harvard english phd dissertations

Recent PhD Dissertations

Postdramatic African Theater and Critique of Representation Oluwakanyinsola Ajayi

Troubling Diaspora: Literature Across the Arabic Atlantic Phoebe Carter

The Contrafacta of Thomas Watson and Simon Goulart: Resignifying the Polyphonic Song in 16th-century England and France Joseph Gauvreau

Of Unsound Mind: Madness and Mental Health in Asian American Literature Carrie Geng

Cultural Capitals: Postwar Yiddish between Warsaw and Buenos Aires Rachelle Grossman

Blindness, Deafness, and Cripping the Grounds of Comparison in Comparative Literature Kathleen Ong

Counter-Republics of Letters: Politics, Publishing, and the Global Novel Elisa Sotgiu

Red Feminism: The Politics and Poetics of Liberation Botagoz Ussen

‘Through the Looking Glass’: The Narrative Performance of Anarkali Aisha Dad

Indeterminate “Greekness”: A Diasporic and Transnational Poetics Ilana Freedman

Imagined Mothers: The Construction of Italy, Ancient Greece, and Anglo-American Hegemony Francesca Bellei

The Untimely Avant-Garde: Literature, Politics, and Transculturation in the Sinosphere (1909-2020) Fangdai Chen

Recovering the Language of Lament: Modernism, Catastrophe, and Exile Sarah Corrigan

Beyond Diaspora:The Off Home in Jewish Literature from Latin America and Israel Lana Jaffe Neufeld

Artificial Humanities: A Literary Perspective on Creating and Enhancing Humans from Pygmalion to Cyborgs Nina Begus

Music and Exile in Twentieth-Century German, Italian, and Polish Literature Cecily Cai

We Speak Violence: How Narrative Denies the Everyday Rachael Duarte Riascos

Anticlimax: The Multilingual Novel at the Turn of the 21st Century Matylda Figlerowicz

Forgetting to Remember: An Approach to Proust’s Recherche Lara Roizen

The Event of Literature:An Interval in a World of Violence Petra Taylor

The English Baroque:The Logic of Excess in Early Modern Literature Hudson Vincent

Porte Planète; Ville Canale –parisian knobs /visually/ turned to \textual\ currents Emma Zofia Zachurski

‘…not a poet but a poem’: A Lacanian study of the subject of the poem Marina Connelly The Tune That Can No Longer Be Recognized: Late Medieval Chinese Poetry and Its Affective Others Jasmine Hu The Invention of the Art Film: Authorship and French Cultural Policy Joseph Pomp Apocalypticism in the Arabic Novel William Tamplin The Sound of Prose: Rhythm, Translation, Orality Thomas Wisniewski

The New Austerity in Syrian Poetry Daniel Behar

Mourning the Living: Africa and the Elegy on Screen Molly Klaisner

Art Beyond the Norms: Art of the Insane, Art Brut, and the Avant-Garde from Prinzhorn to Dubuffet (1922-1949) Raphael Koenig

Words, Images and the Self: Iconoclasm in Late Medieval English Literature Yun Ni

Europe and the Cultural Politics of Mediterranean Migrations Argyro Nicolaou

Voice of Power, Voice of Terror: Lyric, Violence, and the Greek Revolution Simos Zenios

Every Step a New Movement: Anarchism in the Stalin-Era Literature of the Absurd and its Post-Soviet Adaptations Ania Aizman

Kino-Eye, Kino-Bayonet: Avant-Garde Documentary in Japan, France, and the USSR Julia Alekseyeva

Ambient Meaning: Mood, Vibe, System Peli Grietzer

Year of the Titan: Percy Bysshe Shelley and Ancient Poetry Benjamin Sudarsky

Metropolitan Morning: Loss, Affect, and Metaphysics in Buenos Aires, 1920-1940 Juan Torbidoni

Sophisticated Players: Adults Writing as Children in the Stalin Era and Beyond Luisa Zaitseva

Collecting as Cultural Technique: Materialistic Interventions into History in 20th Century China Guangchen Chen

Pathways of Transculturation: Chinese Cultural Encounters with Russia and Japan (1880-1930) Xiaolu Ma

Beyond the Formal Law: Making Cases in Roman Controversiae and Tang Literary Judgments Tony Qian

Alternative Diplomacies: Writing in Early Twentieth-Century Shanghai, Istanbul, and Beyond? Alice Xiang

The Literary Territorialization of Manchuria: Rethinking National and Transnational Literature in East Asia from the Frontier Miya Qiong Xie World Literature and the Chinese Compass, 1942-2012 Yanping Zhang

Anatomy of ‘Decadence’ Henry Bowles

Medicine As Storytelling: Emplotment Strategies in Doctor-Patient Encounters and Beyond (1870-1830) Elena Fratto

Platonic Footnotes: Figures of Asymmetry in Ancient Greek Thought Katie Deutsch

Children’s Literature Grows Up Christina Phillips Mattson

Humor as Epiphanic Awareness and Attempted Self-Transcendence Curtis Shonkwiler

Ethnicity, Ethnogenesis and Ancestry in the Early Iron Age Aegean as Background to and through the Lens of the Iliad Guy Smoot

The Modern Stage of Capitalism: The Drama of Markets and Money (1870-1930) Alisa Sniderman

Repenting Roguery: Penance in the Spanish Picaresque Novel and the Arabic and Hebrew Maqāma Emmanuel Ramírez Nieves

The “Poetics of Diagram” John Kim

Dreaming Empire: European Writers in the Fascist Era Robert Kohen

The Poetics of Love in Prosimetra across the Medieval Mediterranean Isabelle Levy

Renaissance Error: Digression from Ariosto to Milton Luke Taylor

The New Voyager: Theory and Practice of South Asian Literary Modernisms Rita Banerjee

Be an Outlaw, Be a Hero: Cinematic Figures of Urban Banditry and Transgression in Brazil, France, and the Maghreb Maryam Monalisa Gharavi

Bāgh-e Bi-Bargi: Aspects of Time and Presence in the Poetry of Mehdi Akhavān Sāles Marie Huber

Freund-schaft: Capturing Aura in an Unframed Literary Exchange Clara Masnatta

Class, Gender and Indigeneity as Counter-discourses in the African Novel: Achebe, Ngugi, Emecheta, Sow Fall and Ali Fatin Abbas

The Empire of Chance: War, Literature, and the Epistemic Order of Modernity Anders Engberg-Pedersen

Poetics of the unfinished: illuminating Paul Celan’s “Eingedunkelt” Thomas Connolly

Towards a Media History of Writing in Ancient Italy Stephanie Frampton Character Before the Novel: Representing Moral Identity in the Age of Shakespeare Jamey Graham

Transforming Trauma: Memory and Slavery in Black Atlantic Literature since 1830 Raquel Kennon

Renaissance Romance: Rewarding the Boundaries of Fiction Christine S. Lee

Psychomotor Aesthetics: Conceptions of Gesture and Affect in Russian and American Modernity, 1910s-1920s Ana Olenina

Melancholy, Ambivalence, Exhaustion: Responses to National Trauma in the Literature and Film of France and China Erin Schlumpf

The Poetics of Human-Computer Interaction Dennis Tenen

Novelizing the Muslim Wars of Conquest: The Christian Pioneers of the Arabic Historical Novel Luke Leafgren

Secret Lives of the City: Reimagining the Urban Margins in 20th-Century Literature and Theory, from Surrealism to Iain Sinclair Jennifer Hui Bon Hoa

Archaic Greek Memory and Its Role in Homer Anita Nikkanen

Deception Narratives and the (Dis)Pleasure of Being Cheated: The Cases of Gogol, Nabokov, Mamet, and Flannery O’Connor Svetlana Rukhelman

Aesthetic Constructs and the Work of Play in 20th Century Latin American and Russian Literature Natalya Sukhonos

Stone, Steel, Glass: Constructions of Time in European Modernity Christina Svendsen

See here for a full list of dissertations since 1904 .

Founded as a graduate program in 1904 and joining with the undergraduate Literature Concentration in 2007, Harvard’s Department of Comparative Literature operates at the crossroads of multilingualism, literary study, and media history.

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What is a thesis?

What is a dissertation, getting started, staying on track.

A thesis is a long-term project that you work on over the course of a semester or a year. Theses have a very wide variety of styles and content, so we encourage you to look at prior examples and work closely with faculty to develop yours. 

Before you begin, make sure that you are familiar with the dissertation genre—what it is for and what it looks like.

Generally speaking, a dissertation’s purpose is to prove that you have the expertise necessary to fulfill your doctoral-degree requirements by showing depth of knowledge and independent thinking.

The form of a dissertation may vary by discipline. Be sure to follow the specific guidelines of your department.

• PhD This site directs candidates to the GSAS website about dissertations , with links to checklists,  planning, formatting, acknowledgments, submission, and publishing options. There is also a link to guidelines for the prospectus . Consult with your committee chair about specific requirements and standards for your dissertation.
• DDES This document covers planning, patent filing, submission guidelines, publishing options, formatting guidelines, sample pages, citation guidelines, and a list of common errors to avoid. There is also a link to guidelines for the prospectus .
• Scholarly Pursuits (GSAS) This searchable booklet from Harvard GSAS is a comprehensive guide to writing dissertations, dissertation-fellowship applications, academic journal articles, and academic job documents.

Finding an original topic can be a daunting and overwhelming task. These key concepts can help you focus and save time.

Finding a topic for your dissertation should start with a research question that excites or at least interests you. A rigorous, engaging, and original dissertation will require continuous curiosity about your topic, about your own thoughts on the topic, and about what other scholars have said on your topic. Avoid getting boxed in by thinking you know what you want to say from the beginning; let your research and your writing evolve as you explore and fine-tune your focus through constant questioning and exploration.

Get a sense of the broader picture before you narrow your focus and attempt to frame an argument. Read, skim, and otherwise familiarize yourself with what other scholars have done in areas related to your proposed topic. Briefly explore topics tangentially related to yours to broaden your perspective and increase your chance of finding a unique angle to pursue.

Critical Reading

Critical reading is the opposite of passive reading. Instead of merely reading for information to absorb, critical reading also involves careful, sustained thinking about what you are reading. This process may include analyzing the author’s motives and assumptions, asking what might be left out of the discussion, considering what you agree with or disagree with in the author’s statements and why you agree or disagree, and exploring connections or contradictions between scholarly arguments. Here is a resource to help hone your critical-reading skills:

http://writing.umn.edu/sws/assets/pdf/quicktips/criticalread.pdf

Conversation

Your dissertation will incorporate some of the ideas of the other scholars whose work you researched. By reading critically and following your curiosity, you will develop your own ideas and claims, and these contributions are the core of your dissertation. However, your dissertation will also acknowledge the work of scholars who came before you, and you must accurately and fairly attribute this work and define your place within the larger discussion. Make sure that you know how to quote, summarize, paraphrase , integrate , and cite secondary sources to avoid plagiarism and to show the depth and breadth of your knowledge.

A thesis is a long-term, large project that involves both research and writing; it is easy to lose focus, motivation, and momentum. Here are suggestions for achieving the result you want in the time you have.

The dissertation is probably the largest project you have undertaken, and a lot of the work is self-directed. The project can feel daunting or even overwhelming unless you break it down into manageable pieces and create a timeline for completing each smaller task. Be realistic but also challenge yourself, and be forgiving of yourself if you miss a self-imposed deadline here and there.

Your program will also have specific deadlines for different requirements, including establishing a committee, submitting a prospectus, completing the dissertation, defending the dissertation, and submitting your work. Consult your department’s website for these dates and incorporate them into the timeline for your work.

Accountability

Sometimes self-imposed deadlines do not feel urgent unless there is accountability to someone beyond yourself. To increase your motivation to complete tasks on schedule, set dates with your committee chair to submit pre-determined pieces of a chapter. You can also arrange with a fellow doctoral student to check on each other’s progress. Research and writing can be lonely, so it is also nice to share that journey with someone and support each other through the process.

Common Pitfalls

The most common challenges for students writing a dissertation are writer’s block, information-overload, and the compulsion to keep researching forever.

There are many strategies for avoiding writer’s block, such as freewriting, outlining, taking a walk, starting in the middle, and creating an ideal work environment for your particular learning style. Pay attention to what helps you and try different things until you find what works.

Efficient researching techniques are essential to avoiding information-overload. Here are a couple of resources about strategies for finding sources and quickly obtaining essential information from them.

https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/subject_specific_writing/writing_in_literature/writing_in_literature_detailed_discussion/reading_criticism.html

https://students.dartmouth.edu/academic-skills/learning-resources/learning-strategies/reading-techniques

Finally, remember that there is always more to learn and your dissertation cannot incorporate everything. Follow your curiosity but also set limits on the scope of your work. It helps to create a folder entitled “future projects” for topics and sources that interest you but that do not fit neatly into the dissertation. Also remember that future scholars will build off of your work, so leave something for them to do.

Browsing through theses and dissertations of the past can help to get a sense of your options and gain inspiration but be careful to use current guidelines and refer to your committee instead of relying on these examples for form or formatting.

DASH Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard.

HOLLIS Harvard Library’s catalog provides access to ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global .

MIT Architecture has a list of their graduates’ dissertations and theses.

Rhode Island School of Design has a list of their graduates’ dissertations and theses.

University of South Florida has a list of their graduates’ dissertations and theses.

Harvard GSD has a list of projects, including theses and professors’ research.

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• Dissertation

Requirements, deadlines, and other information on preparing and submitting a dissertation.

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PhD candidates must successfully complete and submit a dissertation to qualify for degree conferral. It is perhaps the most important and far-reaching undertaking in the entire doctoral program, having an impact that extends well beyond graduate studies. 

Requirements and Deadlines 

Each graduate program maintains specific requirements for the content and evaluation of the dissertation. Be sure to review your program’s departmental requirements prior to beginning the process. You should also review Harvard Griffin GSAS’s dissertation policies for important information about formatting, submission, and publishing and distribution options, including embargoes.  

Degrees are awarded in November, March, and May. Dissertation submission deadlines are noted in the Degree Calendar section of Policies . 

Help with the Dissertation 

Library research .

It’s never too early to start planning for your dissertation. The Harvard Library can help! The Library maintains a guide for graduate students engaged in scholarly writing titled the Writing Oasis . They also offer access to Overleaf , which is an online LaTeX and Rich Text collaborative writing and publishing tool that makes the process of academic writing, editing, and publishing quicker and easier. Overleaf has a section on Writing Your Dissertation that you may find useful.  

Writing 

Students can find support with planning and preparing to write the dissertation from their academic advisors and programs. The Fellowships & Writing Center also offers workshops on various aspects of dissertation writing, holds brainstorming office hours during which students may discuss their dissertations, and provides written feedback on dissertation chapters.  

Dissertation Completion Fellowships 

Harvard Griffin GSAS provides a dissertation completion fellowship (DCF) for one academic year to eligible PhD students in the humanities and social sciences who anticipate completing their dissertations within the year. Find out more in Policies .

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Dissertations and theses global (dissertation abstracts/digital dissertations).

Dissertation Abstracts/Digital Dissertations (also known as Dissertations and Theses Global) indexes dissertations and masters' theses from most North American graduate schools as well as additional content from nearly one hundred countries. Provides full text for most indexed dissertations from 1990 to the present.

Dates: 1861 - present

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Cataloging Theses and Dissertations: Best Practices

• Created by Thomas Ma , last modified by Anne Adams on Aug 22, 2022

scope : A "best practice" guide for use by technical services staff who create or edit records pertaining to theses and dissertations.

submitted by: Kate Bowers  ( [email protected] ), Beth Iseminger ( [email protected] ), Karen Nipps, June Rutkowski ( [email protected] ) , Summer Unsinn ( [email protected] ) , Karen Young ( [email protected] ) , Isabel Quintana, co-chair ( [email protected] ) , Thomas Ma, co-chair ( [email protected] ) .

maintained by: Metadata Standards Working Group

This document covers both published and unpublished theses. It does not cover revisions, adaptations, or theses that are published commercially after they are submitted. Please note that DASH is not considered a publisher. Therefore, theses deposited in DASH are considered unpublished.

LDR/06 : Select appropriate code, or use another code as needed for other formats.

a = non-manuscript language material (for published theses)

d = manuscript notated music

f = manuscript cartographic material

t = manuscript language material, including typescripts and print-outs (for unpublished theses, except for special collections/archival repositories)

008/06 type of date =”s” (if only year given in 264)

008/06 type of date =”e” (if applicable, i.e. month or month and day included in 264);

008/07-10 date 1 =  year

008/11-14 date2 = mmdd (if applicable, i.e. month month and day included in 264; use blanks for day if only month given);

008/24 content= “m” (theses) (if code is available, depending on format)

Example: 008   080829e201303^^xx^m^^^^^bm^^^000^0^eng^d

This example is for a thesis dated March 2013.

Thesis author   

100 1_  |a Name, |e relationship designator.

Example: 100 1_   |a Gallogly-Swan, Katie Louise, |e author.

If the ORCID for the thesis author is known, the link should be placed in subfield 1 of the 100 field, with an added 500 note.

100 1_ $a Burkhauser, Mary. $1 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9142-7269

500 __  $a Author's ORCID: 0000-0001-9142-7269.

The cataloger may optionally include ORCIDs for committee members in MARC 700 fields. 500 notes are not necessary for this use.

Example: 700 1_ $a Oja, Carol, $d 1953- $e degree supervisor.  $1 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5802-0587

Publication information (for published theses)

264 _1 |a Place of publication : |b Publisher, |c Date of publication.

Example: 264 _1 |a Stockholm : |b Stockholm University, |c 2014.

(optionally may add) 264 _4 |c ©2014

Date of production (for unpublished theses)

264  _0  |c date of production.

Transcribe from title page as it appears on the piece

Example: 264 _0 |c 2014.

                  264 _0 |c March 2014.

Degree Granted Date (optional)

500  |a Degree granted Month Year. (if this information is available)

Example: 500 __ |a Degree granted May 2014.

Thesis Note

  formatted.

502  |b Degree |c Institution |d date

Example: 502 __ |b Ph. D. |c Harvard University |d 2014.

Unformatted

Optionally add a 2nd unformatted 502 if you want to add a term, or further information about the degree or the institution.

Example: 502 __ |a Thesis (Masters of Architecture in Urban Design)--Harvard Graduate School of Design, 2014.

Genre Heading

Prefer LCGFT terms:

655  7 |a Academic theses. |2 lcgft

655 _7 |a Theses. |2 aat

These terms are available from the AAT: Theses, Doctoral dissertations, Masters theses.

Advisors, Committee Members (repeatable)

700 1 |a Name, |e relationship designator.

Example: 700 1_ |a Smith, John, |e degree supervisor.

700 1_ |a Smith, John, |e degree committee member.

 Please see note under ORCID.

degree committee member : A person serving on a committee that supervises a student's thesis or dissertation.

degree supervisor:  A person, such as an advisor or supervisor of thesis or dissertation research, overseeing either an academic degree or thesis.

(An alternative practice is used for electronically submitted theses at Harvard. The names will be entered as 720s since no effort is made to enter them using any cataloging criteria.)  

Degree Granting Institution/Department (repeatable)

710 2  |a Institution, |e degree granting institution.

710 2  |a Institution. |b Subordinate body (if available) |t term defined by the community. [Thesis, Third Year Paper, etc.]

Example: 710 2_ |a Harvard University, |e degree granting institution.

               710 2_ |a Harvard University. |b Department of Anthropology. |t Senior honors theses.

For Harvard Theses and Dissertations: use of access points for particular local programs or schools varies; please follow local practice.  

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To be made up of:

• Year of submission (in round brackets).
• Title of thesis (in italics).
• Degree statement.
• Degree-awarding body.
• Available at: URL.
• (Accessed: date).

In-text citation: 

(Smith, 2019)

Reference List:  

Smith, E. R. C. (2019). Conduits of invasive species into the UK: the angling route? Ph. D. Thesis. University College London. Available at: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10072700 (Accessed: 20 May 2021).

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Five graduate students awarded for outstanding dissertations

We are delighted to announce that five of our graduate students were awarded dissertation prizes at our commencement celebration on May 22.

The Department of Government prize for the best dissertation on a topic of race, ethnicity/or migration and politics was awarded to Olivia Woldemikael for her dissertation, “The Local Consequences of Migration Policies in Latin America, Africa, and North America.”

The two Senator Charles Sumner Prizes are bestowed upon the best dissertations “from the legal, political, historical, economic, social, or ethnic approach, dealing with any means or measures tending toward the prevention of war and the establishment of universal peace”. Caterina Chiopris and Dimitri Halikias were awarded the two prizes for their respective dissertations on “Regional Inequalities and Spatial Integration: Essays on the Political Economy of Europe, 1629-2022” (Chiopris) and “Slaves without Masters: The Feudal Imagination and the Critique of Impersonal Domination” (Halikias).

The Edward M. Chase Prize for the best dissertation on a subject relating to the promotion of world peace was awarded to Andi Zhou for his essay, “The Causes and Consequences of Territorial Nationalism” .

Last, but by no means least, Tyler Simko won the Robert Noxon Toppan Prize for the best dissertation on a subject of political science with his paper “Geographic Policy Evaluation in US State and Local Politics” .

Well done to Olivia, Caterina, Dimitri, Andi, and Tyler for their fantastic work and contributions to their respective fields.

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| 5.23.2024

Shruthi Kumar ’24, Senior English Address: “The Power of Not Knowing”

Amid divisions and uncertainties, finding “space for empathy, solidarity, and a willingness to listen”.

Return to main article:

As prepared for delivery. For Kumar’s additional remarks, please read the accompanying article .

The Power of Not Knowing

Today, we are celebrated for what we know. In fact, for most of our lives, we’ve learned to feel a sense of accomplishment from the awards, accolades, and honors that lined our childhood homes. How much we knew and how we leveraged it got us far. It got us here. But today, I want to convince you of something counterintuitive that I’ve learned from the Class of 2024: the power of not knowing.

I grew up in the Great Plains of Nebraska alongside cattle ranches and cornfields. As the eldest daughter of South Asian immigrants, I was the first in my family to go to college here in the US. There was a lot I didn’t know. When it came time, I asked my parents how to apply to colleges. They too said, “I don’t know.”

The words “I don’t know” used to make me feel powerless. Like there was no answer, and therefore, no way. As if I was admitting defeat.

From Nebraska to Harvard, I found myself redefining this feeling of not knowing. I discovered a newfound power in how much I didn’t know. I didn’t know a field called the “History of Science” even existed. I now find myself a graduate of the Department. In my freshman year of college, for the first time in my life, I was taught by a professor of color. A Historian of Science who made clear to me that history is just as much about the stories we don’t know as the stories we do.

In the History of Science, we often look for what is missing. What documents are not in the archives and whose voices are not captured in history? I’ve learned silence is rarely empty, often loud. What we don’t know can sometimes tell the most powerful story.

I learned this not only in the classroom, but also from the Class of 2024. In reflecting on our collective journey at Harvard, I’ve learned it's often the moments of uncertainty from which something greater than we could have ever imagined grows. Our class has experienced more than our fair share of the unknown.

Our first year, during COVID, we didn’t have Annenberg to meet 100 people in an hour and walk out remembering 5 names. We didn’t know what starting Harvard in the middle of a global pandemic would be like. So what did we do?Jefe’s became the new Annenberg, and we learned, in the midst of uncertainty, to connect differently, building quality over quantity in our friendships. In our sophomore year, Roe v. Wade was overturned and there was and still is, in many parts of the country, an omnipresent uncertainty in accessing reproductive healthcare. In our junior year, Harvard faced the Supreme Court and the decision to reverse affirmative action. Whether we realize it or not, we have been swimming in uncharted waters.

Which brings me to our senior year, a year on campus that has been marked by enormous uncertainty. In the fall, my name and identity alongside other black and brown students at Harvard was publically targeted. For many of us, students of color, doxxing left our jobs uncertain, our safety uncertain, our well-being uncertain.

Now, we are in a moment of intense division and disagreement in our community over the events in Gaza. I see pain, uncertainty, and unrest across campus. It’s now, in a moment like this, that the power of “not knowing” becomes critical.

Maybe we don’t know what it’s like to be ethnically targeted. Maybe we don’t know what it's like to come face to face with violence and death. But, we don’t have to know.

Solidarity is not dependent on what we know, because “not knowing” is an ethical stance. It creates space for empathy, solidarity, and a willingness to listen.

I don’t know – so I ask. I listen. I believe an important type of learning takes place, especially in moments of uncertainty, when we lean into conversations without assuming we have all the answers. Can we see humanity in people we don’t know? Can we feel the pain of people with whom we disagree?

As we graduate, what we know , our material knowledge, may not matter so much anymore. The truth is, it’s what we don’t know and how we navigate it that will set us apart moving forward.

Uncertainty is uncomfortable. But I encourage you to dive into the deep end of discomfort, and as you do, bring with you a Beginner’s mind, an ethic of not knowing.

As Emily Dickinson had said, “Not knowing when the Dawn will come, I open every Door.”

Thank you, and Congratulations Class of 2024!

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David Velasquez, Harvard Medical and Business and Public Policy School Graduate, on His Family Story

By Adaira Landry

When David Velasquez’s parents emigrated from Nicaragua to the United States, they were dropped off at a gas station in California. They spoke no English, had no family or friends, and could not afford clothes or diapers for their young children. Finding work was a challenge as his mother and father have a a fifth- and third-grade education, respectively. David's father stood on the street corner to pick up jobs as a day laborer to earn income for his family.

Despite his family's financial precarity, David excelled in school from a young age. When he was just three years old, his preschool teacher said to his mother, “Do you know you have a genius in your family? We have to take advantage of him in school. He is extraordinary, he’s going to be someone important.” This year, David will become the first person in the history of Harvard to graduate from Harvard Business School, Harvard Kennedy School, and Harvard Medical School at the same time .

Teen Vogue spoke with David and his parents, Calixto and Sara Velasquez, via Zoom about their experience immigrating to the United States and David’s remarkable achievements.

This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Teen Vogue: Mr. and Mrs. Velasquez, when you arrived in the United States, what were you expecting of yourself and David?

Calixto Velasquez: We arrived with an idea to prosper. We wanted to advance using hard work and effort. My wife’s first job was cleaning for just $2.25/hr. A Catholic church took us in. Women searched for food and cooked, and men would stand on the corner and take random jobs that came up. We did whatever it took to survive for our family. We wanted a good life for our four boys. We had the opportunity to work, and our focus was for them to get to school.

Sara and Calixto Velasquez

TV: As parents, did you focus more on David’s academic performance or developing his character?

Sara Velasquez: We focused on character traits. Discipline was very important to us. We told our sons to be punctual so that they can be even better, honest, and responsible people. When they came home from school, yes, we wanted them to do their homework. We never wanted them to miss school. But we also wanted kind children.

We saw how kind David was when he was young. In first or second grade, he knew we didn’t have much to eat at home. At school he was given food to eat. One day after school, from his sock, he took out two chicken nuggets and he gave them to us because he knew we were hungry. Since then, we knew he wanted to do something for our family.

TV: David, what challenges did you face when navigating your own educational experience?

David Velasquez: I grew up in the Los Angeles area and did grade school in Antelope Valley. We moved around and changed schools every two years due to Section 8 housing vouchers ending often. The schools I attended had a lot of fights and gangs. I just focused on running, basketball, and math.

After high school I went to the University of Southern California, and I was the first person in my family to go to college. Initially it was hard because I didn't know anyone else who had gone to college. I didn’t know how to navigate the complexities of college. But I did know one thing: I knew how to believe in myself.

Velasquez family in 1997

TV: You believed in yourself enough to go beyond medical school and get two additional graduate degrees from Harvard. How did that decision come about?

DV: As I tried to figure out what to do with my medical degree, I realized early on that I needed to think about big issues and policy. I knew better health care policies would affect people like my parents. I got involved with an organization that tried to improve access to medical care. This was personal to me as my family and I [had] experienced homelessness. I realized a degree in public policy would help me design and deliver better health care systems.

I also did work in the C-suites of hospitals and nonprofits across Boston. I noticed that the people making decisions were familiar with business. I wanted to be comfortable having these discussions as well. It made sense to go to school for three degrees: public policy, business, and medical school. It’s important for people like me to be in these hyper-professional spaces.

TV: Many people are discouraged by goals that take as long to achieve as yours. How did you stay motivated?

DV: I was nervous about committing to apply to medical school and the additional degrees; however, if you are pursuing a goal for the right reasons, the journey itself becomes a part of your life. Since starting college, it’s been 11 years of education. Every year I learn something about myself and the world.

Also, this journey isn't just for me; I’m doing it for my community. When it comes to committing to any goal, so long as you have that north star, the decision to pursue it becomes a lot easier. I’ll be doing residency at Harvard with a focus on primary care. Afterwards, I want to go back to the underserved communities that I came from.

TV: At what point did you discover your ambition with school?

DV: I was ambitious during high school, but the ambition wasn’t focused on academics. I was ambitious about track and field and on the hills I ran on. When I committed to cross country and track, I wanted to be the best that I could be. I would tell myself, “I am going to do this as best I possibly can.”

Motivation can be transferable. When I started to get interested in math, and later medicine, I wanted to dive deep into the content and learn it as best as I possibly could. At that point, I knew what motivation looked like.

TV: You mentioned that you attended schools where fights were common. What led you to a different path than your peers?

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DV: My parents and brothers were critical for my development. My dad made sure that we were disciplined and diligent. Their faith in us comes from them not having an opportunity when they were young. My dad fought in a war at 19; later he immigrated across Central America to Mexico to the United States. I had a father figure in the house who valued hard work and doing the right thing. My mom is the heart of the family. She always encouraged us to be good kids.

I made mistakes for sure; in fifth grade [I even] joined a gang, but it didn’t feel well. I just knew that path wasn’t for me.

David's preschool class

TV: How important is mentorship for young adults?

DV: When I was in high school, my math teacher sought me out. He really believed in me. He gave me the motivation to apply to college in the first place. When I got to college, I started to realize how important mentors are. It is important to be intentional about finding people who are going to be in your corner and going to believe in you. Find people who say, “I love that for you. I want to support you in that. Let me know how I can help.”

TV: After getting three competitive degrees, how do you know you belong where you are?

DV: I am surrounded by people who similarly care about the issues that drive me. When I started medical school, I put healing others in front of everything. I surrounded myself with people who believed in a better future. It’s important to find a place that feels like home. I'm around people who have similar visions — similar drive to make things better.

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