Einaudi Center for International Studies
The TikTok China Question Is Being Swept Under the Rug
Sarah Kreps, PACS
Sarah Kreps, professor and director of the Tech Policy Institute at Cornell University, comments on the limits of the proposed TikTok oversight framework.
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Why Disney Is Partnering with OpenAI's Sora
Virginia Doellgast, IES
Virginia Doellgast, a professor at Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations, provides insights on Disney's partnership with OpenAI and its implications for creative labor and AI protections.
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World Economy in 2026: Three Scenarios and a Dystopia
Lourdes Casanovas, LACS
Lourdes Casanovas from Cornell University discusses the likelihood of a financial bubble and the uncertainty regarding its potential burst.
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How Democracies Learn to Goose-step
Kaushik Basu, CRADLE/SAP/IES
In this op-ed, CRADLE cofounder Kaushik Basu (SAP/IES) argues the shift toward authoritarianism unfolds across a series of small, insidious steps—and universities may lead or reinforce political conformity.
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How Sparta, Invoked by Netanyahu and the Trump Team, Explains 2025
Barry Strauss, PACS
Barry Strauss, professor emeritus at Cornell University, discusses misconceptions about Sparta’s autarky and isolation.
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Addressing and Eradicating Xenophobia in the Southern Africa Region: An Interdisciplinary Approach
March 26, 2026
10:00 am
University of Johannesburg Kingsway Campus, Auckland Park, n/a
26-27 March 2026 University of Johannesburg Kingsway Campus, Auckland Park
Abstract Submission: 15 January 2026 Notification of Speaker and Abstract Decisions: 10 February 2026 Conference Registration Opens: 10 March 2026 Conference Fee: R3000.00
Organizers: Cornell Law School, University of Johannesburg Faculty of Law, University of Zambia, and the Centre for International and Comparative Labour
We are calling for abstracts to be submitted from around the globe. Abstract should not exceed 150 words and include up to 5 keywords. Full papers should not exceed 8000 words. All submitted abstracts, papers will go through a double–blind peer– review process with decisions and comments availed to all authors. Final acceptance is only granted upon revising the manuscript in line with the reviewer's comments. Acceptance of the manuscript is subject to review and approval by the publishers. Publication in the proceedings and presentations at the conference are subject to registration and submission of copyright forms. Submit abstracts to suhailv@uj.ac.za
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Program
Einaudi Center for International Studies
Institute for African Development
Iran in Context: War and Its Return
March 5, 2026
4:45 pm
Uris Hall, G08
In light of the war with Iran, Arang Keshavarzian's book talk will now be a roundtable discussion on recent events. This conversation will examine the war with Iran beyond the headlines, situating this latest outbreak of violence within broader historical, social, and regional contexts and debates.
The event is hosted by the Southwest Asia and North Africa Program (SWANA), part of the Einaudi Center for International Studies, and cosponsored by the Department of Near Eastern Studies.
Panel
Arang Keshavarzian (Middle East Studies, New York University)Golnar Nikpour (History, Dartmouth College)Seema Golestaneh (SWANA director and Near Eastern Studies, Cornell University)Moderator: Mostafa Minawi (History, Cornell University).
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About Arang Keshavarzian
Arang Keshavarzian is Professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at New York University. His research and teaching centers on questions of political economy of Iran and the wider Middle East. He has had a particular interest in the relationship between spatialization, capitalism, and political power. He is the author of Bazaar and State in Iran: The Politics of the Tehran Marketplace (Cambridge UP, 2007) and co-editor, with Ali Mirsepassi, of Global 1979: Geographies and Histories of the Iranian Revolution (Cambridge UP, 2021). His most recent book is Making Space for the Gulf: Histories of Regionalism and the Middle East (Stanford UP, 2024). It is the recipient of the 2025 Roger Owen Prize from MESA for best book in economic history, economics, and political economy, as well as an honorary mention for the 2025 biannual book award from the Association for Gulf and Arabian Peninsula Studies. His articles on various topics have appeared in several edited volumes as well as Politics & Society; International Journal of Middle East Studies, Geopolitics; Economy & Society; International Journal of Urban and Region Research, and Middle East Report.
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Program
Einaudi Center for International Studies
Southwest Asia and North Africa Program
Institute for European Studies
South Asia Program
Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies
Historian Shares Expertise on "This American Life" Podcast
Judith Byfield, LACS/Migrations
Judith Byfield talks with This American Life about Nigerian teacher and women's protest movement leader Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti.
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Bukovina: East European Microcosm
Cristina Florea in World in Focus
A new book from Cristina Florea (IES/PACS) recounts the complex history of Bukovina, a vanished borderland and buffer between Christendom and Islam. The region is now divided between Romania and Ukraine.
“[Bukovina] was a place where one might be born under one regime, grow up under another, come of age under a third, and die as a citizen of a completely different state. Within a single lifetime, people experienced multiple forms of government and were subjected to successive cultural and political projects.”
In Bukovina: The Life and Death of an East European Borderland (Princeton UP: December 2025), Cristina Florea tells the story of a place that no longer appears on maps, but continues to be shaped by competing national ambitions and the afterimages of successive empires.
Drawing on sources in Russian, Ukrainian, German, Romanian, French, and Yiddish, the book integrates stories of rural Ukrainians, Romanians, Germans, and urban German-speaking Jews and Poles who lived side by side in Bukovina—all navigating constant change and reinvention.
Today, Bukovina is once again at the center of geopolitical realignment, Florea said: “It is home to refugees fleeing eastern Ukraine and shaped by the afterlife of yet another empire: the Soviet Union. The story I tell in this book, as it has become painfully clear, has not ended.”
After the book's publication on December 16, Florea spoke with the College of Arts and Sciences about how the small borderland of Bukovina found itself at the forefront of modern state-building and governance projects that eventually extended through the rest of Europe.
“Enlightenment-era imperial projects, liberalism and its limits, competing nationalisms, two world wars, occupations and liberations, postwar reconstruction, and the dilemmas of governing diversity,” she said, “all unfold here almost as if we were watching Europe’s history on fast-forward.”
Cristina Florea is the Institute for European Studies Director's Faculty Fellow. She is an assistant professor of history (A&S) and frequent media voice on current events in Central and Eastern Europe.
Featured in World in Focus Briefs
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Topic
- World in Focus
Program
Book Explores "Modernity and Malevolence" in Indian Clinical Care
Andrew Willford, SAP/SEAP
Andrew Willford (SAP/SEAP) explores how culture shapes psychological symptoms in his new book, “Modernity and Malevolence in the Psychiatric Clinic: Anxious Selves in Urban and Rural South India.”