Read the latest news, commentary, and analysis from the Ash Center.
Commentary
Allen Lab Policy Fellow Hillary Lehr provides a late-October 2026 snapshot of the multiple ways that AI and the midterms are intersecting, including campaign use cases, policy issues, and voters’ use of LLMs.
Newest
Commentary
In a new essay, Archon Fung looks at this current wave of campus protests and asks if civil disobedience is permissible, and how much disruption should be tolerated at universities today.
Feature
By taking a new approach to its digital service delivery methods, Alper believes that Boston can harness democratic innovations to help heal the wounds left by the city’s legacy of racism and disinvestment.
Feature
At the Ash Center, Lawrence Lessig, Matthew Seligman, and Ian Bassin discuss the looming threats to our next presidential election.
Video
On April 30, the Ash Center hosted a book talk with Lawrence Lessig and Matt Seligman, authors of How to Steal a Presidential Election (Yale, 2024). The discussion was moderated by Ian Bassin, co-founder and Executive Director of Protect Democracy.
Podcast
In the second episode of the Nonviolent Action Lab Podcast, Désirée Weber describes what 1,300 days of protest and political pressure looked like in Wooster, Ohio in 2020
Podcast
Host Jay Ulfelder sits down with Professor Erica Chenoweth for the first episode in the new podcast series.
Video
Professor Khalil Gibran Muhammad was joined by Oscar-nominated filmmaker and screenwriter Ava DuVernay in JFK Jr. Forum
Feature
At an Ash Center symposium on Electoral College reform, Congressman Jamie Raskin makes the case that the US should finally move to a direct popular vote for selecting presidential winners.
Feature
During an opening panel at an Ash Center symposium on the future of the Electoral College, scholars examined the history behind how the US adopted its peculiar centuries-old system of choosing presidential election winners – and what should be done to reform or even abolish the practice today.