11 minute read
Editorial
THE CRIMSON EDITORIAL BOARD What Are You Waiting for, Hum 10?
Next to maybe only Economics 10 and Computer Science 50, Humanities 10 is without a doubt one of Harvard College’s most iconic courses.
A survey of classic works in literature, philosophy, and the arts, the intensive expository writing colloquium is known on campus for its substantial book-aweek workload, from “The Odyssey” to
“The Federalist Papers”.
Recently, however, the course — often referred to as “Hum 10” — has come under fire for its long-standing heavy emphasis on white, Western authors.
In response, Professor Louis Menand IV, the course leader, said Hum 10 simply asks instructors to teach two works about which they are passionate. He cites the structural constraints of Harvard’s lack of diversity in the humanities as the primary cause of the syllabus’s homogeneity.
Really, though? Hum 10 brands itself as “2500 years of essential works.” To make such a claim and then dismiss diversity criticism on the grounds that the course is no more than instructors teaching two books they fancy is disingenuous. One glance at the syllabus is all that is necessary to see that the works selected for this course are meant to represent the humanist canon — “The Iliad”, “Inferno”, “Hamlet”, the Bible.
And even if this were merely a coincidence, which it is surely not, the course must accept its role — both in its great power and tremendous responsibilities — as an arbiter of what works might qualify as most “essential.” For many students, Hum 10 serves as their introduction to the academic humanities.
The course has gravitas, and its instructors can’t shy away from that. It’s not just Hum 10. Other survey courses, like Social Studies 10, must critically and actively take up the task of shaping the academic discourse through the young academics they train.
We understand the constraints that Menand mentioned, and we believe that the College needs to do more to diversify its faculty.
We have been vocal supporters of an Ethnic Studies department, for example. But, given that Harvard already has a renowned African and African American Studies Department, it strains belief to say that there aren’t passionate and qualified professors to teach literature by black authors.
We also need to differentiate between the issue of racial and gender diversity and the issue of nonwestern exclusion. For example, W.E.B. Du Bois is black, but he still is wholly within the Western canon. Hum 10 and the College need to ensure that they deal with both.
Failing to include significant racial,
gender, or regional diversity in a course like Hum 10 sends a message to freshmen, any friends who might see their high pile of course books, and the broader world that looks to Harvard as an arbiter of scholarly merit that these works are not as valuable — that these works do not deserve the status of “great.”
The Hum 10 course instructors cannot do it all on their own, but they do not have to wait for the University to bring about meaningful change.
This staff editorial solely represents the majority view of The Crimson Editorial Board. It is the product of discussions at regular Editorial Board meetings. In order to ensure the impartiality of our journalism, Crimson editors who choose to opine and vote at these meetings are not involved in the reporting of articles on similar topics.
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From Harvard Medical Student to Detained Egyptian Activist OP-ED
On September 1, 2019 — the day Bostonians call “moving day” — I woke up anxious thinking about the truck, praying everything would go smoothly. Then I picked up my phone and found a message received at around 4 a.m. EST from my uncle in Cairo. It said, “Hey Omar, call me as soon as you wake up.”
I called immediately and he started: “You know your brother Mohamed’s tweet yesterday about fixing the healthcare system in Egypt went viral.” I could tell something wasn’t right — this was more than internet fame.
Security forces had come a few hours prior, removed my brother, and taken the phones and laptops of my father and sister. My uncle tried to make it all seem fine. My brother would be back soon, he reassured me, and added that he would call me later after he went to my family’s home. “Rest assured,” he said, but my legs couldn’t carry me, and I found myself sitting on the stairs thinking for a few minutes.
I told myself, my brother used to be an elected official in the Egyptian Dental Association. He’s just completed his graduate studies at Harvard Medical School a few weeks ago, and he has never been arrested before. I thought the government would just question him for a few hours and then release him. Though the many friends and family members that I called all showed sympathy and assured me that he would be fine, something inside me told me otherwise.
Unfortunately, I was right. My brother has now been detained for over 150 days without a trial.
As with many Egyptian youth who were hopeful after the January 25 revolution in 2011, my brother Dr. Mohamed Abdellatif had been working hard to advance his country. A technocrat and denBy OMAR SOLIMAN
tist, he chose to focus on improving the healthcare system in Egypt and advocating for the rights of healthcare professionals who are increasingly fleeing the country. In fact, half of them have already fled and as many as 83 percent of those remaining have expressed interest in leaving once they get the proper opportunity. This state of affairs is no secret — the Minister of Health in Egypt, Hala Zayed, acknowledged as much in a televised interview in early 2019.
Building on his extensive medical experience combined with his Harvard education, Dr. Abdellatif presented five remedies to stop the brain drain, such as restructuring compensation packages and strengthening security in hospitals to protect healthcare professionals from being beaten by patients’ families. His suggested remedies, which he posted on Twitter, were so resonant that thousands of healthcare professionals reacted positively to them, leading to more widespread media coverage.
My brother expected a positive reaction from the government to his tweet. Instead, his tweet marked the start of the most traumatic experience in his life. For nine days, after he was taken by force from his home, we had no way to know his whereabouts, and later learned that he remained blindfolded and handcuffed for the entire time. Then, he appeared at a prosecution hearing where he was added to a falsified case. He has now been detained for over 150 days without a trial.
What is more shocking is the weak public reaction to his arrest. I once posted about him in a local Facebook group for Harvard alumni in Egypt, pleading for their help, but my post was removed and I was silenced from the group for a week. The only positive reaction I received was that one of the group members reached out to me privately and showed sympathy. My experience reflects how the news about someone unjustly detained, tortured, or even killed in custody in Egypt has become the norm.
These atrocities happen to American and European Union citizens, a former Egyptian president, and public figures — and the world is just silent. Or worse than silence: The U.S. president praises and continues to support the Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. Thus people in Egypt have become hopeless and the regime has become immune to shaming.
Even Harvard Medical School signed an agreement with the Egyptian Ministry of Health in late 2019, to collaborate and provide training for Egyptian medical professionals, despite the government’s abysmal human rights record — not least against researchers and intellectuals.
As more than 200 prominent British academics put it, in a letter opposing scholarly partnerships between the U.K. and Egypt, “We question the wisdom and legitimacy of this move to do business-as-usual with an authoritarian regime that systematically attacks research, education and academic freedom.”
Harvard should uphold its integrity and scrap this agreement, as some British universities did in the aftermath of the 2018 letter.
Furthermore, I call upon the entire Harvard community to act to secure my brother’s freedom and that of all Egyptians unjustly detained by their government.
Many members of this community have the capacity to help do so. We need to deliver a message to the upcoming generations: “We are behind people who fight for just causes anywhere in the world!”
COLUMN
Speaking Up for the Snake Reshini Premaratne PLAYING DEVIL’S ADVOCATE
According to Crimson surveys, more than a third of the Harvard College Classes of 2017, 2018, and 2019 entered the consulting or financial services sectors of the workforce post-graduation. Yet, the overwhelming narrative of these professions — “snake” professions as they’re called — remarks on the selfish, gross, capitalistic nature of consulting and finance.
Indeed, despite the fact that finance and insurance, for example, represented 7.4% of the US GDP in 2018, and contributed to both direct and indirect job creation in the United States according to International Trade Administration of the US Department of Commerce, individuals who enter into these industries are often deemed sellouts who lack passion or a sense of duty to a bigger and greater cause.
The irony, though, is that these jobs not only contribute positively to the economic growth of the country and the world, but they also represent accessible routes to financial security for aspirational students. Furthermore, they do often serve as a true passion for students — presenting problems worth solving for individuals and society alike.
At the beginning of every academic year, quite literally on the first day of classes now, consulting firms like McKinsey & Company, Bain & Company, and Boston Consulting Group rent out big ballrooms in the Charles Hotel to introduce themselves to students over soft drinks and firm handshakes. Even though it’s just the first day of the school year, they are already behind major financial services firms like Goldman Sachs who conduct the lion share of their application process almost an entire calendar year before the internship takes place, if not earlier.
Firms within consulting and finance have the luxury of conducting recruitment processes early on and promptly asking for the commitment of students to those internships because of how highly sought after they are. Yet, when students put on their finest Western business attire for these recruiting information sessions, and coffee chats, they either make light of their own genuine interests or are often mocked and ridiculed for their choice of career. No other career opportunities — from public service internships to similarly lucrative tech positions — receive the same kind of backlash and social ridicule that finance and consulting do. Why are finance and consulting considered exceptionally selfish, worthless professions in the social narrative of the workforce? First and foremost, it seems that the foregone conclusion is that these two industries do not provide anything of value in and of themselves, and rather that they leech off of American capitalism and allow the rich to get richer without contributing to the rest of society.
However, not only do consulting firms provide their services and expertise for private firms, but they also often provide support — even at times, pro bono — to public service partners, as well. And, while they do sometimes charge non-profit organizations for the consulting work that is provided, those prices are at a market rate — one set by the intersection of supply given by consulting firms and the demand for that work from those very non-profit partners. How can one really argue that there is no value provided by consulting services when those very services are clearly valued at a certain rate by both the sellers and buyers of them?
The same logic applies to jobs in the financial services sector. While it may seem like the compensation given to 22-year-old investment bankers, or even more so the bonus they receive should they do a good job, is quite ridiculous and unnecessary — even with the astronomical living costs of New York City’s housing market — that is more a reckoning to be had with society and how it values financial services than the individual students who recruit for and benefit from those jobs themselves.
Many students are driven to these professions for the financial security they provide as an entry-level position. However, even if there are no apparent financial obligations, there is nothing inherently wrong with a student desiring financial security post-college. Even if the business problems clients present to management consultants or the stock options that investment bankers have to evaluate do not inherently interest every student, there is nothing less respectable about students pursuing these sectors if only for the financial security they provide for themselves and their families.
But, even more so, it is more than possible that these very components of consulting and finance do indeed interest students. It is not unfathomable to imagine that someone might actually want to do the research to understand which advertising contract would be most lucrative for a TV network — and the grunt work involved — for example, as done in consulting. In that case, what enables others to look down on a student who is recruiting for a job that is financially stable, legitimately interesting, and provides value to society? I am not sure I entirely understand why the pursuit of snake professions is so scoffed at — but you can find me at the recruiting events next year trying to find out for myself.
