#  Director’s Welcome  

 



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 2025-2026 faculty fellowship theme is “Labor and Political Economy in American History” led by Professor Sven Beckert (Department of History) and Professor Joel Suarez (Department of History). In addition, the Charles Warren Center supports early career scholars through our Global American Studies Postdoctoral Fellowship.

At the Warren Center, we view history as a critical humanistic enterprise, and we encourage historians’ engagement with issues of public importance. Across the year, we will host occasional speakers whose work intersects with this year’s fellowship theme on labor and political economy. 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, 2025