Addressing Ethnic and Religious Conflict

[  Weatherhead Research Cluster on Identity Politics Website  ]

From Germany to Brazil, the world has witnessed the rise of ethno-nationalism over the past two decades, a trend which recently culminated with the deadly storming of the US Capitol in January 2021 by mostly white, right-wing protesters. The spectacle of insurrection...

Building Inclusion and Sustaining Solidarity

[ Weatherhead Research Cluster on Migration Website ]

Gone are the days when most forced international migration occurred along well-charted and predictable routes. People fleeing war, violence, climate related disaster, and other threats to their lives now routinely lack any official humanitarian assistance. Instead they are forced to resort to tortuous and...

Establishing an Academic Pipeline in the Social Sciences

[  Weatherhead Research Cluster on Climate Change Website  ]

This cluster catalyzes the study of climate change—a global and local challenge throughout the world—by supporting the next generation of social science scholars in economics, political science, and sociology. 

Human-caused climate change is an...

The Political Economy of Firms and States in a Changing World

[  Weatherhead Research Cluster on Business and Government Website  ]

Business interests are powerful players in all political systems, and an improved understanding of state-business relations is essential to addressing many of the most significant challenges of our time, from the weakening of...

Much scholarly and public attention is paid these days to nonconventional security challenges like civil conflicts, terrorism, and human security more broadly. Our cluster aims to revive the academic study of traditional interstate security studies at Harvard. This, however, is not a return to ‘old’ security studies nor a reproduction of policy-focused security studies. We are interested in employing new theories and methodologies that are relevant to understanding understudied features in traditional interstate security. Our focus is on three novel research lines:

1....

Since 2018, the Weatherhead Research Cluster on Regions in a Multipolar World has been focused on building intellectual bridges between the study of transnational regions, the evolution of the world system, and shared dilemmas of governance.

Recent decades have been characterized by the global proliferation of region building. Regions, while not the sole drivers of world affairs, are increasingly fundamental to its functioning—from trade to conflict management to cultural exchange. 

Through events,...

In the fall of 2018, the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs launched the Research Cluster on Religion in Public Life in Africa and the African Diaspora to explore the way religion has taken a central place in Africa and African diaspora affairs as well as the Global South. 

Social, economic, and political discourses are increasingly shaped by religious sensibilities and religious activities. This poses a major challenge to African nations in their commitment to creating secular states and in the constantly shifting and contested boundary between the secular and...

[  Weatherhead Research Cluster on Comparative Inequality and Inclusion Website  ]

The Weatherhead Research Cluster on Comparative Inequality and Inclusion draws on expertise from across disciplines to gain international and comparative perspectives on how to extend cultural membership to the greatest number in society, to gain a better understanding of the social and cultural processes behind recognition gaps, and to determine how social...

[  Weatherhead Research Cluster on Challenges to Democracy Website  ]

The Weatherhead Research Cluster on Challenges to Democracy focuses on the different and similar threats to democracy faced by nations around the world. Our aim is to foster conversation between scholars of developing and established democracies, including America, Europe, Latin America, Asia, and Africa. Formerly known as the Weatherhead Research Cluster on Global...

This cluster began in 2011 as the Weatherhead Initiative on Global History, before becoming a research cluster in 2017.

[  Weatherhead Research Cluster on Global History Website  ]

Global history is one of the leading new approaches in recent years that has helped to transform the study of the past. The contemporary trends summarized under the term “globalization” have lent urgency to research that examines historical processes, networks,...