Past Events
& Exhibitions

What does climate change mean for our food systems? How do our food production and consumption habits contribute to the climate crisis? Speakers will explore the complex interplay of food and climate change, challenging and illuminating our unsustainable relationships with meat and water, soil and sea.

The 2023 Kim and Judy Davis Dean’s Lecture in the Sciences will feature space engineer MiMi Aung.

The 2023 Kim and Judy Davis Dean’s Lecture in the Arts will feature the Pulitzer Prize- and Grammy Award-winning composer John Luther Adams.

The 2023 Kim and Judy Davis Dean’s Lecture in the Social Sciences will feature Tressie McMillan Cottom in conversation with Dean Tomiko Brown-Nagin.

How do we create art? How do we become ourselves? In this year’s Julia S. Phelps Annual Lecture in the Arts and Humanities, Jennifer Finney Boylan considers the way revision and reinvention serve—not only as necessary aspects of the creative process—but also as a model for the way we live our lives, and create ourselves, through trial and error.

In this opening discussion for the newly commissioned exhibition The Moving Parts (&), the artist Mary Lum will engage in a wide-ranging conversation with the art historian Steven Nelson.

Harvard Radcliffe Institute is pleased to welcome Elisa Loncón Antileo to deliver the Rama S. Mehta Lecture for 2022–2023. In 2021, Loncón was elected as one of the representatives of the Mapuche people to the Chilean Constitutional Convention, and was then named the Convention’s first president (July 2021–January 2022).

Harvard Radcliffe Institute and the Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard University present a series of virtual programs focusing on the intersection of art, activism and climate change. The second program in the series will feature Angélique Kidjo in conversation with Vijay Iyer.

Harvard Radcliffe Institute and the Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard University present a series of virtual programs focusing on the intersection of art, activism, and climate change. The first program in the series will feature Leanne Betasamosake Simpson.

What role can visualization play in understanding and managing climate change? Data analytics experts Fernanda Viégas and Martin Wattenberg will discuss a series of projects that visualize and portray climate and weather, and explore issues that these projects have raised.

Throughout history, Iranian women have participated in national uprisings. In 2022, they are leading them, taking direct aim at the regime’s repressive treatment of women and girls, while the Iranian government is reacting with lethal force to attempt to end the protests. Join us for an examination of the history and contemporary political and social conditions giving rise to current events as well as a discussion of how the situation may evolve.

In this panel discussion, Black Radcliffe and Harvard alumni from different generations will explore and celebrate stories of resistance, excellence, resilience, and change-making from while they were students and after graduation.

In this opening discussion for the exhibition The Age of Roe: The Past, Present, and Future of Abortion in America, curator Mary Ziegler will engage in conversation with Andrew R. Lewis and Kimberly Mutcherson.

Mustafa Santiago Ali will discuss opportunities to address environmental justice and the climate crisis as part of the Kim and Judy Davis Dean’s Lecture Series and Harvard Radcliffe Institute’s focus area on climate change.

The repercussions of violent histories extend far beyond these events to engender repetitions that echo for generations. In this lecture, Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela will reflect on this problem and consider alternative ways of theorizing and making sense of the “transgenerational trauma” phenomenon, with the South African post-apartheid context as backdrop.

Olivia Laing is the author of six books of fiction and nonfiction and writer for the New York Times, Guardian, Financial Times, and other publications. Laing’s reading from her new book, Everybody: A Book About Freedom (‎W. W. Norton & Company (2021), will be followed by a discussion with Joey Soloway, Emmy Award-winning creator, writer, producer, and director.

Meghan O’Rourke RI ’15 is an award-winning writer, poet, and editor. In this book talk, O’Rourke will be discussing The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness (Riverhead Books, 2022).

Miguel Syjuco RI ’14 is an author, journalist, civil society advocate, and assistant professor of practice, literature and creative writing at New York University Abu Dhabi. This book talk will feature Syjuco’s most recent work, I Was the President’s Mistress!! (‎Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2022).

Gish Jen RI ’02 is the award-winning author of Thank You, Mr. Nixon (Knopf, 2022), eight other books, and dozens of short stories and articles. Jen’s reading will be followed by a discussion with Alice Kessler-Harris RI ’02, R. Gordon Hoxie Professor Emerita of American History at Columbia University.

On the 50th anniversary of the passage of Title IX, we will celebrate the significant strides made in women’s athletics and discuss the inequities that remain. Current and former competitive athletes will reflect on advancements since 1972, share their personal experiences, and consider the best ways to push forward.

Heather Knight will present work from the Collaborative Humans and Robotics: Interaction, Sociability, Machine learning and Art (CHARISMA) robotics lab at Oregon State University. CHARISMA demonstrates the possibility of automated work and technology with everyday human communication and interactions.

This program will explore what real police accountability looks like and include the voices of current and former law enforcement officers, activists, and academics to ask the question: Who is policing the police?

Inclusions–a participatory, student-generated art installation–serves as the inspiration for this conversation about the intersection of art, visual culture, and representation at Harvard. The discussion will foreground the perspectives of the Harvard student organizers and focus on how we can use art to envision justice collectively and translate these ideas to the immediate context of our own campus.

Join us for a discussion featuring leading activists and scholars working toward menstrual justice. The program will open the exhibition Out for Blood: Feminine Hygiene to Menstrual Equity.

Join us for the second of two one-hour webinars exploring the legacy of Eileen Southern, author of The Music of Black Americans: A History and founder and editor of The Black Perspective in Music.