April 22, 2008
In this issue
- Coming up at the Mershon Center
- Other events
- 'Origins' examines history of mortgage market
- Smith Richardson Foundation offers faculty, student grants
Having trouble reading this newsletter? You can read it online.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
David Siegel
"Repression, Social Networks, and Collective Action"
Noon, Mershon Center for International Security Studies, 1501 Neil Ave.
David Siegel is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Florida State University. His research interests include American politics, comparative politics, international relations, formal and computational methods, political violence, elections, terrorism, and social networks. Siegel studies the manner in which institutions, both formal and informal, mediate the interactions of people with different motivations. In applying these concepts to political violence, Siegel studies the efficacy and evolution of terrorist organizations, and the degree to which both state and substate repression inhibit participation in collective behavior such as turnout, protest, or rebellion. New projects extend these ideas to the development of institutions in early societies and the formation of social identities. Read more and RSVP
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Fred Lawson
"Syria's Muslim Brothers: Shifting Fortunes, Changing Platforms"
Noon, Mershon Center for International Security Studies, 1501 Neil Ave.
Fred Lawson is Frederick A. Rice Professor of Government at Mills College, where he has taught international relations and Middle East politics since 1985. His interests include international relations, international political economy, politics of the Middle East and North Africa, and comparative foreign policy. Lawson is author of Constructing International Relations in the Arab World (Stanford University Press, 2006), Why Syria Goes to War (Cornell University Press, 1996), Bahrain: The Modernization of Autocracy (Westview Press, 1989) and other studies of political economy and foreign policy in the contemporary Middle East. Read more and RSVP
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
M.J. Peterson
"The Flows of Authority in Intergovernmental Organizations"
Noon, Mershon Center for International Security Studies, 1501 Neil Ave.
M.J. Peterson is Professor of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. Her interests include world politics, international institutions, international political economy, and technology and technological change.
Peterson is author of International Regimes for the Final Frontier (2005), The UN General Assembly (2005), Recognition of Governments: Legal Doctrine and State Practice 1815-1995 (1997), Managing the Frozen South: The Origin and Evolution of the Antarctic Treaty System (1988), The General Assembly in World Politics (1986), and other articles and chapters. Read more and RSVP
Friday, May 9, 2008
Maud Mandel
"'Each Algerian Must Feel Palestinian': 1967, 1968, and Muslim/Jewish Relations in France"
Noon, Mershon Center for International Security Studies, 1501 Neil Ave.
Maud Mandel is Associate Professor of History and Judaic Studies at Brown University. She specializes in modern Jewish history and has focused particularly on the 20th-century French Jewish experience. Mandel is author of In the Aftermath of Genocide: Armenians and Jews in Twentieth Century France (Duke University Press, 2003). Her current book project, Beyond Antisemitism: Muslims and Jews in Contemporary France, has been awarded an advance contract by Princeton University Press. Her most recent article, "Transnationalism and its Discontents during the 1948 Arab/Israeli War," appeared in Diaspora. Read more and RSVP
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Michael Byungnam Lee
12:20 p.m., 335 Gerlach Hall, 2108 Neil Ave.
Sponsored by the Fisher College International Programs Office/CIBER
Michael Byungnam Lee is a graduate of the Fisher College of Business, with a PhD from the University of Minnesota. After several years of teaching at the university level in the United States, the LG Corporation attracted him back to Korea. He now is CEO of LG Academy, a large company within the LG group that provides training and development services to a variety of firms in Korea and surrounding countries. Founded in 1947, the LG Group is comprised of 36 companies in electronics, chemicals, and telecommunications. At the core is the "LG Way," which puts the philosophy of value creation for customers and human respect by management into the practice of fair management. LG Academy has prepared the LG Entrepreneur Development Education System to ensure that LG is the leading enterprise of the 21st century. For more information please visit http://www.lg.net/index.jsp. Lunch will be provided for those who respond to Joana Ferreti-Meza by Friday, April 18.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Graham Allison
"Nuclear Terrorism: The Economic and Social Effects of an Attack"
5:30 p.m., OCLC-Online Computer Library Center, 6565 Kilgour Place, Dublin, OH
Sponsored by the Columbus Council on World Affairs
Join us for an evening with Graham Allison as we explore the magnitude of the nuclear terrorism threat, the worldwide economic consequences of an attack, and the three no’s doctrine that could prevent it: no loose nukes, no more nations with the ability to make explosive nuclear material, and no new nuclear powers. Allison is Douglas Dillon Professor of Government and Director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. From 1977 to 1989, he served as Dean of the Kennedy School. Under his leadership, a small, undefined program grew twenty-fold to become a major professional school of public policy and government. Allison has served in various capacities under both Democratic and Republican administrations and has the sole distinction of having twice been awarded the Defense Department’s highest civilian award. Allison earned a B.A. in History at Harvard College; B.A. and M.A. degrees in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at Oxford University; and his Ph.D. at Harvard University. He has authored or co-authored 20 books and hundreds of articles. His most recent book, Nuclear Terrorism: the Ultimate Preventable Catastrophe, was selected by The New York Times as one of the "100 most notable books of 2004." To attend this event, register online or call Clare Kirlin at (614) 229-4599, x401. Costs: $25 members, $30 non-members, $15 students.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Lynn Schofield Clark
"Religion and the Mysterious in Prime Time: Lost, Heroes and Other Myths of the Post-9/11 Era"
4:30 p.m., Wexner Center Film/Video Theater, 1871 N. High St.
Sponsored by the Center for the Study of Religion
An island of mystery and Shangri-La. Humans who can work together to save the world -- or only themselves. Men and women given second chances at life through science and time travel. These are some of the stories we enjoyed in 2007-08. What do they tell us about the popular beliefs of those in the United States today? How have these beliefs, in turn, contributed to –- or challenged -- our self-understandings as a society? Bringing together media cultural studies work on television, fan communities, and media myths with the work on popular and lived religion in religious studies and the sociology of religion, this multimedia discussion explores how people make sense of the religious, the vaguely religious, the sci-fi and the folkloric references in contemporary television, looking for clues as to the role television plays in our politically troubled world today. Lynn Schofield Clark is Director of the Estlow International Center for Journalism at University of Denver. For more information, contact van-kley.2@osu.edu.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
International Studies: Springing into its 65th Year
3 p.m., Reception, West Lawn of University Hall, 17th and Neil Ave.
3:30 p.m., Keynote Address, 100 Independence Hall, 1923 Neil Ave.
John Mueller, Woody Hayes Chair of National Security Studies, and author of Overblown: How Politicians and the Terrorism Industry Inflate National Security Threats, and Why We Believe Them (Free Press, 2006), will speak on "Trends in International Relations." Mueller will recount and evaluate changes in international politics and foreign policy since 1943, including the aftermath of World War II, the demise of colonialism and the idea of conquest, the Cold War's rise and eventual evaporation, the decline in international and civil war, the rise of democracy and capitalism, and the growth in wealth and life expectancy. Welcoming remarks by Richard Sisson, former provost and interim president of Ohio State.
Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspective is pleased to announce the publication of its May 2008 issue, featuring "(Fore)closing on the American Dream" by Lawrence Bowdish. Origins can be found at http://ehistory.osu.edu/osu/origins/. The podcast is at http://ehistory.osu.edu/osu/origins/podcasts.cfm.
In light of the current mortgage crisis, the American Dream of homeownership for some people has become an unreachable goal, and for others a nightmare. Lawrence Bowdish, Ph.D. candidate at The Ohio State University, will illustrate the history of the mortgage market and its problems, and explain why the consequences of that history makes so many homeowners vulnerable today.
Origins is a project of the Public History Initiative and eHistory in the History Department at The Ohio State University.
In each issue, an academic expert analyzes a particular current issue -- political, cultural, or social -- in a larger, deeper historical context. In addition to the analysis provided by each month's feature, Origins will also include podcasts, images, maps, graphs, timelines, and other material to complement the essay.
Next month: "A New Direction for the 'Other China,'" by Christopher A. Reed.
The Smith Richardson Foundation's International Security and Foreign Policy Program is pleased to announce two annual grant competitions to support research by junior faculty and Ph.D. candidates in American foreign policy, international relations, international security, military policy, and diplomatic and military history.
Junior Faculty Research Grant Program
The Smith Richardson Foundation will award at least three research grants of $60,000 each to support tenure-track junior faculty engaged in the research and writing of a scholarly book on an issue or topic of interest to the policy community. These grants are intended to buy-out up to one year of teaching time and underwrite research costs (including research assistance and travel).
Each grant will be paid directly to, and should be administered by, the academic institution at which the junior faculty member works. Projects in military and diplomatic history are especially encouraged. Group or collaborative projects will not be considered.
An applicant must submit a research proposal, a maximum of 10 pages, that includes the following five sections: (1) a one-page executive summary; (2) a brief description of the policy issue or problem that the proposed book will examine; (3) a description of the background and body of knowledge on the issue to be addressed by the book; (4) a description of the personnel and methods (e.g., research questions, research strategy, analytical approach, tentative organization of the book, etc.); and (5) a brief explanation of the implications of the prospective findings of the research for the policy community.
The applicant should also include a curriculum vitae, detailed budget explaining how the grant would be used, work timetable with a start date, and copy of policy-relevant scholarship. A template for junior faculty proposals is available at the foundation's website at www.srf.org.
The foundation must receive all Junior Faculty Research Grant proposals postmarked by June 30, 2008. Applicants will be notified of the foundation's decision by October 31, 2008. No electronic submissions please. Please mail your proposal to: Junior Faculty Research/International Program, Smith Richardson Foundation, 60 Jesup Road, Westport, CT 06880.
World Politics and Statecraft Doctoral Fellowship
The Smith Richardson Foundation will award up to 20 grants of $7,500 each to support the research and writing of doctoral dissertations that could directly inform U.S. policy debates and thinking, through the funding of field work, archival research, and language training.
For details on how to apply, visit the website of the foundation's International Security and Foreign Policy Program at http://www.srf.org/grants/world_politics.php
Applications may be submitted by e-mail to worldpolitics@srf.org, or a hard copy may be mailed to the Smith Richardson Foundation, 60 Jesup Road, Westport, CT 06880, postmarked no later than October 31, 2008. Applicants will be notified of the foundation's decision by January 31, 2009.
If you have questions about either grant program, please consult the Smith Richardson Foundation's website at www.srf.org. No phone inquiries please.
About Mershon Memo
Mershon Memo is a weekly e-mail newsletter distributed by the Mershon Center for International Security Studies. You have received this newsletter because you have been identified as a party to whom these mailings may be of interest. If you would like to unsubscribe, please e-mail becker.271@osu.edu.
