Scholarly Life

Announcing the 2011-12 Conversations@FAS Faculty Panel Series

Offered this year in commemoration of Harvard’s 375th anniversary, Conversations @ FAS will focus on our faculty’s vision of the future of Harvard. Graduates students are particularly invited to take part in these important, provocative discussions.

Professor Maya Jasanoff will moderate two panel discussions that imagine how current trends may transform the way Harvard faculty teach and carry out their research, and consider what aspects of longstanding practice will remain vital to the pursuit of Harvard's scholarly mission.

• On Thursday, February 16, at 4–5:30 p.m., David Charbonneau (Professor of Astronomy), Hopi Hoekstra (Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology), Ann Pearson (Professor of Biogeochemistry), and Martin Puchner (Byron and Anita Wien Professor of Drama and of English and Comparative Literature) will explore current trends, such as the proliferation of data and virtual classes, that could change the structure of academic departments as well as the University as a whole.
• On Wednesday, March 7, at 4–5:30 p.m, Claudine Gay (Professor of Government and of African and African American Studies), Matthew Nock (Professor of Psychology), Parimal Patil (Professor of Religion and Indian Philosophy), and Robert Wood (Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering) will examine the longstanding traditions that are integral to Harvard’s pursuit of excellence in teaching, learning and research, and should remain permanent fixtures of the academic landscape.

The conversations will take place in the Tsai Auditorium, CGIS South.