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A Horrible Idea: Trump’s Push for Stop-and-Frisk Nationwide

October 6, 2016

Moyers & company | Before stop-and-frisk was ruled unconstitutional in New York City, historian Khalil Gibran Muhammad spoke out about a program he called an “enduring form of surveillance and racial control.” Interview with Khalil Gibran Muhammad, Professor of History, Race, and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School [text and video].



A hearing for pleas to right wrongs: Project seeks to digitize Native American petitions

February 19, 2016

Harvard Gazette |Spotlights new project led by Daniel Carpenter, Allie S. Freed Professor of Government and director of the Radcliffe Institute's social sciences program.... Read more about A hearing for pleas to right wrongs: Project seeks to digitize Native American petitions



A Harvard study identified the precise reason protests are an effective way to cause political change

February 3, 2017

Quartz | Political protests in the first days of the Trump administration generate new interest in a study by Daniel Shoag (Ph.D.'11), Associate Professor at the Harvard Kennedy School, and colleagues Andreas Madestam (Stockholm University), Stan Veuger (American Enterprise Institute), and David Yanagizawa-Drott (University of Zurich). The study, published in the Quarterly Journal of Economics in November 2013, seeks to determine whether protests actually cause political change, or whether they are "merely symptoms of underlying shifts in policy preferences."
View the research

Also cited: Theda Skocpol and Vanessa Williamson's book, The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism (Oxford University Press, 2012). Theda Skocpol is the Victor S. Thomas Professor of Governmant and Sociology at Harvard. Vanessa S. Williamson (Ph.D. '15) is  a fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution.



A Harvard Sociologist on Watching Families Lose Their Homes

February 19, 2016

The New York Times | Matthew Desmond, John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences, and his new book, Evicted.



A Harvard discussion series highlights the concerns of DACA students

February 23, 2018

Harvard Gazette | Interview with HGSE Professor Roberto Gonzales, one of the organizers of the DACA seminar at Harvard, a series of events exploring questions about the termination of DACA and TPS, deportations, and the current state of immigration policy.



A Guide to Solving Social Problems with Machine Learning

December 8, 2016

Harvard Business Review | By Jon Kleinberg (Cornell), Jens Ludwig (University of Chicago), and Sendhil Mullainathan (Robert C. Waggoner Professor of Economics, Harvard University). "[As] with all new 'products', there is potential for misuse. How can we maximize the benefits while minimizing the harm?"

"In applying these tools the last few years, we have focused on exactly this question. We have learned that some of the most important challenges fall within the cracks between the discipline that builds algorithms (computer science) and the disciplines that typically work on solving policy problems (such as economics and statistics). As a result, few of these key challenges are even on anyone’s radar screen. The good news is that many of these challenges, once recognized, are fairly straightforward to solve."



A guide to rebuilding the Democratic Party, from the ground up

January 5, 2017

Vox | By Theda Skocpol, Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology. The key priority for progressives should be strengthening the Democratic Party at state and local levels, argues political scientist Theda Skocpol.

"Anti-institutional tendencies in today’s culture make the idea of dismantling the existing order attractive to many people. But social science research has long shown that majorities need strong organizations to prevail against wealthy conservative interests in democracies. The real problem in US politics today is hardly too much unified organizational heft on the center left; it is too little. Unless the Democratic Party becomes stronger and more effective, a radicalized Republican-conservative juggernaut is likely to take over for decades."



A Globetrotting Filmmaker, Seeking Answers About Our Urban Future

January 6, 2017

The Atlantic—CityLab | Oscar Boyson’s documentary, The Future of Cities, is a jet-setting look at problems and solutions in cities centers across the world. The 18-minute film, which features Harvard's Edward L. Glaeser, Fred and Eleanor Glimp Professor of Economics, accompanies the article.



A fascinating color-coded map of every job in America

July 29, 2015

Vox | Robert Manduca, Ph.D. student in Sociology & Social Policy



A Family-Friendly Policy that's Friendliest to Male Professors

June 24, 2016

The New York Times | By Justin Wolfers (Ph.D. '01), University of Michigan. "Economics remains a male-dominated field, and the research shows that policies fueled by the best intentions of universities have made an imbalance worse," writes Wolfers. "Three female economists have shown that the tools of economics...suggest that a more nuanced policy would lead to better outcomes. It leaves me wondering how many other policy mistakes we could avoid, if only we had more female economists."

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