The MacMillan Report

Prof. David Jackson

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:00:00 -0500

Professor Jackson’s research interests focus on Portuguese and Brazilian Literatures; modernist and inter-arts literature; Portuguese culture in Asia; and ethnomusicology. He has written and edited several books and other publications. We talk with Professor Jackson about his forthcoming book, Adverse Genres in Fernando Pessoa.

Prof. Susan Hyde

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:14:05 -0500

Professor Hyde’s research interests include international influences on domestic politics, elections in developing countries, international norm creation, and the use of natural and field experimental research methods. Her current research explores the effects of international democracy promotion efforts, with a particular focus on international election observation. She has served as an international observer with The Carter Center and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe for elections in Albania, Indonesia, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, and has worked for the Democracy Program at The Carter Center. We talk with her about her book, The Pseudo-Democrats Dilemma: Why Election Monitoring Became an International Norm.”

Prof. Thad Dunning

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:00:52 -0400

Professor Dunning studies comparative politics, political economy, and methodology. His book, Crude Democracy: Natural Resource Wealth and Political Regimes contrasts the democratic and authoritarian effects of natural resource wealth. His current work on ethnic and other cleavages draws on field and natural experiments and qualitative fieldwork in Latin America, India, and Africa. Dunning has written on a range of methodological topics, including econometric corrections for selection effects and the use of natural experiments in the social sciences. We talk with Professor Dunning about a study he recently completed on voting in Mali.

Prof. Kamari Clarke

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 12:00:00 -0400

Professor Clarke’s areas of research explore issues related to religious nationalism, legal institutions, international law, the interface between culture and power and its relationship to the modernity of race and late capitalist globalization. Her recent articles and books have focused on religious and legal movements and the related production of knowledge and power, including the 2004 publication of Mapping Yoruba Networks: Power and Agency in the Making of Transnational Communities. We talk with Professor Clarke about her newest book, Fictions of Justice: The International Criminal Court and the Challenge of Legal Pluralism in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Prof. Robert Harms

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 12:00:00 -0400
Professor Harms is the author of The Diligent: A Voyage through the Worlds of the Slave Trade, which has won numerous prestigious awards. He has also written two books on the history of equatorial Africa: River of Wealth, River of Sorrow: The Central Zaire Basin in the Era of the Slave and Ivory Trade and Games Against Nature: An Eco-Cultural History of the Nunu of Equatorial Africa. We talk with Professor Harms about his newest research, a book called The Imperialists and the Slave Trader: Conflict, Collaboration, and the Making of Colonialism in Equatorial Africa, 1874-1905.

Prof. Elisabeth Wood

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 15:48:34 -0400
Professor Wood’s current research focuses on sexual violence during war. She is the author of Insurgent Collective Action and Civil War in El Salvador and Forging Democracy from Below: Insurgent Transitions in South Africa and El Salvador, as well as various scholarly articles. We talk with Professor Wood about two of her recently published works on sexual violence during war.

Prof. Frances Rosenbluth

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 12:29:35 -0400
Frances Rosenbluth, Deputy Provost for the Social Sciences and Faculty Development at Yale University, is a comparative political economist with research interests in war and constitutions, Japanese politics and political economy, and the political economy of gender. The author of numerous articles and book chapters, Professor Rosenbluth has written several books: "The Politics of Oligarchy: Institutional Choice in Imperial Japan, Japan's Political Marketplace and Financial Politics in Contemporary Japan;" and "Japan Transformed: Political Change and Economic Reform." We talk with her about her newest book, "Women, Work, and Power: The Political Economy of Gender Inequality."

Prof. Vivek Sharma

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 12:00:00 -0400
Vivek Sharma, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Yale, is broadly interested in the relationship between social institutions and political order including alliances, warfare, and violence. To this end he is working on several projects that examine property, kinship, military organization and political authority in the history of Europe. We talk with Professor Sharma about his social theory of war.

Prof. Iván Szelényi

Wed, 27 May 2009 12:00:00 -0400
The William Graham Sumner Professor of Sociology and Professor of Political Science, Professor Szelényi researches social inequalities from a comparative and historical perspective. His recent book, Patterns of Exclusion, examines how the social conditions of the Roma, or Gypsies, have changed over time and across countries in Central and Southern Europe.

Prof. Paul Sabin

Wed, 20 May 2009 12:00:00 -0400
An assistant professor of environmental history, Professor Sabin’s research and teaching focus on United States environmental history, energy politics, and political and economic history, including natural resource development in the American West and overseas. His book, Crude Politics, examines how politics and law shaped a growing dependence on petroleum in California and the nation. Professor Sabin talks about how history can prepare us for the climate crisis and energy transition.

Prof. John Roemer

Wed, 13 May 2009 12:00:00 -0400
The Elizabeth S. and A. Varick Stout Professor of Political Science and Economics, Professor John Roemer’s research concerns political economy and distributive justice. His books include Racism, Xenophobia, and Distribution; Democracy, Education, and Equality; Political Competition; Equality of Opportunity; and Theories of Distributive Justice. Professor Roemer talks about the future of capitalism.

Prof. Abbas Amanat

Wed, 06 May 2009 12:00:00 -0400
A Professor of History and International and Area Studies, and Director of the Iranian Studies Initiative at the MacMillan Center, Professor Amanat’s teaching and research interests include modern Iran and the Middle East, Shi'ism, and apocalypticism. His principal publications include Pivot of the Universe and Resurrection and Renewal. Professor Amanat talks about his newest book, Apocalyptic Islam and Iranian Shi'ism.

Prof. Erik Harms

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 12:00:00 -0400
Professor Erik Harms, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, is a socio-cultural anthropologist with research interests in the study of urban and peri-urban life, and rural-urban transitions. He specializes in the political, economic, and social transformations engulfing the post-colonial "megacities" of Southeast Asia and has carried out extensive fieldwork in and around Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Professor Harms talks about his newest book, Saigon’s Edge.

Linda Lorimer

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 12:00:00 -0400
Since 1993, Linda Lorimer, Vice President and Secretary of Yale, has served as the senior counselor to President Levin and is the leader of major strategic initiatives for Yale. In recent years, she has developed an ambitious strategy and numerous programs for internationalizing the University. We talk with her about those plans.

Prof. David Cameron

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 09:16:51 -0400
A Professor of Political Science at Yale and the Director of the Program in European Union Studies at the MacMillan Center, Professor David Cameron teaches courses on European politics and the European Union. He has written extensively about the impact of trade openness on government and, with respect to the EU, about the initiative to complete the internal market, the operation of the European Monetary System, and the enlargement of the EU. Professor Cameron talks about the EU and the European economics crisis.

Prof. Patrick Cohrs

Wed, 08 Apr 2009 12:00:00 -0400
An Assistant Professor of History at Yale, Professor Patrick Cohrs teaches courses in US international history and the history of European and international politics. He is the author of The Unfinished Peace after World War I: America, Britain and the Stabilisation of Europe, 1919-1932. Professor Cohrs is currently working on a history of the "Pax Americana," which re-appraises American pursuits of a "new world order" from their origins to the Cold War and explores how far they contributed to the emergence of a more legitimate international system.

Prof. Francesca Trivellato

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 15:51:49 -0400
A Professor of History at Yale, Professor Francesca Trivellato specializes in the social and economic history of Italy, continental Europe and the Mediterranean in the early modern period. She is the author of a book on Venetian glass manufacturing and she has also published several essays on craft guilds, women's work, and merchant networks. We talk with her about her newest book The Familiarity of Strangers: The Sephardic Diaspora, Livorno, and Cross-Cultural Trade in the Early Modern Period.

Prof. Gustav Ranis

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 12:00:00 -0400
Professor Gustav Ranis, Frank Altschul Professor Emeritus of International Economics at Yale, and former Director of the MacMillan Center from 1996 to 2004, has more than 20 books and 300 articles on theoretical and policy-related issues of economic and human development to his credit. He served as Assistant Administrator for Policy and Planning in AID/Department of State during the Johnson administration. Professor Ranis talks about his research on the priority of human development.

Prof. Mridu Rai

Wed, 18 Mar 2009 11:22:33 -0400
An Associate Professor in the History Department at Yale, Professor Mridu Rai’s doctoral research focused on the problem of religion, politics and protest in modern Kashmir. It culminated in her book, "Hindu Rulers, Muslim Subjects: Islam, Rights and the History of Kashmir." She talks with us today about her new research in the region of Bihar, India, that explores the relationships between caste, territory, region, and nation as they evolved from the period of British colonial rule into the postcolonial era.

Prof. Steven Pincus

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 12:00:00 -0400
A Professor of History, Professor Steven Pincus teaches early modern British and European history. He is the author of Protestantism and Patriotism: Ideologies and the Making of English Foreign Policy, 1650-1668 and England's Glorious Revolution 1688-89. He has also published numerous essays on the cultural, political and intellectual history of early modern Britain. Professor Pincus talks about his newest book called 1688: The First Modern Revolution.

Prof. Susan Sokes

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 12:00:00 -0500
Professor Susan Stokes, John S. Saden Professor of Political Science and director of the Yale Program on Democracy, researches democratic theory and how democracy functions in developing societies, with a focus on Latin America. Her most recent book is Democracy and the Culture of Skepticism: Political Trust in Argentina and Mexico. Professor Stokes talks about why leftist parties in Latin American countries have recently won so much electoral support.

Prof. David Skelly

Wed, 11 Feb 2009 12:00:00 -0500
A Professor of Ecology at Yale’s Environment School, David Skelly is interested in animal ecology, conservation and management. His studies of amphibians are directed at determining the causes of patterns such as evolution, and the extinction and establishment of populations. Professor Skelly talks about rapid evolution – the idea that evolution can keep pace with environmental change.

Prof. Aleh Tsyvinski

Wed, 04 Feb 2009 12:00:00 -0500
A Professor of Economics, and the Co-Director of the Macroeconomic Research Program at the Cowles Foundation at Yale University, Professor Tsyvinski talks about his new research with Sergei Guriev and Maxim Trudolubov on Russian values and their attitudes toward the West.

Prof. Jennifer Ruger

Wed, 28 Jan 2009 12:00:22 -0500
An Associate Professor at the Yale School of Public Health, and co-director of the Yale/World Health Organization Centre for Health Promotion, Policy, and Research, Professor Ruger is working to promote the creation of public health programs that make more efficient use of scarce resources while improving current healthcare practices. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) recently invited her to testify about how the management of global health institutions and governance might be improved. Professor Ruger talks about the IOM report on Global Health.

Prof. David Blight

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 10:33:46 -0500
Professor Blight, the Class of 1954 Professor of History at Yale University, is the director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at the MacMillan Center. He has written numerous books on race and American history, and lectures widely on Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois, and problems in public history and American historical memory. Today we talk with Professor Blight about his newest book, A Slave No More: Two Men Who Escaped to Freedom, Including Their Own Narratives of Emancipation.

Prof. Ben Kiernan

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 12:00:00 -0500
Professor Ben Kiernan is the Whitney Griswold Professor of History at Yale University, and the founding Director of Yale’s Genocide Studies Program. For more than thirty years, Professor Kiernan has studied and written about genocide and crimes against humanity. He founded the Cambodian Genocide Program at the MacMillan Center in 1994 to document the crimes of Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge regime and pursue justice for its victims. His recent book -- Blood and Soil, a World History of Genocide and Extermination from Sparta to Darfur is another important achievement. It is the first global history of genocide, and in it Professor Kiernan examines outbreaks of mass violence from the classical era to the present.

Prof. Dean Karlan

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 16:42:08 -0500
Professor of Economics at Yale, and President and Founder of Innovations for Poverty Action, Professor Dean Karlan research interests include poverty issues in developing countries and, in particular, financial innovations and microfinance programs aimed at the poor. He uses field experiments to learn what social policies work, what do not, and why. Professor Karlan also does research on fundraising, voting, education, and behavioral economics. In this episode, he talks about Innovations for Poverty Action and commitment contracts at www.stickK.com.

Prof. Philip Gorski

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 12:00:00 -0500
Professor Philip Gorski is Professor of Sociology, and Co-Director of the Center for Comparative Research at Yale. He is a comparative-historical sociologist and his research focuses on topics such as state-formation, nationalism, revolution, economic development and secularization with particular attention to the interaction of religion and politics. Professor Gorski talks about Civil Religion and his new theory.

Prof. Kalyanakrishnan Sivaramakrishnan

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 09:49:21 -0500
A Professor in both the Anthropology and Forestry & Environmental Studies departments at Yale, as well as Chair of the South Asian Studies Council, Professor Sivaramakrishnan’s research interests span environmental history, political anthropology, cultural geography, development and science studies. He has published widely in all these fields, with a regional focus on South Asia. Professor Sivaramakrishnan talks about his new work on environmental conflicts in India.

Prof. Alec Stone Sweet

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 12:00:00 -0500
The Leitner Professor of Law, Politics, and International Studies, Professor Stone Sweet’s interests are comparative and international politics and law, and European integration. His research focuses on how rule systems emerge and evolve over time, and with what consequences for society. Most of his published work approaches this question by looking at how new legal systems develop, including his newest book, A Europe of Rights: The Impact of the European Convention on Human Rights on National Legal Systems.

Prof. Marcia Inhorn

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 12:00:00 -0400
Marcia Inhorn is the William K. Lanman Jr. Professor of Anthropology and International Affairs, Chair of the Council on Middle East Studies at the MacMillan Center, and a specialist on Middle Eastern gender and health issues. She has conducted research on the social impact of infertility and assisted reproductive technologies in Egypt, Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates, and Arab America over the past 20 years. Professor Inhorn is considered to be a pioneer in studying the role of technology in reproductive issues, especially in Muslim settings.

Prof. Thomas Pogge

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 21:38:08 -0400
Professor Thomas Pogge talks about a non-profit organization he leads called Incentives for Global Health and its new flagship proposal – the Health Impact Fund (HIF). The HIF offers an innovative way of stimulating research and development of new medicines in order to provide them to patients -- especially those in the developing world -- at low prices.