This is the last Mershon Center newsletter for the 2016-17 academic year. Please follow our Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and website for information about the center's research and events over the summer, and to find photos and recordings from our events this past year. The newsletter will return with the first week of classes in the fall. Good luck on final exams!

This year's Military Frontiers conference showcases the scholarship of 12 graduate students who study topics relating to the management of force and power in international affairs. The conference is interdisciplinary; the presenters represent a range of academic fields, and their research is based in a variety of methodologies. By bringing together up-and-coming scholars working on similar topics, the conference aims to promote communication and cooperation across academic disciplines. Gary Sheffield, professor of war studies at University of Wolverhamption, will give the keynote address on "How The West Won World War I." Read more and register at go.osu.edu/militaryfrontiers17

The conference and workshop brings together scholars representing different approaches to the studies of protest behavior and democracy. Invited speakers will present their work on issues related to various aspects of the relationship between protest and democracy, with an emphasis on measurement and methodology. The one-day conference will be followed by a workshop-style panel discussion with the presenters, focused on the different methods, their opportunities and limitations, aimed at providing graduate students and junior scholars with an overview of the methodological repertoire in this research area. This event is organized with the Cross-National Studies: Interdisciplinary Research and Training Program. Read more and register at go.osu.edu/protest

Bernadette Gray-Little is chancellor at University of Kansas, focusing on advancing its mission of lifting students and society by educating leaders, building healthy communities, and making discoveries that change the world. In fall 2013, Gray-Little was named to the Board of Directors of the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities and served as chair for 2015-16. She is an invited member of the Council of Foreign Relations. As part of a Fulbright Foundation fellowship, she conducted postdoctoral research in cross-cultural psychology in Denmark. She has also been a Social Science Research Council Fellow and a recipient of a Ford Foundation Senior Scholar Fellowship through the National Research Council.  Read more and register, then attend the 2017 Engagement Forum immediately following the event.

The Columbus Council on World Affairs invites you to join a dialogue about the current state of play in Russia, what we can expect from Russian President Vladimir Putin in his dealings with the United States and its allies, as well as possible scenarios for a changed world order. Lori Esposito Murray is an adjunct senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. She was special advisor to the president on the Chemical Weapons Convention during the Clinton Administration. She is also the former assistant director for multilateral affairs of the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency at the U.S. State Department. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Murray coordinated the democracy programs for Russia and the newly independent states at the International Republican Institute in Washington, DC. She also participated as an election observer in Russia during the election of Boris Yeltsin as president. Read more and register