Scholars’ Circle-Homelessness-in-United-States-Nov. 30th, 2014

This week on The Scholars’ Circle we spend the hour addressing homelessness in America:

First, the economic crisis is pushing more people into homelessness, an already pervasive epidemic in America. We’ll look at one duo’s efforts to rescue some of the most vulnerable homeless men and women, one by one, and explore the system’s workings and failures from their experiences. [ dur: 28mins. ]

  • Robin Nixon, record producer;
  • Dennis Davis, musician, documentary producer;

Then, on the Scholars’ Circle panel we further examine homelessness in America with three experts. A recent report published in the efforts to end homelessness entitled, The State of Homelessness in America 2014, found on a single night in January 2013, 610,042 people were experiencing homelessness. What are the realities for the homeless? What are some of the causes contributing to homelessness? And what are some of the solutions? [ dur: 30 mins. ]

  • Sam Tsemberis is a Professor  Clinical Psychiatry at Columbia University. Founder & Executive. Director of Pathway to Housing. He is author of Housing First Manual: The Pathways Model to End Homelessness for People with Mental Illness and Addiction
  • James Baumohl is Professor of Graduate School of  Social Work and Social Research at Bryn Mawr College. He is author of Homelessness in America.
  • Kim Hopper is Professor of Medical anthropology and  research scientist at Nathan S. Klein Institute at  Colombia University. He is author of Reckoning with Homelessness (The Anthropology of Contemporary Issues).

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Scholars’ Circle-Islamic-State-Iraq-Syria-Nov. 23rd, 2014

We spend the hour analyzing the emergence of the Islamic State also known as ISIS or ISIL. [ dur: 58 mins. ]

  • Fred H. Lawson is a Professor and Department Head of Government at Mills College. He is the author of Global Security Watch – Syria, Demystifying Syria, Why Syria Goes to War: Thirty Years of Confrontation and Constructing International Relations in the Arab World.
  • Salman Sayyid is Professor of Social Theory & Decolonial Thought at the University of Leeds, UK. He is the author of Recalling the Caliphate: Decolonisation and World Order, A Fundamental Fear: Eurocentrism and the Emergence of Islamism and co-editor of A Postcolonial People: South Asians in Britain.

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Scholars’ Circle-US-Supreme-Court-/-Russia-and-the-West-Nov. 16th, 2014

First, one of the country’s preeminent law scholars makes his case against the supreme court. We are joined by Erwin Chemerinsky author of, The Case Against the Supreme Court.

  • Erwin Chemerinsky, UC Irvine Dean School of Law. Author of The Case Against the Supreme Court

Then, Russian war planes over Europe and war ships near Australia. What do these and other demonstrations of power mean in the current politics between Russia and the West?

  • Martha Merritt, Deputy Dean of the College for Academic Programs and Advancement, University of Chicago; Contributor to Russian and Soviet History: From the Time of Troubles to the Collapse of the Soviet Union
  • Henry E. Hale is Associate Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, and Co-Director of the Program on New Approaches to Research and Security in Eurasia (PONARS Eurasia) at George Washington University. Author of Patronal Politics: Eurasian Regime Dynamics in Comparative Perspective and Why Not Parties in Russia?: Democracy, Federalism, and the State

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Scholars’ Circle-US-Midterm-Election-/-Ukraine-Crisis-Nov. 9th, 2014

First, what might the Republican sweep mean for everything from the climate, to the economy, to US foreign policy, to democracy in the US? [ dur: 21 mins. ]

  • Peter Hanson, is a Professor of Political Science at University of Denver. Author of  Too Weak to Govern: Majority Party Power and Appropriations in the U.S. Senate
  • Sean Theriault is a Professor in the Department of Government at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of, The Power of the People: Congressional Competition, Public Attention, and Voter Retribution, Party Polarization in Congress, and The Gingrich Senators: The Roots of Partisan Warfare in Congress.

Then, on the Scholars’ Circle panel, Conflict between Russia and Ukraine appears to be escalating while US-Russia relations have seemingly deteriorated. What is fueling these escalations? What can be done to allay the tension? [ dur: 38 mins. ]

  • John J. Mearsheimer is the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science and the co-director of the Program on International Security Policy at the University of Chicago. Author of Why Why Leaders Lie: The Truth about Lying in International Politics and The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy
  • Robert English is Director of the School of International Relations and professor of International Relations at University of Southern California. He is the author of Russia and the Idea of the West, and editor of My Six Years with Gorbachev.
  • Molly O’Neal, visiting scholar at Johns Hopkins University.
  • Anthony Antoine, Executive Director of the Institute for European Studies at University of Brussels.

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Scholars’ Circle – Organ Trafficking -/- Climate Change 2047 -/- Immigration US-Mexico – Nov. 2nd, 2014

First, the underworld of organ trafficking. [ dur: 10 mins. ]

  • Nancy Scheper-Hughes, is Professor of anthropology at University of California, Berkeley, editor of Commodifying Bodies and author of Violence in War and Peace: An Anthology.
  • Art Caplan, is Professor and head of the division of Bioethics at New York University Langone Medical Center and award-winning author of books including Applied Ethics in Mental Health Care: An Interdisciplinary Reader, Ethics and Organ Transplants, and Smart Mice, Not so Smart People.

Then, Professor Mora and his colleagues have calculated how climate change will affect our temperatures around the year 2047. In the future, they found, our coldest year will be warmer than the past hottest years. The changes, which will first occur in the tropics, are already driving some 25,000 species to extinction each year. [ dur: 18 mins. ]

Finally, on the Scholars’ Circle Panel, thousands of migrants leave their countries in search of safety or a better life, but many are abducted, enslaved or disappeared never to be seen again. We dig deep into the world of migration, and the systems and policies that perpetuate many of the inhumane conditions. [ dur: 28 mins. ]

  • Kevin Johnson is Dean and  Professor of Public Interest Law at UC Davis School of Law. He has co-authored., Opening the Floodgates: Why America Needs to Rethink Its Borders and Immigration Laws, and authored Immigration Law and the US-Mexico Border.
  • David Shirk is Associate  Professor of Political Science and International, and Director of the Justice in Mexico Project, at University of San Diego. He has co-authored, The Drug War in Mexico: Confronting a Shared Threat, and Contemporary Mexican Politics.
  • David Kyle is Professor of Sociology at University of California, Davis. His publications include, Global Human Smuggling: Comparative Perspectives, and Transnational Peasants: Migrations, Networks and Ethnicity in Andean Ecuador.

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