Tag Archives: Science / Technology

Scholars’ Circle – Unleashing of Cyber-attacks that kill ; Green washing techniques we should know – September 22, 2024

September 23, 2024 host

Cyber operations and cyber threats have become a greater fear in world politics and everyday life. But just how much of a threat are they? And how have they changed the way nations interact and conduct diplomacy? Hosted by Doug Becker. [ dur: 26mins. ]

Brandon Valeriano is Assistant Professor at the School of Diplomacy and International Relations at Seton Hall University.
He is the co-author of Cyber Strategy: The Evolving Character of Cyber Power and Coercion and Cyber War versus Cyber Realities: Cyber Conflict in the International System.

Then, greenwashing culture. How journalism, the entertainment industry and museums impact our environment. Hosted by Maria Armoudian. [ dur: 30mins. ]

Toby Miller is Distinguished Professor of the Graduate Division at the University of California, Riverside and Director of the Institute for Media and Creative Industries at Loughborough University London. He is the author and editor of over 40 books. His numerous publications include, Greenwashing Culture, Greenwashing Sports, The Routledge Companion to Global Cultural Policy (co-editor), and The Sage Companion to Television Studies (co-editor).

This program is produced by Ankine Aghassian, Doug Becker and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Refugees right to return in international law ; Effects of earth’s magnetism on birds, whales, bees and turtles – September 8, 2024

September 9, 2024 host

States have legal requirements to receive refugees and can return them after a conflict ends. But does this mean there is a right of return? What are the conditions of the right of return? Is it conditional on the provision of security for the state to which they are returning? [ dur: 40mins. ]

Susan Akram is Clinical Professor of Law at Boston University School of Law. She directs Boston University Laws International Human Rights Clinic. Her published works include International Law and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: a Rights-Based Approach to Middle East Peace, “A Comparative Perspective on Safe Third and First Country of Asylum Policies in the United Kingdom and North America: Legal Norms, Principles and Lessons Learned” and Palestinian Refugees.

How do birds, bees, whales and turtles use the earths magnetic field to guide their behavior? [ dur: 18mins. ]

Andres Vidal Gadea is Professor of Molecular Neuroethology at Illinois State University. He is the co-author of Magnetosensitive neurons mediate geomagnetic orientation in Caenorhabditis elegans and Factors that influence magnetic orientation in C. elegans. JCPA.

For a transcript of this interview, please visit: TheBigQ

This program is produced by Ankine Aghassian, Doug Becker and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Sounds of nature ; Thanksgiving (history and memory) – November 26, 2023

November 26, 2023 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 ( 1971 – 2023 ) was Professor of Geography and Associate at the Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability at the University of British Columbia. She was Visiting Professor at Harvard University’s Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. She was 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.
Professor Karen Bakker passed away on August 14, 2023 after a brief illness.

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 A Promise Kept: The Muscogee (Creek) Nation and McGirt v. Oklahoma. You can access the Scholars’ Circle interview on the book A Promise Kept here . He is an enrolled citizen of the Eastern Shawnee Tribe.

This show was recorded November 27, 2022.

This program is produced by Ankine Aghassian, Doug Becker, Mihika Chechi and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Author interview, On Disinformation, How to Talk to a Science Denier and Science Communication in a Crisis – July 30, 2023

July 30, 2023 host

Science is under attack. Who and what are behind the attacks? While we face catastrophic climate change and other pending disasters, how can we restore the public’s understandings about scientific realities? We explore disinformation and ways to communicate with non-scientists to loosen the grip the disinformants have on so many people. [ dur: 58mins. ]

Lee McIntyre is with us. He is a Research Fellow at the Center for Philosophy and History of Science at Boston University and a recent Lecturer in Ethics at Harvard Extension School. He is the author of How to Talk to a Science Denier , Post-Truth, and the forthcoming On Disinformation (MIT Press, August 2023),
Christopher Reddy is a senior scientist in the Department of Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and faculty member at MIT of the MIT/Woods Hole program in oceanography. He is the author of SCIENCE COMMUNICATION IN A CRISIS: An Insider’s Guide (Routledge; May 10, 2023).

This program is produced by Ankine Aghassian, Doug Becker, Melissa Chiprin and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars’ Circle – Use of Software Algorithms to create Artificial Intelligence that inform institutions, why should we be wary? – January 1, 2023

December 31, 2022 host

Algorithms reflect the biases of the society in which they exist and the programmers who create them. There has been a social and political reaction against their use. How do algorithms govern social and political interactions? What is the most proper use of algorithms? And what are the biases that persist in their use? [ dur: 58mins. ]

Tina Eliassi-Rad is a Professor of Computer Science at Northeastern University. She is also a core faculty member at Northeastern’s Network Science Institute and the Institute for Experiential AI. She is the author of Measuring Algorithmically Infused Societies and What Science Can Do for Democracy: A Complexity Science Approach.
Damien Patrick Williams is an assistant professor in Philosophy and Data Science at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He is the author of Why AI Research Needs Disabled and Marginalized Perspectives, Fitting the description: historical and sociotechnical elements of facial recognition and anti-black surveillance, and Constructing Situated and Social Knowledge: Ethical, Sociological, and Phenomenological Factors in Technological Design. Damien is member of the Project Advisory Committee for the Center for Democracy and Technology’s Project on Disability Rights and Algorithmic Fairness, Bias, and Discrimination, and the Disability Inclusion Fund’s Tech & Disability Stream Advisory Committee.
Henning Schulzrinne is Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Colombia University. He is the co-author of Mobility Protocols and Handover Optimization: Design, Evaluation and Application, Bridging communications and the physical world and Future internets escape the simulator. He was nominated as Internet Hall of Fame Innovator in 2013. He was Chief Technology Officer for the FCC under the Obama Administration.

This program is produced by Ankine Aghassian, Doug Becker, Melissa Chiprin and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

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?

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 :

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.

This program is produced by Ankine Aghassian, Doug Becker, Melissa Chiprin, Mihika Chechi, and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Use of Earth’s Magnetic Field by Birds and Animals ; Examining Human’s relationship with Animals – January 2, 2022

January 1, 2022 host

First, how do birds, bees, whales and turtles all use the earth’s magnetic field to guide their behavior? [ dur: 17mins. ]

Andres Vidal Gadea is Professor of Molecular Neuroethology at Illinois State University. He is the co-author of Magnetosensitive neurons mediate geomagnetic orientation in Caenorhabditis elegans and Factors that influence magnetic orientation in C. elegans. JCPA.

For a transcript of this interview, please visit: TheBigQ

Human history has been drastically changed by our relationship with animals. So much so that our next guest says it would be a different world if not for our intimate bonds with animals. How have they changed us and the world we live in? [ dur: 41 mins. ]

Brian Fagan is Professor Emeritus of Archaeology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He has authored more than two dozen books, including The Intimate Bond: How Animals Have Shaped Human History, Fishing: How the Sea Fed Civilization and co-authored with Nadia Durrani Climate Chaos: Lessons of Survival from our Ancestors. His website is: http://brianfagan.com/

This show was recorded on August 29, 2015

This program is produced by Ankine Aghassian, Doug Becker, Melissa Chiprin and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Algorithms, how do they make biased decisions? – November 14, 2021

November 13, 2021 host

Tina Eliassi-Rad is a Professor of Computer Science at Northeastern University. She is also a core faculty member at Northeastern’s Network Science Institute and the Institute for Experiential AI. She is the author of Measuring Algorithmically Infused Societies and What Science Can Do for Democracy: A Complexity Science Approach.
Damien Patrick Williams is PhD candidate in the Department of Science, Technology, and Society at Virginia Tech. He is the author of Why AI Research Needs Disabled and Marginalized Perspectives, Fitting the description: historical and sociotechnical elements of facial recognition and anti-black surveillance, and Constructing Situated and Social Knowledge: Ethical, Sociological, and Phenomenological Factors in Technological Design.
Henning Schulzrinne is Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Colombia University. He is the co-author of Mobility Protocols and Handover Optimization: Design, Evaluation and Application, Bridging communications and the physical world and Future internets escape the simulator. He was nominated as Internet Hall of Fame Innovator in 2013. He was Chief Technology Officer for the FCC under the Obama Administration.

This program is produced by Ankine Aghassian, Doug Becker, Melissa Chiprin and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Making Lasting Peace and Funding Big Science – June 27, 2021

June 26, 2021 host

First, beyond ending war what does it take to make a lasting quality peace? [ dur: 28mins. ]

Peter Wallensteen is Professor of Peace and Conflict Research at Uppsala University, Sweden and Research Professor Emeritus of Peace Studies at Joan B Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at University of Notre Dame. He is the author of Quality Peace: Peacebuilding, Victory and World Order, Understanding Conflict Resolution: Peace, War, and the Global System and editor of the volume International Sanctions: Between Wars and Words.

Then, the birth of what we know as big science. The big money supported, cross institution collaborations that have supported both medicine and weaponry. How did science and government get so entrenched with industry, and one another? And what have been the results? [ dur: 30mins. ]

Michael Hiltzik is a Pulizer Prize winning journalist and author. He writes a daily blog appearing on latimes.com. His publications include The New Deal: A Modern History; The Plot Against Social Security, and Big Science: Ernest Lawrence and the Invention That Launched the Military Industrial Complex

Produced by the Scholars’ Circle team: Ankine Aghassian, Doug Becker, Melissa Chiprin and Sudd Dongre.

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The Scholars' Circle Interviews

Tag Archives: Science / Technology

Scholars’ Circle – Unleashing of Cyber-attacks that kill ; Green washing techniques we should know – September 22, 2024

Scholars’ Circle – Refugees right to return in international law ; Effects of earth’s magnetism on birds, whales, bees and turtles – September 8, 2024

Scholars’ Circle – Sounds of nature ; Thanksgiving (history and memory) – November 26, 2023

Scholars’ Circle – Author interview, On Disinformation, How to Talk to a Science Denier and Science Communication in a Crisis – July 30, 2023

Scholars’ Circle – Use of Software Algorithms to create Artificial Intelligence that inform institutions, why should we be wary? – January 1, 2023

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

Scholars’ Circle – Use of Earth’s Magnetic Field by Birds and Animals ; Examining Human’s relationship with Animals – January 2, 2022

Scholars’ Circle – Algorithms, how do they make biased decisions? – November 14, 2021

Scholars’ Circle – Making Lasting Peace and Funding Big Science – June 27, 2021

By Maria Armoudian