Special University-wide Programming

In addition to recurring events, HILT supports and hosts seminars, targeted events, and other collaborative engagements to advance the Harvard community’s understanding of critical issues and topics in higher education. Examples include:

• Open Inquiry and Constructive Dialogue Negotiations Seminar was held March 31, 2025 at the Harvard Graduate School of Education in collaboration with the Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Ethics and the FAS Civil Discourse Initiative. The seminar fostered university-wide conversations about open inquiry and constructive dialogue through shared insights from experts on negotiation and facilitation from across Harvard’s Schools. Presenters included Sheila Heen, Thaddeus R Beal Professor of Practice and Director of Negotiation Workshop (HLS); Kessely Hong, Senior Lecturer in Public Policy and Faculty Chair of MPA Program (HKS); Julia Minson, Associate Professor of Public Policy (HKS); and Joshua Greene, Professor of Psychology (FAS).
• The HILT TutorBot Seminar was held on December 14, 2023 and brought together faculty, staff, and researchers from across Harvard working on educational chatbots to share their experiences, challenges, and insights. Along with product demos, the participants engaged in an open conversation which highlighted the diverse approaches taken to integrate conversational AI into teaching and learning. Participants discussed everything from student engagement and interface design to ethical considerations and future opportunities for collaboration.

In addition, HILT has lent support to the following university-wide events:

• Harvard University Generative AI Symposium featured flash talks, breakout sessions, and an exhibit hall highlighting cutting-edge projects and practical applications of AI across disciplines. The event, hosted on May 13, 2025 at Harvard Business School, was co-sponsored by the Digital Data Design Institute at Harvard (D^3), along with campus partners including the Office of the Vice Provost for Research and Office of the Vice Provost for Advances in Learning, FAS, SEAS, HUIT, and the Harvard Library. Participants explored the transformative potential of generative AI across teaching, learning, research, and operations.
• From Text to Talk: Creative Teaching Conversations with Pre-Texts convened on April 10, 2025 at the Real Colegio Complutense at Harvard (RCCH). In this interactive workshop, participants engaged directly with the Pre-Texts methodology — a practice that uses creative, arts-based approaches to facilitate open, imaginative, and reflective conversations around challenging texts. Participants explored how this method cultivates a range of skills that support deeper learning, collaboration, and critical engagement in the classroom. Facilitators included Núria Hernández Nanclares, Associate Professor of Applied Economics at the University of Oviedo and Doris Sommer, Ira Jewell Williams, Jr., Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures (FAS).
• During academic year 2023-2024, HILT co-hosted three seminars with the Harvard Innovation Labs that convened faculty and staff from across the University who use project-based, learning-by-doing pedagogy in entrepreneurship, innovation, and design courses for undergraduate and graduate students, sparking an exchange of best practices for designing and delivering such courses.