Staff

Hilton Simmet

Hilton Simmet is a Ph.D. candidate in Public Policy and a Research Associate with the Program on Science, Technology and Society at Harvard Kennedy School. Hilton’s academic interests center on the construction of the science and politics of inequality in France, India and the US. He is interested in how methods from the social sciences develop out of diverse concerns about social justice across democratic societies, with a particular focus comparing the emergence of methods of historical data collection, action-oriented research and randomized control trials (RCTs). In analyzing the co-production of social science with political contestations about inequality he hopes to illuminate distinct, culturally-embedded understandings of the constitutional boundaries between science and politics in three countries. For the 2023-4 academic year Hilton will be a graduate research associate at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University.

Hilton Simmet

Hilton Simmet is a Ph.D. candidate in Public Policy and a Research Associate with the STS Program at Harvard Kennedy School. Hilton’s interests center on the relationship between political theory and public policy, with a particular focus on the role of economics in defining contemporary ideas of justice and progress. His dissertation research asks how the social sciences of poverty, inequality and development address the politics of justice in comparative context. In particular, he examines how diverse social science methods—randomized control trials (RCTs), distributional national accounts, and citizen engagement—navigate the boundary between scientific analysis and political action in the US, France and India. For the 2022-23 academic year he has been awarded a Frederick Sheldon Traveling Fellowship from Harvard for study in France and India.

Emily Rider Neill

Emily has worked in Higher Ed for most of her career at both Harvard and MIT. Her most recent position before joining STS was as Program Manager of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program at MIT. She got her doctorate from Harvard Divinity School in the Religion, Gender, and Culture program and her dissertation work focused on the political effects of feminist rhetorics of the body. She is the mother of 2 sons, the youngest of 4 beloved siblings, and the author of Closet Smarts, a book about how to dress real-sized bodies (because every dissertation needs a side-car project). She is the sole proprietor of a business of the same name. She is a lover of cats, a news-junkie, and a big fan of live music in smaller venues.

Hilton Simmet

Hilton Simmet is a Ph.D. candidate in Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School and Research Associate in the Program on Science, Technology and Society. As part of his doctoral work, he has conducted research in Bangalore, India on the National Science Foundation project “Traveling Imaginaries: A Comparative Study of Three Models of Innovation in Transnational Implementation.” He is currently working on the transnational “Transformations to Sustainability (T2S)” project with the Belmont Forum. He holds an A.B. from Harvard College in Social Studies, an M.A. in Political Science from Yale University, and was a Fulbright student fellow in Senegal. He will be a Graduate Fellow at the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics in 2021-22.

Shana Ashar

In 2019, Shana Rabinowich Ashar was Assistant Director of the Program on Science, Technology and Society. In this role, she oversaw all of the STS Program’s administrative operations, finances, and events. Shana holds a B.A. in English and an M.A. in Higher Education Administration, both from Boston College. Before joining the STS Program in 2010, Shana worked on international research programs, events, and administration at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.

Harry Begg

Harry has studied at UCL and Oxford, and holds MSc and MA (Oxon) degrees. He is a British citizen and grew up in Jersey, Channel Islands, where he developed a love of coastlines and community. Harry teaches British politics and public policy, and comparative government. Before joining the Blavatnik School, he worked for General Stanley McChrystal (US Army, ret.) in Washington, D.C., where he contributed to McChrystal’s efforts to reform leadership practices across government, business and civil society—an ongoing effort which calls for flattening hierarchies and learning to operate more effectively in networks.