Harvard Magazine

11/21/2025

The Harvard Law School Library has released a digital archive of its records from all 13 Nuremberg trials: a massive trove of documents chronicling the effort after World War II to bring N**i leaders to justice.

This archive, the first complete set of Nuremberg records to be made publicly available online, is also fully searchable. Its release comes on the 80th anniversary of the first trial, an international military tribunal convened on November 20, 1945 during which 22 of the surviving top leaders from N**i Germany were prosecuted.

Thousands of documents chronicle the N**i regime and the legal effort to exact justice.

11/21/2025

In news that has evolved throughout the week, the University confirmed that former Harvard University president and professor Lawrence H. Summers will be taking a leave from teaching duties.

Harvard administration will be opening an investigation into Summers’s and other affiliates’ relationships with convicted child s*x offender Jeffrey Epstein. The investigation follows the release of emails by a House of Representatives committee last week showing that Epstein remained a close confidant of the former Harvard president long after Epstein’s initial conviction as a child s*x offender in 2008.

Previously undisclosed Epstein links to Harvard affiliates leads to a University review.

11/20/2025

Which of these lectures would you attend? If you could only pick three... comment below, and send to a friend!

1. "Changes in English Law in the Nineteenth Century"
2. "Venereal Diseases"
3. "Flemish and German Painting in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries"
4. "Jewish Religious History"
5. "Personal Experiences in Arctic Alaska"
6. "The Naval Battle of Santiago"
7. "The Immortality of Man"
8. "The Life of Erasmus"
9. "French Literature" (general).

From the very first issue of Harvard Magazine, published as "The Harvard Bulletin" on November 7th, 1898.

11/19/2025

The Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) announced on Wednesday that its science doctoral programs would reduce admissions this year by 50 percent—a reprieve from even deeper proposed cuts.

Backing off plans for more drastic reductions, the division still faces a long-term deficit.

11/18/2025

In its 122 year existence, Harvard Stadium has witnessed many exciting shootouts and fantastic finishes. But it would be hard to top Saturday’s game against Penn.

Harvard prevailed 45-43 on a last-play, 53-yard field goal by sophomore Kieran Corr. The Crimson are now ranked No. 8 nationally.

Next weekend, the undefeated Crimson takes on Yale at the 141st playing of The Game. The final match takes place Saturday, November 22nd at the Yale Bowl, and will be telecast nationally on ESPNU and broadcast on the radio on WBOS 92.9 FM and Bloomberg 1330 AM and 1450 AM. Kickoff: 12:00 p.m. ET

An epic finish ensures another Ivy title. Next up: Yale. And after?

11/17/2025

Across Kenya, thousands of students are learning to support their own mental health through a peer-led model built by Harvard University alum Tom Osborn ’20.

Osborn, who grew up in a small rural village and later studied psychology at Harvard, co-founded the Shamiri Institute to rethink what mental health care can look like for young people. His program is now reaching more than 180,000 students, between 12 and 19 years old, in Kenya. Peer-reviewed studies show that more than 80 percent of students who have participated in the workshops experienced improved well-being (at a cost of around 15 dollars per individual).

His goal is to give more young people the chance to do what he did: recognize problems and feel equipped to solve them. “I want to spend more time figuring out how democracy and government can create more opportunities for young people,” he says, “not just in Kenya, but across Africa.”

Kenyan entrepreneur Tom Osborn ’20 reimagines care for a global crisis.

11/14/2025

When Marla Frederick began her tenure as dean of Harvard Divinity School in January 2024, the campus was engulfed in turmoil over the war in Gaza. Student protests were intensifying (though the encampment in the Yard had not yet begun), complaints about antisemitism were rising, and within days, Claudine Gay would be forced out of her job as Harvard president.

After two years of turmoil, Frederick has now outlined a new set of priorities for the institution's culture and curriculum. In an interview with Harvard Magazine last week, Frederick discussed some of the concrete steps underway to achieve these goals, and the urgency—and hope—in doing so.

After two years of turmoil, Dean Marla Frederick charts a pluralistic future for the institution’s culture and curriculum.

11/13/2025

A visit to the New England Aquarium set Kevin Kit Parker on a decade-long journey to better understand the human heart.

Inspired by the pulsing rhythm of a jellyfish, Parker, the Tarr family professor of bioengineering and applied physics at Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences is developing a three-dimensional model of the human heart.

This model will become part of efforts to create a cardiovascular "biodigital twin": a virtual model of the human heart that can simulate how it functions, responds to stress, and reacts to therapies, potentially transforming cardiology.

How Harvard researchers are helping to build a virtual model of the human heart

11/13/2025

Anthony Campbell, currently the chief of police at Yale University, has been named the next head of the Harvard University Police Department (HUPD). Like his predecessors as chief, Campbell is a proponent of community policing.

Both prior Harvard police chiefs—Francis D. “Bud” Riley, a former Massachusetts State Police lieutenant colonel who was hired with a mandate to address problems of racism within the department, and Victor Clay, a veteran of university police departments who arrived emphasizing the importance of diversity and inclusion—advocated community policing as the appropriate form of law enforcement in a university context. Both departed after the Harvard University Police Association, the union that represents HUPD officers, expressed a lack of confidence in their leadership.

Anthony Campbell will take up his new post in January.

11/11/2025

Big lights, bright city: neither proved a distraction last Friday night as the Harvard football team rolled to a 31-14 win over Columbia at Kraft Field at Wien Stadium in New York City.

The victory kept the Crimson undefeated, running their record to 8-0 overall and 5-0 in the conference play.

The Crimson stay unbeaten with a workmanlike win over the Lions.

11/07/2025

TODAY is our anniversary! We're celebrating 127 years of Harvard Magazine, founded November 7th, 1898.

What started as a 4-page alumni bulletin has evolved into a sprawling nonprofit magazine with audiences all around the world. And it's only possible because of YOU, our readers. We are tremendously grateful for every person who shares in the ideas on our pages and platforms.

🔗If interested, make a tax-deductible donation here: https://host.nxt.blackbaud.com/donor-form/?svcid=renxt&formId=4a01f928-d15a-4335-a8e8-6ba1ddd91c10&envid=p-WFCzePKLDk6hXkQgo9BpQg&zone=usa&fbclid=IwY2xjawN7PshleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETE0V0NOcmEwakJNa3VzdGNJc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHuArq2w3xQdO5jfCcPFPSrD-lT20d9QpQGn7Xy9CdawkeOYv6mm3bCDNVYur_aem_8flZeh2s0C0brQFTfllo7A

11/07/2025

“What, like it’s hard?”

This line, etched into pop culture and instantly recognizable to almost anyone familiar with early 2000s cinema, comes from Elle Woods (played by Reese Witherspoon): the pink-clad, once-underestimated protagonist of Legally Blonde, who attends in pursuit of what she thought was love, and ultimately turned out to be self-respect.

This past week, Witherspoon came to Harvard herself. The actress, producer, and founder of the media company sat down for a November 4 fireside chat at entitled “A Conversation on Women & Leadership,” hosted by . Throughout the evening, she shared insights on her own entrepreneurial journey, and how women-centric and women-driven content is currently reshaping media, entertainment, and the creator economy.

Read more in “Reese Witherspoon Visits Harvard—and Talks Women, Media, and AI” by Olivia Farrar, on our site now.