Harvard Faculty Share Lessons from Work and Life

The Harvard Gazette’s Experience series is a collection of interviews with some of the University’s most accomplished faculty members, including multiple Pulitzer Prize winners and a recipient of the National Medal of Science.

The conversations range from the indispensable guidance of early mentors, to useful mistakes, to career turning-points, sometimes making contact with wider cultural and political forces, such as barriers of race and gender. Animating them as a whole is an exemplary commitment to teaching and scholarship and a passion for lifelong learning.

Professor Stephen Greenblatt

‘So that represented my own little rebellion’

Professor Stephen Greenblatt is one of the most dazzling storytellers of his generation, making the magic of centuries-old literature come alive for modern audiences.
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Professor Melissa Franklin

‘Physics was paradise’

Professor Melissa Franklin, an experimental particle physicist, has had a career of firsts — some scientific, some social.
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Professor Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot

‘I have always been temperamentally wired to carry on’

Professor Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot has found inspiration in the lives of her parents to push herself to illuminate the cultural dynamics behind good schools, good teachers, and good learning environments.
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Dean Martha Minow

‘My life was going to have to deal with issues of social injustice’

For Dean Martha Minow of the Law School, early encounters with issues around public service and civic activism were formative in her pursuits as a scholar.
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Professor E.O. Wilson

‘Search until you find a passion and go all out to excel in its expression’

Professor E.O. Wilson stands as a giant of science for his groundbreaking insights as a theorist and biologist, and for a literary gift that has helped those insights reach a wider audience.
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Professor Steven Pinker

‘What could be more interesting than how the mind works?’

A cognitive scientist and experimental psychologist, Professor Steven Pinker is fascinated by language, behavior, and the mechanics of human nature. Read interview ›

Professor Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

‘I had the advantage of disadvantage’

Professor Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s first scholarly paper included a line that not only marked her for later fame, but serves as an expression of her own story: “Well-behaved women seldom make history.”
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