Welcome to the Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History. The Warren Center is a place for the exploration of American history and for the application of historical knowledge to real world challenges. We believe that critical engagement with key issues of the American past is foundational to understanding and making meaning of our contemporary world. Our activities center around the nurturance of innovative historical thinking, research, and writing. Through our guest speakers, visiting fellows, Harvard faculty, graduate students, undergraduate students, and engagement with the wider public, we seek to foster illuminating discussions about the American past and push historical knowledge in new directions. As the core component of the Center’s mission dating back to the vision of the Warren family’s original gift, our fellowship programs bring together scholars working on US history projects in a spirit of creativity and collaboration.
The Warren Center offers precious time and space for the development of new projects by emerging and established scholars. Our 2023-24 faculty fellowship theme is “New Directions in Black Power Studies” led by Professor Brandon Terry (Department of African and African American Studies) and Professor Jarvis R. Givens (Harvard University Graduate School of Education). In addition, the Charles Warren Center supports early career scholars through our Global American Studies Postdoctoral Fellowship. Our democracy fellowship supports a scholar whose work bridges the academy, public policy, and politics.
At the Warren Center, we view history as a critical humanistic enterprise, and we encourage historians engagement with issues of public importance. This year, the Warren Center will host a public symposium, “The Past, Present and Future of American Democracy” (spring 2024). The symposium will bring together a group of eminent scholars who will utilize the lens of history to shed light on our contemporary political moment. Additional public events this academic year include a series of talks discussing cutting edge research in vibrant fields of American history. This fall, speakers will discuss their research on environmental history, and the history of sexuality. In the spring, we will host speakers within the field of political economy and labor history. Whether you are a member of the Harvard community or the wider public with an interest in questions about American life, culture, and history, we hope that you will be able to join us in our ongoing conversations about the American past.
Lisa McGirr, Director, Warren Center for Studies in American History
September 1, 2023