Faculty Symposia Precede Festivities

Before President Drew G. Faust took center stage with the formal installation ceremony Friday afternoon, that morning the festivities focused more on the University’s diverse intellectual vitality as five faculty symposia showcased some of Harvard’s greatest thinkers.

A symposium on “The Art of Interpretation,” began with Rothenberg Professor of the Humanities and Director of the Humanites Center Homi K. Bhabha who said, “There will be no doubt many interpretations of what happened today.”

Each of the six faculty members involved presented a cultural artifact along with commentary as a means of celebrating he immense complexity of interpretation.

Bhabhba introduced the panel as “Harvard’s greatest acrobats of interpretation.”

Rudenstine Professor of the Study of Latin America Davíd Carrasco was the first to present, showing the “Mapa de Cuauhtinchan,” a drawing of a pre-Colombian metropolis. When Carrasco pointed to a portion of the map where an Aztec goddess is leading her people into a new era of salvation, he remarked, “Here we have, perhaps, an earlier incarnation of President Faust.”

Then, Thomas F. Kelly, Knafel professor of music, played an excerpt from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and called the work “particularly fi tting for a celebratory day like today.”

During the “Inequality and Justice in the 21st Century” symposium, a group of five professors debated inequality’s relationship with man, and more specifically the University.

“I think humans have a love-hate relationship with inequality,” said Wiener Professor of Social Policy Christopher Jencks. “We desperately need inequality to motivate people.”

Concerning barriers to fi ghting inequality, Bridget T. Long, an associate professor at the Graduate School of Education, pointed to apathy as a major obstacle, describing today’s world as a “winner takeall” society.

Paul Farmer, Preseley professor of social medicine at Harvard Medical School, highlighted the good that Harvard is doing today to combat inequality, pointing to the valuable community service provided by the Medical School’s teaching hospitals. He also praised current undergraduates for being “involved in service and seeing the world as it is.”

Moderator Elizabeth Warren, Gottlieb Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, whose animated attorney-like questioning kept the panelists on their toes, ended the symposium by saying, “I think this marks the spirit of what will happen in the Faust presidency.” Meanwhile, a suited and sweatered audience in the Science Center B auditorium witnessed a symposium between notables from five different sectors of Harvard’s scientific community.

Seated in a semi-circle around a low table, the panelists issued a brief introduction of their work before addressing the questions of moderator Vicki L. Sato.

She began by inquiring of particle physicist Lisa Randall about the investigation of extra dimensions.

In the conversation that followed, themes of interdisciplinary cooperation, implementation of laboratory research, and the maintenance of the allure of science dominated the discussion.

Despite an audience bereft of undergraduates, the subject of education at the college level also received a significant amount of attention from the panelists.

“In my own perspective, Harvard is absolutely superb in terms of research, but I don’t think we do as good a job as we should in teaching undergraduates,” said Co-Director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute Douglas Melton, who was a key player in the development of the Life Sciences curriculum that integrates chemistry and biology and marks the beginning of the road for many a freshman pre-med.

Melton also noted an imperative to move away from lectures towards an emphasis on more hands-on experience.

He said during the panel that he believes Faust and new FAS Dean Michael D. Smith shared an interest in working to move away from lectures towards an emphasis on more hands-on experience for undergraduates.

—Staff writer Alexander B. Cohn can be reached at abcohn@fas.harvard.edu.
—Staff writer Christian B. Flow can be reached at cfl ow@fas.harvard.edu.
—Staff writer Jamison A Hill can be reached at jahill@fas.harvard.edu.