Sean Wang Zi-Ming

Sean Wang Zi-Ming

Sean Wang Zi-Ming is an undergraduate at Harvard College studying Comparative Literature and Environmental Science and Public Policy. Raised in Singapore’s multicultural tropics, he is interested in literary and artistic depictions of the natural world and how these span across cultures. He has worked with the Plant Humanities Initiative at Dumbarton Oaks as a Plant Humanities Intern.

Watercolor illustration of Plumeria Acuminata commissioned by Scottish doctor and botanist William Roxburgh, late 18th century or early 19th century.

Plant of the Month

Plant of the Month: Frangipani

An ornamental plant whose white flowers hang over graveyards and temples in Southeast Asia presents complicated questions on national belonging and religious identity.

Editors' Picks

James Baldwin and Nikki Giovanni in Conversation

In 1971, two legends of Black letters discussed Black manhood, white racism, the role of the writer, and the responsibility to teach.

Science & Technology

Can We Build a Better Facebook?

Is it time to turn our back on Facebook? And if so, what social network could possibly replace it?

Science & Technology

The Anatomists of Ancient Alexandria

Cultural forces under the Ptolemaic dynasty briefly allowed scholars like Herophilus to practice dissection—and possibly vivisection—on human subjects.

Politics & History

The Genocide Before the Shoah

For a century, Jews in Turkey have maintained a strategic silence when it comes to recognizing the Armenian genocide. Could that be changing?

Politics & History

Wilhelm Reich: Twice Burned

A psychoanalyst and physician, Reich fled the Nazis only to be detained by the US as an “enemy alien” during World War II. And then came the sexual revolution.