Tag Archives: Politics and Activism

Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle-Islamic-State-Iraq-Syria-Nov. 23rd, 2014

We spend the hour analyzing the emergence of the Islamic State also known as ISIS or ISIL. [ dur: 58 mins. ]

  • Fred H. Lawson is a Professor and Department Head of Government at Mills College. He is the author of Global Security Watch – Syria, Demystifying Syria, Why Syria Goes to War: Thirty Years of Confrontation and Constructing International Relations in the Arab World.
  • Salman Sayyid is Professor of Social Theory & Decolonial Thought at the University of Leeds, UK. He is the author of Recalling the Caliphate: Decolonisation and World Order, A Fundamental Fear: Eurocentrism and the Emergence of Islamism and co-editor of A Postcolonial People: South Asians in Britain.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle-US-Supreme-Court-/-Russia-and-the-West-Nov. 16th, 2014

First, one of the country’s preeminent law scholars makes his case against the supreme court. We are joined by Erwin Chemerinsky author of, The Case Against the Supreme Court.

  • Erwin Chemerinsky, UC Irvine Dean School of Law. Author of The Case Against the Supreme Court

Then, Russian war planes over Europe and war ships near Australia. What do these and other demonstrations of power mean in the current politics between Russia and the West?

  • Martha Merritt, Deputy Dean of the College for Academic Programs and Advancement, University of Chicago; Contributor to Russian and Soviet History: From the Time of Troubles to the Collapse of the Soviet Union
  • Henry E. Hale is Associate Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, and Co-Director of the Program on New Approaches to Research and Security in Eurasia (PONARS Eurasia) at George Washington University. Author of Patronal Politics: Eurasian Regime Dynamics in Comparative Perspective and Why Not Parties in Russia?: Democracy, Federalism, and the State

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle-US-Midterm-Election-/-Ukraine-Crisis-Nov. 9th, 2014

First, what might the Republican sweep mean for everything from the climate, to the economy, to US foreign policy, to democracy in the US? [ dur: 21 mins. ]

  • Peter Hanson, is a Professor of Political Science at University of Denver. Author of  Too Weak to Govern: Majority Party Power and Appropriations in the U.S. Senate
  • Sean Theriault is a Professor in the Department of Government at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of, The Power of the People: Congressional Competition, Public Attention, and Voter Retribution, Party Polarization in Congress, and The Gingrich Senators: The Roots of Partisan Warfare in Congress.

Then, on the Scholars’ Circle panel, Conflict between Russia and Ukraine appears to be escalating while US-Russia relations have seemingly deteriorated. What is fueling these escalations? What can be done to allay the tension? [ dur: 38 mins. ]

  • John J. Mearsheimer is the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science and the co-director of the Program on International Security Policy at the University of Chicago. Author of Why Why Leaders Lie: The Truth about Lying in International Politics and The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy
  • Robert English is Director of the School of International Relations and professor of International Relations at University of Southern California. He is the author of Russia and the Idea of the West, and editor of My Six Years with Gorbachev.
  • Molly O’Neal, visiting scholar at Johns Hopkins University.
  • Anthony Antoine, Executive Director of the Institute for European Studies at University of Brussels.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Organ Trafficking -/- Climate Change 2047 -/- Immigration US-Mexico – Nov. 2nd, 2014

First, the underworld of organ trafficking. [ dur: 10 mins. ]

  • Nancy Scheper-Hughes, is Professor of anthropology at University of California, Berkeley, editor of Commodifying Bodies and author of Violence in War and Peace: An Anthology.
  • Art Caplan, is Professor and head of the division of Bioethics at New York University Langone Medical Center and award-winning author of books including Applied Ethics in Mental Health Care: An Interdisciplinary Reader, Ethics and Organ Transplants, and Smart Mice, Not so Smart People.

Then, Professor Mora and his colleagues have calculated how climate change will affect our temperatures around the year 2047. In the future, they found, our coldest year will be warmer than the past hottest years. The changes, which will first occur in the tropics, are already driving some 25,000 species to extinction each year. [ dur: 18 mins. ]

Finally, on the Scholars’ Circle Panel, thousands of migrants leave their countries in search of safety or a better life, but many are abducted, enslaved or disappeared never to be seen again. We dig deep into the world of migration, and the systems and policies that perpetuate many of the inhumane conditions. [ dur: 28 mins. ]

  • 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.
  • David Shirk is Associate  Professor of Political Science and International, and Director of the Justice in Mexico Project, at University of San Diego. He has co-authored, The Drug War in Mexico: Confronting a Shared Threat, and Contemporary Mexican Politics.
  • 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.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle -US-Financial-Crisis-was-a-Political-Crisis- Oct. 26th, 2014

We look at how the financial crisis, like those that came before it, was a political crisis. We spend the hour analyzing the failures of democracy that allowed it to happen, and what reforms are necessary to prevent it from happening again. We are joined by the authors of Political Bubbles: Financial Crisis and the Failure of American Democracy. [ dur: 57 mins. ]

  • Nolan McCarty is the Susan Dod Brown Professor of Politics and Public Affairs and Chair of the Department of Politics at Princeton University, respectively.
  • Keith T. Poole is the Philip H. Alston, Jr. Distinguished Chair and Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Georgia and Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of California San Diego.
  • Howard Rosenthal is Professor of Politics at New York University and Professor Emeritus of Social Sciences and of Politics at Princeton University.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle -The-Gingrich-Senators-/-Politics-Of-Humor-Oct. 19th, 2014

First, is the former US Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich responsible for damaging the culture and productivity of the US Senate? An interview with Sean Theriault author of,
The Gingrich Senators: The Roots of Partisan Warfare in Congress. [ dur: 29 mins. ]

  • Sean Theriault is a Professor in the Department of Government at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of, The Power of the People: Congressional Competition, Public Attention, and Voter Retribution, Party Polarization in Congress, and The Gingrich Senators: The Roots of Partisan Warfare in Congress.

Then, on the Scholars’ Circle panel, we look at the origins, philosophy and politics of humor. [ dur: 29 mins. ]

  • Amber Day, is a Professor of Performance studies in English and Culture Studies Department at Bryant University; Author of Satire and Dissent: Interventions in Contemporary Political Debate
  • John Morreall, is a Professor of Philosophy Department Chair at Religious Studies at William and Mary College. Author of Comic Relief: A Comprehensive Philosophy of Humor
  • Peter McGraw, is a Professor of Marketing and Psychology at University of Colorado, Boulder. Author of The Humor Code: A Global Search for What Makes Things Funny

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle -American Dream and Reality -/- Reaction-to-Terrorist Threat-/-Fundamentalism -Oct. 12th, 2014

First, we look at the gap between the American Dream and reality, with Miles Corak, professor of economics with the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa. [ dur: 13mins. ]

  • Miles Corak is professor of economics with the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottowa. He is the author of, Generational Income Mobility in North America and Europe

Then, are the high alerts, embassy closures, and the national surveillance state reasonable reactions to the threat of terrorist acts? Our next guests suggest that the government may be overreacting. We are joined by John Mueller and Mark G. Stewart, authors of, “Terror, Security, and Money: Balancing the Risks, Benefits, and Costs of Homeland Security.” [ dur: 17mins. ]

  • John Mueller is a research scientist and professor of political science at Ohio State University and author of Retreat from Doomsday and War, Presidents and Public Opinion.
  • Mark Stewart is a professor of civil engineering and director of the Center for Infrastructure , Performance and Reliability at the University of Newcastle in Australia.

Finally, on the Scholars’ Circle panel, in many parts of the world fundamentalism is on the rise oppressing human rights, sometimes using bodily harm and even death. Simultaneously, the international community has been ineffective in helping the scholars, journalists, human rights advocates and artists who are struggling against the oppression. How bad is the situation and what can be done? [ dur: 28mins. ]

  • Karima Benoune, Professor of Law  at UC Davis, School of Law; Author of  Your Fatwa Does Not Apply Here: Untold Stories from the Fight Against Muslim Fundamentalism
  • Ousseina Alidou, Professor at Center African Studies, Rutgers University; Author of Engaging Modernity: Muslim Women and the Politics of Agency in Post-colonial Niger (Women in Africa and the Diaspora) and Muslim Women in Postcolonial Kenya: Leadership, Representation, and Social Change
  • Sadia Abbas; Professor of English at Rutgers University; At Freedom’s Limit: Islam and the Postcolonial Predicament

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Daniel Patrick Moynihan-Letters-/-Why-Some-Misdeeds-become-scandals -Oct. 5th, 2014

First, we speak with Steven Weisman author of, Daniel Patrick Moynihan: A Portrait in Letters of an American Visionary, a book of Senator Moynahan’s correspondence. [ dur. 17 mins. ]

Then, on the Scholars’ Circle panel, why some misdeeds become scandals and others don’t? Why is it that the same type of transgressions are treated differently at different times, and might this differential treatment affect our politics, policies and society? [ dur: 41 mins. ]

  • Robert Entman is a professor at George Washington University and the author of Scandal & Silence: Media Responses to Presidential Misconduct.
  • Brendan Nyhan is professor at Dartmouth College and coauthor of All the President’s Spin: George W. Bush, the Media, and the Truth.
  • Sigurd Allern is a professor at Volda University and project leader for the Nordic Research Network in Journalism Studies. Author of Scandalous!: The Mediated Construction of Political Scandals in Four Nordic Countries

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle -Domestic violence and violent sports -/- Global Warming Solutions -Sept. 28th, 2014

Domestic violence is just one of the many problems of violent sports. We’ll take a close look at American Football and its discontents. We are joined by journalist Steve Almond author of Against Football: One Fan’s Reluctant Manifesto.

Then, on the Scholar’s Circle panel, on the heels of the United Nations’ climate conference, we’ll revisit the impacts and potential solutions to global warming.

  • Mark Jacobson  is Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford University. He is also director of Atmospheric Energy. He is the author of Air Pollution and Global Warming: History, Science, and Solutions and Fundamentals of Atmospheric Modeling
  • William Moomaw  is Professor of international Environment Policy at Tufts University. Lead Author of recent reports on Environmental Policy. Co-author of Industrial Ecology and Global Change and Transboundary Environmental Negotiation: New Approaches to Global Cooperation
  • Ravi Rajan  is Professor of Environmental studies at the University of California Santa Cruz. Author of Modernizing Nature: Forestry and Imperial Eco-Development 1800-1950

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle -Empathy-from-Powerful-/-Scotland’s-vote-for-Independence-Sept. 21st, 2014

A new study suggests that the powerful feel less empathy. Does it have implications for society? [ dur: 18 mins. ]

Then, we compare Scotland’s vote for independence to other such movements for independence, autonomy and self-determination. [ dur: 40 mins. ]

  • Stefan Wolff is professor of International Security at the University of Birmingham, England, UK. He is the author of, Disputed Territories: The Transnational Dynamics of Ethnic Conflict (Studies in Ethnopolitics), and the co-author of, Ethnic Conflict: Causes-Consequences-Responses, and Autonomy, Self Governance and Conflict Resolution: Innovative approaches to Institutional Design in Divided Societies.
  • Hurst Hannum is professor of International Law 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.
  • M. Steven Fish is a professor of political science at UC Berkeley and author of, Democracy Derailed in Russia: The Failure of Open Politics and Democracy from Scratch: Opposition and Regime in the New Russian Revolution. He is co-author of, Postcommunism and the Theory of Democracy.

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