The Scholars' Circle

First, the intersection of music, art and politics. Our guest producer Sam Smith explores how modern artists like Childish Gambino use music and video for political communication. [ dur: 15 mins. ]

* Dr Patrycja Rozbicka is lecturer in Politics and International Relations at Aston University, Birmingham UK. Her recent essay As Childish Gambino shows, pop music can be powerfully political – despite censorship can found here.

Then, the toll of trauma, its aftermath and how to heal after traumatic experiences. We speak with three renowned experts. [ dur: 43 mins. ]

* Dr. Charles Figley, Tulane University. Dr. Figley is the Tulane University Paul Henry Kurzweg, MD Distinguished Chair in Disaster Mental Health and Associate Dean for Research, School of Social Work Professor, and Director of the award-winning Traumatology Institute.

* Dr. Dan Siegel is a clinical professor of psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine and the founding co-director of the Mindful Awareness Research Center at UCLA. An award-winning educator, he is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and recipient of several honorary fellowships. Dr. Siegel is also the Executive Director of the Mindsight Institute, an educational organization, which offers online learning and in-person seminars that focus on how the development of Mindsight in individuals, families and communities can be enhanced by examining the interface of human relationships and basic biological processes.

* Richard Chefetz, MD, is a psychiatrist in private practice in Washington, DC. He’s a faculty member at the Washington School of Psychiatry, the Institute of Contemporary Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis, and the Washington Center for Psychoanalysis. He is the past president of the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation, 2002–2003; a founder and Chair of their dissociative disorders psychotherapy training program; as well as a distinguished visiting lecturer at the William Alanson White Institute of Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis, and Psychology. He is also a certified consultant at the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis and is trained in Level 1 and 2 EMDR. In addition to numerous journal articles, he the author of Intensive Psychotherapy for Persistent Dissociative Processes: The Fear of Feeling Real

This program is produced with contribution from following volunteers Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Anaïs Amin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

First we hear from scholars on politics of food, why we are never eating alone. Discussion on globalization affects our food choice. This is part 3 of 3 part recording fron Food System symposium held in Auckland, NZ. Future of Food symposium recording: hear Part 1. hear Part 2.[ dur: 23 mins. ]

* Michael Carolan is a Professor of Sociology and Associate Dean of Research for the College of Liberal Arts at Colorado State University. He has authored and coedited books including Reclaiming Food Security; The Sociology of Food and Agriculture; The Real Cost of Cheap Food; Food Utopias: Reimagining Citizenship, Ethics and Community; and Biological Economies: Experimentation and the Politics of Agrifood Frontiers.

* Richard Le Heron is a Professor of Geography in the School of Environment at the University of Auckland. His has coauthored and coedited books including Knowledge, Industry and Environment: Institutions and Innovation in Territorial Perspective; Economic Spaces of Pastoral Production and Commodity Systems: Markets and Livelihoods; Agri-Food Commodity Chains and Globalising Networks; and Biological Economies: Experimentation and the politics of agri-food frontiers.

* Nicolas Ian Lewis is an Associate Professor in the School of Environment at the University of Auckland. He coedited the book Biological Economies: Experimentation and the politics of agri-food frontiers and has authored book chapters including ‘Constructing economic objects of governance: the New Zealand wine industry’ in Agri-Food Commodity Chains and Globalising Networks.

* Anastasia Telesetsky is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Law at the University of Auckland. She has coauthored and coedited the books The International Law of Disaster Relief; Ecological Restoration in International Environmental Law; and Marine Pollution Contingency Planning, State Practice in Asia-Pacific States.

Then we consider is America facing human Rights crisis with it’s immigration policy. [ dur: 35 mins. ]

* David Kyle, Associate professor Sociology at University of California, Davis. You can find his publications here. His publications include Smart Humanitarianism: Re-imagining Human Rights in the Age of Enterprise and Transnational Peasants: Migrations, Networks, and Ethnicity in Andean Ecuador

* Kevin Johnson, Dean and Professor of Law at School of Law, University of California – Davis. He is the author of Opening the Floodgates: Why America Needs to Rethink Its Borders and Immigration Laws and Immigration Law and the US-Mexico Border. His list of publication can be found here.

This program is produced with contribution from following volunteers Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Anaïs Amin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

First, with climate change, contamination and host of stressors on the planet, how will we feed a growing population? What are the politics of food? In this second part of this symposium on food, we look at solutions and the changes we need to make to be sure a system is just, sustainable and resilient. [ dur: 28 mins. ]

* Michael Carolan is a Professor of Sociology and Associate Dean of Research for the College of Liberal Arts at Colorado State University. He has authored and coedited books including Reclaiming Food Security; The Sociology of Food and Agriculture; The Real Cost of Cheap Food; Food Utopias: Reimagining Citizenship, Ethics and Community; and Biological Economies: Experimentation and the Politics of Agrifood Frontiers.

* Richard Le Heron is a Professor of Geography in the School of Environment at the University of Auckland. His has coauthored and coedited books including Knowledge, Industry and Environment: Institutions and Innovation in Territorial Perspective; Economic Spaces of Pastoral Production and Commodity Systems: Markets and Livelihoods; Agri-Food Commodity Chains and Globalising Networks; and Biological Economies: Experimentation and the politics of agri-food frontiers.

* Nicolas Ian Lewis is an Associate Professor in the School of Environment at the University of Auckland. He coedited the book Biological Economies: Experimentation and the politics of agri-food frontiers and has authored book chapters including ‘Constructing economic objects of governance: the New Zealand wine industry’ in Agri-Food Commodity Chains and Globalising Networks.

* Anastasia Telesetsky is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Law at the University of Auckland. She has coauthored and coedited the books The International Law of Disaster Relief; Ecological Restoration in International Environmental Law; and Marine Pollution Contingency Planning, State Practice in Asia-Pacific States.

Then, we explore how DNA and other private data can be used and misused in law enforcement, health care and employment. [ dur: 30 mins. ]

* Ellen Wright Clayton is a Professor of Law at the Vanderbilt University School of Law, and Professor of Health Policy and Co-Founder of the Center for Biomedical Ethics and Society at the Vanderbilt University Medical School. She is co-author of the book Bioethics and Law and co-author of the research publication Privacy and Security in the Genomic Era, Imagined Futures: Capturing the Benefits of Genome Sequencing for Society, and The Legal Risks of Returning Results of Genomics.

* Mark A. Rothstein is Chair of Law and Medicine and is the Founding Director of the Institute for Bioethics, Health Policy and Law at the University of Louisville School of Medicine. He is the co-author of Genetics: Ethics, Law and Policy, the editor of Genetic Secrets: Protecting Privacy and Confidentiality in the Genetic Era and co-editor of Behavioral Genetics: The Clash of Culture and Biology.

* Dennis McNevin is a Professor of forensic genetics in the Centre for Forensic Science at the University of Technology Sydney. He is co-author of the research publications Predictive DNA analysis for bio-geographical ancestry, Forensic DNA phenotyping: Developing a model privacy impact assessment, and Prediction of bio-geographical ancestry from genotype: a comparison of classifiers.

This program is produced with generous contribution from Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Anaïs Amin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

First, Yemen is facing one of the worst humanitarian crisis on earth. How did it get to this? And what should be done?[ dur: 27 mins. ]

* Dr. Charles Schmitz is a professor of geography at Towson University in Baltimore, Maryland. From 2004 to 2014, he served as president of the American Institute for Yemeni Studies. He is an affiliated scholar with the Middle East Institute in Washington DC. Professor Schmitz is the co-author of Historical Dictionary of Yemen.

* Hammoud Salhi is Professor and Dean of Undergraduate Studies at Cal State Dominguez Hills. He is a host of SWANA Region Radio on KPFK in Los Angeles. He is a commentator for Arabic media.

Then, scholars note that the world is waging fewer wars, but that the wars that are waged are more brutal and intractable. How far have we come in the science of making peace? [ dur: 31 mins. ]

* George Lopez Vice President and Director of international conflict management at US Institute of Peace and co-author of Sanctions and the Search for Security: Challenges to UN Action

* Ervin Staub, Prof. of Psychology University of Massettuces Amherst. Author of The Psychology of Good and Evil: Why Children, Adults, and Groups Help and Harm Others

* Norrin Ripsman, Professor of Political Science at Concordia University. Co-author of Globalization and the National Security State

This program is produced with generous contribution from Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

First, did predatory developers use the law to confiscate thousands of acres from African-American? [ dur: 16 mins. ]

* Leah Douglas is a reporter and analyst with the Open Markets program at New America Foundation. Her investigative article “African Americans Have Lost Untold Acres of Land Over the Last Century” was just published in the Nation Magazine.

Then, we continue analyzing political corruption, its causes, consequences and remedies. [ dur: 42 mins. ]

* Matthew Stephenson is Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. He is the author of Legislation and Regulation and the book chapter Corruption and Democratic Institutions: A Review and Synthesis.

* Miriam Golden is Professor of Political Science at UCLA. She is the author of Heroic Defeats: The Politics of Job Loss and co-author of Corruption: What Everyone Needs to Know.

This program is produced with generous contribution from Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

Ocean life is under threat by multiple stressors: climate change, acidification, plastics, pollution, overfishing, overexploitation. We spend the hour with four experts of the seas. We discuss the realities facing our oceans and strides we’re making to protect, recover, and restore our oceans.[ dur: 58 mins. ]

* Simon Thrush is Head of the Institute of Marine Science at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. His publications include the research papers Real world biodiversity-ecosystem functioning: A seafloor perspective, The up-scaling of ecosystem functions in a heterogeneous world, Altered sea ice thickness and permanence affects benthic ecosystem functioning in Coastal Antarctica.

* Rochelle Constantine is senior lecturer and marine biologist at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. Her publications include the research papers Genotype-based estimates of local abundance and effective population size for Hector’s dolphins, Population structure of humpback whales in the western and central South Pacific Ocean as determined by vocal exchange among populations, and Environmental correlates of nearshore habitat distribution by the Critically Endangered Maūi dolphin.

* Mohd Nordin Hassan is the founding director and Professor Emeritus at the Institute for Environment and Development (LESTARI) of the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. His publications include the book chapter International Experience in Ecosystem Services and Management in China, and the research paper Towards sustainable development? The evolution of environmental policy is Malaysia.

* Daniel C. Hikuroa is senior lecturer at the Faculty of Arts in the University of Auckland in New Zealand. His publications include the research papers Maniapoto Upper Waipa River Fisheries Plan and Sea Change – Tai Timu Tai Pari.

Find book authored by our guest scholars on this Book Shelf .

This program is produced with generous contribution from Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

We spend the hour discussing corruption, particularly political corruption, its history, causes, costs to society and possible remedies. [ dur: 58 mins. ]

* Paul Heywood is Sir Francis Hill Professor of European Politics at the University of Nottingham in UK. He is the author of the Routledge Handbook of Political Corruption, and the co-editor of Debates of Corruption and Integrity: Perspectives from Europe and the US.

* Susan Rose-Ackerman is Professor of Law and Political Science at Yale University. Her publications include, Corruption and Government: Causes, Consequences, and Reform, Corruption: A Study in Political Economy and Anti-Corruption Policy: Can International Actors Play a Constructive Role?

* Bruce Buchan is Professor of Political Science at Griffith University in Australia. His publications include An Intellectual History of Political Corruption: From Antiquity to 1800 and The Empire of Political Thought: Indigenous Australians and the Language of Colonial Government.

This program is produced with generous contribution from Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

Today’s program was recorded in front of a live audience. In this symposium about the future of food, we look at food insecurity, food shortages, food justice and sovereignty. We explore the threats to long term availability of health food: climate change, chemical contamination, soil depletion, loss of land, power politics, mass death of pollinators and host of big business practices. We look at solutions and the changes we need to make to be sure of system is just, sustainable and resilient. [ dur: 58 mins. ]

* Ann Elizabeth Bartos is a Lecturer in the School of Environment at the University of Auckland. She has authored book chapters including ‘Food sovereignty and the possibilities for an equitable, just and sustainable food system”’in Eating, Drinking, Surviving: The international year of global understanding – IYGU and journal articles including ‘The body eating its food politics: reflections on relationalities and embodied ways of knowing’ in Gender, Place and Culture.

* Gerhard Benjamin McDonald Sundborn is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Population Health at the University of Auckland. His has coauthored journal articles including ‘Low sugar nutrition policies and dental caries: A study of primary schools in South Auckland’ in the Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health and ‘Sugar, dental caries and the incidence of acute rheumatic fever: A cohort study of Māori and Pacific children’ in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

* Daniel Carl Henare Hikuroa is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Māori Studies and Pacific Studies at the University of Auckland. He coedited the book Ara Mai he Tetekura: Visioning Our Futures: New and Emerging Pathways of Maori Academic Leadership and has coauthored journal articles including ‘Ensuring objectivity by applying the Mauri Model to assess the post-disaster affected environments of the 2011 MV Rena disaster in the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand’ in Ecological Indicators.

* Mike Joy is a Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Agriculture and Environment at Massey University. He authored the book Polluted Inheritance: New Zealand’s freshwater crisis; authored book chapters including ‘Our deadly nitrogen addiction’ in The New Zealand Land & Food Annual; as well as coauthored journal articles including ‘New Zealand dairy farming: milking our environment for all its worth’ in Environmental Management.

This program is produced with generous contribution from Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

First, living off the grid. A look inside the movement to live with total freedom and independence. Who is doing it? How are they doing it and why are they doing it? [ dur: 15 mins. ]

* Nick Rosen is writer, author and filmmaker. He is the author of Off the Grid: Inside the Movement for More Space, Less Government and True Independence in Modern America. His website is  www.off-grid.net

Then, living life as an infinite game. We speak with Niki Harre author of Infinite Game: How to Live Well Together. [ dur: 43 mins. ]

* Niki Harre is a Professor of Psychology and Associate Dean for Sustainability at the University of Auckland. She is the author of Psychology for a Better World and The Infinite Game: How to Live Well Together. Her website is: http://www.infinite-game.net/

This program is produced with generous contribution from Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

First, in commemoration of the 103rd anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, we revisit two important discussions: With Pulitzer Prize winning author, poet and Professor Peter Balakian and Professor and Pulitzer prize winning journalist, Ben Bagdikian, an Armenian Genocide survivor who was later responsible for publishing the Pentagon Papers while working at the Washington Post. His character was portrayed by Bob Odenkirk in the Oscar nominated film, The Post. Bagdikian passed away in 2016. [ dur: 29 mins. ]

* Peter Balakian is a professor of humanities. He is a noted poet, his books include “Black Dog of Fate: A Memoir” and “The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America’s Response“

* Ben Bagdikian, an Armenian Genocide survivor who was later responsible for publishing the Pentagon Papers while working at the Washington Post.

Then, why have so many human rights campaigns, such as Free Tibet and the Falun Gong, failed in China? And why have others—better environmental protection and HIV/Aids – care fared better? What have the costs been on political movements with the more successful campaigns? What activism can work in the authoritarian country? Stephen Noakes joins us. He is a senior lecturer at the University of Auckland and the author of The Advocacy Trap. Transnational activism and state power in China.[ dur: 29 mins. ]

* Stephen Noakes is a senior lecturer of Chinese Politics, jointly appointed to Politics and International Relations and Asian Studies at the University of Auckland. ​He is coauthor of Support for Civil Society in China in Creating Democratic Value: Evaluating Efforts to Promote Democracy Abroad.

This program is produced with generous contribution from Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.