Rakowska-Harmstone was a professor at Carleton University from 1966 until her death, where she helped establish the Institute of Soviet and East European Studies and was head of the Department of Political Science.
She was also a professor at Collegium Civitas from its founding, and served a term as the head of the Department of International Relations there.
She was the director of Carleton University's Institute for Russian and East European Studies from 1973 to 1975, and has been credited with helping to establish that center.
[2] When the Collegium Civitas was founded in Warsaw, Rakowska-Harmstone joined its faculty, and headed the Department of International Relations from 1992 to 1995.
[1] Her textbook Communism in Eastern Europe, first printed in 1979, was considered a classic work on the subject.