English
Hey Professor: Science Fictional Future
We need ways to imagine a future that is different from the present, because the present isn't really working out all that well and because we would like the future to be different.
New English Requirement Fuels Debate Over Canon
When English department chair James W. Simpson told The Crimson on March 23 that future concentrators would be required to take at least one course that featured authors “marginalized for historical reasons,” he met a chorus of off-campus objections.
Endpaper: Final Postcard from Home
Harvard isn’t an easy place. It seems to run on anxiety, which first struck me when I moved into a too-small dorm room on a muggy August day more than three years ago.
English Department Diversity Course Requirement Approved
English concentrators will soon be required to enroll in a course featuring authors who may have been excluded in the past for their race, gender, or sexuality.
English Department Proposes Diversity Requirement
The English Department proposes new requirements for curricular diversity.
Humanities 10 Students Spend Wintersession with 'Ulysses'
While many relished the last week of their winter vacation, 24 enthusiastic students returned to campus a week early for a Wintersession course on James Joyce’s “Ulysses.”
Making Space: Diversity, Inclusion, and the Arts at Harvard
As Harvard’s undergraduate student body has grown ever more diverse, many challenges remain in making the University a fully inclusive institution for all those admitted. According to The Crimson’s annual survey of graduating seniors, students of color at Harvard are less likely to concentrate in the arts and humanities than their white peers. But both faculty and students say that making the arts more open has rarely been so important.
Professors Find Ways to Bring Election into the Lesson Plan
As Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton make the final push before Election Day on Nov. 8, Harvard faculty are working to integrate the historic moment into their teaching.
Spooky Shakespeare HarvardX Course Debuts on Halloween
A new massive open online course will debut on HarvardX Monday, but with a special Halloween twist: the course is titled “Hamlet’s Ghost.”
Unsex Me: The Ag’s Gender-Bent “Macbeth”
With Malcolm and Banquo cast as women, the audience now must contemplate seemingly simple plot points. “Why does Banquo get passed up for the promotion?” director Kier W. Zimmerman ’19 says. “Is it a gender thing?”
English Prof. Louis Menand Receives National Humanities Medal
Harvard English professor and Pulitzer-winning writer Louis Menand will receive the National Humanities Medal for his writings on cultural history.
Sun in the Stacks
English Department graduate student David A. B. Nee reads by the September sun in the Widener Library stacks.
Glenda R. Carpio
In her current work on immigrant literature, Carpio is interested in when “America fails the person or when the person can’t cope with the difficulties of becoming someone else."
Marketing the Humanities
A number of events over Advising Fortnight fit into the larger trend of job-oriented marketing within the Arts and Humanities as many concentrations seek to attract more students and address their career concerns through an increase in job-focused advising events, alumni interactions, and published materials.
A Readable Feast
The Harvard English Department shares their favorite succulent meals in literature.
Former Times Editor Weighs in on 2016 Elections Coverage
Jill E. Abramson ’76, the former executive editor of The New York Times and lecturer in the English department, lamented the lack of in-depth investigative reporting this election cycle.
'Technical Difficulties' Delay Expos Sectioning for Freshmen
The system designed to assign Expos sections experienced “unexpected technical difficulties” late Saturday night, pushing sectioning into the following evening.
Number of Creative Thesis Writers Doubles
Twenty seniors are currently working on creative theses—double the number of students who wrote them in 2013.
Creative Writing Theses
Twenty seniors are pursuing creative writing theses through the English department this year, double the number of students who wrote a creative writing thesis in 2013.
Two Harvard Seniors Selected for Marshall Scholarship
Bianca Mulaney ’16 and Rebecca M. Panovka ’16, friends and fellow Quincy House residents, have been named Harvard’s two newest Marshall scholars to their shared surprise and disbelief.
Pham Named Sixth 2016 Rhodes Scholar from Harvard
Yen H. Pham ’15-’16 has received a 2016 Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford, the Rhodes Trust announced on Sunday, bringing the total number of Harvard undergraduates to win the prestigious award this year to six.
New Territory: Pathways and Barriers to a Harvard Major
Some students feel underprepared to study certain fields—especially those in the humanities—because they were not exposed to them in high school or lacked the resources to explore them on their own.
Soman Chainani
Soman S. Chainani ’01, author of the children’s fantasy trilogy “The School for Good and Evil,” spoke during Folklore and Mythology 128: “Fairy Tale, Myth, and Fantasy Literature” on Tuesday afternoon. He discussed his inspiration, which stems from using Disney conventions as a backdrop against which to build a new set of sensibilities in his fairytale-inspired novels.