2017–2018 Welcome Message from Director Michèle Lamont

Welcome to the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University. Our community of scholars is committed to studying complex international, transnational, global, and comparative topics and to producing first-rate research. Our affiliates include 235 Harvard Faculty Associates, and over 150 graduate and undergraduate students, visiting scholars, fellows, and postdoctoral researchers. Our community draws members from nine of Harvard’s thirteen schools, making us a strong interdisciplinary presence on campus.

Weatherhead Center scholars seek to dive deep into understanding a broad range of challenges facing the world. This academic year, we are launching Weatherhead Research Clusters focused on global populism, the history of global transformations, and comparative inequality and inclusion. Over the next three years, faculty, students, and visiting scholars will collaborate on research and publications. We will continue to support three ongoing Weatherhead Initiatives, which concern gender inequality, climate engineering, and Afro-Latin American studies.

Also new this year is the Weatherhead Scholars Program, which takes the place of our former Fellows Program. This program offers visiting faculty, postdoctoral researchers, and experienced practitioners the prospect of spending up to one academic year at Harvard. Scholars will have the opportunity to get involved in the new research clusters, interact with faculty, and engage with the Center community.

In addition, we offer the biweekly Weatherhead Forum, open to all Weatherhead Center affiliates, where we showcase the research happening across the Center. Each talk will highlight a different program, project, or research group, with the goal of bringing together a robust intellectual community.

Numerous ongoing programs, projects, and conferences complete the range of research activities underway at the Weatherhead Center. The Center supports over thirty-five regular seminars organized by many intellectual communities on a wide range of topics. Our Center is extraordinarily dynamic and committed to facilitating research.

I hope you will enjoy exploring the Weatherhead Center this coming 2017–2018 academic year. In addition to the events, activities, and publications—including our Epicenter blog—please follow us on Twitter and Facebook to participate in our ongoing conversations.

Thank you for visiting, and I hope you find our resources valuable and interesting!

Sincerely,

Michèle Lamont

Director, Weatherhead Center
Robert I. Goldman Professor of European Studies
Professor of Sociology and of African and African American Studies