Faculty News
HLS Visiting Professor Placed on Leave After Arrest For Firing Pellet Gun Near Brookline Synagogue
A visiting professor at Harvard Law School was placed on administrative leave pending an investigation after allegedly firing a pellet gun outside of a Brookline synagogue on the eve of Yom Kippur.
Harvard Professors May Be Eligible for Payments in $1.5 Billion AI Copyright Settlement
When Harvard English professor Deidre S. Lynch read an article published in The Atlantic, titled “Search LibGen, the Pirated-Books Database that Meta Used to Train AI”, she learned for the first time that her work was used without consent to train artificial intelligence models.
Harvard Impact Labs Fund $25,000 Grants for Faculty Public Service
Eight University professors received $25,000 grants as part of their inaugural Harvard Impact Labs fellowships to launch social science projects in collaboration with public and private sector leaders.
Former Harvard Professor Alleges HBS Officials Deleted Evidence in Tenure Denial Lawsuit
Former Harvard Business School associate professor Benjamin G. Edelman ’02, who sued Harvard in 2023 after he was denied tenure, alleged on Tuesday that the University had failed to preserve evidence in the case.
Former HMS Professor Sued Over Alleged Malpractice in Gender Surgeries
Former Harvard Medical School professor Curtis L. Cetrulo was sued for medical malpractice in July by two transgender patients who allege their phalloplasties were botched at Massachusetts General Hospital.
More Than 60 Percent of Harvard FAS Faculty Identify as Liberal on Survey
Roughly 63 percent of Harvard faculty who responded to The Crimson’s annual survey of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences identify as liberal — continuing a steady decline in the percentage of survey respondents who say their political beliefs lean to the left.
University Agrees to Remove Time Caps for Preceptors and Lecturers
Harvard negotiators offered to remove limits on lecturer and preceptor appointments in a contract proposal to the University’s non-tenure-track faculty union on Monday, a major victory for the union.
More Than 80 Faculty Pledge 10 Percent of Pay To Support Harvard’s Fight Against Trump
More than 80 Harvard faculty members pledged to donate 10 percent of their salaries for up to a year to support the University in its resistance against the Trump administration’s attempts to exact concessions and freeze billions in federal funding.
Judge Denies Motion To Dismiss AAUP Lawsuit Against Trump Administration Immigration Policies
The Harvard chapter of the American Association of University Professors’s lawsuit against the federal government’s immigration policies will move forward despite the Trump administration’s motion to dismiss, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday.
3 Harvard Professors Win 2025 Breakthrough Prizes
Awarded annually, the Breakthrough Prize, often referred to as the “Oscars of Science,” seeks to “celebrate the wonders of our scientific age.” The foundation doled out $3 million to each winner in the Life Sciences, Fundamental Physics, and Mathematics categories this year.
Faculty Senate Planning Body Meets With Peer Schools, Considers Pushing for Corporation Seat
The planning body for a University-wide faculty senate is considering whether faculty should push for representation on the Harvard Corporation, the University’s highest governing body, according to its first progress report released Saturday.
HBS Professor Bharat Anand ’88 Tapped to Lead NYU’s Stern School of Business
Bharat N. Anand ’88, the Vice Provost for Advances in Learning and HBS professor, was named the next Dean of NYU’s Stern School of Business, the school announced on Thursday. He will depart Harvard for the new role in August 2025.
Faculty Votes To Eliminate Option To Take Gen Ed, QRD Courses Pass-Fail
The Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences voted overwhelmingly to eliminate the option to take courses fulfilling the Harvard College General Education and Quantitative Reasoning with Data requirements on a pass-fail basis at a Tuesday faculty meeting.
Harvard FAS Elects 6 New Members to Faculty Council
The Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences elected six new members to its Faculty Council, elevating several professors hoping to exert more control over the University’s governance amid the Trump administration’s attacks on higher education.
FAS Declines To Debate Resolution Condemning Trump
An effort to open debate on whether Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences should condemn President Donald Trump’s threats to academic freedom failed at a Tuesday faculty meeting, falling short of the 80 percent threshold needed to discuss the motion.
Harvard FAS Is Developing a Contingency Plan for Drastic Federal Funding Cuts
Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean Hopi E. Hoekstra said Tuesday that the FAS is developing a contingency plan for the looming possibility that the Trump administration hits Harvard with steep federal funding cuts.
Khurana Suggests Trump Admin Is Using Antisemitism Fears As Pretext for Campaign Against Higher Ed
Harvard College Dean Rakesh Khurana said at a Faculty of Arts and Sciences meeting on Tuesday that the federal government has weaponized genuine concerns about campus antisemitism to justify its attacks on higher education.
Center for Middle Eastern Studies Leaders Dismissed for Alleged Lack of Balance in Events on Palestine, Harvard AAUP Says
Interim Harvard Dean of Social Science David M. Cutler ’87 dismissed the Center for Middle Eastern Studies’ faculty leaders on Wednesday because he felt their programming on Palestine was insufficiently balanced, according to a Monday press release from Harvard’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors.
Harvard Launches ‘Impact Labs’ To Fund Social Scientists Who Partner With Outside Organizations
Harvard will pilot a program — named Harvard Impact Labs — to fund collaboration between social scientists and leaders in the public and private sectors.
Faculty Searches in Limbo As Freeze Interrupts Hiring Processes Across Harvard
Harvard’s imposition of a hiring freeze on Monday morning interrupted faculty hiring processes across the University, leaving professors scrambling to figure out how to fill vacancies — and how to keep their departments’ work running if they can’t.
Harvard Poised To Eliminate Option To Take Gen Ed, QRD Courses Pass-Fail
Faculty of Arts and Sciences professors expressed broad support at a Tuesday FAS meeting for proposals to eliminate the option to take courses fulfilling the Harvard College General Education and Quantitative Reasoning with Data requirements on a pass-fail basis.
Non-Tenure Track Faculty Deliver Petition on Time Caps to Harvard President Garber
Non-tenure-track faculty delivered a petition with almost 1,400 signatures calling for an end to time caps to top Harvard officials on Thursday as the group’s new union bargains for its first contract with the University.
When Professors Speak Out, Some Students Stay Quiet. Can Harvard Keep Everyone Talking?
A faculty committee urged the FAS to assure professors that their opinions outside the classroom will not affect what courses they can teach — and advised instructors to make sure students know they won’t be penalized for disagreeing.
Faculty of Arts and Sciences Diversity Dean Position Left Vacant For Nearly Two Years
Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences has been without an associate dean for diversity, inclusion, and belonging for nearly two years after Sheree M. Ohen left Harvard for Amherst University in April 2023.
FAS Faculty Praise Proposed Non-Attribution Policy, But Ask Whether It Will Stand Up to Subpoenas
A recent Faculty of Arts and Sciences report recommended that the FAS enforce a non-attribution policy for classroom speech — but professors questioned at a Tuesday meeting whether the proposed rule would allow statements to remain private in the face of subpoenas.