Nation & World

The U.S. Supreme Court returned the question of affirmative action in college admissions to the lower courts for reconsideration.

Civil Rights activist James Meredith, who famously fought to be admitted to the segregated University of Mississippi in 1962, received the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s highest honor when he was awarded its Medal for Education Impact during its recent convocation.

Harvard History Professor Caroline Elkins discusses last week’s $30 million settlement in the long-running Mau Mau case, in which the British government apologized for colonial-era atrocities during Kenya’s Mau Mau rebellion.

James Ryan, one of the nation’s leading scholars in education law and policy, has been named dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education. In a question-and-answer session, he explains his motivations, his work, and his goals.

From the Bible to Walt Whitman to the history of China, and from architecture to national security to clinical trials, HarvardX’s fall offerings feature a broad range of disciplines.

Patrick Harlan ’93 drifted into Japan on a Glee Club trip the summer after he graduated from Harvard and quickly found his way to the stage, becoming a well-known comedian and a regular face on Japanese television. Harlan talked to the Gazette about his offbeat journey.

Viridiana Rios is a native of Mexico City. Rios, a graduating doctoral student in Harvard’s Department of Government, also is an adviser to Mexico’s minister of finance.

Anne Bholene Akinyi Odera-Awuor, who is getting a degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, has grand plans to improve how schools operate in her homeland.

He grew up poor in Prague, but Jirka Jelinek ’13 used his College years to learn, grow, and discover other parts of the world.

Suzie Verdin will graduate with a degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Arts in Education program, and hopes to use it to help people in immigrant communities connect with the arts.

A sexual abuse victim and champion surfer, Mary Setterholm plans to use her degree from Harvard Divinity School to help others find their way back.

Joyce Klein Rosenthal of the Graduate School of Design spoke to the Gazette about lessons from past disasters and possible first steps toward rebuilding following the devastation of last Monday’s massive tornado in Moore, Okla.

Harvard researchers have combined new technology with old to better understand conditions in the war-torn border region between Sudan and South Sudan.

Kate McFarlin, president of the Harvard Club of Shanghai, wears her dual enthusiasms for Harvard and China on her sleeve.

Former National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration administrator Jane Lubchenco described her four years in Washington, D.C., as difficult and frustrating, but said it’s imperative that other scientists follow suit to give science a voice in national policies.

At an event at Harvard Business School (HBS) that was three parts analysis and one part rally, participants tried to chart a new path forward for the sluggish U.S. economy — a move that may require a new definition of “competitiveness.”

Former Ethiopian judge and political prisoner Birtukan Midekssa, at Harvard as a Scholar at Risk, argues that her native land — with its heritage of religious tolerance and its innate appetite for liberty — is ripe for democracy.

Salman Khan, the founder of Khan Academy, explained his vision for online learning during a GSE Askwith Forum.

The essentials of good teaching and learning took the stage at the second annual Harvard Initiative for Learning and Teaching conference.

Five panelists at Harvard Divinity School — including Dean David N. Hempton — grappled with the ways religion is sometimes used to justify acts of terror, covering as well the role of faith traditions in encouraging healing.

Delivering the Asia Center’s annual Tsai Lecture, the World Bank Group’s president, Jim Yong Kim, described the bank’s bold push to end world poverty.

Shaw Chen, treasurer of the Harvard Club of Shanghai, learned a lot from the College’s East Asian studies classes, but got plenty of experience outside the classroom as well.

Noam Chomsky on Wednesday joined Bruno della Chiesa, a visiting lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, in an Askwith Forum covering the legacy of the radical Brazilian educator Paulo Freire (1921-1997) and his 1968 book, “Pedagogy of the Oppressed.?????

Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics and Nobel laureate Roy Glauber reflected on his two years in Los Alamos, N.M., during World War II as part of the Manhattan Project, which developed the world’s first atomic bomb.

Every spring, high-achieving high school seniors around the country play the college admissions game in the lead-up to the May 1 decision deadline. Research by Christopher Avery of HKS research shows that many poor but promising students are sitting out.

Author Sonia Nazario told a Radcliffe conference that people don’t generally know that large numbers of women who immigrate to the United States illegally to get jobs and support their families back home leave their own children behind to do so.

Harvard Graduate School of Design alumni working in New York City outline a plan to revamp a 70-block area around Grand Central Station, where zoning restrictions have long restricted the height of buildings, to allow for structures twice as tall.

A panel at the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum examined the interplay of law enforcement coordination, leadership, and social and traditional media during the Boston Marathon bombing investigation.

Kongjian Yu, who received a doctor of design degree from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design in 1995, espouses an environmental design ethic that considers natural processes on a site first. Since 2010, he has guided GSD students through the problems related to China’s rapid urbanization.

The information revolution seemed to hit another high gear last week in Boston, leaving authorities on information technology pondering the ramifications.