Please register through the following link:
https://cornell.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_5jrGp_7CRniDXYgvKp_s7g

Sugarcane was one of the first crops introduced into Brazil by the Portuguese, and it has dominated the country’s political and economic formation since. In recent years, the highly modern, input-intensive ethanol industry has taken hold in a new region of Brazil, the former soybean fields of Mato Grosso do Sul. In this talk, Fernanda will outline her research into conflicts in this new sugarcane region between large-scale, highly-capitalized agro-industrialists and indigenous peoples who claim historic rights to the land in Mato Grosso do Sul. Through a case study of the Raízen-Caarapó ethanol plant, she will examine changing land use patterns, livelihoods and norms as expressed through claims to the land.

Fernanda Santa Roza Ayala Martins is a PhD student in the Social Sciences Graduate Program on Development, Agriculture and Society (CPDA) in the Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRRJ). She is a visiting PhD student with Global Development in CALS with a scholarship from the Brazilian Federal Foundation for Support and Evaluation of Graduate Education (CAPES).

From both domestic and foreign waters, The Development Diplomat: Working Across Borders, Boardrooms, and Bureaucracies to End Poverty is the story of an immigrant woman who blended skillsets and worked across borders, boardrooms, and bureaucracies to fight global poverty. Many people aspire to “change the world”, but making a difference on a global scale is not easy. When first-generation, Muslim-American Fatema Z. Sumar had the chance to serve across the U.S. government as a diplomat, political aid, and development expert, she seized it. Traveling more than three – quarters of a million miles to dozens of countries, from Afghanistan and Pakistan to Mongolia and Jordan, Fatema worked to fight poverty and create economic opportunities for people around the globe while raising young children at home. Her stories reveal an up-close look at the highs and lows of a career in Development Diplomacy. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in working on foreign policy and international development, laying out the roadmap for the next generation of Development Diplomats.

In this talk, Sumar will focus on the chapters on Afghanistan, sharing her personal stories of traveling there in the 2009 presidential election, during which she helped avoid a constitutional crisis.

Fatema Sumar '01 has had a distinguished career, leading efforts to advance inclusive and sustainable development in emerging markets and fragile countries. In 2021, President Biden appointed Sumar as the Vice President of Compact Operations at the U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation, an independent U.S. government foreign aid agency that reduces poverty through economic growth. She previously served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asia at the U.S. Department of State, where she led U.S. efforts to expand regional economic and energy connectivity and as a Presidential Management Fellow (PMF). In Congress, Fatema worked for three US Senators, including as a Senior Professional Staff Member on the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee. She also worked in civil society at Oxfam America and the American Civil Liberties Union.

Sumar sits on Advisory Boards for Princeton, Cornell, and Indiana universities. Her work has been published in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, The New Republic, The Hill, and other outlets. Sumar graduated with a Master of Public Affairs from Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs, where she received the prestigious Stokes Award, and a Bachelor of Arts in Government from Cornell University where she founded the Translator Interpreter Program. She studied abroad at the American University in Cairo.

Copies of her book will be available for purchase and signing after the talk.

Students interested in Europe or international politics are invited to attend this interactive Zoom meeting with Vanessa Frazier. H.E. Frazier will be sharing a presentation about the work her work, how she built her career, insight into the operations of the UN, the impact of the work on Malta, and thoughts about how the pandemic has impacted the work of the UN, followed by a question-and-answer session.

*Advanced registration is required.

Political scientists Rebecca Hamlin and Lamis Abdelaaty are migration scholars whose work has broad implications for the study of asylum and migrant rights. In their new books, they look closely at the categories and labels that we assign to people on the move, how states respond to refugees, and how these labels and asylum systems affect people on the move.

They'll join Cornell's Migrations initiative and a small panel of Cornell scholars to discuss their new books and the future of asylum and immigration systems across multiple countries and world regions. This event is co-sponsored by the Center for the Study of Inequality and The Department of Government.

Speakers

Rebecca Hamlin, Associate Professor of Legal Studies and Political Science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, author of Crossing: How We Label and React to People on the MoveLamis Abdelaaty, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Syracuse University, author of Discrimination and Delegation: Explaining State Responses to RefugeesPanel

Chiara Galli, Klarman Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Sociology at Cornell Ian Kysel, Visiting Assistant Clinical Professor of Law at CornellModerator

Rachel Beatty Riedl, Director of the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies; John S. Knight Professor of International Studies
Hybrid Event: Members of the Cornell community are welcome and encouraged to join in person. Those outside Cornell can join us via Zoom webinar.

Please note: For those joining in-person please bring your Cornell ID per University COVID-19 guidelines as of September 24th.

The Museum will be closed beginning Tuesday, December 14. Visit museum.cornell.edu/faq for information.

“(Re)collecting” signifies the active process of remembering and draws attention to the power of collections to elicit memories and histories and to act as participants in social and political change. This special installation showcases a collection of objects at the Johnson Museum that have been donated by alumni and faculty of the Cornell Southeast Asia Program (SEAP), beginning in the 1970s with gifts of Buddhist sculpture from Alexander Brown Griswold, SEAP visiting professor.

This installation was curated by Anissa Rahadiningtyas, curatorial assistant for Asian art at the Johnson and SEAP graduate student; Alexandra Dalferro, SEAP graduate student; and Astara Light, SEAP graduate student; under the supervision of Ellen Avril, chief curator and the Judith H. Stoikov Curator of Asian Art.

Visit the online exhibition here.

"Critical Thinking in World Language Teaching"
Mariame Sy
Director of the African Language Program and Lecturer of Wolof and Pulaar, Columbia University

Critical thinking, an essential element across academic fields, has been at the heart of education for decades. While research on language education and critical thinking remains somewhat timid, it continues to gain ground among academic communities. Available studies strongly suggest that pedagogical practices that wed world language teaching and critical thinking can facilitate language acquisition and enhance general proficiency. Despite this progress in the research field, there is nonetheless a general reluctance to integrate critical thinking in language teaching practices (Li, 2011; Pica, 2000) because, arguably, its integration presents more challenges for language educators than for teachers in other fields (Lin, Preston, Kharrufa, & Kong, 2016). However, while this statement may be true for teachers of major languages, teachers of the so-called less commonly taught languages (LCTLs) might be more inclined to take on these challenges. As decision-makers of their courses, teachers of LCTLs have opportunities to create innovative practices by engaging in three types of decisions: educational outcomes (what learners can do), content (what should be/is taught), and manner (how the goals of teaching language are achieved).
While recognizing the many challenges – including historical marginalization and inadequate institutional support – in this presentation I aim to shed light on the importance of integrating critical thinking in the language teaching and to explore models and ways of designing materials that can facilitate the integration of critical thinking in the African language classroom. While examples are provided from African languages classrooms, the principles and ideas are applicable to all languages.

Bio: Dr. Mariame Sy is a Lecturer in African Languages and the Director of the African Language Program in the Department of Middle Eastern South Asian and African Studies at Columbia University. She began teaching Wolof in 2001 in the Linguistics Department at UCLA and has since taught Wolof and Pulaar at several institutions, including the Summer Cooperative African Language Institute (SCALI) and The Colorado Project study abroad program in Senegal. She also teaches French in the African Languages Flagship Initiative summer program. Her publications include academic articles on the morpho-phonology and syntax of Wolof and she has two upcoming elementary-level textbooks in Wolof and Pulaar (with Africa World Press and the National African Language Resource Center).
She is also a co-developer of a Wolof video course and has designed a flipped classroom for beginning Introductory Wolof to provide students with supplemental technology-based opportunities to enhance proficiency in key areas of difficulty by practicing outside the classroom setting. Her current work focuses on developing a curriculum based on performance assessments and what learners should understand, know, and be able to do.
She is the current President of the African Language Teachers Association (ALTA) and the Vice President of the Senegambian Studies Group.

This event will be held in person in G25 Stimson and will also be streamed live over Zoom. Join us at the LRC or on Zoom.

The event is free and open to the public. Campus visitors and members of the public must adhere to Cornell's public health requirements for events, which include wearing masks while indoors and providing proof of vaccination or a recent negative COVID-19 test.

Co-sponsored by the Language Resource Center and the Institute for African Development at Cornell University.

Dr. Sabrina Karim, the Hardis Family Assistant Professor in Government, will present preliminary research from the Gender and Security Sector Lab that she runs at Cornell University. The presentation will focus on how gender equality within the security forces affects personnel’s beliefs and norms about the use of violence as well as how different forms of socialization, such as through participation in United Nations Peacekeeping Operations, affects the same outcomes. The research draws on surveys conducted with the security forces in Ghana, Zambia, Senegal, and Uruguay.

This seminar is part of a series organized by the Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies (PACS) and the Gender and Security Sector (GSS) Lab. Download the Fall 2021 Seminar Series schedule here.