Tag Archives: Feminism

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

March 23, 2025 host

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. ]

Mark LeVine is Professor of Modern Middle Eastern History in the Department of History at UC Irvine. He is the author of Why They Don’t Hate Us: Lifting the Veil on the Axis of Evil and Heavy Metal Islam: Rock, Resistance and the Soul of Islam. He is also the co-editor of One Land, Two States: Israel and Palestine as Parallel States and Religion and Social Practices and Contested Hegemonies: Reconstructing the Public Sphere in Muslim Majority Societies.
David S. Meyer is Professor of Sociology, Political Science, and Planning, Policy, and Design at UC Irvine. He is the author of The Politics of Protest: Social Movements in America and co-editor of The Resistance: The Dawn of the Anti-Trump Opposition Movement. His blog is Politics Outdoors.

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. ]

Jill Hasday is the distinguished McKnight University professor and Centennial professor of Law at the University of Minnesota Law School. She’s the author of Family Law Re-imagined, Intimate Lies in the Law, and her new book We the Men, how forgetting women’s Struggles for equality perpetuates inequality. She is editor-in-chief of Constitutional Commentary.

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Scholars' Circle Interviews

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

March 15, 2025 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

This interview was recorded April 2024.

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – The Suffragist Peace: How Women Shape the Politics of War – April 14, 2024

April 14, 2024 host

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

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Abortion limits and its consequence – September 24, 2023

September 23, 2023 host

Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe V. Wade, what are the legal and medical ramifications of the huge geographical swaths of women who have no access to abortion? We discuss reproductive healthcare in a post-Dobbs world. What has it meant for the medical profession and the ways in which it had to alter some of the ways healthcare is provided? How have women sought to secure access to abortion in the areas of the country where it is not legal? Mifepristone, the medicine used to terminate pregnancy, faces severe challenges and restrictions. What does this mean for access to medicinal abortion access? What can the areas where it is legal do to help their counterparts in red states? [dur: 58mins. ]

Greer Donley is an Associate Professor of Law at the University Pittsburgh Law School. She is the author of Medication Abortion Exceptionalism, and co-author of Abortion, Pregnancy Loss, and Subjective Fetal Personhood (with Jill Wieber Lens) and The New Abortion Battleground (with David S. Cohen and Rachel Rebouché) was cited by the Supreme Court’s dissent in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
Carole Joffe is Professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco. She is the author of Doctors of Conscience: The Struggle to Provide Abortion before and after Roe v. Wade, Dispatches from the Abortion Wars: The Costs of Fanaticism to Doctors, Patients and the Rest of Us and co-author of Obstacle Course: The Everyday Struggle to Get an Abortion in America.
Robin Marty is Executive Director for the West Alabama Women’s Center and a freelance reporter. She’s the author of Handbook for a Post-Roe America and co-author of The End of Roe v. Wade: Inside the Right’s Plan to Destroy Legal Abortion.

West Alabama Women’s Center: https://alreprohealth.com/

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Women protest in Iran, a persistent struggle – April 2, 2023

April 2, 2023 host

After the murder of Mahsa Amini by morality police Iran has seen protests, demonstrations, and an ongoing resistance movement against its regime. What best explains the origins and persistence of this movement? What has influenced Iran’s resistant movement? We will explore the status of women and the history of women’s rights movement in Iran. [ dur: 58mins. ]

Also, Iran has a substantial number of diaspora around the world. They help frame the issues that are occurring inside its borders. What is the interaction between Iranians abroad and Iranians in Iran and the resistance movement going on right now in the nation?

Persis Karim is the Neda Nobari Chair of the Center for Iranian Diaspora Studies and a professor in the Comparative and World Literature department at SF State. She is the author of Let Me Tell You Where I’ve Been: New Writing by Women of the Iranian Diaspora.
Nayereh Tohidi is Professor Emerita in the Department of Gender & Women’s Studies and Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at California State University, Northridge. She is the author of Women’s Rights and Feminist Movements in Iran.

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Conflict Resolution in Post Communist Eurasia and Power of ideas to shape Nation States – October 2, 2022

October 2, 2022 host

Regions have the resilience to manage conflicts and ensure they do not spread to other countries. Our guest Anna Ohanyan examines the factors that help build this resilience. She is the author of The Neighborhood Effect: The Imperial Roots of Regional Fracture in Post-Communist Eurasia. [ dur: 30mins. ]

Anna Ohanyan is the Richard B. Finnegan Distinguished Professor of Political Science and International Relations at Stonehill College. She is the editor of Russia Abroad: Driving Regional Fracture in Post-Communist Eurasia and Beyond and her latest book The Neighborhood Effect: The Imperial Roots of Regional Fracture in Post-Communist Eurasia.

Then, our panel looks at the power of ideas to shape countries, foreign policies, international power structures and the world. [ dur: 28mins. ]

From our archive, originally recorded in December 2012:

Liz Borgwardt is Associate Professor of Human Rights History and International Law at Washington University in St. Louis. She currently serves as the Richard and Ann Pozen Visiting Professor of Human Rights at the University of Chicago. She is the author of Constitutionalizing Human Rights: The Rise and Rise of the Nuremberg Principles, The Guardians: The League of Nations and the Crisis of Empire and the award-winning book, A New Deal for the World: America’s Vision for Human Rights.
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 Dawn of a Global Age and Rethinking American Grand Strategy.
Tim Lynch is Associate Professor of American Politics at the University of Melbourne. He is the author of In the Shadow of the Cold War: American Foreign Policy from George Bush Sr. to Donald Trump and co-author of After Bush: the Case for Continuity in American Foreign Policy.

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Women’s Reproductive Health post-Roe – May 15, 2022

May 15, 2022 host

As the US Supreme Court indicates its likelihood of overturning the landmark decision enshrining women’s reproductive control on abortion, Roe v. Wade, women throughout the country are wrestling with strategies to ensure continued abilities to terminate unwanted pregnancies. This legal development has been anticipated. The drastic shift to the right of the Court has, for years, compelled abortion advocates to develop alternative strategies for women. If Roe v. Wade is in fact overturned, what will women do to maintain sovereignty over their own bodies? What will a post-Roe world mean for women’s reproductive health?

Can reframing reproductive rights influence how people understand the issues related to abortion? Would the phrase “reproductive justice” offer a more accurate view than previous frames such as “reproductive rights” or “rights to privacy?”. [ dur: 58mins. ]

Rachel Rebouché is the Interim Dean of Temple University Beasley School of Law and the James E. Beasley Professor of Law. She is the author of Abortion Rights as Human Rights, co-author of “Eugenic Abortions” and the Problematic Popularity of the Reason-Based Ban and The New Abortion Battleground.
Lina-Maria Murillo is Assistant Professor at the University of Iowa. She is the author of Birth Control, Border Control: The Movement for Contraception in El Paso, Texas 1936–1940 and Fighting for Control: Power, Reproductive Care, and Race in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands.
Robin Marty is the Communications Director for the West Alabama Women’s Center and a freelance reporter. She’s the author of Handbook for a Post-Roe America and co-author of The End of Roe v. Wade: Inside the Right’s Plan to Destroy Legal Abortion.

Community of Womens’ Health advocates:

Repro Legal Defense fund – https://reprolegaldefensefund.org
If/When/How – https://www.ifwhenhow.org/ , lawyers for reproductive justice

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Roe v Wade is likely to be overturned by US Supreme Court – September 19, 2021

September 18, 2021 host

The Supreme Court signaled with their upholding of the Texas abortion law that Roe v Wade is likely to be overturned. What does this mean for the reproductive rights of women around the country, and in particular women of color and poorer women? Is it the end of women’s rights to reproductive choice established by Roe v Wade? We look at how are many women ensuring access to abortions in light of the closure of abortion clinics. [ dur: 58mins. ]

Rachel Rebouché is the Interim Dean of Temple University Beasley School of Law and the James E. Beasley Professor of Law. She is the co-author of “Eugenic Abortions” and the Problematic Popularity of the Reason-Based Ban, What the Public Gets Wrong About “Reason-Based” Abortion Bans, and The federal suit against Texas’s abortion law may fail. It’s still worthwhile.
Lina-Maria Murillo is Assistant Professor at the University of Iowa. She is the author of an upcoming manuscript Fighting for Control: Power, Reproductive Care, and Race in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands.
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
Sanford Levinson is W. St. John Garwood and W. St. John Garwood, Jr. Centennial Chair in Law at the University of Texas Law School. He is the author of many publications including Our Undemocratic Constitution: Where the Constitution Goes Wrong (and How We the People Can Correct It) and Framed: America’s 51 Constitutions and the Crisis of Governance and, with Cynthia Levinson, Fault Lines in the Constitution: The Framers, Their Fights, and the Flaws that Affect Us Today.

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle-Children of Incarcerated Parents in US-/-Permanent National Security State-/-Polarized Politics from Sexual Counter Revolution-/-October 18th, 2015

October 17, 2015 host

First, what are the life chances of children of incarcerated parents? [ dur: 9 mins. ]

Christopher Wildeman is a Professor of Sociology, a faculty fellow at the Center for Research on Inequalities and the Life Course (CIQLE), and a faculty fellow at the Institution for Social and Policy Studies (ISPS) at Yale University

Then, how did the US become permanent national security state and how has that affected our democratic process? [ dur: 19 mins. ]

Julian Zelizer is a Professor of History and Public Affairs, Princeton University. He is the author of “Arsenal of Democracy: The Politics of National Security From World War II to the War on Terrorism”.

Finally, did the sexual counter revolution polarize American politics? We speak with Nancy Cohen. [ dur: 27 mins. ]

Nancy L. Cohen is an author, historian, and leading national expert on women and American politics. She is the author of, “Delirium: How the Sexual Counterrevolution is Polarizing America”.

Find book/publication authored by our guest scholars Book Shelf .

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle -American Dream and Reality -/- Reaction-to-Terrorist Threat-/-Fundamentalism -Oct. 12th, 2014

October 11, 2014 host

First, we look at the gap between the American Dream and reality, with Miles Corak, professor of economics with the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa. [ dur: 13mins. ]

Miles Corak is professor of economics with the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottowa. He is the author of, Generational Income Mobility in North America and Europe

Then, are the high alerts, embassy closures, and the national surveillance state reasonable reactions to the threat of terrorist acts? Our next guests suggest that the government may be overreacting. We are joined by John Mueller and Mark G. Stewart, authors of, “Terror, Security, and Money: Balancing the Risks, Benefits, and Costs of Homeland Security.” [ dur: 17mins. ]

John Mueller is a research scientist and professor of political science at Ohio State University and author of Retreat from Doomsday and War, Presidents and Public Opinion.
Mark Stewart is a professor of civil engineering and director of the Center for Infrastructure , Performance and Reliability at the University of Newcastle in Australia.

Finally, on the Scholars’ Circle panel, in many parts of the world fundamentalism is on the rise oppressing human rights, sometimes using bodily harm and even death. Simultaneously, the international community has been ineffective in helping the scholars, journalists, human rights advocates and artists who are struggling against the oppression. How bad is the situation and what can be done? [ dur: 28mins. ]

Karima Benoune, Professor of Law at UC Davis, School of Law; Author of Your Fatwa Does Not Apply Here: Untold Stories from the Fight Against Muslim Fundamentalism
Ousseina Alidou, Professor at Center African Studies, Rutgers University; Author of Engaging Modernity: Muslim Women and the Politics of Agency in Post-colonial Niger (Women in Africa and the Diaspora) and Muslim Women in Postcolonial Kenya: Leadership, Representation, and Social Change
Sadia Abbas; Professor of English at Rutgers University; At Freedom’s Limit: Islam and the Postcolonial Predicament

Visit our Store [ lists books written by each on this panel ]

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

The Scholars' Circle Interviews

Tag Archives: Feminism

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

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

Scholars’ Circle – The Suffragist Peace: How Women Shape the Politics of War – April 14, 2024

Scholars’ Circle – Abortion limits and its consequence – September 24, 2023

Scholars’ Circle – Women protest in Iran, a persistent struggle – April 2, 2023

Scholars’ Circle – Conflict Resolution in Post Communist Eurasia and Power of ideas to shape Nation States – October 2, 2022

Scholars’ Circle – Women’s Reproductive Health post-Roe – May 15, 2022

Scholars’ Circle – Roe v Wade is likely to be overturned by US Supreme Court – September 19, 2021

Scholars’ Circle -American Dream and Reality -/- Reaction-to-Terrorist Threat-/-Fundamentalism -Oct. 12th, 2014

By Maria Armoudian