About
In order to leverage the interest the symposium generated, Harrison spearheaded the creation of the Culture Matters Research Project (CMRP), a three-year initiative that assembled essays and original research from more than 65 scholars around the world. The CMRP culminated in the popular book Culture Matters (Basic Books, 2000), edited by Harrison and Harvard University professor Samuel Huntington (of The Clash of Civilizations fame).
Harrison continued to build on the topic by editing a follow-up book entitled The Central Liberal Truth: How Politics Can Change a Culture and Save it From Itself (Oxford University Press, 2006). He subsequently secured the funding for the establishment of the CCI at The Fletcher School. In addition to his research and writing, Harrison teaches the Fletcher course "Cultural Values and Development," offered every semester and always filled to capacity.
Lawrence Harrison, Director
Lawrence E. Harrison is Senior Research Fellow and Adjunct Lecturer at the Fletcher School at Tufts University. He is the author of Underdevelopment is a State of Mind, Who Prospers?, and The Pan-American Dream, The Central Liberal Truth, and co-editor, with Samuel Huntington, of Culture Matters: How Values Shape Human Progress. Between 1965 and 1981, he directed USAID missions in the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Haiti, and Nicaragua. Harrison was associated with Harvard University's Weatherhead Center for International Affairs for eight years during the period 1981-2001. His articles have appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, Atlantic Monthly, Foreign Policy, and The National Interest, among other publications.