Sara Koopman is assistant professor in the School of Peace and Conflict Studies at Kent State University. Her research focuses on feminist political geography, including alternative securities, international accompaniment, gender and security, peacebuilding in Colombia, and social movements and solidarity. Specifically, her work explores global North-South solidarity efforts, how it can fall into colonial patterns, and how it can be decolonized. She will discuss events around the Columbian accords' recognition that those already marginalized because of age, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation and other categories suffered differently during the war, and thus need targeted measures to build peace. Read more and register

Kayseri Falls, Turkey

Join us as we explore global water issues in connection to water research happening at Ohio State. We are seeking to build a research community that will draw together multiple perspectives on issues pertaining to water resources and the role of water in human societies. Please begin considering the following question to spark creative thinking: What if the Middle East had the capacity to solve the global water crisis? The forum will open with a keynote by Vanesa Rodríguez Osuna (via Skype), senior scientist at CUNY Advanced Science Research Center and project director at sequa gGmbH. She will present a vision for the future of water security that she and her colleagues developed at the request of the UN's High Level Panel on Water. Read more and register

John Horne is professor emeritus of modern European history at Trinity College Dublin and Member of the Royal Irish Academy. He is the author and editor of a number of books and over 100 chapters and articles, many relating to the Great War. Among his latest publications are (ed.) A Companion to World War One (Oxford, Blackwell-Wiley, 2010); (ed.) Vers la guerre totale: le tournant de 1914-1915 (Tallandier, 2010); and with Robert Gerwarth, War in Peace: Paramilitary Violence in Europe after the Great War (Oxford, 2012). In this talk, he will ask whether World War I was really a large-scale revolution. Read more and register at go.osu.edu/hornej

Aaron James, professor of philosophy at University of California-Irvine, works on rationalism and the foundations of moral and practical judgment, with a focus on constructivism (what it is, how it might explain objectivity, and whether it could provide a foundational theory). He is author of Fairness in Practice: A Social Contract for a Global Economy (Oxford, 2012), and is planning a book on the morality and political economy of distribution for a world of increasing ecological scarcity and lower growth rates (at least in the advanced world). In this talk, James will discuss the potential consequences of Modern Money Theory (MMT) for trade partner countries. Read more and register at go.osu.edu/jamesa

Ludivine Bantigny is assistant professor of history at University of Rouen Normandy. In recent years, her research has been devoted to the 1968 event and the various mobilizations that followed (feminisms, "sexual revolution", political cultures). She is the author of 1968, de grands soirs en petits matins (Seuil, 2018); La France à l'heure du monde. De 1981 à nos jours (Seuil, 2013, 2019); and «Prolétaires de tous les pays, qui lave vos chaussettes ?». Le genre de l'engagement dans les années 1968 (PUR, 2017, with Fanny Bugnon and Fanny Gallot). In this talk she will discuss the the projects that were forged by the protagonists of the social and political movement in 1968. Read more and register at go.osu.edu/bantignyl

Graduate student Brenden Wood will discuss his thesis research on accountability between Russian civil society and the federal government in regard to prison reform. The talk will focus on the Russian Civic Chamber, an institution meant to function as an intermediary between the federal government and civil society, but criticized as being ineffective due to its lack of constitutional authority and the fact that its members are in part appointed directly by the Kremlin. Wood will demonstrate that prison activism in the Chamber is not completely debilitated or controlled, but rather that the Chamber is able to exercise a relatively high degree of autonomy. As a result, an active prison rights community is operating within civil society in spite of the growing limitations. Read more

The Alexander Hamilton Society at Ohio State is pleased to announce our first public event of the semester! Join us for an expert-led debate featuring Michael Singh (left), Lane-Swig Senior Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, and Randall Schweller of the Ohio State Political Science Department. Mershon Center Director Christopher Gelpi will moderate. Audience members will have the chance to ask these experts questions during a 30 minute Q and A at the end of the event. Free pizza and Coke products will be provided beforehand. Further details on the speakers as well the event's time and place can be found below. We hope to see you there! Read more and register