The Scholars' Circle

Women have lost their constitutional right of bodily autonomy and the right to an abortion in the United States. We discuss the impact of the overturning of Roe v Wade with an emphasis on the future legal struggles, as well as, the social challenge of ensuring reproductive health and equality. How has the discourse around abortion shifted? What has altered about the way we think and talk about abortions and the right to abortions? We look at Crisis Pregnancy Centers and their impact. Also, we explore the role of the federal government. [ dur: 58mins. ]

* Greer Donley is an Associate Professor of Law at the University Pittsburgh Law School. She is the author of Medication Abortion Exceptionalism, and co-author of Abortion, Pregnancy Loss, and Subjective Fetal Personhood (with Jill Wieber Lens) and The New Abortion Battleground (with David S. Cohen and Rachel Rebouché).

* Carole Joffe is Professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco. She is the author of Doctors of Conscience: The Struggle to Provide Abortion before and after Roe v. Wade, Dispatches from the Abortion Wars: The Costs of Fanaticism to Doctors, Patients and the Rest of Us and co-author of Obstacle Course: The Everyday Struggle to Get an Abortion in America.

* Aziza Ahmed is Professor of Law at Boston University School of Law. She is the author of The Future of Facts: The Politics of Public Health and Medicine in Abortion Law, Informed Decision Making and Abortion: Crisis Pregnancy Centers, Informed Consent, and the First Amendment, and Medical Evidence and Expertise in Abortion Jurisprudence .

* Cary Franklin is a Professor of Law at UCLA and the Faculty Director of UCLA’s Center on Reproductive Health, Law, and Policy. She is the author of Roe As We Know It, Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt and What It Means to Protect Women and Living Textualism.

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

The US Supreme Court, in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v Bruen, ruled that state laws must reflect a Second Amendment protection that allows for individuals to carry guns for personal protection outside of their homes. We examine the future of gun control legislation in light of the Court’s rejection of state power to restrict gun ownership to private homes and gun clubs, thus, restricting the legislator’s ability to address gun violence. Historically, how have courts and legislators viewed the second amendment to the constitution?

Who are the victims of gun violence? Most victims are from intimate partner violence, suicide and homicide? We explore the impact of the proliferation of weapons in the United States. [ dur: 58mins. ]

* Robert J. Spitzer is Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the State University of New York, College at Cortland. He is the author of the books Guns Across America: Reconciling Gun Rules And Rights, The Politics of Gun Control, and his latest article on the NYSRPA v. Bruen decision, How the Supreme Court rewrote history to justify its flawed gun decision.

* Carl T. Bogus is Professor of Law at Roger Williams University School of Law. He is the editor of The Second Amendment in Law and History: Historians and Constitutional Scholars on the Right to Bear Arms and the author of The Hard, Simple Truth about Gun Control,” and Gun Control and America’s Cities: Public Policy and Politics.

* David Hemenway is Professor of Health Policy and Director of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center. He is the author of Private Guns Public Health Reducing Firearm Violence, and How the US can have guns but fewer gun problems.

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

What are the US Supreme Court's decisions from this year's docket? We will explore some of these decisions and what it means for the future of American law. Then, What does the leftist turn in Latin American elections mean for the politics of the region? Is it a response to neoliberalism? Is it a response to the endemic corruption in the region? We explore the so-called "pink wave" in the region.

January 6 insurrection has begun televised hearings of their findings. We examine the initial findings of this Committee and the role of former President Trump in the attempted coup. Followed by interview with author of the book describing the rise of the religious right or Christian Nationalism aided in the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980, and has been a significant voting bloc ever since. How much is this movement driving American politics? How organized are the groups that comprise the movement? And what exactly is its political agenda?

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February, a vicious war of aggression and occupation has devastated the nation. Determined resistance to the invasion has denied Russia many of its intended targets, but Ukrainians have suffered tremendous losses. What are the human and other costs of the Russian invasion of Ukraine? How has this invasion damaged the legitimacy of Russia's interventions in other conflicts across the post Soviet space? What does this mean to these conflicts? And how has this war called into question Russia’s influence in this area?

Mass shootings in the Unites States are unprecedented in advanced industrial democracies. We explore the psychological impact of these shootings on the survivors and witnesses, with a particular attention to the children who experience this trauma. What are effective actions to confront the traumas experienced by the children who survive school shootings? Overwhelming the response of mass shootings is to “do something.” But what should we as a society and as an electorate do in response to these mass shootings? [ dur: 58mins. ]

* Karla Vermeulen is the Deputy Director of the Institute for Disaster Mental Health and an Associate Professor of Psychology at SUNY New Paltz.She is the author of Generation Disaster: Coming of Age Post-9/11 and co-editor of Disaster Mental Health Case Studies: Lessons Learned from Counseling in Chaos.

* Robin Gurwitch is a Professor in the Duke University Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and is Senior Advisor for the Terrorism and Disaster Program of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network. She is the co-author of Children in Disasters and Trauma-Directed Interaction (TDI): An Adaptation to Parent-Child Interaction Therapy for Families with a History of Trauma. Resource – National Child Traumatic Stress Network – Talking to children about shooting.

* Heather Littleton is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Colorado, at Colorado Springs, and Research Director at the Lyda Hill Institute for Human Resilience. She is the co-author of “PTSD near and far: Symptom networks from two to 12 months after the Virginia Tech campus shootings.” And “Can people benefit from acute stress? Social support, psychological improvement, and resilience after the Virginia Tech campus shootings” as well as numerous publications on sexual violence and the trauma of the LGBTQI+ community.

More resources are available at:

https://www.newpaltz.edu/idmh/

https://www.nctsn.org/resources/talking-children-about-shooting

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

On May 9 of this year, Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa was forced to resign his position. This is despite the fact this his brother, Gotabaya, is the President of the nation. He is part of a quasi-dynastic Rajapaksa family, which has dominated Sri Lankan politics for 20 years. The nation is in economic turmoil and that day was one of the most violent of its history. Sri Lanka has less than $1 million in foreign reserves, dwindling medical supplies and almost no fuel. President Gotobaya Rajapaksa is attempting to hold onto power as the nation continues to deteriorate. And the protests continue.

We will explore the political and economic crisis that roils the island nation. What role do outside powers and lenders play at exacerbating Sri Lanka’s economic crisis? [ dur: 58 mins. ]

* Bhavani Fonseka is a Senior Researcher and Attorney at Law with the Centre for Policy Alternatives think tank. She is the editor of Transitional Justice in Sri Lanka: Moving Beyond Promises and the author of The Long Wait For Justice: On the chronic failures of criminal justice in Sri Lanka.

* Ambika Satkunanathan is human rights lawyer and Fellow at the Open Society Foundation. She is the author of Authoritarian (in)efficiency and the undermining of democracy in Sri Lanka, Justice in Transition-Victims, Forgiveness and Truth-Seeking in Post-War Sri Lanka and Securitisation and militarisation in Sri Lanka: A continuum.

* Ahilan Kadirgamar is Senior Lecturer at the University of Jaffna. He is the author of Rebuilding the Post-War North, and co-author of The Political Economy of the Crisis in Sri Lanka and Sri Lanka’s crisis: The disaster of economic dependency.

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

On May 9, the Philippines held their Presidential elections. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. won the election, bringing back the infamous family toppled in 1986 in a popular revolution. What does this say about the memory and the political climate of the nation? How will Marcos govern the country? What policies do we expect of this new Marcos regime and how might they differ from the current policies of Rodrigo Duterte? We explore the historical significance of the return of Marcos to power in the nation. [ dur: 58mins. ]

* Jocelyn Martin is Assistant Professor of English at Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines. She is the author of “Martial Law as Philippine Trauma: Group Culture, the Sacred, and Impunity in Three Memoirs” and “From Dictator to Hero: Marcos, Heroes Cemeteries and Sites of Cultural Memory”.

* Teresa S. Encarnacion Tadem is Professor of Political Science at the University of Philippines Diliman. She is the author of Philippine Politics and the Marcos Technocrats: The emergence and evolution of a power elite and “The Politics of a Middle-Class-Led Movement in the Philippines”.

* Nico Ravanilla is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of California San Diego. He is the co-author of “Deadly Populism: How Local Political Outsiders Drive Duterte’s War on Drugs in the Philippines” (with Renard Sexton and Dotan Haim) and “The Philippine Elections: Has Politics Changed under Duterte?”.

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

As the US Supreme Court indicates its likelihood of overturning the landmark decision enshrining women’s reproductive control on abortion, Roe v. Wade, women throughout the country are wrestling with strategies to ensure continued abilities to terminate unwanted pregnancies. This legal development has been anticipated. The drastic shift to the right of the Court has, for years, compelled abortion advocates to develop alternative strategies for women. If Roe v. Wade is in fact overturned, what will women do to maintain sovereignty over their own bodies? What will a post-Roe world mean for women’s reproductive health?

Can reframing reproductive rights influence how people understand the issues related to abortion? Would the phrase “reproductive justice” offer a more accurate view than previous frames such as “reproductive rights” or “rights to privacy?”. [ dur: 58mins. ]

* Rachel Rebouché is the Interim Dean of Temple University Beasley School of Law and the James E. Beasley Professor of Law. She is the author of Abortion Rights as Human Rights, co-author of “Eugenic Abortions” and the Problematic Popularity of the Reason-Based Ban and The New Abortion Battleground.

* Lina-Maria Murillo is Assistant Professor at the University of Iowa. She is the author of Birth Control, Border Control: The Movement for Contraception in El Paso, Texas 1936–1940 and Fighting for Control: Power, Reproductive Care, and Race in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands.

* Robin Marty is the Communications Director for the West Alabama Women’s Center and a freelance reporter. She’s the author of Handbook for a Post-Roe America and co-author of The End of Roe v. Wade: Inside the Right’s Plan to Destroy Legal Abortion.

Community of Womens’ Health advocates:

* Repro Legal Defense fund – https://reprolegaldefensefund.org

* If/When/How – https://www.ifwhenhow.org/ ,  lawyers for reproductive justice

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

What was the experience of gay people in East and West Germany during the Cold War? We speak with Samuel Clowes Huneke author of States of Liberation: Gay Men between Dictatorship and Democracy in Cold War Germany [ dur: 32mins. ].

* Samuel Clowes Huneke is Assistant Professor of History at George Mason University. He is also the author of Heterogeneous Persecution: Lesbianism and the Nazi State.

Since the 2020 election, anti-transgender campaigns have been growing in the United States. What are these efforts? We look at the campaigns to curtail and reverse gay and transgender rights, in particular we explore campaigns such as Florida’s Parental Rights in Education act (dubbed by critics as “Don’t Say Gay” bill) and attempts to ban trans athletes in all levels of competition. [ dur: 25 mins. ]

* Clifford Rosky is Professor of Law at the University of Utah’s S.J. Quinney College of Law. He is the author of Anti-Gay Curriculum Laws, Fear of the Queer Child, “Still Not Equal: A Report from the Red States,” and co-author of the opinion article After 50-year stalemate, it’s time to pass federal LGBTQ nondiscrimination law.

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