Welcome Message from Center Director Melani Cammett

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 research center, with more than 230 Faculty Associates spanning twelve of Harvard’s fourteen schools. Our affiliates also include over 150 graduate and undergraduate students, visiting scholars, fellows, and postdoctoral researchers. We aim to offer our affiliates numerous opportunities to exchange ideas 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 at the Weatherhead Center focus on business and government relations; comparative inequality and inclusion; global climate policy; global LGBTQI+ human rights; and identity and conflict. 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. Visiting affiliates are also joining us this year from the Program on US-Japan Relations, the Scandinavian Consortium on Organizational Research, and the Project on Global History.

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. This fall, our programming will have a special focus on documenting conflict. This will include a photography exhibit in October and November, an online Forum event, and our annual Jodidi Lecture that will be delivered by filmmaker Ron Haviv on October 22. In the spring, our Forum series and our annual Manshel Lecture will focus on international security. 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, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

For sixty-eight 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,
Melani Cammett
Director, Weatherhead Center
Clarence Dillon Professor of International Affairs