  We explain how Lie superalgebras of types gl and osp provide a natural
framework generalizing the classical Schur and Howe dualities. This exposition
includes a discussion of super duality, which connects the parabolic categories
O between classical Lie superalgebras and Lie algebras. Super duality provides
a conceptual solution to the irreducible character problem for these Lie
superalgebras in terms of the classical Kazhdan-Lusztig polynomials.
