In April 2024, 200 students (across all class years) joined a town hall in Quincy dining hall to talk about their experience at Harvard: what is going well and what could be better? Brilliantly moderated by dedicated graduating seniors, students engaged in some “think, pair, shares” and flash polls. The results: students feel overwhelmingly fortunate…
How overheated political attention warps campus life This academic year, Harvard’s campus has been a political powder keg. Many commentators are rightly concerned about free speech at this University and others, but the current national discussion has overlooked the harmful effects of its own presence. A disproportionate focus on our campus can exacerbate the effects of…
On Sunday, April 28, actor Paul Giamatti and author and philosopher Stephen Asma recorded a live episode of their award-winning podcast, Chinwag, in Sanders Theater. The show’s focus is anything and everything – offering the podcasters the opportunity to discuss diverse topics in-depth. The duo opened the show with Paul playing the theremin and…
The Council for Academic Freedom catalyzed a broad re-examination of assumptions dominating campus culture for over a decade. Among them was whether Harvard University administration should adopt institutional neutrality. On Monday, April 8, 2024, James Bryant Conant University Professor Danielle Allen, and Harvard Medical School Professor of Psychobiology, Bertha Madras, came together to share their…
At Harvard, there are research areas that can’t be investigated, subjects that can’t be broached in public, and ideas that can’t be discussed in a classroom. So say a group of Harvard professors, now more than 120 strong, who have formed a Council on Academic Freedom to respond to perceived assaults on free inquiry and…
On January 24, 2024, as part of the Intellectual Vitality Initiatives, Harvard College welcomed guest speakers from PEN America for a special professional development event for College staff and administrators. The day-long summit comprised of three workshops that aimed to help equip participants with the knowledge, skills, and insights needed to navigate issues related to…
On Thursday, February 22, 2024, Harvard College Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology Steven Pinker, and Harvard Kennedy School Frank Stanton Professor of the First Amendment (and Pforzheimer House Faculty Dean), Erica Chenoweth kicked off the first of the Books Open, Gates Unbarred dinner and dialogue series with the conversation on War: Violence and Nonviolence By…
On January 18-19, 2024, Harvard College and PEN America convened a group of student leaders from Harvard College and other Boston area, Ivy, and Ivy+ schools for our first-ever Intellectual Vitality and Free Expression Student Summit. As part of a commitment to open discourse on and off campus, the event aimed to foster discussions and…
Launching in Spring 2024, “Books Open, Gates Unbarred”, is a dinner and dialogue series so named as an allusion to the poem Seamus Heaney wrote for Harvard’s 350th anniversary. The series will consist of monthly dinners at the Faculty Club, where students will gather to hear two faculty discuss an issue of current concern and…
On Wednesday, February 7, 2024, students, administrators, and faculty involved with Intellectual Vitality were invited for dinner and dialogue at the home of Dean of Students, Tom Dunne. The focus of the dinner was to discuss the growth of Intellectual Vitality, through engaging in dialogue regarding future plans, and to gather input on how and…
