Harvard Library is the world’s largest academic library and oldest system in the United States. Its holdings number more than 20 million physical and digital items, with resources in all disciplines and more than 460 languages. A full list of Harvard Libraries can be found here.

Found within the library system is a vast array of rare and special collections, offering innumerable research opportunities. More information on archives and special collections at Harvard can be found here.

A selective research guide for students in American Studies has been carefully curated by Harvard Librarians to assist students in navigating the library system. Librarians are available to our students and have extensive knowledge on utilizing tools, accessing materials, and bibliographic techniques.

Contact:
Anna Assogba or Fred Burchsted for assistance with research in American Studies or visit the research guide above.

In addition to Harvard Libraries, American Studies is home to a small collection of curated material concerning the discipline and its subjects. A searchable guide to Humstone resources can be found here.

We know that graduate school can be a complicated and trying time. Harvard has myriad resources available for all students, including parental support, chaplain services, and discounted MBTA passes. For more information, please check out the GSAS Resource page.

Harvard offers three museum types–art, science, and living. All are world-renowned and hold countless possibilities for research and learning.

The Harvard Art Museums encompass three distinct museums within one home, the Fogg, Busch-Reisinger, and Arthur M. Sackler Museums. Information on research and learning opportunities can be found here.

The Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts is the center for contemporary art and artists at Harvard and offers exhibitions, commissions, public events, publications, and residencies.

The Warren Anatomical Museum, while fully digital, is at the center of Harvard’s Presidential Initiative on Harvard and the Legacy of Slavery. More information and an interview with the Curator is located here.

The Harvard Museums of Science and Culture include four museums on scientific and medical equipment, the ancient near east (formally the Semitic Museum), natural history, and the Peabody Museum of Archeology and Ethnology, all presenting unique opportunities for research.

The Arnold Arboretum of Harvard, while lacking books and classrooms, is a 281-acre portion of land perfect for unwinding and spending time outside. It is open daily, open to the public, offers tours and events, and is located in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston.

The Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History shares a special relationship with American Studies, offering programming, workshops, and grant opportunities to students.

The Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning is a unique resource available to graduate students to enhance their learning and teaching methods. The Bok Center runs workshops and seminars, and offers two different teaching certificates. More information on graduate student-specific opportunities can be found here.

Additional Centers of interest to students in American Studies include:

The Center for American Political Studies

The Center for Jewish Studies

The David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies

The Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Ethics

The Film Study Center

Harvard University Center for the Environment

The Hip-Hop Archive

The Hutchins Center for African and African American Research

The Mahindra Humanities Center

The Observatory of the Spanish Language and Hispanic Cultures in the United States

The Weatherhead Center for International Affairs

Harvard Griffin GSAS provides resources for graduate students seeking short- or long-term funding support for research, language study, graduate school generally, and dissertation writing. As a student, you may be required or encouraged to find outside funding for projects and research. Information on Harvard Griffin GSAS fellowships are here.

The Pedagogy Fellows Program with the Bok Center supports Harvard graduate students in their roles as undergraduate teachers. Approximately thirty experienced and creative graduate student teachers per year serve as Pedagogy Fellows, who collaborate with faculty, administration, and the Bok Center’s senior staff to enhance training and support for teaching fellows within their departments and across the FAS.

American Studies provides yearly funding to students to attend professional conferences and workshops and offers an opportunity for a semester’s worth of teaching relief.

Other funding opportunities are available to students. We highly encourage you to read Harvard Griffin GSAS financial aid policies for PhD students here to get a better sense of fees and funding packages.

Located on the second floor of the Barker Center, the American Studies Suite offers a common space for collegiality and social events with student mailboxes and a small kitchenette, two reservable rooms for private study or 1:1 meetings, and Humstone, our carefully curated library open to American Studies students for group work and larger meetings. Contact the Department Administrator for information on reservations.

Graduate students are permitted to reserve private study carrels in Widener, Harvard’s main library on campus. Click here for guidelines and the reservation form.

Students also have access to private lockers in the basement of the Barker Center. Contact the Department Administrator for an assignment and locker combination.

The Smith Center, located in Harvard Square, is a vibrant common space accessible to the entire Harvard community. The Smith Center is home to restaurants and cafes, HUHS, Harvard administrative offices, and plenty of study spaces for both group and private work. On the top floor you will find a large student lounge with sweeping views of Cambridge, an excellent place to both work and connect.

The GSAS Student Center is the center for graduate student life at Harvard. It is located in Lehman Hall in the Yard, and offers resources and spaces such as a computer lab, library and games room, shared common spaces, Café Gato Rojo–a student-run café in the basement and the GSAS Commons, a dining hall open to the entire community.