2015

2015 Nov 21

Understanding Indonesia: Revealing the Mysteries of Asia’s Inscrutable Giant

9:00am to 5:30pm

Location: 

Wiener Auditorium, Taubman Bldg. 79 JFK St. Cambridge, MA 02138

The Harvard Kennedy School Indonesia Program and the Harvard Asia Center, with support from The Australian National University’s Indonesia Project, are hosting their first national conference on Indonesia, “Understanding Indonesia: Revealing the Mysteries of Asia’s Inscrutable Giant.” Although Indonesia is a giant of Asia, it has largely escaped the attention of U.S. policy makers, academics, and the public at large.  With a population of 250 million, it is the fourth most populous country in the world. It is the largest democratic country with a Muslim-majority population. With...

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John Kerry Discusses Fulbright University Vietnam

Fulbright University Vietnam

October 29, 2015

On the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, in the Saigon High-Tech Park, a massive experiment in higher education is about to take shape. Ground will soon be broken for the campus of Fulbright University Vietnam, an ambitious undertaking to build the country’s first independent, not-for-profit university.... Read more about Fulbright University Vietnam

2015 Nov 05

Webinar: How Somerville’s Mayor Joe Curtatone uses SomerStat to drive performance in his city

1:00pm to 2:00pm

In November 2003, when Joe Curtatone was first elected mayor of Somerville, Massachusetts, he wanted to be sure that his city produced results. So he immediately made a site visit to Baltimore to learn how CitiStat worked.

When he returned, he told his new SomerStat director, let’s have our first meeting by the end of the month. SomerStat was off and running—and after more than 11 years in office the positive results of this data-driven approach to good government abound.

Somerville has been labeled “the best run city in Massachusetts.” Still, Mayor Curtatone, knows he...

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2015 Nov 18

Race, Public Opinion, and the Fight Over Reparations in the Age of Obama

4:10pm to 5:30pm

Location: 

Foyer, Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, 124 Mount Auburn Street, Suite 200-North Cambridge, MA 02138

The Ash Center cordially invites you to the next session of its Race and American Politics Seminar Series. We will be joined by Michael C. Dawson, the John D. MacArthur Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science and the College at the University of Chicago.  Professor Dawson will examine both liberal and conservative objections to slavery reparations, present recent public opinion data and analysis on support for reparations and slavery apologies, as well as discuss the issue of reparations within the broader racial divide in American public...

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2015 Nov 10

Leading Change: Leadership, Organizing and Advocacy in Japan, Serbia and Jordan

1:15pm to 2:30pm

Location: 

Ash Center, 124 Mt. Auburn Street, Suite 200-North, Cambridge, Mass

Speakers:

Kanoko Kamata
Executive Director, Community Organizing Japan
HKS MC/MPA 2012
Roy and Lila Ash Fellow

Ana Babovic
Founder, Serbia on the Move 
HKS MC/MPA Candidate 2016
Ford Foundation Mason Student Fellow

Nisreen Haj Ahmad
Co-director of Ahel.org
HKS' MC/MPA2008

Moderator:

Marshall Ganz
Senior Lecturer in Public Policy
Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation
Harvard Kennedy School

More from this event:...

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2015 Nov 19

Resource Wealth as Rent Leverage: Rethinking the Oil-Stability Nexus

4:10pm to 5:30pm

Location: 

Ash Center, 124 Mt. Auburn Street, Suite 200-North, Cambridge, Mass

The Ash Center cordially invites you to the next session of its Comparative Democracy Seminar Series. We will be joined by Benjamin Smith, Associate Professor of Political Science and Research Foundation Professor at the University of Florida.  Dr. Smith will present his research on the "resource curse" and present a new indicator for oil dependence—a concept he terms rent leverage.  It captures the share of individuals’ buying power that directly depends on fuel income (and that nearly everywhere is controlled by...

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2015 Oct 23

The Next Step: Evaluating Innovation and Measuring Success

12:00pm to 1:00pm

Location: 

Ash Center Foyer, 124 Mt. Auburn St., Suite 200-North, Cambridge, MA

Ash Center Student Speaker Series

Deena Zeplowitz (MPP ’16)

Lunch will be provided

About the Event
The neighborhood of East Portland, OR, was not always part of Portland. Throughout the 1980s and 90s, East Portland was slowly annexed by Portland, and although it is now a fully integrated part of the city, service provision still lags. In 2009, the East Portland Action Plan was developed to improve livability in East Portland. The plan was ambitious: it encompassed 63 strategies and 269 action items, all aimed at...

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Ash Fellow Georgia Hollister Isman is Rebuilding Public Engagement with the Democratic Process

Ash Fellow Georgia Hollister Isman is Rebuilding Public Engagement with the Democratic Process

October 21, 2015

For Georgia Hollister Isman (MPA/MC ‘15), strengthening public participation in the political process has been a lifelong passion. The recipient of the Roy and Lila Ash Fellowship for the 2014–15 academic year, Hollister Isman came to the Harvard Kennedy School with a decade of experience in electoral politics and state and local advocacy. “From the time I was a little kid, I always wanted to figure out a way to make the world a better place,” she recalled.

With a newly minted bachelor's degree from Ohio’s Oberlin College, Hollister Isman set out to make her mark in progressive...

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HUBweek Event Shows Greater Boston is Ripe with Civic Tech

HUBweek Event Shows Greater Boston is Ripe with Civic Tech

October 21, 2015

By: Tim Glynn-Burke, Associate Director of Democratic Governance and Student Programs

The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation is a leading research center at the Harvard Kennedy School focused on the intersection of government and technology. We are helping HKS students—our future public leaders—to learn crucial technology skills that they will take with them into their careers. The Center is also studying unanswered questions about the potential and the pitfalls of technology’s role in making government more modern, effective, and efficient as well as more responsive, transparent, and participatory.... Read more about HUBweek Event Shows Greater Boston is Ripe with Civic Tech

2015 Oct 26

CANCELLED Reflection on Three Decades of Sustainable Financial Inclusion in Indonesia: Microbanking at Bank Rakyat Indonesia

11:45am to 1:00pm

Location: 

HKS Ash Center, 124 Mt. Auburn St. Suite 200 – North, Cambridge, MA

**This event has been cancelled**

The HKS Indonesia Program invites you to a discussion with Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) Managing Director Gatot Mardiwasisto.  BRI runs the world’s most successful commercially sustainable microbanking operations in the world, yet its accomplishments are not widely known outside of Indonesia.  Members of BRI’s Board of Directors will reflect on the evolution of microbanking at BRI since commercialization of these financial services thirty-two years ago, and will discuss plans to broaden and deepen...

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