Harvard-Cambridge Spring 2017 [email protected] Scholarships 2016-2017 H-C Scholars Report from Cambridge Speechless H-C Scholars Alona Bach, Tamara Fernando, Ramya Rangan, and Vivek Banerjee lona Bach, Lionel de Jersey Harvard Scholar, After poring over a beautifully decorated 1868 edition Awas crowned King of England in February. of British Mosses (not British Moses, a typo which Luckily for the British people, this coronation took featured prominently in early drafts of an essay about place onstage and will definitely have no measurable said book), Alona has a newfound appreciation for the effect on British governance, something which would varieties of moss that can be found on Cambridge’s be especially unfortunate given this young (female) pavements, walls, and fences. Surprisingly, on the Edward III’s American accent and tendency to speak other hand, a workshop on book production at the Sometimes only in Marlovian verse. Alona’s unexpected regnal Whipple Library (featuring such treasures as first Alona is promotion followed an eventful Michaelmas term, editions of Hooke’s Micrographia and Newton’s overwhelmed in which the defiant act of burying her brother Principia ) has made Alona remarkably level-headed by the wonder Polyneices resulted in her being imprisoned and about handling of her sentenced to death in the basement of Pembroke 17th century surroundings College/Thebes. (Thankfully, she made it out of the manuscripts. (This What’s Inside and forgets theatre unscathed and was even able to complete her is a sentence she how to speak... coursework.) She has also accumulated ticket stubs never thought from a range of shows, including a site-specific she’d write.) 3 performance in a biology lab, two different versions John Harvard Sometimes Alona is overwhelmed Visiting of King Lear, Ivanov at the National Theatre (with by the wonder of her surroundings Professorship Ramya and Tamara!), and an opera in Cambridge’s and forgets how to speak, bringing Round Church. 3 the number of people to seriously Profile: Outside of theatres, Alona has spotted living Fly ask her if she understood English Lincoln Caplan Agarics on the History and Philosophy of Science to a healthy two. 4 Vivek hopes to Department’s annual Fungus Hunt in Bradfield Community: go down as one Woods, lit Chanuka candles in York, roamed around A Tale of Two Eras A Note from of the great Bath, Sabbath-ed in Sheffield, gone undercover in After accidentally shattering the the Chair Bletchley Park, admired the architecture in Bristol, spanking new basin in his room walkers of 5 stood in the middle of massive stone circles in just two weeks into his Michaelmas Cambridge. Summer Avesbury, and paid homage to the Brontës in term, Governor William Shirley Scholars Haworth. She has also hopped north to hear Bruno Scholar Vivek Banerjee splits his Summary Latour speak in Edinburgh, embarrassed herself time at Cambridge into two eras – in a contact improv class in Amsterdam, and still BS (Before Sink) and AS (After Sink). 6 Memories of never visited Girton. Cambridge continued on page 2 2 2016-2017 H-C Scholars Report from Cambridge continued from front cover From midnight Christmas mass at St. Paul’s Cathedral in Additionally, continuing her colonial (culinary?) explorations, London to tri-weekly trips to the Fitzwilliam Museum, a serendipitous foray into a cafe in Lisbon (“Pasteis de the rest of his adventures have been just as memorable, Belem” – highly recommended!) revealed to her the origin yet – thankfully – a tad less dramatic. of all her favourite Sri Lankan baked goods. When Vivek is not hunched over seventeenth century texts or December gave Tamara a change to travel to Spain and texts about seventeenth century texts, he is often looking up. Portugal, and lose herself in all things Andalusian – wine, He thinks Cambridge is a town whose ceilings are unparalleled dance and architecture, anyone? Spending Christmas in Bath and whose impressive vaulting more than makes up for its meant that she could explore “West Country” England. This cloudy days. mostly consisted of Banksy in Bristol, and charming English At Pembroke Vivek has tried his foot at football, successfully towns with delicious sounding names (See: Devises, Wells introduced a few Brits to the American totem of the red plastic and Lacock in Wiltshire and Somerset county). cup, strengthened his love of libraries, and developed a taste When she isn’t losing herself in the extensive library left in for port and Latin benedictions. her room by former scholars (she is currently reading one of Over the Christmas holiday Vivek was lucky enough to visit several Isaac Newton biographies), Tamara ventures out on Sicily, Paris, and London. His favorite moments included visits weekend trips to Belfast, Ireland, and Calais with a refugee to several sites where the literal layering of history was visible – volunteer group. She enjoys rowing with the Jesus Boatclub a church-mosque-cathedral in Palermo, a temple-church- and exploiting every available student deal to see shows in mosque-church-cathedral in Siracusa – as well as an London. She continues to toil away at the task of visiting every unexpected performance from an American high school museum in London. marching band on the Champs-Élysées on New Year’s Day. Breathing Room Vivek has collectively spent over a month in England’s capital, Lt. Charles H. Fiske III Scholar has as he requires the occasional jolt of the tube alongside the Ramya Rangan encountered a bit of a problem: She never wants to leave serenity of Cambridge to function. Cambridge. It might have been reasonable to ask her to leave Vivek hopes to go down as one of the great walkers of if there were somewhere else like Cambridge, but that’s not Cambridge. He spends a good deal of his down time ambling looking likely. Where else in the world could you attend a wine about the colleges, occasionally in search of VHS tapes for the tasting where you learn about how fine wines are like a firm Samsung Combi-Vision left in his Pembroke room. After a couch rather than a beanbag chair, hearing from a fellow fortuitous discussion at the third charity shop he visited on his whose sole job it is to curate the college’s wine collection? quest, Vivek was pleasantly surprised to find that the Salvation Where else in the world would you ride a bike with heels, a Army on Mill Road is a treasure trove for 50p Disney films. black cape of a gown, and an overfull backpack as you rush This year has been one of contemplation and true freedom your way to a formal dinner (as a tip – if you do this, the gown above all else for Vivek. And though he does not always find gets stuck in the bike, and you fall not-so-gracefully in front of self-reflection relaxing, he wouldn’t have it any other way. a mass of tourists)? Where else would you see a room featuring furniture that really only could ever be in a dorm room, Real History juxtaposed with Harvard plaques and prints that could only John Eliot Scholar Tamara Fernando enjoys feeling like a real be in a museum? historian at Cambridge, poring over dusty old books at the For all of its absurdity, one thing about Cambridge has become British Library or in the old college libraries. She enjoys seeing clear: It is always presenting you with something new to try to the physical remnants of 17th century religious history all learn from, while giving you the breathing room to soak it all around her (ask her how the interiors of the college chapels in. Ramya’s studies with the MPhil in Computational Biology have changed over the centuries) and consulting primary have introduced her to subfields she had never heard about sources first-hand rather than relying on scanned copies before, like population genetics and computational neuroscience, (as she did at undergrad). and to classmates whose expertise ranges from theoretical While her dissertation pertains to English history, Tamara’s physics to evolutionary biology. The talks have left her feeling been (anecdotally) focusing on Sri Lankan history as well. For like a kid in a candy store – on a single day last term, she heard example, because she grew up in a former tea-growing colony, about the design of new flu vaccines, recent research on police she expected that parts of English culture would be familiar body cameras, and lessons from the economic crisis of 2008. to her. Instead, it turns out that drinking “loose leaf tea” is a Cambridge has given Ramya the freedom to try things she cardinal sin, more so if you drink it black (which seems even hadn’t imagined herself doing even a couple months ago. more egregious to her than the prolific use of the word “faff”). Inexplicably, she has become more involved with American Harvard-Cambridge Scholarships 3 A Former H-C Scholar Gives Back: The John Harvard politics across the pond than she ever was at home (though, Visiting Professorship perhaps this really isn’t surprising at all given what we’ve witnessed over the past couple months…). Ramya has n 2016, Harvard welcomed Simon Goldhill, Professor of started being more active (to the shock of everyone who IGreek Literature and Culture and first holder of the John knows her) by rock climbing, running, and of course, Harvard Visiting Professorship. The professorship, established biking. She has acquainted herself with British humor in 2013, was made possible by the generosity of Robert C. through first-time viewings of Monty Python films and ‘Peter’ Milton, Lionel de Jersey Harvard Scholar at Emmanuel Hot Fuzz, and she is now trying to embody this humor in 1956.