Historians and social scientists have long emphasized how the narratives of past wars can reactivate wounds or, conversely, heal minds and foster reconciliation. They consider that the framing of memories and the selective recall of facts about the causes of conflicts, the deployment of violence, and the resolution of disputes can profoundly influence beliefs and representations. These narratives can take many different forms, from founding myths to divisive expressions of hatred.

The 1965 Voting Rights Act (VRA) dismantled the institutional barriers that had suppressed political participation of African Americans in the U.S. South since the end of Reconstruction. Did it also win hearts and minds in the racially conservative South? In this paper, we study this question using newly collected data on county-level voter registration rates by race. Exploiting variation induced by a special provision of the VRA (“coverage”), we find that covered counties with higher shares of African Americans experienced a larger increase in Black and white registration rates.

Democracies have historically restrained against the tyranny of the majority by developing norms of international human rights, cultural minority rights, and ideas of multiculturalism.

Why are elite Republicans—those who burnish longstanding establishment credentials—finding it so difficult to keep control of their party?

Houssam is chief of the Private Sector Partnerships MENA unit of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). He started the unit in the United Arab Emirates and is now covering the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) with a regional team that focuses on providing diversified funds for the regional and global needs of refugees. In his talk, Houssam will take you through the journey of where and how he started and what are the challenges and opportunities in a fundraiser’s career.