Gender, Race and Identity

Embed from Getty Images With last week’s election of Donald Trump as U.S. president, the anxiety of Arab and Muslim Americans was perhaps the timeliest topic of discussion at the tenth annual Harvard Arab Weekend. In a panel on Saturday, entitled “Arab and Muslim America: Facing Today’s Challenges,” four activists and professors spoke passionately on the […]

Boston’s Palestine Film Festival, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, opened on Friday, October 15 with a timely, searing showing of Mai Masri’s 3000 Nights. 3000 Nights tells the story of Layal Asfour, a newlywed schoolteacher turned political prisoner in the early 1980s. She gives birth in Israel’s Ramla prison, and, with the other women inmates, raises […]

BY NYASHA WEINBERG Sex education at my school was a joke. It consisted of an awkward encounter between a bald geography teacher, a banana, and a condom. There was no mention of consent. The class didn’t tackle any of the problems that arise in relationships: resolving differences of opinion, dealing with emotions, or what to […]

Every year, National Hispanic Heritage Month is observed in the United States between September 15 and October 15. This 30-day period is symbolic because it encompasses the independence days of several Latin American countries –Mexico, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Chile. During this time, Americans honor and celebrate the cultures, histories, and […]

BY JEN SMITH, WITH CALEB GAYLE AND DAVID FRIEDLAND 24 days ago Terence Crutcher was shot and killed by a police officer in Tulsa, Oklahoma. His family grieved their loss in the public eye. CNN wrote an article titled “Why Charlotte exploded and Tulsa Prayed” contrasting the two cities. It ignored lingering historical tensions from […]

By Zouhair Mazouz, MPP 2017 Full disclosure: That night, I meant to stir the pot. In the 2015 academic year, I had made a point out of boycotting meetings organized by the Harvard Kennedy School’s Arab Caucus. As an Arab myself, I was outraged to learn that the Caucus explicitly described its events as “intended […]

Boston’s Amazigh community came together at Lesley University on Saturday for the eighth annual Amazigh Film Festival, a celebration of Amazigh culture through film. The Amazigh are the descendants of the pre-Arab inhabitants of North Africa (they are also colloquially called “Berbers,” though that term is considered pejorative by some). Today, Amazigh people live scattered across North Africa, […]

BY BRYNNA QUILLIN On Monday night, the world finally got to see Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump face off for the first presidential debate. Watching the two candidates on stage together was striking. Hillary Clinton is one of the most, if not the most, qualified presidential candidates in history, with an extensive resume: First Lady, […]

In this personal essay, Janiece Mackey discusses how she navigated the complexities of race within the educational context. Now, having progressed from student to teacher, she promotes civic engagement and intersectional empowerment among underserved youth. Janiece’s story  serves as a precursory example of the Black student and educator experience, discussed in depth in our 2016 feature of “The Politics of […]

BY MALIKA NOOR MEHTA “Birth. Marriage. Death. In India, these three landmarks are celebrated with zeal,” says Rajneesh Yadav, the India Country Director at Free the Slaves, an international NGO working to eradicate sex trafficking and debt bondage. “When families refuse to perform the rituals associated with each of these events, they are considered social […]

BY LAUREN WINDMEYER For a woman in Lubbock, Texas to access an abortion provider, she must get in her car and drive 350 miles to the nearest clinic in Fort Worth. She must arrive at the clinic a full 24 hours before her procedure to receive an ultrasound, as mandated by the state. If she […]

This piece was published in the 26th print volume of the Asian American Policy Review. Introduction In this decade the U.S. Census and Asian American policy advocates have identified Asian Pacific Islanders as the fastest growing racial population in the United States.[i] This rise has been accompanied by scholars who point out that this demographic explosion […]