Academic life 

Harvard and its Schools are dedicated to strengthening academic excellence through enhancing course offerings, upholding rigorous pedagogical standards, and implementing faculty development that support intellectual diversity and inclusive learning environments. Informed by the Task Force’s findings, Harvard and its Schools are further committed to increasing academic engagement with the history of Muslims, Palestinians, and Arabs in America and the world, Muslim and Islamic studies, and related topics, as part of a broader commitment to scholarly inquiry across diverse fields and perspectives. Highlights include new course offerings, revised course evaluation forms, new trainings for faculty and staff, and new faculty positions to support Islamic studies. 

Last updated December 2025 

Faculty, staff, and course offerings

• New Islamic Studies visiting professor at Harvard Divinity School. For the 2025-26 Academic Year, HDS has welcomed a new Visiting Assistant Professor of Women’s Studies and Islam who specializes in philosophy and Islamic thought and also serves as a research associate in the Women’s Studies in Religion Program. 

• Harvard Law School class on Islamic law. In spring 2026, Harvard Law School will offer the course “Introduction to Islamic Law,” which will examine contemporary issues in Islamic law. 

• New course and lecture offerings at Harvard Divinity School. In the 2025-26 Academic Year, Harvard Divinity School is offering courses on “American Muslim Polity,” “Islamic Chaplaincy and Ministry,” “American Jewish Polity,” “Prayer Book Hebrew,” and “American Judaism.”  HDS also offered a lecture in October 2025 on “Who Made American Judaism? A History of Ordinary Leaders.” In spring 2026, HDS will offer a course entitled “A Survey of Islamic Law: Interpretation, Evolution and Contemporary Challenges.” which will survey the origin and evolution of Islamic law and its major topics as a product of the lived historical and contemporary experience of Muslim communities. These courses are additions to the existing Jewish Studies and Islamic Studies courses. 

• Curriculum review. Deans will work with their faculty to strengthen existing academic review processes for courses and curricula, ensuring they uphold the highest standards of academic excellence and intellectual rigor while reflecting the shared teaching expectations described above. These review processes will respect disciplinary differences, faculty expertise, and academic freedom while fostering educational environments where all students can fully engage with course material. 

• Historical overview of Arabs, Muslims, and Palestinians at Harvard. Harvard will engage a subject matter expert to undertake a comprehensive historical overview of Muslims, Arabs, and Palestinians at the University. 

• New leadership for the Religion and Public Life Program at Harvard Divinity School. Harvard Divinity School has appointed new leadership for the Religion and Public Life (RPL) program effective July 1, 2025, with the Academic Dean serving as interim director to help with the transition. Additionally, the School appointed a committee of four distinguished scholars from outside Harvard to review the RPL program. The committee will provide an independent evaluation of the program, focusing on academic quality, effectiveness, and alignment with institutional goals. 

Promoting civil discourse and viewpoint diversity in classrooms

• Chatham House Rules. Many Schools across the University have adopted Chatham House Rules, which provide that information shared during class can be used outside the classroom, but cannot be affiliated or ascribed to any one person or organization.  The Rules seek to encourage constructive dialogue and the airing of diverse views in the classroom without pressure to conform to a particular stance. 

• Institutional Voice Principles. In May 2024, the University adopted its Institutional Voice Principles and will no longer “issue official statements about public matters that do not directly affect the university’s core function” as an academic institution. The University can and will continue to speak out on anything relevant to its core function, such as free and open inquiry, teaching, and research. 

• Faculty of Arts and Sciences’ adoption of the Classroom Social Compact.  Following the January 2025 recommendations from the FAS Classroom Social Compact Committee, faculty voted in March 2025 to adopt handbook language for students and instructors outlining expectations for classroom behavior to advance academic freedom, engagement of a range of viewpoints, and a vibrant learning environment. The expectations went into effect in the 2025-26 Academic Year. FAS added a training session to new faculty orientations in August 2025 on the new Social Classroom Compact, which included guidance on how faculty and students can contribute to a vibrant learning environment that promotes discovery, learning, and meaningful dialogue.   

• Faculty of Arts and Sciences Oversight Committee. Faculty of Arts and Sciences formed the Faculty Conduct Committee (FCC) to provide peer accountability for concerns related to the professional conduct of professors. 

• Course evaluations. Prior to the start of the fall 2025 term, Harvard College and many of Harvard’s graduate and professional schools updated their course evaluation processes to ensure evaluations appropriately elicit feedback from students as to an instructor’s ability to encourage competing viewpoints and create a classroom environment broadly conducive to learning. 

• Defining expectations for teaching excellence. Deans have been working with faculty to define shared expectations for teaching excellence that include: (1) maintaining appropriate focus on course subject matter; (2) ensuring students are treated fairly regardless of their identity or political/religious beliefs; (3) promoting intellectual openness and respectful dialogue among students; and (4) maintaining appropriate professional boundaries in instructional settings by refraining from endorsing or advocating political positions in a manner that may cause students to feel pressure to demonstrate allegiance. 

• Integrating teaching excellence into academic policies and practices. The shared expectations for teaching excellence will be clearly communicated to faculty and incorporated into policy documents such as instructor handbooks. These expectations will be reflected in established review and oversight processes, including course evaluations, faculty activity reporting, and compensation review, and in reviews regarding hiring, promotion, and renewal. 

• Best practices for classroom disruption. Faculty of Arts and Sciences provided faculty with training on responding to classroom disruptions in January 2024 and has shared key best practices on the FAS website. 

• Navigating classroom disruption at Harvard Graduate School of Education.   Harvard Graduate School of Education released updated protocols on navigating campus disruption to senior staff for sharing with their teams on September 2025. HGSE released similar messaging to faculty on navigating classroom disruptions on October 2025. 

• New Associate Director of Pedagogy for Civil Discourse.  In spring 2025, the Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Ethics (ELSCE) recruited and hired an Associate Director of Pedagogy for Civil Discourse.  

• Harvard College teaching expectations. Each semester, Harvard College reminds the faculty responsible for a course of the expectations for instruction—including that a class should not be cancelled for political reasons—and that the faculty member is responsible for ensuring that teaching fellows are also abiding by these expectations. 

• Conflict resolution skills. Harvard Divinity School has recurrently co-offered a conflict resolution course with Harvard Law School, which will continue. 

• Negotiation training at Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences will sponsor a faculty expert from the Harvard Law School negotiation program to host multiple sessions for students on difficult conversations during the 2025–26 Academic Year. 

• Harvard Graduate School of Education Inclusive Teaching and Advising Steering Committee. In September 2025, Harvard Graduate School of Education launched an Inclusive Teaching and Advising Steering Committee charged in part with developing strategies to ensure that teaching and advising at HGSE is inclusive for all students regardless of their identity or beliefs. HGSE also formed the Dialogue Across Difference Steering Committee, which works to build capacity for constructive civil discourse, emphasizing the importance of engaging productively across differences in service of learning and collaboration. 

• Harvard Law School instructional review working group. As of fall 2025, Harvard Law School created an Instructional Review Working Group that will work in collaboration with the School’s Curriculum and Clinical Committees to help ensure that instructors create classroom environments that are conducive to learning.  

• Update to Harvard Medical School faculty and staff handbook. The “Responsibilities of Teachers” section of the Harvard Medical School Master’s handbook was updated to reflect explicit expectations regarding facilitating discourse and implementing classroom confidentiality policies.  

• Harvard Law School faculty and staff training and dialogue. Each year Harvard Law School holds a mock class for staff introducing staff to the pedagogy and dynamics in a law school classroom. In addition, the Dean’s office sponsors “Topics at 10” for staff with faculty presenting on topics of their expertise and encouraging dialogue. 

• Harvard Law School best practices on classroom discussion. As a continuation of work over the last several years, Harvard Law School has developed and shared best practices for productive classroom discussion, built difficult conversation modules into first-year student orientation, piloted a negotiation requirement for graduation, and adopted rules that protect classroom discussion to ensure students can share views freely and openly.