A few hours after President Obama’s speech to the UN General Assembly, the Shorenstein Center welcomed David Rohde, investigative journalist for Thomson Reuters, to speak about his observations in traveling with Secretary of State John Kerry and how U.S. policy is changing in the Middle East. Rohde has traveled with Kerry for the past few months, beginning…

Education policy has been one of the major themes in the 2013 Boston mayoral race. The two winners of Tuesday’s primary – State Rep. Martin J. Walsh and Boston City Councilor John R. Connolly — were among the candidates who spoke passionately and often about improving city schools, expanding the school day, and increasing school…

More than 110,000 people dead. Seven million individuals displaced from their homes. Three and a half million child refugees. Multiple assaults with chemical weapons. These are the grim statistics that define the Syrian conflict. What began as peaceful demonstrations on March 15, 2011 has devolved into a human tragedy of epic proportions that has stymied…

The annual “Healthy Kitchens, Healthy Lives—Caring For Our Patients and Ourselves” conference, offered by Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and The Culinary Institute of America, provides doctors and other health professionals with the latest in nutrition science as well as hands-on training in how to cook healthy meals. A  video produced by conference co-sponsor the…

Jane Kelly, Historical & Special Collections assistant, and Margaret Peachy, curator of digital collections, both of the Harvard Law School Library, said they felt lucky to have the opportunity to curate an exhibition that coincides with Celebration 60, the upcoming 60th-anniversary celebration of the first women graduates of Harvard Law School (HLS). “Women at HLS:…

“You are not just a ball of cells,” says Clifford Tabin, George Jacob and Jacqueline Hazel Leder Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School (HMS). The way cells organize within the human body allows us all to function the way we do, but a couple of Harvard professors are concerned as much with that developmental…

Among the oldest surviving bonsai in America, the Larz Anderson Bonsai Collection is a beloved treasure of the Arnold Arboretum and Boston. The centennial of the collection’s 1913 arrival in America is being celebrated by a class and theme tours at the Arboretum, and a special exhibition at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Festivities begin…

Harvard School of Public Health announced today that Sir Elton John will receive the Harvard School of Public Health AIDS Initiative Leadership Award on October 15. The award is presented to individuals who have exhibited extraordinary vision, leadership, and courage in the worldwide struggle against AIDS. Past recipients include tennis legend Arthur Ashe, Diana, Princess…

The Harvard University Native American Program (HUNAP) in conjunction with the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Gutman Library and the Institute for New England Native American Studies at UMASS Boston will host a book talk on a newly published book addressing the regular practice of omitting Native American student data and statistics in national, regional,…

Harvard University has officially extended the Harvard Allston Partnership Fund (HAPF) Program by inviting nonprofits and programs serving Allston-Brighton residents to apply for $100,000 in grants this fall. Applications for the sixth round of HAPF funding are due by October 10. Over the past five years, the HAPF program has given $500,000 in grants to…

Disparities between blacks and whites in the U.S. remain pronounced—and health is no exception. A panel of experts at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) discussed these disparities—what they are, why they persist, and what to do about them—at a September 12, 2013 event titled “Dialogue on Race, Justice, and Public Health.” The event was…

Pope Francis, who has inspired both affection and controversy with recent remarks on homosexuality and atheism, made headlines again last week. In an interview with the editor of the leading Jesuit journal in Rome, the pope criticized the Catholic Church’s focus on “abortion, gay marriage and the use of contraceptive methods.” Without a “new balance”…

More than 43 million people are injured worldwide each year due to unsafe medical care, according to a new study from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH). These injuries result in the loss of nearly 23 million years of “healthy” life. The findings represent a major new effort to calculate the global burden of unsafe…

Joan Walsh, editor-at-large of Salon.com and a political analyst for MSNBC, spoke to the Shorenstein Center about racial change and political polarization. “When politics gets almost completely racialized…and race gets thoroughly politicized,” she said, “it’s trouble for a country that was founded on E pluribus unum, and that has believed the core of American exceptionalism, in…

SEAS reflects on its research community during National Postdoc Appreciation Week. Postdoctoral researchers, immersed in theoretical and experimental studies, contribute immeasurably to the life and work of the university. Yet to some extent they are a hidden community—no longer the student, not yet the teacher—bursting with a culture and lifestyle of their own. Those working…

Reducing hospital readmission rates is an important clinical and policy priority but whether those rates really measure the quality of hospital care isn’t clear. In a new study, researchers from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) found strong evidence of a relationship between surgical readmission rates and quality of surgical care. The finding provides an…

A major effort underway at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) to redesign its educational strategy has received significant new support of $12.5 million from the Charina Endowment Fund and Richard L. (MBA ’59) and Ronay Menschel of New York City. The Transforming Public Health Education Initiative Fund will support development of innovative materials, technologies and approaches…

Countries that are wealthy, have less income inequality, and whose citizens have the highest educational levels are the most likely to develop universal health care systems, according to new research from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH). The study also found that countries run by dictators or those with high levels of ethnic fractionalization are…

This semester, the Harvard Library is holding the second data scientist training course for librarians. Christopher Erdmann, head librarian of the John G. Wolbach Library of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, organized the course so that library staff can upgrade their skills and learn new tools for data management. “The main objectives of the course…

Applications for the Edmond J. Safra Graduate Fellowships in Ethics 2014-2015 are being accepted through Nov. 15. Applicants are invited from graduate students who are writing dissertations or are engaged in major research on topics in practical ethics, especially ethical issues in architecture, business, education, government, law, medicine, public health, public policy, and religion. The…

The Harvard Department of Music and the Office for the Arts at Harvard are pleased to announce the appointment of Jason Robert Brown as Blodgett Artist-in-Residence during the spring of 2014. A celebrated American composer, Brown has been hailed as “one of Broadway’s smartest and most sophisticated songwriters since Stephen Sondheim” (Philadelphia Inquirer). He is…

Rabbi Sally Finestone is the denominational counselor to Jewish students at Harvard Divinity School. Below is an excerpt of sermon for the evening of Kol Nidrei, which marks the beginning of Yom Kippur. We are beautiful, magnificent creations, made in the image of God. And even though we are all made by the same Creator,…

As debate over the national debt and the federal budget deficit begins to heat up again, an analysis of national polls conducted in 2013 shows that, compared with recent government reports prepared by experts, the public has different views about the need to reduce future Medicare spending to deal with the federal budget deficit. Many…

To help ensure clean drinking water for future generations, it is important to understand the links between clean water and sanitation. Antiquated sanitation systems must be replaced in many parts of the world, particularly in developing nations. That was the message delivered at the summer’s final Hot Topics lecture, “Today: Water and Health: A Global…

On Saturday, September 14, from 1 to 7 p.m., students from all over the country and the world will be welcomed to Harvard Square with open arms by alums, fellow students, Harvard administrators, local community leaders, and business owners. The Harvard Graduate Council (HGC), the Harvard-wide graduate student government for the 12 graduate and professional Schools, has…

Blacks are more likely than whites to sleep less than seven hours a night and the black-white sleep disparity is greatest in professional occupations, according to a new study from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH). “Short sleep” has been linked with increased risk of health problems, including obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease,…

Harvard’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs has launched a one-stop shop, “Harvard–Belfer on Syria,” for policy makers, journalists, and citizens who want to further their understanding of the crisis in Syria and the U.S. government’s response. This Web resource was created to provide information on President Obama’s question of whether or not the…

Members of the Faculty of Divinity are expressing doubts about the prospect of a U.S. military strike in response to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s reported use of chemical weapons on the country’s civilian population. Ahmed Ragab, William Graham, and Harvey Cox lament the failure of the international community to avert the humanitarian disaster now unfolding…

Preeti Sriratana, M.C./M.P.A. ’12, took the helm of Apex for Youth Inc. (Apex) in early 2009 during a financial crisis and has steered it towards becoming one of the largest mentoring programs for Asian and immigrant youth in New York City today. Founded in 1992, Apex, a nonprofit youth organization originally known as Asian Professional…

Auditing helps to ensure that those who fall under regulatory structures, like taxpayers and banks, are self-reporting their situations accurately. But auditing is often an expensive process, and not every regulatory agency has the ability to perform it well. “This creates an intriguing interaction between weak and strong [auditing] bureaus,” says Richard Zeckhauser, Frank P. Ramsey…