Kennedy School Review

BY AMANDA HALLOCK Philip Alston, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, spent 2017 investigating an unexpected country: the United States. The United States takes great pride in its governmental, economic, and social progress and even provides aid all around the world. So, when the U.N. report on Extreme Poverty and […]

BY JILLIAN RAFFERTY “Are you aware of the charges brought against you?” “Yes.” “Do you wish to plead guilty or not guilty?” “Guilty.” “Do you wish to make a statement at this time?” “Yes. I want to speak to my people and to my family. I am Muslim. I admit to these crimes. Al Qaeda […]

BY STEVEN OLENDER When a man promised to love and take care of ten-year-old Withelma “T” Ortiz Walker Pettigrew, she thought her luck had finally changed. Born to drug-addicted parents, T spent her life bouncing in and out of foster care. In ten short years, she lived through 14 placements; several unsuccessful returns home; and […]

BY ALLIE DICHIARA Over one million women demographically go “missing” each year around the world as a result of sex-selective abortion and female infanticide. This trend is especially prevalent in India—a recent report by the Asian Centre for Human Rights found that India’s sex ratio was one of the most skewed in the world,[1] and […]

Our lawmakers are blundering their way through the challenges of the digital era. It’s time to elevate the standard of debate. BY ISABELLA BORSHOFF On December 6, the last sitting day before the Australian parliament’s Christmas break, lawmakers from both major parties united to pass the Assistance and Access Bill 2018. In doing so, they […]

BY PRIYANKA KAURA I talked about affirmative action way more than I planned to this fall, and I’m not going to stop. It began as a reaction to the divisive Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard lawsuit, in which a group of Asian Americans led by Edward Blum claimed that Harvard’s admissions process is  discriminatory. […]

Behavioral science techniques that engage non-activists are the next frontier in voter turnout BY ROBERT REYNOLDS AND DEV CHANDRA A few days before last November’s midterm election, a Texan named Martina received a text message asking her to remind three friends to vote. Martina isn’t an activist. Rather, she was targeted precisely because predictive data […]

BY: BEN MCGUIRE Carey Dean Moore was dying. As a lethal dose of the synthetic opioid fentanyl seeped into his bloodstream, witnesses reported that he “breathed heavily and gradually turned red and then purple” before finally departing. In passing, Moore joined hundreds of thousands of Americans who have succumbed to drugs like fentanyl in the […]

BY AMANDA MATOS Womanhood is not a monolith, and yet policy makers—and the legislation they champion—treat women as if they are all of one race, class, and sexual identity. While political, public rhetoric around women’s empowerment may rally the masses, it also projects a naïve idea that all women’s experiences are the same. True solidarity […]

BY TAHRA GORAYA It is a great victory for American democracy to have an unprecedented number of women and people of color join the ranks of the 116th Congress. The newly elected members are diverse ethnically, religiously, socially, professionally, geographically, sexually, and politically. While much has been written about these amazing individuals, recent headlines have centered […]

An Iranian Revolutionary Guard parade in Ahwaz, the capital of the Khuzestan province of Iran, ended in chaos in September when four gunmen opened fire on an assembled crowd of troops, civilians and children. Assailants dressed in military garb killed at least 25 people and wounded about 60 more at the parade that was meant […]

BY HANNAH MASUGA Data-driven policymaking is widely touted as the best way to improve government, but it also poses a threat to our fundamental freedoms. It’s true that research intended to drive more efficient and effective programming provides important insights into how society functions. The danger comes from leveraging technology to implement our findings. This […]