Welcome Message from Acting Center Director Erez Manela

Welcome to the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University! 

Our mission is to support pathbreaking research across the social sciences on the most important questions facing societies around the world. We leverage our deep pool of experts to bring their research to bear on complex global issues, and to translate that research into accessible and actionable knowledge. 

Weatherhead is a large Center, with more than 200 faculty spanning twelve of Harvard’s fourteen schools. Our affiliates also include over 150 graduate and undergraduate students, visiting scholars, fellows, and postdoctoral researchers. We aspire to expand our existing opportunities for scholars from around the world, and from diverse backgrounds, to benefit from and contribute to our research communities. We offer our affiliates numerous opportunities to exchange ideas about their research as we maintain our tradition of theoretical and methodological pluralism. 

Our research clusters bring together numerous scholars around broad areas of shared study. Current clusters focus on business and government relations; comparative inequality and inclusion; global climate policy; global history; global LGBTQI+ human rights; and identity politics. We are excited to support data collection, sharing, and publication in these areas, and in the diverse areas of inquiry of our affiliates. 

Our programs and projects illustrate the range of research activities underway at the Weatherhead Center. For example, the Weatherhead Scholars Program invites approximately two dozen visiting faculty, postdoctoral researchers, and experienced practitioners to spend up to one academic year at Harvard. Participants across all our programs and projects have the opportunity to get involved in the research clusters and engage with the community at Harvard and beyond.

We encourage our affiliates to attend the numerous special events we are hosting this upcoming year. One of our signature events, the online Weatherhead Forum, is open to the public and hosts special sessions that tackle big issues and current events. Our first Forum of the year will be held on September 17, where we will host a discussion on the post-WWII international world order eighty years after the end of the war. Our second Forum is slated for October 15, where our panelists will reflect on the legacy of renowned political scientist Joseph Nye, Jr. Finally, our third Forum of the semester will be held on November 5, when panelists will discuss foreign policy and the state of democracy one year after the US presidential election. In addition, we host several academic conferences over each academic year. The Weatherhead Center also supports over two dozen regular seminars, organized by many intellectual partners on a wide range of topics. Be sure to keep an eye on our Weatherhead events calendar (emailed weekly) for details on these and other events.

I hope you enjoy and benefit from your association with the Weatherhead Center this academic year. I warmly invite you to get involved in our events and activities and to explore our publications, including our online magazine Centerpiece and our research hub Epicenter, where you will find original blog posts, podcast episodes, and multimedia projects featuring the work of Weatherhead affiliates. Stay connected to Center events and news by following us on Bluesky, Twitter/X, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.

For sixty-seven years the Weatherhead Center has helped shape the agenda of international research in the social sciences, and we are thrilled to have you here to continue that legacy.

Sincerely,
Erez Manela
Acting Director, Weatherhead Center
Francis Lee Higginson Professor of History