On Our Desks
Typically, we run this feature as a way of highlighting articles and essays that our team found particularly interesting. This time, we’re sharing some news and events from campus life that didn’t make its way into our regular reporting. Please let us know what you think in the comments!
Have a blessed Holy Week.
Global Epidemiology | Moral Controversies and Academic Public Health: Notes on Navigating and Surviving Academic Freedom Challenges
Professor Tyler VanderWeele of Harvard’s Chan School of Public Health has offered an excellent case study of attempted cancellation: his own. In an essay published last December, VanderWeele explains how his adherence to traditional Catholic teachings on abortion and sexuality led to widespread controversy in which he was publicly condemned by various students and staff, including some department chairs. The behavior of administrative staff, many of whom privately assured VanderWeele of his rights to free expression but were slow to publicly defend him on those grounds, is particularly striking. For a compelling analysis of the struggle to protect academic freedom, read Professor VanderWeele’s paper here.
Sex Weekend 2024
Harvard’s resident perverts have decided to add sacrilege to their semi-annual celebration of fornication. For a certain class of Harvard students, this is not Easter weekend but Sex Weekend. The spring complement to Sex Week, Sex Weekend is a student-run “sexual education” initiative which covers topics from BDSM to nudes. Organizers will also be providing free sex toys at each event. To add insult to injury, some promotional emails for the event were signed “in sex we trust.”
Family Abolition with the Program in American Studies
On March 16th, the Program in American Studies hosted feminist author Sophie Lewis for a talk entitled “What is Family Abolition?” Lewis’ two books, Full Surrogacy Now and Abolish the Family, make the case that the family is inherently oppressive to women. Lewis insists, therefore, that women must be freed from the “wicked, infinitely expanding nature of domestic work” which “robs [them] of their love.” Unsurprisingly, a review of the American Studies program’s PhD students indicates that their work is heavily dominated by the study of sex, race, colonialism, or some combination of the three.
The Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Islamic Studies Program
The Islamic Studies program has opened the application for its thesis prize, a $2,000 award sharing its name with the program itself. One wonders if Bin Talal, a member of the Saudi royal family and one of the country’s most prominent businessmen, is really the best namesake for a program intended to “bridge gaps… between the Muslim and non-Muslim worlds.” Bin Talal once claimed to possess an “honorary Palestinian passport,” asserting that he would not visit Jerusalem “until its liberation from the Zionist enemy.” He also suggested that the United States should “adopt a more balanced stand toward the Palestinian cause” in the aftermath of 9/11, leading then-New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani to reject a relief donation from the prince.
