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Events

Explore our upcoming events, find video and audio from our past events, and subscribe to stay updated on all of our talks, panels, and live webcasts.

Welcome to the Berkman Klein Center’s events. These get-togethers are all about having great conversations and making new connections in a friendly and inclusive space. We believe everyone has something interesting to say. Please bring your ideas, experiences, and unique perspectives. Feel free to critique ideas and speak from your own experience, all in the spirit of lively and respectful discourse.

Thanks for helping us create a great community atmosphere!

Our hybrid and virtual events are hosted on Zoom with closed-captioning. Questions can be submitted to the moderator, who will highlight popular and emerging themes and relay them to the speakers. Please note that translation services are currently unavailable.

Public event recordings will be available one week after the event. You can find them on the event page or BKC’s YouTube channel. For the latest updates, follow BKC on X or LinkedIn.

Respiratory illnesses like flu, COVID-19, and RSV affect millions annually. Protect yourself and others by wearing a high-quality face mask in crowded indoor settings and staying home if you're unwell.

Harvard University and the Berkman Klein Center welcome individuals with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you would like to request accommodations or have questions about the physical access provided, please contact our Event Specialist at [email protected] in advance of your participation or visit. Requests for American Sign Language interpreters and/or CART providers should be made at least two weeks in advance, if possible. Please note that the University will make every effort to secure services, but that services are subject to availability.

For further questions about accessibility on Harvard's campus, we invite visitors to check out Harvard University Disability Resources page and the Digital Accessibility page.

For in-person attendees, below is a list of resources regarding parking and accessibility at HLS. Harvard is a tough area to find parking, but we do have a number of options around Lewis.

For those with accessibility needs who have handicap parking permits:

  1. Private HLS parking is available at 10 Everett St Garage (the garage recommended for events) for a moderate fee. Passes must be purchased in advance and printed ahead of time. For more info on Accessible Parking at HLS click here.
  2. Public handicap spots are spread out throughout Cambridge. Click here for a guide to public Cambridge parking, and click for campus interactive accessibility maps. The closest spots within reasonable walking distance and NO major roadways to cross are located at 2 Kirkland St, 23 Everett St, and 12 Oxford St. All 3 locations are located within 1 block of Lewis. Please note, so long as the driver has a legal handicap permit, they can park at any public, paid metered spot, or "Residents Only" spot in Cambridge, but MUST have their permit displayed at all times in their car window. If the permit is not visible, they will be ticketed and/or towed. They do NOT need to park in a handicap spot so long as their permit is visible.
  3. The most accessible streets to park on (meaning no major roadways to cross and within reasonable distance of Lewis) are Everett St, Oxford St, and Kirkland St.

For those not using handicap parking permits:

  1. Private HLS parking is available at 10 Everett St Garage, 52 Oxford St Garage, and School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. These are the 3 privately owned Harvard garages recommended. Click here for daily permit purchasing information, which must be done ahead of the event. A day rate is $25. Click here for Harvard’s Parking Map.
  2. Public, metered parking spots are available. They range in maximum parking time limit from 2-4 hours for $1.50-$2.00/hour. Please note, if you pay using the mobile Passport Parking app, you will NOT be able to renew your session once it ends. You will have to feed the meter using coins as the app will not permit you to surpass the maximum parking limit. (continued below).
  3. Car-pooling and public transportation are great ways to save money and time. These methods of transportation are highly recommended to those who can do so! 

The Berkman Klein Center is located on the 4th and 5th floors of the Lewis Law Center. The street address is 1557 Massachusetts Avenue. Most events occur in the 5th floor multipurpose room. The Center is wheelchair-accessible and includes accessible restrooms. The building is key card access only. For public events, staff will be stationed at the door to allow entry.

If an event is being catered, it will be noted in the event description and you will be prompted to indicate your dietary preferences on the RSVP form. Food is always offered on a first come, first served basis. The more we know, the better we can prepare, so please always RSVP. If you were unable to RSVP, please still come but consider not taking a meal unless there is an abundance.

Using a variety of local caterers, BKC does its best to provide an assortment of clearly labeled dietary options at all catered events. We usually have vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free options available.

For all event related needs or concerns, please contact someone on our Events Team at [email protected] or call our Event Specialist at 617-384-0596. Thank you.

Past Events

Event
Apr 11, 2017 @ 12:00 PM

AI & Society

featuring Joi Ito and Iyad Rahwan of the MIT Media Lab

ISIS. Trump. Uber. The 1%. What if all these phenomena reflect the same forces? What if you could understand those forces?

Event
Apr 4, 2017 @ 12:00 PM

Algorithmic Consumers

with Professors Michal Gal, University of Haifa, and Niva Elkin-Koren, Visting Professor of Law at HLS

Hate shopping? The next generation of e-commerce will be conducted by digital agents, based on algorithms that will not only make purchase recommendations, but will also predict…

Event
Mar 30, 2017 @ 12:00 PM

Using Mobile Phone Data to Map Migration and Disease

Politics, Privacy, and Public Health

Mobile phone data are providing unprecedented insights into human migration and behavior with relevance for containment of epidemics and response to natural disasters, but what…

Event
Mar 28, 2017 @ 12:00 PM

Virtual Competition

The Promise and Perils of the Algorithm-Driven Economy

The changing market reality is already shifting power into the hands of the few. Join us to explore the resulting risks to competition, our democratic ideals, and our economic and…

Event
Mar 23, 2017 @ 12:00 PM

Fake News, Concrete Responses

At the Nexus of Law, Technology, and Social Narratives

Join us for a special Harvard Law School-Berkman Klein Fake News Lunch Panel moderated by Martha Minow, Dean of Harvard Law School

Mar 21, 2017 @ 12:00 PM

The Things of the Internet

with Berkman Klein Fellow, An Xiao” Mina

What sorts of objects do new forms of hardware culture enable, and what role does the internet now play in all steps along the way, from ideation to sales to manufacturing to…

Event
Mar 14, 2017 @ 12:00 PM

An Introduction to Media Cloud

Mapping the attention and influence of news

The recent US election, and related conversations about misinformation, have brought questions about media influence to the forefront of internet research and communications…

Event
Mar 10, 2017 @ 4:00 PM

#Republic: Divided

Democracy in the Age of Social Media

In this revealing book, Cass Sunstein, the New York Times bestselling author of Nudge and The World According to Star Wars, shows how today's Internet is driving political…

Event
Mar 7, 2017 @ 12:00 PM

Embedded Dangers

Revisiting the Year 2000 Problem and the Politics of Technological Repair

What really happened in the Y2K crisis and did it matter? With a growing consensus that the United States is in a state of infrastructural crisis, the Y2K bug and its aftermath…

Feb 28, 2017 @ 12:00 PM

Five Global Challenges and the Role of University

Berkman Faculty Associate, Juan Carlos De Martin with Berkman Klein founder, Charlie Nesson

Five global, complex, interrelated and to some extent unprecedented challenges: in the coming years what can universities do to support society in addressing them?

Event
Feb 23, 2017 @ 12:00 PM

Public Health Echo Chambers in a Time of Mistrust & Misinformation - Digital Health @ Harvard, February 2017

with Berkman Klein fellows Natalie Gyenes and Brittany Seymour

Research shows that public health information networks online have been largely unsuccessful in driving an evidence-based information network narrative around key health topics…

Event
Feb 21, 2017 @ 12:00 PM

Internet Designers as Policy-Makers

Sandra Braman, Abbott Professor of Liberal Arts at Texas A&M University

Those responsible for technical design of the Internet are essential among the policy-makers for this large-scale sociotechnical infrastructure. Based on analysis of the…

Feb 20, 2017 @ 12:00 PM

The KINGS of Africa’s Digital Economy

Eric Osiakwan, Managing Partner of Chanzo Capital

Eric Osiakwan, Managing Partner of Chanzo Capital, on the KINGS of Africa’s Digital Economy.

Event
Feb 14, 2017 @ 12:00 PM

Hyperloop Law: Autonomy, Infrastructure, and Transportation Startups

featuring General Counsel of Hyperloop One, Marvin Ammori

The future of transportation may include Google's autonomous vehicles, Uber's flying cars, and Amazon's delivery drones--all bound together by a high-speed hyperloop backbone. You…

Event
Feb 7, 2017 @ 12:00 PM

Bottom-up Constitutionalism: The Case of Net Neutrality

with Christoph Graber, Berkman Klein Faculty Associate

Can we observe the emergence of a new fundamental right that is protecting the Internet? Can such a constitutionalisation process originate from civil society?

Jan 31, 2017 @ 12:00 PM

Not Bugs, But Features

Hopeful Institutions and Technologies of Inequality

How did we learn that we need to learn to code—or else? This talk draws on an ethnography of a library system amidst a massive digital transition, tracing how strained public…

Event
Jan 26, 2017 @ 12:00 PM

Free Independent Health Records

featuring Adrian Gropper, MD

Free Independent Health Records are an important use-case for self-sovereign technology that links individual people with licensed practitioners and connected services. Blockchain…

Jan 24, 2017 @ 4:00 PM

US Communications at a Crossroads

featuring Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Tom Wheeler, in conversation with Harvard Law School Professor Susan Crawford

Join us for a conversation between Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Tom Wheeler, and Harvard Law School Professor, Susan Crawford.

Jan 10, 2017 @ 12:00 PM

Examining Black Feminism in the Digital Era

with Berkman Klein Fellow, Kishonna L. Gray

Using Black women’s innovative use of digital technologies via the hashtag, via reappropriating imagery, via facebook pages and gaming, Kishonna L. Gray highlights examples…

Dec 2, 2016 @ 9:00 AM

Algorithms, Law and Society: Building Rights for a Digital Era

December 2, 2016, 9:00 am - 12:00 pm Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University Harvard Law School campus   This workshop is being sponsored…