In This Issue

January 3, 2014 

January 8, 2014

January 17, 2014
Tempi

"Yongusil 23: Adam Cathcart at Ohio State University"
January 9, 2014
Sino-NK

Ralph D. Mershon Senior Research Scientist

"How government officials get scared by unlikely threats"
January 16, 2014
The Monkey Cage

"China selling off American debt"
January 6, 2014
The Voice of Russia

Mershon Memo is a weekly e-mail newsletter distributed by the Mershon Center for International Security Studies, a unit of the Office of International Affairs at The Ohio State University.

        

The Student Peace Awards were initiated in 2013 by the Peace Studies Society student organization at The Ohio State University, as a means of recognizing significant contributions by students to peace and justice. The 2014 Student Peace Awards will be part of a half-day long celebratory conference that will include workshops on compassionate communication, peace through service, and a panel discussion on bridging the gap between theory and practice in the nonviolent defense of human rights. The conference will be free and open to all. Since space is limited, early registration is strongly advised. Read more and register at go.osu.edu/studentpeace14

Lien-Hang Nguyen is associate professor of history at the University of Kentucky. Her first book, Hanoi's War: An International History of the War for Peace (UNC Press, 2012) won the 2012 Edward M. Coffman Prize, Stuart L. Bernath Book Prize, and was a finalist for the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians Book Prize.  Nguyen has also published numerous peer-reviewed articles and essays on the wars for Vietnam, and has written pieces for The New York Times, BBC, and San Jose Mercury News. Read more and register at go.osu.edu/nguyenl

Kenneth Scheve is professor of political science at Stanford University and senior fellow at Stanford's Freeman Spogli Institute. He currently serves as the director of The Europe Center at FSI. Scheve is the author, with Matthew Slaughter, of Globalization and the Perceptions of American Workers, examining American public opinion about the liberalization of trade, immigration, and foreign direct investment policies. He is currently writing a book with David Stasavage examining the interaction between mass warfare, fairness concerns, and the development of progressive taxation in the 19th and 20th centuries across 20 countries. Read more and register at go.osu.edu/schevek

Gregory Maney is professor of sociology at Hofstra University, where he is director of active citizenship at the Center for Civic Engagement and co-director of the Irish Studies program. A recent co-authored article on political violence in Northern Ireland published in Mobilization received the Peace, War, and Social Conflict Section of the American Sociological Association's award for Outstanding Published Article. Another recent article on the relationship between reforms and nonviolent contention published in Research in Social Movements, Conflicts and Change received the Emerald Literati Network Award for Excellence. Maney is working on two National Science Foundation-funded projects on political violence and peace movements. Read more and register at go.osu.edu/maneyg

Watch a streaming video of Joshua Rovner, John Goodwin Tower Professor of International Politics and National Security at Southern Methodist University, speaking about his book, Fixing the Facts: National Security and the Politics of Intelligence (Cornell University Press, 2011), on November 8, 2013, at the Mershon Center. In Fixing the Facts, Joshua Rovner explores the complex interaction between intelligence and policy and shines a spotlight on the problem of politicization. The book won the Edgar S. Furniss Book Award. 

Salwa Nugali received her B.A. and M.A. from University of Wisconsin-Madison, and her Ph.D. from the University of Nottingham, UK in English Studies. She is interested in interdisciplinary crossing between areas of knowledge especially in the arts and humanities. She has been the most sought-after commentator on many Middle Eastern media outlets and TV programs dealing with issues related to women's status, and the current condition of Arab and Islamic thought and culture. She is currently an associate professor at King Saud University and has recently won King Abdulla International Award in Translation for her translation of Peter Stockwell's book, Cognitive Poetics: An Introduction from English into Arabic. Read more

Dawood Azami is a visiting scholar and award winning broadcast journalist. He has been working as a senior broadcast journalist for the BBC World Service in London since 1999. He also served as the BBC World Service bureau chief and editor in Kabul, Afghanistan (2010 and 2011). Azami also works as a visiting lecturer at the University of Westminster, London, where he teaches a course on "Globalization, Power and International Governance." Previously he was a visiting scholar at Ohio State. His expertise includes biological sciences, geopolitics, international relations, media and international development. Azami and Alam Payind, director of the Middle East Studies Center, will discuss the conflict in Afghanistan and prospects for the future. Read more

What does your local food system look like? What roles do local consumption or production play in the larger food system? The Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future has created the Maryland Food System Map Project in an effort to understand the answers to these questions in Maryland. The project compiles geographic data on all aspects of food production, processing, distribution and food retail, as well as demographic data such as income, vehicle availability and health outcomes. Policymakers, researchers and educators then use the data and maps to educate about and advocate for particular food system issues. Geographic data on food systems is increasingly being used to inform food policy and food security. We will discuss this project and ways to use the information specifically in the policy arena, as well as touch on some of the limitations with mapping the food system. Read more

 

Each year, the Mershon Center for International Security Studies holds a competition for Ohio State faculty and students to apply for research grants and scholarship funds. 

 

Faculty and student research grant applications must be for projects related to the study of national security in a global context. We are also interested in projects that emphasize the role of peace-building and development initiatives globally, as well as projects that strengthen the global gateways in China, India and Brazil. We will also consider projects related to campus area studies centers and institutes, or projects that address the university's Discovery Themes of health and wellness, energy and the environment, and food production and security.

 

The Mershon Center has also established the International Security Study Abroad Scholarship to support undergraduates whose professional training and career plans lie in the field of international security and who would benefit by studying in a foreign country. Students are encouraged to take foreign language courses, especially those deemed critical for national security. As many as 12 scholarships of up to $2,000 each will be awarded.

 

For more information, including application forms and instructions, please see the Grants section of the Mershon Center website. The deadline for all applications is Friday, January 31, 2014.

 

The Office of International Affairs is now accepting applications for faculty research and study abroad seed grants as well as study abroad scholarships.

 

Faculty grant programs provided by the Office of International Affairs serve to promote international educational opportunities that will have a lasting impact on increasing global awareness and understanding. The deadline for faculty to apply for the Gateway Research Seed Grant, the Gateway Study Abroad Seed Grant and the Intentional Affairs Faculty Grant is Wednesday, January 22.

 

Several grant opportunities are also available for graduate students wishing to research projects that explore languages, cultures, arts, politics, economy, or socio-demographic aspects of a foreign region. The deadline for the International Affairs Grant is Wednesday, January 22.

 

Additionally, the Office of International Affairs is seeking applications for study abroad scholarship opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students who are interested in studying or conducting research abroad. The Sonkin-Bergman-Wasserman Families Scholarship for International Understanding and Peace and the Phyllis Krumm Scholarship are available to graduate students and have application deadlines of Wednesday, January 22.

 

The Wolfe Study Abroad Scholarship, Francille M. Firebaugh Study Abroad Scholarship, International Security Study Abroad Scholarship and Jutta and Peter Neckermann Study Abroad Scholarship are available for undergraduate students and have application deadlines of Friday, January 31.

 

Visit the Office of International Affairs grants and scholarships page to learn more about these opportunities.

 

Origins has published its new article: "People Were Skeptical about Veterans' Hospitals, Too: The Affordable Care Act and Health Policy Precedents," by Jessica L. Adler.

 

Nothing in American political life has generated more acrimony in the last four years than the Affordable Care Act. While its opponents have decried this as an intrusion of the federal government into the private market place and into people's private lives, historian Jessica L. Adler demonstrates that the roots of "Obamacare" lie not in the Great Society programs of the 1960s or even the New Deal of the 1930s but in the legacy of World War I and the creation of a health care system for military veterans.

 

The whole article can be found at origins.osu.edu. As always, you can listen to the podcast.

 

The offices of Outreach and Engagement, International Affairs, Student Life and Undergraduate Education, and the Service-Learning Initiative, have joined together to recognize faculty, staff, students and community partners with the University Outreach and Engagement Recognition Awards program. Awards will be presented in the community engagement, international engagement, service-learning, staff, student, student group and community partner categories. Nominations are due Friday (2/14).

 

-- > Contact: 247-7795 or outreach@osu.edu

-- > Submit a nomination: go.osu.edu/oeawards