Nation & World

All Nation & World

  • Odinga optimistic about Africa’s democratic future

    Kenya Prime Minister Raila Odinga expresses optimism about Kenya’s democratic future.

  • Don’t ask, don’t lie

    Lt. Dan Choi — West Pointer, Iraq infantry veteran, Arabic linguist, and Baptist minister — speaks out against “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy after getting the Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard’s first Service to Humanity award.

  • Honoring Nations

    Honoring Nations 2009, a two-day symposium sponsored by the Harvard Kennedy School, calls on national experts and elders to share innovations in tribal governance.

  • Challenging the Constitution

    To honor the signing of the Constitution, a panel of experts examined the legacy of the historic document, followed by a discussion with retired Supreme Court Associate Justice David Souter.

  • New degree aims to transform American education

    A new doctoral degree based at Harvard Graduate School of Education aims to train a corps of education leaders to enact system-level change and transform K-12 education in America.

  • Harvard joins in support for open-access publication

    Five of the nation’s premier institutions of higher learning — Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of California, Berkeley—announced their joint commitment to a compact for open-access publication.

  • Kudos, criticisms for U.S. Constitution

    In honor of Constitution Day, a panel of constitutional scholars will discuss the historic document’s merits and shortcomings. The event will also include a conversation between retired U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice David Souter and Noah Feldman, Bemis Professor of Law.

  • Firm allies, past and present

    In a rare double ambassadorial appearance to Harvard, moderated by Graham Allison, ambassadors Han Duck-soo of South Korea and Kathleen Stephens of the United States reflect on the U.S.-South alliance, and what might put it at risk.

  • Designs for enduring structures

    As the hurricane bears down on the village, the people do what many all over the world do: head to the local school for shelter. A place of learning in normal times becomes a place of refuge during disasters.

  • Getting justice right

    The Institute of Politics hosts the first public discussion of Michael Sandel’s new book, “Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do?” coming out later this month.

  • Public service gets personal

    Four HKS graduates took part in a panel on public service on Sept 2. The alumni discussed their time at HKS and their work in both the public and private sectors.

  • Managing disasters

    The Kennedy School will offer a new course this fall on disaster recovery, largely focusing on New Orleans and the work the School has done there in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

  • Bringing science back to Liberian classrooms

    Adam Cohen, assistant professor in the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and Ben Rapoport, a student at Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, are bringing science to war-torn Liberia.

  • ‘Inventing Equal Opportunity’

    New research from Harvard University traces the history of how human resource managers, not legislatures or courts, have defined equal opportunity and anti-discrimination policies in the workplace.

  • Carr Center awards Traub-Dicker Fellowships for summer 2009

    The Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) has awarded Traub-Dicker-HKS Fellowships for the summer of 2009 to Benjamin Hall and Baylee DeCastro. Hall and DeCastro will spend the summer researching in the domain of policies affecting the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) communities.

  • Shorenstein Center announces Rosenthal Writer-in-Residence Program

    The Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy has created a new program for writers, named in honor of A.M. Rosenthal.

  • Finding the founding ideas

    In 1788, Thomas Shippen of Philadelphia, a citizen of the world’s newest nation, visited the French royal court at Versailles. He was awed by its pomp, its riches, and – as he wrote – its “Oriental splendor.” But Shippen was also repulsed. He remarked on the arrogance and waste of royal life, and on the fact that it required great suffering among France’s unrepresented poor.

  • Housing woes continue, says Harvard report

    The worst U.S. housing downturn in generations continues to grind on, finds a study released today (June 22) by the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University.

  • Working to lift the fog of war

    Thousands of miles from his Harvard lab, Kevin Kit Parker is lugging a gun and his engineer’s sensibilities through the mountains south of Kabul, in Afghanistan’s Wardak and Logar Provinces.

  • BBC Radio’s prestigious Reith Lectures delivered by Sandel

    Harvard Professor Michael Sandel, chosen by the BBC to deliver its Reith Lectures for 2009, can be heard on the BBC Web site.

  • Some HBS students adopt ethical code

    Approximately half of the 886 graduating HBS students took the professors’ comments seriously enough to sign a managerial version of the Hippocratic oath.

  • Kip Kitur ’09 plans to head home to help

    While growing up in the Rift Valley Province in western Kenya, Kipyegon A. “Kip” Kitur milked goats and fed cattle before running to school. It was two miles away, uphill, past steep maize farms.

  • Talking terror

    The two men sit close, knees almost touching, in a mud-walled hut in the Congolese village of Katokota.

  • Still ‘two cultures’ but who’s on top?

    Fifty years ago a simple lecture sparked a global debate with lasting implications. On May 7, 1959, British physicist and novelist C.P. Snow declared that the gap between “two cultures,” that of the sciences and the humanities, was a destructive divide hampering the effort to find solutions to the problems of the world.

  • HBS teams share dreams for success

    In a series of presentations in Burden Auditorium, teams of students recently presented their ideas and dreams for entrepreneurial success at the final round of Harvard Business School’s (HBS) 13th annual Business Plan Contest.

  • Religion key to foreign policy, says HKS speaker

    As President Obama and his new administration seek to redirect U.S. foreign policy back toward more emphasis on diplomacy and less on the use of force, they should not overlook Orthodox Christianity as a resource.

  • Sandel to Deliver BBC’s prestigious Reith Lectures

    Michael Sandel, the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Government, has been chosen by the BBC to deliver its Reith Lectures for 2009. Sandel’s lectures, titled “A New Citizenship,” will address the prospect for a new politics of the common good.

  • Art for sale!

    Harvard gave Christie’s and Sotheby’s a run for their money at the first Harvard Student Art Show on Monday (May 4). The exhibit and sale, held in a bright yellow tent on the Science Center Lawn, featured 160 works of painting, sculpture, photography, and other media such as jewelry and clothing. Students from across the University submitted artwork ranging in price from $30 to $8,000.

  • Nieman presents Louis M. Lyons Award to Fatima Tlisova

    The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard will present the Louis M. Lyons Award for Conscience and Integrity in Journalism to current Nieman Fellow Fatima Tlisova Thursday (May 7).

  • ‘Paging God: Religion in the Halls of Medicine’

    What happens when a Buddhist monk visiting the United States is hospitalized, terminally ill with liver cancer? Does religion interfere with his medical care? What about his Buddhist brethren, unable to join him bedside? Who will provide the appropriate services and ceremonies? Well, says Wendy Cadge, that’s where hospital chaplains come in.