Elizabeth McKenna

Teaching

I teach at the Harvard Kennedy School. My pedagogical approach aims to be collective, participatory, and relevant to students’ lives, and my courses are built on the premise that students learn most by working through real problems with real people.

Courses

  • MLD-371 · AI and Civil Society: Human Agency in an Age of Artificial Agents. Harvard Kennedy School. New course, Fall 2026.
  • MLD-370 · Social Movements: The Art and Science of Social Change. Harvard Kennedy School.
  • API-203 · Qualitative Methods. Harvard Kennedy School MPP Core Course.
  • MLD-615 · Mixed Methods Analytics for Leaders and Policymakers. Harvard Kennedy School.
  • Bloomberg Harvard Leading Civic Engagement in Cities. Executive education program, co-chair with Archon Fung (2023, 2025).
  • AS.191.367 · Practicing Democracy. Johns Hopkins University, 2020.
  • Sociology 5 · Research Methods. Graduate Student Instructor, UC Berkeley, 2016.

Guest lectures

  • Harvard Kennedy School, DPI-325 Urban Politics Field Lab, qualitative methods crash course (twice)
  • San Francisco State University
  • UC Berkeley Haas School of Business
  • Tufts University
  • University of Toronto

Advising

  • Doctoral committees: Dorothy Manevich (Ph.D. 2025, FAS Government)
  • Senior thesis advising, Harvard College Social Studies
  • Faculty Mentor, Political Analysis track, Harvard Ph.D. Program in Health Policy
  • Faculty Advisor, Bloomberg Summer Fellows
  • Faculty Advisor, Harvard Undergraduate Democracy House
  • Policy Analysis Exercise advising, HKS MPP2s. Recent partners: AFL-CIO, Southern Poverty Law Center, MOVE Missouri, LUCHA, SFPUC.