Timothy Patrick McCarthy is an award-winning scholar, educator, and human rights activist who has taught at Harvard University since 1998. At the Graduate School of Education, he is core faculty in the Equity and Opportunity Foundations Curriculum and Online Master’s Program in Education Leadership, and faculty chair of The B.R.A.V.E. Institute. At the Kennedy School of Government, he is faculty chair of the Global LGBTQI+ Human Rights Program at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy and faculty affiliate at the Center for Public Leadership. He is also a core faculty member in Harvard’s Advanced Leadership Initiative. An historian of social movements, McCarthy has published five books, most recently Reckoning with History: Unfinished Stories of American Freedom. Twice named one of Harvard Crimson’s "Professors of the Year," McCarthy has received many awards for his commitment to students, including the 2019 Manuel C. Carballo Award, the Kennedy School’s highest teaching honor, as well as the 2003 John Marquand Award for Exceptional Advising and Counseling, the 2015 HKS Dean’s Award for Exceptional Leadership on Diversity and Inclusion and the 2023 Evelynn M. Hammonds Award for Exceptional Service to LGBTQ+ Inclusion at Harvard University. McCarthy was also honored with the 2017 HAA Award for outstanding service to Harvard through alumni leadership and the 2022 Outstanding Alumnus Award from the Phillips Brooks House Association for his lifetime commitment to public service and social justice. In May 2020, amidst the COVID pandemic, Kennedy School graduates chose him to deliver the faculty address ("Precedented Bravery") at their virtual Class Day ceremony, and HGSE graduates selected him to deliver the 2023 Faculty Commencement Address ("Brave Awakenings in an Age of Bullies"). The adopted only son and grandson of public school teachers and factory workers, McCarthy graduated with honors in history and literature from Harvard College and earned his M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. in history from Columbia University.
Lecturer on Education; Faculty Chair, Global LGBTQI+ Human Rights Program (at Carr Center/HKS)