Category Archives: Scholars’ Circle Interviews

Information and recordings from Schloars’ Circle radio show is posted here.

Scholars’ Circle – The Suffragist Peace: How Women Shape the Politics of War , book author interview – March 26, 2023

March 26, 2023 host

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

Joslyn Barnhart is Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of California Santa Barbara. She is also senior research scientist at Deep Mine in London. She is the author of The consequences of humiliation, anger, and status, threats in international politics
Robert F. Trager is a Professor in the political science department at the University of California, Los Angeles. He’s the author of a forthcoming book Diplomacy Communication and the Origins of International Order

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

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Scholars’ Circle – History of American grand strategy – March 19, 2023

March 19, 2023 host

Grand Strategy defines the broad goals of nations or even groups. American Grand Strategy is best understood historically, as an amalgam of influences and interests. Is American grand strategy a reaction to events and domestic interests, or is it derived more strategically based on the American place in the world? And what does the history of American grand strategy tell us about its current goals? We speak with three of the authors of Rethinking American Grand Strategy. Hosted by Doug Becker. [ dur: 58 mins. ]

Christopher McKnight Nichols is Associate Professor of History and Director of the Center for the Humanities at Oregon State University. He is the author of Promise and Peril: America at the Dawn of a Global Age. He is also co-author of the opinion articles “‘Grand strategy’ has a bad rep. To fix it, get beyond hard power and traditional statecraft”, in the Los Angeles Times, and “America’s traditions pose an obstacle to preventing future pandemics”, in the Washington Post.
Beverly Gage is Brady-Johnson Professor of Grand Strategy and Professor of History & American Studies at Yale University. She is the author of The Day Wall Street Exploded: A Story of America in its First Age of Terror and a forthcoming biography on J. Edgar Hoover.
Kate Epstein is Associate Professor of History at Rutgers University-Camden. She is the author of Torpedo: Inventing the Military-Industrial Complex in the United States and Great Britain.

All of our guests are contributors to the book we are discussing today Rethinking American Grand Strategy. Christopher McKnight Nichols is also co-editor of the book together with Elizabeth Borgwardt and Andrew Preston.
Recorded June 2021.

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Scholars’ Circle – Humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh from blockade at Lachin Corridor – March 12, 2023

March 13, 2023 host

The deteriorating humanitarian condition in the Armenian-majority breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The Lachin corridor, the only road that connects the region to the outside world, has been blocked by a military campaign limiting food and other essential supplies and trapping 120,000 people.

We explore the legal, political and military implications of this campaign.How are international actors responding to this campaign? What role is Turkey, Russia, and the United States playing in the blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh? [ dur: 58mins. ]

Richard Giragosian is the Founding Director of the Regional Studies Center (RSC), an independent “think tank” located in Yerevan, Armenia. He is Visiting Professor at the College of Europe’s Natolin Campus and Senior Expert at Yerevan State University’s Center for European Studies (CES). He is the author of the book chapter Small States and Large Costs of Regional Fracture: The Case of Armenia
Steve Swerdlow, esq. is Associate Professor of the Practice of Human Rights in the Department of Political and International Relations at the University of Southern California. A human rights lawyer and expert on the former Soviet region, Swerdlow was Senior Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch, heading the organization’s work on Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, and founding its Kyrgyzstan field office. He is the author of Uzbekistan’s Religious and Political Prisoners and Uzbekistan’s Ethnic Minorities: Out of Sight, But Not Out of Mind.

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Scholars’ Circle – Samuel Ringgold Ward: A life of Struggle, a biography – March 5, 2023

March 5, 2023 host

The history of anti-slavery activism is a rich and important period in American history. But there are so many stories that still have yet to be written. Samuel Ward is one of those activists; an important figure in the African-American activist community working against slavery and racism, whose story is largely lost. Our guest R. J. M. Blackett is addressing this need to tell Ward’s story in a new book, Samuel Ringgold Ward: A life of Struggle. [ dur: 58mins. ]

R. J. M. Blackett is Andrew Jackson Professor of History emeritus at Vanderbilt University. His previous books are The Captive’s Quest for Freedom: Fugitive Slaves, the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law, and the Politics of Slavery and Making Freedom: The Underground Railroad and the Politics of Slavery.

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Scholars’ Circle – De-Colonizing the Mind, Language, Culture in the American Imperium – Feb. 26, 2023

February 26, 2023 host

David Lloyd speaks with the world-renowned Kenyan novelist, playwright and poet, critic and widely influential postcolonial theorist, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o. They explore the problem of colonization of languages, his commitment to writing in his native language, and his incarceration and exile for political dissidence. And with the panel they discuss a new book of essays on his work, Ngũgĩ in the American Imperium. [ dur: 58mins. ]

Timothy J. Reiss is Professor Emeritus of Comparative Literature at New York University and recently a visiting scholar at the University of Hawaii-Manoa. His many books include Against Autonomy: Global Dialectics of Cultural Exchange. He is the editor of Ngũgĩ in the American Imperium.
Noenoe K. Silva is Kanaka Hawai’i from Kailua, O’ahu, and professor of Hawai’ian and Indogenous Politics in the Department of Politics and Cooperating faculty Kawaihuelani Center for Hawai’ian Language at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa. She is the author of Aloha Betrayed: Native Hawai’ian Resistance to American Colonialism and The Power of the Steel-Tipped Pen: Reconstructing Native Hawai’ian Intellectual History. She is a contributor to Ngũgĩ in the American Imperium.
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o is Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature and English at the University of California, Irvine. Among his many writings are Decolonising the Mind, Globalectics and his memoir Detained recently recast as Wrestling with the Devil. His most recent novel is Murogi wa Kagogo, published in English as Wizard of the Crow. His rendering of the Gikuyu epic, The Perfect Nine: The Epic of Gĩkũyũ and Mũmbi, appeared in 2019. He has been awarded numerous prestigious prizes.

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Scholars’ Circle – Turkey earthquake, disaster relief politics and humanitarian laws – Feb. 19, 2023

February 18, 2023 host

A massive earthquakes has rocked Turkey and Syria and killed thousands of people. The disaster response to this earthquake has faced challenges, including governance of the relief efforts and legal requirements under international law. We explore the relief efforts in light of scholarship on best practices and legal obligations. Who is responsible for security in the disaster zone? How much are local actors prioritized versus those who have come to the region to provide relief? And what happens when the security capacity of the affected state is so devastated by the disaster itself? [ dur: 58mins. ]

Andrea de Guttry is Professor of International Law at Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna (SSSA) in Pisa, Italy. He is the author of Foreign fighters under international law and International Disaster Response Law.
Branda Nowell is Professor at the School of Public and International Affairs at NC State University. She is the author of Public Management in an Era of the Unprecedented: Dominant Institutional Logics as a Barrier to Organizational Sensemaking and The Structure of Effective Governance of Disaster Response Networks: Insights >From the Field.
Nukhet Sandal is Associate Professor of Political Science and Associate Dean in the College of Arts & Sciences at Ohio University. She is the author of Religious populist parties, nationalism, and strategies of competition: the case of the AK Party in Turkey and Religious Leaders and Conflict Transformation. She is the Editor-in-Chief of the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of International Studies.

Earthquake Relief Organizations:

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Scholars’ Circle – Black Women intellectuals contribution to civil rights struggle; History of Cooperatives in Black Communities – Feb. 12, 2023

February 11, 2023 host

What role have black women played in the civil rights era and black empowerment in addressing issues of white supremacy? We explore the importance of black women intellectuals, the way in which they have framed the scholarship, the analysis, and policies. Hosted by Doug Becker. [ dur: 33mins. ] – Recorded March 2022.

Ashley Farmer is Associate Professor of African and African Diaspora Studies & History at the University of Texas at Austin. She is the author of Remaking Black Power: How Black Women Transformed an Era and co-editor of New Perspectives on the Black Intellectual Tradition. She is also the Co-Editor and Curator of the Black Power Series with Ibram X. Kendi.

Can worker owned cooperatives transform workers lives and livelihoods? We speak with Jessica Gordon Nembhard author of Collective Courage: A History of African American Cooperative Economic Thought and Practice. Hosted by Maria Armoudian. [ dur: 25 mins. ] – Recorded December 2016.

Jessica Gordon Nembhard is Associate Professor of Community Justice and Social Economic Development in the Department of Africana Studies at John Jay College, City University of New York. Her latest book is Collective Courage: A History of African American Cooperative Economic Thought and Practice.

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Scholars’ Circle – Causes of political and economic turmoil in Haiti – Feb. 5, 2023

February 5, 2023 host

Haiti faces a political, sociological, and economic set of crises. The country faces mass famine, with an estimated 4.7 million people facing acute hunger. With the assassination of its President, Haiti is also facing a political crisis. Officials governing the country are having a legitimacy crisis given the poor response to previous crises that have seen the Haitian people lose power, authority, even sovereignty over the nation. And international intervention has done little to help the nation, and in fact it has exacerbated the problems. How can the nation thrive in light of a history of exploitation and colonialism that has led to these crises? How can the Haitian people be empowered to seize control of their destiny? [ dur: 58mins. ]

Darlène Dubuisson is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Pittsburgh. She is the author of “Haiti: Black Utopia” and “We Know How to Work Together”: Konbit, Protest, and the Rejection of INGO Bureaucratic Dominance.
Mark Schuller is Presidential Research Professor and Professor of Anthropology and Nonprofit and NGO Studies at Northern Illinois University. He is the author of Humanitarian Aftershocks in Haiti and Killing with Kindness: Haiti, International Aid, and NGOs.
Jean-Eddy Saint Paul is Professor of Sociology at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York. He is the author of Assassinations and invasions – how the US and France shaped Haiti’s long history of political turmoil and Between Two Worlds: Jean Price-Mars, Haiti, and Africa.

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Scholars’ Circle – Politics and laws on Classified Documents ; How free is Free Speech in US? – January 29, 2023

January 28, 2023 host

We explore ongoing political, legal and normative questions about classified documents discovered in the homes of former President Donald Trump, current President Joe Biden and former Vice President Mike Pence. What is the process of classifying documents? And does the government over-classify documents? [ dur: 29mins. ]

Jeremi Suri is Professor in the Department of History and the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas, Austin. He holds the Mack Brown Distinguished Chair for Leadership in Global Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin. He is the co-author of “Problems with President Records are Not Just About Trump” with Kenneth Osgood, the author of The Impossible Presidency: The Rise and Fall of America’s Highest Office and latest book Civil War by Other Means: America’s Long and Unfinished Fight For Democracy. He is host of the podcast This is Democracy.

What are its legal, social, and political limitations of free speech? How does the advent of social media and concerns over misinformation have an impact on the exercise of free speech? And how do the new developments of free speech and its limits have an impact on the First Amendment protections? We discuss a new book You Can’t Always Say What You Want: The Paradox of Free Speech with its author Dennis Baron. [ dur: 29mins. ]

Dennis Baron is Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is a frequent commentator on language issues in the national media and has written a number of popular books, including What’s Your Pronoun? (2020).

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Scholars’ Circle – Puerto Rico considers statehood or independence ; Peru Riots challenge removal of democratically elected president – January 22, 2023

January 22, 2023 host

The island of Puerto Rico has a complex relationship with the federal government in the United States. Should it seek statehood or independence? Or is the status quo the best option for the nation. [ dur: 30mins. ]

Amílcar Antonio Barreto is Professor and Chair, Cultures, Societies, and Global Studies Department, and Interim Director of International Affairs and Political Science at Northeastern University. He is the author of American Identity, Congress and the Puerto Rico Statehood Debate and The Politics of Language in Puerto Rico Revisited.
Jorge Farinacci-Fernós is Associate Professor of Law at the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico Law School and Visiting Professor at the University of Buffalo School of Law. He is the author of The ‘New’ Insular Cases and the Territorial Clause: From Temporary Incorporation to Permanent Unincorporation and the forthcoming book Puerto Rico’s Constitutional Paradox: Colonial Subordination, Democratic Tension, and Promise of Progressive Transformation.

Then, Peru has faced ongoing protests and violence since the removal of its president at the hands of the Congress. What socioeconomic divisions in the nation have lead to this deepened political crisis? [ dur: 28mins. ]

Victoria Chonn Ching is a Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow in the Department of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Southern California. She is author of Conceptualizing China-Latin America Relations in the Twenty-First Century: The Boom, The Bust, and the Aftermath with Carol Wise and A Comparative View of Chinese Relations with Peru in China, Latin America, and the Global Economy, with Alvin Camba.
Jorge Antonio Chavez Mazuelos is a lecturer at Universidad San Ignacio de Loyola in Peru, at the International Relations Department, and is coordinator of a research group focused on Chinese Politics. He is author of The Chinese Dream of National Rejuvenation and Foreign Policy under Xi Jinping and The Evolution of Chinese Diplomacy: From Plain-Clothed Soldiers to Wolf Warriors.

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Category Archives: Scholars’ Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – The Suffragist Peace: How Women Shape the Politics of War , book author interview – March 26, 2023

Scholars’ Circle – History of American grand strategy – March 19, 2023

Scholars’ Circle – Humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh from blockade at Lachin Corridor – March 12, 2023

Scholars’ Circle – Samuel Ringgold Ward: A life of Struggle, a biography – March 5, 2023

Scholars’ Circle – De-Colonizing the Mind, Language, Culture in the American Imperium – Feb. 26, 2023

Scholars’ Circle – Turkey earthquake, disaster relief politics and humanitarian laws – Feb. 19, 2023

Scholars’ Circle – Black Women intellectuals contribution to civil rights struggle; History of Cooperatives in Black Communities – Feb. 12, 2023

Scholars’ Circle – Causes of political and economic turmoil in Haiti – Feb. 5, 2023

Scholars’ Circle – Politics and laws on Classified Documents ; How free is Free Speech in US? – January 29, 2023

Scholars’ Circle – Puerto Rico considers statehood or independence ; Peru Riots challenge removal of democratically elected president – January 22, 2023

By Maria Armoudian