Berkman Center Celebrates 10th Year

In a two-day conference marking the tenth anniversary of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, Harvard Law School Dean Elena Kagan topped the event with more reason to celebrate.

After almost two years of planning, Kagan announced Thursday that the school’s research center has now been elevated to a University-wide interfaculty initiative.

Founded in 1997 with a gift by the Berkman family, the research center will now be funded by the University, in addition to other sources such as the MacArthur Foundation and the Law School itself, according to William W. Fisher, the faculty director of the center.

The Berkman Center explores the relationship between law and cyberspace in various disciplines relating to information technology.

“On one level, the transition from a Law School center to a University-wide center just memorializes the extent to which we have an interdisciplinary enterprise,” said John G. Palfrey ’94, the executive director of the Berkman Center. “Our primary motivation is to open our doors more widely both in real space and virtually to students and faculty from other schools to work with us on the most interesting Internet topics in the world.”

Over the past few years, the Berkman Center has been formalizing relationships with faculty at other schools including the Business School, the Divinity School, the Kennedy School, and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, according to Palfrey.

Palfrey, who was appointed the director of the Law School Library earlier this month, added that the mission of the research center had always been interdisciplinary in nature and that the transition to a University-wide initiative is only natural.

Fisher, who also teaches at the Law School, said that the evolution is evidence of the fact that more people recognize that information technology is best understood from an interdisciplinary standpoint.

Palfrey said that he does not expect to see much change at the Berkman Center, as the core faculty members will continue to teach and the students involved in the clinical programs will continue to learn.

“My sense is that there will be more going on in terms of further connections outside the Law School,” Palfrey said. “But there will certainly be no diminution to what we’re doing here.”

When asked about the future of the Berkman Center, Charles R. Nesson ’60, who founded the center, lapsed into a pensive silence as he pondered what he envisioned the newest of University-wide initiatives.

“It means that the principles of openness and elegance and mischief of creative thinking is a spark for all of Harvard and of University beyond,” Nesson said. “That’s what it means.”

-Staff writer June Q. Wu can be reached at junewu@fas.harvard.edu.