Research & Ideas

Discover Harvard research, scholarship, and ideas shaping the world—from science and technology to policy, education, and the humanities.

John Harvard statue under the American Flag

Court Blocks International Student Visa Rule

Citing improper procedure, a district judge postponed the government’s efforts to cap student visas at four years.

by Jonathan Shaw

Children from New Hope orphanage in Busia, Uganda, make their nightly walk to get water for drinking and washing. They handle all the chores themselves—an important part of director Ken Mulago’s strategy for running the orphanage. “We want our children to behave as responsible adults,” he says. “We don’t want to raise them up just to think about themselves.”

Harvard students volunteer in Africa

Students and service at a new frontier

by Elizabeth Gudrais

A woman in a white shirt is pounding rice on a patterned cloth outside.

Grace Ryan films a documentary on mental-health care in Ghana

Grace Ryan ’10 films a documentary on mental-health care, and the debate over reform, in Accra, Ghana.

by Elizabeth Gudrais

The Harvard team: Darryl Finkton ’10, Sangu Delle ’10, and Ndu Okereke ’10

Sangu Delle brings clean water to the village of Agyementi, Ghana

In Agyementi, Ghana, Sangu Delle ’10 brings clean water to a village.

by Elizabeth Gudrais

Megan Shutzer ’10 first traveled to Africa during her junior year; she spent a semester traveling around Tanzania on a program learning about wildlife ecology and the conservation industry. Here, she is shown near Lake Natron in northern Tanzania, where she did a homestay with a Masai family (including some of the children shown).

Megan Shutzer interviews those who fled election violence in Kenya

In a refugee camp near Nakuru, Kenya, Megan Shutzer ’10 learns that fallout from the 2007 election violence persists.

by Elizabeth Gudrais

The University of Ghana campus

At the University of Ghana, Audrey White studies the history of the slave trade

At "slave castles" and the University of Ghana, Audrey White ’10 researches the slave trade.

by Elizabeth Gudrais

Courtesy of The Ayn Rand Institute

Biographical sketch of Ayn Rand

Brief life of an iconoclastic individualist

by Jennifer Burns

Illustration by Stuart Bradford

New media transform college classrooms

Visual, audio, and interactive media are transforming the college classroom

by Craig Lambert

Orhan Pamuk

An undergraduate ponders Orhan Pamuk's Norton Lectures

Ledecky Undergraduate Fellow Spencer Lenfield listens to Orhan Pamuk’s Norton Lectures.

John Mugane

Professor John Mugane directs Harvard’s African language program

Meet the director of Harvard’s African language program.

English and the humanities in decline?

A new lament about the status of English critiques the Harvard department's new curriculum.