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PROFESSOR GRAHAM ALLISON

Graham Allison is Director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and Douglas Dillon Professor of Government at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government. As "Founding Dean" of the modern Kennedy School, under his leadership, from 1977 to 1989, a small, undefined program grew twenty-fold to become a major professional school of public policy and government. Dr. Allison has served as Special Advisor to the Secretary of Defense under President Reagan.  He has the sole distinction of having twice been awarded the Department of Defense's highest civilian award, the Distinguished Public Service Medal, first by Secretary Cap Weinberger and second by Secretary Bill Perry. He served as a member of the Defense Policy Board for Secretaries Weinberger, Carlucci, Cheney, Aspin, Perry and Cohen.  Dr. Allison's first book, Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis (1971), was released in an updated and revised second edition (1999) and ranks among the bestsellers in 20th century political science with more than 400,000 copies in print. His latest book, Nuclear Terrorism: The Ultimate Preventable Catastrophe, is now in its third printing and was selected by the New York Times as one of the "100 most notable books of 2004."

Research Assistant Skills: Applicants should have some knowledge on international affairs, be focused, quick to find articles, and extract key propositions. The Research Assistant will assist the Director of the Belfer Center in conducting in-depth research on central challenges in US foreign policy today, with an emphasis on nuclear nonproliferation.

PROFESSOR MATTHEW BAUM
Matthew A. Baum is the Marvin Kalb Professor of Global Communications and Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. His research focuses on delineating the effects of domestic politics on international conflict and cooperation in general and American foreign policy in particular, as well as on the role of the mass media and public opinion in contemporary American politics. His research has appeared in over a dozen leading scholarly journals, such as the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, and the Journal of Politics. His books include Soft News Goes to War: Public Opinion and American Foreign Policy in the New Media Age and War Stories: The Causes and Consequences of Public Views of War (Forthcoming 2009, Princeton University Press). He has also contributed op-ed articles to a variety of newspapers and magazines in the United States and abroad. Before coming to Harvard, Baum was an associate professor of political science and communication studies at UCLA. He received his PhD in political science at UC San Diego in 2000.

Research Assistant Skills: Professor Baum’s research assistant should feel comfortable working with databases, excel spreadsheets, statistical software (particularly state), and media content analysis. Over spring semester, Baum will be working on news content analysis of recent multinational conflicts (Iraq, Afghanistan, and Kosovo). He may also be doing some qualitative research into the political dynamics surrounding the conflict story in several countries. For that, good library/research skills would be helpful.


PROFESSOR JACQUELINE BHABHA
Jacqueline Bhabha is the Jeremiah Smith Jr. Lecturer in Law at Harvard Law School, the Director of the Harvard University Committee on Human Rights Studies, and a Lecturer in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. From 1997 to 2001, she directed the Human Rights Program at the University of Chicago. Prior to 1997, she was a practicing human rights lawyer in London and at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. She received a first class honours degree and an MSc from Oxford University and a JD from the College of Law in London. Her writings on issues of migration and asylum in Europe and the United States include a coauthored book, Women's Movement: Women Under Immigration, Nationality and Refugee Law (1994), an edited volume, Asylum Law And Practice in Europe and North America (1992), and many articles, including Get Back to Where You Once Belonged: Identity, Citizenship and Exclusion in Europe (1998), Internationalist Gatekeepers? The tension between asylum advocacy and human rights (2002), and The Citizenship Deficit: On Being a Citizen Child (2003). She will be working on her book on child migration in the spring.

Research Assistant Skills: Excellent research skills are key - being able to help with web based research, editing and footnote clean up.

PROFESSOR DAVID GERGEN
David R. Gergen is a Professor of Public Service and Director of the Center for Public Leadership. Over the past three decades, he has served as a White House advisor to four presidents: Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Clinton. In the mid-1980s, he began a career in journalism, becoming editor of U.S. News & World Report. He joined the Kennedy School faculty in January 1999, while remaining editor at large for U.S. News and a frequent television analyst. In the fall of 2000 he published a best-seller, Eyewitness to Power: The Essence of Leadership, Nixon to Clinton. He also chairs the National Selection Committee for the Innovations in American Government program. He is a graduate of Yale University and Harvard Law School and holds 13 honorary degrees. He served three and one-half years in the Navy and is a member of the Washington, DC, Bar. His wife, Anne, is a family therapist in Cambridge.

Research Assistant Skills: David Gergen is currently working on a book about the Obama administration.  Applicants should possess strong library and research skills; have some knowledge of presidential history; be well organized and pro-active about maintaining contact.  In addition to research for the book and prep for Professor Gergen's CNN appearances, applicants may also participate in building a stronger online presence.  Teamwork skills and sense of humor are a must.


PROFESSOR REMA HANNA
Rema Hanna is an Assistant Professor of Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. Hanna is an NBER Research Associate, an affiliate of the Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development (BREAD), and an affiliate at the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab. Her research focuses on understanding how to improve the provision of public services in developing countries. She is currently working on a project to measure discrimination in education in India, and also analyzing data from a field experiment that assessed the efficacy of various targeting methodologies for social safety net programs. Prior to joining the Kennedy School, Hanna was an assistant professor of public policy and economics at New York University. She holds a PhD in Economics from MIT and a BS from Cornell University.

Research Assistant Skills: Rema Hanna is currently working a number of field projects in India and Indonesia.   The projects tend to deal with the provision of public services in developing countries, e.g. how to target the poor in social welfare programs, are clean air policies working, etc.  Tasks might include basic literature reviews, writing, and paper editing. Background in economics is a must, and experience in international development helpful.  Must have good writing skills, and be willing to learn.  Should be detail-oriented, flexible, and dependable.


PROFESSOR ELAINE KAMARCK
Elaine C. Kamarck is a Lecturer in Public Policy who came to the Kennedy School in 1997 after a career in politics and government. In the 1980s, she was one of the founders of the New Democrat movement that helped elect Bill Clinton president. She served in the White House from 1993 to 1997, where she created and managed the Clinton administration's National Performance Review, also known as reinventing government. At the Kennedy School she served as Director of Visions of Governance for the Twenty-First Century and as Faculty Advisor to the Innovations in American Government Awards Program. In 2000, she took a leave of absence to work as Senior Policy Advisor to the Al Gore presidential campaign. She conducts research on American politics, 21st century government, and governmental reform and innovation. She is author of The End of Government as We Know It. Kamarck received her PhD in political science from the University of California, Berkeley.

Research Assistant Skills: Doctor Kamarck will be conducting some research on the politics of American public policy.  She will be putting together case studies and will need someone who is comfortable researching public opinion polls, and who can do a little historical research as well.  This research should end up in another book.


PROFESSOR ALEX KEYSSAR
Alexander Keyssar is the Matthew W. Stirling Jr. Professor of History and Social Policy. An historian by training, he has specialized in the excavation of issues that have contemporary policy implications. His 1986 book, Out of Work: The First Century of Unemployment in Massachusetts, was awarded three scholarly prizes. His most recent book, The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States (2000), was named the best book in U.S. history by both the American Historical Association and the Historical Society; it was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the Los Angeles Times Book Award.   A new and significantly updated version of The Right to Vote, was published this summer, and extends the narrative from the 2000 election through the election of Barack Obama.   Keyssar is coauthor of Inventing America, a text integrating the history of technology and science into the mainstream of American history, as well as coeditor of a series on Comparative and International Working-Class History. He is also a co-author of The Way of the Ship (2008), an exploration of America’s maritime history.  In 2004/5, Keyssar chaired the Social Science Research Council's National Research Commission on Voting and Elections. Keyssar's current research interests include election reform, the history of democracies, and the history of poverty.

Research Assistant Skills: Research Assistant will work on historical projects, focused on the history of campaign finance reform practices and law.  Assistant should have strong library and research skills; be well organized and have some knowledge of U.S. History, and be pro-active about maintaining contact.


PROFESSOR ASIM IJAZ KHWAJA
Asim Ijaz Khwaja is Associate Professor of Public Policy. His areas of interest include economic development, corporate finance, education, political economy, industrial organization, contract theory, mechanism design, and computational economics. Combining fieldwork, micro-level empirical analysis, and theory, his recent work ranges from understanding political and informational constraints in emerging financial markets to examining the private education market in low-income countries. He received BS degrees in economics and in mathematics with computer science from MIT and a PhD in economics from Harvard. A Pakistani citizen, Khwaja was born in London, U.K., lived for eight years in Kano, Nigeria, the next eight in Lahore, Pakistan, and the current eight-plus years in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He continues to enjoy interacting with people around the globe.

Research Assistant Skills: One project involves working on the LEAPS (Learning and Achievement in Punjab Schools) education project, an ongoing study of public and private primary education in Pakistan. After conducting multiple interventions, we now have four rounds of detailed school, household, and teacher surveys. The project is designed to shed light on the rapid rise of private schools in Pakistan and what this growth implies for the provision of education. This is an ideal position for undergraduate students with quantitative experience and interests in international development and/or microeconomics. Also, more generally this position could potentially assist with the research activities of the Micro-Development Initiative at CID, which runs numerous projects on the topics of governance and effective service delivery to the poor. Quantitative skills and proficiency in STATA preferred, background in statistics or economics extremely helpful. Must have good writing skills and the ability to communicate effectively. Should be eager, organized, dependable and flexible.


NATIONAL SECURITY PROGRAM DIRECTOR TAD OELSTROM
General Tad Oelstrom is a lecturer at the Kennedy School of Government.  Research interests are associated with ongoing Executive Education programs and international security issues.  More specifically, current programs are oriented towards building trust and cooperation with Eurasian countries – extending from Eastern Europe to China.  Common themes in all programs are security issues that either bring countries together because of common ground or separate them because of disagreements.  Interest is to build both bi-lateral and regional approaches to make the world more secure.

Research Assistant Skills:  Desire to understand international relations and those security issues most critical to national survival.  Most work would be associated with preparing for spring programs first with Russian general officers and second with countries of the greater Black Sea region.  Russian language skills would be most helpful, but not required.  Online research is needed.  Would provide opportunity for student to interact with program participants and to audit some of the academic presentations.


PROFESSOR ROHINI PANDE
Rohini Pande is Mohamed Kamal Professor of Public Policy. Prior to joining the Kennedy School she was an Associate Professor of Economics at Yale University. She has taught at Yale University, MIT, and Columbia. Her research focuses on the economic analysis of the politics and consequences of different forms of redistribution, principally in developing countries. A Rhodes Scholar, she is the recipient of several NSF grants, the Russell Sage Presidential Award (with Lena Edlund), and the Royal Economic Society Junior Research Fellowship. She holds a PhD and MSc in economics from the London School of Economics, an MA in philosophy, politics, and economics from Oxford, and a BA in economics from St. Stephens College, Delhi University.

Research Assistant Skills: Rohini Pande is working on a variety of projects on microfinance, governance and effective service delivery to the poor, as the lead researcher at the Micro-Development Initiative at the Center for International Development at the Kennedy School.  In particular, the projects use a randomized control trial design to evaluate the impact of various interventions. Tasks for a research assistant might include cleaning and performing preliminary analysis on incoming data and writing memos about the results. Quantitative skills and proficiency in STATA preferred background in economics or experience with international development helpful. Must have good communication skills and be willing to learn. Should be dependable, detail-oriented, and flexible.


PROFESSOR ROGER PORTER
Roger B. Porter is IBM Professor of Business and Government. Joining the KSG faculty in 1977, he has served for more than a decade in senior economic policy positions in the White House, most recently as Assistant to the President for Economic and Domestic Policy from 1989 to 1993. He served as Director of the White House Office of Policy Development in the Reagan Administration and as Executive Secretary of the President's Economic Policy Board during the Ford Administration. He is the author of several books on economic policy, including Presidential Decision Making and Efficiency, Equity and Legitimacy: The Multilateral Trading System at the Millennium. An alumnus of Brigham Young University, Porter was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, where he received his BPhil degree. He was a White House Fellow from 1974 to 1975 and received his MA and PhD degrees from Harvard University.

Research Assistant Skills:  (1) good writing and editing skills, (2) an ability to undertake research in libraries and on the internet; and (3) an interest in developing hypotheses and testing them.”


IOP DIRECTOR, MAYOR BILL PURCELL
IOP Director, Mayor Bill Purcell is the Director of Harvard’s Institute of Politics at the John F. Kennedy School of Government.  Purcell has spent more than 30 years in public service, law and higher education. During his eight-year tenure as mayor of Nashville (1999-2007) the city saw unprecedented economic expansion, an increase in Metro school funding of more than 50 percent, and the development of more than 26,000 affordable housing units. His accomplishments as a civic leader earned him “Public Official of the Year” honors in 2006 by Governing Magazine. Purcell was an IOP Fellow in the fall of 2007.

Purcell has served as founding dean of the College of Public Service and Urban Affairs at Tennessee State University since January 2008 and was founder and director of the Child and Family Policy Center at Vanderbilt University (1996-99). He served as a legislator in the State of Tennessee House of Representatives (1986-96) and as Majority Leader (1990-96). Previously, Purcell worked as a senior assistant public defender in the Nashville Metro Public Defender’s Office (1981-85). He earned his bachelor’s degree at Hamilton College and his law degree at Vanderbilt University School of Law.

Research Assistant Skills: Research Assistant will work on historical projects, focused on Harvard history.  Assistant should have strong library and research skills; be well organized and have a love for history.