GENDER, RACE & IDENTITY
Honoring the legacy of a Black civil rights icon
Harvard celebrated the 150th anniversary of the birth of civil rights pioneer William Monroe Trotter with a two-day convening dedicated to social justice. Trotter was among the first Black Harvard College graduates and his legacy inspired the work of the William Monroe Trotter Collaborative for Social Justice at Harvard Kennedy School. HKS students involved with the Trotter Collaborative are on the frontlines of initiatives that echo Trotter’s many campaigns against racism, said the collaborative’s founder, Professor Cornell William Brooks. “We have our students, who are working on climate change, who are digging into the policy minutia, the legal minutia, looking at what it takes to get a bill through legislation,” Brooks said. “We have students working with mayors on policing issues asking what constitutional policing means.” | | | |
DECISION MAKING & NEGOTIATION
Difficult discussions are possible … and worth it
In a Kennedy School event on having difficult conversations—the second in a series focused on democracy, dialogue, and division—faculty panelists Arthur Brooks, Cornell William Brooks, Archon Fung, and Julia Minson each brought their expertise to the discussion, which focused on ways to define the problem and identify better approaches. Minson, a behavioral scientist, suggested that “we have the wrong mental model about what these conversations are and what these conversations are likely to be.” She said, “So, when we call them ‘difficult,’ we've already embraced the idea that it’s going be difficult.” Fung, who studies democratic governance, argued that “the basic problem is that people aren't engaging” with other people with whom they disagree. “The American democracy version of the problem is that each side would rather win than abide by the results of the democratic process,” he said. Cornell Brooks said that, in his classroom, he reminds everyone that the conversations are held in a community of accountability, where each person is committed to one another. “This expands the conversation in ways that uplift people,” he said. Arthur Brooks recommended embracing the model of persuasion over coercion. “Persuasion is really the fruit of enlightenment,” he said. | | | |
WHAT WE'RE Reading
Harvard Magazine explores how Professor David Deming’s Project on Workforce is tackling the problem of upward mobility. | | | | | |
HEALTH
How do hospital closures in the United States impact patient care?
COVID-19 has sent hospitals reeling, posing a significant challenge for patient care. In a recent Q&A, Associate Professor of Public Policy Soroush Saghafian talked about the impact of hospital closures and what policymakers can do to help keep the doors open for some of America’s most at-risk hospitals. With hospital closures in the United States accelerating in recent years, Saghafian, along with his former PhD student Lina Song, who is now an assistant professor at the University College London School of Management, and Dr. Ali Raja from Massachusetts General Hospital, analyze the concerning trend in an article in the journal Health Care Management Science. The trio lay out a series of recommendations for policymakers to mitigate the challenges that these closures pose for patients and the healthcare system in general. Saghafian’s research actively informs hospitals on how to improve their operational efficiency, patient flow, medical decision-making, and, more broadly, healthcare delivery policies. | | | |
POVERTY, INEQUALITY & OPPORTUNITY
Climate change exacerbates weather events—but also racial inequities.
Climate change can be multiplier for racial inequities ranging from economic to social to health, said members of a recent panel convened by the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation. The discussion, moderated by Megan Hill, director of the Honoring Nations program at Harvard and the program director of the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development, focused on how climate justice and racial justice are inextricably linked and how listening to and learning from people of color and Indigenous people is critical to tackling both problems. One example cited during the discussion was the current megadrought in the American Southwest, which has left Lake Mead, the country’s largest reservoir, just 35% full. Panelist and Gila River Indian Community Governor Stephen Roe Lewis MPA 2006 said that the drought, which scientists have linked to man-made climate change, is robbing his community of a vital natural and cultural resource. | | | |
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