Message from Dean Jeremy M. Weinstein
Dear Harvard Kennedy School Community,
Welcome to the spring semester and our snowy start.
I want to begin with a note of appreciation for all of you. This is a time of disruptive change in the country and the world. As we strive to make sense of the events unfolding around us, I am grateful to be a part of this community. Every day at HKS, I watch you approach your work with curiosity, challenge one another, and hone the skills and capacities you need to do good in the world. I hope this place can be a source of inspiration for all of us in the months ahead.
Over the coming weeks, I look forward to seeing many of you in the halls and the café, and hearing about what you’re learning and working on. No matter which classes you’re teaching or taking, I encourage you to embrace curiosity this semester. Make room in your schedule for the course that most challenges you to move outside of your comfort zone. Make time to hear speakers whose expertise or perspective will broaden your understanding of the world. And make space for conversations with your classmates and colleagues—learn about what brought them to HKS, their aspirations for the future, and the ways in which they see the world differently from you.
I’ll be striving to do the same, especially because it will be my first time teaching here at HKS. Professor Sharad Goel and I have designed a new course on solving public problems with generative AI, which invites students to design, build, and evaluate AI tools in several key public policy domains and grapple with broader issues in AI policy. Preparing for the class has surfaced the full range of emotions for me: from jitters about teaching a new course in a new place, to excitement around engaging with our students, to curiosity about what we will learn together as we explore the intersections of technology and policy.
This semester, we will also have some exciting special events at the School. In honor of America’s Semiquincentennial, we will host a series of conversations with scholars and public leaders on the legacy of America’s founding documents and the state of our democracy. As part of our work on candid and constructive conversations, we will also launch a new series we’re calling Debate, Debrief, and Dessert, in which Harvard faculty will engage in conversation with outside scholars and public leaders who have markedly different views on foreign policy, public health, and more.
The Institute of Politics has just announced its spring fellows class, including distinguished leaders who have served as Deputy Prime Minister of Canada, Secretary of Education in Virginia, Mayor of St. Louis, and Deputy White House Chief of Staff. You can catch these terrific former officials and many others in the Forum this semester. This week, we will host the Governor of Utah and a U.S. Representative discussing political polarization and technology, a strategist for President Clinton talking about the upcoming midterm elections, and a former senior official from the U.S. Department of Commerce on the future of TikTok. Please check out the IOP events page for more information.
Across the rest of our campus, you will find events on AI in the geopolitical order, pathways into city leadership, and the relationship between global science and U.S. innovation. As summer approaches, we are here to support your search for an internship or research assistantship. Consider applying for a summer opportunity hosted by one of our research centers, such as the Bloomberg Harvard Summer Fellowships, the Center for International Development Global Internship, or the Harvard Climate Internship. As always, our Office of Career Advancement is eager to help you find the perfect opportunity, both for the summer and after graduation.
It is a privilege to be here with you, and I look forward to the work we will do together this semester.
Best,
Jeremy
Jeremy M. Weinstein
Dean and Don K. Price Professor of Public Policy