John Palfrey
Department: Harvard Law School
John Palfrey will be Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School during the winter of 2021. He became the president of the MacArthur Foundation in the fall of 2019. Mr. Palfrey is a well-respected educator, author, legal scholar, and innovator with expertise in how new media is changing learning, education, and other institutions.
From 2012 to 2019, Mr. Palfrey served as Head of School at Phillips Academy. Prior to this appointment, Mr. Palfrey served as the Henry N. Ess III Professor of Law and vice dean for Library and Information Resources at Harvard Law School. He was also executive director of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society from 2002 to 2008. He is founding board chair of the Digital Public Library of America, and he has served as board chairman at the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation since 2014.
Mr. Palfrey has published extensively on how young people learn in a digital era, as well as the effects of new technologies on society at large. He is the author or coauthor of several books, including The Connected Parent: An Expert Guide to Parenting in a Digital World (with Urs Gasser, Basic Books 2020); Safe Spaces, Brave Spaces: Diversity and Free Expression in Education (MIT Press 2017); a revised and expanded version of his book Born Digital: How Children Grow Up in a Digital Age, which he co-authored with Urs Gasser, was issued in 2016.
Mr. Palfrey has also served as a Special Assistant at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency during the Clinton administration. He previously served on the Board of Directors of the Mass2020 Foundation, the Ames Foundation, Data + Society Research Institute, School Year Abroad, Open Knowledge Commons, and LRNG, among others.
Degrees
A.B. Harvard College, 1994
M.Phil. University of Cambridge, 1997
J.D. Harvard Law School, 2001
Recent Academic Article Summaries
The Connected Parent: An Expert Guide to Parenting in a Digital World
Parents should engage positively with children in addressing issues with digital media, and keep an open mind about positive aspects of digital culture.
Parents should set age-appropriate limits on digital media use.
Interop: The Promise and Perils of Highly Interconnected Systems
This book analyzes the complex modern issue of interoperability and how to maximize its potential benefits.
Moving forward, interoperability should be addressed as a matter of public policy. Both the private and the public sector can benefit from structuring systems that take full advantage of interoperable systems.
Access Contested: Security, Identity, and Resistance in Asian Cyberspace
This book compiles a series of articles analyzing cyberspace as a place where countries and citizens compete.
As use of the Internet continues to spread and mature, so must the regulation that governs basic functions such as access and control. As authoritarian governments act to restrict the social power of cyberspace, democratic states should counter these tendencies by enacting regulation designed to protect basic cyber-rights.
The Next Digital Decade
This book looks at the future of the Internet, asking how Internet economics and regulation are likely to change.
Experts agree that the Internet is important, but disagree about the best legal and policy approaches to issues like privacy, free speech, and Internet governance.
Challenge of Developing Effective Public Policy on the Use of Social Media by Youth, The
This paper asks how studies of young people’s behavior can inform policy about young people’s use of new media.
As young people spend more time online, they also expose themselves to greater risk of exposing private information. Successful creation of youth media policies should be driven by the interaction of policy makers and social scientists.
Blog Posts
Quotes in the News
Palfrey, J. (2019, July 17). Tech & Learning.“Television didn’t transform education. Neither will the internet. But it will be another tool for teachers to use in their effort to reach students in the classroom.”
John Palfrey
Harvard Law School
Palfrey, J. (2015, October 1). Boston Globe.“Few would dare argue that we are doing an excellent job of educating high school students in America today. While there are some wonderful schools, many students will be ill prepared for the interconnected world that awaits them without a dramatic shift in our approach.”
John Palfrey
Harvard Law School
Palfrey, J. (2013, October 28). The New York Times.“The safety and well-being of our students is our top priority, but we also need for them to have the time and space to grow without feeling like we are watching their every move.”
John Palfrey
Harvard Law School
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