Nation & World

Eight Harvard historians gathered at Emerson Hall with an ambitious goal in mind: to explain — in eight minutes or less — apiece — that “everything is history and history is everything.”

Tuesday night’s national elections sent a number of Harvard alumni and affiliates off to Washington.

The session “Paper or Plastic: Re-Inventing Shelf Life in the Supermarket Landscape” looked at how architects — with their skills in three-dimensional conceptualization — can address a host of design challenges, including ones that might sit on shelves in the local supermarket.

Ellery Schempp, one of the last living symbols of a series of Supreme Court cases that banned mandatory displays of faith in public schools, brought the contentious battle over religious expression to life for a Harvard Divinity School audience.

In a wide-ranging talk at Harvard, Michael Dukakis, the 1988 Democratic candidate for president, discussed the 2012 presidential election and the challenges facing the nation.

Many people believe that idealism motivates them to open their wallets for a favorite candidate or that civic duty motivates them to vote. But don’t discount peer pressure as a factor in elections, a political scientist says.

“The biggest factor in determining how much students learn isn’t class size or standardized testing, but the quality of their teachers,” said Atul Gawande in a Harvard Graduate School of Education talk on ways teaching can be improved through coaching.

A fellow in a new joint Harvard-MIT fellowship program in economics, history, and politics opens a lab in Kenya to illuminate the economic decision-making of those studied least by economists: the poor.

Offering both a historic and contemporary perspective on the current election, several Harvard faculty members reflected on how themes from America’s past are playing out on the national stage.

During an Askwith Forum discussion on college affirmative action, highlighted by the pending Supreme Court case of Fisher v. University of Texas, the speakers said that any decision should include as its backdrop a sense of that Southern state’s history.

For all of their differences, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney share an important quality: their outsider status as politicians. But as Harvard Business School’s Gautam Mukunda argues in a new book, the very trait that makes them likely to be high-impact leaders also makes them unpredictable.

Gary Knell, CEO of NPR, described the station’s efforts toward a multimedia future in a talk at Harvard’s Nieman Foundation for Journalism.

Harvard has rolled out its first two courses on the new digital education platform edX, with more than 100,000 learners worldwide signing on.

Four Harvard experts — on voice, movement, public speaking, and trial law — critique the last presidential debate and offer the candidates their tips for the next matchup.

In a talk sponsored by Harvard Divinity School, four religious scholars explored the question of “Religion and the Election: Does it Matter?”

Despite a grim situation now, says the Harvard-trained leader of Tibet’s government in exile, frank talks could yet unlock decades of turmoil with China.

A new analysis of 37 national opinion polls conducted by 17 survey organizations finds that health care is the second most important issue for likely voters in deciding their 2012 presidential vote. This is the highest that health care has been ranked as a presidential election issue since 1992.

Harvard Business School students gathered Tuesday evening to kick off a yearlong celebration of the 50th anniversary of the first class of female M.B.A.s. But as Barnard College President Debora Spar reminded the group, women at the top of the ladder still face hurdles — including their impossible demands on themselves.

Political pundit, author, and Supreme Court watcher Jeffrey Toobin offered an inside look at the nation’s top judicial body during a discussion at Sanders Theatre on Thursday.

Veteran political strategists weighed in on the blood, sweat, and tears that go into prepping a presidential candidate, during a Harvard Kennedy School watch party for the first presidential debate. The vice presidential debate is 9-10 p.m. Oct. 11 from Centre College, Danville, Ky. The second presidential debate is 9-10:30 p.m. Oct. 16, Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y.

Joel Klein, the former chancellor of the New York City Department of Education, spoke at the Harvard Graduate School of Education on Monday, outlining his plan for a “transformative” approach to the country’s ailing primary and secondary education system.

Former HUD Secretary Mel Martinez called for innovative solutions to the nation’s housing crisis and proposed less government, more private-sector initiative, and clarity on Dodd-Frank financial reforms.

A new website at the Harvard Kennedy School marks the 50th anniversary of the Cuban missile crisis. In an interview, Belfer Center director Graham Allison outlines the lessons learned from the dangerous yet deft dance of diplomacy.

Students from across Harvard’s Schools gathered at the Innovation Lab Sept. 28-30 for the StartUp Scramble, a mad-dash affair designed to take their business ideas from concept to pitch in just 48 hours.

Author and Harvard Law School graduate John Osborn Jr. rose to fame in the ’70s with the publication of his book “The Paper Chase” about his experience at the School. He sat down for a Q-and-A session with Dean Martha Minow on the book’s 40th anniversary.

Hosted by the Nieman Foundation, a panel of political journalists shared their insights with Harvard faculty members, including their predictions about the outcome in the race for the White House.

Burmese activist Aung San Suu Kyi delivered the Godkin Lecture and took questions from students last night at Harvard Kennedy School.

A top European Union official says there are signs that reform measures taken in response to the economic crisis in Europe are working, and that a recovery could begin in 2013.

Jan Fischer, former PM and current presidential candidate in the Czech Republic, talked to a Harvard audience about the debt crisis and the possibility of a full European federation.

Speaking at the Harvard Kennedy School, journalist Rami Khouri presented an overview of the “bewildering and exhilarating changes” that have swept the Middle East since the Arab Spring.