Tag Archives: Social Sciences

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

December 24, 2022 host

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. ]

Stanley Weintraub is a Professor Emeritus of Arts and Humanities at Penn State University. He is the author of more than 50 books including “Silent Night: The Story of the World War I Christmas Truce.“

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. ]

Iain Wilkinson is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Kent’s School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research. He is the author of Suffering: A Sociological Introduction and Anxiety in a Risk Society
Dr. Paul Gilbert is the head of the Mental Health Research Unit as well as Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Derby. His books include Compassion-Focused Therapy: Distinctive Features and The Compassionate Mind: A New Approach to Life’s Challenges
Dr James R. Doty is a Clinical Professor of neurosurgery at Stanford University and Founder and Director of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education. He is the co-author of Surgical Disorders of the Sacrum

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.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

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

May 1, 2022 host

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. ]

Elzbieta Drazkiewic is Senior Research Fellow at the Slovak Academy of the Sciences. She is the author of “Taking vaccine regret and hesitancy seriously. The role of truth, conspiracy theories, gender relations and trust in the HPV immunisation programmes in Ireland” and co-author of “What Should Academics Do About Conspiracy Theories? Moving Beyond Debunking to Better Deal with Conspiratorial Movements, Misinformation and Post-Truth” (with Jaron Harambam).
Nora Benavidez is Senior Counsel and Director of Digital Justice & Civil Rights at Free Press. She also serves as Faculty Associate at Arizona State University’s Cronkite Institute. She is the author of “Now What? Fixing Facebook to Protect Us All” and “Facebook Ought to be Protecting Democracy Every Day.”
Corneliu Bjola is Associate Professor in Diplomatic Studies at the University of Oxford and Head of the Oxford Digital Diplomacy Research Group. He is the author of Digital Diplomacy and International Organizations: Autonomy, Legitimacy and Contestation (with R Zaiotti) and Countering Online Propaganda and Violent Extremism: The Dark Side of Digital Diplomacy (with J. Pamment).

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

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Black Women Intellectuals how they empowered the civil rights struggle – March 20, 2022

March 20, 2022 host

What role have black women played in the civil rights era and black empowerment in addressing issues of white supremacy? We explore the importance of black women intellectuals, the way in which they have framed the scholarship, the analysis, and policies. [ dur: 34mins. ]

Ashley Farmer is Associate Professor of African and African Diaspora Studies & History at the University of Texas at Austin. She is the author of Remaking Black Power: How Black Women Transformed an Era and co-editor of New Perspectives on the Black Intellectual Tradition. She is also the Co-Editor and Curator of the Black Power Series with Ibram X. Kendi.

Several states have passed legislation barring teaching critical race theory in public schools. Today we explore critical race theory and how race is taught. How should academics proceed in light of the political backlash to teaching about race? [ dur: 22mins. ] This was originally recorded July 21, 2021. This is an excerpt, the complete version can be heard here.

Utz McKnight is Chair of the Department of Gender and Race Studies and Professor of Political Science at the University of Alabama. He is the author of Race and the Politics of the Exception: Equality, Sovereignty, and American Democracy and Everyday Practice of Race in America: Ambiguous Privilege.
Laura E. Gómez is Professor of Law at UCLA School of Law. She has taught the Critical Race Studies Program in the law school’s upper-year curriculum. Professor Gómez has co-founded and served as the first co-director of UCLA School of Law’s Critical Race Studies Program. She is the author of Inventing Latinos: A New Story of American Racism and Manifest Destinies: The Making of the Mexican American Race. 2nd ed.
David Livingstone Smith is Professor of Philosophy at New England University. He is the author of Less Than Human: Why We Demean, Enslave and Exterminate Others, On Inhumanity: Dehumanization and How to Resist It, and the forthcoming Making Monsters: The Uncanny Power of Dehumanization.

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

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Revolution in organizing civil protest for change -/- Why Power affects Moral judgement – June 7, 2020

June 6, 2020 host

The brutal police killing of George Floyd, a middle-aged, unarmed, Black man, provoked a massive wave of protest across America. How did this killing come to represent a much broader set of injustices in American life? Will the protests lead to anything? To get some answers, David S. Meyer interviews scholars Dana Fisher and Rashawn Ray of the University of Maryland. [ dur: 48mins. ]

Dana R. Fisher is a Professor of Sociology and the Director of the Program for Society and the Environment at the University of Maryland. Her research focuses on questions related to democracy, activism, and environmentalism — most recently studying climate activism and the American Resistance. Her research employs a mixed-methods approach that integrates data collected through open-ended semi-structured interviews and participant observation with various forms of survey data. She is the author of the book, American Resistance. Twitter handle: @fisher_danar .
Rashawn Ray is Professor of Sociology and Executive Director of the Lab for Applied Social Science Research (LASSR) at the University of Maryland, College Park. He is also one of the co-editors of Contexts Magazine: Sociology for the Public. Formerly, Ray was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Research Scholar at the University of California, Berkeley. Currently, he is a Rubenstein Fellow at the Brookings Institute. He is co-author of How Families Matter: Simply Complicated Intersections of Race, Gender, and Work. His recent article titled, Bad apples come from rotten trees in policing.

Then, how power can breed immorality and hypocrisy. [ dur: 10mins. ]

Adam Galinsky is the Chair of Management Department and Professor of Business at the Columbia Business School at Columbia University. He is the co-author of FRIEND AND FOE: When to Cooperate, When to Compete, and How to Succeed at Both.

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

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Being informed in Democratic Societies -/- What is Love? – December 29 , 2019

December 28, 2019 host

First, 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: 27 mins. ]

Arthur Lupia is the Hal R. Varian Collegiate Professor of Political Science at the University of Michigan and Chair of National Research Council’s Roundtable on the Application of Behavioral and Social Science. He is the co-author of The Democratic Dilemma: Can Citizens Learn What They Need to Know?, Elements of Reason: Cognition, Choice, and the Bounds of Rationality, and the author of his latest book Uninformed: Why People Know So Little About Politics and What We Can Do About It.

Finally, what is love? Is it emotional? Is it biological? Can it be summoned by rational decision and how does it play out in society? [ dur: 28 mins. ]

Simon May is a Visiting Professor of Philosophy at Kings College London. He is the author of Love: A History and Nietzsche’s Ethics and his War on ‘Morality’.
Bennett W. Helm is a Professor of Philosophy at Franklin & Marshall College. He is the author of Love, Friendship, and the Self: Intimacy, Identification, and the Social Nature of Persons and Emotional Reason: Deliberation, Motivation, and the Nature of Value.
Dr. Robert Epstein is a Senior Research Psychologist at the American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology. He is currently working on a book called Making Love: How People Learn To Love, and How You Can Too, which is based on his research on how love emerges over time in arranged marriages. He is also the author of, Cognition, Creativity, and Behavior: Selected Essays.

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 – President Trump’s Rhetoric Analyzed -/- Rapid Rate of Species Extinction in Progress – November 17 , 2019

November 16, 2019 host

Does Trump use Nazi-Style rhetoric? Our guest says yes. [ dur: 17 mins. ]

David Livingstone Smith is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of New England. He is the author of Less Than Human: Why We Demean, Enslave, and Exterminate Others, The Most Dangerous Animal: Human Nature and the Origins of War, How Biology Shapes Philosophy and Why We Lie: Evolutionary Roots of Deception and the Unconscious Mind.

Then, what are the causes of the rapid rate of species extinction and what can be done. [ dur: 41 mins. ]

Anthony Barnosky is Executive Director of Stanford University’s Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve, and an Emeritus Professor of Integrative Biology at University of California Berkeley. He is the author of Dodging Extinction—Power, Food, Money and the Future of Life on Earth and co-author of Tipping Point for Planet Earth—How Close Are We To The Edge (with Elizabeth Hadly).
Stuart Pimm is Doris Duke Professor of Conservation Ecology at Duke University. He is the author of A Scientist Audits the Earth, The Balance of Nature? Ecological Issues in the Conservation of Species and Communities, and Patterns in Nature: The Analysis of Species Co-Occurences.
David Wilkie is Director of Conservation Measures for the Wildlife Conservation Society. He is the author of Hunting for consensus: reconciling bushmeat harvest, conservation, and development policy in West and Central Africa, Valuation of consumption and sale of forest goods from a Central American rain forest, and Impacts of protected areas on local livelihoods in Cambodia.

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 – Insight into Mental health treatment within cultures – September 15 , 2019

September 14, 2019 host

How culture shapes our understanding and treatment of mental health. We speak with three experts. [ dur: 58 mins. ]

Roberto Lewis-Fernandez is Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at Columbia University. He is also Director of NYS Center of Excellence for Cultural Competence and Hispanic Treatment Program and Co-Director of Anxiety Disorders Clinic at New York State Psychiatric Institute. He is the author and co-editor of the book DSM-5(R) Handbook of the Cultural Formulation Interview. He is also the co-author of the research publications Impact of motivational pharmacotherapy on treatment retention among depressed Latinos, and Conditional risk for PTSD among Latinos: A systematic review of racial/ethnic differences and sociocultural explanations.
Tanya Marie Luhrmann is the Watkins University Professor in the Anthropology Department at Stanford University. She is the author of When God Talks Back: Understanding the American Evangelical Relationship with God, Of Two Minds: An Anthropologist Looks at American Psychiatry and Our Most Troubling Madness: Schizophrenia and Culture.
Andrew G. Ryder is Associate Professor of Psychology and Co-Director of the Centre for Clinical Research in Health at Concordia University. He is the co-author of the research publications Culture and psychopathology, Revisioning psychiatry: Cultural phenomenology, critical neuroscience, global mental health, Depression in cultural context: Chinese somatization and Towards a cultural-clinical psychology.

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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By Maria Armoudian