Mathias Risse is Berthold Beitz Professor in Human Rights, Global Affairs and Philosophy and Director of the Carr-Ryan Center for Human Rights at Harvard University. His research is primarily in political philosophy and philosophy of technology, and he is currently at work on a book on Indigenous philosophies. In political philosophy his work has addressed questions of global justice ranging from human rights, inequality, taxation, trade, and immigration to climate change, obligations to future generations. In the philosophy of technology Risse has recently offered a comprehensive account of political theory of the digital age. He has also worked on questions in ethics, decision theory and 19th century German philosophy, especially Nietzsche. He is the author or co-author of six books, including the 2012 On Global Justice and most recently the 2023 Political Theory of the Digital Age: Where Artificial Intelligence Might Take Us. At HKS Risse has taught extensively both in degree programs and in executive education, including a regular week-long open-enrollment program called Emerging Leaders.
In addition to HKS, Risse teaches in Harvard College and the Harvard Extension School, and is affiliated with the Philosophy Department, the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, the Center for European Studies, and the Advanced Leadership Initiative (ALI). He served as the Co-Director of Graduate Studies at the Edmond J Safra Center for Ethics for about a decade and is currently the Director of the Program on the Ethics of Emerging Technologies there. He also is the Director of the McCloy program, a fellowship program for German students.
Risse regularly engages with collaborators on all continents and is one of the co-hosts of the Carr Center’s Justice Matters podcast. He has been the organizer of a number of major international conferences at Harvard and a co-organizer of several more such events in East and South East Asia (Singapore, Seoul and Shanghai), as a way of fostering collaboration among political philosophers and representatives of other fields across cultural divides. He has been a visiting professor at the National University of Singapore, New York University Abu Dhabi and Leuphana University in Germany. Risse grew up in a village in Westphalia, Germany. He studied in Bielefeld, Pittsburgh and Jerusalem, and then received his PhD from Princeton in 2000 and taught in the Department of Philosophy at Yale before coming to Harvard in 2002. He lived in Harvard's Eliot House for six years, and now resides in Somerville with his wife. See also www.mathiasrisse.com.
As of early 2025 Risse has posted extensively on current events in the Carr Commentary section of the Carr Center website. For some writings on race and protest from the pre-Corona years, see: “Giving Account: On Dealing with White Ignorance (Personally and Professionally);” “Statement Regarding My 2004 Paper on Racial Profiling;” “Discrimination, Cognitive Biases, and Human Rights Violations,” based on a talk in Mexico City; “Human Rights and Social Order: Philosophical, Practical and Public Policy Dimensions,” based on a talk in Santiago de Chile regarding the protests in Chile; and “Dangerous Science: Might Population Genetics or Artificial Intelligence Undermine Philosophical Ideas about Equality?,” based on a talk given in Cologne.)
Executive Education Programs
Emerging Leaders
Academic Journal/Scholarly Articles
Book Chapters
Research Papers/Reports
Sponsored projects include research, training, convening, and other initiatives externally funded through grants, contracts, and cooperative agreements. Funding sources can include the US federal government, state and local agencies, private foundations, corporations, and foreign entities (public and private).
The below list includes all sponsored projects in progress or completed within the current and past 2 calendar years, administered at the Harvard Kennedy School under the direction of the named faculty member as Principal Investigator. Please note that this list includes only those activities supported by external sponsored funding; other sources of support are not included (e.g., philanthropy, HKS or Harvard internal resources).
Project Title
Sponsor Name
Award Date
Transparent Engagement
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Outside Professional Activities For Mathias Risse
| Organization | Relationship |
|---|---|
| Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft | Reimbursed travel |