Tag Archives: Society and Culture

Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Celebrity Culture / Foreign Policy – June 15th, 2014

What drives destructive or unethical foreign policy? Some point to pathological pursuits of exceptionalism, honor and glory. Others, point to systemic flows. [ dur: 14 mins. ]

  • Christopher J. Fettweis is Professor of Political Science at Tulane University. He is the author of Dangerous Times? The International Politics of Great Power Peace and The Pathologies of Power: Fear, Honor, Glory, and Hubris in U.S. Foreign Policy.

Then, on the Scholars’ Circle panel, what is the celebrity industrial complex? How does it impact our democracies, our culture and society? [ dur: 43 mins. ]

  • Joshua Gamson is Professor of Sociology at the University of San Francisco. He is the author of Claims to Fame: Celebrity in Contemporary America and Freaks Talk Back: Tabloid Talk Shows and Sexual Nonconformity.
  • David Marshall is Chair of New Media, Communication and Cultural Studies at Deakin University, Australia. He is the author of Celebrity and Power: Fame in Contemporary Culture, New Media Cultures, and The Celebrity Culture Reader.
  • David Gilens is Professor of Media Psychology at the University of Winchester, UK. He is the author of Illusions of Immortality: A Psychology of Fame and Celebrity, and Psychology of the Media.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

The Scholars’ Circle & Insighters Radio- Feb. 16th, 2014

First, we’ll revisit the 1926 founding of Black History Month. [ dur: 15 mins. ]

  • VP Franklin, Distinguished Prof. History at UC Riverside; Author of Living Our Stories, Telling Our Truths: Autobiography and the Making of the African-American Intellectual Tradition editor of Journal of African American History.

Then, they may have been some of the world’s greatest thinkers but they were also great failures at love. [ dur: 15 mins. ]

  • Andrew Shaffer is the author of, Great Philosophers Who Failed at Love, and Literary Rogues: A Scandalous History of Wayward Authors.

Finally, on the Scholars’ Circle panel, what is love? Is it emotional? Biological? Can it be summarized by rational decision? How does it play out in society? [ dur: 28 mins. ]

  • Simon May is a Visiting Professor of Philosophy at Kings College, London. His books include, Love: A History and Nietzsche’s Ethics and his War on “Morality”
  • Bennett W. Helm is a Professor of Philosophy at Franklin & Marshall College. His books include, 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 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.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

The Scholars’ Circle & Insighters Radio- Jan. 12th, 2014

First, most important stories of science in 2013,

  • Philip Yam is the managing editor, online, for Scientific American, responsible for the overall digital content on the Website and mobile devices.  He is the author of The Pathological Protein: Mad Cow, Chronic Wasting,and Other Deadly Prion Diseases.

Then, on the Scholars’ Circle panel, we look at the physiology, sociology and politics of compassion.

  • 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. He is the author of several books including 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.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

The Scholars’ Circle & Insighters Radio- Nov. 3rd, 2013

Frist, we look at when and how war began.

  • Robert Kelly, Professor and Director of Anthropology, Univ. of Wyoming;  Author of The Lifeways of Hunter-Gatherers: The Foraging Spectrum
  • Douglas Fry,  Professor of Peace Mediation Research and Anthropology,  Abo Akademi Univ, Finland; Beyond War: The Human Potential for Peace

Then, on the Scholars’ Circle panel, how war and violent conflict might be resolved.

  • Douglas Fry, Professor of Peace Mediation Research and Anthropology, Abo Akademi University, Finland; Author of The Human Potential for Peace: An Anthropological Challenge to Assumptions about War and Violence
  • Mari Fitzduff, Professor of International program of coexistence and conflict,  Brandeis University; Author of The Psychology of Resolving Global Conflicts: From War to Peace
  • Douglas Noll, lawyer, mediator peacemaking. Author of Peacemaking: Practicing at the Intersection of Law and Human Conflict

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

The Scholars’ Circle & Insighters Radio- Aug. 25th, 2013

First, after a lifetime of working with the poorest children in America, Jonathan Kozol helps us understand their harsh realities, and the factors that help the most disadvantaged kids to thrive. Kozol is the author of, Fire in the Ashes: Twenty-Five Years Among the Poorest Children in America. [ dur: 23 mins. ]

Then, on the Scholars’ Circle panel, throughout US history third parties have had a profound impact on policy, governance and voter turnout. So why are we still in a two-party system? [ dur: 35mins. ]

  • Omar H. Ali, Univ. of North Carolina at Greensboro, Prof. of African Diaspora History and Politics. Author of In the Balance of Power: Independent Black Politics and Third-Party Movements in the United States.
  • David Gillespie, College of Charlston & the Citedal; Prof. of Political Science. Author of Challengers to Duopoly: Why Third Parties Matter in American Two-Party Politics
  • Scot Schraufnagel, Northern Illinois University. Prof. of Political Science & Director of Graduate Studies. Author of Third Party Blues: The Truth and Consequences of Two-Party Dominance

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

The Scholars’ Circle & Insighters Radio- Aug. 4th, 2013

First, has our society created a “charitable industrial complex?” We speak with Peter Buffet, Emmy winning musician, author and philanthropist.

For a transcript of this interview, please visit: TheBigQ

  • Peter Buffett is Emmy award winning musician, composer, philanthropist and author. He is the author of Life Is What You Make It: Find Your Own Path to Fulfillment. NY Times op-ed titled, The Charitable Industrial Complex.

Then, on the Scholars’ Circle panel, the long term effects of bullying on victims, bullies and society at large.

  • Joyce T. Heames is Chair and professor in the department of management and industrial relations in the College of Business & Economics at West Virginia University. She is the co-author of numerous publications including, “A bully as an archetypal destructive leader,” “Bullying: From the Playground to the Boardroom,” and “The Occurrence of Bullying in Global Organizations: A Model and Issues Associated With Social/Emotional Contagion.”
  • Catherine Bradshaw is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mental Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and has a joint appointment in the Johns Hopkins School of Education. She is the Deputy Director of the Johns Hopkins Center for the Prevention of Youth Violence and the Co-Director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Prevention and Early Intervention. She is the co-author of many studies including, Bullies, gangs, drugs, and school: Understanding the overlap and the role of ethnicity and urbanicity; Risk factors for bullying among children with autism spectrum disorders. And Teachers’ and education support professionals’ perspectives on bullying and prevention: Findings from a National Education Association (NEA) survey.
  • Jaana Juvonen is professor of developmental psychology in the Department of Psychology at UCLA. She is the author of (book), Peer Harassment in School: The Plight of the Vulnerable and Victimized, The rejected and the bullied: Lessons about social misfits from developmental psychology, and Ethnic diversity and perceptions of safety in urban middle schools.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

The Scholars’ Circle & Insighters Radio- July 7th, 2013

First, we revisit the American Revolution through the story of the loyalists – those loyal to Great Britain. [ dur: 18 mins. ]

  • Maya Jasanoff, Professor of History , Harvard University. Author of Liberty’s Exiles: American Loyalists and the Revolutionary War.

Then, we talk about America at a political, cultural and economic crossroads with [ dur: 27 mins. ]

  • Bill Greider  author of, Come Home America: The Rise and Fall and the Redeeming Promise of Our Country.

Finally, we interview Heather Rogers, author of Green Gone Wrong: How Our Economy is Undermining the Environmental Revolution. [ dur: 13 mins. ]

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

The Scholars’ Circle & Insighters Radio- Apr. 21st, 2013

First, part two of our interview with Steven Ross, author of, Hollywood Left and Right. [ dur: 27 mins. ]

 

Then, on the Scholars’ Circle, why does genocide happen and how can it be prevented. [ dur: 28 mins. ]

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

The Scholars’ Circle & Insighters Radio- Apr. 14th, 2013

First, we’ll begin with the surprising ways that Hollywood actors have shaped American politics and who have some of the most groundbreaking and influential on the body politic. [ dur: 27 mins. ]

Then, how do our experiences, our traumas, diets and lifestyles get coded in our genetic systems and passed on to our offspring and their offspring? How do they affect our health and our politics? [ dur: 28 mins. ]

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

The Scholars’ Circle & Insighters Radio- Feb. 17th, 2013

Begin with, President Obama used the state of the union address to galvanize support for his agenda. How does his state of the union compare to those of his predecessors? [ dur. 12:51 ]

  • Ryan Lee Teten, Professor of Political Science at Univ. of Louisiana.  Author of  – Evolution of Rehtorical Presidency.

Then, for President’s Day, we’ll take a peek inside the strange political marriage of Presidents Eisenhower and Nixon and how their terms shaped US politics and policy. [ dur. 41mins. ]

  • Jeffery Frank, author, journalist;  Author of Ike and Dick of Strange Political Marriage.

Finally, we’ll revisit the 1920 founding of Black History Month and in advance of its 50th anniversary, the pivotal civil rights campaign in Birmingham. [ dur. 18 mins. ]

  • VB Franklin, Distinguished Prof. History at UC Riverside. Author of Education of Black Philidelphia.

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