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Begin New Search Publishing Institution Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University Author Meg Murphy

1. The Secrets of Containment: Making the Invisible Visible

Author:
Meg Murphy
Publication Date:
02-2016
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University
Abstract:
Peter Galison, the Joseph Pellegrino University Professor at Harvard University, is fascinated by the “concrete visuals behind what might appear to be pure abstraction.” His new film Containment is about nuclear waste and its safekeeping for now and the next 10,000 years. The film is co-directed with Robb Moss, Harvard College Professor and chair of the Department of Visual and Environmental Studies, a friend with whom Galison also produced the documentary Secrecy, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2008. A historian of science and a physicist, Galison, the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation “Genius Grant,” is known for his keen investigations into the outer edge of physics and scientific experimentation. He spoke with the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, where he is a Faculty Associate, about the recurring concepts that drive his curiosity and the thought process that led to Containment.
Topic:
Science and Technology, Nuclear Waste, and Physics
Political Geography:
Global Focus

2. Research Spotlight: Beth A. Simmons

Author:
Meg Murphy
Publication Date:
03-2016
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University
Abstract:
The International Criminal Court is saving civilian lives in multiple countries, according to research that provides the first quantitative evidence. The study by professors at Harvard University and Texas A&M, which will be featured in the summer issue of the journal International Organization, has drawn widespread attention from people on either side of a polarized debate about the ICC’s role in international justice. Vocal critics have long claimed the ICC is an ineffective obstacle to peace processes while enthusiasts believe it useful in advancing global peace and security. The underlying question: is the ICC irreparably flawed or an institution worth investing in? Now researchers Beth A. Simmons and Hyeran Jo have contributed a systematic study that can impartially inform this pressing debate in international affairs.
Topic:
United Nations, Legal Theory, Peace, and International Criminal Court (ICC)
Political Geography:
Global Focus

3. Bridging Theory and Practice: A Life in the Field

Author:
Meg Murphy
Publication Date:
03-2016
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University
Abstract:
During the turmoil in Uganda after the fall of repressive leader Idi Amin Dada, political scientist Robert Bates was in the field. At the time, he was widely known for his astute public policy analysis of agricultural decline in Africa. His war zone experience led to the great concern of the latter part of his career—the study of political violence. Now one of his books on the subject, When Things Fell Apart: State Failure in Late-Century Africa, is being published by the Cambridge University Press. It was selected for the Canto Classics series, which features the most influential titles over the past half-century. With the inclusion, Bates joins intellects such as literary critic C.S. Lewis, Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger, and British anthropologist Jack Goody. For Bates, the Eaton Professor of the Science of Government and professor of African and African American studies at Harvard and a Faculty Associate at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, a deep commitment to fieldwork has been paramount. On his office door there’s a picture of Bates, long white beard and Panama hat, looking, as he does, like a restless scholar ready to set out on expedition.
Topic:
Agriculture, Violence, political warfare, and Socioeconomics
Political Geography:
Kenya, Africa, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Ghana

4. Coming of Age, Setting a Goal

Author:
Meg Murphy
Publication Date:
04-2016
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University
Abstract:
Hanna Amanuel knows something about dignity. Even as a child in the Bronx, she saw it in places others did not—the bravery of new immigrants; the potential in low-income grade schoolers of color who, like her, were often underestimated; and in her mother, a proud woman from the Horn of Africa. Amanuel will graduate in May. With her sharp intelligence, a Harvard degree and the future it implies might seem to have been a given; an accomplishment, yes, but not an unusual one. That is not the case. She got here because mentors of color drew her onto a path that included competitive private schools, role models, and the reassurance that she too could succeed.
Topic:
Education, Diversity, Higher Education, and Socioeconomics
Political Geography:
North America and Untied St

5. On Love and Metamorphosis

Author:
Meg Murphy
Publication Date:
04-2016
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University
Abstract:
Andrea Ortiz went down to the Charles River on the afternoon that she—victoriously—submitted her senior thesis. There she was, a girl born in Mexico City, an immigrant raised in Miami, a bright light, the first in her family line to get to Harvard. Yet she felt a wave of sadness, and that, she reasoned, made no sense. So she sat by the river to think until it came to her: this was yearning. “You never accomplish anything alone. I was feeling the absence of the people who were most influential in getting me to this point,” she said later. “I wished they could be here too.” Her grandmother is one of those people. She is a woman who created her own philosophy and humanities class in Mexico City for people, like herself at the time, without access to a college education. Later in rural Comitán de Dominguez, where Ortiz spent childhood summers, her grandmother mail-ordered hundreds of books. The family home became an informal library for rural housewives.
Topic:
Poverty, Social Services, Community, and Housing
Political Geography:
United States and North America

6. A Life’s Work Battling Religious Illiteracy

Author:
Meg Murphy
Publication Date:
11-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University
Abstract:
As prejudice toward Muslim Americans heightens, a Harvard professor welcomes the Aga Khan, spiritual leader of Shia Ismaili Muslims, and a champion of pluralism
Topic:
Religion, Pluralism, Faith, and Literacy
Political Geography:
Middle East

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