New Delhi – April 24, 2025 — The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) has revoked a previously extended fellowship offer to A. Kayum Ahmed, a prominent human rights advocate and staff member at Human Rights Watch, citing procedural oversights in the appointment process.
Ahmed, who also lectures at Columbia University, was offered a non-resident, unpaid fellowship at HKS’s Carr Center for Human Rights Policy. However, the school announced this week that the offer had been made “prematurely” and without undergoing its full internal review and vetting process.
“The fellowship was not finalized through our standard protocols, and we are taking steps to ensure that all future offers follow proper procedure,” a spokesperson for the Kennedy School said in a public statement.
The decision has drawn comparisons to a similar controversy in early 2023, when HKS initially denied a fellowship to Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch. That denial, which many critics linked to Roth’s outspoken criticism of Israeli government policies, sparked national debate on academic freedom and led to a swift backlash from civil rights organizations and Harvard faculty. The school ultimately reversed its decision and granted Roth the fellowship.
Though HKS has not linked Ahmed’s case to political pressure, critics and human rights groups have raised concerns over a possible pattern of sidelining voices critical of powerful international actors.
Ahmed has not publicly commented on the rescinded offer. However, several academic and advocacy groups have called on HKS to clarify the reasons behind the decision and to reaffirm its commitment to human rights scholarship and freedom of expression.
The Carr Center, where the fellowship was to be housed, has also remained silent on the matter.
As the academic world watches closely, the controversy has rekindled broader discussions about institutional independence, political sensitivities, and the role of universities in upholding free and open discourse.
