Where town meets gown
The city-university connection, long an important relationship able to spark innovation, promote collaboration and research, and transform lives on a broad scale, was the focus of a daylong symposium at Harvard’s Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study Oct. 21. The crowded event drew officials from Harvard and the city of Boston, as well as attendees from the public, private, and nonprofit sectors for a series of panels and discussions on topics including violence, technology, education, public health, innovation and research, and ways to further cooperation. “My breath has been taken away” by the event, said Lizabeth Cohen, Radcliffe’s interim dean and Howard Mumford Jones Professor of American Studies. She praised sessions that offered new ideas from a variety of perspectives. The event, titled “Reimagining the City-University Connection: Integrating Research, Policy, and Practice,” was developed in collaboration with the Harvard Kennedy School‘s (HKS) Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston and the city of Boston. The issue of trust emerged as...