GLOBAL POLITICAL ECONOMY
Annual Report 2018-2019
INTRODUCTION The John Parke Young Initiative on the Global Political Economy witnessed an exciting period of change and growth during the 2018-2019 academic year. Professor Anthony Tirado Chase served as our Interim Chair and took the lead in strengthening the Young Initiative’s foundational commitment: to support Occidental students and faculty in conducting impactful research on issues in the global political economy in Los Angeles and around the world. The Young Initiative also took the lead in stimulating campus conversation on global issues. We hosted experts to engage us on difficult global political economy issues at the intersections of the local, transnational and international. Lastly, the Young Initiative energized its groundbreaking partnership with the Mayor’s Office of the City of Los Angeles on how to integrate the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into local policy. Oxy student task forces continue to be key to this work and we have envisioned with our city partners the expansion of our partnership over the coming years. We are excited that the Young Initiative is now in a position to make an increasingly powerful impact on the theory and practice of global political economy in Los Angeles and beyond.
ABOUT THE YOUNG INITIATIVE The Young Initiative at Occidental College is funded by an endowment that supports the John Parke Young Chair in Global Political Economy. Nationally and internationally, the John Parke Young Initiative on the Global Political Economy promotes economic, social and financial policies and actions of public and social benefit. John Parke Young graduated from Oxy in 1917 and was a distinguished international economist, former chair of the college’s economics department and the son of the Rev. William Stewart Young, one of Occidental’s founders and a 50-year member of the Board of Trustees.
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MESSAGE FROM INTERIM CHAIR
ANTHONY TIRADO CHASE This year has seen a collective effort to reenvision the Young Initiative. It has taken the efforts of many colleagues – Occidental faculty, administration, staff and students – to strengthen and institutionalize the Young Initiative’s connections to the Occidental campus community, our Los Angeles city partners, and a global network of scholars working on issues that connect to the Young Initiative’s governing premise. That premise is simple but, we believe, crucial: that the Young Initiative can play a pivotal role in efforts to construct alternatives to the status quo in the global political economy. This informs our commitment to supporting innovative student and faculty research; extending academic expertise into practical policy that can make Los Angeles a model in groundbreaking approaches to problems plaguing cities around the world; and positioning the Young Initiative as a central actor in global conversations about new approaches to political economy relevant to crises in governance around the world. Lastly, we would be remiss if we did not acknowledge former Young Chair Sanjeev Khagram’s legacy, which remains foundational to the Young Initiative’s ambitions. And, to help us further extend those ambitions, we are pleased to welcome Professor Madeline Baer. Professor Baer’s work on human rightsbased approaches to economic development will be central to the Young Initiative’s commitment to pioneering new approaches to advancing equity and sustainability.
Dr. Anthony Tirado Chase Professor of Diplomacy & World Affairs Interim Chair, Young Initiative on the Global Political Economy
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
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Partnerships for the SDGs
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Time Will Tech Event
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Global L.A. Speaker Series
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Distinguished Speaker Series
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Global LGBTQ Speaker Series
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Campus Collaboration
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Young Initiative and the Oxy Cultural Studies Program
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U.N. Week 2019: Gender, Sexuality and Collective Action
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Young Student Grants
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Faculty Grants and Activities
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Oxypreneurship Highlights
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J-Term 2019
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People
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PARTNERSHIPS FOR THE SDGs Occidental College has actively engaged with Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti on a joint project to integrate the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development into city policymaking. Oxy’s Global Ambition-Local Action (GA-L.A.) Initiative embeds U.N. SDGs content in curriculum and empowers undergraduate students to conduct meaningful research and present recommendations to inform and impact city action and partnerships on issues including poverty, health and education, and the environment.
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Since February 2018, student-constituted working groups have worked to identify mechanisms by which reference to the SDGs can improve city policy-making. The focus has been on translating data indicators to better frame issues ranging from climate change to homelessness. Working in a collaborative consultant capacity with the Mayor’s Office for International Affairs, the first cohort of Occidental students performed an initial mapping of SDG targets, data and indicators, stakeholders and budgeting against existing city programming. This provided context for the project’s second phase, in which students focused on stakeholder outreach across public, private and nonprofit sectors. The summer phase highlighted how city offices and departments can integrate the SDGs into their work on key issues such as climate change and homelessness. In the fall of 2018, a USC-led working group, in liaison with Oxy, extended this analysis by integrating human rights metrics into how the SDGs can be used as a framework to address “wicked problems.” In spring 2019, Oxy students further worked to engage community actors in identifying entrepreneurial solutions to homelessness while drawing from the lived experiences of grassroots stakeholders.
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TIME WILL TECH EXPLORING THE INTERSECTION OF HOMELESSNESS + TECHNOLOGY
Technology pioneers, social impact visionaries and policy makers gathered in Los Angeles in April for conversations regarding the intersection between homelessness and technology. The goal for the event was to inspire, educate and dream up initiatives to further tackle the issue by using technology as a force for good. Through technology demos, presentations and thought-provoking dialogues, Time Will Tech created spaces for cross-sector collaboration among those passionate about raising the standards of living for current and future generations. Time Will Tech was supported by the City of Los Angeles, Occidental College and 30 amazing students passionate about social enterprise.
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SPEAKER SERIES
The Young Initiative hosted the Global L.A. speaker series this academic year. The Global L.A. speaker series highlights Los Angeles as a global city with unique cultural complexities and urban challenges. This series also complements Occidental’s ongoing partnership with the City of Los Angeles on the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
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LEO BRAUDY SEPT. 25, 2018 A CONVERSATION ON POPULAR CULTURE Leo Braudy is a cultural historian, film critic, professor and current Leo S. Bing Chair in English and American Literature at the University of Southern California. His work has appeared in journals including American Film, Film Quarterly, Genre, Novel, Partisan Review and Prose Studies.
STEVE P. ERIE OCT. 2, 2018 A CONVERSATION ON L.A. AND THE WORLD ECONOMY Steven P. Erie is a professor in the department of political science at the University of California San Diego. His research interests include urban politics, public policy, ethnic/racial politics and American political development.
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MANUEL PASTOR OCT. 16, 2018 A CONVERSATION ON PROGRESSIVE POLITICS Dr. Manuel Pastor is professor of sociology and American studies and ethnicity at the University of Southern California. He currently directs the Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE) at USC and USC’s Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration (CSII).
SARAH PORTNOY OCT. 30, 2018 A CONVERSATION ON FOOD AND CULTURE Sarah Portnoy is a professor at the University of Southern California, where she teaches courses on food culture and justice in Los Angeles. Dr. Portnoy has published food-related articles and essays in peer-reviewed books and journals. Her latest book is Food, Health and Culture in Latino Los Angeles.
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ROBERT GOTTLIEB NOV. 6, 2018 A CONVERSATION ON URBAN ENVIRONMENTS Robert Gottlieb is the author or co-author of 13 books, including Reinventing Los Angeles: Nature and Community in the Global City, and editor of two MIT Press series, “Urban and Industrial Environments” and “Food, Health and Environment.” Gottlieb is an emeritus professor of urban and environmental policy at Occidental College and an activist.
RICK COLE ’78 DEC. 4, 2018 A CONVERSATION ON THE FUTURE OF URBANISM Rick Cole is a progressive leader in Southern California on the major challenges facing cities: reducing inequality, building housing, fighting climate change, ending homelessness and promoting environmental sustainability. The current city manager of Santa Monica has served as mayor of Pasadena and city manager in Ventura and Azusa. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti also chose him to be deputy mayor for budget and innovation. 11
DISTINGUISHED SPEAKER SERIES The Young Initiative continued its tradition of inviting distinguished foreign policy experts, alumni, academics and former government officials to campus to engage in discussion with students and faculty at Occidental College. The Young Initiative is proud to offer students the opportunity to connect with individuals who have a demonstrated interest in the field of international relations, international political economy and domestic policy.
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HEIDI NICHOLS HADDAD OCT. 4, 2018 THE HIDDEN HANDS OF JUSTICE: NGOS, HUMAN RIGHTS AND INTERNATIONAL COURTS Heidi Nichols Haddad is a professor of politics at Pomona College. Her research and teaching interests include international relations, international law and courts, human rights, NGOs and global governance. Her work has been published in Human Rights Review, Journal of Human Rights and Global Governance.
KYLE BALLARD ’04 OCT. 5, 2018 COMPLEXITIES OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING
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Kyle Ballard ’04 is the senior coordinator for reports and political affairs in the U.S. Department of State’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (J/TIP), responsible for the production of the annual Trafficking in Persons Report and the U.S. government’s bilateral diplomatic efforts to address modern slavery worldwide. Prior to J/TIP, Ballard was the strategic planner at the U.S. Department of Defense’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency.
ANAND GROVER OCT. 17, 2018 INDIAN SUPREME COURT AND DECRIMINALIZING SAME-SEX RELATIONS: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES IN INDIA AND AROUND THE WORLD Anand Grover is a senior lawyer known for legal activism in Indian law relating to sexuality and HIV. He is a founding member of the Lawyers Collective, which represented the Naz Foundation in the recent Section 377 case, decriminalizing same-sex relations in India. He was also the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to health from 2008 to 2014, helping to empower vulnerable groups and ensure meaningful participation of affected communities. He is currently an acting member of the Global Commission on Drug Policy.
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SEAN WILENTZ OCT. 26, 2018 SLAVERY AND ANTI-SLAVERY AT THE NATION’S FOUNDING Sean Wilentz is the George Henry Davis 1886 Professor of American History at Princeton University, where he has taught since 1979. He has written numerous award-winning books and articles including, most notably, The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln, which was awarded the Bancroft Prize and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.
STEPHEN WALT FEB. 14, 2019 HOW DID WE GET HERE AND WHERE ARE WE HEADED? REFLECTIONS ON AMERICA AND THE WORLD Stephen Walt is the Robert and Renée Belfer Professor of International Affairs at Harvard University. He also served as master of the social science collegiate division and deputy dean of social sciences at the University of Chicago and taught at Princeton University. Walt has served as a guest scholar at the Brookings Institute, resident associate of the Carnegie Endowment for Peace, and consultant for the Institute of Defense Analyses, National Defense University and others.
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KELLY SIMS GALLAGHER ’95 FEB. 21, 2019 ENVIRONMENTAL DIPLOMACY Kelly Sims Gallagher ’95 is professor of energy and environmental policy at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. She is also the director of the Fletcher School’s Climate Policy Lab and Center for International Environment and Resource Policy. Gallagher has served as a senior climate policy adviser in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and as a senior China adviser in the Special Envoy for Climate Change Office of the U.S. State Department under President Barack Obama.
JEREMY KAGAN MARCH 26, 2019 CLIMATE REALITIES: FACTS AND FIXINGS Jeremy Kagan is a film and television director, writer and producer. He is the founder of the Change Making Media Lab and a professor at the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California. He is also the chairman of special projects for the Directors Guild of America. His talk highlights a visual representation based on work on Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project.
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DAVID GOLDBLATT APRIL 1, 2019 A GLOBAL HISTORY OF SOCCER David Goldblatt is a university lecturer, sociologist, journalist and author. In 2015, Goldblatt won the William Hill Sports Book Award of the Year for The Game of Our Lives; he has been acclaimed by the Sunday Times as “the best football historian there has ever been.”
KELEBOGILE ZVOBGO APRIL 9, 2019 THE WORLD BANK AS AN ENFORCER OF HUMAN RIGHTS Kelebogile Zvobgo is a provost’s fellow in the social sciences and a Ph.D. candidate in political science and international relations at the University of Southern California. She is also a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow. Her research focuses on quasi-judicial bodies that have proliferated across the globe to fill the gaps left by domestic and international law and courts. Her research also extends to truth commissions and international development banks’ compliance mechanisms.
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ANGELA STENT APRIL 17, 2019 RUSSIA AGAINST THE WEST Dr. Angela Stent is a foreign policy expert specializing in U.S. and European relations with Russia and Russian foreign policy. She is professor of government and foreign service at Georgetown University and director of its Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies.
TERRA LAWSON-REMER APRIL 25, 2019 FULFILLING SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC RIGHTS Dr. Terra Lawson-Remer is founder and managing partner of Catalyst Project, specializing in the development of innovative public policies, social change strategies and high-impact organizations. She is also a faculty fellow at the University of California San Diego’s School of Global Policy and Strategy and a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. Lawson-Remer also served as senior adviser in the U.S. Department of the Treasury during the Obama administration.
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GLOBAL LGBTQ SPEAKER SERIES The Young Initiative jointly sponsored the Oxy Global LGBTQ Speaker Series this academic year thanks to the vision and guidance of Diplomacy & World Affairs faculty member Professor Phillip Ayoub. This series discusses queer politics and identity in an international context. Invited speakers are devoted to highlighting research on global, state and local perspectives concerning LGBTQ rights and questions of sexuality.
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DENNIS ALTMAN FEB. 5, 2019 MISSING IN ACTION? THE U.S. AND GLOBAL QUEER POLITICS Dennis Altman is a professorial fellow at LaTrobe University in Australia and the author of 13 books, including Homosexual: Oppression & Liberation; Global Sex and (with Jon Symons) Queer Wars. He has been visiting professor of Australian studies at Harvard and president of the AIDS Society of Asia and the Pacific. He is also a patron of the Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives.
CHELSEA MOORE FEB. 28, 2019 IN PURSUIT OF THE PERVERT: SEXUAL DANGEROUSNESS AND THE EXPANSION OF PUNITIVE STATE POWER Chelsea Moore is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Washington. Her current research focuses on the relationship between law and the regulation of sexuality, with a particular emphasis on sex-offense laws. Moore is a Comparative Law and Society Studies Center Fellow and a Washington Institute for the Study of Inequality and Race Fellow. 20 20
SA’ED ATSHAN APRIL 18, 2019 QUEER MOVEMENTS IN PALESTINE AND THE BROADER MIDDLE EAST Sa’ed Atshan is an assistant professor of peace and conflict studies and an LGBT, Palestinian, Quaker human rights activist. He received a Ph.D., M.A. and MPP from Harvard University and a B.A. from Swarthmore College. He previously served as a postdoctoral fellow at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International Studies. This talk presented parts of his forthcoming book, Queer Palestine and the Empire of Critique. The book traces the rise of the LGBTQ movement in Palestine and how it has become a global queer Palestinian solidarity movement. Atshan’s visit and talk at Oxy was sponsored by Students for Justice in Palestine, the Sexuality and Gender Acceptance Club, the Young Initiative and the Diplomacy & World Affairs and Politics departments.
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CAMPUS COLLABORATION The Young Initiative celebrates its partnerships with other academic departments, programs and individuals on and off campus. Through these partnerships, the Young Initiative is able to provide quality experiences and learning opportunities for Oxy students and faculty.
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YOUNG INITIATIVE AND THE OXY CULTURAL STUDIES PROGRAM The Cultural Studies Program’s annual theme for the 2018-2019 year was Global Cities/Local Realities. This theme was inspired by Occidental College’s ongoing partnership with the City of Los Angeles on the Global Ambition — Local Action Initiative for the implementation of the U.N. 2030 Agenda. The Young Initiative jointly worked with Oxy’s Cultural Studies Program to create a lecture series that highlighted this theme. Margo Okazawa-Rey, Pardis Mahdavi, Jasper Wong and Manuel Pastor came to campus to discuss how global cities, including Los Angeles, uniquely experience global challenges such as poverty, climate change and sustainability. In addition, the Young Initiative helped to sponsor a concert from Bedouin X and Los Jornaleros del Norte.
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BEDOUIN X AND LOS JORNALEROS DEL NORTE OCT. 19, 2018 #BANNED CULTURES CONCERT Bedouin X continues the tradition of socially and politically conscientious music that sprang up in the African parts of the Arab world. Los Jornaleros del Norte, or the Day Laborer Band, was created to inform, educate, organize and mobilize day laborers while denouncing the abuses committed against them. This concert was sponsored jointly by the Cultural Studies Program, Music department, Latino/a and Latin American Studies department and the Young Initiative.
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U.N. WEEK 2019 GENDER, SEXUALITY AND COLLECTIVE ACTION
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Oxy’s United Nations Week is an annual project jointly sponsored by the Young Initiative on the Global Political Economy, the William and Elizabeth Kahane United Nations Program at Occidental College, the McKinnon Center for Global Affairs and the Diplomacy & World Affairs department. Students and faculty invited a diverse array of global experts, academics and foreign policy officials to discuss gender, sexuality and collective action in the context of the United Nations.
THE U.N. SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS: A GENDER PERSPECTIVE AND CALL TO ACTION Ambassador Melanne Verveer is the executive director of the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security. She served as the first U.S. Ambassador for Global Women’s Issues, a position to which she was nominated by President Obama, and developed the U.S. National Action Plan on WPS. Ambassador Verveer discussed the U.N. SDGs from a gender perspective, highlighting the global progress that has been made toward achieving gender equality while recognizing the work that remains to be done. 26
INTERSECTIONALITY, INEQUALITY AND COLLECTIVE ACTION Panelists Alia Ali, Jeanne Holm, Malliga Och and Funmilola Fagbamila participated in a discussion on intersectionality, inequality and collective action, advocating for action on gender issues in their fields.
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Alia Ali is a Yemeni-Bosnian-American multimedia artist and visual storyteller. Jeanne Holm is deputy CIO for the City of Los Angeles and a leader in Los Angeles’ Time’s Up movement. Malliga Och is an assistant professor in the global studies and languages department at Idaho State University and an expert on the CEDAW Cities (C4C) movement in the United States. Funmilola Fagbamila is a Nigerian-American scholar, activist, playwright and artist.
NOT JUST ACADEMIC: OXY FACULTY’S WORK TO PROMOTE GENDER EQUALITY Panelists Jennifer Piscopo, Erica Preston-Roedder and Vicki Ruiz participated in a faculty panel discussing how Oxy faculty have worked to promote gender equality in the field of academia. Jennifer Piscopo is an assistant professor of politics and Erica Preston-Roedder is a Mellon postdoctoral fellow in philosophy at Occidental College. Vicki Ruiz is a distinguished professor at UC Irvine and visiting scholar at the Institute for the Study of Los Angeles (ISLA).
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YOUNG STUDENT GRANTS The Young Initiative is committed to supporting initiative, exploration and academic excellence by providing student grants for independent research, internships and conference attendance around the world. The selection committee managed a competitive process, awarding grants to over 25 students, totaling $61,248.86 for projects and internships in the 2018-2019 academic year.
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YOUNG GRANT RECIPIENTS WINTER 2018 Allen Chen ’19 Research: Sociocultural Impact of the Material Culture in Pan-Asian Restaurants in Global Chinatowns Havana, Cuba
Alison Salazar ’19 Research: Here and There: Transnational Immigrant Rights Activism Mexico City and Tijuana, Mexico
Elizabeth Hansel ’19 Research: Transitional Justice and Restorative Work in Cambodia Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Mia Smutny ’19 Research: Diverging Nationalisms: A Comparative Study of French and German Alt-Right Politics in the Postwar Era Paris and Saint-Quentin, France; Berlin, Germany; and Gorliz, Spain
Manjun Hao ’19 Internship: Star Kampuchea Phnom Penh, Cambodia Jacques Pierre Lesure ’19 Research: Seeking Truth and Reconciliation in Education Durban, South Africa
Olivia Wilk ’19 Research: Culture and Copyright: The Intersection Between Soft Power and Intellectual Property Law in China Hong Kong, Chengdu and Chongqing, China
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“The glass dome at the top of the Reichstag in Berlin overlooks the Bundestag Chamber (German Parliament) and symbolizes democratic transparency, or the idea that ‘the people’ are always above the government. These sites allowed me to analyze how language is used to characterize the nation and, as a result, how the government directly impacts the development of nationalism in Germany.” MIA SMUTNY ’19 YOUNG GRANT RECIPIENT
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YOUNG GRANT RECIPIENTS SUMMER 2019 Belle Brooke Bashaw ’20 Internship: U.S. Department of State Wassenaar, Netherlands
Saya Maeda ’20 Internship: U.S.-Japan Council Tokyo, Japan
Anabel Gullo ’21 Documentary: The City and the Sea Queens, New York
Alessandra Pelliccia ’20 Research: Generations of Conflict and Remembrance in Medellín Medellín, Colombia
Layla Hamedi ’19 Research: Project Valores Team at the La Selva Research Station in Costa Rica Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica Plamen Kalinov Ilchevski ’20 Research: Stagnation of the IT Industry in Bulgaria Sofia, Bulgaria Ian Lehine ’19 Emerging Media Technology Curriculum Los Angeles, California
Sofia Porcarelli ’20 Documentary: Right-Wing Populist Movement? Freiburg, Nuremberg, Dresden, Berlin, Germany Claire Van Fossen ’19 Internship: Vital Voices Global Partnership Washington, D.C. Yiming Zhang ’19 Research: Investigation of the Human Drivers of Landscape Changes and Soil Erosion Central Highlands, Iceland
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YOUNG GRANT RECIPIENTS CONFERENCE ATTENDANCE Allen Chen ’19 Conference: Rare Books and Manuscripts Section (RBMS) Baltimore, Maryland Leo Connelly ’20 Conference: Google Cloud Next San Francisco, California Chidire Ezeh ’19 Conference: Data Science Expo Los Angeles, California Hallaamal Keir ’19 Conference: Rebellious Lawyering Yale University, New Haven DeGrasse Schrader ’19 Conference: Google Cloud Next San Francisco, California
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Anthea Taeuber ’19 Conference: WORLDZ Long Beach, California Poppy Thekdi ’19 Conference: SXSW (South by Southwest) Austin, Texas Liam Walsh ’19 Conference: Impact Capitalism Summit Denver, Colorado Olivia Wilk ’19 Conference: SXSW (South by Southwest) Austin, Texas
FACULTY GRANTS AND ACTIVITIES The Young Initiative is committed to supporting the research, projects and activities of the Diplomacy & World Affairs department faculty. Here’s an inside look into faculty members’ work during the 2018-2019 academic year.
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PHILLIP AYOUB The Young Initiative supported Phillip Ayoub’s teaching, research and professional activities in 2018-2019 in a number of ways, including funding the research support of a Diplomacy & World Affairs/Economics student assistant to support several ongoing research projects (three articles that have now attained the status of “revise and resubmit” or are forthcoming) and a new book proposal. It also supported Ayoub’s participation in the American Political Science Association’s annual conference in Boston in August 2018, the International Studies Association in Toronto in March 2019, the Council of European Studies Annual Meeting in Madrid in June 2019 and the European Conference on Politics and Gender in Amsterdam in July 2019, where he presented papers titled “When Do Opponents of Gay Rights Mobilize? Explaining Political Participation in Times of Backlash Against Liberalism” and “Teaching Democracies New Tricks: Same-Sex Unions and the Power of Social Teaching.” He also served various discussant and professional service roles at these conferences, including editorial board work, award committee service for several prizes, and presenting on APSA and ISA roundtables, the ISA Inclusion Cafe and the Committee on the James N. Rosenau Post-Doctoral Fellowship Meeting. Young Initiative funds partially supported several invited talks by Ayoub in the United States and Europe, as well as some advisory work on human rights for supreme court justices in the Baltic states and research on post-secular backlash in Vienna. In addition to research activities, the Young Initiative provided funds for guest speakers and course materials relevant to the teaching of Ayoub’s courses on international relations, LGBTI rights, global social movements and comparative European politics.
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LAN CHU This past academic year, the Young Initiative supported Professor Lan Chu’s book project titled A Foreign Policy for the Catholic Church by enabling the hiring of a research assistant who helped to map out the framework for the project. Funds from the Young Initiative also were used to cover costs of travel and participation to the Western Political Science Association held in San Diego April 17-19. There, Chu presented a paper titled “God Is Green: The Catholic Church’s Contribution to International Environmental Policy” and participated in the WPSA Executive Council Meeting, of which she is a member.
JUVENAL J. CORTÉS The Young Initiative supported Juve J. Cortés in various ways in his first year as assistant professor. Cortés was able to attend academic conferences where he presented his ongoing research. These included the Latin American Studies Association, the American Political Science Association and the International Studies Association. His most recent presentation took place at the Western Political Science Association in San Diego, where he presented his work on the adoption of direct democracy in Mexico and participated in a round-table discussion on the U.S.-Mexico border. The Young Initiative also supported the visit of two scholars to Occidental College: Keira Stearns, who conducts field experiments, and Adrián Felix, professor of ethnic studies. Both gave lectures to an Oxy-wide audience. On the research front, Cortés used Young funds to continue working on a graphic novel about migration and identity as well as several other projects.
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SOPHAL EAR The John Parke Young Initiative on the Global Political Economy’s faculty funding allowed Professor Sophal Ear to present on “China, the U.S. and the Collapse of Democracy in Cambodia” at the 56th annual meeting of the Western Conference of the Association for Asian Studies, which took place at Soka University of America in Aliso Viejo on Oct. 19-20. The fruits of years of support for editing help funded by the Young Initiative finally paid off with Ear’s submission of his third book manuscript, Viral Sovereignty: The Political Economy of Disease Control, Global Health and Security, to Cambridge University Press, which has agreed to send it onward to external reviewers. While a long process, this is the beginning of a journey as he awaits feedback from reviewers. Several years of work went into writing the manuscript, and its completion would not have been possible without funding from the Young Initiative. Thanks to support from the Young Initiative, Ear also assisted Oxy students doing summer 2018 sustainable development goals internships to help the City of Los Angeles while based at the Arizona State University California Center in Santa Monica. The summer ended with a presentation to officials from the city, the executives of the Hilton Foundation and other stakeholders on issues such as homelessness and climate change. Oxy students were the only undergraduates with the distinction of being members of the cohort, which included graduate students from the Thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State University, the University of California Los Angeles and the University of Southern California.
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LAURA HEBERT Professor Laura Hebert’s teaching, research and professional activities were substantially supported by the Young Initiative during the 2018-2019 academic year. The Young Initiative provided funds for the purchase of books, films and other materials related to her ongoing book project, Gender & Human Rights in a Global, Mobile Era. It supported travel to two professional conferences where she presented papers building on chapters from her book manuscript, including the 2018 American Political Science Association Conference in Boston (“A Feminist Perspective on Human Rights in a Global, Mobile Era: The Case of Domestic Servitude in the United Kingdom”) and the 2019 Western Political Science Association Conference in San Diego (“Breaking Down Binaries: Fluidity, Non-Conformance and the Trafficking-Sex Work Debate”). The Young Initiative allowed for the hiring of student assistants to provide research support for the book project, as well as the invitation of guest experts on gender-based violence to her classes. It also provided funds for memberships to the American Political Science Association and International Studies Association, and the purchase of books and subscriptions relevant to her human rights courses.
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MOVINDRI REDDY Professor Movindri Reddy is currently working on a book manuscript about post-revolution southern Africa, specifically focusing on South Africa, Mozambique, Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe. The main themes in the study revolve around the question of how states in the region survive despite consistent civil unrest and inequalities. This study builds on a path of research that she began in her graduate program at Cambridge University; the project relates to theoretical issues pertaining to state reach, capacity and growing areas in which states have little to no control. As Professor Reddy goes on sabbatical in spring 2019, she has been committed to keeping funds for field trips in 2019-2020. Reddy made one field trip to South Africa, specifically to Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town, for three weeks in summer 2018. This early research focused mainly on assessing the feasibility of the project; in this endeavor, she focused on academics and researchers working on the ground with people in townships and other marginal urban areas and enterprises. She plans to go to southern Africa in summer 2019 and again in December 2019. Reddy was invited to attend an international conference in Fiji on Forced Labor and Migration: Past, Present and Future, held July 15-17, 2019. She delivered her paper titled “Economies of Survival: Indians in South Africa and Fiji.” Finally, her paper titled “Ethnic Erasure and Indigenous Identity: Diaspora Identity in South Africa and Fiji” is forthcoming in the journal edited by the Anton de Kom University of Suriname.
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OXP HIGHLIGHTS Oxypreneurship, a cornerstone of the Young Initiative, inspires and empowers students to engage in entrepreneurial initiatives, innovate new ideas and go beyond the status quo.
OXP had a great year, as we utilized our entrepreneurial tool kit to pivot the club from its pre-existing structure. As the industry has evolved in recent years, so have we. In the fall 2018 semester, we implemented a volunteer task force where students had the opportunity to help a startup with everything from marketing to web development to sales. This was a huge success, as it accomplished an original goal of OXP: to spark the entrepreneurial spirit! The club also opened its doors to the entire community, moving away from the application and recruitment process. We felt that collaboration and inclusivity were essential to OXP, which meant that everyone should have the opportunity to join. With the help of our stakeholders and our newest addition to the OXP family, Lily Lapenna, the pivot was a success. Lily especially helped with our hallmark event, J-Term.
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J-TERM 2019 J-Term had its sixth successful term this year at Occidental College. Students developed their entrepreneurial skills and hard skills in computer programming and digital media.
J-Term, once again, was an astounding success. The program gave 21 participants the opportunity to learn invaluable skills, network with experts, and take an idea from a thought to a pitch. Young Senior Fellow Lily Lapenna and our student leadership team ensured that the week was smooth, educational and profitable for the Young Initiative. All of these goals were met! At the end of the nineday program, each student team pitched its unique ideas to a panel of judges. Afterward, the judges were shocked to find out that Occidental actually doesn’t have a formal entrepreneurship program outside of OXP. This made everyone involved even more grateful for the Young Initiative.
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PEOPLE
YOUNG INITIATIVE LEADERSHIP
ANTHONY TIRADO CHASE Interim Chair, Young Initiative on the Global Political Economy Professor, Diplomacy & World Affairs
LILY LAPENNA Senior Fellow, Young Initiative on the Global Political Economy Adjunct Lecturer, Diplomacy & World Affairs
CHAMNAN LIM Assistant Director, Administration & Programs McKinnon Center for Global Affairs Young Initiative on the Global Political Economy
GAEA MORALES Program Coordinator, Young Initiative on the Global Political Economy
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PEOPLE
YOUNG INITIATIVE PROGRAM ASSISTANTS
Claire Van Fossen Class of 2019 Diplomacy & World Affairs
Zachary Solomon Class of 2019 Diplomacy & World Affairs
Henry Butenschoen Class of 2020 Diplomacy & World Affairs
Taso Warsa Class of 2020 Economics
Selasi Amoani Class of 2020 Diplomacy & World Affairs
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