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Venezuela: Migrant crisis, integration, and opportunities; by Iván Duque Márquez

03.31.20

This article will appear in the forthcoming Spring 2020 edition of the Latin America Policy Journal to be released in April 2020. The original version of the article can be seen here. Latin America has faced significant challenges and has always found ways to get ahead. The potential of Latin American countries is great and […]

Op-Ed: To effectively combat COVID-19, Africa needs to play offense

03.30.20

I am worried about Africa’s preparedness for the COVID-19 outbreak, and so should everybody else. As at the beginning of March, there were only four cases in Africa spread across Egypt, Algeria and Nigeria. Since then, at least 46 out of 54 countries in Africa have reported cases of COVID-19. On March 28 2020, roughly four […]

Health

The Silence that Announces the End of our Time at HKS

03.28.20

Photo Credit: Kristina B Amid the eerie silence that is our new normal in the time of coronavirus, there is one sound I long to hear: bagpipes. The last day of our mid-career MPA summer program was a hot summer day in August, and our cohort had gathered in the Forum. “This is your time,” […]

Citizenship in Crisis

03.28.20

What happens to citizenship when crisis disrupts the state’s ability to fulfil its obligations to its citizens, or when citizens find themselves unable to depend on their states for a meaningful guarantee of protection in times of need? Using the emergent COVID-19 pandemic as a lens, Theophilus Kwek considers how states, including Singapore, can do better in caring equally for their citizens – and how citizens can also support each other.

Health

Politicians Are Taking Advantage of Anti-Chinese Sentiments for Electoral Purposes

03.26.20

China’s entanglement in the domestic politics of other countries has resulted in rising anti-Chinese sentiments, especially during times when countries hold elections. Given its timeliness, politicians have used people’s frustration with China’s exploitation of their nation as a talking point to gain electoral support. Anti-Chinese sentiments can be attributed to several factors that include investment, […]

Blood Donation: You Don’t Need to Be a Healthcare Worker to Save a Life in the Time of Coronavirus

03.26.20

Photo Credit: Canadian Blood Services How we can all support the healthcare system through this crisis In surgical residency, I find that after 2:00am I tended to have less patience. Sipping lukewarm coffee, I click the refresh button on the screen more often than was probably reasonable, hoping the results will appear. In these early […]

Jeffrey Seglin: From Here On In, I Rag Nobody

03.24.20

Nearly as soon as the announcements began that many college classes were going to be moving from in-person to online for the rest of the semester to increase social distancing and ideally lessen the spread of COVID-19, the tweets, memes and social media posts began. The student variety poked fun at teachers clumsy with technology. […]

COVID-19 will shape the way we think about public policy forever

03.16.20

Today, the first day of spring break, was always going to be a change from our HKS routines – whether we were going home to family, across the world on treks, or enjoying a “staycation” in Cambridge.  But over the past week, COVID-19 has changed our lives drastically, in ways we could have scarcely imagined.  […]

An Interview with Robyn Ochs

03.11.20

Robyn Ochs is an educator, speaker, grassroots activist, writer, and editor of Bi Women Quarterly. She has served on the board of MassEquality, and on the Massachusetts Commission on LGBTQ Youth. She was named by Teen Vogue as one of “9 Bisexual Women Who are Making History,” and she was chosen to represent Massachusetts on the Advocate’s “50 States, 50 Heroes” […]

Gender, Race and Identity

Citizens of HKS: Djosa d’Simao, a.k.a. Lima

03.6.20

Djosa, a member of the Custodial staff at the Kennedy School, is a former government official from Cape Verde, a star footballer and sports fan, married to Gilda who works in the cafeteria, and possibly the friendliest face at HKS.  Can you tell us about yourself? I’m from Cape Verde. I came to America in […]

Il/licit Intimacies: Why The State Regulates FDW’s Intimate Lives

03.5.20

In Singapore, foreign domestic workers (FDWs) on Work Permits are subject to various bio-political restrictions: namely, restrictions that govern who they can marry and whether they can be pregnant.

What explains these restrictions, and why is the state so invested in policing the private intimacies of foreign domestic workers? Poh Yong Han traces through parliamentary debates and newspaper articles to show how these restrictions are informed by a neoliberal philosophy that informs how we view citizenship, and unpacks its consequences.

Solitary Confinement is Torture, Not Protection

03.5.20

  Ellie,[1] a young trans woman from Central America, sits across a small table from me in blue men’s scrubs, hair cut short and eyes downcast. It’s taken hours to shuffle her from the solitary confinement unit to this cold, windowless room, where I am to help her prepare her pro se asylum case. She’s […]

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