Cosette Creamer is Benjamin E. Lippincott Chair in Political Economy at the University of Minnesota and affiliated faculty at the University of Minnesota Law School. Her research and teaching interests rest at the intersection of international and comparative law, politics, and the empirical analysis of law. The substantive focus of her research spans trade and economic law, international arbitration and dispute resolution, and human rights. In this talk, Creamer will discuss when the WTO's dispute settlement system asserts authority over or defers to the regulatory choices of government. Read more and register at go.osu.edu/creamerc

Manon Pignot is a French historian specializing in the experience of children during war. She is a senior lecturer at the Jules Verne University of Picardy and a junior member of the Institut Universitaire de France. In this event, she will discuss the growing subfield of "teen combatants"  in the history of children at war, the history of war violence in general, and World War I in particular. Too young to be legally enlisted as conscripts in 1914-1918, teen combatants also felt that they were too old to remain on the home front. This lecture will explore the cross-European phenomenon of "teen combatants" both as a rite of passage into male adulthood and as a transgression of wartime norms. Read more and register at go.osu.edu/pignotm

Monica Toft is professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Diplomacy at Tufts University. Her areas of research include international security, ethnic and religious violence, civil wars and demography. Her most recent books include Securing the Peace (Princeton, 2011); Political Demography (Oxford, 2012); and God's Century (Norton, 2012). In this presentation, Toft will discuss her research on the political dimensions of demographic dynamics in key states during critical historical periods, which aims to facilitate a better understanding of demographic politics - one that is both theoretically informed and policy relevant. Read more and register at go.osu.edu/toftm

	Peter Mansoor

J.D. Vance will propose a hands-on approach to problems facing his native state of Ohio: opioid addiction, under-preparedness of the workforce, and domestic instability. Through his non-profit organization, Our Ohio Renewal, Vance, a 2009 alumnus of Ohio State, will tackle these issues that shaped his upbringing in Middletown, Ohio, subject of Hillbilly Elegy, Vance's No. 1 New York Times best-seller.  Described as a "brilliant book" and  "one of the most important" reads of 2016,  Hillbilly Elegy  is a searing portrait of the lives of the white working class, providing timely perspective on the rise of political populism and the growing concerns of many Americans.  Read more and register

Kaoru Iokibe is professor at the Graduate Schools for Law and Politics, University of Tokyo. His research comprises the political and diplomatic history of modern Japan. In 2003 he published his first book about the formation of the opposition party in Japan. His second book, published in 2010, is about Meiji Japan's restoration of sovereignty through the revision of "unequal treaties" (now under translation into English). This talk illustrates the history of Japan-U.S. relations, from Admiral Perry's Black Ships and the subsequent opening of Japan until today's frequent political, economic, military, and cultural interactions between the two countries. Read more and register