General

Opportunity for undergraduates to get published!

/ profmikenelson

From: Columbia University’s Journal of Politics & Society

Want an opportunity to GET YOUR RESEARCH IN BARNES & NOBLE AND ON EBSCOHOST?

Columbia University’s Journal of Politics & Society, published by the Helvidius Group, invites you to submit your class papers and theses for consideration for our Spring 2012 edition. The Editorial Board is seeking submissions from UNDERGRADUATES (class of 2011 or later) in colleges and universities nationwide. Individuals who graduated in the Spring of 2011 may submit work they completed as undergraduates.

The deadline for the Spring 2012 Journal is January 6th, 2012.

In 2007, the Journal became the first commercially distributed undergraduate periodical in the nation. The 2012 Spring edition will be distributed among academics worldwide and sold in Barnes & Noble bookstores.

In addition, the Journal of Politics & Society will award the Peter and Katherine Tomassi Prize of $250 to the author of the best article, as judged by the Editorial Board in conjunction with faculty at Columbia University.

The Journal of Politics & Society is seeking original, creative, and rigorous articles including, but not limited to:
– Research on current economic, political, and sociological phenomena;

– Normative scholarship analyzing important theories on political philosophies.

Students from ALL SOCIAL SCIENCE DISCIPLINES are encouraged to submit their work.
There is no absolute length requirement, but published articles are typically originally 20­50 pages in length (double-spaced). Papers selected for publication undergo an intensive peer review and editing process, and work previously written for classroom or individual use is welcomed.

Please send all general inquiries and manuscripts to: helvidius@columbia.edu

For submissions, please use Microsoft Word (.doc) format and include “[2012 Spring Submission]” in the subject field of your email.

For further details, please visit us at: www.helvidius.org

Thank you and good luck!

The 22nd Editorial Board
The Helvidius Group

The past fall’s research and other professional activities

/ profmikenelson

The bad news is that I am still finishing my book manuscript. (I had hoped to be done by now!).

The good news is that I have gotten a fair amount of writing and research done. For the past several years or so, there have been two prongs to my research agenda: (1) Africa’s role in global economic governance and (2) the roles emerging powers such as China are playing in Africa. So what have I been up to?

  1. Africa’s role in global economic governance.
    • In the process of finishing my book manuscript. And I hope to do this over break.
    • Working with my research assistant Ivan Stoitzev (see previous post on teaching) to collect and analyze data on participation in international organizations more generally. Ivan has been working for me since last summer, tediously coding attendance and doing content analysis on meeting minutes (using Atlas.ti) and some preliminary analysis. The goal is to combine this with previous work I have done and present the findings in the spring at ISA.
  2. Emerging powers in Africa
    • Roselyn Hsueh (Temple) and I presented a paper we wrote for this fall’s African Studies Association conference. Here is the abstract:
      • In recent years, Chinese telecommunications companies, with the assistance of Chinese financial institutions and diplomatic backing, have successfully secured contracts to build infrastructure and wire Africa for the 21st century. The practical implications for economic development are important. But also important are the theoretical implications: what, for instance, is the relevance of such South-South linkages for how we think about globalization and the state? Our paper begins by considering China’s broader foreign economic policy agenda in Africa. What role does this play in the headway that Chinese telecommunications companies have made across African markets? What does this mean for market players from other countries (both African and non-African)? Importantly, what impact does China’s growing presence have on the relationship between state-building and market-building in traditionally weak states across the continent? To answer these questions, we take our study to the sector-level to investigate the growing presence of Chinese telecommunications equipment makers and service providers in Africa’s telecommunication markets.

Under the category of other professional activities I would have to mention my continuing role as head of the African Studies Cluster at Wesleyan. We are in the process of organizing an event on the “North Africa Spring”, scheduled for March 2nd. I have also been excited to see the activities the undergraduate students have been involved in. This spring our students have a fantastic development conference and a cultural event called “Afroganza” (sponsored by the African Students’ Association) in the planning. This past fall there was a nice event on the Congo Crisis.

TheAfrican Politics Conference Group continues to grow and evolve. I just finished editing and producing our most recent newsletter (available here).

Finally, I made a presentation several weeks ago to Wesleyan’s Academic Technology Roundtable on my use of Sente as a reference manager for Mac and iPad. Definitely a cool tool and I recommend others take a look at it (so long as you already have a Mac!).

Wesleyan Event: Deciphering Pakistan and US-Pakistan Relations, Sept 30-Oct 1

/ profmikenelson / Leave a comment

Deciphering Pakistan and US-Pakistan Relations
September 30th – October 1st, 2011

Wesleyan University – Middletown, CT
Free Entry

The Wesleyan International Relations Association would like to invite you to its 2011 Conference, “Deciphering Pakistan and US-Pakistan Relations,” organized in collaboration with the Wesleyan Pakistan Flood Relief Initiative and Wesleyan South Asian Studies Faculty.

The conference aims to increase understanding and awareness about Pakistan from its culture to its politics. The conference will also focus on US-Pakistan relations, which have both strained and strengthened after 9/11. The conference’s speakers are among the top commentators, officials and scholars on Pakistan and US-Pakistan relations, and the event will be open to the students, faculty and the larger public.

Panelists and guest speakers include:
Shahid Javed Burki is a professional economist who has served as Finance Minister of Pakistan and as a Vice President of the World Bank. He has written extensively on economic development and on the political history of Pakistan.
Ambassador Howard B. Schaffer is a retired American Foreign Service officer who spent much of his 36-year career dealing with U.S. relations with South Asia.
Asim Khwaja is the Sumitomo-FASID Professor of International Finance and Development at the Harvard Kennedy School and the faculty chair of the MPA/ID program.
Najam Sethi is the editor-in-chief of The Friday Times, a Lahore based political weekly, and the Editor-in-Chief of Geo News. He is the only journalist from Asia to receive three international press freedom awards in a decade.
Humeira Iqtidar is currently a research fellow at the Centre of South Asian Studies and at King’s College, Cambridge University. Her research is concerned with secularisation, secularism, feminism and Islamism.
Stanley Wolpert is an American historian, biographer and novelist and also an emeritus professor of History in University of California, Los Angeles.
Najeeb Ghauri is the founder, Chairman and CEO of NetSol Technologies, Inc. Mr. Ghauri is heavily involved in political and non-governmental organizations committed to US-Pakistan relations, particularly the US-Pakistan Business Council (vice president) and the Pakistan Human Development Fund (founding board member).
Mehreen Jabbar is a noted Pakistani film-maker and television director/producer. She directed the Pakistani film “Ramchand Pakistani”, which won the Audience Award of the Fribourg International Film Festival in Switzerland.
Imran Aziz Mian, a highly popular Qawwal from Pakistan, transfers the passion of his Qawwalis to his audience in live performances.
The conference schedule is as follows:

Friday, September 30th:

4-6:30pm: Screening of Ramchand Pakistan followed by a discussion with the film’s Director Mehreen Jabbar
Free Entry

8-10pm: Imran Aziz Mian Qawwali Concert
General Public Price: $20
Student and Wesleyan Faculty Price: $15
Wesleyan Student Price: $5

Saturday, October 1st:

9:30am-12pm:  Panel discussion on Pakistan’s internal dynamics
Free Entry

12pm-1:30pm:  Lunch catered by Roti Boti, Indian/Pakistani cuisine
General Public Price: $15
Student and Wesleyan Faculty Price: $15
Wesleyan Student Price: $10

1:30pm-4pm:  Panel discussion on US-Pakistani relations
Free Entry

5pm-7pm:  Keynote Speaker Shahid Javed Burki
Free Entry

7pm-9pm: Dinner with Keynote Speaker and Panel Speakers
General Public Price: $20
Student and Wesleyan Faculty Price: $20
Wesleyan Student Price: $15

Proceeds from the conference will go to Wesleyan Pakistan Flood Relief Initiative.

To register, refer to the Registration Form. Please be aware that seats are limited.

For more details, please contact our team at wira.conf@gmail.com. If you are looking for lodging please us know, so we can provide you with information on nearby lodging facilities.

We would greatly appreciate it if you could forward this email to those who may be interested in attending this event.

“Invisible Children” Event on Tuesday

/ profmikenelson / Leave a comment

Hello Professor Nelson,

I am a member of Wesleyan’s Amnesty International chapter, and I wanted to let you and your Africa in World Politics class know about an exciting event that we are holding next Tuesday, the 13th that we think you may be interested in.

We are welcoming back to campus representatives from the organization Invisible Children, a group committed to working with, for, and on behalf of child soldiers in Central Africa. We hosted a successful event with them last Spring, and hope to draw an even larger audience this time. They will be showing their new documentary, entitled “The Rescue” (you can see a trailer here: http://www.invisiblechildren.com/videos/3946581) and leading a discussion and question-and-answer session about their important work. WesAmnesty will be providing free food.

The event will take place at 6PM on September 13th in Exley 150. We would greatly appreciate it if you would mention this event to your students and consider coming yourself – based on their presentation last year we know that they deliver extremely a hard-hitting and thought-provoking message.

All the best and hope to see you there,
Sarah-Anne Tanner

Study Abroad Opportunity in South Africa

/ profmikenelson / Leave a comment

Dear Colleague:

May we ask for your help in sharing information on the International Human Rights Exchange (IHRE) program in Johannesburg, South Africa with students who may be interested?  Our application deadline for the Spring 2012 semester is October 15, 2011.  We thank you in advance for your assistance.  Please find a brief description below.

International Human Rights Exchange
Johannesburg, South Africa

The International Human Rights Exchange (IHRE) is the world’s only full-semester, multidisciplinary program in human rights for undergraduate students.  The program is based at the University of the Witwatersrand in Joahnnesburg, South Africa and is a joint venture with Bard College.  Each semester students and faculty from Africa and North America come together to participate in a deep and multifaceted intellectual engagement in human rights.  In addition to a required core course, students choose from 12 or more electives exploring human rights from the perspective of a variety of academic disciplines.

IHRE also opens up possibilities for substantive participation in human rights work.  Students enrolled in the Engagement with Human Rights course intern with an NGO working on contemporary rights in post-apartheid South Africa.  Students also explore human rights challenges in rural South Africa through a Community Human Rights Workshop, visit the Apartheid Museum and other relevant sites, and attend guest lectures from human rights experts from South Africa and around the world.

Application Deadlines

October 15th        Spring Semester
March 1st             Fall Semester

For more information on the International Human Rights Exchange:  http://www.ihre.org

Best wishes,

Jennifer Kloes
Director of Recruitment / International Program Manager
Institute for International Liberal Education
Bard College
Tel:  (845) 758-7081
E-mail:  kloes@bard.edu

Wandering and rambling

/ profmikenelson / Leave a comment

I can tell the academic year is approaching partly because the academic blogosphere seems to be getting busier. Or perhaps I am just starting to pay more attention again.

My Wesleyan colleague, Erica Chenoweth, has been making some fantastic posts in her new blog, Rational Insurgents.

Chris Blattman has an interesting piece on an experiment that was run on South African politicians. The tentative conclusion of the research by Gwyneth McClendon is that They tend to be more responsive to co-ethnics and to “unifying” issues. Over at the Monkey Cage, a few thoughts we expressed as to the ethics of the approach (Sides doesn’t seem to critical of it) as well as useful links to other similar experiments.

Deborah Brautigam continues her very helpful quest to set the record straight on the roles China may be playing in Africa. Her most recent focus has been on The Economist. See here and here.

Over at the Duck of Minerva, Josh Busby has published a nice series on the famine in East Africa. Part V is here.

A clear sign that the summer season might be ending is that the online debate between Dan Drezner and Anne-Marie Slaughter seems to finally be dying down. Henry Farrell at the Monkey Cage has a nice overview of the majority of that debate (it wasn’t–isn’t?–over yet). Farrell tries to insert his own voice in he with a mention of contagion as a useful metaphor for international politics. I think the key point to remember is that each has their own unique starting assumptions and beliefs about politics and human nature… But, oh wait, isn’t that obvious? Incommensurable worldviews make debate difficult. What could have made this all more interesting, theoretically, is if a little more was done to attempt bridging these perspectives. All of this reminded me of David Lake’s recent article, “Why “isms” Are Evil: Theory, Epistemology, and Academic Sects as Impediments to Understanding and Progress“. I find it interesting that, in many ways, his attempt to knock down the divisions between the different mainstream schools of thought in IR (such as some of those dividing Drezner and Slaughter and, ultimately to break down barriers between our major fields) simultaneously embraces diverse understandings of the truth of IR while pointing a possible way towards that holy grail of a grand unifying theory for IR. He might disagree with me that these are his purposes, but it is hard for me not to see such possibilities. That said, he, Drezner and Slaughter all seem to underestimate the epistemological rifts that are likely to persist. After all, as Larry Laudan teaches us, there are those who have no problem with the existence of impediments to progress given that progress should neither be possible nor, therefore, a goal. Not something I believe, but that perspective persists…