National & World Affairs

Speaking up for science

Former National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration administrator Jane Lubchenco described her four years in Washington, D.C., as difficult and frustrating, but said it’s imperative that other scientists follow suit to give science a voice in national policies.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Posted in BP oil spill, D.C., Government & Politics, Harvard University Center for the Environment, James McCarthy, Jane Lubchenco, National & World Affairs, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA, Politics, Science, Washington | Comments Off

Toward a more competitive U.S.

At an event at Harvard Business School (HBS) that was three parts analysis and one part rally, participants tried to chart a new path forward for the sluggish U.S. economy — a move that may require a new definition of “competitiveness.”

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Posted in Bunker Hill Community College, Business, Harvard Business School, Jan W. Rivkin, Mary L. Fifield, Michael E. Porter, National & World Affairs, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Stephanie Schorow, Thomas M. Menino, U.S. Competitiveness Project, “U.S. Competitiveness: Paths Forward” | Comments Off

Refusing a ‘diminished self’

Former Ethiopian judge and political prisoner Birtukan Midekssa, at Harvard as a Scholar at Risk, argues that her native land — with its heritage of religious tolerance and its innate appetite for liberty — is ripe for democracy.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Posted in Birtukan Midekssa, Coalition for Unity and Democracy, Corydon Ireland, Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard Law School’s Human Rights Program, Harvard Scholar at Risk, International, Meles Zenawi, National & World Affairs, Scholar at Risk, Siye Abraha, Unity for Democracy and Justice, W.E.B. Du Bois Institute | Comments Off

Education without limits

Salman Khan, the founder of Khan Academy, explained his vision for online learning during a GSE Askwith Forum.

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Posted in Anant Agarwal, Colleen Walsh, Education, edX, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Khan Academy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, National & World Affairs, Radcliffe Gymnasium, Salman Khan | Comments Off

Focus on teaching, learning

The essentials of good teaching and learning took the stage at the second annual Harvard Initiative for Learning and Teaching conference.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Posted in American Repertory Theater, Diane Paulus, Education, Frances Frei, Harvard Business School, Harvard Initiative for Learning and Teaching, Harvard School of Public Health, HILT, Julio Frenk, Learning, Lucia Huntington, Nannerl O. Keohane, National & World Affairs, Online Learning, Pedagogy, Teaching | Comments Off

Sense where none seems possible

Five panelists at Harvard Divinity School — including Dean David N. Hempton — grappled with the ways religion is sometimes used to justify acts of terror, covering as well the role of faith traditions in encouraging healing.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Posted in Boston Marathon bombing, Christopher Lydon, Colleen Walsh, David Hempton, Harvard Divinity School, Harvey G. Cox Jr., Islamic Society of Boston, Jocelyne Cesari, Marathon Bombings, National & World Affairs, Religion, “Religion and Terror” | Comments Off

Steps against poverty

Delivering the Asia Center’s annual Tsai Lecture, the World Bank Group’s president, Jim Yong Kim, described the bank’s bold push to end world poverty.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Posted in China, Harvard University Asia Center, International, Jim Yong Kim, Judy Rakowsky, Korea Institute, National & World Affairs, Partners In Health, Tsai Lecture, WHO, World Bank Governors, World Health Organization | Comments Off

Holistically Crimson

Shaw Chen, treasurer of the Harvard Club of Shanghai, learned a lot from the College’s East Asian studies classes, but got plenty of experience outside the classroom as well.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Posted in Alumni, Alvin Powell, China, Chinese, Class of 1999, Class of 2000, East Asian Studies, Finance, Harvard, Harvard Club of Shanghai, Harvard College, Harvard Crimson, Harvard-Yenching, International, Jay Chen, Kate McFarlin, National & World Affairs, Peking University, Shanghai, Shaw Chen, Taiwanese | Comments Off

Subversive education

Noam Chomsky on Wednesday joined Bruno della Chiesa, a visiting lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, in an Askwith Forum covering the legacy of the radical Brazilian educator Paulo Freire (1921-1997) and his 1968 book, “Pedagogy of the Oppressed.”

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Posted in Bruno della Chiesa, Education, Howard Gardner, Liberation Theology, National & World Affairs, Noam Chomsky, Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed | Comments Off

Reflections on a nuclear mission

Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics and Nobel laureate Roy Glauber reflected on his two years in Los Alamos, N.M., during World War II as part of the Manhattan Project, which developed the world’s first atomic bomb.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Posted in Alvin Powell, atomic bomb, Battle of Britain, chain reaction, critical mass, Enrico Fermi, Hiroshima, International, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Los Alamos, Manhattan Project, Nagasaki, National & World Affairs, Niels Bohr, Nobel Prize, Physics, Physics Department, Richard Feynman, Roy Glauber, World War II | Comments Off