A humanitarian comes home
It was 1996, and Harvard senior Stephanie Kayden was sitting in Emerson 101, listening to Robert Nozick talk about philosophy. Kayden knew that studying philosophy was unusual preparation for medical school, but she wanted to sample something different before diving into medical studies. Now, 15 years later, Kayden is an instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School, an emergency physician at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and an authority in the humanitarian response to global disasters, both natural and man-made. This semester, Kayden found herself coming full circle, spending her Wednesday evenings back in Emerson 101, but now standing at the front of the room teaching a course in humanitarian studies. Kayden, an associate faculty member with the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI), said a scheduling quirk led the course, usually taught at the Harvard School of Public Health, to its Yard location. An unexpected surge in enrollment — 40 were expected but the...
