Nation & World

All Nation & World

  • A welcome home

    After more than a decade away, Professor Eric Maskin returned to the Economics Department this semester to a warm reception — and with a Nobel Prize in tow.

  • A cleanup plan for D.C.

    Trust in Congress is at an all-time low, but corrupt politicians aren’t to blame. For true reform, America must fix a broken system that relies on money from a fraction of the 1 percent, Harvard Law School Professor Lawrence Lessig argued on March 19.

  • Investigative journalism, alive and well

    Investigative reporting is an increasingly rare luxury for many news organizations. A Shorenstein Center roundtable featuring the finalists for the Goldsmith Awards in Political Journalism proved that with resources, hard work, and collaboration, the craft can thrive.

  • What helps low-income students

    During a discussion at Harvard Graduate School of Education, Teach For America founder Wendy Kopp defended her initiative, which places recent college graduates as teachers in underserved communities for two years.

  • The record of Japanese disaster

    Harvard experts were among the lead organizers of a major effort to construct a multimedia archive of last year’s devastating earthquake and aftermath in Japan. The site goes live this week.

  • The parenting divide

    As a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Pei-Chia Lan is exploring how Taiwanese and Chinese immigrants negotiate cultural differences in child rearing and how they parent transnationally.

  • Sorting reality from ‘truthiness’

    A Harvard and MIT symposium seeks to understand and address propaganda and misinformation in the new media ecosystem.

  • Academia, meet the press

    With its increasingly popular website called Journalist’s Resource, the Shorenstein Center is putting academia’s insights at reporters’ fingertips, and making a broader case for knowledge-based reporting.

  • Education reform, by the numbers

    The Strategic Data Project at the Graduate School of Education aims to develop a new corps of data analysts who can help to lead reform of the nation’s public school systems.

  • Fun that helps change the world

    Brazilian urban specialist Edgard Gouveia Jr., who has won international attention for his approach to grassroots development through game play, demonstrates his techniques to Harvard students.

  • Palin’s game-changing legacy

    Political journalists Mark Halperin ’87 and John Heilemann, M.P.A. ’90, returned to Harvard Thursday night to screen and discuss the new HBO Films adaptation of their best-seller “Game Change,” showing that the drama of Sarah Palin’s 2008 vice presidential nomination can still draw an enthusiastic crowd.

  • Feminism, now stalled

    A Harvard law professor, former judge, and ardent feminist points to the cultural impediments that have stalled feminism’s quest for an equal workplace.

  • Shining a spotlight into darkness

    Acclaimed documentary filmmaker Helen Whitney opens a three-day series of William Belden Noble lectures titled “Spiritual Landscapes: A Life in Film.” Her work draws out examples of how faith can foster not only inner peace, but also public turmoil.

  • The business of changing the world

    What will the next generation of social entrepreneurs need to succeed? Analysts debated the future of the budding field — and Harvard students demonstrated it — at Harvard Kennedy School on Feb. 24.

  • India to retain economic ties to Iran

    Though India shares global concerns about the possible development of nuclear weapons by Iran and is working to reduce its reliance on Iranian oil, India needs to continue fuel imports that are critical to the welfare of millions of people, said India’s ambassador to the United States.

  • Superstar teachers

    As leaders in government and business search for ways to strengthen the U.S. recovery, new research from faculty at Harvard and Columbia indicates that elementary school teachers have an impact on how much their students earn as adults and, by extension, on the nation’s economy.

  • Fostering global understanding

    A panel of scholars made up of the directors of the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Centers met to discuss how to promote better understanding between the Islamic world and the West.

  • Poised to strike?

    As Iran moves closer to having a nuclear weapon, Israel faces an existential moment.

  • Student’s aim: A harvest of good

    Annemarie Ryu ’13 hopes to create an American market for tasty, nutritious jackfruit, while helping to support struggling Indian farmers at the same time.

  • Less bluster, more action

    America’s tenuous relationship with Pakistan has faced one test after another in the past year. To rebuild trust and form a true partnership, both sides have to accept blame, said Cameron Munter, the U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, at Harvard Kennedy School on Feb. 13.

  • Innovation recognized by Ash Center

    New York City’s Center for Economic Opportunity (CEO) was named the winner of the Innovations in American Government Award today by the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at the Kennedy School of Government.

  • A call to reverse security measures

    Ralph Nader and Bruce Fein visited Harvard Law School for a talk sponsored by the HLS Forum and the Harvard Law Record. At the event, both men discussed what they called lawless and violent practices by the White House and its agencies that have become institutionalized by both political parties.

  • In the end, Somali famine preventable

    Despite historical links to natural disasters, the modern world’s global food web means that famines today are created more by man than by nature. Officials say a famine just ending in Somalia was caused by a failure of international early warning systems and the local Al-Shabaab militia blocking food aid.

  • Duncan urges experiments in education

    U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan called for large-scale educational reform during a talk at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education.

  • Putting history on trial

    Historians can prove useful in a courtroom, a case involving Kenyan abuse reveals, and they can learn a lot too.

  • New initiative for better teaching

    The Harvard Initiative for Learning & Teaching sponsored a daylong conference that united experts and scholars from the University and beyond to debate, discuss, and share ideas on innovative pedagogy.

  • The revolution continues

    In a conversation that ranged from the recent parliamentary elections to the ongoing sexual abuse of women to a new wave of journalists, panelists at the Feb. 2 Harvard Kennedy School Forum on Egypt expressed both fear and hope for a country still in the midst of a revolution.

  • Experts assess impact of Citizens United

    At an event sponsored by the Harvard Law School (HLS) American Constitution Society on Tuesday, HLS Professor Lawrence Lessig, author of “Republic Lost,” and Jeff Clements, author of “Corporations Are Not People,” reviewed the impact that Citizens United has had on the political process.

  • Up by his bootstraps

    Cambodian writer Tararith Kho, who grew up amid war and pushed relentlessly to be educated, is now a Harvard Scholars at Risk fellow. His weapons are well-turned words.

  • Not your average road trip

    Harvard Business School just sent all 900 first-year M.B.A. students into the field to solve real-world problems in emerging markets from Buenos Aires to Mumbai, in the most ambitious element of an experimental new course. HBS, pioneer of the celebrated case-study method, is working to craft a business education model for the 21st century.