"The United States and the Arab World: Sources of Antagonism, Prospects for Accommodation"
A talk by Salim Yaqub, Assistant Professor of History, U. of Chicago; moderated by Marda Dunsky, Assistant Professor at the Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University. From the World Beyond the Headlines Series.
"Photography as Prophecy: India 1839-1900"
A talk by Christopher Pinney, Professor of Anthropology & Visual Culture, University College London; Visiting Crowe Professor, Department of Art History, Northwestern University. From the South Asia Seminar.
"Ganesa versus Kusilavau: Myths and Reality of the Oral Composition of the Sanskrit Epics"
A special lecture by John Brockington, Emeritus Professor of Sanskrit at the University of Edinburgh. From the South Asia Seminar.
"Pens and Swords: How the American Mainstream Media Report the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict"
A talk by Marda Dunsky, former Arab affairs reporter for the Jerusalem Post and editor on the national/foreign desk of the Chicago Tribune. As world attention is renewed and refocused on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the sixtieth anniversary of its seminal year of 1948, Marda Dunsky takes a close look at how more than two dozen major American print and broadcast outlets have reported the conflict i
“'I Am Who I Am': On Being Nostalgic in Sanskritâ€
A talk by David Shulman, Renee Lang Professor of Humanistic Studies, Department of Comparative Religion, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. From the South Asia Seminar.
"The U.N. Security Council and the Making of the Modern World"
A talk by professor and author David Bosco. From the Berlin Airlift to the Iraq War, the UN Security Council has stood at the heart of global politics. Part public theater, part smoke-filled backroom, the Council has enjoyed notable successes and suffered ignominious failures, but it has always provided a space for the five great powers to sit down toget
“The Dragon's Gift: The Real Story of China in Africaâ€
A talk by American University professor Deborah Brautigam. Is China a rogue donor, as some media pundits suggest? Or is China helping the developing world pave a pathway out of poverty, as the Chinese claim? This well-timed book provides the first comprehensive account of China's aid and economic cooperation overseas. Deborah Brautigam ta
“The Consequences of the Escalation of War in Afghanistanâ€
A talk by political scientist Gilles Dorronsoro, visiting scholar in the Carnegie Endowment's South Asia Program. His research focuses on security and political development in Afghanistan, particularly the role of the International Security Assistance Force, the steps required to achieve a viable government in Kabul, and the conditions necess
Panel 2: The Problem of Historical Difference
Panel 2: Miranda Johnson, University of MIchigan; Bain Attwood, Monash University; Ajay Skaria, University of MInnesota. Co-sponsored by the Chicago Center for Contemporary Theory (3CT), the Franke Institute for the Humanities, and the Nicholson Center for British Studies.Author(s):
"Legal Defense and Human Rights in Russia" (video)
A talk with Robert Amsterdam, founding partner, Amsterdam & Peroff, legal defense counsel for Mikhail Khodorkovsky. In practice since 1980, Mr. Amsterdam has extensive experience litigating and arbitrating corporate disputes in emerging markets, focusing on the areas of individual and corporate human rights. Mr. Amsterdam was retained by Mikhail Khodorkovsky in August
"The Oil and Glory" (video)
A talk by journalist and author Steven LeVine. Pipeline politics became a modern day version of the 19th Century's Great Game, in which Britain and Russia had employed cunning and bluff to gain supremacy over the lands of the Caucasus and Central Asia. “The Oil and Glory†is the story of how, at the dawn of the 21st century, the game was played once more across the harsh e
"The Closing of the ICTY and its Effect on Justice and Accountability in the Former Yugoslavia (vide
This panel explores how the impending closing of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) will affect justice and accountability in the Balkans including: the integration of international human rights standards on a national level, the challenges and opportunities confronting the domestic courts and the role of the media/civil society.
Distinguished panelists in
"Pens and Swords: How the American Mainstream Media Report the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict" (video)
A talk by Marda Dunsky, former Arab affairs reporter for the Jerusalem Post and editor on the national/foreign desk of the Chicago Tribune. As world attention is renewed and refocused on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the sixtieth anniversary of its seminal year of 1948, Marda Dunsky takes a close look at how more than two dozen major American print and broadcast outlets have reported the conflict i
“The Future of the South African Dream: Thabo Mbeki, Jacob Zuma, and the South African Electionsâ€
A talk by South African author and journalist Mark Gevisser.
Mark Gevisser is currently The Nation's Southern African correspondent. In South Africa, his work has appeared in the Mail & Guardian, the Sunday Independent, the Sunday Times and many magazines and periodicals. Internationally, he has written widely on South African politics, culture and society,
“The Dragon's Gift: The Real Story of China in Africa†(video)
A talk by American University professor Deborah Brautigam. Is China a rogue donor, as some media pundits suggest? Or is China helping the developing world pave a pathway out of poverty, as the Chinese claim? This well-timed book provides the first comprehensive account of China's aid and economic cooperation overseas. Deborah Brautigam ta
Sirius and XM: Can Two Archrivals Sing the Same Tune?
The country's two satellite radio services -- Sirius and XM -- announced that they had finally agreed to merge. The move raises a number of questions, not the least of which is whether they can get this deal approved by the Federal Communications Commission and the Justice Department. But regulatory issues aside, what prompted these two archrivals to embrace each other, what do they expect to get out of it, and what does a combined company mean for consumers who currently pay a subscription fee
A Tremendous Need to Find Talent: Human Resources Challenges on a Global Scale
The 57 members of AHRMIO, the Association for Human Resources Management in International Organizations, range from the UN, UNICEF and OECD to the World Health Organization, the World Bank and the International Labour Organization. Mary Jane Peters, executive director, and Roger Eggleston, president emeritus, were at Wharton recently for the group's 7th annual conference. They talked with Knowledge@Wharton about their successes -- such as the introduction of paternity leave and policies regardin
Bernardo Gradin: Our Goal Is to Become One of the 10 Most Valued Petrochemicals Companies
Brazil's petrochemicals industry has been going through active consolidation, a phase that is almost at an end. That process, however, has seen the creation and growth of Braskem, a giant of a firm that is the largest petrochemicals producer not just in Brazil but in all of Latin America. Bernardo Gradin, who has been part of Braskem since the company's formation in 2002, took over in July as its CEO. In an interview with Knowledge@Wharton conducted at the company's Sao Paulo headquarters, Gradi
Seth Goldman: Brewing Organic Tea with a Mission-based Business Model
In 1998, social entrepreneur Seth Goldman founded Honest Tea, the nation's best-selling and fastest-growing organic bottled tea company, with a business professor from the Yale School of Management. Honest Tea sources from organic and fair trade tea estates, and has partnered with community development groups ranging from the Crow Reservation in Montana to organizations in South Africa and Guatemala. Goldman talked with Knowlege@Wharton about carving out space in the competitive beverage market,
Take Two Advil and ... What Ills Can the Pfizer-Wyeth Merger Cure?
When the giant pharmaceutical company Pfizer announced on January 26 that it was acquiring Wyeth for $68 billion, analysts started questioning what benefits the deal would bring and for whom. Pfizer executives suggest the acquisition makes strategic sense by expanding the company into a range of new areas, and by helping make up for an expected loss of more than $12 billion in annual revenues once its Lipitor patent expires in 2011. But Wyeth also brings some liabilities -- notably, continuing l
