On Thursday, Harvard announced a second round of funding for student-led projects designed to build community and break down divisions on campus. Part of the President’s Building Bridges Fund, the eight new projects each will receive up to $5,000 in funding and will launch during winter and spring 2026. Drawn from across the University, they include discussions, film screenings, and one online genetic map.
The Bridges Fund was established last fall, following recommendations in the task force reports on antisemitism and anti-Muslim bias. The program subsidizes initiatives led by students that promote relationships and dialogue among those from different perspectives and backgrounds, counteract harassment and discrimination, and improve listening and cooperative problem-solving. Last February, three projects won funding.
The projects whose work will get underway in 2026 involve lots of conversations, in both formal and informal settings, some among students and others involving scholars and other experts. One project, organized by students at the Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, is titled “Whose Genes?” It will include an online map and “conversation space” exploring different perspectives on genetics, inheritance, and identity. According to Harvard’s announcement, the project is built from 50 interviews with faculty experts, questions collected from the Harvard community, and a public panel of scholars with contrasting views. The purpose is to “deepen public understanding of genetics, challenge deterministic assumptions, and encourage thoughtful engagement with questions about identity, biology, and difference.”
The other seven newly funded projects include:
- The Harvard Rurality Forum (Harvard College): a one-day event to examine the urban-rural divide on economics, culture, and other issues. Conversations will focus on issues such as agriculture, healthcare, and education.
- The Black-Jewish Pluralism Project (Harvard Divinity School): a semester-long series of monthly dialogues on Black-Jewish solidarity amid growing polarization. The events will include reflections on theology, history, and ethics and help participants to “move beyond performative allyship.”
- Civil Society at the Cinema (Harvard Kennedy School): a series of free film screenings and roundtable conversations with filmmakers and other speakers from varied backgrounds at the Brattle Theatre in Harvard Square.
- Breaking Bread, Building Bridges (Harvard Law School): a six-session dialogue series bringing together conservative Christian and progressive left-leaning students for structured conversations about social, ethical, and political issues.
- From Dissent to Dialogue: Conservative and Progressive Legal Dialogue (Harvard Law School): a series of lunch talks across ideological divides, co-hosted by the Federalist Society and the American Constitution Society.
- Across the Aisle (Harvard Business School): a semester-long series of facilitated dialogues, story circles, and community dinners co-led by the school’s Democrats, Liberals, and Progressives Club, the Conservative Club, and the Government & Public Policy Club.
- Gathering Under the Crest (Harvard Graduate School of Design): an installation of 13 pavilions—one for each of Harvard’s schools, with design input from students at each school. The pavilions are meant to serve as gathering spaces that encourage students and others from different parts of Harvard to see themselves as elements of a whole community.
