Tag Archives: Politics and Activism

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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Scholars’ Circle – Critique on Governance in Post-Colonial Cameroon, a country with linguistic and sectarian divide and clashes – November 7, 2021

November 6, 2021 host

Cameroon has seen increased violence and an ongoing civil war based on its linguistic, sectarian divide. Can the nation survive? How much is this a democracy deficiency and how much is this failure of leadership? How can Cameroon overcome its governance challenges? [ dur: 36mins. ]

John Mukum Mbaku is a Brady Presidential Distinguished Professor of Economics and John S. Hinckley Fellow at Weber State University. He is the author of Protecting Minority Rights in African Countries: A Constitutional Political Economy Approach and co-author of Corruption in Africa: Causes, Consequences, and Cleanups.
Moses K. Tesi is a Professor of Political Science at Middle Tennessee State University. He is the author of the Balancing Sovereignty and Development in International Affairs: Cameroon’s Post-Independence Relations with France, Africa, and the World and a contributor to The State, Politics, and the Struggle for Democracy in Cameroon.

As civil war in Cameroon continued with clashes between the Franchophone and Anglophone populations, protests against violations of federalism agreements were met with state led violence. What were the impacts? We’ll hear from one of the organizers. [ dur: 22mins. ]

Fontem A. Neba was Secretary General of the Teacher’s Trade Union of the University of Buea before his arrest on the 17th of January, 2017. He was Secretary General of the now banned Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium. Mr. Neba was Professor of Applied Linguistics at the University of Buea. Now he is in exile and serves as the Secretary General of the Southern Cameroon’s Alliance.

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Scholars’ Circle – Examining Disability and Ableism – October 10, 2021

October 10, 2021 host

The rights of persons with disabilities is a growing and important area of human rights. But what does it mean to ensure equal treatment under the law? What exactly is a disability, and who makes the judgment? And what do we mean by ableism? [ dur: 58mins. ]

Lydia X. Z. Brown is Core Faculty in the Disabilities Studies Program at Georgetown University as well as Adjunct Professional Lecturer in the Critical Race, Gender and Culture Studies Program at American University. Lydia is the author of Ableist Shame and Disruptive Bodies: Survivorship at the Intersection of Queer, Trans, and Disabled Existence.
Michael Ashley Stein is the co-founder and Executive Director of the Harvard Law School Project on Disability, and a Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School. He is the editor of the book Mental Health, Legal Capacity and Human Rights.
Joel Michael Reynolds is a senior advisor to The Hastings Center and an Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Disability Studies at Georgetown University. He is the co-author of The Harm of Ableism: Medical Error and Epistemic Injustice and the author of Three Things Clinicians Should Know about Disability.

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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.

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Scholars’ Circle – California recall process and democracy ; Why people follow QAnon – September 12, 2021

September 11, 2021 host

California’s Recall process is broken. It may well be unconstitutional and undemocratic. With an upcoming recall election, we explore these issues and discuss potential reforms. [ dur: 28mins. ]

Erwin Chemerinsky is Dean and Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law at UC Berkeley Law School. He is the author of The Case Against the Supreme Court, We the People: A Progressive Reading of the Constitution for the Twenty-First Century, and his latest Presumed Guilty: How the Supreme Court Empowered the Police and Subverted Civil Rights.
Henry Brady is Former Dean of the Goldman School of Public Policy and Professor of Political Science and Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the co-author of Unequal and Unrepresented: Political Inequality and the People’s Voice in the New Gilded Age, and The Unheavenly Chorus: Political Voice and the Promise of American Democracy. He is also the co-editor of Capturing Campaign Effects.

Q Anon has grown significantly in the last few years. We explore a new book that explains the conspiracy theory with the authors.
Why did Q Anon become so widespread? Who does the theory appeal to? And how is it harming individuals and society? [ dur: 28mins. ]

Mia Bloom is a Professor of Communication and Middle East Studies at Georgia State University. She is a member of the Evidence-Based Cybersecurity Research Group, also at Georgia State University. She is the author of Living Together After Ethnic Killing, Bombshell: Women and Terror and Small Arms: Children and Terror.
Sophia Moskalenko is a psychologist studying mass identity, inter-group conflict, and conspiracy theories. She is the author of Friction: How Conflict Radicalizes Them and Us and The Marvel of Martyrdom: The Power of Self-Sacrifice in the Selfish World.

Together they have authored PASTELS AND PEDOPHILES: Inside the Mind of QAnon

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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.

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Tag Archives: Politics and Activism

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

Scholars’ Circle – Critique on Governance in Post-Colonial Cameroon, a country with linguistic and sectarian divide and clashes – November 7, 2021

Scholars’ Circle – Examining Disability and Ableism – October 10, 2021

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

Scholars’ Circle – California recall process and democracy ; Why people follow QAnon – September 12, 2021

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

By Maria Armoudian