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We are pleased to share that we have been awarded a grant by the for a Research Cluster on Global LGBTQI+ Human Rights. This award brings a dedicated research dimension to the important work already being carried out by the Global LGBTQI+ Program at the Carr-Ryan Center for Human Rights at Harvard Kennedy School, and will extend for three years.

are interdisciplinary communities that develop ideas, generate new international networks, and bring energy to the Weatherhead Center by actively conducting research on questions of broad global significance. They meet these goals through organizing seminars and conferences and producing articles or other output aimed at academic and public audiences. They foster new intellectual connectivity among members—and across cohorts—by bringing together faculty with students, postdoctoral fellows, and visiting scholars.

“The synergy with the Weatherhead Center expands the scope of our work and also deepens our ties across the university,” says Diego Garcia Blum, Director of the Global LGBTQI+ Human Rights Program. “It connects us with an extraordinary network of scholars and researchers who are helping us better understand and respond to the global backlash against LGBTQI+ human rights. I could not be more excited about this incredible partnership.”

The Research Cluster on Global LGBTQI+ Human Rights will devote the next three years to examining the root causes, major players, and core tactics and strategies of the global backlash against LGBTQI+ people. We will conduct research, convene stakeholders, curate and consolidate what we already know, and create new interventions to build a world where human rights for LGBTQI+ people are the norm.

“This generous support from Weatherhead is a game changer,” says Dr. Timothy Patrick McCarthy, Faculty Chair of the Global LGBTQI+ Human Rights Program. “Our colleagues are making a major investment in our research program that allows us to sustain and expand the work we are doing to understand and combat the global backlash against LGBTQI+ people and our rights. It also helps ensure that Harvard will be a hub for this work as we navigate this urgent and perilous time.”

About The Research Cluster on Global LGBTQI+ Human Rights: 

Faculty: Mathias Risse (����vlog����), Timothy Patrick McCarthy (����vlog����, HGSE)

The deliberate targeting of LGBTQI+ communities is part of an increasingly coordinated and well-resourced transnational strategy to polarize societies, weaken democratic institutions, and expand illiberal influences. This rising transnational threat is in many respects a reactionary backlash against hard-earned advances won by and for LGBTQI+ people over the last generation. This research cluster examines the interplay of state and nonstate actors as leading drivers of this global backlash against democracy and human rights. We convene leading human rights scholars, policymakers, practitioners, and activists to produce cutting-edge interdisciplinary research, data-informed policy recommendations, and new public engagement and culture change strategies to promote the safety and security—and protect and advance the human rights—of LGBTQI+ people worldwide.