Centerpiece: Spring 2021

In Memoriam

Ezra Vogel (1930–2020)

Ezra Vogel giving a talk in a lecture hall against a large computer screen

Ezra Vogel, Henry Ford II Professor of the Social Sciences Emeritus at Harvard University, passed away on December 20, 2020, at age ninety. He was the founding director of the Program on U.S.-Japan...

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Student Programs

2020–2021 Graduate Student Associates

Zoom screenshot of the 2020-2021 Graduate Student Associates

The Graduate Student Associates (GSA) program is one of the Center's oldest and most valued programs. Directed by Erez Manela, professor of history and Weatherhead Center Faculty Associate, the...

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New Books

People, Predicaments and Potentials in Africa

Edited by Takehiko Ochiai, Misa Hirano-Nomoto, Daniel E. Agbiboa

Book cover for People, Predicaments and Potentials in AfricaThe term 'African Potentials' refers to the knowledge, systems,...

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Of Note

Image of spiral staircase

Benjamin Enke Named Sloan Fellow

Faculty Associate Benjamin Enke, assistant professor of economics at Harvard University, is one of 128 early-career scholars who received a 2021 Sloan Research Fellowship. Awarded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the...

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Spring 2021, Volume 35 Number 2

Cover of the Spring 2021 Centerpiece with photo of Kabul citylifeCenter life soldiers on during the COVID-19 pandemic, and we remained busy as ever—just from afar. In her last Message from the Director column, Michèle Lamont writes about the changes that have taken place over the past six years. Over this summer, she will pass the baton to new Center Director Melani Cammett, Clarence Dillon Professor of International Affairs at Harvard University and professor of global health and population at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Learn more about Melani Cammett in our first feature, "In Conversation with New WCFIA Director Melani Cammett." In our second feature, "Community-Based Education: Relationships between the Local and ‘Beyond the Local’," recent Graduate Student Associate Bibi-Zuhra Faizi (EdD '21) explores community-based schools in Kabul, Afghanistan—including the relationships between the schools and the community, the state, and NGOs. In our program update for The Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies, we say goodbye to several key members of the program leadership team. Meet the new director of the Weatherhead Scholars Program, Erin Goodman, in our Q&A that dives into her new role as well as what brought her to the Weatherhead Center. Finally, we pay tribute to two friends and colleagues who recently passed away, Ezra Vogel and Richard C. Cooper, in our In Memoriam column.... Read more about Spring 2021, Volume 35 Number 2