Tag Archives: Political Science

Insighters & Scholars’ Circle – April 1st, 2012

Our interview with scholars’ about following questions:

1) How much does the President drive US foreign policy and how much is driven by other factors?  [duration: 25 min.]

With:

  • Prof. Jeremy Suri, Univ. of TX, Austin. Author of  Liberty’s Surest Guardian: American Nation-Building from the Founders to Obama.
  • Prof. James D. Boys, Richmond Univ., London.

2) What are the issues that will determine our next president?
[ duration: 27 min. ]

With:

  • Prof. Thomas Holbrook, Univ. of WI. , author of Do Campaigns Matter? Contemporary American Politics.
  • Prof. Robert C. Smith, SF State Univ. , author of Conservatism and Racism, and Why in American They Are the Same.
  • Prof. Jan Leighley, American Univ. , author of  Strength in Numbers? The political Mobilization of Racial and Ethnic Minorities.

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Insighters & Scholars’ Circle – March 25th, 2012

Today we spend the hour exploring how the current rightward movement fits into U.S. history. How did it develop? And how has the movement been changing U.S. politics and policies? What can we learn from the past rightward movements right here and abroad? And how far can the movement go? (duration: 58 minutes)

Analysis by:

  • Kathleen Blee, Prof. & Chair, Sociology Dept. @ Univ. of Pittsburgh. Author of Inside Organized Racism: Women in the Hate Movement, and Democracy in the Making: How Activist Groups Form
  • Lawrence Rosenthal, Exec. Dir. & Lead Researcher, Center for Comparative Study of Right-Wing Movmnts @ UC Berkeley. He is currently working on a study of the contemporary American Right in comparison to movements of the Right in 20th century Europe
  • Martin Cohen, prof. of political science, James Madison Univ.  co-author of, The Party Decides: Presidential Nominations Before and After Reform.

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Insighters & Scholars’ Circle – March 18th, 2012

Seg. 1. Massive vacancies on the federal bench and justices with conflicts of interest. What is the state of the independent judiciary? with Nan Aaron, Dir. of Alliance for Justice
Seg. 2. Should people who have committed crimes as teenagers face life in prison with no chance for parole? A look at the laws and the 2500 people who are serving those sentences; with Elizabeth Calvin, Senior Advocate, Human Rights Watch
Seg. 3. Scholars’ Circle. The effect of war on laws, society, governance, and democracy itself. How are these affected as the lines of war-time are increasingly blurred.

  • Mary Dudziak is Judge Edward J. and Ruey Guirado Professor of Law, History and Political Science at the University of Southern California Law School. She is the author of several books including her latest, War-Time: An Idea, Its History, Its Consequences.
  • Patrick James is Professor of International Relations and Director of the Center for International Studies at the University of Southern California.
    He is the author of numerous publications including, Religion, Identity and Global Governance: Theory, Evidence and Practice. And he has co-authored, Rethinking Realism in International Relations: Between Tradition and Innovation.
  • Christopher McKnight Nichols is Visiting Postdoctoral Fellow in U.S. History at the University of Pennsylvania. He will be Assistant Professor in the History of the U.S. and the World at Oregon State University starting in the summer of 2012. Nichols specializes in the intellectual history of the U.S. role in the world from 1865 to present. He is the author of many publications including his latest, Promise and Peril: America at the Dawn of a Global Age (Harvard University Press, April 2011)

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Insighters & Scholars’ Circle – March 4th, 2012

In the first segment, the economic crisis are 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 women, one by one, and explore the system’s working and failure from their perspective.  Duo are Robin Nixon, record producer and  Dennis Davis, musician, documentary producer(dur: 27min)

On Scholars’ Circle. Why are so many people without homes? And what can be done about it?

  • Sam Tsemberis is Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychaitry at Columbia University and the Founder and Executive Director of Pathway to Housing. His numerous publications include, Housing First: The Pathways Model to End Homelessness for People with Mental Illness and Addiction Manual.
  • James Baumohl is professor at the Bryn Mawr College, Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research. His numerous publications include, Homelessness in America,and Down and Out in Berkeley: An Overview of a Study of Street People.
  • Dr. Kim Hopper is a medical anthropologist and research scientist at the Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, where he co-directs the Center for the Study of Issues in Public Mental Health. His numerous publications include the book, Reckoning with Homelessness. He is also the co-editor of the forthcoming, Recovery from Schizophrenia: An International Perspective (Psychosocial Press),

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Insighters & Scholars’ Circle – Feb 26th, 2012

First, we take a deeper look into scandals that led to the economic meltdown with G. Morgenson, author of Reckless Endangerment: How Outsized Ambition, Greed, and Corruption Led to Economic Armagaddon. (dur: 19min.)

On the 2nd segment we ask, what can the history of human rights tell us about the struggles of today? We talk with Micheline Ishay, author of The History of Human Rights. (dur: 10min.)

On Scholars’ Circle. Topic: historical memory. A look at how some “memory entrepreneurs” are rewriting history to shape policies of the future. (dur: 26min.)

For a transcript of this interview, please visit: TheBigQ

  • Prof. Brent Sasley, Univ. of Texas ;
  • Prof. Doug Becker, USC;
  • Prof. Alex Hinton, Rutgers Univ., author;
  • Prof. Dovile Budryte, Georgia Gwinnett College.

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Insighters & Scholars’ Circle – Feb 19th, 2012

How water has shaped our past and how new water challenges are shaping the future. We talk with Charles Fishman about his new book, The Big Thirst: The Secret Life and Turbulent Future of Water (dur.: 28 min).

The Scholars’ Circle. Topic: Political Power. New global developments are changing the structures and holders of power. With new technology and greater interconnectedness, states are losing power and non-state actors are gaining power. But what exactly does it mean to have power? And where exactly does power come from? (Starts @ 30min. , dur.: 28min).
Scholars’ Circle Panel:

  • Giulio M. Gallarotti, Prof.of Gov’t, Wesleyan Univ.
  • Joseph S. Nye Jr. , Prof.Harvard’s Kennedy School of Gov’t.
  • Erica Chenoweth, Prof.of Gov’t, Weslayan Univ.

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Insighters & Scholars’ Circle – Feb 9th, 2012

Segment 1: How did society develop from bands of hunter and gatherers to our current political system? Where did the concepts of accountability come from? And why was a swell of democracy followed by a decline in democratic gain? What is behind political decay? Francis Fukuyama poses these questions in his latest book, The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution.

Francis Fukuyama is Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford. He is the author of numerous publications and books including, America at the Crossroads: Democracy, Power, and the Neoconservative Legacy, and The End of History.

Segment 2: The Scholars’ Circle. Topic: How the new billionaire class is shaping North American society.

Panel members: David Callahan is author, journalist and founder of Demos. He is the author of, Fortunes of Change: The Rise of the Liberal Rich and the Remaking of America. Linda McQuuiag is author, journalist and columnist. She is the author of, The Trouble with Billionaires. Taki Oldham is filmmaker and journalist. He went undercover to make the documentary, The Billionaires’ Tea Party.

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Listen to Insighters & Scholars' Circle - Feb 9th, 2012.

Insighters & Scholars’ Circle – Feb. 5th, 2012

Seg. 1: What does the trial of international human rights Judge Baltasar Garzon mean for human rights law? With Reed Brody, Human Rights Watch.

Seg.2: How is international law changing for human rights and war? We speak with Ruthie Titel, Prof. of Law, NY University author of her new book, Humanity’s Law.

Seg. 3: Scholars’ Circle. In light of Mitt Romney’s comments about the very poor, we look at poverty, inequality, and social mobility both here in the U.S. and worldwide.

Lane Kenworthy, Prof. of Sociology & Political Science, Univ. of AZ
David A. Smith, Prof. Sociology, U.C. Irvine
Gregory Clark, Prof. & Chair, Dept. of Economics, UC Davis

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Insighters & Scholars’ Circle – Jan. 29th, 2012

Seg. 1: A look inside the secret world of spying and intelligence agencies. A discussion with Glenn Carle, former CIA agent and author of the book, The Interrogator.
Seg. 2: Scholars’ Circle. As we head into the fourth Republican Presidential Primary we explore why people vote the way they do.

Scholars’ Circle panel: Andrew Gelman is author of, Red State, Blue State, Rich State, Poor State: Why Americans Vote the Way They Do. Henry Brady is author of Voice and Equality: Civic Voluntarism in American Politics, and Letting the People Decide. George Lakoff is the author of many books including, Don’t Think of an Elephant, Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think, and The Political Mind.
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Insighters & Scholars’ Circle – Jan. 22nd, 2012

Seg. 1: We continue our conversation with Gen. Romeo Dallaire re forces of genocide, and what might prevent it;
Seg. 2 (18:20): A new film about the unique challenges of women soldiers and veterans. A special look at Gulf War veterans with Gulf War Syndrome;
Seg. 3: Scholars’ Circle:  This week marks the second anniversary of the Supreme Court decision Citizens United versus Federal Elections Commission in which the court struck down in a five to four decision several campaign finance laws. What has the effect been so far? Outside spending on campaigns has risen 338 percent since 2006 according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Unions have spent some 17.3 million dollars from their general treasuries on independent expenditures, while conservative non-profit groups have spent some 121 million without disclosing the sources of that money. The Center believes the money comes from corporate sources. The issue of money corrupting political processes has received more public attention recently than it has in several decades. Comedians, Steven Colbert and John Stewart are using parody to demonstrate the system’s flaws. Citizens’ groups are working toward overturning the decision while cities and states are passing resolutions, some of which directly repudiate Citizen’s United decision. Others reject the notion of corporate personhood seen as one of the roots of the money problem.

Henry Brady is Dean of the Goldman School of Public Policy, and Professor of Political Science and Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley. He is author of numerous publications including, Voice in Inequality, Civic Voluntarism in American Politics, and Letting the People Decide.
Scott Bowman is the Chair of Political Science Department at California State University, Los Angeles. Among his publications is The Modern Corporation in American Political Thought: Law, Power and Ideology.
Professor Daniel Green is Professor of Law at Hofstra Law School. He is the author of numerous publications that explore corporation, speech, and constitutional law.

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