The Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) announces that political philosopher Nancy Fraser will be the Spring 2026 Senior Loeb Scholar. Senior Loeb Scholars spend time on campus at the GSD, during which time they present a public lecture and engage directly with GSD students, faculty, staff, researchers, and Loeb Fellows.
Professor Fraser will join the GSD community on campus from April 13–17, 2026. She will deliver her Senior Loeb Scholar public lecture on the evening of Wednesday, April 15, titled “Against the Environmentalism of the Rich: Why We Can’t Protect Nature without Emancipating Labor.”
Fraser is the Henry and Louise A. Loeb Professor Emeritus of Philosophy
and Politics
at the New School for Social Research, and a member of the Editorial Committee of New Left Review
. Trained as a philosopher, she specializes in critical social theory and political philosophy.
“Most of my work has been critical, aimed at disclosing the rotten underside of capitalist society,” says Fraser. “Now, however, I’m trying to connect critique to a positive vision, the design of another form of life. That’s a new style of thinking for me–and one for which I need advice and inspiration. I expect to find just that as Senior Loeb Scholar at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. The timing of this appointment could not be better!”
Fraser is the author of Cannibal Capitalism: How Our System Is Devouring Democracy, Care, and the Planet—and What We Can Do About It (Verso, 2022), Feminism for the 99%: A Manifesto (Verso, 2019), The Old is Dying (Verso, 2019), and Capitalism: A Conversation in Critical Theory (Polity Press, 2018). Fraser’s work has been translated into more than twenty languages. She is the recipient of six honorary degrees, the Alfred Schutz Prize for Social Philosophy, the Nessim Habif World Prize, and the Nonino Prize 2022 “Master of our Time,” and is a Chevalier of the French Legion of Honor, a Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a past President of the American Philosophical Association, Eastern Division.
“I have long been influenced by her insightful writings on the public sphere, transnationalism, capitalism, and other topics,” said Sarah M. Whiting, Dean and Josep Lluís Sert Professor of Architecture. “I am confident that members of our community across all programs will also find her to be inspiring and impactful.”
Since its inception in 2010, the Senior Loeb Scholar program has offered the GSD community opportunities to learn from and be in discourse with visionary designers, scholars, and thought leaders in a uniquely focused context.
