Contemporary identity politics often presents contradictions between the leaders from marginalized groups and the people they claim to represent. A visiting scholar unpacks this phenomenon, starting with a popular Netflix series.
People aged sixty-five and older make up the fastest growing population around the world, posing unique challenges to societies. A Harvard initiative called Social Technology for Global Aging Research is founded on the belief that there’s a great...
A close look at Harvard’s complex relationship to an ancient Indigenous monument.
Although the rules of entry and exit are quite nebulous, states get both real and perceived benefits from joining international organizations.
Massachusetts has long been a welcoming state to immigrants and migrant families. In the summer of 2023, its one-of-a-kind “right to shelter” law was put to the test when emergency shelters reached capacity. It was called a humanitarian crisis, and images...
As urbanization and climate change impacts converge, local governments need a range of innovations to mitigate suffering, especially in the cities of South Asia. Rajshahi city in Bangladesh has taken promising steps.
The US student protest movement against the conflict between Israel and Gaza draws on tactics and symbolism from past protests, some of which were contentious yet successful. Daniel Manulak looks back at the student-led anti-apartheid movement.
Social media can sway political opinion, and it can also cross a line. Hadas Zur closely examines a neighborhood case where politics and violence become intertwined and are propagated by social media.
Content warning: some of the images in this post show...
In her new book, Amy Austin Holmes recounts how a multiethnic coalition stopped a genocide, defied Bashar al-Assad, and then created a statelet to govern their region.
One room. One locked-down camera. One roll of film. A group of famous directors from the 1960s took the challenge: they would make a short film with these parameters plus one more—their dialogue must include the sentence “I Miss Sonia Henie.” The result...
Evangelicalism and feminism come together in a movement that challenges patriarchy while still claiming Christian values. Graduate Student Affiliate Kelsey Hanson Woodruff introduces us to leaders of a digital Christian feminist community.
We don’t think about commodities very much. They’re all around us: cotton, sugar, oil, gas, chickens, cattle, and so many other things we take for granted. But a closer look at the history of commodities tells a revealing story about the expansion of...