By Matt Bieber, News Writer, MPP/MDiv ‘13 pbieber@mail.harvard.edu In October of 2009, MP David Bahati introduced the Anti-Homosexuality Bill in the Ugandan Parliament.  The bill [link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Homosexuality_Bill] – which proposed the death penalty for homosexuality – immediately became infamous around the world. At that time, Val Kalende was a veteran activist in the struggle for […]

By Zachary Rosenfeld, Assistant News Editor, MPP ‘13 We have just a few updates this week. Kevin Chee’s Finance Committee has formed three new sub-committees to work on transparency, funding regulations, and sponsorship, respectively. They also discussed major funding requests for the African Caucus and Women’s Policy Journal and established a new “Quorum Call” funding […]

By Zachary Rosenfeld, Assistant News Editor, MPP ‘13 As one of the chief architects of Greek monetary policy during the 1990s, Lucas Papademos helped his country to stabilize the value of the drachma, win the confidence of international financial experts, and transition the Greek national currency to the euro. But with some European heads of […]

By Dharana Rijal, News Writer, MPP ‘13 A week before Thanksgiving, the 2nd HKS Annual Hunger Banquet brought together students to share an unusual meal and reflect on the issues surrounding world food security. Students attending the event agreed that the arrangement of the meal highlighted the inequalities that exist around the world, and often, […]

By Sharon Bourne-Clarke In this intellectual candy store [1]called the Harvard Kennedy School one has to struggle to identify the over arching or predominant culture that prevails. The Kennedy School is composed of 1,013 students from over 92 countries in four degree programs[2] yet it is difficult to identify a prevailing culture. By virtue of […]

By Alexi White, Opinions Editor, MPP ‘13 Imagine there were a bridge connecting Taubman to Belfer. Imagine a new building where the courtyard parking lot sits. Imagine the courtyard itself were raised to ground level and a central hub connecting all of HKS placed beneath it. These are just some of the ideas that have […]

By Cristina Garmendia, News Writer, MPP ‘13 This is the third part of the Harvard Citizen series: Politics in Practice. This week, Cristina Garmendia interviews Boston-area alumni of the Rappaport Fellowship, which matches students from area graduate programs to state and local government positions for a summer. She asks two graduates who continued to work […]

By Ryoji Watanabe, News Writer, MC/MPA’12 On October 26 thousands of people, swinging colorful flags and following behind farming tractors, took to the streets of Tokyo to protest against the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement, a new free trade agreement negotiated among nine Asia-Pacific nations including the U.S. This populist movement was organized in anticipation of […]

By Alexander Remington, Culture Writer, MPP ‘13 On Friday, October 21, the Kennedy School Student Government hosted its first MPP1 Town Hall Meeting. The beginning of a planned series of student town halls, it was not particularly well attended. “I didn’t realize how crazy this week was going to be,” said one MPP1 class representative, […]

By Adrian Arroyo, Opinions Writer, MPP ‘13 Matthew Yglesias is a Fellow at the Center for American Progress Action Fund. He holds a BA in Philosophy from Harvard University. Matt has previously worked as an Associate Editor at The Atlantic, a Staff Writer at The American Prospect, and an Associate Editor at Talking Points Memo. […]

By Matt Bieber, Features Writer, MPP ’11 / MDiv ‘13 Ed Rendell served as mayor of Philadelphia, (1992-99) chairman of the Democratic National Committee, (1999-2001) and governor of Pennsylvania (2003-2011).   This interview took place on October 11 at the Institute of Politics.   MATT:             How does our political discourse today compare to when you […]

By Alexi White, Opinions Editor, MPP ‘13   It is often said that the HKS student body is not sufficiently diverse. But in the last few years, the Office of Admissions has been stepping up efforts to recruit a group of students that aren’t often considered in discussions of diversity: conservatives. Though the administration says […]