Category Archives: Scholars’ Circle Interviews

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

Scholars’ Circle – How Haiti became an impoverished nation due to External and Internal Forces – September 5, 2021

September 6, 2021 host

Haiti has yet again suffered through a major political crises and an earthquake. Is the humanitarian and economic aid coming from abroad helping or harming the nation?
A parallel government of NGO’s may have removed sovereignty from the Haitian people. What does this mean for the county, its people and their future. [ dur: 58mins. ]

Mark Schuller is 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 in the Department of Sociology, and Founding Director of the CUNY Haitian Studies Institute. He is the author of the article Assassinations and invasions – how the US and France shaped Haiti’s long history of political turmoil and Understanding Haiti through the power of the social force in interaction.
Barrymore A. Bogues is Asa Messer Professor of Humanities and Critical Theory, Professor of Africana Studies and Director of the Center of the Study of Slavery and Justice at Brown University. He is the author of Empire of Liberty: Power, Freedom and Desire, The George Lamming Reader: The Aesthetics of Decolonization and Haiti: A saga of democracy, sovereignty and state rule.

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

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Afghanistan, US ends 20 year stay and Taliban Takeover – August 29, 2021

August 28, 2021 host

The conflict in Afghanistan has transformed with the US withdrawal. We examine why the government fell and the impact on the country and the region.

What are the security threats within the country and the potential for increased violence with the fall of the government in Afghanistan? [ dur: 58mins. ]

Thomas H. Johnson is a Research Professor of the National Security Affairs Department at the Naval Postgraduate School as well the Director of the Program for Culture & Conflict Studies. He is the author of Taliban Narratives: The Uses and Power of Stories in the Afghanistan Conflict.
Amin Tarzi is the Director of Middle East Studies at the Marine Corps University. He is the co-editor of Taliban and the Crisis in Afghanistan with Professor Robert D. Crews. He is the author of Iran, Russia, and the Taliban: Reassessing the Future of the Afghan State.
Robert Crews is Professor of History at Stanford University. He is the author of Afghan Modern: The History of a Global Nation and co-editor of Under the Drones: Modern Lives in the Afghanistan-Pakistan Borderlands.
Steve Swerdlow is Associate Professor of the Practice of Human Rights in the Department of Political and International Relations at the University of Southern California. He was Senior Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch. He has conducted extensive field work internationally with a particular focus on Central Asia and the Caucuses.

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

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – IPCC report analyzed, importance of Mitigation to assist Adaptation to new climate realities – August 22, 2021

August 21, 2021 host

The IPCC’s assessment on climate change warns us of the environmental risk if we don’t take dramatic action. We explore the report, the state of scientific research on climate change, and the need for political action. What actions do we need to take to mitigate and adapt to climate change?

Jennifer Allan is Lecturer in International Relations in the School of Law and Politics at Cardiff University. She is the author of The new climate activism: NGO authority and participation in global climate governance and A net-zero emissions economic recovery from COVID-19.
Gabriel Vicchi is Professor in the Department of Geosciences and High Meadows Environmental Institute and Director of the High Meadows Environmental Institute (HMEI) at Princeton University. He is also Deputy Director of the Cooperative Institute for Modeling the Earth System (CIMES). He is the author of Causes of large projected increases in hurricane precipitation rates with global warming, Increased frequency of extreme La Niña events under greenhouse warming and Weakening of the North American monsoon with global warming.
Stephen R. Palumbi is Jane and Marshall Steel Jr. Professor in Marine Sciences at Stanford University and the Harold A. Miller Director of the Hopkins Marine Station. He is the co-author of Using naturally occurring climate resilient corals to construct bleaching-resistant nurseries, Ocean acidification causes variable trait shifts in a coral species, and Impacts of biodiversity loss on ocean ecosystem services.
Pamels Chasek is Professor and Chair of the Political Science Department at Manhattan College. She is the author of Global Environmental Politics and co-editor of The Roads from Rio: Lessons Learned from Twenty Years of Multilateral Environmental Negotiations.

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

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Scholars’ Circle – Election Laws in America ; Underestimated Impact of Seabed Mining – August 15, 2021

August 14, 2021 host

Since the 2020 election, Republican state legislators have passed a series of laws intended to shrink the number of eligible voters in future elections. What are the legal implications and what does this mean for the future of American democracy? Hosted by Doug Becker. [ dur: 36mins. ]

Nicholas Stephanopoulos is Kirkland & Ellis Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. He is the author of The New Vote Dilution, Election Litigation in the Time of the Pandemic and Depoliticizing Redistricting.
Kimberly Wehle is Professor of Law at the University of Baltimore School of Law. She is the author of What You Need to Know about Voting—and Why and How to Read The Constitution—and Why.

The search for minerals is leading some corporations to begin mining the ocean floor but scientists warn that this could devastate fragile ecosystems that will have repercussions that we still don’t understand. What is going on in the deep sea? What precautions should be taken to prevent devastating fragile ecosystems? hosted by Maria Armooudian. [ dur: 22mins. ]

Craig Smith is Professor of Oceanography at the University of Hawai’i.
Verena Tunnicliffe is a marine biologist at the University of Victoria in Canada where she holds a Canada Research Chair in Deep Ocean Research.

They are co-authors of the study Deep Sea Misconceptions Cause Underestimation of Seabed-Mining Impacts.

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

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Scholars’ Circle – Cubans, Protest and Demand – August 8, 2021

August 8, 2021 host

We discuss the ongoing political climate in Cuba and the US response to them. How much is the US responsible for this state? And how should the US respond to the protests? [ dur: 58mins. ]

Lillian Guerra is professor of Cuban and Caribbean History at the University of Florida. She is the author of Heroes, Martyrs and Political Messiahs in Revolutionary Cuba, 1946-1958 and the forthcoming Patriots and Traitors in Cuba: Political Pedagogy, Rehabilitation and Vanguard Youth, 1961-1981. She has also authored the article Cubans Want Much More Than an End to the U.S. Embargo.
Brian Fonseca is Director of the Jack D. Gordon Institute for Public Policy and an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Politics and International Relations at Florida International University’s (FIU) Steven J. Green School of International and Public Affairs. He is the author of Culture and National Security in the Americas and the co-author of Democracy and Security in Latin America with Orlando Perez and Gabriel Marcella.
Richard Feinberg is a Professor of International Political Economy at the School of Global Policy and Strategy at the University of California, San Diego. He is the author of Open for Business: Building the New Cuban Economy.

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

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Filibuster, it’s history and when is it used in US Congress ; How and Why Peaceful Nuclear technologies was leveraged by US foreign policy makers – August 1, 2021

July 31, 2021 host

The filibuster threatens to block a great deal of the Democratic Party’s legislative wish list. We examine its history, its function in democracy, and its future. [ dur: 29min. ]

Jeremi Suri is Professor in the Department of History and the LBJ School of Public Affairs at 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 author of The Impossible Presidency: The Rise and Fall of America’s Highest Office and Foreign Policy Breakthroughs: Cases in Successful Diplomacy

Then, we explore a new book on the peaceful uses of nuclear power: The Wretched Atom by Jacob Hamblin.[ dur: 29mins. ]

Jacob Hamblin is Professor of History at Oregon State University. His books include Poison in the Well: Radioactive Waste in the Oceans at the Dawn of the Nuclear Age, Oceanographers and the Cold War, Arming Mother Nature: The Birth of Catastrophic Environmentalism and his latest The Wretched Atom: America’s Global Gamble with Peaceful Nuclear Technology.

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

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Scholars’ Circle – How are Environmental policies formed? and How is climate change reshaping oceans and marine life? – July 18, 2021

July 20, 2021 host

A look at changes in environmental policies on local, state, national and international levels. How are they formed? How do they converge? [ dur: 12mins. ]

Astrid Carrapatoso is assistant professor of political science at University of Feiberg, Germany. She has published many studies on climate change policy implemented by local, state, national and international governments. She is the author of The Greening of Free Trade: Domestic Politics and Environmental Issues in New Zealand’s Free Trade Agreement Negotiations and co-editor of Climate-Resilient Development: Participatory solutions from developing countries. List of her publications can be found here .

How is climate change affecting the oceans and marine life? What are the interactions between the earth, the atmosphere, and the ocean, and how does that affect human life? What measures can people take to prevent massive environmental damage? [ dur: 46mins. ]

Karina Nielsen is Professor of Biology and Executive Director of Estuary and Ocean Science Center at San Francisco State University. She is the co-author of California’s 4th Climate Assessment: Coast and Ocean Summary Report and Emerging understanding of seagrass and kelp as an ocean acidification management tool in California, and Are meta-ecosystems organized hierarchically? A model and test in rocky inter-tidal habitats.
Stephen R. Palumbi is Jane and Marshall Steel Jr. Professor in Marine Sciences at Stanford University and the Harold A. Miller Director of the Hopkins Marine Station. He is the co-author of numerous publications including Using naturally occurring climate resilient corals to construct bleaching-resistant nurseries, Cobble community DNA as a tool to monitor patterns of biodiversity within kelp forest ecosystems, and Impacts of biodiversity loss on ocean ecosystem services.
Scott Doney is Joe D. and Helen J. Kington Professor in Environmental Change in the Department of Environmental Sciences at University of Virginia. He is the co-author of numerous publications including A comprehensive global oceanic dataset of helium isotope and tritium measurements , Strengthened scientific support for the Endangerment Finding for atmospheric greenhouse gases , and Anthropogenic ocean acidification over the twenty-first century and its impact on calcifying organisms.

For a transcript of this interview, please visit: TheBigQ.

This program is produced by Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Ethiopia and Tigray Region Crisis, cause and effect on regional politics – July 11, 2021

July 11, 2021 host

War has broken out in Northern Ethiopia in the Tigray region. What is the cause, and what are the implications for the nation and the region? What are the prospects for peace and what can international actors do to facilitate this process? [ dur: 58mins. ]

Ann Fitz-Gerald is the Director of the Balsillie School of International Affairs and a Professor in Wilfrid Laurier University’s Political Science Department. She is the author of Ethiopia in Turmoil, Ethiopia: A New Proxy Battlespace? and As G7 Leaders Gather, Canada Should Not “Blindly Follow” U.S. Lead on Africa.
Aly Verjee is a nonresident senior advisor to the Africa program at the U. S. Institute of Peace. He is the author of Five Steps to Sustain a Cease-Fire in Northern Ethiopia and What Ethiopia’s Brewing Conflict Means for the Country—and the Region.
Yohannes Gedamu is Lecturer of Political Science at Georgia Gwinnett College. He is the author of the forthcoming book The Politics of Contemporary Ethiopia: Ethnic Federalism and Authoritarian Survival.

This program is produced with generous contribution from Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Economic Systems in the age of Climate Change induced collapse – July 4, 2021

July 3, 2021 host

Why do sustainable business initiatives so often fail? What fundamental changes we need from societies and the economic system to stem a climate change induced collapse? What economic systems might work on a planet with a finite capacity to sustain life? [ dur: 58 mins.]

Christopher Wright is Professor of Organisational Studies, Discipline of Strategy, Innovation & Entrepreneurship at the University of Sydney Business School.
Daniel Nyberg is Professor of Management at Newcastle Business School and an Honorary Professor at the University of Sydney.

Together they have co-authored Climate Change, Capitalism and Corporations: Processes of Creative Self-destruction.

This program is produced with generous contribution from Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

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The Scholars' Circle Interviews

Category Archives: Scholars’ Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – How Haiti became an impoverished nation due to External and Internal Forces – September 5, 2021

Scholars’ Circle – Afghanistan, US ends 20 year stay and Taliban Takeover – August 29, 2021

Scholars’ Circle – IPCC report analyzed, importance of Mitigation to assist Adaptation to new climate realities – August 22, 2021

Scholars’ Circle – Election Laws in America ; Underestimated Impact of Seabed Mining – August 15, 2021

Scholars’ Circle – Cubans, Protest and Demand – August 8, 2021

Scholars’ Circle – Filibuster, it’s history and when is it used in US Congress ; How and Why Peaceful Nuclear technologies was leveraged by US foreign policy makers – August 1, 2021

Scholars’ Circle – How are Environmental policies formed? and How is climate change reshaping oceans and marine life? – July 18, 2021

Scholars’ Circle – Ethiopia and Tigray Region Crisis, cause and effect on regional politics – July 11, 2021

Scholars’ Circle – Economic Systems in the age of Climate Change induced collapse – July 4, 2021

By Maria Armoudian