Issues in African Development Seminar Series examines critical concerns in contemporary Africa using a different theme each semester. The seminars provide a forum for participants to explore alternative perspectives and exchange ideas. They are also a focal activity for students and faculty interested in African development. In addition, prepares students for higher level courses on African economic, social and political development. The presentations are designed for students who are interested in development, Africa’s place in global studies, want to know about the peoples, cultures and societies that call Africa home, and explore development theories and alternate viewpoints on development.

Join for a discussion of "Autocratic Stability in the Shadow of Foreign Threats," in the American Political Science Review and published online by Cambridge University Press, (July 2020).

Co-authored by: Livio Di Lonardo, Bocconi University; Jessica Sun, University of Michigan Department of Political Science; and Scott Tyson, University of Rochester.

The authors will join for a conversation about their work. No formal presentation will be given; please read in advance. A link to the reading will be sent with the registration confirmation.

Part of the Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies (PACS) seminar series.

Laura Sjoberg, Professor of Political Science at the University of Florida, discusses her working paper “Seducing Territory: Sex Acts and State Borders."

The author will join for a conversation about their work. No formal presentation will be given; please read in advance. A link to the reading will be sent with the registration confirmation.

Part of the Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies (PACS) seminar series.

About the author

Laura Sjoberg is is Professor of Political Science. Her research interests are in the area of gender-based and feminist approaches to the study of international relations generally, and international security specifically. Her research has addressed gender and just war theory, women’s violence in global politics, feminist interpretations of the theory and practice of security policy, queer theorizing in global politics, methodology, and the sociology of political science and International Relations.

Education: BA, University of Chicago; Ph.D., University of Southern California School of International Relations; J.D. Boston College Law School

Learn more at her personal website

Issues in African Development Seminar Series examines critical concerns in contemporary Africa using a different theme each semester. The seminars provide a forum for participants to explore alternative perspectives and exchange ideas. They are also a focal activity for students and faculty interested in African development. In addition, prepares students for higher level courses on African economic, social and political development. The presentations are designed for students who are interested in development, Africa’s place in global studies, want to know about the peoples, cultures and societies that call Africa home, and explore development theories and alternate viewpoints on development.

Part of the Ronald and Janette Gatty Lecture Series

Ronit Ricci, Department of Asian Studies and Religion, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

The small, Indian Ocean island known as Sarandib, Lanka, and Ceylon was a site of banishment throughout the 18th century for members of royal families, convicts, servants and others sent there from across the Indonesian archipelago. Descendants of these exiles who remained on the island continued to speak and write in Malay, the archipelago's lingua franca, and to adhere to a collective Muslim identity for several centuries and into the present. The talkconsiders if and how earlier religious and literary traditions of banishment tied to the island -those of Adam's fall from paradise to Sarandib and Sita's abduction to Lanka in the Ramayana -played a role in shaping the experiences of the exiles and their descendants.

Latin American economies have been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic and the lockdown measures adopted by national governments to address the public health crisis. Given the erosion of many of the social and economic gains of the early 2000s, what are the prospects for economic recovery in the months and years ahead? And how can the region ensure that any new economic growth will be broadly shared, benefiting the underprivileged sectors that have been most severely affected by the crisis?

A distinguished panel of international experts will explore these questions as part of a webinar cosponsored by Cornell's Emerging Markets Institute (EMI) and the Latin American Studies Program (LASP).