Djosa, a member of the Custodial staff at the Kennedy School, is a former government official from Cape Verde, a star footballer and sports fan, married to Gilda who works in the cafeteria, and possibly the friendliest face at HKS.  Can you tell us about yourself? I’m from Cape Verde. I came to America in […]

In Singapore, foreign domestic workers (FDWs) on Work Permits are subject to various bio-political restrictions: namely, restrictions that govern who they can marry and whether they can be pregnant.

What explains these restrictions, and why is the state so invested in policing the private intimacies of foreign domestic workers? Poh Yong Han traces through parliamentary debates and newspaper articles to show how these restrictions are informed by a neoliberal philosophy that informs how we view citizenship, and unpacks its consequences.

  Ellie,[1] a young trans woman from Central America, sits across a small table from me in blue men’s scrubs, hair cut short and eyes downcast. It’s taken hours to shuffle her from the solitary confinement unit to this cold, windowless room, where I am to help her prepare her pro se asylum case. She’s […]

Two of our Kennedy School Review Podcast Team members describe their experiences observing and supporting the Iowa Caucus, discussing what the process was like, what went wrong, and what the role of technology should be in facilitating a more inclusive, participatory model of democracy. Listen Here!

The rise of China has led to a surge in partnerships between American and Chinese universities. These partnerships offer significant opportunities for American institutions – a potential pool of new students and the possibility of demonstrating the value of free inquiry and the liberal arts to a new audience in China. But they also present […]

In its 1993 report, the World Bank classified Indonesia as one of the “Asian Miracles”[1]. Indonesia was on the track towards industrialization and development. It had begun to transition from agriculture and raw commodities to manufacturing. In 2000, Indonesia’s computer export was twice the value of its palm oil export[2]. Fast forward to today, and […]

When you wake up on one of the many grey, rainy days we have had in Cambridge this winter, you might curse the conditions, slam the snooze button, bury your head in your blanket, and try to dream away another ten minutes of this dreary weather.  But not me. When I wake up to the […]

Amidst abundant signs of turmoil and challenges in Turkey’s seemingly rudderless foreign policy, the country apparently needs a more diplomatic approach and legal expertise in international law rather than aggressive military posture in its immediate vicinity. As Turkey lurches into one crisis after another in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Aegean Sea, the prudent invocation […]

Francis Garcia walked into work at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas one morning in late 2007. A migrant from Honduras, Garcia had crossed through Mexico after Hurricane Mitch devastated her country, leaving almost one million Hondurans homeless. She joined the Grand as a housekeeper earning $14.50 an hour; far more than she could expect […]

Time is running out for Taiwan. Under the leadership of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Chairman Xi Jinping, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has been increasingly aggressive in both poaching Taiwan’s few remaining diplomatic allies and using the growing proficiency of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) for messaging the inevitable: reunification with the mainland.[i] Xi […]

Paul argues that policymakers need to move beyond numbers-driven, utilitarian logics of decision-making and incorporate a human-centered approach to policy-making. Drawing from Teo You Yenn’s seminal work on the need to understand issues like inequality as lived experiences rather than just statistical data, Paul considers the benefits of a social analysis approach and examines the ways in which it can be implemented in Singapore.

Susan sent this photo to us with the caption, “Big smile”, which cracked us up and put an (actual) big smile on our faces. Susan sat down with The Citizen for the inaugural Citizens of HKS post, where we chat with HKS staff who we see every day, who make our education possible, but who […]