Teaching doesn’t stop mattering in graduate school: in the sixth episode of Season 2, the KSR podcast team examines issues of equity, identity, and representation within pedagogy and curriculum at the Harvard Kennedy School.
The previous episode in the Equity series discussed the demographics of tenured faculty at the Kennedy School; this time, we take the inquiry further into the classroom. Our team spoke with students about what it feels like to sit in the lecture hall as people of color; we also talked to professors about their responsibility to incorporate an attention to diversity into their teaching.
Just a few weeks after Governor Rick Snyder withdraws from a Fellowship at the Institute of Politics, this episode reflects on what is being taught at the Kennedy School and how.
https://soundcloud.com/harvardksr/episode-6-equity-in-pedagogy-and-curriculum-at-hks
Sophie Dover is entering the second year of her Master in Public Policy degree at HKS. Her work across public, private and non-profit sectors has focused on racial justice, economic equity, urban development and community health. While at the Kennedy School, she is exploring the ways to amplify the voices and lived experiences of marginalized groups at predominantly white, hierarchical institutions like Harvard.
Erica Licht has been engaged in social and racial equity research and training for the last decade. She is currently pursuing a Master in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School and prior served as Assistant Director at the Center on Culture, Race, and Equity at Bank Street College in New York City. Her career has focused on collaborative community and organizational programs, including consulting with the Center for Creative Leadership in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and as a Fulbright Scholar in Lagos, Nigeria. She holds a Masters in Justice Policy from the London School of Economics and a Bachelors in Africana Studies and Human Geography from Vassar College.
Tyra Walker is a second year Master in Public Policy student interested in social justice, social policy, and strategic communications. Prior to attending HKS, Tyra received her J.D. from Harvard Law School (‘18).
Teddy Svoronos is a Lecturer at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He teaches courses in statistics and econometrics for both MPP and MPA/ID students, and develops new digital and online teaching materials for the MPP program. In addition, Teddy has produced and taught several online modules for the Building Capacity to use Research Evidence (BCURE) project which have been used in India and Pakistan with the aim of enabling policymakers to effectively use evidence in decision making. A graduate of the Harvard PhD Program in Health Policy, Svoronos’ dissertation focused on the extent to which quasi-experimental designs can approximate the results of randomized trials. He has also conducted research on healthcare in sub-Saharan Africa, with a focus on the interaction between patient behavior and access to health services.
Phoenix McLaughlin is a first-year Master in Public Policy student at the Harvard Kennedy School interested in the development of rural areas. He worked in civil society grantmaking at the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington, D.C. before volunteering in India with the Central Tibetan Administration and Students for a Free Tibet for the year prior to joining HKS. He graduated from Colorado College and originally hails from Maine.
Prachi Naik is a former educator and Fulbright Scholar passionate about social justice, identity, and equity. She is completing a Master in Public Policy /Master in Business Administration dual degree at Harvard Kennedy School (’20) and University of Chicago Booth School of Business (’22) and plans to further her work in public education as an aspiring social entrepreneur.