Events at UChicago

Martha MacLaren, MPP Class of 2025, writes about some of the many talks she attended during her first year at Harris.

UChicago is home to a huge number of research centers and institutes which regularly hold fantastic talks open to everyone at the University. 

I recently heard Oleksandra Matviichuk, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, give a moving talk at iHouse (International House). She spoke about her experiences as a human rights lawyer in Ukraine and her efforts to convince global leaders of the need to defend democracy. 

Defending democracy—this time in Chicago—was also the topic of a recent Institute of Politics (IOP) workshop with Lori Lightfoot, former Mayor of Chicago. Lightfoot is one of this term’s high-profile IOP fellows, all of whom hold off-the-record workshops for small groups of students, teaching us about the ins and outs of politics in the real world.

One of my personal interests in how policy interacts with the real world is the issue of reducing car use in cities. To that end, as a staff writer for Chicago Policy Review, I decided to write an article on walkable cities. Then I noticed that the Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation was holding a talk on that very issue that same week! Hearing Arianna Salazar-Miranda, Postdoctoral Fellow, present her data on urban movement patterns gave me inspiration for my piece. 

Another way I've been able to explore how policies work in the real world is through  Program Evaluation, a Harris elective about statistically evaluating the impact of programs and policies. In class, we learned about research designs such as randomized controlled trials, difference-in-difference and regression discontinuity designs. Weekly lunchtime talks from the Committee on Education illustrated many practical applications of these in a field that interests me. University faculty and visiting lecturers explained how they'd designed experimental studies (from early years to higher education) and what they'd learned about programs' effectiveness. It was motivating to hear how integral program evaluation skills are to research across social science disciplines, and to understand how many lives can be improved by evidence-based programs. 

Finally, as I’m from the UK, I was excited that Liam Byrne, Member of British Parliament, recently gave a talk at Harris in collaboration with the Stone Center for Research on Wealth Inequality and Mobility. Bryne, former Cabinet Minister and Chief Secretary to the Treasury, discussed his new book The Inequality of Wealth, and it was a very interesting talk! Byrne clearly distinguished wealth inequality from income inequality, argued convincingly about why it's a problem in the US and UK, and proposed five policies to reduce it.

This is just a small selection of the amazing speakers across the university, not to mention those invited by Harris Student Organizations.  I've thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to hear from so many interesting and experienced speakers and I look forward to applying what I've learned in my summer internship and next year.