Category: News

By Mahzarin Banaji and Frank Dobbin (WSJ, Sept. 17, 2023 10:00 am ET) At least 30 states are considering legislation to defund DEI initiatives in public universities and state agencies. At the same time, conservative activists, emboldened by the Supreme Court’s ruling against affirmative action in college admissions, are suing companies to stop DEI initiatives. These challenges come on the heels…Continue Reading Why DEI Training Doesn’t Work—and How to Fix It

Harvard Economics professor Raj Chetty ’00 discussed the role that privilege and wealth play in elite college admissions at a Harvard Graduate School of Education event Tuesday afternoon. Admissions officials, undergraduates, and College staff flooded Longfellow Hall to hear Chetty present research from his latest paper, which was released in July through Opportunity Insights, a…Continue Reading Raj Chetty ’00 Talks Wealth and Elite College Admissions …

The U.S. Constitution desperately needs updating, say Harvard government professors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt. “We have a very, very old constitution; in fact, the oldest written constitution in the world,” notes Ziblatt, the Eaton Professor of the Science of Government. “It was written in a pre-democratic era. It hasn’t been amended much compared to other…Continue Reading ‘Tyranny of the Minority’ warns Constitution is dangerously outdated

One of the most influential books of the Trump years was “How Democracies Die” by the Harvard government professors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt. Published in 2018, it served as a guide to our unfolding ordeal. “Over the past two years, we have watched politicians say and do things that are unprecedented in the United…Continue Reading The Authors of ‘How Democracies Die’ Overestimated the Republicans

At many selective private colleges, being very rich is a door to entry — students with parents earning in the top 1 percent attend at much higher rates than other similarly qualified students, new data [from Opportunity Insights] shows. At most flagship public colleges, on the other hand, there is no such difference, and in-state students from…Continue Reading Explore How Income Influences Attendance at 139 Top Colleges

In her National Book Award-winning “South to America,” Imani Perry journeys below the Mason-Dixon Line for a highly personal, poetic exploration of the region she considers her true home. “But you know, I came to Cambridge when I was 5 years old for my mother to go to graduate school,” said the Alabama-born author and…Continue Reading Imani Perry’s arrival marks homecoming, expansion

ON THE DAY Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, historian Serhii Plokhy was on sabbatical in Vienna, researching a new book about Chernobyl. He’d spent weeks sifting through documents in the archives of the International Atomic Energy Agency, sometimes long into the night. On what turned out to be his last working day there, February…Continue Reading The Return of History

Jill Lepore teaches history at Harvard and writes about history for the New Yorker. But she’s equally interested in the present: “We have an obligation to try to make sense of the relationship between today and yesterday,” she says. Lepore’s latest book The Deadline, which comes out on Aug. 29, is a selection of her essays over…Continue Reading Why Historian Jill Lepore Hated Barbie

One raced to create a better, faster test system to help deal with the spread of COVID; the other wielded big data to break myths about who achieves the American Dream and the obstacles faced by others. For those achievements, the University has awarded the coveted George Ledlie Prize to biologist Michael Springer and economist…Continue Reading Springer, Chetty win Ledlie Prize

Hopi Hoekstra, a pathbreaking scholar of the life sciences in the interdisciplinary field of evolutionary genetics, begins her tenure as Edgerley Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences today. Hoekstra’s extensive teaching portfolio includes her role as course head and longtime instructor in “Life Sciences 1b,” one of Harvard College’s foundational science courses. She also…Continue Reading Hopi Hoekstra takes office