Claudine Gay named Harvard University's 1st Black president

Claudine Gay.
(Image credit: Erin Clark/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

Claudine Gay will be the next president of Harvard University, and the institution's first Black leader.

Gay is now the dean of Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and will step into her new position as the school's 30th president on July 1, 2023, replacing Lawrence Bacow, Harvard announced Thursday. The daughter of Haitian immigrants, Gay is a scholar of political behavior and democracy and the founding chair of the Inequality in America Initiative.

"People are Harvard's institutional strength," Gay, 52, said in video remarks. "I want to take on this role because I believe in them and I want a Harvard that matches their ambition and promise." She also declared that "the idea of the ivory tower — that's the past, not the future of academia. We don't exist alongside society but as part of it and at Harvard, we have that duty to lean in and engage and to be of service to the world."

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Harvard students were asked to share their opinions on who should serve as the university's next president. Noah Harris, a recent graduate and the first Black man elected as Harvard's student body president, told The Boston Globe he is "thrilled and encouraged" by the selection of Gay, adding that she has "her ear to the ground and is well respected. I've gotten so many texts. People are so excited."

Explore More
Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.