Social Sciences
Explore faculty and student work in economics, sociology, political science, anthropology, and other disciplines shaping our understanding of society.
FAS Overhaul Brings Deep Cuts to Social Sciences, Phillips Brooks House
After a final round of layoffs, University leaders say 165 staff jobs were eliminated across the division.
Will Global Democracy Survive?
Scholars on the current rise of fascism, domestically and abroad
America’s Riven Politics
A Harvard Magazine Q & A with Evan Osnos ’98, author of Wildland: The Making of America’s Fury
Seeking the First Speakers of Indo-European Language
Ancient DNA sheds new light on the origins of a lingua franca.
Who Should Drive an Electric Vehicle?
Targeting the wrong buyers—and producing more greenhouse-gas emissions
Origins of the Urban Housing Crisis
The high cost of environmental mandates, historic-preservation rules, and other good intentions
The Causes of Long COVID
Trying to understand infections’ persistent effects—and to develop cures
Public Health Messaging in a Pandemic
How much intervention is too much, or not enough, when addressing a politically and socially diverse population?
by Isabel Mehta
Fracking’s Deadly Toll
Harvard researchers find that fracking shortens the lives of elderly Americans living downwind of unconventional oil and gas wells.
Why Aid Cuts Didn’t End Worker Shortages
Why cutting jobless aid during the pandemic didn’t send workers scrambling for work
Can Infrastructure Remedy Social Ills?
A Design School class suggests how “social infrastructure” can meet societal needs.