About Us
The Taubman Center for State and Local Government and its affiliated institutes and programs are the Kennedy School of Government's focal points for activities that address state and local governance and intergovernmental relations. Our mission is to support current and future public sector leaders in improving the governance of states, counties, metropolitan regions, and cities through research, teaching, programs, and convenings.
The Taubman Center works to:
- Develop the next generation of state and local government leaders
- Generate big ideas and solutions to state and local government challenges
- Help state and local government implement and scale solutions
The Taubman Center focuses on urban policy issues, including economic development, transportation, education, public infrastructure, land use, social services, public sector technology and data utilization, procurement, and performance management.
Our Mission
- To spark innovative public policy discourse
- To create first-rate works of scholarship
- To enrich encounters between practitioners, scholars and students
- To inspire graduates
The center seeks to improve the governance of states, metropolitan areas, and cities through research, teaching, and public events. We support research, particularly for junior faculty in their teaching and their research. We believe this helps them build a strong foundation for motivating students in innovative and inspiring ways. We also hope to nurture faculty interests in broad areas of public policy regarding state and local government and intergovernmental relations. We support a wide range of research interests including urban economics, policies, and development; education policy and governance; civic engagement and social capital; and governmental communications. The center offers a variety of venues for communication and discussion open to students, academics, and the public.
Who We Serve
Urban Scholars
We strive to reach this group primarily through scholarly publications in top tier journals and, to some extent, through academic workshops and conferences conducted at Harvard and elsewhere.
Government and Non-profit Practitioners in Public Policy
We reach this audience through a wider range of tactics: publication in professional and general-audience journals and magazines, the center Policy Brief Series, op-ed commentaries, presentations at conferences, and ÌÇÐÄvlog¹ÙÍø executive education activities.
Students
The student audience is targeted by degree program teaching, case study writing, other curriculum development, seminars and workshops, informal brown bag lunches where faculty present research in progress, and by individual discussions and counseling.
What We Do
Several goals and strategies have framed the efforts of the Taubman Center:
- Provide service and incentives to the best junior faculty at ÌÇÐÄvlog¹ÙÍø to strengthen their interest in cities, policies with urban significance, and intergovernmental relations, and stimulate high quality research.
- Maintain the center as an intellectual community where faculty and research staff can productively work on urban research and teaching, as well as interact with each other to stimulate, support, and critique these endeavors.
- Provide opportunities for students to engage with these intellectual issues through support for seminars and public events, doctoral fellowships and financial aid, practice-oriented degree program courses, faculty participation in related executive education programs, and summer internships with governments in the Boston area.
- Develop and implement major, multi-year research initiatives that engage groups of faculty, not only single individuals, interested in exploring key urban issues.
Contact Us
Taubman Center for State and Local Government
Harvard Kennedy School of Government
79 JFK Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
Phone: 617-495-2199
Fax: 617-496-1722
General Questions
For questions about Taubman Center programming, initiatives, events, or research, please contact our Executive Director Rafael Carbonell.