Tag: Social Sciences

  • Nation & World

    Why China has edge on AI, what ancient emperors tell us about Xi Jinping

    Recent event examines what social sciences can tell us about rising economic, geopolitical power.

    4 minutes
    Face recognition equipment in China's subways.
  • Nation & World

    The science of the artificial

    Researchers propose a new field of study — “machine behavior” — to look at artificial intelligence through the lens of biology, economics, psychology, and other behavioral and social sciences.

    6 minutes
    David Parkes.
  • Nation & World

    Mining Facebook data for science

    An organization co-created by Harvard scientists is set to release a massive trove of Facebook data, strictly for research purposes.

    7 minutes
    Rows of office workers working on computers with data streaming.
  • Nation & World

    Sandel wins Asturias Award

    Michael Sandel, the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Government, has won the 2018 Princess of Asturias Award in Social Sciences.

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Poking at consciousness

    Biologist Brian D. Farrell gave a lecture at the Harvard Museum of Natural History exploring the roots of consciousness.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Minding the gaps

    At the fourth annual Anita Hill Lecture on Gender Justice, Wake Forest University Professor Melissa Harris-Perry said that while more women have entered into today’s knowledge economy, they still make only 77 cents to every dollar men earn — and black and Latino women earn even less.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Two honored for teaching excellence

    Ruth Bielfeldt, Harris K. Weston Associate Professor of the Humanities, and Sarah Richardson, John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences, are this year’s winners of the Roslyn Abramson Award, given annually to assistant or associate professors for excellence in undergraduate teaching.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Hamburger receives Anneliese Maier Research Award

    Jeffrey Hamburger, the Kuno Francke Professor of German Art and Culture and a world authority on the religious art of the Middle Ages, is among this year’s recipients of the Anneliese Maier Research Award.

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Two named Abramson winners

    Selim Berker, an assistant professor of philosophy, and Joshua Greene, the John and Ruth Hazel Associate Professor of the Social Sciences, are this year’s winners of the Roslyn Abramson Award, given annually to assistant or associate professors for excellence in undergraduate teaching.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Lawrence Bobo honored by ASA

    Lawrence D. Bobo has won the American Sociological Association’s Cooley-Mead Award for Distinguished Contributions to Sociological Social Psychology.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    The wisdom of William James

    Physician and Harvard Medical School Professor Arthur Kleinman delivered Harvard Divinity School’s annual William James Lecture, exploring the philosopher’s importance in the area of moral wisdom.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Intuitive? Try God

    Harvard researchers exploring the roots of religion have found that intuitive thinking leads to belief in God, while more reflective thinking points toward atheism.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Data may not compute

    The Dataverse Network Project, spearheaded by Harvard’s Institute for Quantitative Social Science, provides archival storage for research projects whose records are on outmoded technology formats.

    6 minutes
  • Nation & World

    The Park Chung Hee Era: The Transformation of South Korea

    This selection of essays edited by Ezra F. Vogel, Henry Ford II Professor of the Social Sciences Emeritus, and Byung-Kook Kim recovers and contextualizes many of the ambiguities in South Korea’s trajectory from poverty to a sustainable high rate of economic growth.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Daniel Bell, social scientist, 91

    Daniel Bell, the Henry Ford II Professor of Social Sciences Emeritus at Harvard University and one of America’s most dynamic thinkers, died on Jan. 25. He was 91.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Slavery in the North, and more

    Du Bois Institute hosts a book party celebrating former and current fellows’ recent publications, including a title that examines little-known slavery in the North.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Looking at ‘Invisible Cities’

    Harvard students, in an eclectic art show, travel to real and imagined “Invisible Cities,” which simmer beneath the surface of the real.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Around the Schools: Faculty of Arts and Sciences

    What big questions will occupy the world’s social scientists in the coming decades? On Saturday (April 10), a dozen “big thinkers” will share their thoughts on the hardest problems in social science.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    New fellowship fund

    To honor the memory and intellectual legacy of Samuel P. Huntington, one of the most influential political scientists of his generation, a group of generous alumni and friends has established the Samuel Huntington Fellowship Fund at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Ashford Fellowship Program thrives

    The Theodore H. Ashford Graduate Fellowships in the Sciences and the Theodore H. Ashford Dissertation Fellowships in the Humanities and Social Sciences have supported 26 students in fields ranging from biophysics to film and visual studies.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    What makes a successful society?

    New research argues that the health of the population and the success or failure of many public health initiatives hinge as much on cultural and social factors as they do on doctors, facilities, or drugs.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Five awarded membership to Royal Irish Academy

    Five Harvard faculty members were awarded honorary membership to the Royal Irish Academy on March 16. The honorary members include Harvard President Drew Faust, Lincoln Professor of History; Arthur Jaffe, Landon T. Clay Professor of Mathematics and Theoretical Science; Michael B. McElroy, Gilbert Butler Professor of Environmental Studies; Lisa Randall, professor of physics; and Amartya…

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    The genes in your congeniality

    Can’t help being the life of the party? Maybe you were just born that way. Researchers have found that our place in a social network is influenced in part by our genes.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Scholar: Health facts about U.S. Latino communities belie stereotypes

    Decades after predicting Latinos will become California’s majority, a leading researcher into Latino health argued Wednesday (Oct. 8) that the development might mean a healthier population.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Dynamics of a changing workforce laid out in forum

    Lawrence Mishel, president of the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., didn’t actually use the phrase “I told you so” in his remarks at a panel discussion on labor issues at the Harvard Business School last week. But he cited some evidence that the national economics discussion is coming around to his way of looking…

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Davis explains how he makes his operas swing

    A former Harvard professor returned to campus last week to explain how he makes opera swing. Anthony Davis, a composer known for his diverse approach to music, incorporating diverse elements like jazz, improvisation, minimalism, and the Javanese gamelan (an Indonesian musical ensemble that includes gongs, xylophones, and bamboo flutes) into his work, recently discussed his…

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Wilson perceives social structure and culture as key causes of poverty

    In speaking frankly about the seemingly implacable problems in the inner cities, Harvard University Professor William Julius Wilson traveled a road that liberals fear to tread and that conservatives tend to take. Wilson, the Lewis P. and Linda L. Geyser University Professor and an award-winning author and researcher, dissected the twin influences of culture and…

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    GSAS Medal awarded to biologist, physicist, social scientist, art expert

    A biologist who has led groundbreaking research efforts on proteins, an art expert who leads one of the country’s foremost museums, an astrophysicist whose theories guide the study of galaxies and planets, and a social sciences professor who has shaped the course of East Asian studies received the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS)…

    6 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Radcliffe Fellows include scholars, artists to work on range of projects

    The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University has announced the names of 34 women and 18 men selected to be Radcliffe Fellows during the 2008–09 academic year. These 52 fellows include 16 humanists, 14 scientists, 12 creative artists, and 10 social scientists.

    13 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Stephen Kosslyn named divisional dean for the social sciences

    Stephen M. Kosslyn, John Lindsley Professor of Psychology and chair of the Department of Psychology in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), has been named divisional dean for the social sciences, effective July 1.

    2 minutes