Formerly an authoritarian state, Indonesia has made impressive gains over the last 10 years as the world’s first majority Muslim, multi-party democracy. The country’s successes and challenges as a new democracy are the subject of the new report titled “From Reformasi to Institutional Transformation: A Strategic Assessment of Indonesia’s Prospects for Growth, Equity, and Democratic…

Today the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University announced its student and executive fellows to the 2010-2011 academic year. The Center welcomes its inaugural Democracy Fellow, five Ford Foundation Mason Fellows, two Roy and Lila Ash Fellows in Democracy, and 19 Rajawali Foundation…

Whether graduate students need research guidance, help locating and accessing resources online, materials for teaching classes, or even library materials scanned and delivered to them electronically, Harvard librarians can help. That was the message delivered over and over again – through speakers, informal conversations with librarians and current graduate students and information stations – to…

The typical summer school is often considered a one-way street. Teachers teach and students learn. However, as the following video shows, the Cambridge Harvard Summer Academy is a different breed of summer school. The six-week program brings together the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School and the Harvard Graduate School of Education to provide remedial and…

Transforming the U.S. health care system from paper-based to electronic-based may improve health care quality and reduce costs, but a new study in Health Affairs by researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) suggests that goal is far off. The adoption of basic or comprehensive electronic health records (EHR) by U.S. hospitals increased…

A former United Nations Assistant Secretary General and a former economic adviser to President Toledo of Peru are among the incoming visitors being welcomed this fall at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government (M-RCBG) at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. “Fellows and scholars are a vital resource at the…

Faculty from the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) are definitely ready for their close-ups. Researchers will appear on the national cable channel The Food Network, and on local favorite, the New England Sports Network (NESN), in August and September. Food Challenge (Food Network) Kit Parker, Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering, will appear…

The American Repertory Theater’s upcoming production of Cabaret has inspired The Brattle Theatre to present a film series this weekend that are connected to the Kander and Ebb musical Cabaret based on the stories by Christopher Isherwood.  The A.R.T. production (featuring Dresden Doll Amanda Palmer) opens on August 31st and runs through October 29. The films…

The fourth annual survey conducted by Harvard’s Program on Education Policy and Governance (PEPG) and Education Next on a wide range of education issues released today reveals that the broader public and teachers are markedly divided in their support for merit pay, teacher tenure and Race to the Top (RttT). The poll provides strong evidence…

The Film Study Center is pleased to announce that FSC-Harvard fellows Verena Paravel and J.P. Sniadecki have been awarded the Pardo for Best First Feature and the Special CINÉ CINÉMA Jury Prize for their “vilm” (video-film) Foreign Parts at the 63rd annual Locarno Film Festival. Raised in North and West Africa and the South of…

The Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) is pleased to present the kick-off event to the Science & Cooking public lectures series on Tuesday, September 7, 2010. The lecture series, which coincides with the new General Education course, “Science and Cooking: From Haute Cuisine to the Science of Soft Matter,” will feature some…

Archaeologist Adrian Staehli, whose work has challenged conventional interpretations of nudity and the human body in ancient Greek and Roman art, has been named James Loeb Professor of Classical Archaeology at Harvard University, effective Jan. 1, 2011. Staehli is currently lecturer and associate professor in the Archäologisches Institut at Universität Zürich, where he has been…

As a novelist, literary theorist, journalist and philosopher, Maurice Blanchot (1907–2003) had a profound impact on the thinking of dozens of philosophers, novelists, and writers. Until recently, however, it remained unclear how Blanchot’s thinking had evolved over his lifetime. A famously reclusive figure in the literary world, it was believed Blanchot had destroyed most of…

Artist, scientist, physician, Harvard professor, psychologist, psychic investigator, philosopher — William James explored multiple vocations in his life-long quest for intellectual clarity and spiritual fulfillment. A new online exhibition launched by Harvard College Library, “ ‘Life is in the transitions’: William James 1842-1910,” offers viewers the chance to trace James’ search through more than 90…

As the Ash Center’s Ford Foundation Professor of Democracy and Citizenship Archon Fung spends his time thinking about the impacts of civic participation, public deliberation, and transparency upon public and private governance. Now, he is turning research into action by actively promoting citizen participation with his new website, Participedia. Developed with Mark Warren of the…