Conversations
Up Close with Lee Smith
Smith’s enduring attachment to his time is representative of his broader artistic philosophy, one of introspection and intimacy. Part of that philosophy emerged from an encounter with the groundbreaking photojournalist Gordon Parks during his visit to the yearbook staff.
Daniel Lieberman 15Q portrait
Daniel E. Lieberman is the chair of the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology and professor of biological sciences.
Fifteen Questions: Sarah S. Richardson on Gender Equity in Science, Interdisciplinary Research, and Purring as a Superpower
The historian of science sat down with Fifteen Minutes to talk about gender, science, and her ideal superpower. "Science is done by humans in context in cultural spaces, and is inflected by those contexts," she says.
Fifteen Questions: Jeannie Suk Gersen on Free Speech, Fast Fashion, and Getting Over Yourself
The Harvard Law School professor and New Yorker writer Jeannie Suk Gersen sat down with Fifteen Minutes to discuss her exploration of various aspects of the law. "For me, I can’t imagine in my career not having that sense of spontaneity and unpredictability about what it is I’m going to get super interested in next," she says.
Jeannie Suk Gersen Portrait
Jeannie Suk Gersen is a Harvard Law School professor and a writer for The New Yorker.
Fifteen Questions: Claudia D. Goldin on the Nobel Prize, Women in Economics, and the Barbie Movie
Henry Lee Professor of Economics Claudia D. Goldin speaks with Fifteen Minutes about her Nobel Prize, gender gaps in economics, and the Barbie movie.
Claudia D. Goldin Portrait
Claudia D. Goldin is the 2023 Nobel Laureate in Economics and the Henry Lee Professor of Economics.
Fifteen Questions: Yevgenia Albats on Journalism in the USSR, Freedom of the Press, and Her Bibliophilia
The journalist sat down with Fifteen Minutes to talk about her career, including being declared an enemy of the Russian state, investigative reporting on KGB officials, and her deep love of reading that was kindled in Widener Library’s basement. “In many countries, people are suffering because of their cruel leaders, because of injustice, because of poverty, because of absence of normal medical help,” she says. “Our job is to tell their stories.”
Matta Zheng
Zheng’s firm belief in belonging that does not compromise the self has shaped their interests — drag performance, queer affirmation, spirituality, and palliative care, to name a few. This eclectic collection, like Zheng themself, refuses to be sorted into society’s traditional categories for personhood.
Unapologetic Selfhood with Matta Zheng
“When students come to me — many, if not all the times — they’re really suffering because they’re worried, they’re concerned, or maybe they even believe that their person is fundamentally wrong in some way,” Zheng says. “I am able, when it’s appropriate and when it works, to affirm to them in no uncertain language, in the fullest ways that I can, their full humanity, their full perfection, their full wholeness.”
Avi Schiffman
Having once turned down a multimillion-dollar offer to monetize a Covid-19 tracking website, Harvard dropout Avi Schiffmann now intends to “conquer” the world of wearable AI.
crespo portrait
Andrew Manuel Crespo ’05 is a professor of criminal law and procedure at Harvard Law school, the executive faculty director of the Institute to End Mass Incarceration, and a founding editor of Inquest, a forum for advancing decarceral ideas.
crespo football
A picture of Andrew Manuel Crespo ’05 in the huddle of his high school football team. He keeps this picture in his office.
