IAN MILLER ON ZOOS, CLIMATE CHANGE, AND THE QUAD

THE HISTORIAN AND CABOT HOUSE FACULTY DEAN Ian J. Miller sat down to discuss his research on empire and energy in modern Japan and East Asia and life as a faculty dean. “When you stand somewhere else, you look at the world through someone else’s eyes or you work with historical documents, reading into those powerful texts, it can be empowering,” he says.

BY MAYA M.F. WILSON CRIMSON MAGAZINE ASSOCIATE EDITOR

who care for the HVAC and keep the water running in the house. I can’t name these folks clearly enough. They are remarkable and they’re here out of acts of caring for students. I always hope that our students recognize that with a sense of gratitude. It’s humbling.

FM: What would you say, apart from the students, is your favorite part about the Quad, more generally?

IJM: Oh, the Quad! Its rich history as a site of contestation, resistance, inclusion, and belonging. I taught a course last semester called Quad Lab, and we rewrote the title to be “ReWriting the History of Harvard and Radcliffe.” We had a brilliant TF, Hazim Hardaman, and a collection of 12 incredibly sharp, motivated undergraduates.

We looked into the history of the Quad as a site of really embodying the best possibilities of this place at a time when women were not understood to be sufficient to the demands of a Harvard education. How ridiculous is that? We are one of three houses that claims that legacy of demonstrating the absurdity of the bigotry and misogyny behind that. As a historian, nothing makes me prouder.

FM: In terms of the physical space?

IJM: One thing I love about the Quad is that there are three houses! We share a sense of identity in that retreat. We’re Harvard’s backyard.

Right now the Quad lawn, which is right out this window, is full of undergraduates. There’s someone throwing a frisbee, there are three or four puppies running around, there’s a couple dozen students sunbathing, chilling out, studying and just hanging out. The lawn is amazing.

FM: How did you and Crate meet?

IJM: We first met each other on the first day of college, on our freshman living learning dorm hall, at a place called Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana, a small Quaker liberal arts school that we chose because it was full of wonderfully curious, quirky people who wanted to change the world.

We loved the place, Earlham was a powerful influence on both of us. We met that first day. We didn’t start dating immediately. We flirted a little our first semester of freshman year, and we began dating really our senior year.

On New Year’s Eve of our senior year, as the clock chimed midnight, I first kissed Crate Herbert, who became my wife. She is wonderful. I adore her. I feel very lucky that we’ve been together 30 years or more, and we’ve been married more than 25 years. It’s one of the great gifts of my life. That doesn’t have to go in print, it’s just true.

College must be a place for fun, and it needs to be a place where you can make mistakes. And it’s okay.

FM: I know you both really love animals, and you have a few pets at home.

There’s Sadie over there! Hi sweetie! Yeah! You doing okay?

FM: This is perhaps going to be a difficult question for you to answer, but I wonder if you have a favorite pet?

No favorite pets, it depends on the day!

Crate, when we were younger, was a cat person, and I was a dog person. And both of us have come to love the other. Our first cat was named Gus. Gus was a huge Maine Coon cat and he would sit on your chest and purr and lick your nose. And our first dog was actually Sadie, and we got Sadie in the year I was coming up for tenure at Harvard University. It is a very difficult period of life, and I thought, you know what? I’m finally going to get a dog.

FM: Any advice you’d like to give to the students reading this article?

“ Oh that’s a really great question. It’s going to be really trite and cheesy, but I genuinely mean this.

People don’t arrive at Harvard by accident. College must be a place for fun, and it needs to be a place where you can make mistakes. And it’s okay. This environment is meant to be a place where you screw up.

The Quad lets you let your guard down, lets you just be yourself, a little more than other parts of campus just by simple fact of its history and its location.

FM: You mentioned on your personal website that one of your academic interests is comparative imperialism. How do you compare imperialisms?

IJM: I would say comparative imperialisms, always plural. I find that pluralizing these complex terms, simply adding an “s” to any complicated term, allows us to think with nuance. And in my case what it allows us to do is move into the past, and into the past tense.

We must reconcile and reckon with the past, using the archives and the materials that are available to us.

That’s how we learn, and that’s really hard for our students, I find. That’s part of why I love the house system. The houses are a place you can be yourself, and you can blow it, and it’s okay. You’re a member of Cabot House no matter what.

FM

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