Scholars’ Circle – Canadian election insights – May 18, 2025

Canada’s Liberals were facing a 20 point deficit a few months back but came back to maintain power by re-electing Liberal Prime Minister, Mark Carney. What does this mean for the country and its challenges this year and beyond? What are Canada’s most pressing political challenges? Canadian politics are complex and experts argue their most recent election was not only a reaction to Donald Trump’s remarks about the country. [ dur: 58mins. ]

This program is produced by Doug Becker, Ankine Aghassian, and Sudd Dongre.

Scholars’ Circle – First 100 days into the second Trump administration – May 11, 2025

We are 100 days into the second Trump Administration. How different is this term from his first and from other Presidents? What are the constitutional and normative challenges it poses to American democracy? Just how much has Trump attempted to consolidate power in the Presidency? What are the biggest threats his administration poses to the constitution, the rule of law and to American democracy? [ dur: 58mins. ]

This program is produced by Doug Becker, Ankine Aghassian, and Sudd Dongre.

Scholars’ Circle – Science denial and disinformation – May 4, 2025

Science is under attack. Who and what are behind the attacks? While we face catastrophic climate change and other pending disasters, how can we restore the public’s understandings about scientific realities? We explore disinformation and ways to communicate with non-scientists to loosen the grip the disinformants have on so many people. [ dur: 58mins. ]

  • Lee McIntyre is a Research Fellow at the Center for Philosophy and History of Science at Boston University and a recent Lecturer in Ethics at Harvard Extension School. He is the author of How to Talk to a Science Denier , Post-Truth, and On Disinformation (MIT Press, August 2023),
  • Christopher Reddy is a senior scientist in the Department of Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and faculty member at MIT of the MIT/Woods Hole program in oceanography. He is the author of SCIENCE COMMUNICATION IN A CRISIS: An Insider’s Guide (Routledge; May 10, 2023).

This program is produced by Ankine Aghassian, Doug Becker, Melissa Chiprin and Sudd Dongre.

Scholars’ Circle – Insights into Cambodian Genocide and Wiriyamu Massacre in Mozambique – April 27, 2025

April is Genocide Awareness Month, and no genocide was more devastating, more destructive and more emblematic of the demand for never again like the Cambodian Genocide. Often referring to as the “Killing Fields” after the moving Dith Pran novel and movie of the same name, 2 million people out of a pre-genocide population of 7 million were killed by the Khmer Rouge government in Cambodia between the years 1975 and 1979. The importance of the remembrance of the genocide lies in remembering its victims. But learning from the processes by which this killing was committed and to understand how genocides are perpetrated is essential at ensuring Never Again. And in light of the world’s rejection of its commitments to human rights in its contemporary times, including an American government with a much lessening commitment to these rights, how much can we learn from genocides like Cambodia to counter such actions today? [ dur: 30mins. ]

Portugal’s colonization of Mozambique is part of a pattern of colonialism from European powers in Africa in the 19th and 20th century. Mozambique was one of the last countries to be decolonized. A bitter war of independence broke out in 1964 from a campaign by the Mozambique Liberation front and a ten year resulted in the nation gaining its independence in 1975. Numerous atrocities marked this war and one in particular, the Portuguese massacre at Wiriyamu in December, 1972, marked the brutality of this war and the Portuguese response. Our guest has written the definitive history of this massacre, which proved to be challenging to construct the story. His account serves as an incredibly important marker of the Portugese violence in Mozambique and in Portual’s eventual acknowledgement and apology for the atrocity.[ dur: 28mins. ]

This program is produced by Doug Becker, Ankine Aghassian, Maria Armoudian and Sudd Dongre.

Scholars’ Circle – Armenia – Azerbaijan treaty update ; Labors view on tariff – April 20, 2025

Recent peace treaty communication coming from Armenia and Azerbaijan explained.

  • Robert English is Associate Professor of International Relations at the University of Southern California. He is the author of Russia and the Idea of the West: Gorbachev, Intellectuals and the End of the Cold War and The Other Side: How Soviets and Americans Perceive Each Other.
  • Talin Hitik is an international human rights advocate focused on seeking accountability for war crimes and human rights violations. She also has worked as a legal officer at the Hague Conference on Private International Law and the Permanent Court of Arbitration and has served at the Ministry of Justice of Armenia, managing the European Court of Human Rights litigation department. She was a professor of international human rights and humanitarian law at American University of Armenia and Yerevan State University and most recently, was an Academic Affiliate at the University of Michigan Law School.

US Tariff policy effect on labor.

This program is produced by Doug Becker, Ankine Aghassian, Maria Armoudian and Sudd Dongre.

Scholars’ Circle – Origins of war and ways to resolve socially violent tendencies – April 13, 2025

With wars still raging in Gaza, Sudan, and Ukraine, we return to an earlier interview on the origins of war. When and how did war begin?

While some have argued it evolved in early human behavior within forging bands societies, our guests say, that’s not true. Forger bands did not wage war. [ dur: 30 mins. ]

We continue this conversation by exploring how war and violent conflict might be resolved. [ dur: 28 mins. ]

Websites mentioned : University of North Calorina Greensboro studies of Peaceful Societies and an example of building a Peaceful society organization.

This recording was produced Nov. 2013.

This program is produced by Doug Becker, Ankine Aghassian, Maria Armoudian and Sudd Dongre.

Scholars’ Circle – Alien Enemy’s Act invoked to deport people from US without due process on civil charges – April 6, 2025

The Trump Administration is using the Alien Enemies Act to seize Venezuelans and ship them to a notorious prison El Salvador without due process. What can be done to protect and uphold the rule of law and human rights in the face of the Trump Administration’s rejection of them? What are some means of legal and political resistance when human rights are being violated? [ dur: 58mins. ]

This program is produced by Doug Becker, Ankine Aghassian, Maria Armoudian and Sudd Dongre.

Scholars’ Circle – Russia-Ukraine peace negotiations ; Building opposition to anti-science propaganda – March 30, 2025

The Russian invasion and war in Ukraine is now over three years old. The new Trump Administration is trying to negotiate a cease fire and peace in the war. Why has an agreement been so elusive? [ dur: 20mins. ]

  • Robert English is Associate Professor of International Relations and Co-Director of the Central European Studies Program at the University of Southern California (USC). He is the author of Russia and the Idea of the West.

anti-science propaganda has driven ignorance-fueled decisions that are driving us to ecological collapse. What are the costs of the spread of this mal-information? Who is spreading it? For what end? And how can it be overcome? [ dur: 38mins. ]

  • Eve Darian-Smith is the professor of Global Studies, Law, Anthropology, and Criminology Law & Society, at University of California Irvine. She is the author of Global Burning – Rising Antidemocracy and the Climate Crisis.
  • Stuart McNaughton is the professor of Faculty of Arts and Education at The University of Auckland in NZ.

This program is produced by Doug Becker, Ankine Aghassian, Maria Armoudian and Sudd Dongre.

Scholars’ Circle – Trump’s assualt on academic freedom; Book author interview – We the Men – March 23, 2025

The Trump Administration has launched full frontal political assaults on academic freedoms on college campuses. Both professors and students are being targeted for their political positions. Schools fear the loss of funding based on protests on campus and faculty political advocacy. And departments are being targeted not just for classes but also existentially, such as gender studies and Middle East studies. What does this mean for academic freedom, academic excellence, free speech and advocacy on college campuses? How does the attack on colleges and universities signal this countrys drive to authoritarianism. [ dur: 32mins. ]

American Flag background with silloette of Women protesting for the book cover We the Men , how forgetting Women's Struggles for Equality Prepetuates Inequality.

Have women’s stories been made invisible in the retelling of history and law? If so, what are the consequences of that? American history is too often told without the experiences of American women. And American Constitutional Law far too often reflects this invisibility by perpetuating inequality. Today’s guest has a new book on this historical invisibility and its consequences. Jill Hasday is the author of We the Men: How Forgetting Women’s Struggles for Equality Perpetuates Inequality. [ dur: 26mins. ]

This program is produced by Doug Becker, Ankine Aghassian, Maria Armoudian and Sudd Dongre.

Scholars’ Circle – The Suffragist Peace: How women gained voting rights and affected global politics – March 16, 2025

The expansion of the vote to women throughout the 20th Century has had an impact on the discourses and politics of war and peace. What is the relationship between women voting, electing women leaders, and women-lead groups in civil society on the issue of war and peace?
Does the expansion of the vote to women lead to the election of women as leaders? And are these leaders more committed to peace than their male counterparts? We explore a new book, The Suffragist Peace: How Women Shape the Politics of War..[ dur: 58mins. ]

Book cover of The Suffragist Peace, classic painting with woman in center against war and suffering

Together they have authored The Suffragist Peace: How Women Shape the Politics of War

This interview was recorded April 2024.

This program is produced by Doug Becker, Ankine Aghassian, Maria Armoudian and Sudd Dongre.

By Maria Armoudian