Humanities Division


Arts and Humanities Division Launches Public Culture Project to Promote the Humanities in Public Life

The Project will involve a series of public conversations between speakers from fields such as government, business, and technology to engage in questions about education and work, the role of artificial intelligence in human lives, and the role of God in the U.S., among others.


Beyond the Lab: Trump’s Funding Cuts Hit Humanities Research at Harvard

A database with pigment analysis of more than 300 Asian paintings. The authoritative dictionary of the Latin language, curated since the 1890s and spanning 1,200 years of inscriptions. A library of translated Ukrainian literature, launched just before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.


Norton Lectures Celebrate 100-Year Anniversary

The Office of the Dean of Arts and Humanities, the Mahindra Humanities Center, and Harvard University Press hosted a discussion commemorating the 100-year anniversary of the Norton Lectures on Thursday.


Harvard Arts and Humanities Division Implements $1.95 Million Cut Amid University’s Budget Crunch

Harvard’s Arts and Humanities division instructed department heads to collectively reduce their budgets for non-personnel spending by roughly $1.95 million as divisions across the Faculty of Arts and Sciences implement cost-cutting plans.


Arts and Humanities Dean Focuses on Small Changes as Hiring Freeze Stalls Larger-Scale Planning

At the end of his first year as Harvard’s Arts and Humanities dean, Philosophy professor Sean D. Kelly has been thinking big about how to make the humanities work for career-driven undergrads — and taking small steps to support faculty in the division. But some bigger changes have been put on hold as the Faculty of Arts and Sciences tightens its budget following the Trump administration’s moves to axe federal funding.


Arts and Humanities Division Pushes Forward With New Intro Course Initiative

One of Sean D. Kelly’s first promises as Harvard’s new Dean of Arts and Humanities was that he would facilitate the creation of new introductory courses for the division, which he felt lacked its Computer Science 50 or Economics 10. One year later, they’re here.


FAS Dean Asks Center Directors To Show Compliance With Viewpoint Diversity Guidance

Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean Hopi E. Hoekstra told directors of FAS centers they would be required to meet with their divisional deans to explain how their programs are complying with recent guidance on intellectual diversity in a Tuesday email.


As Trump Orders ICE Raids Nationwide, Harvard Stays Quiet

As the Trump administration threatens deportations across the country, Harvard is standing behind its policy to direct federal officers seeking access to non-public spaces to the Harvard University Police Department or the Office of the General Counsel — without elaborating on what happens next.


Political Commentator E.J. Dionne Discusses Role of Religion in 2024 Election

Political commentator and Brookings Institute Senior Fellow E.J. Dionne ’73 joined the Assistant Director for Undergraduate Studies for the Committee on the Study of Religions, Carleigh Beriont, for a conversation on religion and American politics Thursday night at the Barker Center.


Visual Arts Colloquium Hum 20 Will Become Department-Level HAA 10 in the Fall

Humanities 20, Harvard’s interdisciplinary art history colloquium, will no longer be offered under the Arts and Humanities division-wide “HUMAN” label and will instead be changed to HAA 10, a History of Arts and Architecture introductory course, starting this fall.


Ten Stories That Shaped 2024

At Harvard, 2024 began with an ending — the chaotic close of Claudine Gay’s short-lived presidency. It would not be a quiet year. Pro-Palestine student protesters staged an encampment in Harvard Yard. Congress expanded its investigation into campus antisemitism, issuing threats alongside blistering reports. Amid it all, Alan M. Garber ’76 quietly ascended from the interim presidency to a permanent post at Harvard’s helm. Here, The Crimson looks back at 10 stories that shaped the University, and Cambridge, in 2024.


A Report Suggested Big Changes to the Arts & Humanities. The Division’s New Dean Is Taking It Slow.

Harvard’s Arts and Humanities division will centralize its administrative services and develop new introductory courses, Sean D. Kelly announced on Tuesday in his email as the division’s new dean.​​​​​​​


As Many Mourn the ‘Death of the Humanities,’ Harvard Profs. Say It’s Not That Simple

To many, the humanities appear incongruent with a university increasingly focused on preparation for professional life, instead existing primarily for their own sake. But many professors in the Arts & Humanities division say that’s exactly how it should be.


Harvard Says It Wants to Boost Interdisciplinary Research. Its Professors Have Questions.

“Interdisciplinarity” has become something of a buzzword among Harvard professors. But in interviews with The Crimson, seven professors from the Arts and Humanities division said that the term, as it is popularly used, may raise more questions than it does answers.


Ten Stories That Shaped 2023

In 2023, Harvard had a tumultuous year. Claudine Gay’s first semester ended amid a leadership crisis as she came under fire for her response to tensions on a campus divided by the Israel-Hamas war and faced allegations of plagiarism. Harvard’s legacy and donor preferences in admissions also faced national scrutiny following the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling striking down the University’s affirmative action policy. Across campus, scandal after scandal hit parts of the University. Here, The Crimson looks back at the 10 stories that shaped 2023 at Harvard.


Michael Pollan Talks Future of Psychedelics Research at Harvard Mahindra Humanities Center

Author Michael K. Pollan, a Harvard lecturer in English and professor of the practice in non-fiction, spoke about the future of research into the societal and cultural aspects of psychedelics during a Mahindra Humanities Center talk on Wednesday.


Dean of Arts and Humanities Robin Kelsey To Step Down At End of Academic Year

Robin E. Kelsey, Harvard’s dean of Arts and Humanities, will step down from his post at the end of the 2023-24 academic year, according to a Monday afternoon email to divisional faculty from Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean Hopi E. Hoekstra obtained by The Crimson.


Author Alma Guillermoprieto Talks Language and Cultural Identity at Harvard Writers Speak Conversation

Authors Alma Guillermoprieto and Valeria Luiselli discussed cultural identity, language, and portrayals of violence in literature and journalism at a Thursday speaker event hosted by the Harvard Mahindra Humanities Center.


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