Northern America

I consider the San Gabriel Valley (SGV) an Asian melting pot. Growing up here meant that you were surrounded by the best Asian food (you would know when it was really good if the restaurant took cash only), boba was life, and your parents were most likely immigrants. For me and my friends, being a child of immigrants entailed silently dealing with being interpreters for our parents. I can’t tell you the countless times my mom pushed the phone to my ear out of nowhere to carry on a conversation with the cable company or to translate school flyers, even when she always had the Korean-English dictionary on hand. As I grew older, translating written material got more complex.

Under the structures of white supremacy, the pandemic has unveiled the dehumanization of Asian folks in the US. For many of us who are members of Asian communities, these lived realities have existed since the arrival of Chinese laborers in the 1850s.[i] We went from “dog eaters” to “bat eaters”;[ii] we exist dually as model minorities and perpetual foreigners;[iii] we’re seen as apolitical, non-combative, and submissive, yet also as the threatening yellow peril;[iv] we’re fetishized yet desexualized;[v] weaponized to perpetuate anti-Blackness;[vi] and the list goes on.

We stand at a pivotal moment in our country’s history. Domestically, inflation is forcing Americans to stretch every last dollar to afford to put groceries on the table and fill up their cars. Globally, the United States must contend with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the rise of autocratic governments. In the face of these […]

In 2019, Zach Moore was a new software engineer at a San Francisco-based tech company. He showed up to work early, walked around the neighborhood, and cleared his head. Incarcerated at age 15, Zach learned how to quiet his mind while spending 22 years in prison. For decades, he worked on himself and helped others […]

In this article, Levi C. Bevis examines the impact of transgender healthcare bans on transgender youth and discusses how these bans negatively impact healthcare access for the broader public.

In this article, Nupur Sharma presents an overview of paid family leave laws in the United States and discusses why they should be advanced.

In this article, Marlee Stark argues that failing to frame reproductive rights as an economic issue jeopardizes widespread equitable economic growth.

In this article, Divya Jain presents the argument for compulsory comprehensive reproductive health education in US medical schools

On February 28, 2023, Ryan Zoellner sat down with Dr. Youssef Chahed (Former Prime Minister of Tunisia) to discuss world events and international relations.

Senior Fellow at HKS Belfer Center’s MEI, Ambassador Djerejian sat down with JMEPP editors Nick Vargish and Christian Allard on February 23, 2023 to discuss pressing issues in the Arab World and the prospects for the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

Note: This article is featured in the Kennedy School Review’s 2022 print journal. The War on Drugs and Violence in Latin America: Time to Hit Reset Latin America is the most violent region in the world, with only 8 percent of the global population accounting for 38 percent of the global share of murder. That […]

Summary Across the United States, many incarcerated people have inadequate access to menstrual products. Because policies that surround requiring access to menstrual products vary from state to state, incarcerated menstruators are denied “menstrual equity,” or sufficient access to menstrual products regardless of their circumstances.[1] One reason for the lack of inclusive policies regarding menstruation is […]