The Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) is pleased to announce its fall 2010 Askwith Forums, a series of public lectures dedicated to discussing challenges facing education, sharing new knowledge, and generating spirited conversation. Highlights this fall will include a talk by Disney/ABC Television President Anne Sweeney, Ed.M.’80, an advance screening of the highly anticipated…

A highly respected world leader and peace negotiator is the recipient of the 2010 Great Negotiator Award, co-sponsored by the Future of Diplomacy Project at the John F. Kennedy School of Government and Harvard University’s Program on Negotiation. This year’s honoree is Martti Ahtisaari, former president of Finland and recipient of the 2008 Nobel Peace…

Harvard’s Institute of Politics, located at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, announced that Gordon Brown, prime minister of Britain (2007-10) and U.K. parliamentary member, will serve as a visiting fellow at the institute this fall. Visiting fellows traditionally meet with student groups; lead discussion groups on topical issues and their experiences in public…

For the first time in history, many children in the United States may be facing shorter, sicker lives than their parents. While improving access to health care is essential, insurance reform alone will not make America healthier and reduce spiraling costs, according to a new article in the August 2010 issue of Health Affairs. Creating…

Think only students fret at the start of a new school year? Think again. By the time September rolls around, Harvard Graduate School of Education faculty members have already spent months preparing their courses. “Students show up on the first day not expected to do anything, but faculty are expected to have an entire course…

As a group of Boston-area graduate students discovered this summer, there is truth in the adage that if you want to change the world, you can start in your own backyard. Jennifer Vorse and Michael Zakaras (both M.P.P. ’11) were among 13 students from Harvard graduate schools, Boston University, Tufts, and MIT who worked for…

On Friday, September 10, Cherry A. Murray, dean of the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and John A. and Elizabeth S. Armstrong Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences, kicked off the start of the new academic year with her first “All Hands” meeting. Video, audio, and slides are available. Highlights included: Continuing…

The ASLA Awards for 2010 selected two GSD student projects for Honor Awards, and an additional student project received the Award of Excellence. GSD Alumni were also widely recognized for projects spanning the globe, and GSD Alum Edward L. Daugherty BLA ’50, MLA ’51 was awarded the ASLA Medal—the highest honor the ASLA can bestow…

This summer, Ash Center Fellows in Innovation rolled up their sleeves and got to work, supporting unique education, government, and service initiatives in cities around the country. Sunlight is the Best Disinfectant Alejandra Vallejos Morales, M.P.A. ’11, explored data transparency in government this summer, offering research support to Washington, D.C.’s Office of the Chief Technology…

The Harvard Committee on General Scholarships has awarded Mallika Kaur, M.P.P. ’10 the 2010-11 Sheldon Traveling Fellowship. The competitive fellowship is awarded to one graduate from across Harvard. First nominated by Harvard Kennedy School for this award, Kaur was then selected by the Harvard-wide committee from a pool of applicants from the various graduate schools.…

Before the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers, there was 9 to 5, National Association of Working Women. Founded in 1972 by Ellen Cassedy and Karen Nussbaum, then clerical workers at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, the organization dedicated itself to putting issues faced by working women on the public agenda. Allison Elias,…

The Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies is pleased to announce the arrival of its 2010 fall fellows. The center is dedicated to fostering the study of European history, politics, and society at Harvard. The center was founded as a catalyst to bring scholars and students together to talk and think about Europe. As…

The United States is ending its combat mission in Iraq, but the U.S. will remain involved in helping the country transition to a stable and peaceful democracy. That was the message delivered by President Obama in a nationwide address August 31. “We have sent our young men and women to make enormous sacrifices in Iraq,…

While preparing his thesis on the rise of nationalist thinking among a rarely studied Middle Eastern Christian minority group who speak Syriac as a common language, Raid Gharib, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Tübingen, happened upon a catalog of Syriac and other language sources, The Assyrian Experience: sources for the study of the…

Forget Shakespeare in the park. Try performances in the Yard. Every Tuesday and Friday from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m., members of the Harvard community will stage lunchtime shows outside of Lehman Hall and Dudley House. Dubbed “The Chair Revue” these hour-long theatrical and music events are intended to bring the Harvard community together around the…

What’s in a name? For faculty at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE), everything. Earlier this summer, Dean Kathleen McCartney announced the Prevention Science and Practice (PSP) Program, formerly known as Risk and Prevention (R&P). The new program title marks the evolution of the master’s degree program — dedicated to the practical application of…

Five stellar students dedicated to the study of computer science at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) were named among the recipients of the 2011 Siebel Scholars awards. Karim Atiyeh (M.S. candidate); Michael Lyons (Ph.D. candidate); Geoffrey Mainland (Ph.D. candidate); Rohan Murty (Ph.D. candidate); and Yinan Zhu ’11 (joint A.B./S.M. candidate) will…

Lene Vestergaard Hau, Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics and of Applied Physics in the Department of Physics and School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) at Harvard, was named “World Dane 2010” by global network Danes Worldwide at the organization’s annual summer meeting, held at Kronborg Castle in Elsinore, Denmark, on Aug. 1, 2010. The honor…

The Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government will be enriched by new fellows, a writer-in-residence and visiting faculty this fall. One of the most celebrated nonfiction writers of our time, Tracy Kidder, will be the first A.M. Rosenthal Writer-in-Residence. Kidder won the Pulitzer…

As the United States’ workforce grows more diverse, an increasing number of Americans are balancing work and family responsibilities. In a paper appearing in a recent issue of the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, Harvard School of Public Health professor Lisa Berkman and colleagues draw attention to the effects that workplace policies toward this issue…

The University’s newly created Library Lab is inviting students, faculty, and staff to collaborate with the Harvard Libraries and serve as co-creators of the information society of the future. The University-wide Library Lab is designed to leverage the entrepreneurial aspirations of Harvard students, faculty, and staff, who can propose projects in all areas of library…

Formerly an authoritarian state, Indonesia has made impressive gains over the last 10 years as the world’s first majority Muslim, multi-party democracy. The country’s successes and challenges as a new democracy are the subject of the new report titled “From Reformasi to Institutional Transformation: A Strategic Assessment of Indonesia’s Prospects for Growth, Equity, and Democratic…

Today the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University announced its student and executive fellows to the 2010-2011 academic year. The Center welcomes its inaugural Democracy Fellow, five Ford Foundation Mason Fellows, two Roy and Lila Ash Fellows in Democracy, and 19 Rajawali Foundation…

Whether graduate students need research guidance, help locating and accessing resources online, materials for teaching classes, or even library materials scanned and delivered to them electronically, Harvard librarians can help. That was the message delivered over and over again – through speakers, informal conversations with librarians and current graduate students and information stations – to…

The typical summer school is often considered a one-way street. Teachers teach and students learn. However, as the following video shows, the Cambridge Harvard Summer Academy is a different breed of summer school. The six-week program brings together the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School and the Harvard Graduate School of Education to provide remedial and…

Transforming the U.S. health care system from paper-based to electronic-based may improve health care quality and reduce costs, but a new study in Health Affairs by researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) suggests that goal is far off. The adoption of basic or comprehensive electronic health records (EHR) by U.S. hospitals increased…

A former United Nations Assistant Secretary General and a former economic adviser to President Toledo of Peru are among the incoming visitors being welcomed this fall at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government (M-RCBG) at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. “Fellows and scholars are a vital resource at the…

Faculty from the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) are definitely ready for their close-ups. Researchers will appear on the national cable channel The Food Network, and on local favorite, the New England Sports Network (NESN), in August and September. Food Challenge (Food Network) Kit Parker, Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering, will appear…

The American Repertory Theater’s upcoming production of Cabaret has inspired The Brattle Theatre to present a film series this weekend that are connected to the Kander and Ebb musical Cabaret based on the stories by Christopher Isherwood.  The A.R.T. production (featuring Dresden Doll Amanda Palmer) opens on August 31st and runs through October 29. The films…

The fourth annual survey conducted by Harvard’s Program on Education Policy and Governance (PEPG) and Education Next on a wide range of education issues released today reveals that the broader public and teachers are markedly divided in their support for merit pay, teacher tenure and Race to the Top (RttT). The poll provides strong evidence…