Rakesh Khurana

Last updated
Rakesh Khurana
Rakesh Khurana (2015).jpg
Khurana in 2015
Born (1967-11-22) November 22, 1967 (age 56)
India
NationalityAmerican
Education Cornell University (BS)
Harvard University (MA, PhD)
Occupation(s)Academic, sociologist
Years active1998–present
TitleDean of Harvard College

Rakesh Khurana (born November 22, 1967) is an Indian-American educator. He is a professor of sociology at Harvard University, a professor of leadership development at Harvard Business School, and the dean of Harvard College. [1] [2]

Contents

Early life and education

Khurana was born in India and was raised in Queens, New York. [3] He received his bachelor's degree in industrial relations from Cornell, [1] his M.A. in sociology from Harvard, and his PhD in organizational behavior through a joint program between the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences and Harvard Business School in 1998. [1]

Career

Khurana is a founding team member of Cambridge Technology Partners and from 1998 to 2000 he taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. [1] Khurana is the author of the book, Searching for a Corporate Savior: The Irrational Quest for Charismatic CEOs and related academic and managerial articles on the pitfalls of charismatic leadership.[ citation needed ] In 2007 he published his second book From Higher Aims to Hired Hands: The Social Transformation of American Business Schools and the Unfulfilled Promise of Management as a Profession (Princeton University Press). [4] The book received the Max Weber prize from the American Sociological Association's Organizations, Occupations, and Work Section and was the Winner of the 2009 Gold Medal Axiom Business Book Award in Career, Jenkins Group, Inc. and the Winner of the 2007 Best Professional/Scholarly Publishing Book in Business, Finance and Management, Association of American Publishers and the Finalist for the George R. Terry Award from the Academy of Management.[ citation needed ]

He is the co-editor of the Handbook of Leadership Theory and Practice (2010), published by Harvard Business School Press [5] and the Handbook for Teaching Leadership: Knowing, Doing and Being, (2012), published by SAGE Publications. [6]

In March 2010, Khurana and his wife, Stephanie Khurana, were named master and co-master of Cabot House. The pair remained in these roles, though the title was changed to "faculty dean" in 2016. [7] [8]

Dean of Harvard College

In July 2014, Khurana was appointed Dean of Harvard College. [3]

In May 2016, Harvard announced restrictions on undergraduates who belong to fraternities or gender-exclusive organizations not formally affiliated with the college, some of which are known as "final clubs." The restrictions on students belonging to these clubs include ineligibility for leadership positions in student organizations affiliated with Harvard, such as sports teams, and ineligibility for required Harvard endorsement for fellowships such as Rhodes and Marshall fellowships. Khurana worked with University President Drew Gilpin Faust to develop the new policy. At the time, Khurana said the exclusion of women practiced by the male-only clubs had no place in the 21st century. [9] The restrictions were challenged in state and federal courts and the University ultimately abandoned enforcement of the sanctions in June 2020 following an unrelated Supreme Court ruling, Bostock v. Clayton County , on sex discrimination. [10]

In August 2024, Khurana announced that he would step down from his post as Dean of Harvard College at the end of the 2024-25 academic year. [11]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Indo-American Rakesh Khurana is new Dean of Harvard College". IANS. Biharprabha News. Retrieved 23 January 2014.
  2. "Rakesh and Stephanie Khurana - Cabot House - People". Cabot House at Harvard. Archived from the original on 2013-07-18.
  3. 1 2 "A dream, 'quietly imagined,' come true". Harvard Gazette. 11 July 2014.
  4. Tsui, Anne S. (21 January 2022). "From Traditional Research to Responsible Research: The Necessity of Scientific Freedom and Scientific Responsibility for Better Societies". Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior. 9 (1): 1–32. doi: 10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-062021-021303 . ISSN   2327-0608. S2CID   244238570 . Retrieved 21 March 2022.
  5. "Handbook of Leadership Theory and Practice". Harvard Business School Press.
  6. "The Handbook for Teaching Leadership - SAGE Publications Inc". SAGE Publications. 13 January 2022.
  7. "College Announces New Faculty Deans in Five Houses | News | The Harvard Crimson". www.thecrimson.com. Retrieved 2021-07-22.
  8. "New Masters Appointed for Cabot, Eliot, and Mather Houses". Harvard Magazine. 2010-03-26. Retrieved 2021-07-22.
  9. The Washington Post
  10. Knieriem, Declan; Schumer, Ema. "Harvard Drops Social Group Sanctions Following Supreme Court Sex Discrimination Decision". The Harvard Crimson. Retrieved 6 January 2021.
  11. "Harvard College Dean Rakesh Khurana to Step Down in June 2025 | News | The Harvard Crimson". www.thecrimson.com. Retrieved 2024-09-02.