Barriers to Agricultural Intensification and Technological Innovation in West Africa
When:
Friday, September 29, 2017
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM CT
Where: 1902 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208 map it
Contact:
Iszy Licht
(847) 467-2770
Group: Buffett Institute for Global Affairs
Category: Global & Civic Engagement
Description:
Farmers in most of West Africa make little use of non-labor inputs or formally improved seed technology. Agricultural productivity remains low, and this is the primary determinant of rural poverty. What are the roles of market failures in finance, information, and goods in driving this low productivity, and what are the implications of these failures for policies that might alleviate rural poverty? This will be a discussion of the results of a seven-year investigation into the structure of financial markets.
Chris Udry is a Buffett Institute Faculty Fellow and the King Professor of Economics. His research interests focus on rural economic activity in Sub-Saharan Africa. His current research examines technological change, risk and financial markets, gender and households, property rights, psychological well-being and economic decision-making and a variety of other aspects of rural economic organization.
The Buffett Institute Faculty & Fellows Colloquium brings together an interdisciplinary audience to build awareness of global research on campus. This series promotes dialogue on scholarship and develops a deeper sense of community among Buffett Institute affiliates. Each meeting lasts one hour; lunch is provided. Due to space constraints, we will not admit attendees once the space reaches capacity.
The Legal Construction of Precarity: Lessons from the Construction Sector in Beijing and Delhi
When:
Friday, October 6, 2017
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM CT
Where: 1902 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208 map it
Contact:
Iszy Licht
(847) 467-2770
Group: Buffett Institute for Global Affairs
Category: Global & Civic Engagement
Description:
Even as labor is increasingly characterized by precarity in the 21st century, the imprecision of conceptual tools and analytical vocabularies hinders the study of precarious labor. Irene Pang will disentangle the concepts of “precarity” and “informality” to better understand the different genealogies and varieties of precarity, and importantly, to examine the role of the state in its construction and reproduction. Using two cases of labor disputes within the construction sectors in Beijing and Delhi, in which precarious labor conditions are rampant, she examines how precarity is structured and reproduced by the state through the law.
Irene Pang is a Buffett Institute Postdoctoral Fellow who received her PhD at Brown University and studies issues of citizenship and rights contestation in China and India. Her dissertation provides a comparative ethnographic account of the citizenship struggles of internal migrant construction workers in Beijing and Delhi. Pang's broader research interests include development and sociology of the Global South, labor, dynamics of capitalism, and comparative research.
The Buffett Institute Faculty & Fellows Colloquium brings together an interdisciplinary audience to build awareness of global research on campus. This series promotes dialogue on scholarship and develops a deeper sense of community among Buffett Institute affiliates. Each meeting lasts one hour; lunch is provided. Due to space constraints, we will not admit attendees once the space reaches capacity.
When:
Friday, October 13, 2017
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM CT
Where: 1902 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208 map it
Contact:
Iszy Licht
(847) 467-2770
Group: Buffett Institute for Global Affairs
Category: Global & Civic Engagement
Description:
One of the hallmarks of the 2014 pro-democracy occupy protests in Hong Kong known as the Umbrella Movement was the presence of religious themes, especially Christian ones, fused with Cantonese hero traditions. But in the aftermath of the movement, how has the relationship between theology and politics developed, especially in a time of greater authoritarian power exerted by the People's Republic of China on its 'Special Administrative Region'? What can be learned about the efficacy of God-talk in protest when the movement is considered to be over?
Justin K.H. Tse (Asian American Studies) studies the range of ideologies and theologies that make up Asia and Asian America. He earned his PhD in geography from the University of British Columbia and was Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Postdoctoral Fellow at the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington. He is working on a book manuscript titled "Religious Politics in Pacific Space: Grounding Cantonese Protestant Theologies in Secular Civil Societies."
The Buffett Institute Faculty & Fellows Colloquium brings together an interdisciplinary audience to build awareness of global research on campus. This series promotes dialogue on scholarship and develops a deeper sense of community among Buffett Institute affiliates. Each meeting lasts one hour; lunch is provided. Due to space constraints, we will not admit attendees once the space reaches capacity.
Social Protection for the Ultra-Poor: Lessons from Economics, Psychology and Religion
When:
Friday, October 20, 2017
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM CT
Where: 1902 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208 map it
Contact:
Iszy Licht
(847) 467-2770
Group: Buffett Institute for Global Affairs
Category: Global & Civic Engagement
Description:
Dean Karlan will present both past and ongoing work that examines approaches to working with ultra-poor populations to build long-lasting self-sustaining sources of income.
Dean Karlan is a Buffett Institute Faculty Fellow and the Nemmers Distinguished Professor of Economics and Finance at the Kellogg School of Management. His research focuses on microeconomic issues of poverty, typically employing experimental methodologies and behavioral economics insights to examine what works, what does not, and why in interventions in sustainable income generation for those in poverty, household and entrepreneurial finance, health behavior, and charitable giving.
The Buffett Institute Faculty & Fellows Colloquium brings together an interdisciplinary audience to build awareness of global research on campus. This series promotes dialogue on scholarship and develops a deeper sense of community among Buffett Institute affiliates. Each meeting lasts one hour; lunch is provided. Due to space constraints, we will not admit attendees once the space reaches capacity.
When:
Friday, November 3, 2017
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM CT
Where: 1902 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208 map it
Contact:
Iszy Licht
(847) 467-2770
Group: Buffett Institute for Global Affairs
Category: Global & Civic Engagement
Description:
International diplomacy is a ubiquitous feature of insurgent politics because it is intrinsically linked to how groups pursue third-party political and military support. However, although war-time diplomacy is central to insurgent politics, scholars still cannot explain the substantial and puzzling variation in insurgent diplomatic strategies over time. This talk examines when and why rebel groups focus their diplomatic attention on and solicit support from certain international actors over others. This framework is applied to the international diplomacy of the Iraqi Kurdish liberation movement from 1958 to 1990.
Morgan Kaplan is a Buffett Institue Postdoctoral Fellow who researches the international politics of rebellion with a focus on how insurgent groups use international diplomacy to solicit third-party support. He received his MA and PhD is Political Science at the University of Chicago and was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School. His research also examines intra-insurgent politics, international security, and state formation. The empirical focus of his work is on the Middle East, with a specialization in Kurdish and Palestinian politics.
The Buffett Institute Faculty & Fellows Colloquium brings together an interdisciplinary audience to build awareness of global research on campus. This series promotes dialogue on scholarship and develops a deeper sense of community among Buffett Institute affiliates. Each meeting lasts one hour; lunch is provided. Due to space constraints, we will not admit attendees once the space reaches capacity.