Past Lectures
Fall 2012
Dr. David Price, "The Covert Return of the Military-Intelligence Complex to Campus: Why Universities Should Be Very Afraid"
David Price is a professor of anthropology and sociology at St. Martin’s University in Lacey, Washington. He has researched and published extensively on the interaction between academics and U.S. military and intelligence agencies, like the Pentagon, the CIA, and NSA. His writings cover two main trajectories. One is the surveillance and harassment of academics engaged in status-quo threatening activism. The other is the historical contribution of academics, especially anthropologists, to military and intelligence agencies. The talk at San Diego State addresses the threats posed to academic freedom and integrity by the renewed efforts of military and intelligence agencies, in the post-9/11 era, to influence the teaching and research agendas of academia.
Dr. Price has published extensively in both academic venues and forums of public engagement, like Counterpunch. His books include Threatening Anthropology: McCarthyism and the FBI's Surveillance of Activist Anthropologists (Duke University Press, 2004), Anthropological Intelligence: the Deployment and Neglect of Anthropological Knowledge during the Second World War (Duke University Press, 2008), and Weaponizing Anthropology: Social Science in Service of the Militarized State (Counterpunch Books/AK Press, 2011).
Irakli Kakabadze, "The Role of Transformative Political Theater in Bringing About the Rose Revolution in Georgia"
Irakli Kakabadze is a Georgian writer, performance artist, and peace-human rights activist. In his youth (1987–1990), Kakabadze took part in anti-Soviet dissident movement and in the national liberation movements of Georgia, which included the revolutions of 1989 and of 2003. He was arrested and assaulted numerous times by the Soviet and Georgian police. In recent years, Kakabadze has dedicated himself to literature and arts while remaining active in peace studies and conflict resolution. He has developed a new method of integrating performing arts and social sciences, called "Rethinking Tragedy" or "Transformative Performance" and pioneered a multi-lingual and multi-narrative performing style, called "Polyphonic Discourse." In 2009, Kakabadze received the Oxfam/Novib Pen Freedom of Expression of Prize.
Professor Kakabadze's visit is a project of Scholars at Risk, a network of support for academics outside the United States whose work is threatened by discrimination, censorship, harassment, or intimidation. http://scholarsatrisk.nyu.edu/
SDSU is a member of Scholars at Risk.
http://go.sdsu.edu/scholarsatrisk/
Spring 2012: International Law and Global Justice: Friends, Acquaintances, or Enemies?
Pierre-Richard Prosper has had a distinguished diplomatic career. From 2001 through 2005, he served as US Ambassador at Large, in charge of the State Department’s Office of War Crimes Issues. From 1999 to 2001, Ambassador Prosper was special counsel and policy adviser on War Crimes Issues at the State Department. From 1996 to 1998, he was a prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. There, he was lead trial attorney for the Akayesu case, the first-ever case of genocide under the Genocide Convention. Ambassador Prosper remains engaged in matters of public interest. In April 2008, he was appointed by President Bush to be a member of the US Holocaust Memorial Council. In January 2008, he was elected by the United Nations General Assembly to serve as an independent expert to a human rights treaty body, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, in Geneva, Switzerland, which monitors compliance by State parties to the Convention. Ambassador Prosper is presently a partner at the international law firm, Arent Fox. His practice centers on international government relations and trade, mediation and internal assessments and investigations on behalf of government entities and companies.
Noura Erakat is an internationally recognized human rights attorney and activist. She was Legal Counsel for the Domestic Policy Subcommittee of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives and a foreign policy advisor to House Representative Dennis Kucinich. Ms. Erakat helped initiate both the Arab Women Arising for Justice (AMWAJ) and the Palestinian Popular Conference. She is a frequent contributor to prominent media outlets, including “The O’Reilly Factor,” “Democracy Now,” and Al-Jazeera Arabic and English. Professor Erakat is presently an adjunct professor of international human rights law and the Middle East at Georgetown University and the U.S.-based Legal Advocacy Coordinator at the Badil Resource Center for Palestinian Refugee and Residency Rights.
Balakrishnan Rajagopal has held distinguished positions in the fields of human rights and international law. He was United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Cambodia and has consulted for several UN agencies and NGOs on international human rights and other legal issues. Dr. Rajagopal has been a fellow or visiting professor at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, the Madras Institute for Advanced Studies in Jerusalem, the Washington College of Law, Melbourne Law School, and the UN University for Peace. In addition to multiple articles, he has authored International Law from Below: Development, Social Movements and Third World Resistance, and Reshaping Justice: International Law and the Third World. Professor Rajagopal is presently professor of international law and Director of the MIT Program on Human Rights & Justice at the Center for International Studies. He holds advisory or executive positions at the American Society of International Law, the International Advisory Committee of the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights, and the International Rights Advocates.
Ramesh Thakur was the Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1998 to 2007, while simultaneously holding the position of Senior Vice Rector of the United Nations University. Dr. Thakur has served on several high-level global policy panels, including the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty. The latter produced the well known “Responsibility to Protect” doctrine of which Dr. Thakur was one of the three principle co-authors. Dr. Thakur has authored over thirty books, including the prize-winning 2008 publication, War in Our Time: Reflections on Iraq, Terrorism and Weapons of Mass Destruction. Dr. Thakur is presently a professor of international relations and Director of the Centre for Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament at Australia National University.
Elise Keppler has worked for Human Rights Watch since 2003. Her focus has been on international criminal justice, with an emphasis on Africa. She has written briefing papers for the U.S. Congress and for the Obama Administration. Ms. Keppler was a prominent advocate in getting the international tribunal in Sierra Leone to indict former Liberian president Charles Taylor and in getting the International Criminal Court to investigate the atrocities in Darfur, Sudan. Ms. Keppler is presently Senior Counsel with the International Justice Program at Human Rights Watch.
Richard Goldstone has a highly regarded record in national and global public service. In South Africa, he was a justice on the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court and headed the Goldstone Commission, which investigated political violence in South African from 1991 through 1994. With Nelson Mandela’s endorsement, Judge Goldstone was selected by the UN Security Council to be the Chief Prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal of the former Yugoslavia. This mandate then extended to the parallel tribunal for Rwanda. He has also chaired prominent, UN-sponsored fact-finding commissions concerning the NATO offensive on Serbia-Kosovo in 1999 and the Israeli offensive on the Gaza in 2008-2009. Judge Goldstone received the International Rights Award of the American Bar Association in 1994, the Thomas J. Dodd Prize in International Rights in 2005, and the MacArthur Award for International Justice in 2009. Judge Goldstone is presently a professor of law, teaching this semester at Yale Law School.
Spring 2011: American Foreign Policy and the Challenges of the New Century
Galia Golan, Professor, Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy, Herzliya, Darwin Professor Emerita, Hebrew University
Roberto Toscano, Policy Scholar, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Former Italian Ambassador to India and Iran, former Head of Policy Planning, Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Title: “Is there a chance for Israeli-Palestinian peace?
Title: “Iran and Democracy”
Michael Klare, Five College Professor of Peace and World Security Studies, and Director of the Five College Program in Peace and World Security Studies (PAWSS), Hampshire College
Title: “Power Struggles: Energy, Resource Scarcity, and Global Security”Arif Ali Khan, Distinguished Visiting Professor of Homeland Security at the National Defense University's College of International Affairs, Former Assistant Secretary, Department of Homeland Security, former Deputy Mayor for Homeland Security and Public Safety for the City of Los Angeles
Title: “From Foreign Insurgencies to Transnational Terrorism in the United States: Reducing Violence and the Importance of Community-Oriented Strategies”
Rajiv Chandrasekharan, National Editor of The Washington Post, best-selling author of the critically lauded, “Imperial life in the Emerald City”
Title: “The Longest War: A journalist's front-line assessment of America's entanglement in Afghanistan”Dipak Gupta Fred J. Hansen Professor of Peace Studies, Department of Political Science, San Diego State University
Title: “Trapped! US foreign policy in the era of terrorism”
Richard Falk, Albert G. Milbank Professor Emeritus of International Law, Princeton University, Visiting Distinguished Professor in Global and International Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara
Title: “Can Soft Power Resolve the Israel/Palestine Conflict?”Bruce Cumings, Gustavus F. and Ann M. Swift Distinguished Professor of History, University of Chicago
Title: “Dominion From Sea to Sea: Pacific Ascendancy and American Power”Jorge Heine, CIGI Chair of Global Governance at the Balsillie School of International Affairs, Distinguished Fellow at CIGI and Professor of Political Science at Wilfrid Laurier University, Former Ambassador of Chile to India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, former Ambassador to South Africa
Title: “Looking Sideways: Latin America, Emerging Powers and the U.S. in the New Century”Brian Loveman, Professor Emeritus, Department of Political Science, San Diego State University
Title: “No Higher Law: American Foreign Policy in Myth and Practice”
Mike Shuster Award-winning diplomatic correspondent and roving foreign correspondent NPR News
Title: “Combating the Spread of Nuclear Weapons: Is it a losing battle?”
Spring 2010: Killing for a higher cause: Political violence in a world in crisis
Farhana Ali, Senior Analyst, RAND corporation [M. C. Madhavan Lecture]
"Radical Islam: An Examination of the Global Threat"
Marc Sageman, Sageman Consulting LLC, Adjunct associate professor, School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University
"The Turn to Political Violence" [Hansen-Hostler distinguished lecture]Mike Ramsdell, Director
"The Anatomy of Hate" (Documentary flim)Ignacio Sanchez-Cuenca
"The Causes of Terrorist Violence."David Gibbs, Associate Professor of History and Government, University of Arizona
"The Srebrenica Massacre: Evaluating its significance for Post-Cold War International Relations"
Ariel Merari, Professor Emeritus, Department of Psychology, Tel Aviv University. Israel
"In their own voice: Interviews with, and psychological tests of suicide bombers, their commanders and families"
Lee Ann Fujii, Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, George Washington University,
"Killing Neighbors: Webs of Violence in Rwanda"
Richard English, Queen’s University Belfast,
"Terrorism: How should we respond"
Zachariah Mampilly, Assistant Professor, Political Science Department, Vassar College,
"Rebel Rulers: Insurgent Governance and Civilian Life During War"
Shampa Biswas, Chair, Department of Politics, Whitman College,
"Re-thinking political violence: Torture, democracy, and complicity"
Nick Beams, International Editorial Board, World Socialist Web Site
"Imperialism and the political economy of the Holocaust"
2009: Foreign Policy Challenges for the Obama Administration
John Stoessinger, University of San Diego. “Why Nations Go To War: Perspectives of A Holocaust Survivor.”
Christine Fair, Georgetown University “Why the U.S. Cannot Help Pakistan”
Ambassador Jeffrey Davidow, "US and Mexico: Challenges for the Obama Administration."
David Rapoport, UCLA, Professor Emeritus, “Waves of International Terrorism.”
Tony Perry, LA Times, “Into the War Zone: Iraq and Afghanistan.”.
Walt Oechel, SDSU “Global Climate Change.”
Sumit Ganguly , Indiana University. “India”
Cosponsored by: M. C. Madhavan Distinguished Lecture Series.Barnett Rubin, Council on Foreign Relations and New York University. “Afghanistan”
Andranik Migranian, Institute for Democracy and Cooperation, New York. “Russia”
Michael Provence (UCSD), Farid Abdel-Nour (SDSU), Uri Ben-Eliezer (Haifa University). “Israeli/Palestinian Conflict”
Mahmood Mamdani, Columbia University. “Africa and Darfur: Humanitarian intervention” Cosponsored by: The Center for Islamic and Arabic Studies.
Dali Yang, University of Chicago. “China”
Eli Berman, UCSD. “Constructive Counterterrorism: Theory and Evidence.”
Ambassador Reno Harnish, Assistant Secretary (acting) for Oceans Environment and Science. “Energy and Climate Policy: Getting the Balance Right”
2008: In the Name of God: Religion in Ethnic Conflict, Genocide, and Terrorism
Dipak K. Gupta, San Diego State University. “In Our Own Image: Religion in the Context of Political Action.”
Benjamin Ajak. “Lost Boy” of Sudan, “When Religion Fills Refugee Camps: The Case of Sudan.”
David Rapoport, UCLA, “Religion and Modern Terrorism”
Mohammed Hafez, University of Missouri at Kansas, “Suicide Bombers in Iraq” Cosponsored by the Center for Islamic and Arabic Studies. (Monday night lecture. NH 100, 4:00-6:00 pm).
Peter Balakian, Professor, Colgate University. "Lessons of the Armenian Genocide." Co-sponsored by the Baron Lecture in Ethics Education and Kathy Justice.
Lawrence Baron, San Diego State University. "Christianities of Complicity and of Compassion: Religious Reasons for Persecuting and Protecting Jews during the Holocaust."
Richard English. Queens University, London. "For God and Ireland: Religion, Terrorism and Nationalism in Modern Ireland" (Monday night lecture, NH 100, 4:00-6:00 pm)
The Honorable Mahmud Ali Durrani, Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan to the United States (Invited) (Lecture in ENS 280)
Partha Ghosh, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India. "Limits of Religious Politics in India." Cosponsored by MC Madhavan Distinguished lecture series.
Chris Soper, Pepperdine University, "Muslims in Europe: Singing God’s Song in a Strange Land."
Common Chords
A musical celebration exploring the common roots of Muslim and Jewish music SDSU Music Bldg - Smith Recital Hall at 7pmThe Honorable Dr. Naser M.Y. Al Belooshi, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Bahrain to the United States
Ahmet Kuru, SDSU, " Islam and the Secular State: Turkey between French and American Models "
“The Importance of Restorative Justice and Forgiveness: From Personal Tragedy to National Strategy.” Azim Khamisa and Brian Loveman, Professor, Department of Political Science, SDSU.
Roundtable wrap-up discussion: William Headley, Dean, Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies, USD; Rebecca Moore, Professor of Religious Studies, SDSU; Khaleel Mohammed, Professor of Religious Studies, SDSU.