Nation & World

All Nation & World

  • Balky states likely to join Medicaid expansion

    Experts speaking at The Forum at Harvard School of Public Health discussed the health care reform law Friday, a day after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld most of its core but struck down drastic penalties for states that don’t participate in a major expansion of Medicaid.

  • Battle won, but more to come

    Harvard School of Public Health analysts probe the importance of the Supreme Court ruling upholding national health care, and explain the law’s next challenge: the November election

  • Death penalty in decline

    A Harvard Law School panel looks at the future of the death penalty worldwide and sees a decline in this “organized violence” by nation-states — but a few “dark spots” too.

  • Royal views

    Crown Prince Felipe of Spain covered a range of topics — working his way from the 15th century to the euro crisis — in a talk at Harvard Kennedy School.

  • The rigor of reargument

    Over many months, a Harvard Law School team put in long hours to craft a legal brief, hoping to sway a Supreme Court decision that will affect the fate of lawsuits regarding international human rights.

  • With health rights denied, a patient had no hope

    Those interested in health and human rights from around the world gathered at the Harvard School of Public Health this week for an executive education program intended to provide practical lessons in rights litigation and create a community for those who care about extending health care to all.

  • A Nobel cause in the Arab world

    The West must do more to support the ongoing, peaceful democratic revolutions in long-suppressed Arab nations, Yemeni activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Tawakkol Karman said during an address at the Harvard Kennedy School

  • A meeting of ministerial minds

    At a moment of global opportunity for improving maternal and child health, the Harvard School of Public Health and Harvard Kennedy School’s Ministerial Leadership Program for Health launched the inaugural Ministerial Health Leaders’ Forum this week, inviting 16 officials from around the world to campus to share experiences and solutions and to create a network to aid their efforts in the future.

  • Fareed Zakaria Commencement 2012 Speech

    Fareed Zakaria, a Harvard alumnus whose insights into the power shifts setting the stage for a new global era have made him a celebrated thought leader on international affairs, was the principal speaker at the Afternoon Exercises of Harvard’s 361st Commencement.

  • Ahead of the learning curve

    From the $40 million Hauser gift to support teaching and learning initiatives to the recent announcement of the global online platform edX, Harvard tackled the future of higher education head-on in 2011-12. As the University’s 375th anniversary draws to a close, the Gazette asked some prescient professors: “What’s the one big idea that will transform teaching and learning before Harvard celebrates its 400th?”

  • Power, personified

    In a talk on his book “The Rise and Fall of Arab Presidents for Life,” Professor Roger Owen described how the Arab world’s dictators came to power — and how their curious political network helped fuel the eventual uprisings against some of them.

  • Bright future for news business

    “It’s important we focus on the future, not the past,” warned Richard Gingras, head of news products for Google. “We can’t reverse time.” Gingras came to the Nieman Journalism Lab Friday not as doomsayer from Silicon Valley to predict the demise of the news business, but rather to foresee a bright future.

  • Freedom’s just another word

    The poor often have too many basic choices, which can sap their resources and energy, economist says.

  • Getting students to enroll, stay in college

    A panel of education experts convened at the Harvard Graduate School of Education to explore what it will take to reach the Obama administration’s goal of reclaiming the world’s top college graduation rate by 2020.

  • Helping teachers hone their techniques

    Ronald Heifetz of HKS led the final seminar in this year’s “Talking about Teaching” series, a University-wide effort to explore pedagogical connections across disciplines and Schools.

  • Improving the world is a serious business

    The finalist teams in the first-ever President’s Challenge for social entrepreneurship are tackling the problems of nonprofits with the playbook of for-profits.

  • Educating Harvard, MIT — and the world

    Harvard and MIT are joining forces to launch edX, an open-source, online education platform. Leaders from both universities discussed how they hope to transform teaching and learning on campus and around the globe.

  • Middle class woe

    The American middle class has been battered by the loss of well-paying jobs for the 70 percent of the workforce without a college degree and failed by would-be protectors in government and private institutions, said panelists in a Harvard forum on April 27.

  • Business as a force for change

    Business can be an engine for solving social problems — especially poverty — said Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus in a talk at Harvard Business School.

  • Policing for, and with, the community

    The idea that law enforcement should work with citizens to help prevent, reduce, and solve crimes took flight through an unusual collaboration of academics and police leaders at Harvard Kennedy School.

  • 47 proposals win Hauser grants

    The Harvard Initiative for Learning and Teaching (HILT) is supporting 47 proposals from the Harvard community. The efforts will receive a total of nearly $2 million in inaugural Hauser Fund grants.

  • 10 finalists in President’s Challenge

    Harvard University has chosen 10 teams as finalists in the President’s Challenge for social entrepreneurship. President Drew Faust created the challenge to encourage student teams from across the University to develop entrepreneurial solutions to five of the world’s most important social issues.

  • Kissinger looks back

    Henry Kissinger has spent more than half a century thinking about and shaping foreign policy. At Sanders Theatre on Wednesday, the former Secretary of State reflected on the “hobby that became my profession.”

  • Women fighting for change

    During the Radcliffe Institute’s annual gender conference, scholars gathered to explore the role of women in forging democracies across the Arab world.

  • In support of the generalist

    Andrew Delbanco, social critic and recipient of the National Humanities Award, warned in a speech that the shift of American higher education away from its liberal arts traditions undermines democratic society as universities push students into preprofessional pursuits.

  • Disaster by the numbers

    Reported natural disasters are up dramatically since 1950, with more lives damaged by homelessness and injury, even as modern medical care and improved disaster response have reduced the number of lives lost, an authority on global disaster data says.

  • Changing the world, in under 9 minutes

    The inaugural event “One Harvard: Lectures that Last” featured short talks by a dozen speakers representing Harvard’s graduate and professional Schools. The session was designed to reveal the crosscurrents of innovation that can flow from discipline to discipline, and to expose students to fresh ideas.

  • Teaching, NFL style

    Panelists in a recent Askwith Forum discussed lessons for educators in the ways NFL teams prepare for games and evaluate talent.

  • Wise negotiator

    At Harvard to receive the Great Negotiator Award, James A. Baker III offered his insight and political perspective on his time as a senior government official for three U.S. presidents.

  • Fighting for education, and nation’s future

    Geoffrey Canada received the Harvard Graduate School of Education Medal for Educational Impact. The School’s highest honor recognizes those who demonstrate an outstanding contribution to education. Canada discussed his time at the School of Education and his work with the Harlem Children’s Zone.