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Harvard in the World

In Focus

Harvard in the World

Last updated: January 2026

Our global community

Joyous students at commencement tossing globe balls into the air.

Asia

From the cross-cultural studies at Harvard’s Asia Center and the Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute to the comprehensive East Asian collections of the Harvard Yenching Library and research from the Middle East Initiative, Harvard enjoys a wealth of resources to help scholars explore and celebrate Asia.

Four dental surgeons wearing scrubs stand against a bright green wall

Medicine

Harvard School of Dental Medicine alum Shahid Aziz started Smile Bangladesh, a nonprofit dedicated to providing care to children and adults with facial cleft deformities. His friend and former classmate Jose Marchena is vice president of the organization.

Medicine

Education

Manasi Mehan and Chhavi Khandelwal founded Saturday Art Class to provide visual arts and social emotional learning education to children across India.

Education

Farming

Kimberly Jung and Emily Miller started Rumi Spice to brings saffron and other spices from Afghanistan to the United States and provides jobs for more than 1,500 farmers and other workers.

Farming

Religion

Hafsa Amir Nawab spent her summer in Karachi, Pakistan, developing an interactive storybook to foster religious tolerance among children.

Religion

Business

Harvard Business School alums Yumiko Murakami and Miwa Seki started the first woman-led venture capital firm in Japan.

Business

Politics

Experiences in Iraq led to Belfer Center Fellow Marsin Alshamary’s thesis, and later book, exploring why religious leaders get involved in politics.

Politics

South America

The David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies boasts a variety of initiatives based in South America, including the Chilean University Alliance for Women in Academia, AprendoEnCasa, and the Brazil Studies Program.


Inside Harvard's Amazon Rainforest Immersion
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Journey to the Amazon

In August 2024, Harvard launched the Harvard Amazon Rainforest Immersion, an interdisciplinary program that brings together faculty, students, and young academics to explore one of the planet’s most vital ecosystems.

Learn about the immersion

A diverse group of leaders from across Brazil came together at Harvard to learn about the latest science in early childhood development and create plans to implement locally.

Daniela Terán Endara focuses on human-centric design, which puts people’s needs and perspectives at the center of the design process, to help communities in Ecuador, Peru, and Colombia.

Roberto Zariquiey, a 2022-2023 Radcliffe Institute fellow, is hoping to reframe the discussion around languages with few speakers.

Scholars, artists, and leaders came together at a conference in São Paulo to share scholarship relating to race, racism, and racial stratification in Latin America.

Australia/Oceania

Harvard students, faculty, and alumni have the opportunity to support and explore this region through study abroad programs in Australia and New Zealand, collaboration with schools through the Leading Learning that Matters program, and programming and networking with the Harvard Club of Australia.

Antarctica

Harvard researchers are investigating everything from climate change to astrophysics on Earth’s coldest continent.

Learn about research happening at the South Pole Telescope

Chester Pierce

A mountain of a man

Chester Pierce, a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and professor of education at Harvard University, is the namesake of Antarctica’s Pierce Peak, in tribute to his work studying the behavioral effects of extreme environments.

Learn more about his life

Europe

Many centers and programs across Harvard, including the Europe Research Center in Paris, the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, and the Center for Hellenic Studies, provide academic resources and opportunities for students in Cambridge and Europe.


Africa

The Harvard community’s impact in Africa can be seen in the work of the Africa Research Center, the Harvard Malaria Initiative, and the Harvard University Center for African Studies.

African landscape

New endeavors

Seven projects have been selected as the 2024 awardees for the Motsepe Presidential Research Accelerator Fund for Africa. The primary purpose of the fund is to support faculty-led and student-driven research projects that focus on advancing key challenges and opportunities facing Africa.

New endeavors

Education

Toshiko Mori, a professor at Harvard Graduate School of Design, opened a school in Senegal that fosters community and redefines learning for children.

Education

Economy

Through the One Acre Fund, Caroline Fong is helping to empower more than 5 million farmers across sub-Saharan Africa with farm supplies, financing, training, and market access.

Economy

Healthcare

Harvard School of Dental Medicine faculty returned to Rwanda to expand oral health training, this time with a focus on future physicians.

Healthcare

Leadership

In 2022, Harvard Law School brought together four female African heads of state to explore opportunities for the continent’s future advancement.

Leadership

Mental health

For her Ph.D. research project, Kathrine focused on creating and implementing mental health interventions for children and adolescents in Kenya.

North America

Harvard initiatives in North America are vast and varied, including the Weatherhead Center’s Canada program, the Project on Indigenous Governance and Development at the Harvard Kennedy School, and the David Rockefeller Center’s programs in Mexico and the Caribbean.

Explore more work by the Harvard Community