IOP Ushers in New Fellows

She’s a baroness in the House of Lords and the first Muslim front-bencher in British parliamentary history, but now Kishwer Falkner has a new honor to attach to her name: Institute of Politics (IOP) fellow.

She joins five others who, according to the IOP Fellows Committee chair, sport “the most diverse backgrounds in recent memory.”

The other fellows include Congressional aide James F. Flug ’60, grassroots political organizer Karen Hicks, youth service corps leader Alan A. Khazei ’83, Republican communications strategist Christina Martin, and Ambassador George E. Moose.

Each fellow will lead a study group open to the entire Harvard community.

The Pakistani-born Falkner, who gained British citizenship in 1983, is a member of the “front bench,” or party leadership team, of the Liberal Democrats in the United Kingdom. Appointed to the House of Lords in 2004, she is one of a half-dozen Muslims—and just two Muslim women—in the upper parliamentary chamber.

The baroness looks forward to following the 2006 U.S. mid-term elections up-close. “I’ve always had an interest in U.S. politics as a parliamentarian in the UK,” she said in an interview yesterday. “The timing seemed to be perfect.”

Her study group will focus both on liberalism in the Muslim world and on American and British policy choices after Iraq, the IOP announced.

Flug, who began his career in politics here at Harvard as news director of the campus radio station WHRB in the late 1950s, will lead a study group on the U.S. Senate. It’s a topic he knows well—in the 1960s and 1970s, he was a top adviser to Senator Edward M. Kennedy ’54-’56 and returned to the Massachusetts Democrat’s office as chief counsel three years ago.

Hicks, who worked on Howard Dean’s presidential campaign as well as British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s re-election bid, will lead a study group on electoral organizing. She said she hopes to help students become “more informed about the political process.”

Khazei, who attended IOP study groups as an undergraduate, co-founded the service corps City Year along with his Harvard roommate. The organization has placed thousands of 17-to-24-year-olds in community-service jobs in the U.S. and South Africa.

“When I was in college, I was still very idealistic. I want to get back into that environment,” Khazei said.

He will lead a study group on “social entrepreneurship” while he writes a book on his City Year experiences.

Martin, who was press secretary for then-Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich in the mid-1990s, will lead a study group titled “Capitol Hill 101: The Skills Needed to Succeed.”

“I’m looking forward to taking in Harvard through the eyes of a Republican,” Martin said.

Moose, a former ambassador to Benin and Senegal who was a top State Department official in the Clinton administration, will lead a study group on Africa. “I’m looking forward to the opportunity to share my experience in diplomatic service,” he said.

IOP Director Jeanne Shaheen said that students should “feel free to come in and talk” to the fellows, who “make terrific career counselors for those students thinking about going into government work.”

Each fellow will have six student liaisons. Applications for those positions are available on the IOP website and are due this coming Monday.

—Staff writer Kathleen Pond can be reached at kpond@fas.harvard.edu.