In preparation for the Ken Burns documentary event on PBS, we're getting a primer on the founding of the US from Phil Mead, PhD '12, former chief historian and curator of the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia.

Cornell University historian Mary Beth Norton discusses how the conflict on New England’s frontier shaped the Salem witch trials, revealing a story of trauma, refugees, and accusations in 17th-century Massachusetts.

Duke University Professor Herman Pontzer, PhD ’06, says that a deeper understanding of how our bodies evolved and how that process shapes our biology can help us better take charge of our health.

Sergio Alarcón Robledo’s 2025 Harvard Horizons project, “Entangled Ritual and Architectural Practices at North Saqqara,” explores ancient Egyptian architecture through an interdisciplinary approach that sits at the crossroads of archaeology, Egyptology, and architecture.

In his project "Empire of String: Unravelling the Enigma of Inka Khipus," 2025 Harvard Horizons Scholar Mack FitzPatrick is immersing himself in the complex record-keeping system of khipus: intricate knotted cord devices that served as the administrative backbone of the Inka civilization.

In her project "Embracing Twilight: Older Women Poets and the Unfurling of Their Voices," 2025 Harvard Horizons Scholar Alex Braslavsky brings together the works of three Slavic poets to explore how the creative process evolves with age and what work by artists in their advanced age reveals about the human condition.

We expect machines to think like people. What happens when they don’t? 2025 Harvard Horizons Scholar Raphaël Raux explores the nuanced interplay between human cognition and artificial intelligence (AI).

When one political party gains disproportionate power over the judiciary, courts often act not to defend democracy but to endanger it. Harvard Horizons Scholar and PhD candidate Andrew O'Donohue's research shows how.

Katherine Horgan’s 2025 Harvard Horizons project, “Living Sappho: Imitation, Imagination, and Revivification in Early Modern England,” examines the many texts that have carried Sappho’s legacy as both poet and queer woman over the centuries.

Boston University professor Jacob Brown, PhD ’22 says that our political affiliations are not necessarily set in stone, but can shift as the people and places around us do. That fact may offer some hope for the future of civic life in the United States . . . if we know what to do with it.

Katherine Venturo-Conerly is on a mission to revolutionize access to effective mental health care—particularly for young people—in historically underserved communities around the world.

The Boston University sociologist Anthony Abraham Jack, PhD ’16, says American higher education wasn’t ready for the diversity it was recruiting before the Supreme Court of the United States ruled it unconstitutional to consider race in college admissions—and it's still not ready now.

To realize a future of personalized medicine, we need to understand and investigate how genetic variations contribute to illness and respond to doctors' attempts to address it. But how can scientists do so efficiently with a human genome that spans about three billion base pairs of DNA? That's where PhD student Dawn Chen’s work comes in.

A breakthrough in chemistry could make the production of many pharmaceuticals less expensive through a new method of fluorination.

The history of slavery in the United States, including at the country's colleges and universities, is deeply disturbing and painful. So why is it so important for higher education institutions to engage with it?

The Harvard political economist David Deming, PhD ’10, says artificial intelligence is here to make us more productive, not take our jobs—at least not yet.

What can the work of the legendary singer and songwriter Bob Dylan tell us about living in a time of cynicism and disjointedness?

Will the story of the 2024 election be the way women voters reclaimed their lost rights and the promise of decades past?

News organizations—and voters—rely more heavily than ever on probabilistic election forecasts from “data journalists” like Nate Silver. But are they really more reliable than other models—or a random guess?

Harvard Business School Professor Amy Edmondson says businesses that want to innovate successfully need to create a culture where risk-taking—and failure—is not only tolerated, it's encouraged.