Nation & World

All Nation & World

  • Sharing a passion to make a difference

    Since its inception in 1958, the Edward S. Mason Fellows Program has brought “demonstrated leaders from developing, newly industrialized and transitional economy countries” to the Harvard Kennedy School. This year there are 89 Mason Fellows from 51 countries.

  • Unraveling Maya mysteries

    For decades, Harvard’s Bill Fash and his wife, Barbara, have worked in Copán, Honduras, to restore, preserve, and protect Maya culture and history for future generations.

  • You 2.0

    Marketing strategy consultant and Harvard Divinity School alumna Dorie Clark offers advice on how to re-imagine your life by changing your perception of who you are, or what she calls “your personal brand.”

  • The triumph of Twitter

    With Twitter becoming a driving force in politics, snark and shallow scoops are undermining the media’s campaign coverage, study says.

  • Beyond belief

    A panel of scholars gathered at Harvard Divinity School to discuss “Studying Religion in the Post-9/11 World: The Importance of Taking Religion Seriously from a Humanities Perspective in Troubled Times.”

  • Volatile Syria

    Moderator Graham Allison went straight to the heart of the matter during an Institute of Politics forum on Syria at the Kennedy School, asking the four panelists for a yes or no vote on military force.

  • The media, remade

    Three spring 2013 fellows at the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, in collaboration with the Nieman Journalism Lab, this week launched an oral history/research multimedia project called “Riptide” to document the digital disruption of the news business and what that means for the future of news gathering and news publishing.

  • Grad students make impact

    A sample of how Harvard graduate students from the Law School, Kennedy School, Business School, and the School of Public Health used the tools they sharpened at Harvard to help build a better world.

  • Piecing together Egypt’s rupture

    It was the Muslim Brotherhood’s success at the ballot box and the poor prospects for opposition candidates in future elections that were at the root of last summer’s military takeover in Egypt, a Harvard Kennedy School Middle East specialist said Sept. 5.

  • The Syria saga, explained

    The Kennedy School’s Nicholas Burns, a former U.S. diplomat, discusses the crisis in Syria and where it is likely to lead.

  • Hub away from home

    Established in 2006, the São Paulo, Brazil, office of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies acts as a facilitator, connecting Harvard faculty and students with Brazilian collaborators.

  • Who needed a stapler?

    Harvard Professors Eric Mazur and Gary King, together with postdoctoral fellow Brian Lukoff, took an idea about how to change classroom teaching and created a company based on it. When the company sold last spring, it didn’t even own a stapler.

  • Slowing the work treadmill

    Harvard Business School Professor Teresa Amabile compares much of work life to running on a treadmill. People try to keep up with the demands of meetings, email, interruptions, deadlines, all while trying to be more productive and creative, she says, yet on many days they seem to make no progress at all, especially in creative endeavors. Amabile suggests the answer is to do less.

  • The dream, 50 years later

    Thousands will join President Obama at the Lincoln Memorial on Wednesday to mark the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington and celebrate a powerful moment in the Civil Rights Movement. The commemoration stirs not only potent memories of that day, but for some with Harvard ties, mixed emotions about the march’s lasting legacy.

  • Egypt boils over

    The Gazette spoke with Harvard’s E. Roger Owen, A. J. Meyer Professor of Middle East History Emeritus, about the build-up to chaos in Egypt.

  • Deepening ties to Latin America

    Harvard’s role in an increasingly connected world includes deep ties to Latin America, where faculty and students are engaged in a range of research projects and initiatives, from climate research in Brazil to disaster relief work in Chile to protecting Maya art and architecture in Honduras.

  • Snakes on the brain

    In a presentation to an educators’ conference, HGSE’s Steven Seidel explored how joyfully blending the arts into education leads to successful teaching.

  • Truth in fiction

    HBS Professor Joseph Badaracco trains students for the complexities of the business world by examining great works of literature.

  • In the daily grind, inspiration

    The Director’s Internship Program at Harvard’s Institute of Politics is proving that not all millennials doubt that government and politics can be used for good.

  • Targeting climate change

    EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy on Tuesday promised that the Obama administration will “engage” on climate change issues during its last three years. Her policy speech at Harvard Law School was her first since being confirmed to the post.

  • Tracking a cultural shift

    Harvard experts examine high court rulings, as well as the political, cultural, and social factors that have ushered in a wave of support for marriage equality.

  • Affirmative action policies remain

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

  • Reflections of James Meredith

    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.

  • Reflections on justice delayed

    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.

  • Q&A with new HGSE dean

    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.

  • Varied offerings from HarvardX

    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.

  • Take my passport, please

    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.

  • Take-home lessons

    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.

  • A vision of education for Kenya

    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.

  • Triumph against long odds

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