Houman Harouni

Houman Harouni is a practice-based theorist of culture and education. His work — which combines psychology, philosophy, political economy, and pedagogy — addresses the potential of institutions for maintaining or changing social relations. His study of power-dynamics in culture opens to conclusions relevant for education as well as for leadership, organizational studies, and social theory. He is also the faculty director for the Equity and Inclusion Fellowship, a program dedicated to combining the work of social justice with the difficult-to-learn skills of leadership and movement building. Harouni has been a Spencer fellow at the National Academy of Education, a postdoctoral fellow at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a presidential fellow of Harvard University. He has been an advisor to various ministries of and a long-time organizer and contributor to the training of teachers working with refugee populations in the Middle East.

His academic articles have appeared in the Harvard Educational Review, Berkeley Review of Education, and Philosophy of Education, among other publications. As a cultural critic and author, he has been a contributor to The Guardian, Salon and The American Reader, as well as other popular publications. He is a former elementary and high school teacher, and he runs intensive and innovative leadership development and teacher training workshops in a wide variety of contexts and institutions.