Conversations
Leverett Mike
Mike Grant has been a security guard at Leverett House for over eight years and has watched legions of students mature during their time at college. "My happiness comes from helping other people,” he says.
Rebecca Hall Illustration
Rebecca Hall with the original illustration of one of the pages of "Wake." In 2018, she began working on the graphic novel with Hugo Martínez, an illustrator, after crowdfunding $9,000 on Kickstarter.
Rebecca Hall Wake
Rebecca Hall holds up her graphic novel, "Wake," which has been translated into French, German, Turkish, and Japanese. Hall remains in a state of disbelief at just how much her book resonated with people across the world.
David Atherton Portrait
David C. Atherton ’00 is an Assistant Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations at Harvard College. He specializes in Japanese literature of the Edo period, and teaches multiple Japanese literature courses as well as Gen Ed 1067: “Creativity.”
Fifteen Questions: David Atherton on Japanese Literature, Creativity, and Remembering to Breathe
The literary scholar sat down with Fifteen Minutes to discuss Edo-period writing and his experience returning to Harvard as a professor. “How can we find and contribute and generate interesting humanistic questions and different ways of thinking about things like literature and culture,” he says, “that are not bound by region at all?”
Joe Harris 15Q
Joseph D. Harris ’72 is a mathematician in the field of algebraic geometry and Harvard’s Math 55 professor.
Fifteen Questions: Joe Harris ’72 on Math 55, the Dudley Co-op, and Failure
The mathematician sat down with Fifteen Minutes to discuss Math 55’s notorious reputation and his own experience at Harvard. “In math, it’s rare that you would decide to fix on a specific concrete goal, and then either achieve it or not,” he says. “Usually, it’s a matter of exploration.”
Fifteen Questions: Manja Klemenčič on Student Agency, Pre-Professionalism, and Small Acts of Kindness
The sociologist sat down with FM to discuss the most pressing issues in higher education today and student agency, even in the smallest acts. “You don’t need to change the entire world already while you’re at Harvard,” she says. “You can do small things every day and that matters also.”
Up-Close and Personal with Painting Conservator Kate Smith
Her intimate proximity to paintings differs from the plebeian museum goer’s protocol: don’t-touch-don’t-blink-don’t-breathe-that-looks-expensive. For Smith, getting up close and personal with the artwork is necessary to conserve a piece while staying true to the artist’s original artistic vision.
Anna Delvey Is Over It
From mainstream journalists to Netflix binge-watchers to students at the Harvard Business School, everybody wants to make sense of the Anna Delvey phenomenon — everybody, it seems, except for Anna Delvey.
Anna Delvey
Depending on who you ask, Anna Delvey is a deft con woman, a study in performance, a self-taught mimic of the upper class
Fifteen Questions: Melanie Matchett Wood on Number Theory, Failing, and Her Lifetime Supply of Hagoromo Chalk
The mathematician sat down with Fifteen Minutes to talk about breaking barriers for women in pure math. “If you’re not ever getting rejections or failing, you’re not trying hard or interesting enough things,” she says.
Helen Piltner, Harvard Influencer
As her content meets both support and skepticism from those on and off campus, Piltner is still figuring out her place as a student with a public platform.
Helen Piltner profile shot.
Piltner is known as a “Harvard influencer,” having amassed almost 40,000 subscribers on Youtube and thousands of followers on Instagram and TikTok.