Nation & World

Jonathan Laurence and Justin Vaisse visited Harvard’s Center for European Studies (CES) last Friday (May 2) to speak about the “realities” of life for the nearly 5 million Muslims who make their home in France.

Should students receive financial compensation for high test scores? Would a market for organ donation make saving lives more efficient? Should a nation be permitted to buy the right to pollute? These questions represent just a few of the many ethical issues that Harvard professors Michael Sandel, Amartya Sen, and visiting professor Philippe van Parijs from the University of Louvain (Belgium) have been considering this semester.

Where and how science and religion intersect is a debate that dates back centuries; it’s also a regular part of contemporary discourse. The discussion took center stage at the 2007-08 Paul Tillich Lecture on Monday (May 5) in the Science Center’s lecture hall B, where a noted astrophysicist and religious scholar explored the deeper dimensions of science’s relationship to Islam.

The current mortgage turmoil reaches deep into rental markets. New research on rental housing market dynamics from Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies finds that the current housing debacle not only adds to the number of households competing for low-cost rentals but also threatens renters living in foreclosed properties with sudden eviction.

Despite the rain and drear outside, inside at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, participants in a two-day conference marking the first 10 years of the Harvard University Asia Center were given a notably hopeful and positive survey of likely developments in Asia over the next 10 years.

Ethical employment practices and safeguarding workers’ rights in a global economy were the focus of discussion April 29 at the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum.

Blackmail and attempted murder are not typically studied as part of economic history. However, a credit crisis among 18th century French silk and brandy merchants led to just such dramatic incidents, the accounts of which piqued the interest of Emma Rothschild, a historian of economic life, empires, and Atlantic connections.

The Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) recently announced the Top 50 programs of the 2008 Innovations in American Government Awards competition.

Allan M. Brandt acknowledged the pedagogical achievements of Harvard’s graduate students, as well as preceptors, lecturers, and undergraduate course assistants at the biannual Teaching Excellence Awards Reception last Thursday (April 24).

On Tuesday (April 29), students from Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government (HKS) met with the mayor of Boston to discuss several projects they hope might help make the city a better place.

Raymundo Riva Palacio, editorial director of El Universal, a leading Mexican newspaper, discussed the details and the political ramifications of Mexico’s energy reform proposal designed to encourage private investment in the oil industry at the Center for Government and International Studies.

At Harvard, the half-day terrorist attack exercise played out in a truncated version for 90 tense minutes Monday evening (April 28) at the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum, the chief public venue of the John F. Kennedy School of Government (HKS).

Joseph Cronin ’56, MAT ’57, came to Harvard on April 16 to examine the Boston Public Schools system’s struggles and successes over the past 76 years, detailed in his new book, “Reforming Boston Schools, 1930-2006: Overcoming Corruption and Racial Segregation” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008).

Former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung told an audience at Harvard Kennedy School’s John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum Tuesday night (April 22) that the United States should allow the sun to shine on its relations with the world’s fastest growing economic power.

On a hill in South Africa’s KwaZulu Natal province, near the hall where Nelson Mandela delivered his last speech before prison and the station where Mahatma Gandhi was tossed off a train to begin his life’s work, stands Edendale Hospital.

One of the oldest scholarly theological journals in the country, the HTR celebrated its 100th anniversary last Friday (April 11) at the Harvard Divinity School (HDS) with a day of talks by several HDS scholars.

Denis Mukwege, a recent visitor to Harvard, is slow-spoken, weary, and grave. And well he might be. For nearly a decade, Mukwege has been doctor to thousands of women raped in the course of a long civil war in south central Africa — in effect, that continent’s World War II — which has so far claimed 4 million lives.

Jeffrey Sachs, the internationally renowned economist, returned to his alma mater Monday (April 14) to give his prescription for saving the world. Sustainable development, he said, is the “central challenge of our time.”

New research by one Harvard scholar implies that happiness can be found by spending money on others. Michael Norton, assistant professor of business administration in the marketing unit at the Harvard Business School (HBS), conducted a series of studies with his colleagues Elizabeth Dunn and Lara Aknin at the University of British Columbia (UBC).

The BHP, under the direction of Dr. Max Essex, focuses on research into a cure for HIV/AIDS.

Last month Bill Gates warned Congress that the United States is dangerously close to losing its competitive edge due to a serious shortage of scientists and engineers. The problem required in part, said the Microsoft founder, a revamping of the country’s educational system.

World Bank President Robert Zoellick reiterated his call to retool the organization to better meet the new set of development challenges across the globe during a discussion Thursday night (April 3) at the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum at Harvard Kennedy School.

The golden age of the railroad ended in the mid-20th century, when Americans switched from Pullman cars to Chevys and eventually 747 jetliners. Yet, to John R. Stilgoe, Robert and Lois Orchard Professor in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and Harvard Graduate School of Design, trains are anything but passé. Based on analyses of real estate investment patterns along railroad corridors, Stilgoe predicts that trains will once again play a key role in shaping American life.

The five-year-old Iraq conflict is America’s first “credit card war.” And like anyone who has run up a huge credit card bill knows, a credit card debt can turn into a crushing burden with long-term consequences. This, too, will be a legacy of the Iraq War.

Melinda Gates is likely the happiest woman alive. That is, if a recent study, co-conducted by a Harvard Business School (HBS) scholar, is any indication — it shows that people who spend money on others are happier than those who spend it on themselves.

A hospital opened in January where a year earlier cows grazed. There were banners and bands that bright day in the tiny community of Lacolline, Haiti.

On a recent Wednesday morning, 90 high achievers from around the world prepared to get down to cases. Their professor buzzed through the classroom like a worker bee. Armed with large, multicolored pieces of chalk, he organized his notes, copied pastel-coded facts and figures on the blackboard, and set up a film screen. Soon his students would be equally hard at work, but in a strictly cerebral way.

Lake Peligre fills the valley floor, its dark blue waters a relief to the eye after hours winding through central Haiti’s hot, treeless hills on the dusty, potholed road that passes for National Route 3.