Conversations
Talking Back: Harvard Reacts to TFA Criticism
Grad school for academics, Goldman for bankers, McKinsey for consultants—all of these post-grad paths are well trod by Harvard alums looking to jump-start high-powered careers right out of college. Another default option is often Teach For America, a selective organization that places 11,000 corps members in teaching positions across the country, promising a chance to explore education, leadership, and public service. But TFA’s methods and results have long generated controversy: Is TFA the panacea for socioeconomic inequality as some say, or are the corps members’ stress and sleep deprivation all for naught?
Locked Away: A Tour of Harvard Yard’s Neglected Gates
The first day of classes this year, I became confused when I tried to exit Canaday through the large semi-circular gates behind the dorm. The gates were locked. How odd.
The Future of Journalism
In this day and age, information abounds, but it is increasingly difficult to discern what information is accurate and reliable. What does this mean for the future of journalism? FM decided to ask the experts. Luckily, 24 of the world’s most accomplished journalists are right here at Harvard’s Nieman Foundation for Journalism, which celebrated its 75th anniversary this weekend. We asked some of the Nieman Fellows to describe in 100 words what they envision for the journalism of tomorrow.
Jonathan Alter Shares Insight on Obama, Media
Jonathan Alter ’79 entertained a group of Harvard students on Thursday with colorful stories of recent presidential campaigns and the personal life of President Obama, explaining that our president is “fundamentally different in private and public.”
15 Questions with Margaret Atwood
Margaret Atwood takes her seat behind a desk in a back room of First Parish Church. She has 30 minutes until her sold-out Harvard Book Store reading—and hundreds of books to transform into retail-ready Signed Copies before she can begin. She gets to work.
2+2, 2+3
This year, the junior class is getting a taste of the fun, thanks to a new deferred admission program that offers Harvard students the chance to apply to Harvard Law School during their junior year. Known as the Junior Deferral Pilot, or 2+3, the new initiative was introduced last spring and is modeled along the same lines as Harvard Business School’s 2+2 Program, which began in 2007.
From Expos to the Pulitzer
Ten years ago, Paul Harding was known as a talented, if demanding, Expos preceptor and erstwhile member of a rock band called Cold Water Flat. Back in town this week for a reading upon the release of his second book, “Enon,” the Pulitzer Prize-winning author bore little resemblance to his former self.
10 Questions with Interim Dean Donald H. Pfister
Those who read the first email that Interim Dean Donald H. Pfister sent to the college may recall that he’s a big fan of fungi jokes—just don’t tell him a fungi “fun-guy” joke (the man’s heard it before, and is looking for something new). But, who is Pfister really? Eager to hear more of Pfister’s stories and quirks, FM sat down with him in the lawn chairs outside Hollis Hall.
Hey Professor: David E. Sanger on Syria
In a prime-time speech on Tuesday, President Obama addressed the nation to make the case for intervention in Syria and outline recent developments
A Conversation with Former Senator Tim Wirth
FM sat down with the former Senator of Colorado Tim Wirth '61 to chat about politics, Harvard life, Gov 1310, and of course, Hillary Clinton.
Mapping Our Cities: A Conversation with Becky Cooper '10
I realized that those maps, in series, told an interesting story about my life that summer. They told an interesting story of the city. In some ways, it was a more honest story than the one I was building [for my boss] because it was celebrating the subjectivity of the mapmaker. Those two realizations, coupled with my having read Italo Calvino’s “Invisible Cities” the year before, grew into this: I wanted to give really small, limited maps to as many New Yorkers as possible and have them map their New Yorks. And then, in series, have a New York emerge from there.
7 Questions with Neil Gaiman
Near the end of his guest lecture in Folklore and Mythology 90i, Neil Gaiman informs the students that he doesn’t like doing interviews because it takes up time he could be using to work on a story, write a screenplay, or author a graphic novel. My gut drops when I then introduce myself as the reporter who’s going to prevent him from writing for the next half-hour. He smiles and shrugs, “We ought to get started then.”
