In this issue, we tell the story of how Ash faculty, staff, & students led the charge in a school-wide campaign to get students to the polls. We also introduce Jennifer Musisi, Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative Mayor in Residence, and Roy and Lila Ash Fellow Ryan Swann MC/MPA 2019. Included are...

Cambridge, MA—Today, the Ash Center and SLATE’s Case Program at Harvard Kennedy School announced the release of a groundbreaking package of cases, simulations, and exercises for teaching effective legislative negotiation aimed at U.S. state and federal legislators. These materials were developed as part of the Center’s Project on Legislative Negotiation with support provided by the William & Flora Hewlett Foundation Madison Initiative.... Read more about HKS Ash Center and Case Program Launch First Cases in Legislative Negotiation

Just days after Ryan Swann MC/MPA 2019 and his identical twin brother, Bryan MC/MPA 2019, walked across the stage to accept their diplomas at Prince George’s County Largo High School in Maryland, the brothers enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve and were en route to basic training in Parris Island, South Carolina.

“I come from a large family of veterans and public servants,” says Ryan Swann, recipient of the Ash Center's 2018–19 Roy and Lila Ash Fellowship in Democracy, a scholarship that is awarded to a meritorious mid-career student with a proven dedication to democratic governance and public-sector innovation. “I really felt the need to serve.”... Read more about Roy and Lila Ash Fellow Ryan Swann: A Story of Service

Getting eligible Harvard students to vote in US elections shouldn’t be hard, should it? After all, the University prides itself on being a training ground for emerging leaders, inculcating into successive generations of students the values and importance of civic engagement and democratic governance. But it turns out that many of these same students don’t exercise what is arguably democracy's core right and responsibility while at Harvard: showing up at the polls.... Read more about Harvard Votes

The Ash Center sat down for a conversation with Kathryn Sikkink, Ryan Family Professor of Human Rights Policy at HKS and one of Ash’s newest faculty affiliates.

You are known for your work on international human rights issues, but you also helped co-chair the School's participation in the Harvard Votes Challenge with Archon Fung. How did you go from the world of human rights, and the responsibility to protect, to voting?

Well, first, I've always been interested in human rights. I got interested in human rights as an undergraduate student living in Uruguay during the darkest days of the dictatorship.... Read more about Kathryn Sikkink on Voter Participation