Tag Archives: Politics and Activism

Scholars’ Circle – US Rejoining the Paris Climate Accords and Vaccination as human right – January 24, 2021

January 23, 2021 host

The US has rejoined the Paris Climate Accords. What next steps should the US and the world take to mitigate the damage from the climate crisis? [ dur: 31mins. ]

Pamela Chasek is a Professor of Political Science at Manhattan College. Among many publications she is the co-author of Global Environmental Politics.
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.
Larry Schweiger is a former president and CEO of National Wildlife Federation. He is the author of Last Chance: Preserving Life on Earth.

Vaccine distribution for the Covid virus has begun. What human rights issues are raised with the process of distributing the vaccine? How much do wealth and privilege determine who gets vaccinated? We take a global approach to vaccine nationalism and equitable distribution of the vaccine. [ dur: 26mins. ]

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.
Joanne Lin is National Director of Advocacy and Government Affairs at Amnesty International, USA.

Amnesty’s report on this topic is Fair Shot: Ensuring Universal Access to Covid-19 Diagnostics, Treatments and Vaccines.
Amnesty’s report on Vaccine for Palestinians
Amnesty’s report on Human Rights Approach to Eradicating Covid-19.

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Scholars’ Circle – US and international response to Covid-19 vaccine & Decolonizing the language of arms control – December 13, 2020

December 12, 2020 host

Promise in a new Covid-19 vaccine is tempered by the huge spike in cases in the United States. What lessons will nations learn from the virus response and when can we expect to control the pandemic? [ dur: 27mins. ]

Mark Peterson is Professor of Public Policy, Political Science, and Law at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is the author of Legislating Together: The White House and Capital Hill from Eisenhower to Reagan and the editor of Healthy Markets? The New Competition in Medical Care and co-editor of the volume Institutions of American Democracy: The Executive Branch.
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.

Arms control discourses are centered around western notions of modernity and civilization. What does it mean to decolonize the language around arms control? [ dur: 30mins. ]

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 – Impact of Women who lead nations in times of Covid-19 pandemic – November 29, 2020

November 28, 2020 host

The popular media narrative is that countries led by women are performing better with Covid. But is this really true? And if so, what are the reasons? Is it the nature of leadership or is it the values of society that determine the successes or failures of governments confronting Covid? Hosted by Doug Becker. [ dur: 58mins. ]

Leah Windsor is a Research Assistant Professor in the Institute for Intelligent Systems at The University of Memphis where she directs the Languages Across Cultures and Languages Across Modalities labs. She is co-author of Women_Leaders_and_Covid_Fatalities and Women World Leaders and The Language of the Political Double Bind.
Jennifer M. Piscopo is Associate Professor of Politics at Occidental College. Her research on representation, gender quotas, and legislative institutions in Latin America has appeared in leading academic journals and several edited volumes. With Susan Franceschet and Mona Lena Krook, she is editor of The Impact of Gender Quotas.
Gina Yannitell Reinhardt is Professor in Department of Government at the University of Essex. She is co-author of Women_Leaders_and_Covid_Fatalities and Competing for the Platform: The Politics of Interest Group Influence on Political Party Platforms in the United States.
Courtney Burns is Associate Professor of Political Science at Bucknell University. She is co-author of these articles Women_Leaders_and_Covid_Fatalities, Women World Leaders and The Language of the Political Double Bind and for Journal of human rights Female chief executives and state human rights practices: Self-fulfilling the political double bind

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Scholars’ Circle – Aftermath of The US Election 2020 exposes A Crisis of Legitimacy – November 22, 2020

November 21, 2020 host

Was the election conducted properly? Will mail in ballots be counted and will that count be allowed to stand? Will the US Supreme Court decide the final outcome? And what, in any case, will become of American democracy? In this urgent and timely event, University of Auckland lecturers will use the lenses of law, political science, and psychology to explain this contested election and discuss the implications of the final outcome. This is a recording of the panel gathered at University of Auckland Law School on November 18th, 2020.

Associate Professor Timothy Kuhner from the Faculty of Law at University of Auckland. Professor Kuhner is known for his critical approaches to the law of democracy. His teaching and research focus on comparative constitutional law, corruption, political finance, and law & society. He is the author of Capitalism v. Democracy: Money in Politics and the Free Market Constitution (Stanford University Press, 2014)
Dr Maria Armoudian from the Faculty of Arts at University of Auckland. Dr. Maria Armoudian is a lecturer at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, the host and producer of the radio program, The Scholars’ Circle, and the author of two books, Kill the Messenger: The Media’s Role in the Fate of the World, and Reporting from the Danger Zone: Frontline Journalists, Their Jobs and an Increasingly Perilous Future.
Associate Professor Danny Osborne from the Faculty of Science at University of Auckland. Danny Osborne is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Psychology at the University of Auckland. Danny received his PhD from UCLA in 2011, where he studied social psychology with an emphasis in political psychology and quantitative methods. Danny’s research seeks to understand the causes and consequences of inequality, with a particular emphasis on ideology and collective action. His publications include Ideology and Post-Colonial Society and Opposing Paths to Ideology: Group-Based Relative Deprivation Predicts Conservatism Through Warmth Toward Ingroup and Outgroup Members.
Associate Professor Scott Optican from the Faculty of Law at University of Auckland.He specializes in evidence, criminal procedure, and comparative criminal procedure, and has written widely on criminal justice and policing issues arising under the New Zealand Bill of Rights. Scott is also a co-author of The New Zealand Bill of Rights (Oxford University Press: 2003), the first comprehensive treatise on the protection of rights and freedoms under the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990.

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Scholars’ Circle – Analysis of Armenia-Azerbaijan Ceasefire Agreement -/- US Electoral College fault lines – November 8, 2020

November 14, 2020 host

A peace agreement brokered by Russia was signed this week by Azerbaijan and Armenia to end the fighting in the Artsakh, also known as Nagorno-Karabakh, region. What are the details of the agreement and why did both sides agree? [ dur: 33mins. ]

Richard Giragosian is the Founding Director of the Regional Studies Center (RSC), an independent “think tank” located in Yerevan, Armenia. He is Visiting Professor at the College of Europe’s Natolin Campus and Senior Expert at Yerevan State University’s Centre for European Studies (CES). He is the author of the book chapter Small States and Large Costs of Regional Fracture: The Case of Armenia
Robert English is Associate Professor of International Relations at the University of Southern California. He is the author of Russia and the Idea of the West: Gorbachev, Intellectuals and the End of the Cold War and The Other Side: How Soviets and Americans Perceive Each Other.

How much did the Electoral College matter in this election? Should it be reformed? Is it anti-democratic? And if should be reformed, what should be done? [ dur: 25mins. ]

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 – US 2020 Elections, views from outside the US – November 8, 2020

November 7, 2020 host

How does the US election look to people outside the US. Will its ability to navigate the process show observers abroad the strength of US democracy or will it show its weaknesses.

We explore the American election as viewed from Greece, Britain, Brazil and Canada. [ dur: 58mins. ]

Aristotle Tziampiris is Professor of International Relations and Director of the MSc Program in Energy: Strategy, Law & Economics at the Department of International and European Studies of the University of Piraeus. He is also the President of the Council for International Relations-Greece. He is the author of Greece, European Political Cooperation and the Macedonian Question and co-editor of The New Eastern Mediterranean: Theory, Politics and States in Volatile Era and The Emergence of the Israeli-Greek Cooperation.
Erica Resende is Assistant Professor of International Relations and Security Studies at the Brazilian War College in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She is the co-editor of Memory and Trauma in International Relations: Theories, Cases and Debates; and Crisis and Change in Post Cold-War Global Politics.
Simon Radford is an independent scholar based in the UK. He is the author of Can donations buy you a British peerage: a study in the link between party, political funding and peerage nominations, 2005 – 2014.
Lisa Burke is a Ph.D. Candidate at the University of Denver. She is the author of Natural Disasters in the book Rethinking 21st Century Security.

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Scholars’ Circle – Supreme Court and 2020 US Elections -/- Role of Class and Identity in US Elections – November 1, 2020

November 1, 2020 host

We speak about the Supreme Court and the Presidency. Also, how has Donald Trump reshaped the Federal Judiciary and the Supreme Court and how does that shape the election? [ dur: 29mins. ]

Michele Bratcher Goodwin is a Chancellor’s Professor at the University of California, Irvine and founding director of the Center for Biotechnology and Global Health Policy. She is the author of Policing The Womb: Invisible Women and the Criminalization of Motherhood, Baby Markets: Money and the Politics of Creating Families and Black Markets: The Supply and Demand of Body Parts.
Tim Fadgan is Politics and Policy Lecturer at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. He is the author of Do the best interests of the child end at the Nation’s shores: Immigration, state courts, and children in the United States.
Jennifer Frost is an Associate Professor for History at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. She is the author of An Interracial Movement of the Poor: Community Organizing and the New Left in the 1960s and Hedda Hopper’s Hollywood: Celebrity Gossip and American Conservatism

We discuss how the role of class and identity politics in the midst of American politics are shaping elections. [ dur: 28mins. ]

Nancy Isenberg is Professor of American History at Louisiana State University. She is the co-author of The Problem of Democracy: The Presidents Adams Confront the Cult of Personality and author of the New York Times Bestseller White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America.
Tim Fadgan is Politics and Policy Lecturer at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. He is the author of Do the best interests of the child end at the Nation’s shores: Immigration, state courts, and children in the United States.
Jennifer Frost is an Associate Professor for History at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. She is the author of An Interracial Movement of the Poor: Community Organizing and the New Left in the 1960s and Hedda Hopper’s Hollywood: Celebrity Gossip and American Conservatism

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Scholars’ Circle – Journalist and Media role in US Elections -/- US Foreign Policy at stake in 2020 Presidential Election – October 25, 2020

October 25, 2020 host

We explore the media’s role in this election and the journalists’ experience of this campaign season. [ dur: 30mins. ]

Tim Fadgan is Politics and Policy Lecturer at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. He is the author of Do the best interests of the child end at the Nation’s shores: Immigration, state courts, and children in the United States.
Jennifer Frost is an Associate Professor for History at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. She is the author of An Interracial Movement of the Poor: Community Organizing and the New Left in the 1960s and Hedda Hopper’s Hollywood: Celebrity Gossip and American Conservatism
Lisa Desjardins is a correspondent for PBS NewsHour, where she covers news from the U.S. Capitol while also traveling across the country to report on how decisions in Washington affect people where they live and work.
Daniel Bush is PBS NewsHour’s Senior Political Reporter.

Then, what are the key foreign policy issues on the ballot in the 2020 US Presidential Elections? How different are the visions of Biden and Trump of the American role in the world? [ dur: 27mins. ]

Mark Boyer, Board of Trustee Distinguished Professor University of Connecticut. He is co-author of The climate adaptation imperative: local choices targeting global problems?
Peter F. Trumbore is Professor and Chair of the Department of Political Science at Oakland University. He is the author of Brexit, the Border, and Political Conflict Narratives in Northern Ireland, with Andrew Owsiak. and Running on Foreign Policy? Examining the Role of Foreign Policy Issues in the 2000, 2002, and 2004 Congressional Campaigns.

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Scholars’ Circle – Causes and potential resolutions of the Ngorno-Karabakh conflict – October 18, 2020

October 18, 2020 host

map of Nagorno-Karabakh ( Republic of ArtSakh ) history - Southfront.org

The Armenians living in their indigenous lands in a region known as Nagorno-Karabakh, also known as Artsakh, have long experienced existential insecurity. The fighting today between Azerbaijan, which is backed by Turkey, against Armenia over who belongs in those lands is threatening to escalate into a much bigger regional war and another round of ethnic cleansing.

We spend the hour exploring the causes of this conflict, the human rights implications of the aggression, whether the international legal principles apply, the importance of advancing democracy in the region, and potential resolutions to the war. Hosted by Doug Becker.[ dur: 58mins. ]

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. He was Senior Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch. He has co-authored reports on violations of freedom of expression and the crackdown of media freedom in Azerbaijan and has conducted human rights field research in the region.
Anna Ohanyan, 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 author of Networked Regionalism as Conflict Management.
Hurst Hannum, Professor of International Law Emeritus, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He is the author of, Autonomy, Sovereignty, and Self-Determination: The Accommodation of Conflicting Rights, and co-author of, International Human Rights: Problems of Law, Policy, and Practice and Negotiating Self-Determination.

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Scholars’ Circle – US Presidential Elections 2020 and Voter Suppression -/- How much does foreign and economic policy change with change of presidency? – October 11 , 2020

October 10, 2020 host

Who gets to vote? What are the laws that help or hinder the vote? How are those changing and how might that effect the results of the 2020 election? And how are the misinformation and disinformation campaigns through the use of social media misleading the voters? [ dur: 27mins. ]

Bertrall Ross is Chancellor’s Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of Passive Voter Suppression: Campaign Mobilization and the Effective Disfranchisement of the Poor and Fair Elections During a Crisis: Urgent Recommendations in Law, Media, Politics and Tech to Advance the Legitimacy of, and the Public’s Confidence in, the November 2020 U.S. Elections.
Tim Fadgan is Politics and Policy Lecturer at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. He is the author of Do the best interests of the child end at the Nation’s shores: Immigration, state courts, and children in the United States.
Jennifer Frost is an Associate Professor for History at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. She is the author of An Interracial Movement of the Poor: Community Organizing and the New Left in the 1960s and Hedda Hopper’s Hollywood: Celebrity Gossip and American Conservatism

How much does the president truly matter for the direction of the United States and for the rest of the world. [ dur: 30mins. ]

For a transcript of this interview, please visit: TheBigQ

William F. Grover is Professor of Political Science at Saint Michael’s College in Vermont. He is the author of The President as Prisoner: A Structural Critique of the Carter and Reagan Years, co-editor of Voices of Dissent: Critical Readings in American Politics, and The Unsustainable Presidency: Clinton, Bush, Obama and Beyond.
Joseph G. Peschek is Professor of Political Science at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota. He is the author of Policy-Planning Organizations: Elite Agendas and America’s Rightward Turn, co-editor of Voices of Dissent: Critical Readings in American Politics, and The Unsustainable Presidency: Clinton, Bush, Obama and Beyond.

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Tag Archives: Politics and Activism

Scholars’ Circle – US Rejoining the Paris Climate Accords and Vaccination as human right – January 24, 2021

Scholars’ Circle – US and international response to Covid-19 vaccine & Decolonizing the language of arms control – December 13, 2020

Scholars’ Circle – Impact of Women who lead nations in times of Covid-19 pandemic – November 29, 2020

Scholars’ Circle – Aftermath of The US Election 2020 exposes A Crisis of Legitimacy – November 22, 2020

Scholars’ Circle – Analysis of Armenia-Azerbaijan Ceasefire Agreement -/- US Electoral College fault lines – November 8, 2020

Scholars’ Circle – US 2020 Elections, views from outside the US – November 8, 2020

Scholars’ Circle – Supreme Court and 2020 US Elections -/- Role of Class and Identity in US Elections – November 1, 2020

Scholars’ Circle – Journalist and Media role in US Elections -/- US Foreign Policy at stake in 2020 Presidential Election – October 25, 2020

Scholars’ Circle – Causes and potential resolutions of the Ngorno-Karabakh conflict – October 18, 2020

Scholars’ Circle – US Presidential Elections 2020 and Voter Suppression -/- How much does foreign and economic policy change with change of presidency? – October 11 , 2020

By Maria Armoudian