Starting with four research portals — Boston, Berlin-Moscow, Istanbul, and Mumbai — the grant provides funds for student and faculty travel and field research. The intention is to integrate teaching and research at all levels across the university, and at the same time to establish a presence in the cities themselves by developing collaborative projects with local institutions, and tapping into current projects and debates. The aspiration is to create a broad intellectual community of interdisciplinary humanistic inquiry focused on the city and issues of the urban well beyond Harvard.
