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The Department of Government at Harvard is a world leader in the study of political science, and the department’s faculty covers a wide range of fields and methodologies. The department’s breadth and depth allows you to pursue ground-breaking research on a variety of topics. The doctoral program’s diversity and flexibility enables scholars from all backgrounds and interests to thrive.

In the Department of Government, you will study and do research with the faculty of the department, as well as leading scholars in other Harvard departments and schools, including Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Business School. You have access to unparalleled resources, ranging from the largest university library in the world to the Harvard research computing cluster, to a wide array of centers and institutes associated with the department.

Graduates of the department write dissertations on topics ranging from ancient political theory to the politics of cybersecurity. They go on to jobs at leading academic institutions, companies, government agencies, and non-profits.

Additional information on the graduate program is available from the Department of Government and requirements for the degree are detailed in Policies . 

Areas of Study

American Government | Comparative Politics | International Relations | Political Thought and Its History | Quantitative Methods/Formal Theory

Admissions Requirements

Please review admissions requirements and other information before applying. You can find degree program-specific admissions requirements below and access additional guidance on applying from the Department of Government .

Writing Sample

A writing sample is required as part of the application and should be a recent scholarly or critical paper, 15 to 25 pages in length.

For the coordinated JD/PhD  in law and political science, applicants must apply separately to each program and indicate in the application to the PhD program that a concurrent application has been submitted to the Harvard Law School.

Standardized Tests

GRE General: Required Writing Sample: Required (15-25 pages) iBT TOEFL preferred minimum score: 105 IELTS preferred minimum score: 7.5

Theses & Dissertations

Theses & Dissertations for Government

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HRP is delighted to announce the 2023-24 Satter Fellow Aizhan Tilenbaeva LLM ’22. Aizhan is a human rights and international…

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The Human Rights Program is pleased to announce that the application for the 2024-2025 Henigson Fellowship is now open.  The…

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What I teach Harvard Law School students about opening arguments

Professor of Law, Harvard University

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Though Hollywood movies about courtroom dramas often glamorize the closing arguments given by lawyers, in reality the opening statement is likely the most important single event of a trial.

Lawyers in the hush money case involving former President Donald Trump and alleged payments to porn star Stormy Daniels presented their opening statements on April 22, 2024, in New York.

In this case , Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg charged the former president with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records as part of an effort to influence voters’ knowledge about him before the 2016 presidential election. Trump entered a plea of not guilty.

Academic psychologists tell us that between 65% and 75% of jurors make up their minds about a case after the opening statement. What’s even more incredible is that 85% of those jurors maintain the position they formed after the opening statement once all evidence is received and the trial is closed.

More often than not, it is too late by closing arguments to win over the jury.

This phenomenon comes as no surprise to veteran trial lawyers. They are aware of two theories that define how jurors – indeed, people generally – process information: the concepts of primacy and recency

These ideas suggest that jurors best remember what they hear first and what they hear last. It is vitally important, then, for lawyers on both sides to start their opening arguments with a bang.

The psychology of jurors

I have taught a course on trial advocacy for the past two decades at the Harvard Law School. Part of my curriculum is to teach budding lawyers how to deliver effective opening statements.

If the idea is to win over the jury by the end of the lawyer’s opening statement, how, in practice, is that done?

Trial lawyers steeped in the research know that juries respond to a well-considered theory of the case, punctuated by a pithy theme.

A theory of the case is a brief, three- to five-sentence statement akin to what is known as an “elevator pitch.” The theme is a short, pithy summary of the theory of the case that is easy for a juror to remember. Often the theme is the first sentence out of the lawyer’s mouth, followed by a fuller description of the theory.

Indeed, in my class at Harvard, the very first skill I teach is how to develop theories and themes. In order to effectively convey a theory in a case, many lawyers start their opening statements with “This is a case about …” and then fill in the specific details.

For example, the prosecution in a murder case may start their opening like this:

“Members of the jury, this is a case about the death of an innocent young woman, witnessed by concerned citizens, who all identify the only person with a motive to kill her, the defendant.”

In stark contrast, the defense might start with something that is the complete opposite of the prosecution’s opening statement:

“Members of the jury, this is a case about a jealous ex-lover who shot a woman in cold blood, fled the country and left my client to take the fall.”

In each example, the jury is given enough information to frame the evidence they will hear throughout the trial.

After both sides have finished their openings, data shows that more than two-thirds of the jury will have come to a decision that will persist through the remainder of the trial.

Why do juries tend to behave this way?

Research also has taught trial lawyers that if you connect the jury with your theory of a case, at the beginning of the trial, jurors will process all the rest of the evidence – whether potentially helpful to the prosecution or to the defense – through the prism of that theory.

The importance of opening statements cannot be overstated. They set the tone and offer the jury a framework to understand the upcoming months of testimony they are about to hear.

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Programs of Study

Programs of Study at Harvard Law School

Aligning Courses and Practice

Harvard Law School offers more courses and seminars than any other law school in the world. This is a tremendous resource, but the large numbers of courses, across a huge range of topics and approaches, also can be daunting. The faculty encourages J.D. students to build on the foundation of the first year with both sufficient focus to pursue deep knowledge and with sufficient curiosity to explore a broad array of ideas about and approaches to law. Pursue your own passions, and also think about how to take advantage of opportunities for advanced work, clinical work, fellowships, and courses elsewhere in the university.

To guide you in pursuing deepening knowledge and progression as you move through the three years of law school and to create a tool for better coordination and collaboration between faculty members, the faculty has developed “programs of study.” Students do not sign up for any program; nor should any student feel compelled to adhere to one. Instead, the programs of study reflect the best advice from faculty about how to approach particular subjects and potential careers.

Current Programs of Study

The programs of study listed here include suggestions about how you can navigate our extensive course offerings with a sense of their relationship to different avenues of study. The programs provide opportunities to move progressively through more advanced work before graduation. Faculty are encouraged to think through the best ways of offering and combining courses as they plan their own teaching programs. J.D. and L.L.M. students then get a picture of how different courses and seminars can relate to the work of practicing lawyers and academics, and how clinical work, summer opportunities, and fellowships also enhance your learning and development.

Criminal Law and Policy Program of Study

International and comparative law program of study, law and business program of study, law and government program of study, law and history program of study, law and social change program of study, law, science, and technology program of study.

Beyond any specific program of study, the faculty advises all students to take courses offering exposure to a variety of topics and methodologies. The faculty has long recommended that students consider taking at least one course that offers a particular perspective on the legal system or a distinct way of thinking about law. We continue to recommend such courses, whether in legal history, comparative law, law and economics, and jurisprudence and legal theory.

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Harvard Law School Professor I. Glenn Cohen discusses the rapidly evolving legal landscape since the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022.

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Up next for Supreme Court on abortion: Idaho

Justices to hear case on near-complete ban amid shifting legal landscape after overturn of Roe

Christina Pazzanese

Harvard Staff Writer

Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, 21 states have enacted laws that strictly limit abortion.

Next week, justices will hear arguments over the first and among the most restrictive of those new laws. Idaho’s statute calls for a near-complete ban on abortion and prohibits anyone from performing or assisting one except when the pregnancy is ectopic or molar; a result of rape or incest; or a risk to the life of the mother.

The U.S. Department of Justice argues those restrictions conflict with a 1986 federal law requiring hospitals that participate in Medicare to provide stabilizing treatment to emergency room patients regardless of their ability to pay. Both the federal District Court and U.S. Court of Appeals in Idaho sided with the federal government and had blocked the state ban from going into effect. The Supreme Court lifted the injunction in January when it agreed to hear the case.

Several other abortion cases are moving through federal and state courts. Notably, Arizona’s top court upheld a Civil War-era law last week criminalizing abortion in all circumstances except to save a pregnant woman’s life.

The Gazette spoke with I. Glenn Cohen , James A. Attwood and Leslie Williams Professor of Law at  Harvard Law School  and faculty director of the Petrie-Flom Center  for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at HLS, about the legal landscape after the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling that overturned Roe and what a decision for Idaho might mean for other states. The interview has been edited for clarity and length.

There has been a flurry of abortion-related legal challenges since the overturning of Roe. Can you describe some recent developments?

On April 1, the Florida Supreme Court upheld the state’s 15-week ban, which, because of the way the law is written, means the state’s six-week ban will go into effect in 30 days. The Court also allowed a ballot initiative to go forward, so Florida voters will get to vote on abortion.

Last week, the Arizona State Supreme Court cleared an 1864 abortion law in the state to go into effect — a law that predates Arizona’s statehood that prohibits abortion without exceptions for rape or incest. An attempt by Democrats in Arizona’s legislature to repeal that 1864 law failed.

The state’s attorney general, Kris Mayes, and some county attorneys have said they will not prosecute abortion cases under the law, but it is not clear whether providers will be willing to perform abortions even with those assurances.

Moreover, such assurances can change with changes in who is in charge. There is a proposed ballot initiative in Arizona that would enshrine some abortion rights protections in Arizona’s state constitution, so, as in Florida, voters will be able to have their say.

“When does federal law pre-empt state law? There are multiple types of pre-emption arguably raised in this case. The key question is whether any of those apply.”

In terms of what’s before the Supreme Court or making its way to the Supreme Court, I’d say there are three main cases to keep an eye on.

One is the mifepristone litigation, where oral argument happened on March 26, which is about whether FDA appropriately altered the drug’s Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies in 2016 and 2021. REMS are potential restrictions on the use of that drug that has been approved. That case is really about medical abortion.

We’ve got this case in Idaho, which is about states, in the wake of Dobbs, that have more narrowly limited their abortion laws such that there are now questions about emergencies and questions about exceptions for life and health of the pregnant person. This case presents that question squarely.

And then, floating in the background, but not yet squarely before the U.S. Supreme Court, is the Comstock Act. The question the Court may eventually have to answer is whether this very old act, more than 100 years old, restricts sending in the mail drugs used for abortion or even tools that could be used for surgical abortion.

We are seeing all these cases now in part because while these questions were always in theory there, there was a constitutional protection of abortion that restricted states from going below a certain minimum, such that very few such restrictive measures were active and had legal questions that needed to be resolved.

But now, in the wake of Dobbs, we’ve got states that have more or less completely limited abortion except under very narrow circumstances. What’s so interesting about the Idaho case is that the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act is a general law about emergency treatment and stabilization. And so, we’re talking about how it intersects with what Idaho and other states may have done.

What’s the legal question at issue in this Idaho case?

Part of what makes the case complicated is the parties have slightly different views about what the state of play is. The federal government puts the question presented as “whether EMTALA pre-empts Idaho law in the narrow but important circumstance where terminating a pregnancy is required to stabilize an emergency medical condition that would otherwise threaten serious harm to pregnant women’s health, but the state prohibits an emergency room physician from providing that care.”

Idaho frames it as “whether EMTALA pre-empts state abortion regulations and requires hospitals to perform abortions disallowed by state law.”

One of the pieces of wrangling that has occurred throughout litigation is exactly what is prohibited by the Idaho Defense of Life Act. Questions about pregnancy termination related to ectopic pregnancies, pre-eclampsia, and stuff like that. So, the parties, I don’t think, are in complete agreement over the question about what the act prohibits or doesn’t prohibit.

What is there for the Supreme Court to consider? Doesn’t the Constitution already say that when federal law conflicts with state law, federal law prevails?

Exactly right. Under the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution, federal law trumps state law where they conflict. But what it means for the laws to conflict is a nuanced question. So, the question is: When does federal law pre-empt state law? There are multiple types of pre-emption arguably raised in this case — express, implied, and obstacle. The key question is whether any of those apply, which, in turn, depends on understanding what EMTALA requires.

On Idaho’s side of the case, their argument is there isn’t a conflict with EMTALA because EMTALA doesn’t reach this particular question. And on the other side, the federal government argues it definitely does apply here. So, part of this is an interpretation of what EMTALA does and does not require.

Has EMTALA been challenged before in other contexts?

There have been some EMTALA cases. There’s a famous case called the Baby K case from many years ago. Baby K was a Fourth Circuit case from 1994 about a baby born with anencephaly — missing a major part of the brain that is necessary for conscious thought — and whether a hospital could decline to provide a ventilator to the newborn if the newborn came to the ER.

There was a Fifth Circuit case from 1991, Burditt v. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, unsuccessfully challenging EMTALA as unconstitutional. In the Supreme Court certainly, EMTALA cases been relatively few and far between.

The justices referenced EMTALA quite a bit during oral arguments in the recent mifepristone case, FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine. Why do you think that is?

There was a lot of shadowboxing around the Idaho case in the mifepristone oral argument .

In particular, two things to highlight: One is this question about so-called “conscience clauses” and whether EMTALA could ever overcome legal protections for conscience and thus, require a physician to perform an abortion against her or his conscience.

Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar gave, I think, the correct answer, which is that EMTALA obligations sit on a hospital, not on a physician. And typically, hospitals have systems in place that if they have a physician who is conscientiously objecting to abortion and protections for that under law, it’s up to the hospital to find a substitute, which is, I think, a correct statement of the law, but one I’m sure there’s going to be some pushback on.

Second, there was some sniping at the mifepristone argument about whether the government has changed its position on the conscience question and whether they’ve changed their position and given different answers to this question at different stages of the litigation.

On the flip side, in the Idaho case, the federal government argues the state of Idaho keeps changing their position about what their theory of pre-emption is. So, I think there’ll be some nasty questioning — “has this always been your position, has your position changed” and the like. I don’t think it’ll actually make a difference to the outcome, but that’s something that I expect that we’ll hear at argument.

“In a state like Massachusetts, we’re not going to get the conflict we saw in this case. Elsewhere it looks different.”

A Supreme Court decision in Idaho’s favor could impact people in many other states. How might that unfold?

I wouldn’t say every state because many states have robust protections. In those states there may be some fairly robust protections regarding emergency exceptions for the health and life of the mother.

In a state like Massachusetts, we’re not going to get the conflict we saw in this case. Elsewhere it looks different. There was a parallel EMTALA case in Texas, and Texas won that one. So currently, the court in Texas has allowed Texas’s law to go into effect.

The Solicitor General, in her brief in the Idaho case, had a footnote listing the states they think this is going to be most relevant to. Texas is certainly one of them. Footnote 11 in the Solicitor General’s briefs says seven states, including Idaho, have laws that lack a health exception. They name Arizona, Arkansas, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. But it says several of those laws are in flux. So at least in those seven states directly relevant.

But there are some other states that have restrictions on health exceptions for abortion that are not as firm as the ones in Idaho but are narrower than what the federal government understands to be required by EMTALA, where this decision will also be relevant. Moreover, there may be some states that might see a win for Idaho in this case and learn and rewrite their statute to be narrower than it is now.

Does the federal government have any recourse if Idaho prevails? Could the government withhold Medicare reimbursements to those states, for example?

I think the answer is probably no, in part because the Supreme Court is giving the definitive reading about what EMTALA means.

If the government, under EMTALA, threatened to remove Medicare and Medicaid funding from the hospitals in a state that allegedly violated EMTALA, they would now say, “We’re not violating EMTALA. See the decision in this case.”

What would have to happen would be congressional action to change the language if Idaho wins. In such legislation, Congress could just say EMTALA requires that the health of the mother be considered in a particular way as a requirement of the statute.

Congress could also pass a freestanding statute that said the same thing. This sometimes happens — the Supreme Court gives an interpretation of a statute; Congress doesn’t like the interpretation; and Congress changes the statute.

In theory, that could happen here. In reality, the politics would require Democrats to have a majority in both houses and unless the filibuster is going to go away, would require a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, and that’s quite unlikely.

The other thing that’s possible is, and this is going to be even more unlikely, is forget EMTALA. If there’s federal protection provided to abortion in general [through legislation], some federal backstop that says, “States have power to do some things, but not this. This is too far,” then the federal government could also include more protections for health and life of the mother exceptions.

One more thing that’s in play here: the interpretation of what does Idaho state law mean or what does Texas state law mean in terms of the breadth of the exceptions is typically not for the U.S. Supreme Court to decide because they’ve said when a decision rests on an independent adequate state ground, the Supreme Court will not review the case.

But there is a question under state law, what does the exception mean. Texas right now is having litigation in the Texas state courts about what its emergency exception for abortion covers. So, another possibility is the people of Idaho change their law, or the Idaho Supreme Court interprets the law in a way that is more friendly to abortion access. Those are also possibilities. Though as the failure of legislation to protect abortion in Arizona I mentioned before shows, in many states changing abortion law via ordinary legislation will be an uphill battle. 

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Ingemar Dierickx

Negotiation Expertise

Three decades of experience

Ingemar Dierickx holds a PhD (Business Economics) from Harvard University and an MBA from the Harvard Business School, where he was a Baker Scholar. He also holds law degrees from the Harvard Law School (LL.M.) and the Rijksuniversiteit Gent (Lic.Jur.)

For nearly 25 years, he was Professor of Negotiation Analysis at INSEAD. Previously, he worked as a Research Associate with Professor Ray Goldberg at the Harvard Business School and with Professor Thomas Schelling, Harvard Economics Department.

His research on Negotiation Analysis and into the microeconomic foundations of Strategy has been widely published in scientific journals such as Management Science, Journal of Business, Strategic Management Journal, International Journal of Industrial Organization, and European Economic Review. As an outstanding teacher he received numerous awards, including a special Lifetime Achievement Award for teaching excellence. He created INSEAD’s executive program on Negotiation Dynamics and was its Director for fifteen years.

After joining The Moscow School of Management (Skolkovo), he became a founding partner of  D&AC – Negotiation Advisors , a company that offers a wide range of negotiation support services. With Professor Luis Almeida Costa, he developed  Negotiation Dynamics – The Game™ , a state-of-the-art simulation that tracks repeated negotiations within ongoing business relationships. He has also produced a highly successful training DVD on Price Negotiations.

For nearly three decades, Ingemar Dierickx has represented and advised high net worth individuals and corporate clients in a broad spectrum of industries including banking, insurance and re-insurance, consulting, accounting, legal services, travel, aerospace, the automobile industry, retailing, oil and gas, mining and metals, power generation, the pharmaceutical industry, telecommunications, television and entertainment, software development, commodity and specialty chemicals, as well as the public sector.

As a trainer and coach, he has run hundreds of highly successful negotiation workshops around the world.

Harvard Future Leaders in Law

The Future Leaders in Law Program will bring together individuals with a range of lived experiences, primarily individuals from first-generation and less advantaged socioeconomic backgrounds, for a weeklong residential fellowship at Harvard Law School (HLS) to help prepare them to apply for admission to law schools around the nation. While on campus, Future Leaders in Law Fellows (Fellows) will engage with HLS faculty, staff, students, and alumni. During this weeklong residency and over the course of the yearlong program, participants will benefit from test and application preparation services, mentorship and networking opportunities, field trips, as well as academic and professional skill-building elements. 

This program will be fully funded, with all costs covered to participate, including transportation and lodging, and preparation materials.  We will provide need-based assistance for law school application fees and LSAC’s Credential Assembly Service (CAS) reports, and the LSAT administration.  In addition, a $3,000 stipend will be awarded upon program completion. 

Applicants for the Future Leaders in Law Program must be in pursuit of an undergraduate degree with an expected graduation date of 2024 or 2025 or   be a recent graduate (Class of 2021, Class of 2022, and Class of 2023), have a 3.3 cumulative undergraduate GPA, intend to apply for a J.D. program for matriculation starting Fall 2026, be at least 18 years old as of the program start date, and commit to attending and participating in all core program components.

How to Find a Strong Human Rights Law Program

Target law schools with human rights law clinics and journals, as well as a broad selection of relevant courses.

Find a Strong Human Rights Law Program

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An introductory course on human rights law is a start, but a good human rights law program should have a variety of related course offerings.

Key Takeaways:

• Look for more than an introductory course on human rights law.
• Find out what law faculty know and are doing that's relevant.
• Find out what the school's students specializing in human rights law do after graduating.

Clinical opportunities, quality professors and active student organizations are important criteria when choosing a law school with a solid human rights program, experts say, and students should carefully research programs to find their best fit.

The Human Rights Clinic at the University of Miami School of Law "played a major role in my decision of where to attend law school,” says Gita Howard, a human rights attorney who graduated from the Florida law school in 2021.

Howard’s initial interest in pursuing international human rights law was formed during the many summers she spent in India growing up. She says she developed a nuanced understanding of global issues and a drive to create a positive global impact.

“International human rights law seemed like a tangible and meaningful way to pursue my passion for social change.”

Finding a strong human rights law program is important to prepare students for a successful career as a human rights lawyer, experts say. Here are the top features they say students should be looking for in a program.

A Broad Selection of Human Rights Law Courses

An introductory course on human rights law is a start, but a good human rights law program should have a variety of related course offerings, experts say.

Prospective students should research whether the program offers courses “on the full spectrum of international human rights law,” says Diane A. Desierto, professor of law and global affairs at the University of Notre Dame Law School in Indiana, where she also is faculty director of the LL.M. in International Human Rights Law and founding director of the Global Human Rights Clinic.

Such courses should include civil, political, economic, social, cultural, developmental, environmental and labor topics, “as well as the frontier courses on the expanding applications of international human rights law across public law and private law ,” she says.

Desierto says students should also find out whether a program offers legal and interdisciplinary methods, as well as theoretical and experiential opportunities to gain expertise in international human rights law.

Experienced Human Rights Law Faculty

Other features to look for in a program are faculty actively working on human rights law projects, faculty publishing human rights law papers and scholar-practitioners.

Notre Dame's program, for example, enables students “to customize their learning, training, and mentoring according to specific professional objectives across different forms of human rights law practice,” Desierto says. The small class sizes mean students have access to one-on-one mentoring and customized learning from different experts throughout the university and its global campuses abroad.

Students already in law school who want to specialize in human rights "should be researching which faculty are specializing in human rights in their scholarship and courses,” says Anna Ivey, founder of Ivey Consulting, which helps people apply to selective U.S. colleges and law schools.

An Impressive Job Attainment Record

Desierto says it's important to look into whether a program invests in the well-being and success of their students during and after graduation.

“Our program does this extensively during the student's matriculation into the program, as well as in supporting postgraduate clerkships and internships in international, regional and national courts and tribunals and organizations,” Desierto says. The program measures success by how its students "flourish and succeed in their work of striving for human rights outcomes in their respective countries and communities."

It's also important to find out whether alumni are working with major human rights institutions. Ivey recommends students check law schools' social media platforms, such as LinkedIn, "to see what alums work in the field to get a sense of the alumni network for that specialization.”

A Human Rights Clinic or Law Journal

Participating in a human rights law clinic or contributing to human rights law journals is important on the resumes of aspiring human rights lawyers, as positions in the field are competitive, experts say.

“Human rights clinics provide a really critical opportunity for students to develop their knowledge of human rights law, as well as practice the necessary skills to succeed in the field under the guidance of experts,” Howard says.

For example, the Human Rights Clinic at the University of Miami provides students with experiential learning opportunities in U.S. and international human rights litigation and advocacy, allowing students to work with the United Nations and the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights.

“Its inspiring professors and meaningful projects gave me the skills, support and network necessary to pursue a career in human rights law,” Howard says.

Apart from looking at whether a law school offers clinics or journals dedicated to human rights law, Ivey recommends looking at whether such a journal “hosts some kind of annual symposium on the topic.”

Other activities, such as participation in relevant student groups, are important, experts say. For example, Howard served as president and co-founder of the Human Rights Society, an advocacy organization at her school.

Scholarships and Fellowships

Law school can be expensive and human rights law may not pay as well as other law specialties, so scholarship opportunities are an important consideration, experts say.

Experts say a law school’s investment in human rights law can be seen in scholarships offered to students in the discipline. Students can check a school's website for scholarship information. Notre Dame's program typically provides full scholarships for 15 to 20 students, Desierto says.

There are also fellowships available during and after law school. Twice, Howard was a HOPE Fellow, receiving funding to pursue public interest summer jobs while in law school. She spent her first summer interning at the Tibetan Legal Association in Dharamsala, India, and her second summer as an intern for the U.N.'s Office of Legal Affairs in the general legal division.

“After law school, a common way to break into the human rights field is through a fellowship with a human rights organization,” Howard says.

Howard received a Human Rights Program Fellowship from her law school with a placement at Human Rights First, a nonprofit, nonpartisan international human rights organization. After her fellowship, she was brought on as an associate attorney. She notes that fellowship opportunities often require funding from a student's law school, as well.

“It can be helpful for students to research whether fellowship funding is currently or potentially available at a prospective law school,” Howard says.

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Thomas C. Owen collection on Russian social, economic, and business history since 1800. (1972-2005)

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About Thomas C. Owen

Publications by thomas c. owen.

Thomas C. Owen (PhD in history, Harvard, 1973) is an Associate of the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University (since 2005) and a former professor of history at Louisiana State University (1974-2005). He became interested in Russian social history as a graduate student at Harvard, and he wrote his doctoral dissertation on the social and ideological evolution of the Moscow merchants, 1840-70 ( The social and ideological evolution of the Moscow merchants, 1840-1870, HOLLIS Number : 003894231 ). His collection of materials on Russian social and economic history after 1800 began in 1971, when he, then a PhD student seeking primary sources for his research, purchased from the Lenin Library (Moscow) a microfilm of the 1850-73 portion of Fedor V. Chizhov's diary which was relevant to the dissertation.

After the publication of his first book, on the Moscow merchants in 1981 ( Capitalism and politics in Russia : a social history of the Moscow merchants, 1855-1905 , HOLLIS Number : 000949332 ), Owen widened the scope of his research to include corporations and business organizations throughout the Russian Empire. He continued his study of primary materials during subsequent visits to Moscow again in 1980, 1992, and 1996. Gaining access to and obtaining copies of the desired materials often meant facing challenges that were unusual for a Western researcher, as well as seeking the help of American library professionals. Thus, Marianna Tax Choldin, of the University of Illinois Library, was instrumental in helping Owen obtain the microfilm copies of Chizhov’s diary (the 1825-50 and 1873-77 portions) from the Lenin Library. Eventually, Fedor V. Chizhov became the subject of Thomas C. Owen's fourth book ( Dilemmas of Russian capitalism : Fedor Chizhov and corporate enterprise in the railroad age , HOLLIS Number : 009439804 )

Dilemmas of Russian Capitalism: Fedor Chizhov and Corporate Enterprise in the Railroad Age . Harvard Studies in Business History, no. 44.  Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2005. HOLLIS Number : 009439804

Russian Corporate Capitalism from Peter the Great to Perestroika .  New York: Oxford University Press, 1995. HOLLIS Number : 005835322

The Corporation under Russian Law, 1800-1917: A Study in Tsarist Economic Policy .  New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991. HOLLIS Number : 002072257

Capitalism and Politics in Russia: A Social History of the Moscow Merchants , 1855-1905 .  New York: Cambridge University Press, 1981.  Japanese trans. Tokyo: Bunshindo Press, 1987. HOLLIS Number : 000949332

Selected Articles

“Measuring Business Cycles in the Russian Empire.” Economic History Review 66, no. 3 (Aug. 2013): 895-916.

“The Death of a Soviet Science: Sergei Pervushin and Economic Cycles in Russia, 1850-1930.” The Russian Review 68, no. 2 (Apr. 2009): 221-39.

“Chukchi Gold: American Enterprise and Russian Xenophobia in the Northeastern Siberian Company.”  Pacific Historical Review 77, no. 1 (Feb. 2008): 49-85.

“Autocracy and the Rule of Law in Russian Economic History.”  In The Rule of Law and Economic Reform in Russia , edited by Jeffrey D. Sachs and Katharina Pistor, 23-39.  Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1997.

 “Impediments to a Bourgeois Consciousness in Russia, 1880-1905: The Estate Structure, Ethnic Diversity, and Economic Regionalism.”  In Between Tsar and People: Educated Society and   the Quest for Public Identity in Late Imperial Russia , edited by Edith W. Clowes, Samuel D. Kassow, and James L. West, 75-89.  Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991.

“A Standard Ruble of Account for Russian Business History, 1769-1914: A Note.”   Journal of   Economic History 49, no. 3 (Sep. 1989): 699-706.

“The Russian Industrial Society and Tsarist Economic Policy, 1867-1905.”  Journal of Economic History 45, no. 3 (Sep. 1985): 587-606.

“Entrepreneurship and the Structure of Enterprise in Russia, 1800-1880.”  In Entreprepreneurship in Imperial Russia and the Soviet Union , edited by Gregory Guroff and Fred  V. Carstensen, 59-83.  Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983.

RUSCORP: A Database of Corporations in the Russian Empire, 1700-1914.  Ann Arbor, Mich. : Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research, [1993]. HOLLIS Number :  007702503 Internet Link : Data File http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hul.eresource:harvmitd

Edited Publications

Polunov, Aleksandr.  Russia in the Nineteenth-Century: Autocracy, Reform, and Social Change, 1814-1914 .  Translated by Marshall S. Shatz.  Armonk, N.Y.: M. E. Sharpe, 2005.  (Co-edited with Professor Larissa G. Zakharova of Moscow State University.)

Roosa, Ruth A.  Russian Industrialists in an Era of Revolution: The Associa­tion of Industry and Trade, 1906-1917 .  Armonk, N.Y.: M. E. Sharpe, 1997.

Russian Studies in History 35, no. 1 (Summer 1996), on entrepreneurship in the Russian Empire, 1861-1914, and 34, no. 1 (Summer 1995), on tsarist economic policy, 1893-1914. 

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Howard Gardner ’65 Named Harvard Graduate School of Education’s 2024 Convocation Speaker

Developmental psychologist Howard E. Gardner ’65 will give the keynote address at the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s 2024 Convocation, HGSE Dean Bridget Terry Long announced on April 15.

Gardner, a longtime professor at HGSE, will address graduates during the May 22 convocation ceremony, one day before the University-wide Commencement in Harvard Yard.

While Gardner retired from teaching a few years ago, he remains actively involved in research at Harvard.

“I used to joke that I have the largest medical record of the university because I’ve been going to the health services for 60 some years,” Gardner said.

Gardner is renowned globally for decades of pioneering work in the field of cognitive psychology.

He is best known for his theory of multiple intelligences, which theorizes that individuals have multiple forms of intelligence beyond intellectual capacity, including linguistic, interpersonal, spatial-visual, and others.

According to Gardner, the overarching theme of his convocation speech is that to make lasting change in the field of education, students and leaders must balance long-standing continuities and a rapidly changing landscape.

Gardner described HGSE students as generally “idealistic.”

“They want to try to improve education and, as the slogan for the school says, ‘Learn to save the world,’” he added. “We have to have two eyes, one eye focused on the continuities, the human needs which have always been present as long as we’ve had young people who we want to help grow up — but also the many, many changes, intellectual, political, technological and so on.”

As one of the founding members of Project Zero, a significant HGSE research center dedicated to enhancing learning in the arts and other disciplines, Gardner served as co-director for 28 years and now acts as the head of the steering committee.

Long said in a press release announcing Gardner as the keynote speaker that he “has been an insightful voice in the field of education and a proud member of the HGSE community.”

“His scholarly contributions are immense — from the theory of multiple intelligences to the Good Project and his long service as co-director of Project Zero,” Long added. “But it is his unending curiosity and generosity that stand out for me, and I cannot think of a better person to instill a message of hope, good work, and civic participation to our next generation of educators and leaders.”

In 1996, Gardner co-founded “The Good Project” alongside psychologists Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and William Damon ’67, which aims to design tools for confronting everyday ethical decisions, with an emphasis on effective collaboration, digital citizenship, and civic participation.

Gardner explained that he and his colleagues define good citizenship as “having 3 E’s.”

“It has to be excellent, it has to be engaging, and it has to be carried out in an ethical way,” he said.

According to Gardner, given that today’s researchers and leaders have access to unprecedented levels of knowledge, as well as increasingly powerful computational instruments, it is necessary to rethink education “from the cradle to the grave.”

“The Ed School is uniquely poised to consider education from the very first life until the time when people can no longer function anymore,” Gardner said.

“Any good education school should try to do it,” he added. “But as a Harvard man for my life, I’d like us to take the lead in that.”

—Staff writer Katie B. Tian can be reached at [email protected] .

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