The Politics of Displacement in the American City: A Conversation with Two Documentary Filmmakers

King Williams, Director, The Atlanta Way; Andrew J. Padilla, Director, El Barrio Tours: Gentrification USA; Karilyn Crockett, Director of Economic Policy & Research, City of Boston; and Quinton Mayne, Assistant Professor of Public Policy

About the Event
At their best, cities can be places where people with different socio-economic and ethnic and racial backgrounds come together and use the ballot box and other political means to achieve a just and fair society. Likewise, city governments can use land-use and social policy, among other tools, to strengthen community life and improve access to basic goods and services. Yet often these same policies – both in the processes through which they are decided and in their ultimate effect on residents’ lives – exacerbate rather than reduce social exclusion and economic disparity.... Read more about The Politics of Displacement in the American City

Ash Center Student Speaker Series

Peiran Wei, MC-Mason ’15, and Edward Cunningham, Director of Ash Center’s China Programs

Lunch will be provided.

About the Event
The rise of new wealth in China is one of the most profound shifts in the country today, and has already begun to shape China’s political, economic, and social landscapes. Peiran Wei, MC-Mason ’15, and Edward Cunningham, Director of the Ash Center’s China Programs, will discuss Wei’s groundbreaking journalism for Bloomberg News on China’s billionaires.... Read more about Bloodlines, Billionaires, and Bloomberg in China

Ash Center Student Speaker Series

Edgar Mora Altamirano, MC/Mason ’14 and Matthew Teismann, MDS ’15

Lunch will be provided.

About the Event
Our health, happiness, culture, and identity are tied closely – in both cause and effect – to the built environments in which we live. Edgar Mora Altamirano and Matthew Teismann will discuss two unique projects proposing nontraditional measures and considerations in designing physical spaces.... Read more about Redesigning Cities With a Better Understanding of Well-Being, Identity, and History

Conference: 3:00-6:00 pm
Reception: 6:00-7:00 pm

The Slow-Burning Genocide of Rohingyas
A half-day conference on the worsening situation of Burma’s indigenous Muslim Rohingya minority community.

Speakers include:

Rohingya voices: Daw Khin Hla, Tun Khin, U Ba Sein, and Professor Wakar Uddin

Amartya Sen, Thomas W. Lamont University Professor and Professor of Economics and Philosophy, Harvard University

Felicia Knaul, Director, Harvard Global Equity Initiative

Lincoln Chen, President, China Medical Board

Maung Zarni, Lecturer, Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, HMS

Malik Mujahid, Chair, Parliament of the World's Religions; President, Justice for All

Lilianne Fan, Research Fellow, Humanitarian Policy Group, Overseas Development Institute, U.K.... Read more about The Slow-Burning Genocide of Rohingyas

Darryl Pinckney, Author, and Alex Keyssar, Matthew W. Stirling Jr. Professor of History and Social Policy

Co-sponsored by the Harvard Journal of African-American Public Policy.

About the Event
Throughout the history of the United States, voting rights have been progressively expanded, though in fits and starts, to our current universal suffrage. Today the U.S. is witnessing a systematic and almost unprecedented erosion of the franchise. Join Professor Alex Keyssar and author Darryl Pinckney as they discuss disenfranchisement, the legacy of the Voting Rights Act, and the state of voting rights in the United States.... Read more about Blackballed: The Black Vote and U.S. Democracy

Ash Center Student Speaker Series

Carol Khagondi, MC/Mason ’15 and Jurist Tan, MPA/ID ’15
Friday, October 31, 2014, 12-1 p.m.

Lunch will be provided.

About the Event
Join us for a discussion with Carol Khagondi and Jurist Tan – two HKS students with years of experience working to improve social policy through the design and implementation of large-scale field surveys and randomized controllled trials. Their talk will explore real-world operational challenges that overwhelm many research studies, including training and managing a team of researchers, designing and piloting surveys and experiments, and monitoring both costs and data quality.... Read more about Optimizing the Impact of Your Field Research

Middle East Initiative Speaker Series
Open to the Public

Related Project: Middle East Initiative

Description:

A seminar with Ambassador Robert Ford, former U.S. Ambassador to Syria, from 2010 to 2014, and Algeria, from 2006 to 2008.

Moderated by Nicholas Burns, Professor of the Practice of International Relations at the Harvard Kennedy School.

Ambassador Ford spent 4 1/2 years working for the U.S. Mission in Iraq and later 3 years working on Syria. He will talk about the roots of the unrest in both countries that spawned the Syrian civil war and the rise of the Islamic State straddling across the two countries’ borders.... Read more about A Conversation with U.S. Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford

Co-sponsored with the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum

C. M. Chan
Harvard Kennedy School, MPA/MC ’15
Legal Counsel, Sir Elly Kadoorie & Sons Limited

William C. Kirby
Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor
T. M. Chang Professor of China Studies, Harvard University and Spangler Family Professor of Business Administration, HBS

Heather Pickerell
Harvard College, ’15

Anthony Saich (moderator)
Director, Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation and Daewoo Professor of International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School... Read more about Hong Kong Protests: Democracy in Action?

Ash Center Student Speaker Series

Sanjay Kumar, MC/Mason ’15 and Rosie Zhang, MC/Mason ’15

Lunch will be provided.

About the Event
In fast developing countries, ensuring safe and humane working conditions can be a contentious and evasive struggle. Sanjay Kumar and Rosie Zhang will discuss their work protecting the rights and voice of workers in India and China, respectively. The discussion will cover standard setting, monitoring, ethical sourcing and other approaches to labor rights protection in China from the perspective of international corporations, NGOs, and regimes.... Read more about Two Models for Representing Workers' Rights: Local Organizing versus International Standards