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.
Political theorist Danielle Allen is profiled by Spencer Lenfield
Danielle Allen’s mission to return equality to the heart of American democracy
Harvard economist Richard Freeman on the risks of robotization of the economy
Most people’s jobs are at risk of becoming robotized, argues labor economist Richard Freeman.
Susan Dunn reviews Jefferson biography by Annette Gordon-Reed and Peter S. Onuf
Thomas Jefferson's “fractal” view of American self-governance
by Susan Dunn
Harvard historians: ice records shed light on medieval climate
Historians at Harvard's Initiative for the Science of the Human Past investigate ice cores.
Economists debate the merits of school choice
Economists rethink the merits of school-choice systems.
Harvard's eugenics era
When academics embraced scientific racism, immigration restrictions, and the suppression of “the unfit”
Brief life of Federalist politician Caleb Strong, by Richard D. Brown
Brief life of an exemplary politician: 1745-1819
Comparing the end of the death penalty in France and America
An historian tracks the death penalty’s persistence in America.
Jacqueline Bhabha critiques the world's response to migration crises
Harvard human-rights expert Jacqueline Bhabha critiques the inadequate response to the world’s migration crises.
Brief life of formidable anthropologist Cora Du Bois, by Susan C. Seymour
Brief life of a formidable anthropologist: 1903-1991