Tag Archives: Politics and Activism

Scholars’ Circle – Insight into Ethnic Conflict in Autocratic Uzbekistan and Tajikistan ; Creative Lawyers for Human Rights – September 11, 2022

September 12, 2022 host

Protests across Central Asia have rocked the nations of the former Soviet republics of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

The states’ violent suppression of these movements have killed hundreds and undermined human rights protections. We explore the roots of these conflicts and what these violent crackdown mean for human rights, democracy, transparency and peace in the region. [ dur: 31mins. ]

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.
Suzanne Levi-Sanchez is Visiting Scholar at Harvard University’s Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies. She is the author of The Afghan-Central Asia Borderlands: The State and Local Leaders, Bridging State and Civil Society: Informal Organizations in Tajik/Afghan Badakhshan, and The assassination that shook the Pamir Mountains to the core.

We interview Maria Armoudian who has authored a book on international human rights and the role that lawyers have played at advancing cases against human rights abusers. [ dur: 27mins. ]

Maria Armoudian is a lecturer at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. She is the author of the books Reporting from the Danger Zone: Frontline Journalists, Their Jobs and an Increasingly Perilous Future, Kill the Messenger: The Media’s Role in the Fate of the World, and her most recent Lawyers Beyond Borders : Advancing International Human Rights Through Local Laws and Courts . Maria is a host and anchor of the Scholars’ Circle.

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Scholars’ Circle – Impact of Union Organizations on Labor Rights in USA – September 4, 2022

September 4, 2022 host

In honor of Labor Day weekend, we explore the state of labor in the United States and we take stock in the impact of Union organization in America. We consider some of the high profile labor cases, such as Union organization at Starbucks, Amazon, Apple, and Trader Joe’s.

We also examine labor history and look at the role that race and gender have played in growing the labor movement.[ dur: 58mins. ]

Lane Windham is Associate Director of the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor at Georgetown University. She is the author of Knocking on Labor’s Door: Union Organizing in the 1970s and the Roots of a New Economic Divide, Strengthening workers’ right to organize is 50 years overdue and co-author of Explaining the erosion of private-sector unions.
Jon Shelton is Associate Professor and Chair of Democracy and Justice Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. He is the author of Teacher Strike! Public Education and the Making of a New American Political Order, and forthcoming in 2023, The Education Myth: How Human Capital Trumped Social Democracy.
John Logan is Professor and Chair of Labor and Employment Studies at San Francisco State University. He is the author of Crushing Unions, by Any Means Necessary: How Amazon’s Blistering Anti-Union Campaign Won in Bessemer, Alabama, Not Your Father’s Anti-Union Movement: Ten Key Facts About Starbucks’ Union Avoidance Law Firm, Littler Mendelson and The Movement to Eliminate Labor’s Political Voice (book chapter, 2014)

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Scholars’ Circle – Roots of Goodness and Resistance to Evil – Part II; What is Race and Ethnicity – August 14, 2022

August 14, 2022 host

First, we continue our conversation with preeminent psychology scholar Ervin Staub. Last week we discussed how to build peaceful societies, particularly when some groups have been traumatized by violence, war or genocide. Erwin Staub’s latest book is The Roots of Goodness and Resistance to Evil. This is part two of our discussion. [ dur: 33mins. ]

Ervin Staub is a Professor of Psychology Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and Founding Director of its Ph.D. concentration in the Psychology of Peace and Violence.

Then, what is race? How is it distinct from ethnicity? And what do they mean for politics and society? [ dur: 25mins. ]

David Livingstone Smith is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of New England. He is the author of Less Than Human: Why we Demean, Enslave and Exterminate Others and The Most Dangerous Animal: Human Nature and the Origins of War.
Garrett Albert Duncan is Associate Professor of Education in Arts & Sciences. He also teaches African & African American Studies at Washington University in St. Louis. His publications are listed here.

This show was recorded on June 2015

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Scholars’ Circle – Regulatory challenges for EPA after West Virginia v. EPA Decision of 2022 – July 17, 2022

July 16, 2022 host

The Supreme Court has weakened executive agencies and their ability to regulate and make policy. No agency has been more affected than the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). What is next for environmental protection? [ dur: 58mins. ]

Traditionally, the US Supreme Court has given executive branch agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency quite a bit of latitude at enforcing Congressional legislation. This principle is called Chevron deference. But in this term, the Supreme Court weakened this principle significantly, in particular in the area of environmental protection. In West Virginia v EPA, the Court signaled that the EPA can only enforce on areas specifically outlined by Congress. Specifically, it weakened the agency’s ability to take regulatory steps to combat climate change. We will discuss what this means for the EPA, for public policy, and for the US’s ability to make international commitments on the environment.

Joel A. Mintz is Professor Emeritus of Law and C. William Trout Senior Fellow in Public Interest Law at Nova Southeastern University Law Center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He is the author of Enforcement at the EPA: High Stakes and Hard Choices and “Thinking Beyond Gridlock: Towards A Consistent Statutory Approach To Federal Environmental Enforcement“.
Richard N. L. (Pete) Andrews is a Faculty Fellow of the Institute for the Environment and Professor Emeritus in the Department of Public Policy at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is the author of Managing the Environment, Managing Ourselves: A History of American Environmental Policy.
Pamela Chasek is Professor and Chair of the Political Science Department at Manhattan College. She is the author of Global Environmental Politics.

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Scholars’ Circle – We examine post Roe world of Women’s health care – July 10, 2022

July 11, 2022 host

Women have lost their constitutional right of bodily autonomy and the right to an abortion in the United States. We discuss the impact of the overturning of Roe v Wade with an emphasis on the future legal struggles, as well as, the social challenge of ensuring reproductive health and equality. How has the discourse around abortion shifted? What has altered about the way we think and talk about abortions and the right to abortions? We look at Crisis Pregnancy Centers and their impact. Also, we explore the role of the federal government. [ 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).
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.
Aziza Ahmed is Professor of Law at Boston University School of Law. She is the author of The Future of Facts: The Politics of Public Health and Medicine in Abortion Law, Informed Decision Making and Abortion: Crisis Pregnancy Centers, Informed Consent, and the First Amendment, and Medical Evidence and Expertise in Abortion Jurisprudence .
Cary Franklin is a Professor of Law at UCLA and the Faculty Director of UCLA’s Center on Reproductive Health, Law, and Policy. She is the author of Roe As We Know It, Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt and What It Means to Protect Women and Living Textualism.

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Scholars’ Circle – States’ Rights to Legislate Gun Violence restricted by SCOTUS – July 3, 2022

July 3, 2022 host

The US Supreme Court, in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v Bruen, ruled that state laws must reflect a Second Amendment protection that allows for individuals to carry guns for personal protection outside of their homes. We examine the future of gun control legislation in light of the Court’s rejection of state power to restrict gun ownership to private homes and gun clubs, thus, restricting the legislator’s ability to address gun violence. Historically, how have courts and legislators viewed the second amendment to the constitution?

Who are the victims of gun violence? Most victims are from intimate partner violence, suicide and homicide? We explore the impact of the proliferation of weapons in the United States. [ dur: 58mins. ]

Robert J. Spitzer is Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the State University of New York, College at Cortland. He is the author of the books Guns Across America: Reconciling Gun Rules And Rights, The Politics of Gun Control, and his latest article on the NYSRPA v. Bruen decision, How the Supreme Court rewrote history to justify its flawed gun decision.
Carl T. Bogus is Professor of Law at Roger Williams University School of Law. He is the editor of The Second Amendment in Law and History: Historians and Constitutional Scholars on the Right to Bear Arms and the author of The Hard, Simple Truth about Gun Control,” and Gun Control and America’s Cities: Public Policy and Politics.
David Hemenway is Professor of Health Policy and Director of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center. He is the author of Private Guns Public Health Reducing Firearm Violence, and How the US can have guns but fewer gun problems.

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Scholars’ Circle – US Supreme Court decisions and American Law ; Insights on the Pink wave in Latin America – June 26, 2022

June 26, 2022 host

What are the US Supreme Court’s decisions from this year’s docket? We will explore some of these decisions and what it means for the future of American law. [ dur: 25mins. ]

Erwin Chemerinsky is the Dean and Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. His many publications include, most recently, Presumed Guilty: How the Supreme Court Empowered the Police and Subverted Civil Rights, and The Religion Clauses: The Case for Separating Church and State (with Howard Gillman).

What does the leftist turn in Latin American elections mean for the politics of the region? Is it a response to neoliberalism? Is it a response to the endemic corruption in the region? We explore the so-called “pink wave” in the region. [ dur: 33mins. ]

Benjamin Arditi is Professor of Politics at the National University of Mexico. He is the author of Politics on the Edges of Liberalism: Difference, Populism, Revolution, Agitation and “Arguments about the Left Turns in Latin America: A Post-Liberal Politics?“
Maxwell A. Cameron is Professor of Political Science in the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs (SPPGA) and Political Science at the University of British Colombia. He is the co-editor of Latin America’s Left Turns: Politics, Policies and Trajectories of Change, and author of “The Return of Oligarchy? Threats to Representative Democracy in Latin America.”
Marcia Ribeiro Dias is adjunct professor and researcher at the School of Political Science of the Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro (UNIRIO) and works as a permanent member of the PPG in Political Science. She is co-author of “The mutualism between liberal-conservatism and fascism: ideological dispute and political scenario of contemporary Brazil.“

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Scholars’ Circle – Historic context of January 6, 2021 insurrection event ; Tracking the rise of Christian Nationalism and their effect on American Politics – June 19, 2022

June 18, 2022 host

January 6 insurrection has begun televised hearings of their findings. We examine the initial findings of this Committee and the role of former President Trump in the attempted coup. [ dur: 22mins. ]

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 co-author of “Problems with President Records are Not Just About Trump” with Kenneth Osgood. His publications also include The Impossible Presidency: The Rise and Fall of America’s Highest Office and Foreign Policy Breakthroughs: Cases in Successful Diplomacy. He is host of the podcast This is Democracy.

The rise of the religious right or Christian Nationalism aided in the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980, and has been a significant voting bloc ever since. How much is this movement driving American politics? How organized are the groups that comprise the movement? And what exactly is its political agenda? [ dur: 35mins. ]

Katherine Stewart is the author of a new book, THE POWER WORSHIPPERS: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism. She is an investigative reporter and author who has covered religious liberty, politics, policy, and education for over a decade. She is also the author of The Good News Club: The Christian Right’s Stealth Assault on America’s Children.

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Scholars’ Circle – Casualties from Russian invasion of Ukraine and evaluating Russian influence in post Soviet space – June 12, 2022

June 11, 2022 host

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February, a vicious war of aggression and occupation has devastated the nation. Determined resistance to the invasion has denied Russia many of its intended targets, but Ukrainians have suffered tremendous losses. What are the human and other costs of the Russian invasion of Ukraine? [ due: 28mins. ]

Serhiy Kudelia is Associate Professor of Political Science at Baylor University. He is the author of When Numbers Are Not Enough: The Strategic Use of Violence in Ukraine’s 2014 Revolution, “The Donbas Rift” and “How They Joined? Militants and Informers in the Armed Conflict in Ukraine“.
Tymofii Brik is Assistant Professor of Sociology and Economic History at Kyiv School of Economics. He is the author of Thirty Years of Religious Pluralism in Ukraine and co-author of Attitudes About Privatization and the Shadow of Communism: 25 Years of Anti-market Skepticism.

The impact of the February Russian invasion of Ukraine extends beyond just those two nations. Russia has dominated the post-Soviet space—the independent nations that were once a part of the Soviet Union. A Russian foreign policy has attempted to ensure that the nation is the indispensable partner of these nations. But the invasion has fractured this image and poses significant challenges to Russian influence over its former Soviet Union partners.

How has this invasion damaged the legitimacy of Russia’s interventions in other conflicts across the post Soviet space? What does this mean to these conflicts? And how has this war called into question Russia’s influence in this area? [ 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.
Erica Marat is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Regional and Analytical Studies Department at the College of International Security Affairs, National Defense University. She is the author of The Politics of Police Reform: Society against the State in Post-Soviet Countries and “Time to Question Russia’s Imperial Innocence.”

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Scholars’ Circle – Sri Lankans Protest as they experience Economic Crisis – May 29, 2022

May 28, 2022 host

On May 9 of this year, Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa was forced to resign his position. This is despite the fact this his brother, Gotabaya, is the President of the nation. He is part of a quasi-dynastic Rajapaksa family, which has dominated Sri Lankan politics for 20 years. The nation is in economic turmoil and that day was one of the most violent of its history. Sri Lanka has less than $1 million in foreign reserves, dwindling medical supplies and almost no fuel. President Gotobaya Rajapaksa is attempting to hold onto power as the nation continues to deteriorate. And the protests continue.

We will explore the political and economic crisis that roils the island nation. What role do outside powers and lenders play at exacerbating Sri Lanka’s economic crisis? [ dur: 58 mins. ]

Bhavani Fonseka is a Senior Researcher and Attorney at Law with the Centre for Policy Alternatives think tank. She is the editor of Transitional Justice in Sri Lanka: Moving Beyond Promises and the author of The Long Wait For Justice: On the chronic failures of criminal justice in Sri Lanka.
Ambika Satkunanathan is human rights lawyer and Fellow at the Open Society Foundation. She is the author of Authoritarian (in)efficiency and the undermining of democracy in Sri Lanka, Justice in Transition-Victims, Forgiveness and Truth-Seeking in Post-War Sri Lanka and Securitisation and militarisation in Sri Lanka: A continuum.
Ahilan Kadirgamar is Senior Lecturer at the University of Jaffna. He is the author of Rebuilding the Post-War North, and co-author of The Political Economy of the Crisis in Sri Lanka and Sri Lanka’s crisis: The disaster of economic dependency.

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Tag Archives: Politics and Activism

Scholars’ Circle – Insight into Ethnic Conflict in Autocratic Uzbekistan and Tajikistan ; Creative Lawyers for Human Rights – September 11, 2022

Scholars’ Circle – Impact of Union Organizations on Labor Rights in USA – September 4, 2022

Scholars’ Circle – Roots of Goodness and Resistance to Evil – Part II; What is Race and Ethnicity – August 14, 2022

Scholars’ Circle – Regulatory challenges for EPA after West Virginia v. EPA Decision of 2022 – July 17, 2022

Scholars’ Circle – We examine post Roe world of Women’s health care – July 10, 2022

Scholars’ Circle – States’ Rights to Legislate Gun Violence restricted by SCOTUS – July 3, 2022

Scholars’ Circle – US Supreme Court decisions and American Law ; Insights on the Pink wave in Latin America – June 26, 2022

Scholars’ Circle – Historic context of January 6, 2021 insurrection event ; Tracking the rise of Christian Nationalism and their effect on American Politics – June 19, 2022

Scholars’ Circle – Casualties from Russian invasion of Ukraine and evaluating Russian influence in post Soviet space – June 12, 2022

Scholars’ Circle – Sri Lankans Protest as they experience Economic Crisis – May 29, 2022

By Maria Armoudian