An official in Iraq’s transitional government and a former Peruvian
ambassador will be adding an international flavor to the Institute of
Politics (IOP) as fellows in the upcoming spring semester.
The IOP announced on Wednesday that Iraqi Minister of
Municipalities and Public Works Nesreen Barwari, whose term ends as
soon as the newly elected Iraqi government is established, and Peru’s
former ambassador to the United States Ricardo Luna will join prominent
U.S. public servants and political journalists in the group of six
spring fellows.
“[Barwari] will obviously bring a real knowledge and expertise
on what is going on in the Middle East, and Ricardo Luna will bring
tremendous knowledge on Latin America, which are really two hot spots
in the world,” IOP Director Jeanne Shaheen said.
The other fellows include former Cleveland mayor Jane
Campbell, former Boston Globe national editor Ken Cooper, former 9/11
Commission spokesman Al Felzenberg, and former CBS News Senior
Political Editor Dotty Lynch.
Each fellow will be heading up a study group in his or her
area of expertise, which will begin in February and run through the
spring semester.
The new class of fellows reflected student demand for more
discussion of international politics at the IOP, according to incoming
Fellows Committee Chair Alexander I. Burns ’08.
The selection is in contrast to the past fall’s group of fellows, whose experiences were centered around domestic politics.
Fellows told The Crimson they were excited to be taking a break from their careers.
“Coming out of a very intense situation, it’s very helpful to
step back,” said Felzenberg, who just completed a three-year
involvement first with the 9/11 Commission and subsequently with the
non-profit 9/11 Public Discourse Project.
Lynch, who just stepped down from her 20 years with CBS News,
said she hoped to use her time as a fellow to “reflect on the state of
politics and the media.”
Lynch added that she had dreamed of being a fellow for the
Institute ever since she began attending study groups in the 1960s when
she was working in Harvard Square.
Christopher L. Corcoran ’07, the president-elect of the IOP’s
Student Advisory Committee, praised the diversity of the fellows,
noting that there were three women among the six fellows. He said he
hopes having prominent female political figures as fellows will
encourage women on campus to go into public service.
“[Barwari] will be very inspiring for young female students,”
Corcoran said, recounting the experience of interviewing Barwari for
the fellowship on Dec. 15, the day of the elections in Iraq.
Shaheen said she also expected students to benefit from having
a big-city mayor among the fellows who will be able to discuss local
government.
“The reality is that there are about half a million elected
positions in this country, and that most of them are at the local
level,” Shaheen said.
Burns said that he hoped the fellows will interact with
students beyond the formal study groups—to which the fellows are
“contractually obligated”—as the past semester’s fellows did.
“One of the best moments of last year was going to Border Café
with the chief political correspondent of the New York Times,” Burns
said, referring to fall IOP fellow Adam Nagourney.
Many fellows also choose to audit classes alongside Harvard
students. Six of the past semester’s seven fellows took Literature and
Arts B-51, “First Nights,” Burns said.
“It’s a very exciting place to be and a place where I can learn as well as teach,” Lynch said.
Felzenberg echoed Lynch’s enthusiasm to be interacting with students.
“It will be a good chance to hear some of the ideas they have
towards making the country better and what kind of roles they want to
play in the future,” Felzenberg said.
—Staff writer Victoria Kim can be reached at vkim@fas.harvard.edu.
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