GENDER, RACE & IDENTITY
Kennedy School adds mandatory course on race, racism, and public policy in the U.S. for Master in Public Policy students
In September, all incoming Master in Public Policy students at Harvard Kennedy School began their two-year academic program by taking a new required core course on race and public policy in the United States. The intensive two-week course, “Race and Racism in the Making of the United States as a Global Power,” was developed and taught by HKS Professors Khalil Gibran Muhammad, a historian, and Sandra Susan Smith, a sociologist, with the stated goal of ensuring that students learn how and why race and racism are not just aberrational artifacts of the past but lie “at the heart of the American project” and affect current policy. The course is one of a series of steps the School has taken to equip students with the knowledge to understand and confront racism in their careers as public leaders and policymakers. Over the years, students and alumni have called for more action on racial diversity, more teaching on racism, and more attention to issues of systemic racism.
Also see: “Race, Research and Policy Portal” launched by the Institutional Antiracism and Accountability Project, based in the School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy. |