Tag Archives: Politics and Activism

Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Future of food, food politics -/- US immigration policy and Human Rights Crisis – June 17, 2018

First, we continue our exploration of the future of food. With climate change, contamination and host of stressors on the planet, how will we feed a growing population? What are the politics of food? This is part three of a three part panel from a symposium held in Auckland, NZ. In the third part of this symposium on food, we look at solutions and the changes we need to assure a system is just, sustainable and resilient. Future of Food symposium recording: Part 1, Part 2.[ dur: 23 mins. ]

  • Michael Carolan is a Professor of Sociology and Associate Dean of Research for the College of Liberal Arts at Colorado State University. He has authored and coedited books including Reclaiming Food Security; The Sociology of Food and Agriculture; The Real Cost of Cheap Food; Food Utopias: Reimagining Citizenship, Ethics and Community; and Biological Economies: Experimentation and the Politics of Agrifood Frontiers.
  • Richard Le Heron is a Professor of Geography in the School of Environment at the University of Auckland. His has coauthored and coedited books including Knowledge, Industry and Environment: Institutions and Innovation in Territorial Perspective; Economic Spaces of Pastoral Production and Commodity Systems: Markets and Livelihoods; Agri-Food Commodity Chains and Globalising Networks; and Biological Economies: Experimentation and the politics of agri-food frontiers.
  • Nicolas Ian Lewis is an Associate Professor in the School of Environment at the University of Auckland. He coedited the book Biological Economies: Experimentation and the politics of agri-food frontiers and has authored book chapters including ‘Constructing economic objects of governance: the New Zealand wine industry’ in Agri-Food Commodity Chains and Globalising Networks.
  • Anastasia Telesetsky is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Law at the University of Auckland. She has coauthored and coedited the books The International Law of Disaster Relief; Ecological Restoration in International Environmental Law; and Marine Pollution Contingency Planning, State Practice in Asia-Pacific States.

Then, is America facing a human rights crisis with its immigration policy? With reports of indefinite detentions and separating children from their families, we explore how we got here, what the political and legal ramifications are, and what happens next for America. [ dur: 35 mins. ]

For a transcript of this interview, please visit: TheBigQ

  • Kevin Johnson is Dean and Professor of Public Interest Law at UC Davis School of Law. He has co-authored Opening the Floodgates: Why America Needs to Rethink Its Borders and Immigration Laws, and authored Immigration Law and the US-Mexico Border. His list of publication can be found here.
  • David Kyle is Professor of Sociology at University of California, Davis. His publications include, Global Human Smuggling: Comparative Perspectives, and Transnational Peasants: Migrations, Networks and Ethnicity in Andean Ecuador and Smart Humanitarianism: Re-imagining Human Rights in the Age of Enterprise. You can find his publications here.

This program is produced with contributions from the following volunteers: Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Anaïs Amin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Humanity’s Crisis in Yemen -/- WARs in our times – June 3, 2018

First, Yemen is facing one of the worst humanitarian crisis on earth. How did it get to this? And what should be done?[ dur: 27 mins. ]

Then, scholars note that the world is waging fewer wars, but that the wars that are waged are more brutal and intractable. How far have we come in the science of making peace? [ dur: 31 mins. ]

  • George Lopez is Vice President and Director of International Conflict Management at US Institute of Peace. He is the co-author of Sanctions and the Search for Security: Challenges to UN Action.
  • Ervin Staub is Professor of Psychology at the University of Massettuces, Amherst. He is the author of The Psychology of Good and Evil: Why Children, Adults, and Groups Help and Harm Others.
  • Norrin Ripsman is Professor of Political Science at Concordia University. He is the co-author of Globalization and the National Security State.

This program is produced with generous contribution from Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Lost African-American land ownership -/- Consequence of Political Corruption – May 27, 2018

First, did predatory developers use the law to confiscate thousands of acres from African-American? [ dur: 16 mins. ]

Then, we continue analyzing political corruption, its causes, consequences and remedies. [ dur: 42 mins. ]

  • Matthew Stephenson is Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. He is the author of Legislation and Regulation and the book chapter Corruption and Democratic Institutions: A Review and Synthesis.
  • Miriam Golden is Professor of Political Science at UCLA. She is the author of Heroic Defeats: The Politics of Job Loss and co-author of Corruption: What Everyone Needs to Know.

This program is produced with generous contribution from Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Political Corruption, cause and effect – May 13, 2018

We spend the hour discussing corruption, particularly political corruption, its history, causes, costs to society and possible remedies. [ dur: 58 mins. ]

This program is produced with generous contribution from Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Future of Food – May 6, 2018

Today’s program was recorded in front of a live audience. In this symposium about the future of food, we look at food insecurity, food shortages, food justice and sovereignty. We explore the threats to long term availability of health food: climate change, chemical contamination, soil depletion, loss of land, power politics, mass death of pollinators and host of big business practices. We look at solutions and the changes we need to make to be sure of system is just, sustainable and resilient. [ dur: 58 mins. ]

For a transcript of this interview, please visit: TheBigQ

  • Ann Elizabeth Bartos is a Lecturer in the School of Environment at the University of Auckland. She has authored book chapters including ‘Food sovereignty and the possibilities for an equitable, just and sustainable food system”’in Eating, Drinking, Surviving: The international year of global understanding – IYGU and journal articles including ‘The body eating its food politics: reflections on relationalities and embodied ways of knowing’ in Gender, Place and Culture.
  • Gerhard Benjamin McDonald Sundborn is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Population Health at the University of Auckland. His has coauthored journal articles including ‘Low sugar nutrition policies and dental caries: A study of primary schools in South Auckland’ in the Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health and ‘Sugar, dental caries and the incidence of acute rheumatic fever: A cohort study of Māori and Pacific children’ in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
  • Daniel Carl Henare Hikuroa is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Māori Studies and Pacific Studies at the University of Auckland. He coedited the book Ara Mai he Tetekura: Visioning Our Futures: New and Emerging Pathways of Maori Academic Leadership and has coauthored journal articles including ‘Ensuring objectivity by applying the Mauri Model to assess the post-disaster affected environments of the 2011 MV Rena disaster in the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand’ in Ecological Indicators.
  • Mike Joy is a Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Agriculture and Environment at Massey University. He authored the book Polluted Inheritance: New Zealand’s freshwater crisis; authored book chapters including ‘Our deadly nitrogen addiction’ in The New Zealand Land & Food Annual; as well as coauthored journal articles including ‘New Zealand dairy farming: milking our environment for all its worth’ in Environmental Management.

This program is produced with generous contribution from Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Anniversary of Armenian Genocide in Turkey -/- Activism in Authoritarian State like China – April 22, 2018

First, in commemoration of the 103rd anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, we revisit two important discussions: With Pulitzer Prize winning author, poet and Professor Peter Balakian and Professor and Pulitzer prize winning journalist, Ben Bagdikian, an Armenian Genocide survivor who was later responsible for publishing the Pentagon Papers while working at the Washington Post. His character was portrayed by Bob Odenkirk in the Oscar nominated film, The Post. Bagdikian passed away in 2016. [ dur: 29 mins. ]

  • Peter Balakian is a professor of humanities. He is a noted poet, his books include “Black Dog of Fate: A Memoir” and “The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America’s Response“
  • Ben Bagdikian, an Armenian Genocide survivor who was later responsible for publishing the Pentagon Papers while working at the Washington Post.

Then, why have so many human rights campaigns, such as Free Tibet and the Falun Gong, failed in China? And why have others—better environmental protection and HIV/Aids – care fared better? What have the costs been on political movements with the more successful campaigns? What activism can work in the authoritarian country? Stephen Noakes joins us. He is a senior lecturer at the University of Auckland and the author of The Advocacy Trap. Transnational activism and state power in China.[ dur: 29 mins. ]

For a transcript of this interview, please visit: TheBigQ

  • Stephen Noakes is a senior lecturer of Chinese Politics, jointly appointed to Politics and International Relations and Asian Studies at the University of Auckland. ​He is coauthor of Support for Civil Society in China in Creating Democratic Value: Evaluating Efforts to Promote Democracy Abroad.

This program is produced with generous contribution from Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Corporations in USA Gain Civil Rights -/- Known, Unknown and Forgotten legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. – April 8, 2018

First, how did corporations get civil rights? The two-hundred-year battle to give corporations personhood and constitutional protections. [ dur: 34 mins. ]

For a transcript of this interview, please visit: TheBigQ

  • Adam Winkler is Professor of Law at UCLA Law School. He is the author of Gunfight: The Battle over the Right to Bear Arms and We the Corporations: How American Businesses Won Their Civil Rights.

Then, while much of the country remembers Martin Luther King, Jr. as primarily a leader of civil rights and desegregation and a great orator, our next guests say he stood for so much more. Many aspects of his life, legacy & philosophy remain either unknown or conveniently forgotten. [ dur: 24 mins. ]

  • David Garrow is Professor of History and Law at the University of Pittsburgh. He is the author of FBI and Martin Luther King, Jr: From “Solo” to Memphis.
  • Joshua Inwood is Professor of Geography and Africana Studies in the Geography Department at the University of Tennessee. His publications include, Nonkilling Geography, Searching for the Promised Land: Examining Dr. Martin Luther King’s Concept of the Beloved Community, and Street naming and the politics of belonging: spatial injustices in the toponymic commemoration of Martin Luther King Jr.
  • Thomas Jackson is Professor of History at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. He is the author of, From Civil Rights to Human Rights: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Struggle for Economic Justice.

This program is produced with generous contribution from Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Stephen Hawkin’s Universe -/- 1980 Assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero – April 1, 2018

First, the legacy of Stephen Hawking and what he has meant towards the understanding of this universe.[ dur: 25 mins. ]

For a transcript of this interview, please visit: TheBigQ

  • Peter L. Galison is a Professor in the Department of Physics and Director of the Collection of the Historical Scientific Instruments at Harvard University. He is the author of How Experiments End, Einstein’s Clocks, Poincaré’s Maps, and Image and Logic. He is also the co-editor of Einstein for the 21st Century: His Legacy in Science, Art, and Modern Culture, Science in Culture and The Architecture of Science. He is the co-director of the documentaries Ultimate Weapon: The H-bomb Dilemma and Containment.
  • Priyamvada Natarajan is Professor in the Departments of Astronomy and Physics at Yale University. Her publications include Rapid growth of seed black holes in the early universe by supra-exponential accretion and New observational Constraints on the Growth of the First Supermassive Black Holes.

Then, last week was the anniversary of the 1980 assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero in El Salvador. We’ll explore the case to bring his killers to justice. [ dur: 33 mins. ]

  • Matt Eisenbrandt is a former Legal Director for the Center for Justice & Accountability (CJA) and a member of the trial team that brought Archbishop Óscar Romero’s assassination to court. He is now the Special Advisor at the Canadian Centre for International Justice (CCIJ), where he helps survivors of torture, war crimes and other atrocities seek justice. He is the author of The Assassination of a Saint: The Plot to Murder Oscar Romero and the Quest to Bring His Killers to Justice.

This program is produced with generous contribution from Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – South Sudan -/- Political Knowledge informs Democratic Institutions – March 25, 2018

South Sudan is in crisis with tens of millions of people at risk of starvation over the next six months, according to the World Food Program. The conflict there has taken thousands of lives and forced millions to flee their homes. What is the scope of the problem? And what can be done to help the young country and its citizens. [ dur: 29mins. ]

Then, why do people seem to know so little about politics? And what does that mean for democracy? We speak with Arthur Lupia author of Uninformed: Why People Know So Little About Politics and What We Can Do About It. [ dur; 29mins. ]

This program is produced with generous contribution from Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Syrian Crisis – March 4, 2018

The United Nation’s Secretary General has called Syria hell on earth. How did it get this bad? What are the geopolitics? What about the rest of the Middle East? WE spend the hour answering these questions. [ dur: 58mins. ]

  • Laurie A. Brand is Professor of International Relations and Middle East Studies at the University of Southern California. She was the past president of Middle East Studies Association of North America. Her publications include Palestinians in the Arab World: Institution Building and the Search for State, Women, the State and Political Liberalization, Citizens Abroad: States and Migration in the Middle East and North Africa and Official Stories: Politics and National Narratives in Egypt and Algeria.
  • Fred H. Lawson is a Professor of Government at Mills College and Visiting Professor National Security Affairs at the Naval PostGraduate School in Monterey. His publications include Bahrain: The Modernization of Autocracy , Constructing International Relations in the Arab World, Why Syria Goes to War: Thirty Years of Confrontation, and Global Security Watch Syria.
  • Hamoud Salhi is Professor of Political Science and Middle East, and Associate Dean of the College of Social and Natural Sciences at California State University, Dominguez Hills.
  • William Harris is a Professor of Politics at Otago University and an award winning author. His books include Lebanon: A History 600-2011, The Levant: A Fractured Mosaic, and his latest Quicksilver War: Syria, Iraq and the Spiral of Conflict.

This program is produced with generous contribution from Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

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