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    Alex Hertel-Fernandez awarded APSA McGillivray Best Paper Award

    Alex Hertel-Fernandez awarded APSA McGillivray Best Paper Award

    September 1, 2017
    Awardee | Alex Hertel-Fernandez (PhD '16) has been awarded the 2017 Fiona McGillivray Prize for the best paper in political economy presented at the previous year’s American Political Science Association Annual Meeting. The paper, "American Employers as Political Machines," has been published in the Journal of Politics 79,1 (2017). Hertel-Fernandez is now Assistant Professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University.

    Three Faculty Associates Elected 2018 into American Academy of Arts and Sciences

    April 18, 2018
    Warm congratulations to our three Faculty Associates elected as 2018 Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences: Jeffry Frieden, Stanfield Professor of International Peace, Harvard University; Pippa Norris, Paul F. McGuire Lecturer in Comparative Politics, Harvard Kennedy School; and Gita Gopinath, John Zwaanstra Professor of International Studies and of Economics, Harvard University. These faculty members join a class of 177 Fellows across a wide range of disciplines awarded for their exceptional ability in sharing knowledge and addressing challenges facing the world. 
    Artist's impression of the exoplanet Proxima Centauri b. Credit: ESO

    Escape from Proxima b

    April 18, 2018

    Avi Loeb's lated Scientific American blog post explores the idea that, "A civilization in the habitable zone of a dwarf star like Proxima Centauri might find it hard to get into interstellar space with conventional rockets."

    Read More: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/escape-from-proxima-b/

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    Harvard issues task force report on inclusion, belonging

    Harvard issues task force report on inclusion, belonging

    March 27, 2018

    Harvard’s Presidential Task Force on Inclusion and Belonging issued its final report today, a compilation of eight recommendations and a framework of “four goals and four tools” meant to serve as a blueprint for advancing Harvard’s practices and culture of inclusion and belonging. In response, Harvard President Drew Faust announced a series of initiatives to advance this work, including development of an innovation fund, resources...

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    Angela Davis speaks on immigration at Harvard

    Angela Davis speaks on immigration at Harvard

    April 2, 2018

    Famed political activist and scholar Angela Davis took the stage at the Harvard Art Museums’ Menschel Hall on Thursday to share her views about immigrants’ rights. And she didn’t hold back.

    “I believe that the major civil rights issue of the 21st century is the issue of immigrant rights,” said Davis, distinguished professor emerita at the University of California, Santa Cruz. “Not only in Europe or the United States, but everywhere — from South America to Africa and Australia.”

    ...

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    Nation's Report Card Shows Widening Gaps

    April 10, 2018
    The release of the 2017 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in reading and mathematics shows widening gaps between the highest and lowest achieving students in America, underscoring a continuing need for investment in efforts to make education systems more equitable. Compared to 2015 results, 2017 scores in reading and mathematics were higher for eighth-grade students who performed in the 75th and 90th percentiles of test takers, and they were lower for fourth-... Read more about Nation's Report Card Shows Widening Gaps
    Civil Rights progress isn’t just about major breakthroughs, Danielle Allen says

    Civil Rights progress isn’t just about major breakthroughs, Danielle Allen says

    April 9, 2018

    “I want to make a case for the small,” said Danielle Allen, James Bryant Conant University Professor and director of Harvard’s Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, for “the things that build a life of commitment.”

    Giving the keynote address for the Hutchins Center Symposium on Martin Luther King Jr. at the Harvard Kennedy School on Friday, Allen began by noting that although the Civil Rights leader “painted on a canvas that feels big,” she and many of her colleagues find themselves advocating smaller-scale activism — and worrying that they are not making a difference.

    Frequently...

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    Annual Radcliffe conference probes citizenship and gender in the 21st century

    Annual Radcliffe conference probes citizenship and gender in the 21st century

    April 12, 2018

    Citizenship brings a range of rights and responsibilities in countries all over the world. But in many nations, according to Radcliffe Dean Lizabeth Cohen, “the link between gender and rights is hardly a settled issue.”

    Cohen’s remarks opened “Who Belongs: Global Citizenship and Gender in the 21st Century” on April 6. The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study’s annual gender conference touched on topics ranging from the hijab to the history of citizenship in...

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    Michael Ignatieff Wins Zócalo Book Prize

    April 18, 2018
    Advisory Committee Member Michael Ignatieff, president and rector of Central European University in Budapest, won the eighth annual Zócalo Book Prize for his 2017 book, The Ordinary Virtues: Moral Order in a Divided World. The prize is awarded to a nonfiction book that "most enhances our understanding of community, human connectedness, and social cohesion." Ignatieff will deliver a lecture and accept the prize, which includes $5,000, on May 22 in Los Angeles, California. 

    Center for African Studies response to April 13th, 2018 incident involving Harvard Undergraduate student from Africa

    April 19, 2018

    Center for African Studies response to April 13th, 2018 incident involving Harvard Undergraduate student from Africa

    Harvard President Drew Faust recently wrote that “…the intellectual fruits of a community’s inner diversity do not harvest themselves. To gain the benefit of diversity, Harvard must fully integrate all members of the University into academic, professional, and social contexts that support their individual flourishing and activate their potential.” The Center for...

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    Revised Rule Delayed! Again!

    April 19, 2018

    The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and 16 other federal departments and agencies announced a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) proposing to delay for an additional 6 months the general compliance date for the revisions to the Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects (the “Common Rule”).

    In a final rule published on January 19, 2017, federal departments and agencies made revisions to the Common Rule (the “2018 Requirements”). The 2018 Requirements were scheduled to become effective on January 19, 2018, with a general compliance date of January 19,...

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    Open Letter from the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies

    April 18, 2018

    Dear President Drew Faust,
    Dear President-elect Lawrence S. Bacow,
    Dear Dean Michael D. Smith,
    Dear Dean Claudine Gay,

    The Senior Scholars and Academy Scholars of the Harvard Academy are deeply troubled by the serious allegations of sexual harassment against Professor Jorge I. Domínguez, raised in the February 27, 2018 and...

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    Alumni Wine and Cheese Reception - May 25th

    April 19, 2018
    Social Studies alumni are invited to a wine and cheese reception on the Friday of reunion weekend from 4:00-5:00. Visit our new home on the 3rd floor of William James Hall, reminisce about taking Social Studies 10 and turning in your thesis, and network with fellow Social Studies alumni. You can also meet our ever-expanding roster of Social Theorist stuffed animals (Karl Marxupial, Max Webear, Emile Duckheim, etc). RSVP to Lauren Doan by May 21st. We look forward to seeing you and hearing about your life post-Social Studies!

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