in Brooklyn and then Jersey City, de- alumni and their families to return his homeland again until 1999. Harvard’s veloping a good circle of friends, taking to the College to experience the full course catalog overwhelmed him with its weekend jaunts outside the city, going to academic day of an undergraduate on richness and variety, a stark contrast with several World Series games, enjoying the April 6, 2011. Attend classes and lec- the narrower, far more prescriptive sys- nightlife, cultural life, and “great restau- tures, have lunch in the House dining tem in Afghanistan: “Amazingly, intellec- rants and bars.” halls, tour the campus, attend a stu- tually, I could pursue anything I wanted In 2007, he decided that he’d “better move dent-led panel discussion on under- to,” he says. He concentrated in history back to Afghanistan now, or it wouldn’t graduate life, then wind down the day and wrote his senior thesis on the Islamic happen.” There was some pressure from by joining students in the Cambridge influence on Saint Thomas Aquinas. He his family to marry, and after complet- Queen’s Head pub. For details, contact tried rugby and briefly joined the Harvard ing his book he finally returned to Kabul, the HAA at 617-496-7001. Republican Club. (“I liked Ronald Reagan. taking a 25 percent pay cut to accept a

54 March - April 2011 it doesn’t bother me not to have much For Elected Director (three-year term), Latin American Alumni and Friends SIG. of a social life in Kabul—I went there the candidates are: The Harvard Asian American Alumni to work,” he says. “I draw an enormous Rohit Chopra ’04, of Washington, D.C. Alliance, founded in 2008, has established amount of satisfaction from my work. I Policy adviser, Consumer Financial Pro- SIG chapters in major U.S. cities that en- feel I have the best job in the world, doing tection Bureau. gage alumni through online and in-person exactly what I always wanted to do. If we Tiziana C. Dearing, M.P.P. ’00, of Bed­ events. Its first summit meeting, last Oc- can, through our reporting and program- ford, Massachusetts. CEO, Boston Rising. tober, drew 400 alumni, students, and ming, put a smile on someone’s face or Katie Williams Fahs ’83, of Atlanta. guests from around the world (see “A prevent a potential suicide bomber, or in- Marketing consultant/community volun­ ­ Milestone for Asian American Alumni,” spire hope in a young person, then we can teer. January-February, page 63). go home at the end of the day feeling good Peter C. Krause, J.D. ’74, of New York The Harvard Club of South Carolina, about ourselves.” vCraig A. Lambert City. Investment banker and real-estate through membership efforts, program- investor. ming, and outreach, has effectively ex- Charlene Li ’88, M.B.A. ’93, of San Ma- panded statewide alumni engagement. teo, California. Founding partner, Altim- The club’s board involves new members Vote Now eter Group; author. as soon as they join, and the club also fos- This spring, alumni will vote for five Sonia Molina, D.M.D. ’89, M.P.H. ’89, of ters a close relationship with local under- new Harvard Overseers and six new Los Angeles. Endodontist. graduates thanks to frequent barbecues elected directors for the Harvard Alumni James A. Star ’83, of Chicago. President, and other student-planned, club-related Association (HAA) board. Ballots, mailed Longview Asset Management. events. by April 1, must be received back in Cam- Patric M. Verrone ’81, of Pacific Pal­i­ bridge by noon on May 20 to be counted. sades, California. Television writer, pro- Crimson in Congress, II The results will be announced at the ducer. Our list of Harvard matriculants in the HAA’s annual meeting on the afternoon George H. Yeadon ’75, of Pittsford, New 112th Congress (January-February, page of Commencement day, May 26. All Har- York. Managing consultant, Kodak Solu- 60) accidentally omitted Michael R. Pom- vard-degree holders, except Corporation tions for Business. peo, J.D. ’94, a new Republican representa- members and officers of instruction and tive from Kansas. Then on February 8, Jane government, may vote for Overseer can- Alumni Awards Harman, J.D. ’69, D-Calif., the only woman didates. The election for HAA directors is Haa clubs and SIGs (Shared Interest in the contingent, announced her resigna- open to all degree-holders. Group) Committee Awards honor both tion to head the Woodrow Wilson Interna- individuals who provide exemplary ser- tional Center for Scholars. The total for the For Overseer (six-year term), the candi- vice to a Harvard club or SIG, and clubs new session is again 31: three Republicans dates are: and SIGs that organize exceptional pro- and nine Democrats in the Senate; two Re- Flavia B. Almeida, M.B.A. ’94, of São gramming. Awards were presented to the publicans and 17 Democrats in the House. Paulo, Brazil. Partner, The Monitor Group. following recipients at the HAA Board of Richard W. Fisher ’71, of Dallas. Presi­ Directors winter meeting on February 3. Comings and Goings dent and CEO, Federal Reserve Bank of David A. Chen, M.Arch.-M.A.U. ’99, of Harvard clubs offer many social and in- Dallas. Radnor, Pennsylvania. As immediate past tellectual events. Among early spring offer- Verna C. Gibbs ’75, of San Francisco. president of the Harvard-Radcliffe Club ings: McKay professor of computer science General surgeon and professor in clini- of Philadelphia, Chen used the HAA’s on- Harry Lew­is discusses “Life, Liberty, and cal surgery, University of California, San line system to increase club membership Happiness after the Digital Explosion” with Francisco. in innovative ways. He has also served the Harvard Club of Cincinnati (March F. Barton Harvey ’71, M.B.A. ’74, of Bal- cheerfully in many other roles: event co- 22); Kennedy School associate Charles Co- timore, former chair and CEO, Enter­prise ordinator, menu planner, Web designer, gan details “The Wartime Role of Charles Community Partners. membership-verifier, last-minute-prob- de Gaulle” for the Harvard University Carl J. Martignetti ’81, M.B.A. ’85, of lem-solver, and even chief label-maker. Club of Ottawa (March 23); the Harvard Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. President, Nicolas J. Ducote, M.P.P. ’98, of Ar­ Club of New Bedford ponders “The Role Martignetti Companies. gen­tina, and Carlos A. Mendoza ’88, of Media in Politics” with Timothy McCar- Nicole M. Parent ’93, of Greenwich, M.P.P. ’90, of Panama. As HAA directors thy, director of the human rights and social Connecticut. Co-founder and manag- for Latin America, Ducote and Mendoza movements program at the Carr Center for ing partner, Vertical Research Partners, have strengthened the network among 19 Human Rights Policy (March 30); and pro- LLC. clubs, energizing and inspiring members fessor of English and of African and African David J. Vitale ’68, of Chicago. Execu- to share a deeper sense of community and American studies John Stauffer elucidates tive chairman, Urban Partnership Bank. openness to collaboration, and expand- “Rebellion, Reconstruction, and Resto- Kenji Yoshino ’91, of New York City. ing participation in regional club leaders’ ration: 150 Years Since Secession” for the Chief Justice Earl Warren professor of consultations. Both are also responsible Harvard Club of Tallahassee (April 8). For constitutional law, New York University for innovative programming in their own details, contact your local club; call 617-495- School of Law. clubs, and helped create the new Harvard 3070; or visit www.alumni.harvard.edu.

Harvard Magazine 55 the college pump Mysteries

And that isn’t the house’s should be a good place for role in Thailand, where it most creatures, spirit or was made. otherwise.” “Many homes and workplaces in Thailand and surrounding coun- tries,” Palfrey explains, Necktie speak: Primus “Your wooden arm you hold outstretched “have beautiful spirit has had an edifying letter to shake with passers-by.” houses outside them as a from Warren M. “Renny”

traditional way to keep N ews office Kris snibbe/Harvard Little ’55, of Cambridge. arting a glance at the struc- happy the spirits that are part of their age- “Chester M. Pierce ’48, M.D. ’52, proudly ture at right, avian visitors to old belief system of animism, later existing wears his football tie in his portrait lectur- Randolph Courtyard at Har- side by side with Buddhism in many places ing in the Ether Dome at MGH [The Col- vard’s Adams House might in Southeast Asia. People believe that the lege Pump, January-February, page 64],” Dtweet with delight that so impressive an spirits can bring both good and bad luck writes Little, “although artist Stephen edifice had been provided for their use and need to be acknowledged and hon- Coit has taken the license of lengthening this nesting season. But inspection reveals ored. the notoriously short original tie. When that the building is not up to birdhouse “Adams House likes to celebrate all sorts Pierce was in college, ties and coats were code. The entrance hole is too large for of belief systems,” says Palfrey. “I searched required on campus, and varsity letterwin- exclusivity and protection from preda- and found several sources for a spirit house ners in major sports were easily recognized tors. As a feeding station, it is not effec- in this country, and Jorge Teixeira, our su- by their black knit ties with distinguish- tive either. Sean Palfrey, the co-master of perintendent, put it up for us with its front ing red stripes. Minor sports had a generic Adams House, has put thistle seed in it, door facing east toward the rising sun. Ran- striped knit tie. It was not difficult to but to no great acclaim from the birds. dolph Courtyard is a beautiful garden and identify the major sport being represented when there were only five (football, track, hockey, crew, and baseball), but as new sports obtained varsity status (and now there are 41), the number of stripe combi- nations proliferated bewilderingly. Fash- ions and dress codes changed, however, and my guess is that by the mid 1980s, these knit ties were no longer being made or of- ten worn. A few old grads still sport their ties, although the iconography of them es- capes today’s undergraduates.” vprimus v

Neckties distinguished athletes in 14 major sports, with a generic tie for all minor sports, says Renny Little, curator (pro bono) of the Lee Family Hall of Athletic History. Here (from left) are those for football, soccer, cross country, track and field, ice hockey, swimming, basket- ball, wrestling, lacrosse, baseball, lightweight crew, golf, and minor sports. Missing are those

jim harrison for heavyweight crew and squash.

56 March - April 2011

FAMOUS COMEDIAN, going on—so, what does that make us? the topic of how it would be possible for “DANGEROUS” PLAYWRIGHT “I happen to believe that the American charming and delightful human beings to (continued from page 38) elite has been a marauding monstrosity do things that are very brutal.” on the world scene in my lifetime,” Shawn His 1985 play Aunt Dan and Lemon, for creepy vibes coming out of there.” Jacob continues. “It has been unimaginably bru- example, is about an academic woman Brackman recalls walking around Cam- tal in trying to preserve the status quo and (Danielle, known as Aunt Dan), an ap- bridge with him at that reunion. “Each unimaginably greedy in trying to bring the pealing person whose idol happens to be gate, each street corner, or little square world’s resources onto our continent. And Henry Kissinger ’50, Ph.D. ’54. The narra- was the scene of some horrible humiliation unintentionally contributing to the pos- tor of the story, Lemon, is a young woman or painful, wincing memory for Wally,” sibility of destroying life on Earth, due to who has been “horribly influenced by that Brackman recalls. “Things like, ‘This is the damage that has been done to the en- delightful person,” Shawn says, and she where I tried to say hello to [pianist] Ur- consequently has a “terribly sick, warped sula Oppens [’65] but she didn’t even no- view of life.” In Lemon’s final mono- tice me.’ And teenaged kids of our class- logue, among other disturbing things, mates kept pointing to Wally and saying, she defends many of the Nazis’ ideas. In ‘Inconceivable!’ [a tag line made famous by a review of a 2003 production, Ben Brant- Shawn’s character, the criminal Vizzini, in ley of the New York Times identified “…the The Princess Bride]—and that would make play’s extraordinary goal. That is nothing him wince all the more.” less than to make you experience sensu- g es ally the allure of fascist governments and During three years in the 1980s that in- murderous regimes….Mr. Shawn is not so cluded travel to Central America, Shawn much setting up insidious political theo- came to espouse leftist politics: specifi- ries to be knocked down as suggesting cally, an analysis of power, economics, and how those theories can take root in sus- institutions perhaps best represented in ap ima via bank N bcu photo ceptible minds.” the writings of MIT linguistics professor In retrospect, says Shawn, “Aunt Dan Noam Chomsky, whom Shawn interviews and Lemon was making some rather radi- in his 2010 book Essays. His only partially cal points ahead of my own understand- autobiographical play, The Fever, explores ing of them. You could say I was deeply this political transformation in a dramatic influenced by my own play, and driven to monologue. The protagonist—who re- read more.” Perhaps in a year, or a decade, lives a traumatic night spent in a hotel in the American theatrical audience will, an anonymous country wracked by civil like Shawn, catch up with his own work. war—struggles with his own complicity “Very few people agree with me, but I feel in the world’s misery, his inner turmoil il- I have a right to open the door to my own luminating the contradictions of the afflu- unconscious mind and walk in and see ent urban liberal. what’s there,” he says. “If I were someone “There was a point when I crossed over who was respected, then everyone would from being a regular liberal supporter of g es agree I have a right—‘Of course, he has a I ma the Democratic Party to being a leftist, right—more than a right, an obligation, be- becoming less in the Arthur Schlesinger cause what’s going on in his head is going Jr. category and more in the Noam Chom- to turn out to be valuable to our society.’ sky category,” Shawn says. “It had to do om/ ABC via Getty But in my case, other people are not saying with understanding that I and the people T Ron that, except for a few cronies whom I have I knew were actually involved in the sto- Top: Shawn on The Cosby Show in 1987, with browbeaten into reinforcing my belief in ry. There are certain writers who special- Bill Cosby and Penni Penniman, and (above) myself. I try to pay back the world slightly astride a burro with actress Terri Hatcher ize in saying, ‘Oh, my God, the terrible for a 2005 episode of Desperate Housewives [for my privileges] by occasionally saying things people do to each other in South things that could be truthful and might be America! It’s absolutely shocking!’ At a vironment by our way of doing business. well expressed in some of what I’ve writ- certain point I was able to face the fact Harvard’s role is mostly to service and to ten.” Asked about an interpretation of that—Wow, it was the U.S. Army who perpetuate and to create that elite, even one of his plays, he muses, “If I became a did that, and: a) it was my taxes that paid though many, many wonderful people, famous writer after my death…,” and then for them to do it; and b) they did it to pre- and people who have fought the status quo, breaks off before adding, in a tone that serve the status quo in which I am lead- have come through Harvard. I’m a devot- might be wry, sincere, ironic, or all three: ing a very pleasant life. These things are ed reader of Harvard class reports, and of “That is my plan.” happening every day because of me and course, many of these people who do great my friends, and we’re not doing anything harm are totally charming and delightful Craig A. Lambert ’69, Ph.D. ’78, is deputy editor of about it. You have murder and torture human beings. I’ve written an awful lot on this magazine.

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SCIENCESCIENCE | 2.8 | 2.8 > WhenUrban GrassUtopias Isn’t Greener > AlternativesTwo Beijing tophotographers the “perfect” interpret lawn, at China homeʼs and breakneck at Harvard change from Communist revolution to market-based consumerism. UndergraduateUndergraduate > Afropolitans TheAir band Afghanistan Soulfège has international > sound” thrive andin a a positive SummerSummer Research Research Radio news and the “journalism of hope ADVERTISEMENTADVERTISEMENT message. With a music video. ADVERTISEMENT dangerous place. MUSIC ProgramsPrograms Unveiled Unveiled > > Soulfège Video: MUSIC > BOOKS Sweet Mother Putting the Tea Party BOOKS > Putting the Tea Party inShot Perspective in Ghana, a > in Perspective Harvard historian reinterpretation of the West OpportunitiesOpportunities to to Putting the Tea Party inHarvard Perspective historian > Jill African classic by a band >> Lepore puts the modern WallaceWallace Shawn Shawn Harvard historian Reinterpreting Roe v. Wadeincluding > Derrick Ashong day Tea Party movement ddd exploreexplore social social sciences sciences Reinterpreting Roe v. Wadeinto historical > perspective. ’97 and Jonathan Gramling ’98 ddd > > Bluegrass for the Yard acrossacross the the disciplines, disciplines, UbiquitousUbiquitous on on fi lm fi lm and and TV, TV, the the famous famous comedian comedian and and “dangerous” “dangerous” Reinterpreting Roe v. Wade The Barker Center hosts a February 6 symposium on Longtime Supreme Court watcher Linda Greenhouse bluegrass music, with an evening performance by ’68 and Yale legal historian Reva Siegel offer new Grammy-winning artists. andand business-oriented business-oriented playwrightplaywright writes writes shows shows that that pack pack the the house—with house—with 20. 20. insight about the landmark court case’s effect on the > music. abortion debate and American political discourse. > The Son Also Rises David Wax’s trio La Tuza performs Mexican son > From Hull House to the White House subjectssubjects RESTAURANT REVIEW James Kloppenberg explicates Barack Obama’s Fred Ho ’79 to Receive Harvard Arts Medal perspective on the American democratic ideal of Recognizing a saxophonist and self-described NEWSNEWS | 2.7 | 2.7 melding individual views and interests into the common “revolutionary artist” good. > A Renaissance for Medieval Classics EXPLOREEXPLORE MORE MORE A new series from Harvard University Press VISUAL ARTS Homeless Artists reintroduces works that mattered in the Middle Ages. Respond to With excerpts from two of the works. > HarvardHarvard in in Motion Motion > > Stereotypes Stay informed. You’ll findPaintings by homelessthe latest more artists in New Jersey respond to the social KickingKicking off off a programa program news in the left-handperception column.of homeless people as cold and CheckReliably back Enterprising ARCHITECTURE incompetent. thatthat aims aims to to make make Greener > Vee Vee in Jamaica Plain turns out > Pastures A Lens on History innovative food that is fresh, healthy, often, or signA New Hampshireup forPhotographer our Susan Meiselas’snew quest to understand weeklydelicious, and modestly priced. HarvardHarvard and and the the cohousing community via images. With audio from the interview. models sustainability. View > an image gallery. Tropical Abstractions surroundingsurrounding community community Painter George Oommen creates distinctive images of e-mail and never> miss a headline. Kerala, India—his homeland. With video of the artist at The Art of Home Restoration work. Charlie Allen makes period homes work for their lessless sedentary sedentary > owners. View images of his work. Urban Utopias > Two Beijing photographers interpret China’s breakneck Sustainability Made Simple change from Communist revolution to market-based NEWSNEWS | 1.27 | 1.27 The newest addition to a Berkshires yoga retreat melds consumerism. with the landscape. View an image gallery. “Hope to Achieve Beauty”: A Class> Day Talk VIDEOVIDEO AUDIOAUDIO DISCUSSIONDISCUSSION at the Graduate School of Design THEATER Architect Denise Scott Brown recommends hitchhiking Onstage, for Once— BusinessBusiness Curriculum Curriculum and the brave results that can emerge from tackling Set Designer Derek > hard problems. Off the page—andMcLane KosherKosher Delights Delights > > VolleysVolleys in inF# F# Major Major > > QuotableQuotable Harvard Harvard > > Award-winning theatrical set designer Derek McLane ChangesChanges > > more online only. This’80 will speak iconabout his DawnDawn LaRochelle LaRochelle left left a a JohnJohn Forster Forster and and ReadersReaders submit submit their their MOSTMOST READ READ work at Harvard on October 14. BeyondBeyond case-method case-method > FILM > This Play’s the Thing draws on the work of many lawlaw career career to to become become TomTom Chapin Chapin write write favoritefavorite quotations quotations points to richIndie content Film Blues From thatOrchids to Octopi we can’t Film producer Mynette Harvardians and puts paleontologist Farish Jenkins on classesclasses at atHarvard Harvard ’97 on films, Louie stage. a koshera kosher caterer. caterer. See See “op-ed“op-ed pieces pieces with with aboutabout Harvard Harvard and and by by 1.1. Prototyping Prototyping House House Renewal Renewal > > audiences, and the quest > print on paper.to connect Image them. Visual galleries, Conjurer audio BusinessBusiness School School Carl Sprague ’84 designs sets for local theater videovideo of ofher her at atwork. work. keykey signatures” signatures” HarvardHarvard fi gures. fi gures. companies and Hollywood movies. 2.2. Admissions Admissions Angst: Angst: The The Next Next Level Level > > > NEWSNEWS | 1.25 | 1.25 Brattle Theatre to Screen "Children of interviews,> music, andTheatrical videos Chiaroscuro add new Invention" Fredric Wilson’s book The Theatrical World of Angus Boston-area readers can catch the film in Harvard McBean collects British midcentury theater images. Square starting this weekend. Producer Mynette Louie 3.3. The The Provost Provost Search Search > > dimensions’97 will appear at someto screenings. the magazine’s> articles. Video Clips: Children of Invention PrototypingPrototyping House House Despite winning multiple prizes, the film—produced by Mynette Louie ’97—has struggled to find an audience 4.4. Business Business Curriculum Curriculum Changes Changes > > or turn a profit in an uncertain time for indie film. RenewalRenewal > >

Harvard Anthropologist's> Book Inspires Oscar-Nominated Film , 5.5. Harvard Harvard in inMotion Motion > > Kimberly Theidon’s book on female victims of Peruvian violence was the basis for The Milk of Sorrow “Old“Old Quincy” Quincy” nominated for best foreign-language film. renovationrenovation will will moremore > > ard MUSEUMS & COLLECTIONS > Y Is for “Yell” A sampler from the Harvard University Library’s online collection Reading: Harv testtest designs designs and and Views of Readers, Readership, and Reading History. constructionconstruction for for VIDEOVIDEO VIDEOVIDEO PHOTOSPHOTOS > pioneering psychologist and comprehensivecomprehensive William James: Summers and Semesters A conference and an exhibition at Houghton Library showcase the legacy of the DarkDark Beauty Beauty > > SquashSquash Mike Mike Way’s Way’s ScenesScenes from from The The philosopher. ll research. modernizationmodernization of of > Gut Renovation Harvard renews an older building to create new labs in Cambridge for stem-ce WayWay > > GameGame > > st revolution to market-based undergraduateundergraduate ViewView a clipa clip from from Black Black > Urban Utopias SPECIALSPECIAL ADVERTISING ADVERTISING SECTION SECTION Two Beijing photographers interpret China’s breakneck change from Communi SwanSwan: a: tensea tense thriller, thriller, consumerism. residences.residences. TheThe squash squash coach coach A Agallery gallery of ofimages images

LITERARY LIFE Comedy, withwith ballerinas. ballerinas. givesgives a lessona lesson on on the the fromfrom the the 2010 2010 Harvard- Harvard- FASHION > Harvard, and SPECIALSPECIAL ADVERTISING ADVERTISING SECTION SECTION > Real Fashion Police Hollywood Should U.S. fashion Three articles from Harvard dropdrop shot. shot. YaleYale football football game game designers enjoy the same Magazine’s archives copyright protection as explore the roles Harvard fellow creative artists—and their European alumni have played in the entertainment industry and their influence on comedy. counterparts? > > What Books Are For Highbrow Lingerie The Radcliffe Institute’s “Why Books?” conference Fashion designer Laura Mehlinger draws on touches on a timely theme. > inspirations ranging from Vladimer Nabokow to Prince. Video: Modern-Day Romanticism > Scenes Scenes From From RESTAURANTRESTAURANT Sexy Struts In her latest book of poems, April Bernard aims to HARVARDHARVARD PORTRAIT PORTRAIT Start with a stance that points the heel of one foot capture the intensity of the Romantic Era. Watch as she toward the middle of the other. Stand up tall, your back discusses, and reads from, her work. TheThe Game Game > > slightly arched. Stride forward… REVIEWREVIEW > Y Is for “Yell” > more A sampler from the Harvard University Library’s online collection Reading: Harvard Views of Readers, Readership, and Reading History. Scenes Scenes From From FOOD Flour Bakeries Rising > Baker Joanne Chang ’91 TheThe Game Game > > has a new cookbook out, with recipes from her Flour Bakery + Café. Scenes Scenes From From > HolidayHoliday Wish Wish LIst LIst Reliably Enterprising Vee Vee in Jamaica Plain turns out innovative food that is fresh, healthy, delicious, and modestly priced. TheThe Game Game > > > Local Bounty CheckCheck out out exclusive exclusive deals deals from from Lux Lux Bond Bond & & A cookbook writer and anthropologist, apple ice wine makers, and a fermentation aficionado celebrate New England food. GreenGreen and and other other holiday holiday opportunites opportunites available available > Fresh Italian Delights The South End’s Coppa offers tasty tapas. toto Harvard Harvard Magazine Magazine readers. readers.

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

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

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Fresh Italian Marshall Ganz Delights The community organizer, who once The South End’s worked with César Chávez, now teaches at Coppa offers tasty the Kennedy School. tapas. treasure Out of Place? An exhibition asks the meaning of things.

magine you are curator-in-chief of other museums at Har- The floriform vase all of Harvard’s collections of tan- vard, inviting viewers to made by Louis Com- gible things and a donor gives you a go on a scavenger hunt to fort Tiffany around 1900 114-year-old Mexican tortilla. Where find them. A palette used is also usually at the Art Iin your almost 50 collections do you put it? by painter John Singer Sargent Museums, but is for the Tangible Things, an exhibition on view (1856-1925) is normally housed moment a guest at the Har- through May 29, principally at galleries at the Harvard Art Museums, with vard Museum of Natural His- of the Historical Scientific Instruments paintings by the master. In Tangible tory, where it sits among the cel- Collection in the Science Center, brings Things, it is at the Science Center, shown ebrated glass flowers made by the together roughly 200 intriguing things— as a tool along with items related to color Blaschkas, father and son. Visitors may art works, specimens, tools—from and the brain. wonder about the line drawn between troves throughout the University. art and science. Why were the Blasch- ard College Around the periphery of the kas’ flowers considered scientific tools, v galleries, write the exhibi- while Tiffany’s were art? tion organizers, “are objects The walking plow, probably Mas- displayed according to cat- sachusetts-made in the late eigh- egories used at Harvard teenth century, from Harvard’s Gen- and elsewhere since the eral Artemas Ward House Museum in nineteenth century, cat- Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, is saved egories that were instru- there because of its associations with mental in creating the the Revolutionary War general, A.B. disciplinary boundaries 1748. It is now a guest at the Semitic low, © President and Fellows o f Har and Fellows © President p low, ard College;

that still define many Museum, near an Iron Age plow of simi- v of our undergraduate lar design. The exhibition is the work of 300th Anniversary University Professor Lau- rel Thatcher Ulrich; senior lecturer Ivan Gaskell; Wheatland curator of the Collection of Historical Scientific In- struments Sara Schechner; and lecturer concentrations Sarah Anne Carter. (Ulrich and Gaskell and that still struc- are teaching a new General Education ture many of the world’s course with the same title.) They museums.” In the middle found their tortil­la in the of the space is an array of Economic Botany Her- seemingly inscrutable objects. barium of Oakes Ames.

Viewers are challenged to decide in vc.r. o f Har and Fellows Kallsen, © President Katya by and Palette Vase what collections to place them—and why. What about that tortilla? To further their points about categories and meanings, exhibition organizers have taken things from their usual locations— including the three shown on this page— Visit harvardmag.com/extras to see more and placed them as “guest objects” in seven objects from the exhibit.

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