Tag Archives: Social Sciences

Scholars’ Circle – Reforming Federal Emergency Management Agency of USA territories – February 2, 2025

Climate change is intensifying natural disasters such as hurricanes, storms, and wildfires and making them more frequent. Yet President Trump has proposed eliminating the federal emergency management agency, FEMA, that responds to disasters. Why was FEMA created and how effective has it been? [ dur:58mins. ]

Reference: Timeline of FEMA Disaster handling in the past ( co-authored by Claire Rubin ).

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

Scholars’ Circle – Meskhetian Turks, their struggle for Self Determination ; Social behavior due to unconscious mind – December 8, 2024

History of Meskhetian Turks who are stateless and struggling to exist as people among nations like Turkey, Georgia, Romania and Armenia. We will discuss this population and its unique challenges in Russia and its population also has a unique and important position within the United States. [ dur: 32mins. ]

And a look at how the unconscious mind and biological predispositions effect political outcomes, waging war and prejudice biases. [ dur: 26 mins. ]

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

Scholars’ Circle – Election by gerrymandering and a tribute to Professor Philip Zimbardo – October 27, 2024

First, we discuss gerrymandering and redistricting and what it means for the upcoming elections on First Tuesday of November  2024.

Then, we pay tribute to Philip Zimbardo, the psychologist behind the infamous Stanford experiments. He died at home in San Francisco on Oct. 14, 2024 he was 91 in San Francisco. This excerpt from his interview with Scholars’ Circle in Feb. of 2016. You can find his full interview here.

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

Scholars’ Circle – Private Military Corporations and State responsibilities – July 14, 2024

Private Military Corporations have become a growing element of the warfighting landscape. States have historically had a monopoly on the use of military force. But private corporations challenge this monopoly. How much do they increase the lethality and likelihood of war? How much can private corporations be regulated? And what are the challenges to regulation? We explore the political, military, legal, and socioeconomic implications of private military corporations. [ dur: 58mins. ]

This interview was recorded in July 2023.

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

Scholars’ Circle – Addressing Homelessness in America, what is needed? – December 3, 2023

Over a half million Americans are currently homeless. What is causing this crisis? And what are the solutions? How do we get the resources to build the housing we need to address the homelessness crisis?

We discuss why services to address mental health and addiction are essential to resolving the homelessness crisis. [ dur: 58mins. ]

This recording is from December 2022.

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

Scholars’ Circle – Understanding Disinformation in our time – October 8, 2023

When Elon Musk promised that Twitter ( re-branded as X ) will allow a wider range of content, including some that was previously banned as hate speech, disinformation, or conspiracy-centric, concerns over disinformation in political discourse heightened. But the challenge of democratic discourse in light of misinformation and disinformation is a historic challenge. Social media just speeds the process. Yet a significant concern is discerning who best to regulate what constitutes disinformation, in light of the political power of censorship.
We look at how disinformation has spread worldwide, shifting politics and challenging democracies. What are the most effective ways to counter disinformation? How might it be different for states, than for individuals? [ dur: 58mins. ]

Recorded May 2022.

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

Scholars’ Circle – Insights into Private Military Corporations, their function and deployment by State and international corporations – July 23, 2023

Private Military Corporations have become a growing element of the warfighting landscape. States have historically had a monopoly on the use of military force. But private corporations challenge this monopoly. How much do they increase the lethality and likelihood of war? How much can private corporations be regulated? And what are the challenges to regulation? We explore the political, military, legal, and socioeconomic implications of private military corporations. [ dur: 58mins. ]

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

Scholars’ Circle – Politics, Violence and Memory The new social science of the Holocaust – April 30, 2023

New research on the Holocaust, on Jewish resistance and local collaboration in the killing offers insights into genocides, atrocities, and political violence. We discuss this research and other social science findings about the Holocaust in a new book Politics, Violence, Memory: The New Social Science of the Holocaust.

How does historical memory make researching the Holocaust a greater challenge? [ dur: 58mins. ]

Together they are editors of Politics, Violence, Memory: The New Social Science of the Holocaust.

Excerpt from the publisher:

Politics, Violence, Memory highlights important new social scientific research on the Holocaust and initiates the integration of the Holocaust into mainstream social scientific research in a way that will be useful both for social scientists and historians. Until recently social scientists largely ignored the Holocaust despite the centrality of these tragic events to many of their own concepts and theories.
In Politics, Violence, Memory the editors bring together contributions to understanding the Holocaust from a variety of disciplines, including political science, sociology, demography, and public health. The chapters examine the sources and measurement of antisemitism; explanations for collaboration, rescue, and survival; competing accounts of neighbor-on-neighbor violence; and the legacies of the Holocaust in contemporary Europe. Politics, Violence, Memory brings new data to bear on these important concerns and shows how older data can be deployed in new ways to understand the “index case” of violence in the modern world.

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

Scholars’ Circle – Story of Christmas Truce during WWI in 1914 ; Science of Compassion, a sense of humanity – December 25, 2022

Why did soldiers on the front line ( in Flanders on 1914 ) of one of the deadliest wars lay down their arms and play soccer with the very men they were supposed to shoot? We’ll revisit the Christmas truce of 1914 with Stanley Weintraub, author of, Silent Night: The Story of the World War I Christmas Truce. [ dur: 23 mins. ]

Then, on the Scholars’ panel, we explore the Science of Compassion. What is it and how does it impact society? Can we learn to be compassionate? [ dur: 35mins. ]

This program was first broadcast on Dec. 2017.

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

Scholars’ Circle – Disinformation in our time – May 1, 2022

With the news that Elon Musk intends to purchase Twitter and with promises that the social media company will allow a wider range of content, including some that was previously banned as hate speech, disinformation, or conspiracy-centric, concerns over disinformation in political discourse have been heightened. But the challenge of democratic discourse in light of misinformation and disinformation is a historic challenge. Social media just speeds the process. Yet a significant concern is discerning who best to regulate what constitutes disinformation, in light of the political power of censorship.
We look at how disinformation has spread worldwide, shifting politics and challenging democracies. What are the most effective ways to counter disinformation? How might it be different for states, than for individuals? [ dur: 58mins. ]

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