The Scoop
Want to Become a Lorax? A New Course Rethinks Environmental Rights
In their new course, “The Rights of Nature,” visiting Law School professor James Salzman and American History and Harvard Law School professor Jill Lepore investigate a burgeoning American legal movement known as the Rights of Nature. The movement argues that granting legal personhood to wildlife and natural features could help stave off environmental destruction.
The Academic Policing of Academics on Policing
In 2022, professors Christopher Lewis and Adaner Usmani argued that to reduce violent crime, the U.S. needs to drastically shorten its prison sentences — and increase its police force by half a million officers. Their ideas soon become a flashpoint of online discourse.
Should Harvard Red Light or Green Light the Blue Lights?
For how important they are to Harvard's discussion of safety, and despite their prevalence and accessibility, Harvard's emergency phone system is not something most Harvard students think about day to day. Dotting the grounds like glittering blue breadcrumbs, Harvard’s 530 blue light phones blend in with streetlights and gates and other doodads, becoming just another thing on campus.
The ‘Necessary Evil’ of Computer Science 124
Most students aren’t taking Computer Science 124: Data Structures and Algorithms for pride. They’re taking it to fulfill the computer science concentration’s Algorithms requirement. Hence the course’s description as “a necessary evil” in the Q Guide.