Karen Thornber
A 2006 PhD from Harvard’s Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations (Chinese, Japanese, and Korean literatures), Professor Thornber is a cultural historian and scholar of Asian literature and media working primarily in the fields of environmental humanities; medical and health humanities; gender justice, environmental justice, climate justice, and other forms of justice; and transculturation (e.g., translation studies, world literature, comparative literature). Professor Thornber conducts research in more than a dozen Asian and European languages, modern and classical. In addition to publishing actively (6 single-author scholarly books, 80 scholarly articles/chapters, several (co)edited volumes), Professor Thornber has held a range of leadership and service positions at Harvard and well beyond and taught, advised, and mentored graduate and undergraduate students from across the humanities and related social sciences.
The Salata Institute
The Salata Institute supports interdisciplinary research that leads to real-world action, including high-risk/high-reward projects by researchers already working in the climate area and new endeavors that make it easier for Harvard scholars, who have not worked on climate problems, to do so. Faculty interested in the Climate Research Clusters program should note an upcoming deadline for concepts on April 1, 2024.