Dan Shapiro, PhD, Wins Prestigious Harvard Teaching Award

Daniel L. Shapiro, PhD, associate professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School and McLean Hospital and the founder and director of the Harvard International Negotiation Program, is the 2019 recipient of Harvard University’s Joseph R. Levenson Memorial Teaching Prize for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. Named for Joseph R. Levenson, a noted professor of Chinese history, the prize has been presented by Harvard’s Undergraduate Council each year since 1982 to recognize faculty and teaching fellows for excellence in teaching. Award recipients are nominated by their students.

“I am deeply honored to receive the award, and it’s especially meaningful coming from the students who inspire me every time I enter the classroom,” Shapiro said. “I hope this recognition can bring more attention to the importance of research and education on the psychology of conflict resolution.”

Shapiro explained that the award was largely based on student response to his course, “Negotiation and Conflict Management: From the Interpersonal to the International.” Drawing on a variety of teaching methods, the course “is about the intellectual foundations of conflict resolution, but it also invites students to reflect on how they deal with conflict in their own lives,” he said.

Interest in the course has grown steadily since Shapiro launched it eight years ago. In the fall, the course will be “transformed into a new course called ‘Conflict Resolution in a Divided World’ and will be embedded in Harvard College’s General Education curriculum,” he said.

In addition to thanking his students for their role in his receiving the Levenson prize, Shapiro acknowledged his colleagues at McLean Hospital. “I’m deeply grateful for my mentors at McLean—Scott Rauch, Phil Levendusky, Shelly Greenfield, Bruce Cohen, and Bruce Shackleton—and many others. They’ve been an incredible support system.”