Spring 2026, Volume 40 Number 2
Download: Spring 2026, Volume 40 Number 2 [ PDF: 2.21 MB ] or view online
The Centerpiece newsletter highlights the various activities throughout the semester at Weatherhead. Read the newest "Message from the Executive Director" column to get an overview of the semester. In our first feature, we publish excerpts of the Jodidi Lecture with Dr. Atul Gawande, former USAID administrator, on the fallout from drastic cuts to humanitarian aid. Our second feature article is the student-professor interview between Center Acting Director Erez Manela and one of his students, Undergraduate Associate Kendall Carll. Both reflect on their mentor-mentee dynamic and shared intellectual interests. As per usual, we provide updates on student programs, including both graduate and undergraduate students. We also share updates on the global history research cluster regarding Sven Beckert's new book; the Weatherhead Scholars Program engagement with students; and the inaugural Harvard Alumni Summit in Cairo. In addition, check out our affiliates' new books and accolades, along with the new Faculty Associates who joined Weatherhead this year—and flip through our photo album from the spring semester! Finally, we mourn the loss of two longstanding colleagues, Michael McElroy and Pierre Keller.
Message from the Executive Director
This semester, the Weatherhead Center took the show on the road—literally! In an effort to increase our Center’s visibility beyond the Harvard campus, we participated in the first “Harvard Alumni Summit: Middle East and Africa,” held mid-January in Cairo. The conference was jointly organized by twelve alumni clubs in the region, and attended by over two hundred alums from over thirty countries. We also sponsored two book presentations outside of Cambridge, both featuring Faculty Associate Sven Beckert’s latest publication, Capitalism: A Global History. Read more about these spring events in London and New York City. . . .
The Mechanics of Public Man-Made Death: USAID's Destruction at One Year
On Wednesday, February 11, 2026, Dr. Atul Gawande delivered the Samuel L. and Elizabeth Jodidi Lecture in Tsai Auditorium in Cambridge. Weatherhead Center Acting Director Erez Manela moderated the conversation. Dr. Gawande was a former leader of global health at the US Agency for International Development (USAID), and is a local surgeon and public health researcher. He also writes regularly for The New Yorker. Below are selected excerpts of Gawande’s talk, edited for clarity and length. . . .
In Conversation with Erez Manela and Kendall Carll
This academic year, Harvard historian and Weatherhead Faculty Associate Professor Erez Manela has served as acting director for the Center while Director Melani Cammett has been on leave. Manela also oversees the Graduate Student Program at Weatherhead and is highly dedicated to both undergraduate and graduate students at Harvard. In this interview, he is in conversation with Weatherhead Undergraduate Associate Kendall Carll '26. Carll has taken several of Manela’s classes and did an independent reading and research course with him on Sino-American relations. The following conversation, edited for length and clarity, reflects their common research interests and illustrates the unique connection and growth between a professor and student. . . .
At the Center
Global History
Weatherhead Scholars Program
Students
Harvard Alumni Summit
Spring 2026 Event Photos
