Harvard University
Our global community
Harvard faculty, students, and alumni compose a global network of researchers, scholars, and practitioners exploring and contributing to health, law, religion, social science, government, education, business, art, news, justice, design, and the environment around the world.
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100+ languages
are taught at Harvard, including the recent addition of Tagalog.
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29.6 million learners
from all across the globe have enrolled in courses on Harvard Online.
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20+ locations abroad
link Harvard faculty and students to local scholars, businesses, and communities.
Asia
From the cross-cultural studies at Harvard’s Asia Center and the Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute to the comprehensive East Asian collections of the Harvard Yenching Library and research from the Middle East Initiative, Harvard enjoys a wealth of resources to help scholars explore and celebrate Asia.
Medicine
Harvard School of Dental Medicine alum Shahid Aziz started Smile Bangladesh, a nonprofit dedicated to providing care to children and adults with facial cleft deformities. His friend and former classmate Jose Marchena is vice president of the organization.
MedicineTechnology
A thesis by School of Engineering alum Zeerak Ahmed focused on better representing Urdu and other non-Latin languages in software.
Farming
Gramhal, founded by Kennedy School alum Vikas Birhma, provides warehousing that allows farmers in India to store their crops and wait until prices improve.
Resources
This Graduate School of Design thesis focused on the Mekong River, the lifeblood of plants, animals, and tens of millions of people across six countries.
Business
Harvard Business School alums Yumiko Murakami and Miwa Seki started the first woman-led venture capital firm in Japan.
Politics
Experiences in Iraq led to Belfer Center Fellow Marsin Alshamary’s thesis, and later book, exploring why religious leaders get involved in politics.
Journey to the Amazon
In August 2024, Harvard launched the Harvard Amazon Rainforest Immersion, an interdisciplinary program that brings together faculty, students, and young academics to explore one of the planet’s most vital ecosystems.
A diverse group of leaders from across Brazil came together at Harvard to learn about the latest science in early childhood development and create plans to implement locally.
Daniela Terán Endara focuses on human-centric design, which puts people’s needs and perspectives at the center of the design process, to help communities in Ecuador, Peru, and Colombia.
Roberto Zariquiey, a 2022-2023 Radcliffe Institute fellow, is hoping to reframe the discussion around languages with few speakers.
Scholars, artists, and leaders came together at a conference in São Paulo to share scholarship relating to race, racism, and racial stratification in Latin America.
Australia/Oceania
Harvard students, faculty, and alumni have the opportunity to support and explore this region through study abroad programs in Australia and New Zealand, collaboration with schools through the Leading Learning that Matters program, and programming and networking with the Harvard Club of Australia.
Cancer research and support
As chair of the Breast Cancer Foundation New Zealand, Harvard Business School alum Justine Smyth believes the ambitious goal of zero deaths can be achieved.
Empowering with art
Participants in this Kennedy School program brainstormed ways to address the challenging issue of youth unemployment within the creative industry in Papua New Guinea.
Learning from history
This dissertation drew on archival sources and oral history to examine the relationships between the Marshallese, Protestant missionaries, and the U.S. military.
Educational leaders
In 2019, the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s “Principals’ Centre in Australia” program, which is tailored to regional challenges and concerns, was held at the University of Sydney Business School in Australia.
Antarctica
Harvard researchers are investigating everything from climate change to astrophysics on Earth’s coldest continent.
Life on the ice
Every year, scientists travel to the inhospitable South Pole to conduct studies under conditions found nowhere else on earth.
Africa
The Harvard community’s impact in Africa can be seen in the work of the Africa Research Center, the Harvard Malaria Initiative, and the Harvard University Center for African Studies.
New endeavors
Seven projects have been selected as the 2024 awardees for the Motsepe Presidential Research Accelerator Fund for Africa. The primary purpose of the fund is to support faculty-led and student-driven research projects that focus on advancing key challenges and opportunities facing Africa.
New endeavorsEducation
Toshiko Mori, a professor at Harvard Graduate School of Design, opened a school in Senegal that fosters community and redefines learning for children.
Economy
The Growth Lab is training students and practitioners to do economic development policy work in cities and countries across the globe.
Healthcare
Harvard School of Dental Medicine faculty returned to Rwanda to expand oral health training, this time with a focus on future physicians.
Leadership
In 2022, Harvard Law School brought together four female African heads of state to explore opportunities for the continent’s future advancement.
North America
Harvard initiatives in North America are vast and varied, including the Weatherhead Center’s Canada program, the Project on Indigenous Governance and Development at the Harvard Kennedy School, and the David Rockefeller Center’s programs in Mexico and the Caribbean.
Indigenous cultures of Mexico
Harvard Extension School Instructor Carlos Vargas explores the diversity of Indigenous cultures in Mexico.
Stability and security in Haiti
Anthropologist Erica Caple James outlines the roots of the country’s current unrest and says that ultimately, stability and security must come through governance that is accountable to Haiti’s people.
Pride in Cuba
The Harvard Review of Latin America explores Cuba’s LGBTQ+ community.
Languages of Alaska
X̱ʼunei Lance Twitchell is working to keep Alaska Native languages alive.
Rejuvenation in Detroit
This landscape architecture projects digs into the empty lots of the Warrendale neighborhood: who owns them, why haven’t they changed, and how can the next generation help shape their future.
Health equity in Mississippi
As part of a public health fellowship, Harvard students explored approaches to fix the health inequities in the Mississippi Delta.
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