Podcast
Wait, Wait — What Happened?
Co-hosts Archon Fung and Stephen Richer look back at the last five months of headlines as they celebrate the twentieth episode of Terms of Engagement.
News and Analysis
Read the latest news, commentary, and analysis from the Ash Center.
Newest
Video
Navigating the American Rescue Plan Act: A Series for Tribal Nations, Session One
The American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) provides the largest single infusion of federal funding into Indian Country in the history of the United States. More than $32 billion is directed toward assisting American Indian nations and communities as they work to end and recover from the devastating COVID-19 pandemic – which was made worse in Indian Country precisely because such funding has been so long overdue.
From setting tribal priorities, to building infrastructure, to managing and sustaining projects, ARPA presents an unprecedented opportunity for the 574 federally recognized tribal nations to use their rights of sovereignty and self-government to strengthen their communities. As the tribes take on the challenges presented by the Act, the Ash Center’s Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development presented a series designed to assist tribes, to help tribes learn from each other and from a wide array of guest experts.
This first session, titled “How Tribal Governments Can and Can’t use ARPA” featured:
- Joseph P. Kalt, Ford Foundation Professor (Emeritus) of International Political Economy & Co-Director, Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development
- Del Laverdure, Attorney and Former Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs at the Department of the Interior
- Burton Warrington, President, Indian Ave Group
- Jennifer Weddle HLS 2000, J.D., Principal Shareholder, Co-Chair American Indian Law Practice Group, Greenberg Traurig, LLP
- Andy Werk, Jr., President, Fort Belknap Indian Community
- Moderated by Karen Diver HKS 2003, M.P.A., Board of Governors, Honoring Nations, Harvard Project
Video
Combatting Anti-Asian Racism and Misogyny: What is our Local Community Doing?
This public discussion highlighted key challenges of racism, misogyny and other discrimination faced by our Asian and Asian-American community, the responses of local organizations who have long sought to address such challenges, and what more needs to be done in our own communities. Speakers represented perspectives from the Harvard Kennedy School’s staff, faculty and student groups, as well as leading local non-profits.
Speakers included:
- Anisha Asundi, Research Fellow: Gender Specialist, Harvard Kennedy School Women and Public Policy Program
- Carolyn Chou, Executive Director, Asian American Resource Workshop
- Dr. Kathy Pham, Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School
- Nick Sung, Harvard Kennedy School MPP ’21
- Dr. Kaori Urayama, Senior Program Manager, Harvard Kennedy School Ash Center
William Huang, Harvard Kennedy School MPP ’22, gave the welcome.
Video
Police Violence, Memory, and Mobilization in Brazil
The Ash Center’s event featured members of Mães de Maio (Mothers of May), a collective of mothers whose children were killed by police in May 2006 in one of the largest police massacres in Brazilian history.
Feature
Rocking the vote from the ER to the Peach State
Two Kennedy School student research projects chart path forward on voter engagement.
Video
How Cities Are Addressing Vaccine Hesitancy
Video
100 Days of Biden Administration: What’s Next for Immigration, Health Policy, and Economic Justice
Video
Social Movements in the Post-Trump Era: Organizing for Policy Change
In this discussion, Ash Center Democracy Postdoctoral Fellow Johnnie Lotesta talked with leaders from the environmental justice, gun violence prevention, labor, and immigration movements about how they balanced these commitments in the course of their work.
Quinton Mayne on How Ahora Madrid Realized an Agenda of Democratic Disruption
The Ash Center sat down with Quinton Mayne, Ford Foundation Associate Professor of Public Policy, to discuss how a progressive electoral alliance reimagined the relationship between citizens and city hall
Feature
Megan Minoka Hill on the “Marshall Plan” for Revitalizing Indian Country
Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development’s Megan Minoka Hill explains how the American Rescue Plan could bring long-needed aid to Indian Country.