Harvard Thinks Big

Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy, Shorenstein Center at the Harvard Kennedy School

Professor of the Practice of Molecular and Cellular Biology; Richard L. Menschel Faculty Director of the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning; faculty director, HarvardX; director, Life Sciences Education

Senior Lecturer on Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education

Professor in the Department of African and African American Studies and Founding Director of the The Hiphop Archive at Harvard University and Research Institute (HARI) at the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research

Jeremy R. Knowles Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology and Santiago Ramón y Cajal Professor of Arts and Sciences.

Senior Lecturer and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Economics at Harvard University, as well as a senior fellow at the Cato Institute.

Professor of the Practice of Statistics, Co-Director of Undergraduate Studies Joe Blitzstein teaches the popular statistics class Stat 110, which provides a comprehensive introduction to probability as a medium to understand statistics, science, risk, and randomness. It has grown to over 300 students per year at Harvard and over 200,000 subscribers on iTunes U. His main research interests are in statistical inference for complex networks, with applications to social science and public health. Personally, he enjoys playing chess and is ranked in the Expert range by the US Chess Federation (the 98th percentile of all tournament players), and is the faculty adviser for the Harvard Chess Club.

Emma Dench serves as a professor for several Classics and History classes here at Harvard, including History 1011: The World of the Roman Empire and Classical Philology 226: Memories of the Roman Republic. She specializes in Hellenistic, Roman Republic, and early Roman imperial history while her current research interests focus on Roman 'imperialism' and the retrospective writing of the Republican and Augustan periods. Her other interests include questions about identity in classical antiquity and the culture of the Roman world, especially of Roman Italy.

Assistant Professor of Human Evolutionary Biology Katie Hinde teaches several classes in the Human Evolutionary Biology Department including The Neurobiology of Sociality and Building Babies: Developmental Trajectories from Conception to Weaning. She investigates how variation in the composition of mother's milk influences infant behavioral, biopsychological, and physical development. She also maintains "Mammals Suck... Milk!" a blog showcasing research on mother’s milk, breastfeeding, and lactation that is accessible to the general public, clinicians, and researchers.

Michael Puett serves as a professor in the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, teaching several courses, including ER18: Classical Chinese Ethical and Political Theory and The Historiography of Early Chinese History. He also has published several books, including To Become a God: Cosmology, Sacrifice, and Self-Divinization in Early China. His research interests involve Chinese history, Chinese religions, historical anthropology, comparative history, comparative anthropology of statecraft, and political theory.

Doris Sommer is the Ira and Jewell Williams Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures and of African and African American Studies. She is also the Director of the Cultural Agents Initiative at Harvard University, which was founded to promote social development through arts and humanities. Her research includes 19th-Century novels that helped to consolidate Latin American republics, the aesthetics of minority literature, including multilingual virtuosity, and she is now focused on art's constructive work in expanding rights and resources. Among her books are Foundational Fictions: The National Romances of Latin America (1991); Proceed with Caution when Engaged by Minority Literature (1999); Bilingual Aesthetics: A New Sentimental Education (2004); Bilingual Games: Some Literary Investigations, edited, 2004); Cultural Agency in the Americas edited (2006);The Work of Art in the World: Civic Agency in Art and Interpretation (forthcoming). Professor Sommer has enjoyed and is dedicated to developing good public school education; she has a B.A. from New Jersey's Douglass College for Women and her Ph.D. from Rutgers University.

Roberto Mangabeira Unger is the Roscoe Pound Professor of Law. He is a philosopher, and social and legal theorist. He recently served as Minister of Strategic Affairs in the government of President Lula in Brazil. His work ranges over many fields and emphasizes the search for alternatives to established institutions and to dominant ways of thinking about society and human nature. Three of the courses that he teaches this Spring semester are co-offered with FAS: Self, Serenity, and Vulnerability: West and East (ER 20, co-taught with Michael Puett), Political Economy After the Crisis (SW 31, co-taught with Dani Rodrik), and Progressive Alternatives: Institutional Reconstruction Now (Government 1092).

Eleanor Duckworth Professor of Education Harvard Graduate School of Education Harvard Thinks Big is a campus-wide event that brings together some of Harvard’s most renowned faculty members to speak to the school’s undergraduate community. Harvard Thinks Big borrows from the mold of the TED conferences— a collection of all-star Harvard professors each speak for ten minutes about something they are passionate about. The goal of the event is to expose undergraduates to a wide range of “big ideas” that they might not be exposed to otherwise.

Kaia Stern Director of the Prison Studies Project Professor at Harvard Divinity School Professor in Sociology at Harvard University Harvard Thinks Big is a campus-wide event that brings together some of Harvard’s most renowned faculty members to speak to the school’s undergraduate community. Harvard Thinks Big borrows from the mold of the TED conferences— a collection of all-star Harvard professors each speak for ten minutes about something they are passionate about. The goal of the event is to expose undergraduates to a wide range of “big ideas” that they might not be exposed to otherwise.

Daniel Lieberman Professor of Human Evolutionary Biology Harvard Thinks Big is a campus-wide event that brings together some of Harvard’s most renowned faculty members to speak to the school’s undergraduate community. Harvard Thinks Big borrows from the mold of the TED conferences— a collection of all-star Harvard professors each speak for ten minutes about something they are passionate about. The goal of the event is to expose undergraduates to a wide range of “big ideas” that they might not be exposed to otherwise.

Doug Melton Thomas Dudley Cabot Professor of the Natural Sciences at Harvard University and co-Director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute Harvard Thinks Big is a campus-wide event that brings together some of Harvard’s most renowned faculty members to speak to the school’s undergraduate community. Harvard Thinks Big borrows from the mold of the TED conferences— a collection of all-star Harvard professors each speak for ten minutes about something they are passionate about. The goal of the event is to expose undergraduates to a wide range of “big ideas” that they might not be exposed to otherwise.

Nicholas Christakis Professor of Sociology (FAS) and Professor of Medical Sociology (Harvard Medical School) and and Professor of Medicine (Harvard Medical School) Harvard Thinks Big is a campus-wide event that brings together some of Harvard’s most renowned faculty members to speak to the school’s undergraduate community. Harvard Thinks Big borrows from the mold of the TED conferences— a collection of all-star Harvard professors each speak for ten minutes about something they are passionate about. The goal of the event is to expose undergraduates to a wide range of “big ideas” that they might not be exposed to otherwise.

Jill Lepore David Woods Kemper '41 Professor of American History Harvard Thinks Big is a campus-wide event that brings together some of Harvard’s most renowned faculty members to speak to the school’s undergraduate community. Harvard Thinks Big borrows from the mold of the TED conferences— a collection of all-star Harvard professors each speak for ten minutes about something they are passionate about. The goal of the event is to expose undergraduates to a wide range of “big ideas” that they might not be exposed to otherwise.