Tag Archives: Politics and Activism

The history of anti-slavery activism is a rich and important period in American history. But there are so many stories that still have yet to be written. Samuel Ward is one of those activists; an important figure in the African-American activist community working against slavery and racism, whose story is largely lost. Our guest R. J. M. Blackett is addressing this need to tell Ward’s story in a new book, Samuel Ringgold Ward: A life of Struggle. [ dur: 58mins. ]

R. J. M. Blackett is Andrew Jackson Professor of History emeritus at Vanderbilt University. His previous books are The Captive’s Quest for Freedom: Fugitive Slaves, the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law, and the Politics of Slavery and Making Freedom: The Underground Railroad and the Politics of Slavery.

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Scholars’ Circle – Turkey earthquake, disaster relief politics and humanitarian laws – Feb. 19, 2023

February 18, 2023 host

A massive earthquakes has rocked Turkey and Syria and killed thousands of people. The disaster response to this earthquake has faced challenges, including governance of the relief efforts and legal requirements under international law. We explore the relief efforts in light of scholarship on best practices and legal obligations. Who is responsible for security in the disaster zone? How much are local actors prioritized versus those who have come to the region to provide relief? And what happens when the security capacity of the affected state is so devastated by the disaster itself? [ dur: 58mins. ]

Andrea de Guttry is Professor of International Law at Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna (SSSA) in Pisa, Italy. He is the author of Foreign fighters under international law and International Disaster Response Law.
Branda Nowell is Professor at the School of Public and International Affairs at NC State University. She is the author of Public Management in an Era of the Unprecedented: Dominant Institutional Logics as a Barrier to Organizational Sensemaking and The Structure of Effective Governance of Disaster Response Networks: Insights >From the Field.
Nukhet Sandal is Associate Professor of Political Science and Associate Dean in the College of Arts & Sciences at Ohio University. She is the author of Religious populist parties, nationalism, and strategies of competition: the case of the AK Party in Turkey and Religious Leaders and Conflict Transformation. She is the Editor-in-Chief of the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of International Studies.

Earthquake Relief Organizations:

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Scholars’ Circle – Causes of political and economic turmoil in Haiti – Feb. 5, 2023

February 5, 2023 host

Haiti faces a political, sociological, and economic set of crises. The country faces mass famine, with an estimated 4.7 million people facing acute hunger. With the assassination of its President, Haiti is also facing a political crisis. Officials governing the country are having a legitimacy crisis given the poor response to previous crises that have seen the Haitian people lose power, authority, even sovereignty over the nation. And international intervention has done little to help the nation, and in fact it has exacerbated the problems. How can the nation thrive in light of a history of exploitation and colonialism that has led to these crises? How can the Haitian people be empowered to seize control of their destiny? [ dur: 58mins. ]

Darlène Dubuisson is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Pittsburgh. She is the author of “Haiti: Black Utopia” and “We Know How to Work Together”: Konbit, Protest, and the Rejection of INGO Bureaucratic Dominance.
Mark Schuller is Presidential Research Professor and 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 of Sociology at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York. He is the author of Assassinations and invasions – how the US and France shaped Haiti’s long history of political turmoil and Between Two Worlds: Jean Price-Mars, Haiti, and Africa.

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Scholars’ Circle – Politics and laws on Classified Documents ; How free is Free Speech in US? – January 29, 2023

January 28, 2023 host

We explore ongoing political, legal and normative questions about classified documents discovered in the homes of former President Donald Trump, current President Joe Biden and former Vice President Mike Pence. What is the process of classifying documents? And does the government over-classify documents? [ dur: 29mins. ]

Jeremi Suri is Professor in the Department of History and the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the 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 co-author of “Problems with President Records are Not Just About Trump” with Kenneth Osgood, the author of The Impossible Presidency: The Rise and Fall of America’s Highest Office and latest book Civil War by Other Means: America’s Long and Unfinished Fight For Democracy. He is host of the podcast This is Democracy.

What are its legal, social, and political limitations of free speech? How does the advent of social media and concerns over misinformation have an impact on the exercise of free speech? And how do the new developments of free speech and its limits have an impact on the First Amendment protections? We discuss a new book You Can’t Always Say What You Want: The Paradox of Free Speech with its author Dennis Baron. [ dur: 29mins. ]

Dennis Baron is Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is a frequent commentator on language issues in the national media and has written a number of popular books, including What’s Your Pronoun? (2020).

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Scholars’ Circle – Puerto Rico considers statehood or independence ; Peru Riots challenge removal of democratically elected president – January 22, 2023

January 22, 2023 host

The island of Puerto Rico has a complex relationship with the federal government in the United States. Should it seek statehood or independence? Or is the status quo the best option for the nation. [ dur: 30mins. ]

Amílcar Antonio Barreto is Professor and Chair, Cultures, Societies, and Global Studies Department, and Interim Director of International Affairs and Political Science at Northeastern University. He is the author of American Identity, Congress and the Puerto Rico Statehood Debate and The Politics of Language in Puerto Rico Revisited.
Jorge Farinacci-Fernós is Associate Professor of Law at the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico Law School and Visiting Professor at the University of Buffalo School of Law. He is the author of The ‘New’ Insular Cases and the Territorial Clause: From Temporary Incorporation to Permanent Unincorporation and the forthcoming book Puerto Rico’s Constitutional Paradox: Colonial Subordination, Democratic Tension, and Promise of Progressive Transformation.

Then, Peru has faced ongoing protests and violence since the removal of its president at the hands of the Congress. What socioeconomic divisions in the nation have lead to this deepened political crisis? [ dur: 28mins. ]

Victoria Chonn Ching is a Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow in the Department of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Southern California. She is author of Conceptualizing China-Latin America Relations in the Twenty-First Century: The Boom, The Bust, and the Aftermath with Carol Wise and A Comparative View of Chinese Relations with Peru in China, Latin America, and the Global Economy, with Alvin Camba.
Jorge Antonio Chavez Mazuelos is a lecturer at Universidad San Ignacio de Loyola in Peru, at the International Relations Department, and is coordinator of a research group focused on Chinese Politics. He is author of The Chinese Dream of National Rejuvenation and Foreign Policy under Xi Jinping and The Evolution of Chinese Diplomacy: From Plain-Clothed Soldiers to Wolf Warriors.

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Scholars’ Circle – Dr. Martin Luther King Legacy and its effect on contemporary civil rights movement- January 15, 2023

January 16, 2023 host

To commemorate the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. we discuss Dr King’s life, his work, his legacy and his memory. We then explore the impact of Dr King and his memory on contemporary issues, including the role of women on the movement and the security of people of color as embodied in the Black Lives Matter movement. What is the meaning of Dr King’s dream today? [ dur: 58mins. ]

David Garrow is Professor of History and Law at the University of Pittsburgh and Former Senior Research Fellow at Cambridge University. He is the author of Rising Star: The Making of Barack Obama, The FBI and Martin Luther King, Jr., and Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography. His website is www.davidgarrow.com.
Keith Miller is Professor of English and Professor, Affiliate Faculty, at the Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict at Arizona State University. He is the author of Martin Luther King’s Biblical Epic: His Great, Final Speech and Voice of Deliverance: The Language of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Its Sources. His website is: drkeithdmiller.com.
Jared Clemons is Postdoctoral Research Associate at Princeton University. He is the author of “Freedom Now!” to “Black Lives Matter”: Retrieving King and Randolph to Theorize Contemporary White Antiracism.
Dewey M. Clayton is Professor of Political Science at the University of Louisville. He is the author of The presidential campaign of Barack Obama: A critical analysis of a racially transcendent strategy, African Americans and the politics of congressional redistricting and Black Lives Matter and the Civil Rights Movement: A Comparative Analysis of Two Social Movements in the United States .

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Scholars’ Circle – COP 27 Review and other Global Environmental Agenda – December 11, 2022

December 10, 2022 host

The world met once again on climate change, this time in Egypt. What did they agree to do, and what did they fail to do? We discuss the global environmental agenda, including biodiversity and the scourge of plastics. [ dur: 58mins. ]

Pamela Chasek is Professor of Political Science at Manhattan College. She is the co-founder and Executive Editor of the Earth Negotiations Bulletin. She is the author of Transforming Multilateral Diplomacy: The Inside Story of the Sustainable Development Goals, Global Environmental Politics, and The Global Environment in the 21st Century: Prospects for International Cooperation.
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. She’s also the author of a recent article in the Conversation Throwing soup on a Van Gogh and other ways young climate activists are making their voices heard over Egypt’s climate summit protest suppression.

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Scholars’ Circle – Executive powers use and abuse of the “Deep State” – December 4, 2022

December 3, 2022 host

Donald Trump versus the “Deep State.” A new book examines this political struggle and the tension between the Presidency and the Administrative State. We explore the implications of this struggle with the authors of Phantoms of a Beleaguered Republic: Deep State and the Unitary Executive. Hosted by Doug Becker. [ dur: 58mins. ]

Book cover of Phantoms of a Beleagured Republic, image of the White House with pillars of administrative building above it

Stephen Skowronek is Pelatiah Perit Professor of Political Science and Professor in the Institution for Social and Policy Studies at Yale University. His publications include, The Policy State: An American Predicament and The Search for American Political Development.
John A. Dearborn is a Assistant Professor of Political Science and Carolyn T. and Robert M. Rogers Dean’s Faculty Fellow at Vanderbilt University. He is the author of Power Shifts: Congress and Presidential Representation.
Desmond King is the Andrew W Mellon Professor of American Government and a Fellow of Nuffield College at the University of Oxford. His publications include Still a House Divided: Race and Politics in Obama’s America and Fed Power: How Finance Wins.

Together they are the author of Phantoms of a Beleaguered Republic: The Deep State and the Unitary Executive.

“This insightful new book explains how and why the Trump presidency became entangled in conflicts with administrators in both the executive branch and the U.S. Congress, while also showing how we might re-imagine presidential power, administrative independence, and our system of checks and balances.” —Oxford University Press

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Scholars’ Circle – Deep Listening to Sounds of Nature; Actual History in American Thanksgiving Story – November 27, 2022

November 27, 2022 host

How does deep listening to nature promote biodiversity and a deeper relationship with the natural world?

Book Cover of Civil War by Other Means has an red X on the title of the book

We discuss the book THE SOUNDS OF LIFE: How Digital Technology Is Bringing Us Closer to the World of Animals and Plants. [ dur: 34mins. ]

Karen Bakker is Professor of Geography and Associate at the Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability at the University of British Columbia. She is Visiting Professor at Harvard University’s Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. She is the author of Smart Earth: A meta-review and implications for environmental governance, The human right to water revisited (in The Right to Water), and THE SOUNDS OF LIFE: How Digital Technology Is Bringing Us Closer to the World of Animals and Plants.

References to clips of nature sound recordings included in the interview with Karen Bakker :

The American Thanksgiving story is one of cooperation and coexistence between white European settlers and the native peoples. But the real story is much darker.
How does this Thanksgiving narrative get the history wrong?

We discuss the history, the memory, and the meaning of Thanksgiving in the contemporary relationship between the United States and Indigenous people. [ dur: 24mins. ]

Robert J. Miller is Professor of Law at Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. He is Interim Chief Justice at Pascua Yaqui Tribe Court of Appeals. He is the author of American Indian Sovereignty versus the United States (in Handbook of Critical Indigenous Studies) and the forthcoming A Promise Kept: The Muscogee (Creek) Nation and McGirt v. Oklahoma. He is an enrolled citizen of the Eastern Shawnee Tribe.

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Scholars’ Circle – Financing US Political Campaigns by Super Rich ; Civil War by Other Means, unresolved politics continues today – November 20, 2022

November 20, 2022 host

Americans in polls consistently cite the nature of campaign financing as perhaps the greatest threat to democracy. And increasingly, candidates self-finance. In the LA Mayor’s race alone, billionaire developer Rick Caruso spent at least $100 million of his own fortune. What legal issues does this sort of financing raise? What does it mean for candidate quality? In what ways does it challenge and potentially undermine democracy? [ dur: 28 mins. ]

Eugene D. Mazo is Visiting Professor of Law at Seton Hall University School of Law. He is the author of The Best Candidate: Presidential Nomination in Polarized Times, Democracy by the People: Reforming Campaign Finance in America and co-author of Democracy by the Wealthy: Campaign Finance Reform as the Issue of Our Time.

While the US Civil War ended slavery, it didn’t end the political issues that caused the war. What exactly happened in the immediate aftermath of the war?

The political divide in the US from the Civil War persists today. We discuss the history of the period and its impact on contemporary politics with the author of the new book by Jeremi Suri, Civil War by Other Means: America’s Long and Unfinished Fight For Democracy . [ dur: 30 mins. ]

Jeremi Suri is Professor in the Department of History and the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the 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 co-author of “Problems with President Records are Not Just About Trump” with Kenneth Osgood, the author of The Impossible Presidency: The Rise and Fall of America’s Highest Office , Foreign Policy Breakthroughs: Cases in Successful Diplomacy and the his new book, Civil War by Other Means: America’s Long and Unfinished Fight For Democracy. He is host of the podcast This is Democracy.

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Tag Archives: Politics and Activism

Scholars’ Circle – Samuel Ringgold Ward: A life of Struggle, a biography – March 5, 2023

Scholars’ Circle – Turkey earthquake, disaster relief politics and humanitarian laws – Feb. 19, 2023

Scholars’ Circle – Causes of political and economic turmoil in Haiti – Feb. 5, 2023

Scholars’ Circle – Politics and laws on Classified Documents ; How free is Free Speech in US? – January 29, 2023

Scholars’ Circle – Puerto Rico considers statehood or independence ; Peru Riots challenge removal of democratically elected president – January 22, 2023

Scholars’ Circle – Dr. Martin Luther King Legacy and its effect on contemporary civil rights movement- January 15, 2023

Scholars’ Circle – COP 27 Review and other Global Environmental Agenda – December 11, 2022

Scholars’ Circle – Executive powers use and abuse of the “Deep State” – December 4, 2022

Scholars’ Circle – Deep Listening to Sounds of Nature; Actual History in American Thanksgiving Story – November 27, 2022

Scholars’ Circle – Financing US Political Campaigns by Super Rich ; Civil War by Other Means, unresolved politics continues today – November 20, 2022

By Maria Armoudian