Tag Archives: Politics and Activism

Scholars’ Circle – American Common Ground with Public Land Uses – History and Reform Opportunities – February 13, 2022

February 12, 2022 host

Over 600 million acres of land is collectively owned by the American people. What is the history of public lands and how is the contemporary discourses about public lands framed by this history? We interview the author of a new book on the history of public lands in the US. [ dur: 34mins. ]

John Leshy is emeritus professor at the University of California Hastings College of Law, San Francisco. He is the author of OUR COMMON GROUND: A History of America’s Public Lands.

Public lands are one of the collectively owned riches of Americans. How does this history influence our contemporary debates on public land use? How has President Joe Biden advanced the cause of public lands and how is this different from other presidents? [ dur: 24mins. ]

Mark Squillace is Raphael J. Moses Professor of Natural Resources Law at the University of Colorado Law School. He is the co-author of Natural Resources Law and Policy, The Judicial Assault on the Clean Water Act, and Embracing a Civic Republican Tradition in Natural Resources Decision-Making.

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Scholars’ Circle – Politics of Eroding and Sustaining Democracy in USA – February 6, 2022

February 5, 2022 host

Democracy is eroding in the United States? What are the causes and what should be done? Is the erosion of democracy because of political elites and specifically the reaction of the Republican Party to the 2020 election? Or does it run deeper? [ dur: 58mins. ]

Jacob S. Hacker is Stanley Resor Professor of Political Science at Yale University. He is the co-author of Let Them Eat Tweets: How the Right Rules in an Age of Extreme Inequality, American Amnesia: How the War on Government Led Us to Forget What Made America Prosper and the 2010 bestseller Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class, all books co-authored with Paul Pierson.
Sigal Ben-Porath is a professor in the Literacy, Culture, and International Education Division of the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania. She also holds a secondary appointment in the Department of Political Science. She is the author of Making Up Our Mind: What School Choice is Really About, Free Speech on Campus, Varieties of Sovereignty and Citizenship, and Citizenship under Fire: Democratic Education in Times of Conflict .
Martin Gilens is Chair of the Department of Public Policy and Professor of Public Policy, Political Science, and Social Welfare at UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. He is the author of Affluence & Influence: Economic Inequality and Political Power in America and co-author, with Benjamin I. Page, of Democracy in America?: What Has Gone Wrong and What We Can Do about It.
Larry M. Bartels holds the May Werthan Shayne Chair of Public Policy and Social Science at Vanderbilt University. He is the Co-Director of the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions. He is the co-author of Democracy for Realists: Why Elections Do Not Produce Responsive Government (with Christopher Achen) and Unequal Democracy: The Political Economy of the New Gilded Age.

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Scholars’ Circle – Conflict hot spots: Ukraine and Yemen – January 30, 2022

January 29, 2022 host

Conflict hot spots are popping up all around the world. We discuss two of them.

Is Russia acting out of aggression or self-defense in its threats against Ukraine? [ dur: 28mins. ]

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.

The Houthis in Yemen launched drone strikes against the United Arab Emirates this week. Is this a new round of escalation in that ongoing and devastating war?

We will explore the new escalations in the civil war in Yemen. [ dur: 30mins. ]

Hamoud Salhi is Professor of Political Science and Associate Dean of International Education at California State University, Dominguez Hills. He is commentator for Arabic media.
Charles Schmitz is Professor of Geography at Towson University in Baltimore, Maryland. He is an Affiliated Scholar with the Middle East Institute in Washington DC. He is the author of the publications Historical Dictionary of Yemen, “Huthi Visions of the State: A Huthi Republic with an Unofficial Imam,” in Hamidaddin, Abdullah (ed). The Huthi Movement in Yemen: Ideology, Ambition and Security in the Arab Gulf and “A Parasitic Political Economy,” in Amat Alsoswa and Noel Brehony (eds.), Building a New Yemen: Transition and International Community.

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Scholars’ Circle – Attacks on the Legitimacy and Independence of Courts in United States – January 23, 2022

January 22, 2022 host

The attacks on the legitimacy and independence of courts in the United States is increasing.

What are these attacks? Where are they coming from? And what might be the effect on justice in America? [ dur: 58mins. ]

This webinar was organized by UC Berkeley’s Civil Justice Research Initiative. It is part of the Berkeley Boosts program.

Alicia Bannon is the Managing Director of the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice. She is the co-author of the report State Supreme Court Diversity, Legislative Assault on the State Courts – December 21 Update, and The Power of State Courts in Securing Abortion Access: ‘It’s Time to Give Them Center Stage’.
James Brosnahan is Lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. He is Senior Trial Counsel at Morrison & Foerster in San Francisco. He is the author of Defending Clients, Not Movements and a contributor to the book Trial Evidence in the Federal Courts: Problems and Solutions.
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).
Denyse F. Clancy is a partner in the Oakland, CA law firm of Kazan, McClain, Satterley & Greenwood. She is a nationally recognized appellate and trial lawyer with prominent experience in asbestos and talc litigation and other toxic torts. She is the author of Fraud Claims Under Sections 11 and 12(a)(2) of the Securities Act of 1933: Should Pleading with Particularity be Required? and The Deductibility of the Costs of Aircraft Maintenance.

We would like to thank the University of California, Berkeley’s Civil Justice Research Initiative and Berkeley Law Executive Education for making this recording available.

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Scholars’ Circle – Kazakhstan Protests and Government Violence ; Omicron Variant Rages and Global Vaccine Distribution Issues – January 9, 2022

January 8, 2022 host

Kazakhstan has erupted in protests and government violence this week. We explore the potential that these protests leads to greater democratization in this authoritarian government, and detail its recent human rights abuses.[ dur: 34mins. ]

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.
Robert English is Associate Professor of International Relations and Co-Director of Central European Studies Program at the University of Southern California (USC). He is the author of Russia and the Idea of the West.
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 (USC). 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.

Vaccine hesitancy slows the effective response to Covid 19 in the Global North. Lack of vaccine distribution slows the response in the Global South. And the new omicron variant rages on. We may be fatigued of the virus, but it’s not over. We discuss vaccine inequity and distribution. [ dur: 24mins. ]

Adva Gadoth is Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the Center for Global and Immigrant Health, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. She is the co-author of Incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection among asymptomatic frontline health workers in Los Angeles County, California and Cross-sectional Assessment of COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptance Among Health Care Workers in Los Angeles.
Heather Wipfli is an Associate Professor of Clinical Preventive Medicine and International Relations at the University of Southern California (USC). She is the author of Investigating global mental health: Contributions from political science and Network influences on policy implementation: Evidence from a global health treaty.

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Scholars’ Circle – How power of the Supreme Court fails institution of American democracy – December 19, 2021

December 18, 2021 host

The US Supreme Court faces a legitimacy crisis. The US faces a democracy deficit because of the power of the Court. How should the US address both concerns? Several proposals for reform of the Court have advocated change. Would these help to rebuild the Court’s image and legitimacy? [ dur: 58mins. ]

Christopher W Schmidt is Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Institute on the Supreme Court of the United States at Chicago-Kent School of Law. He is the author of The Sit-Ins: Protest and Legal Change in the Civil Rights Era and Civil Rights in America: A History .
Richard Pacelle Jr. is Professor and Department Head in Political Science at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He is the co-author of Decision Making by the Modern Supreme Court and the author of The Supreme Court in a Separation of Powers System: The Nation’s Balance Wheel.
Eric J. Segall is Ashe Family Chair Professor of Law at Georgia State University College of Law. He is the author of the books Originalism as Faith and Supreme Myths: Why the Supreme Court is not a Court and its Justices are not Judges.

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Scholars’ Circle – Mainstream media getting wrong about US Inflation ; Decolonize the language around arms control – December 12, 2021

December 11, 2021 host

Inflation is real. But the reporting on it has been remarkably uninformed. We talk about the real issues the US economy faces, what is driving the inflation rate, and what are the long term implications of it. [ dur: 30mins. ]

Dean Baker is Senior Economist and co-founder of the Center for Economic and Research Policy. He is the author of The End of Loser Liberalism: Making Markets Progressive and co-author of Getting Back to Full Employment: A Better Bargain for Working People.

Arms control discourses are centered around western notions of modernity and civilization. What does it mean to decolonize the language around arms control? How is it accomplished? [ dur: 28mins. ]

Ritu Mathur is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and Geography at the University of Texas at San Antonio. She is the author of Civilizational Discourses in Weapons Control.

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Scholars’ Circle – Why US Supply Chain Failed During the Pandemic and How to make it Resilient – December 5, 2021

December 4, 2021 host

The pandemic has exposed the weaknesses of the supply chain, with its emphasis on lowering cost without regard to resilience of disruptions. Can government and industry cooperate to build resilience without adding prohibitive cost to production? How responsible is the government to managing the supply chain? What are the larger issues of global supply and production models? [ dur: 58mins. ]

Christopher S. Tang is Distinguished Professor, Edward W. Carter Chair in Business Administration and Senior Associate Dean of Global Initiatives at UCLA. He is the co-author of Supply Chain Risk Management and the co-editor of Operations Management Models with Consumer-Driven Demand.
Eleftherios Iakovou is the Harvey Hubbell Professor of Industrial Distribution at Texas A&M University and the Director of Manufacturing and Logistics Innovation Initiatives at the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station. He is the co-author of Sustainable supply chain management in the digitalisation era: The impact of Automated Guided Vehicles and, with Chelsea White, the co-author of How to build a more secure, resilient, next-gen U.S. supply chain.
Chelsea C. White III is the Schneider National Chair in transportation and logistics and is a professor at the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Georgia Tech. He is the co-author of Mobile Access Hub Deployment for Urban Parcel Logistics and How to build a more secure, resilient, next-gen U.S. supply chain with Eleftherios Iakovou.

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Scholars’ Circle – What happened at COP26 in Glasgow ? – November 28, 2021

November 28, 2021 host

After world leaders met in Glasgow to mitigate the climate crisis, what exactly did they discuss? What was in the agreement and what does that mean for the future of the planet? We break down some of the specific agreements and the language used to confront the climate crisis. How does a promise to “phase down” the use of coal fall short of the required action to confront the crisis? What role should indigenous peoples, largely unrepresented at the meetings, play at administering these carbon reductions? [ dur: 58mins. ]

Reynaldo A. Morales is Assistant Professor at Northwestern University with a joint faculty appointment at the Medill School of Journalism & Media and the Buffett Institute for Global Affairs. He is the author of Building Global Indigenous Media Networks: Envisioning Sustainable and Regenerative Futures Around Indigenous Peoples’ Meaningful Representation.
Klaus Weber is a Professor of Management & Organizations and the deputy director of the Northwestern Buffett Institute for Global Affairs. He is also affiliated with the Institute for Sustainability and Energy at Northwestern. He is the author of Organizational Structure from Interaction: Evidence from Corporate Sustainability Efforts.
Shannon Gibson is Associate Professor of Political Science, International Relations, and Environmental Studies at the University of Southern California. She is the author of the forthcoming book Politics of Global Environment.

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Scholars’ Circle – Will Carbon emission reduction goals be met with voluntary commitments by Corporations and the Nation State – November 21, 2021

November 20, 2021 host

Climate Change is an existential threat that demands bold action and a transformation of how humanity uses its resources. Concepts like “net zero” and “carbon offset” have done little toward decreasing the amount of greenhouse gases we emit into the atmosphere. Is the current legal and voluntary structure adequate to meet the challenge of climate change? Are we up to the challenge? [ dur: 58mins. ]

William Moomaw is Emeritus Professor of international environmental policy and founding director of the Center for International Environment and Resource Policy at The Fletcher School, Tufts University. He is the co-founder and current co-director of the Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts. Professor Moomaw has been a lead author of five Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Reports. He is the author of Intact Forests in the United States: Proforestation Mitigates Climate Change and Serves the Greatest Good and Scientist Diplomats or Diplomat Scientists: Who Makes Science Diplomacy Effective?
LeRoy Westerling is Professor of Management of Complex Systems at Ernest and Julio Gallo Management Program at the University of California, Merced. He is the co-author of Greater Temperature and Precipitation Extremes Intensify Western U.S. Droughts, Wildfire Severity, and Sierra Nevada Tree Mortality.
Christopher Wright is Professor of Organisational Studies at the University of Sydney Business School. He is the co-author of Climate Change, Capitalism, and Corporations: Processes of Creative Self-Destruction.
Prue Taylor is the Deputy Director of the New Zealand Centre for Environmental Law. She is Senior Lecturer in the School of Architecture and Planning at the University of Auckland. She is the author of Opportunity within Failure: Can the Global Pact for the Environment Learn from Responsibility to Protect? and a book chapter on Responsibility for the Ecological Integrity of the High Seas: The Role of Natural Law.

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Tag Archives: Politics and Activism

Scholars’ Circle – American Common Ground with Public Land Uses – History and Reform Opportunities – February 13, 2022

Scholars’ Circle – Politics of Eroding and Sustaining Democracy in USA – February 6, 2022

Scholars’ Circle – Conflict hot spots: Ukraine and Yemen – January 30, 2022

Scholars’ Circle – Attacks on the Legitimacy and Independence of Courts in United States – January 23, 2022

Scholars’ Circle – Kazakhstan Protests and Government Violence ; Omicron Variant Rages and Global Vaccine Distribution Issues – January 9, 2022

Scholars’ Circle – How power of the Supreme Court fails institution of American democracy – December 19, 2021

Scholars’ Circle – Mainstream media getting wrong about US Inflation ; Decolonize the language around arms control – December 12, 2021

Scholars’ Circle – Why US Supply Chain Failed During the Pandemic and How to make it Resilient – December 5, 2021

Scholars’ Circle – What happened at COP26 in Glasgow ? – November 28, 2021

Scholars’ Circle – Will Carbon emission reduction goals be met with voluntary commitments by Corporations and the Nation State – November 21, 2021

By Maria Armoudian