Awe on the Margins: Youth Perspectives on the (im)possibilities of Human Flourishing
On Wednesday, April 15th, 2026, from 1-1:50 PM in FXB G13 and online, all are welcome to join us for the sixth and final installment in our Virtues for Well-being Seminar Series, featuring Dr. Demond Hill.
Seminar Description
According to scholars, awe (i.e., the emotional response to something vast that transcends our ordinary frame of reference) has the potential to transform perspectives, foster human flourishing, and enhance well-being (Shiota, Keltner, & Mossman, 2007; Monroy & Keltner, 2023; Keltner, 2025). However, little is known about where awe occurs in marginalized urban contexts, who can access it, and how it might serve as a tool to disrupt structural violence. Therefore, this seminar is grounded in the central question: what would it take for “us” to be more honest with the life/lives we are living, living on, stepping over, and forgetting? Drawing from the first year of an ongoing three-year youth-participatory action research (Y-PAR) study with 100 Black and Brown high school students (ages 14–17) at a predominantly Black and Brown school in Boston, MA, this project explores how youth understand, express, and utilize awe and human flourishing for transformative change. Over the course of a year (2025–2026), youth participated in an awe and flourishing literacy program during after-school hours. Students were offered opportunities to experience (e.g., awe excursions), express (e.g., documenting through photo and videovoice, and short stories), and create (e.g., design and implement awe-inspiring places and spaces). This work cultivates skills that counter cumulative stress and persistent trauma while fostering healing and civic engagement. Key questions include: (a) How can awe serve as both a protective factor and a tool for transforming “awe-ful” spaces into “awe-inspiring” ones? and (b) What emerges when young people become creators of awe within their communities? In this seminar, we will examine youth-designed pathways toward health equity, explore the relationship between awe and various emotions (e.g., shame, grief, and joy), and consider how “actionable awe” can mobilize collective efforts toward honest, communal, and transformative change. Through youth perspectives, attendees will engage with practical and theoretical insights on fostering awe and flourishing amid structural violence.
Speaker Biography
Dr. Demond M. Hill is an Assistant Professor of Health Equity at Tufts University in the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study and Human Development. His research, grounded in transdisciplinary, critical, applied, humanizing-based approaches, focuses on the mental health and well-being of marginalized children, youth, and families, with a particular emphasis on Black populations. Broadly, his work examines socioeconomic, structural, racial, and environmental factors affecting mental health and well-being, with a focus on persistent trauma and chronic stress. He explores how schools shape and are shaped by daily experiences to advance mental health equity in educational settings and the broader community. Ultimately, Dr. Hill collaborates with communities to promote and protect opportunities for awe, belonging, and human flourishing among Black and Brown communities within systemic inequality. His work centers marginalized communities’ voices and lived experiences and incorporates youth- and community-based participatory action approaches to identify and strengthen protective factors that inform policy and promote mental health equity.
Speaker Information
Dr. Demond Hill
Organizers
War and the public’s health
Join the FXB Center for Health & Human Rights for a fireside chat with physician and epidemiologist Barry Levy, MD, MPH, and discussion with FXB Visiting Scientist Yara M. Asi, PhD. They will describe the impacts of war on the health and human rights of noncombatant civilians and related issues, including forced displacement and destruction of civilian infrastructure. They will also discuss the prevention of war and the promotion of peace. Dr. Levy will draw on his book, From Horror to Hope: Recognizing and Preventing the Health Impacts of War, and Dr. Asi on her book, How War Kills: The Overlooked Threats to Our Health.
Speaker Information
Barry Levy, MD, MPH
Moderator
Opening Remarks
Organizers
Post-Launch of the Lancet One Health Commission Report
We are delighted to invite you the post-launch event of the Lancet One Health Commission Report.
Date: Wednesday December 3, 2025
Time: 2:00-4:00pm EST
Location: Hybrid | Countway Library & Zoom
The event will highlight the urgent challenges at the intersection of health and sustainability – including health inequity, climate change, biodiversity loss, antimicrobial resistance, infectious and non-communicable diseases, as well as weak health systems. These issues illustrate the inseparable links between human, animal, and ecosystem health, and underscore the need for a One Health approach to achieve effective solutions.
With only five years left to reach the Sustainable Development Goals, the event will explore how the implementation of One Health can decisively strengthen global health and sustainability efforts.
The event will be moderated by Andrea Winkler, Co-Chair of the Lancet One Health Commission and co(joint)-Director of the Center for Global Health of the Technical University of Munich, Germany.
Register here to join in person.
Click here to access Zoom link (Harvard Key required).
Speaker Information
Organizers
Report-back from the 2ND Africa-CARICOM summit on reparations
Join the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights for a virtual conversation between FXB Director, Dr. Mary T. Bassett, MD, MPH, and FXB Visiting Scientist Brittney Francis, PhD, MPH, who will share their takeaways after attending the 2nd Africa-CARICOM Summit in Addis Ababa in September 2025. The summit brought together member states from the African Union and CARICOM, along with UN entities and international NGOs, including the global African diaspora. The goal was to strengthen unity, deepen integration, and jointly pursue reparations and reparatory justice through a comprehensive transcontinental partnership framework, under the theme: “Transcontinental Partnership in Pursuit of Reparatory Justice for Africans and People of African Descent through Reparations.” The conversation will be moderated by FXB Research Associate, Serhat Yildirim, MD, MMSc.
Speaker Information
Organizers
Monday Nutrition Seminar | Harnessing planetary health data science approaches to understanding food safety and food security in Madagascar
Please join the Department of Nutrition for the Monday Nutrition Seminar featuring Christopher Golden, PhD, MPH, Associate Professor of Nutrition and Planetary Health, Director of the MPH in Nutrition Program, Co-Director of the Concentration in Climate Change and Planetary Health; Giacomo De Nicola, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow; Oladimeji Mudele, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The speakers will present their talk on “Harnessing planetary health data science approaches to understanding food safety and food security in Madagascar” on December 1, 2025 at 1:00 p.m. ET. This seminar will take place in FXB G-13 and via Zoom (registration is required in advance).
The Monday Nutrition Seminar Series is free and open to the public. If you plan to attend this event and do not have an active HUID, please fill out this registration form by 3:00 p.m. ET on the Friday before the seminar to request a visitor pass to access the building.
Seminar speakers share their perspectives, they do not speak for Harvard.
Speaker Information
Organizers
Monday Nutrition Seminar | Biomarkers as an essential instrument in nutritional research
Please join the Department of Nutrition for the Monday Nutrition Seminar featuring at Qi Sun, MD, DSc, Associate Professor at the Departments of Nutrition and Epidemiology, Director of Nutritional Biomarker Laboratory at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Associate Professor of Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School. Dr. Sun will present his talk on “Biomarkers as an Essential Instrument in Nutritional Research” on November 24, 2025 at 1:00 p.m. ET. This seminar will take place in FXB G-13 and via Zoom (registration is required).
The Monday Nutrition Seminar Series is free and open to the public. If you plan to attend this event and do not have an active HUID, please fill out the registration form by 3:00pm ET on the Friday before the seminar to request a visitor pass to access the building.
Seminar speakers share their perspectives, they do not speak for Harvard.
Speaker Information
Qi Sun, MD, DSc
Organizers
From Clinical Insight to Preclinical Innovation: Advancing Next-Generation CAR T-Cell Therapies
Title Talk
“From Clinical Insight to Preclinical Innovation: Advancing Next-Generation CAR T-Cell Therapies”
THIS SPEAKER WILL BE IN PERSON IN FXB 301.
The event will be hybrid.
Speaker Information
This seminar will present an integrated clinical and translational investigation into the mechanisms that govern CAR T-cell efficacy and therapeutic resistance. We will discuss high-dimensional transcriptional and functional analyses of CAR T cells collected from patients, aimed at defining molecular programs that distinguish durable responders from those who experience relapse or non-response. Complementing these patient-based studies, we will highlight our translational preclinical work using an immunocompetent non-human primate model to experimentally interrogate causal pathways and evaluate targeted genetic modifications that enhance in vivo CAR T-cell persistence, trafficking, and antitumor activity. Together, these complementary approaches aim to establish a mechanistic foundation for the rational engineering of next-generation CAR T-cell therapies with improved clinical outcomes.
What’s at stake for health care reform? Insights from Florida and Massachusetts
Health care access, costs, and coverage – particularly for lower-income Americans – are expected to undergo dramatic changes in the next few years. Enhanced subsidies that make coverage through the Affordable Care Act marketplace more affordable are set to expire at the end of 2025. Meanwhile, Medicaid faces billions in cuts and a high probability that people will lose coverage due to new work requirements, stricter eligibility rules, and more frequent eligibility reviews. In addition, changes in Medicaid reimbursement rules and new rural health grants could have nationwide effects. In this event, former health care leaders from Florida and Massachusetts share their perspectives on how state officials and health care providers will respond in this shifting policy environment.
Register for free to submit your questions.
An on-demand video will be posted after the event.
Speaker Information
Justin Senior
Moderator
About The Studio
Community-Engaged Research Working Group in Environmental Health
Join the Harvard Chan NIEHS Center’s working group on community-engaged research in environmental health!
This working group brings together faculty, trainees, students, and staff to discuss the methods and practice of conducting community-engaged research with a focus on environmental health.
We’ll meet in person in Building 1, 1110 on December 1, 1-1:50 pm. Bring your own lunch. Light refreshments will be provided.
Please email niehsctr@hsph.harvard.edu to RSVP!
Speaker Information
Organizers
The Prevalence and Policy Consequences of “mRNA Vaccine Stigmatization” in the US
Despite their life saving potential, many prominent voices in American public life have used their social and political platforms to spread misinformation about mRNA vaccine safety and efficacy. In this talk, Dr. Motta provides new evidence that “mRNA vaccine stigmatization” is evident in the actions of policymakers across multiple levels of government. He also reviews the state of public opinion about mRNA vaccines, drawing on both original and secondary survey research. He argues that although it is presently unclear whether elites’ efforts to stigmatize mRNA vaccines has spilled over to impact broader US public opinion, there is growing reason to believe that it will. Ultimately, Motta concludes that mRNA vaccine stigmatization could come at an important cost; both by eroding public confidence in mRNA vaccination, and by limiting access to life-saving vaccines.
Registration is required in advance. Event is open to the public. To attend in person, use the Wexner Building entrance at Harvard Kennedy School to locate the Rubenstein Building – R-414-AB David Ellwood Democracy Lab.
Lunch will be provided!