10 Harris Events That Informed Our Thinking in 2025

In 2025, the Harris School of Public Policy offered a rich calendar of events. From student competitions and leadership addresses to deep dives into AI, inequality, and global conflict, these gatherings brought together faculty, students, alumni, and civic partners to explore policy challenges with nuance and evidence.

Here are ten Harris events from 2025 that stood out for their depth, variety, and impact.

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Professor Anthony Fowler Delivers the 2025 Aims of Public Policy Address

Professor Anthony Fowler delivered the 2025 Aims of Public Policy Address, a marquee lecture drawing from his research on political behavior, institutions, and democratic incentives. In his address, which marked the beginning of the year for new Harris students, Fowler connected academic insights with broader questions about polarization and governance, helping the audience realize the importance of not falling into certain traps that can taint academic research.

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NextGen Competition Showcases Student Innovation in Public Pension Policy

At the NextGen Competition, Harris students presented solutions to public pension policy challenges—applying fiscal modeling, governance analysis, and equity frameworks to a complex, real-world policy area. 

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Reunion Weekend

Reunion Weekend brought alumni back to campus for panels, networking, and reflections on their careers in public service, nonprofit leadership, and policy research. The weekend brought people together and celebrated alumni whose experiences span sectors and geographies through the annual Alumni Awards. Dean Ethan Bueno de Mesquita and Harris Alumni Council Awards Chair Heather George, AM'19, presented Ashlee B. Gabrysch, AB'07, MPP’13, with the CC DuBois Alumni Service Award; John Peller, MPP’00, with the Career Achievement Award; and Roberto Velasco Álvarez, MPP’17, with the Rising Star Award.

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Harris Policy Innovation Challenge Announces 2025 Winning Team

In the Harris Policy Innovation Challenge (HPIC), student teams competed to craft evidence-based policy solutions to a civic problem: in this case, the hollowing-out of Chicago’s downtown, often referred to as the Loop. The announcement of the winning team, decided by a group of experts in the field, marked the culmination of months of research, design, and strategy showcasing how experiential learning can bridge analytical tools and practical policy design.

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A Stone Center Discussion on Limitarianism

In partnership with the Stone Center, Harris hosted a discussion with Ingrid Robeyns, who argues that the world’s billionaires have received far beyond enough, about whether extreme wealth concentration is compatible with democratic and economic goals. Panelists explored evidence and ethical frameworks on inequality, prompting attendees to wrestle with policy tools ranging from taxation to governance reforms. Professor Steven Durlauf moderated the discussion.

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Harris Public Policy Scholars on What a Second Trump Term Means for Policy

In the early part of the year, Harris convened a series of “Policy Outlook” panel discussions analyzing the potential policy implications of a second administration under President Donald Trump. Rather than partisan forecasting, the conversation focused on institutional dynamics, administrative priorities, and policy continuity across regulatory domains—and, in several instances, proved prescient. Panelists included Professors Konstantin Sonin, Austin Wright, Lesley Turner, Ryan Kellogg, and more.

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Panel Explores Why Modern Wars Are So Long and Hard to End

Professor Christopher Blattman and John Haltiwanger, who covers national security and global conflict zones for Foreign Policy, came together to examine the structural and political reasons modern conflicts often become protracted. Themes included geopolitical fragmentation, incentives in war economies, and barriers to negotiated peace. The event was moderated by Senior Lecturer Rebecca Wolfe.

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Understanding Russia Under Putin

In an expansive discussion with Ethan Bueno de Mesquita, the dean and Sydney Stein Professor at Harris, Sergei Guriev, dean of the London Business School, shared the view from his front-row seat on Russia’s political transformation under Putin over the past 25 years. Introduced by friend Konstantin Sonin, he offered an in-depth look at Russian political dynamics, governance structures, and foreign policy under Vladimir Putin’s long tenure. Drawing on firsthand perspectives and scholarly analysis, the event provided historical context for contemporary geopolitical tensions and policy choices.

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Lessons for the Luddite Age: AI, Data Analytics, and the Future of Policy

At an event co-hosted by the Harris Career Development Office and the Harris Executive Education & Partnerships (EEP) team, students explored the historical and future implications of data analytics and artificial intelligence with Mark Polyak, Chief Product and Technology Officer at MINT.ai, and Associate Professor Austin Wright, who teaches econometrics at Harris. Polyak drew historical parallels from the Second Industrial Revolution to modern AI, highlighted how past technological shifts reshaped work, and offered practical career guidance for students navigating a rapidly evolving analytics and AI landscape.

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Inequality Reconsidered

In November 2025, Harris partnered with the Stone Center for Research on Wealth Inequality and Mobility on a multi-day event exploring why economic inequalities endure. Leading scholars such as Samuel Bowles and Steven Durlauf joined conversations on how socioeconomic inequality persists across generations, focusing on institutional mechanisms, labor markets, and policy choices that shape unequal outcomes. This series provided audience members with a deep, research-anchored look at inequality’s roots and potential approaches to promote mobility.