Tag Archives: Politics and Activism

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. ]

Douglas P. Fry is Professor and Chair of the Department of Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He is the author of Beyond War, The Human Potential for Peace, and Nurturing Our Humanity, co-authored with Riane Eisler.
Robert L. Kelley is Professor of Anthropology at University of Wyoming. He is the author of The Lifeways of Hunter-Gatherers, The Foraging Spectrum, and The Fifth Beginning: What Six Million Years of Human History Can Tell us About Our Future.

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

Douglas P. Fry is Professor and Chair of the Department of Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He is the author of Beyond War, The Human Potential for Peace, and Nurturing Our Humanity, co-authored with Riane Eisler.
Mari Fitzduff, Professor of International program of coexistence and conflict at Brandeis University. She is the author of The Psychology of Resolving Global Conflicts: From War to Peace
Douglas Noll is a lawyer and a mediator of peacemaking. Author of Peacemaking: Practicing at the Intersection of Law and Human Conflict.

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.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

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

April 7, 2025 host

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. ]

Jennifer Selin is Associate Professor of Law at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University. She’s written numerous articles, and in particular, Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelans to El Salvador sparks light Legal questions likely to reach the Supreme Court.
Victor Narro is Project Director for the UCLA Labor Center and Core Faculty for the UCLA Department of Labor Studies. He teaches immigration law and is author of The Activist Spirit – Toward a Radical Solidarity and No One Size Fits All: Worker Organization, Policy, and Movement in a New Economic Age (Cornell University Press, 2018) and others.
Andrea Pitzer is an author and podcaster. She’s written One Long Night, a global history of concentration camps. This traces the idea of mass civilian detention without trial from its beginnings through Auschwitz and beyond, including up to today. She’s also the host of the podcast, Next Comes What.

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

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

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

April 1, 2025 host

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.

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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.

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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.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Trump’s violations of US Constitution – March 2, 2025

March 2, 2025 host

Is the US in a Constitutional crisis? Is the constitution itself a crisis? What are the specific actions of the Trump Administration that has led to this? How will the courts respond? And what is the unitary executive theory and how has it undermined the checks and balances of the system? [ dur: 58mins. ]

Heidi Kitrosser is Professor of Law at the University of Minnesota Law School. She is the author of the book, Reclaiming Accountability: Transparency, Executive Power, and the U.S. Constitution, and the articles, The Shadow of Executive Privilege, and Accountability in the Deep State.
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 and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Book author interviews: The fight for black literacy, women intellectuals of the civil rights movement – February 23, 2025

February 24, 2025 host

We honor Black History Month.

The South outlawed black literacy all the way until the Civil War. What was this war on black literacy and how did educators resist this law? [ dur: 32mins. ]

Derek Black is professor of law in the Ernest F. Hollings chair in constitutional law at the University of South Carolina’s School of Law. He’s the author of numerous articles, and his book is Dangerous Learning The South’s long war on Black Literacy.

Then, Black women have long been at the forefront of black empowerment. What were their intellectual contributions during the civil rights era? we discuss the women intellectuals of the civil rights movement. [ dur: 26mins. ]
This interview was recorded February 2023.

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.

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

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Deep State, Public Services in a democracy – February 16, 2025

February 16, 2025 host

The Trump Administration is actively seeking to destroy the public service and the protections offered by government. What does this mean for the future of the democracy and for the future of the country? Who will will stand up for public services that we’ve long come to rely on for public safety, clean water, air, health and financial protections? What is the role of the courts in preventing Trump’s complete takeover of the government. Can the courts slow down the the destruction of the public service? [ dur: 58mins. ]

Mark Tushnet is William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law Emeritus at Harvard Law School. He’s the author of The Pasts and Futures of the Administrative State And Trust the science, do your research. Comment on the unfortunate revival of the progressive case for the administrative state.
Stephen Skowronek is Pelatiah Perit Professor of Political Science and Professor in the Institution for Social and Policy Studies at Yale University. His publications include, The Policy State: An American Predicament, The Search for American Political Development and co-author of the book Phantoms of a Beleaguered Republic: The Deep State and the Unitary Executive
John A. Dearborn is a Assistant Professor of Political Science and Carolyn T. and Robert M. Rogers Dean’s Faculty Fellow at Vanderbilt University. He is the author of Power Shifts: Congress and Presidential Representation and co-author of the Phantoms of a Beleaguered Republic: The Deep State and the Unitary Executive.

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

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Immigrants to US and how they are treated by its Laws and Executive power of US Presidents – February 9, 2025

February 9, 2025 host

What exactly is the political, physical, and existential meanings of borders? Borders are human creations but often define state and national boundaries and even identities. They define belonging to a nation. And under this new administration, borders have become the most visible feature not just of policy but who belongs in the United States. Our first guest has written a new book on borders and their impact on our conversations on immigration, borders, and belonging. Hiroshi Motomura is the author of BORDERS AND BELONGING: TOWARDS A FAIR IMMIGRATION POLICY. [ dur: 27mins. ]

Hiroshi Motomura, the Susan Westerberg Prager Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is the author of Americans in Waiting: The Lost Story of Immigration and Citizenship in the United States (Oxford 2006) and his newest book Borders and Belonging: Toward a Fair Immigration Policy.

Then, the Trump Administration’s approach to immigration, the raids, mass deportations, concentration camps, and shipping people to Guantanamo Bay, may all be illegal. What is the relationship between law and national values and identity, and what legal changes has President Trump proposed? How are communities responding to ICE? [ dur: 31mins. ]

Victor Narro, Project Director for the UCLA Labor Center and Core Faculty for the UCLA Department of Labor Studies; He teaches immigration law and is author of The Activist Spirit – Toward a Radical Solidarity (Hard Ball Press 2022) , No One Size Fits All: Worker Organization, Policy, and Movement in a New Economic Age (Cornell University Press, 2018) and others.
Hiroshi Motomura, the Susan Westerberg Prager Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is the author of Americans in Waiting: The Lost Story of Immigration and Citizenship in the United States (Oxford 2006) and his newest book Borders and Belonging: Toward a Fair Immigration Policy.

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

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The Scholars' Circle Interviews

Tag Archives: Politics and Activism

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

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

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

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 – Trump’s violations of US Constitution – March 2, 2025

Scholars’ Circle – Book author interviews: The fight for black literacy, women intellectuals of the civil rights movement – February 23, 2025

Scholars’ Circle – Deep State, Public Services in a democracy – February 16, 2025

Scholars’ Circle – Immigrants to US and how they are treated by its Laws and Executive power of US Presidents – February 9, 2025

By Maria Armoudian