Steven Levitsky Reappointed as DRCLAS Faculty Director for a Third Term
The David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies (DRCLAS) at Harvard University is pleased to announce the reappointment of Steven Levitsky as Faculty Director for a third and final term.
Since assuming the directorship in 2020, Levitsky has led DRCLAS through one of the most challenging and transformative periods in the Center’s history. Taking the helm at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, he guided the Center through an unprecedented global disruption while ensuring continuity, innovation, and mission-driven impact across research, teaching, and public engagement.
Under his leadership, DRCLAS rapidly pivoted its signature programs—including the Summer Internship Program, Winternship Program, and academic convenings—to remote and hybrid formats, expanding access and sustaining meaningful engagement with Latin America and the Caribbean at a moment when mobility was severely constrained. These adaptations not only preserved opportunities for students and scholars but also laid the groundwork for more flexible and inclusive program models that continue to shape the Center’s work today.
Levitsky’s tenure has also been marked by difficult but necessary decisions aimed at strengthening the Center’s long-term sustainability. Amid shifting institutional priorities, rising costs, and broader funding pressures affecting higher education, including federal research cuts and severe constraints on university resources, DRCLAS undertook a careful reassessment of its global footprint and operating model. This process included the decision to close the Center’s physical office in Chile after more than two decades of work, while reaffirming Harvard’s enduring commitment to academic collaboration in the country and across the region through partnerships, visiting scholar programs, and grant-making initiatives.“These were not easy decisions,” Levitsky noted at the time, “but they reflect a commitment to building a more agile, flexible, and sustainable model of regional engagement, one that allows DRCLAS to serve Latin America more broadly while remaining resilient in a challenging financial environment.”
Throughout this period of transition, Levitsky worked closely with staff, faculty, and partners to modernize internal structures, strengthen governance, and position DRCLAS to operate more nimbly, ensuring that the Center has been able to continue to support collaborative research, transformative student experiences, and vigorous public debate.
His leadership has also coincided with moments of renewal and growth. During his tenure, DRCLAS launched new initiatives such as the Francisco Ivorra Miralles ASISA–IAP Visiting Scholar Fellowship, deepening the Center’s commitment to supporting early-career scholars working on democracy, governance, and human rights. In 2024, the Center marked its 30th anniversary with a landmark symposium that brought together scholars, policymakers, and civic leaders to reflect on three decades of engagement and to chart a course for the future.
This third term will allow Levitsky to build on the Center’s recent repositioning and to help translate structural change into long-term opportunity.
Mark Elliott, Vice Provost for International Affairs, said, “I am thrilled that Steve has agreed to serve as director of DRCLAS for another term. His leadership over the past six years, amidst unprecedented levels of global disruption and uncertainty, has ensured that DRCLAS is well positioned to expand cross-regional collaboration and advance its core mission of fostering research, education, and dialogue on Latin America, the Caribbean, and their diasporas.”
“Steven’s leadership during an extraordinarily complex period has been both steady and resolute,” said Sol Carbonell, Executive Director of DRCLAS. “This next phase offers the opportunity to consolidate those gains and continue strengthening DRCLAS as a university-wide hub for scholarship and engagement with the region. Steve has worked closely with faculty across the university, in particular those serving on our Executive Committee, to ensure the sustainability of the center and a strong vision of impact and intellectual leadership. I am thrilled to continue working with him in his capacity of Director.”
“We’ve done the hard work of adapting and rethinking how we operate. This next chapter is about deepening our impact—supporting bold research, creating transformative experiences for students, and strengthening Harvard’s engagement with Latin America and the Caribbean in ways that are both sustainable and ambitious. In addition tolooking for new ways of continuing our work in Chile, I plan to prioritize three opportunities for the center over my final term: 1) expand our collaborative research efforts in countries with significant faculty and student demand (Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Peru), 2) increase the number of students we send to the region to have meaningful research and work experiences and 3) support efforts to increase Harvard’s research and teaching activities focused on Latin American diasporas in the US. I look forward to working with the rest of our faculty, our staff and our partners across the university and in the region.” - Steven Levitsky
DRCLAS looks forward to this next chapter and to the continued leadership of Steven Levitsky as the Center builds toward a more resilient, inclusive, and impactful future. As DRCLAS enters its next phase, Levitsky sees this term as an opportunity to build on the Center’s renewed foundation “I’m excited about what’s ahead for DRCLAS,” said Levitsky.