Read the latest news, commentary, and analysis from the Ash Center.
Commentary
In this paper, Mary W. Graham, co-director of the Center’s Transparency Policy Project, explores the unintended information inequities that weaken the nation’s vital health and safety alerts. By examining three policies — wildfire alerts, drinking water reports, and auto safety recalls — she suggests common sources of inequality problems and steps policy makers are taking to remedy them.
Newest
Video
This Global Challenges to Democracy Seminar Series event featured Tariq Thachil, Professor, Madan Lal Sobti Chair for the Study of Contemporary India; Director, Center for Advanced Study of India; University of Pennsylvania. Urban citizens in low-income democracies rarely hold elected officials accountable for toxic air. To understand why, Thachil discussed a recent paper co-authored by Shikhar Singh.
Video
As India prepares for general elections beginning next month, the world’s largest democracy finds itself at an inflection point. With incumbent Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) expected to maintain control of the country’s parliament, what can we expect from a third five-year term? What are the opportunities and challenges that a dominant BJP poses to India’s democracy? Is India’s democracy in decline, as some assert, or does it remain broadly competitive and inclusive and perhaps even a relative bastion of democracy’s promise?
Video
Panelists from the Nonviolent Action Lab discuss their experiences, lessons learned, and perspectives on their respective struggles, nations, and roles have evolved during their time at Harvard.
Feature
This reading list from the Institutional Antiracism and Accountability Project explores the intersection of sports and racial justice, in the lead-up to their panel on March 19.
Video
This Global Challenges to Democracy Seminar Series event featured Michael Weintraub, Associate Professor in the Escuela de Gobierno at Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia, and Director of the Security and Violence Area of the Center for the Study of Security and Drugs (CESED).
Video
This GETTING-Plurality Research workshop session features Danielle Allen, James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard University, Director of the Allen Lab, and presenting author of “A Roadmap for Governing AI: Technology Governance and Power-Sharing Liberalism.” Allen was joined in conversation by commentator Rob Reich, McGregor-Girand Professor of Social Ethics of Science and Technology, Stanford
Q+A
Ash Center Senior Researcher Tova Wang and NFL Network analyst Scott Pioli answer questions about how sports teams can foster civic engagement.
Commentary
To make it easier to find up-to-date information on pro-Palestine and pro-Israel protest activity in the United States since October 7, 2023, the Crowd Counting Consotium recently created a pair of interactive data dashboards separately covering the two.
Video
The Rajawali Foundation Institute for Asia and the Ash Center hosted a Global Elections Webinar Series event to reflect on the implications of Prabowo’s landslide victory for the state of democracy and prospects for national development in Indonesia.