Dear Members of the Harvard Community,

I write to bring your attention to a Harvard initiative concerning scholars, writers, artists, and public intellectuals from around the world who face persecution. Nearly twenty-one years ago, the President's Office, in conjunction with the University Committee on Human Rights Studies, established a one-year visiting fellowship at Harvard to host a scholar at risk of persecution. This risk could be related to the scholar's work, but it could also be a consequence of other factors, including the scholar's ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, identity, or political opinions.

The Harvard Scholars at Risk (SAR) Program is truly a University-wide initiative. In addition to private donations, crucial support comes from the Offices of the President and Provost, along with the Center for the Study of World Religions, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard Divinity School, Harvard Medical School, Harvard Law School, the Hutchins Center for African and African-American Research, the Graduate School of Education, the Harvard Art Museums, Harvard Kennedy School, the Mahindra Humanities Center, the Radcliffe Institute, the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, and the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. Many other areas of the University lend support as well, including the Harvard International Office, the Graduate School of Education’s Office of Career Services, Harvard University Housing, the Office of Federal Relations, the Office of General Counsel, the Bridge Program, and many of the undergraduate student Houses. A committee comprised of twelve Harvard faculty members selects the fellows and manages the Harvard SAR Program. The committee welcomes the involvement of additional members of our academic community in this University-wide effort to help scholars in desperate need of assistance.

American universities’ support for scholars facing persecution due to their beliefs, scholarship, or identities has always been critically important, and threats to academic freedom remain present. Indeed, the level of risk, already high for many scholars, has increased across the globe in recent years. Among past fellows, chosen from a pool of candidates nominated by Harvard community members, human rights organizations, and members of the broader academic community, have been an array of remarkable individuals. They include a Cambodian documentary filmmaker, an Ethiopian federal judge and legal scholar, an Iraqi English literature scholar, two Nigerian poets, an Iranian novelist, a Pakistani Islamic Studies scholar, a Rwandan human rights scholar, a Saudi Arabian women’s rights activist, a Sri Lankan mathematician, a Syrian trauma surgeon, and a Uyghur anthropologist. Last year we hosted SAR Fellows from Afghanistan, Ethiopia, India, Turkey, Uganda, and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. This year, in response to the crisis in Afghanistan and the war in Ukraine, we have expanded the program significantly and are hosting fellows from Afghanistan, Cuba, Egypt, Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine. Scholars, artists, researchers, writers, and public intellectuals from any discipline represented at Harvard are eligible. The purpose of the fellowship is to enable scholars whose lives have been disrupted to live and work in safety and to benefit from and contribute to the scholarly and creative environment that Harvard provides.

I invite you to submit nominations for the 2023-24 fellowship. All Harvard faculty, staff, and students are welcome to submit. The deadline for submissions is January 15, 2023. Please visit the Harvard Scholars at Risk website to access the nomination form and other resources, including information about making financial contributions to this crucial and often life-saving program.

Recognizing that this is a challenging time for visitors from certain countries, I encourage you to contact the Harvard International Office with any questions regarding the current status of the law as it pertains to travel restrictions, visas, and entry.

If you have any questions about this initiative that are not answered on the website or would like to learn about how you can get involved, please contact Harvard SAR Committee co-chairs Jacqueline Bhabha and Stephen Greenblatt or program director Jane Unrue.

The Scholars at Risk Program at Harvard looks forward to receiving your nominations.

Sincerely,

Alan M. Garber
Provost
Harvard University