Director’s Letter

October 13, 2026

Dear Colleagues and Friends of the Mahindra Humanities Center,

Welcome to a new year of humanistic conversations and learning! Whether your interests tend toward literature, philosophy, music, art, or cultural matters at large, the months ahead brim with promise at the Mahindra Humanities Center. Here is a sample:

In a special event in October, a trio of Harvard experts will help us makes sense of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey and its controversial interpretation of the ancient poem.

Later this fall, Kyle Harper will join the Environment Forum to discuss his new book on humans and other animals.

Also this fall, we will launch Sports & Us, a series of events addressing sports and their cultural importance. The conversations will range broadly, with special focus on how sports sustain and delimit our imagined communities, from nation to local fan base. A robust conversation about soccer will initiate the series in November, while the spring will feature a double offering: Boston Globe columnist and author Dan Shaughnessy in conversation with Professor Louis Menand, and poet and writer Rowan Ricardo Phillips in conversation with Professor Imani Perry on Phillips’ new book, I Just Want Them to Remember Me: Black Baseball in America.

Meanwhile, the Writers Speak series returns with conversations with acclaimed authors Álvaro Enrigue and Diane Williams on tap.

In the spring, the Hauser Forum and the Tanner Lecture on Human Values will once again stimulate new conversations.

Last but hardly least, we invite you to explore our outstanding seminar program, chaired by faculty from Harvard and elsewhere in the Greater Boston area. These seminars offer lively presentations and discussions of current research, covering no fewer than 34 different subjects of humanistic inquiry.

Please mark your calendar and visit us frequently throughout the year!

On a personal note, it is a pleasure and a privilege for me to be stepping in for Professor Suzannah Clark while she is on research leave.

With warmest wishes for 2026-27,

Robin Kelsey
Interim Director, Mahindra Humanities Center
Shirley Carter Burden Professor, History of Art and Architecture