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2020 Oct 27

Will This Election Pick the Next President: Election Break Down and What to Do About It

1:00pm to 2:00pm

Location: 

Virtual event, registration required

The upcoming US election is unlike any in recent memory. Many are afraid that this most basic process of Americans voting to select their next President may break down. In this discussion, we’ll explore what election break down could look like: a President refusing to concede, a state legislature disregarding the popular vote, a tie breaker by a Supreme Court some view as illegitimate, Congress deciding the election according to “contingent election” provisions, or something else altogether? We’ll also explore how a wide range of democracy organizations and civic networks are...

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2020 Oct 29

#BlackLivesMatter Across the Americas: Black Youth Organizers and the Struggle for Racial Justice

4:00pm to 5:30pm

Location: 

Virtual event, registration required
Join the second event in the What Justice Looks Like series for a conversation with activists from Black youth-led movements from the US and Latin America, leading the struggle against racial injustice, from police violence to structural racism and disparate effects of the COVID pandemic on racialized and low-income communities.

Speakers include:
  • Ana Belique, Reconocido Movement (Santo Domingo)
  • Daniela Rincón, Casa Cultural El Chontaduro (Cali)
  • Marcelle Decothé, Marielle Franco Institute/Favelas Na Luta/Rio de Janeiro Youth Forum (Rio de...
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Finding Allies and Making Revolution

Finding Allies and Making Revolution

October 19, 2020

In 1976, foreigners were a rarity in much of China. Even rarer still were foreigners from non-socialist countries studying in Chinese universities, especially given the recent social and educational upheavals of the Cultural Revolution, which was winding down. As a British-born graduate student at the University of Nanjing, Tony Saich—director of the Ash Center and Daewoo Professor of International Affairs—wasn’t exactly an inconspicuous presence around campus.

2020 Nov 19

Protecting and Deepening Our Democracy: What Should We Do Now?

5:30pm

Location: 

Virtual event, registration required

Join Archon Fung for an exploration of some possible futures of American democracy and what can be done to create a more equal and inclusive democracy. Fung is the Winthrop Laflin McCormack Professor of Citizenship and Self-Government at the Harvard Kennedy School. His research explores policies, practices, and institutional designs that deepen the quality of democratic governance with a focus on public participation, deliberation, and transparency. He co-directs the Transparency Policy Project and leads democratic governance programs of the Ash Center for...

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2020 Nov 19

Book Talk -- Under Beijing's Shadow: Southeast Asia's China Challenge

4:00pm to 5:00pm

Location: 

Virtual event, registration required

Join the Ash Center and Harvard University Asia Center in discussion with author Murray Hiebert, senior associate of the Southeast Asia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), about his new book Under Beijing's Shadow: Southeast Asia's China Challenge. Elina Noor, Director, Political-Security Affairs and Deputy Director, Asia Society Policy Institute, will serve as a respondent. Jay Rosengard, Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School, will moderate. 

...

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Lawrence stands with her foot and a baseball bat on top of an old typewriter

Moving Municipal Tech Out of the Typewriter Era

October 19, 2020

Boston likes to fashion itself as a global tech hub, proud of the legions of start-ups and tech workers who have made its economy the envy of cities around the country. Yet vestiges of Boston’s analog past can still be found, if you know where to look—such as in the long, brick-fronted building that sprawls over much of a block along Massachusetts Avenue in the city’s Dorchester neighborhood. From the building, which houses the city’s Inspectional Services Division (ISD), the sounds of aging IBM Wheelwriter 1500 electric typewriters, which until recently filled the ISD offices. used to be heard as permit-seekers hunched over its well-worn keys typing out applications for zoning variances.  

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