A Keynote Event for Displaced. Detained. Undeterred: A Critical/Creative Symposium

Thursday, April 20, 2023, Physical Sciences Building 401

4.30 Opening Remarks
Saida Hodžić (Cornell University)

4.45 KEYNOTE DIALOGUE

In this keynote, speakers Evyn Lê Espiritu Gandhi and Yến Lê Espiritu offer an intergenerational remembrance of Đại Tá [Colonel] HồNgọc Cẩn,our cậu hai [oldest maternal uncle] and ông hai[oldest granduncle] respectively, an Army of the Republic of Vietnam officer who was publicly executed by a Communist firing squad. This remembrance is a portal toa discussion on refugee grief, not as a private or depoliticized sentiment but as a resource forenacting a politics that confronts the conditions under which certain lives are considered moregrievable than others. Focusing on quotidian memory places, particularly Internet memorialsconstructed by the Vietnamese diasporic community, they will discuss how and why South Vietnam’swar dead have become so central to the refugees’ retellings of South Vietnamese losses in theUnited States. At the same time, they point out that these commemoration efforts can and dolead to harsh and unrelenting attacks against the living, especially those who harbor morecritical visions of the diasporic community.

The keynote will be followed by a reception.

To attend the keynote in person, register here. To attend the keynote virtually, register here.

Speakers

Evyn Lê Espiritu Gandhi is an assistant professor of Asian American Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles (Tovaangar). Author of Archipelago of Resettlement: Vietnamese Refugee Settlers and Decolonization across Guam and Israel-Palestine, Dr. Gandhi is the co-editor with Vinh Nguyen of The Routledge Handbook of Refugee Narratives.

Yến Lê Espiritu is Distinguished Professor of Ethnic Studies at the University of California, San Diego. Her books Body Counts: The Vietnam War and Militarized Refuge(es) and Departures: An Introduction to Critical Refugee Studies (co-editor) have charted an interdisciplinary field of critical refugee studies, which reconceptualizes “the refugee” not as an object of rescue but as a site of social and political critiques. Dr. Espiritu is also an inaugural member of The Critical Refugee Studies Collective.

Have you considered summer study abroad and are interested in studying law? Join Cornell Law School faculty and the Office of Global Learning to learn more about the Cornell Prelaw Program in Paris, a three-week academic program in international and comparative law. Study law in a uniquely international and culturally rich environment, combining the excellence of Cornell Law School faculty and the Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne. Prepare for the law school admissions process and acquire the study skills for success in law school.

Have you considered summer study abroad and are interested in studying law? Join Cornell Law School faculty and the Office of Global Learning to learn more about the Cornell Prelaw Program in Paris, a three-week academic program in international and comparative law. Study law in a uniquely international and culturally rich environment, combining the excellence of Cornell Law School faculty and the Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne. Prepare for the law school admissions process and acquire the study skills for success in law school.

Have you considered summer study abroad and are interested in studying law? Join Cornell Law School faculty and the Office of Global Learning to learn more about the Cornell Prelaw Program in Paris, a three-week academic program in international and comparative law. Study law in a uniquely international and culturally rich environment, combining the excellence of Cornell Law School faculty and the Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne. Prepare for the law school admissions process and acquire the study skills for success in law school.

Learn more about the Cornell Summer Program in Turin - Public Policy. Nestled between the Alps and the Mediterranean in the magnificent Piedmont region of northern Italy, the city of Turin provides an inspiring background to explore the causes and consequences of population change, the debates unfolding in Europe around these issues, and the policies intended to address them.

The Capital Order investigates the logic of austerity today (hikes in interest rates, cuts in wages, and social benefits) by looking at its dark origins in the aftermath of World War I. Focusing on 1920s liberal-democracy Britain and fascist Italy, the book argues that the profitable application of austerity to these dissimilar nations licensed its use as a capitalist “tool of class control”.

Speaker
Clara Mattei, Assistant Professor in Economics at The New School

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Autocracy has been on the rise in global political affairs over the past decade, becoming a focal point of academic and public debate. Less attention has been focused, however, on the rise of social protest movements that contest authoritarian regimes in a large number of countries. This panel seeks to draw lessons from previous democratic social movements in Portugal, Italy, and Chile to analyze what role they play in opening up autocratic regimes and paving the way for democratic transitions.

Panelists
Tiago Carvalho, Centro de Investigação e Estudos de Sociologia, Instituto Universitario de Lisboa and Co-Chair of the Social Movements Research Network of the Council of European Studies
Sidney Tarrow, Emeritus Maxwell Upson Professor of Government, Cornell University
Ken Roberts, Richard J. Schwartz Professor Government, Cornell University

Moderator
Prof. Rachel Beatty Riedl, Director of the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies, John S. Knight Professor of International Studies, and Professor of Government at Cornell University

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Hosted by the Institute for European Studies in collaboration with the Einaudi Center’s Democratic Threats and Resilience global research priority, this event is cosponsored by the center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies and by the department of Government.

This talk discusses the geopolitics of the Single Market in financial services in the European Union (EU) by examining three crucial case studies: (1) the post-2008 crisis transatlantic tug of war, whereby the EU leveraged its Single Market vis-à-vis the US, seeking to set the rules for global finance; (2) the Brexit negotiations, when the EU acted as a block against the UK and successfully safeguarded the integrity of the Single Market; and finally, (3) in 2022, during the war in Ukraine, the EU ‘weaponized’ its Single Market through the adoption of financial sanctions against Russia. We argue that a combination of external and internal factors accounts for this geoeconomic turn: the evolution of the international economic and political system, in particular, the increasing challenges to the liberal order; and intra-EU developments, namely, the EU’s ability (regulatory capacity) and willingness (alignment of member states preferences) to deploy its Single Market geopolitically.

Speaker
Amy Verdun, Professor of Political Science at University of Victoria

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Since the so-called ‘Mediterranean migration crisis’ in 2015-16, the member states of the European Union with few exceptions have seen a marked shift to the right in the voting behavior of their electorates as existing and sometimes new authoritarian populist parties have identified the arrival of refugees and irregular migrants on Europe’s shores as a threat to security, social order and even ‘Christian civilization’. Although the numbers seeking sanctuary in a European continent of some 550 million+ people are not significant in world terms (only 7 million of the world’s 103 million forcibly displaced people were to be found in Europe in 2021) the political consequences of these new arrivals have been profound, dramatic and long-lasting. The successful campaign for ‘Brexit’ in the 2016 referendum on future UK membership of the European Union, and the EU-Turkey deal which led to a significant reduction in small boat crossings to Greece in return for large refugee aid payments from Brussels, have promoted a ‘Fortress Europe’ security agenda above concerns for human rights and compliance with the international refugee convention and international law. In this lecture, I explore why the presence of a small percentage of ‘uninvited guests’ has been much more of a threat to liberal democracy and the rule of law in Europe than it has been to the stability of governments and party systems in other parts of the world, why the presence of larger numbers of war displaced Ukrainians is generally not seen as problematic by neighboring European countries, and what are the long-term consequences for rights-based democracies in Europe and ‘the Global North’ in general in the face of increased population displacement pressures brought about by conflict, poverty and climate change.

Speaker
Simon Parker, Professor in Politics, Co-Director of the Centre for Urban Research, Co-Chair of the Migration Network at the University of York

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Current calls to decolonize global research renew the institutional and personal scrutiny of our “best practices” in conducting field research. Beyond formal adherence to the Belmont principles of “respect, beneficence, and justice,” researchers must reexamine some of the hidden (and not so hidden) costs borne by the local community in the research effort. Panelists will discuss ethical considerations of international research and ethnography in a variety of methodological practices: randomized control trials, focus group discussions, essay competitions, and selective summer camps.

Moderator

Rachel Beatty Riedl (Government, A&S; Einaudi Center)Panelists

Arnab Basu (Dyson School)Alex Nading (Anthropology, A&S)Sarah Thompson (South Asia Program, Einaudi Center)***

Grad Chats: Conversations on International Research and Practice is a series hosted by the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies to support graduate students with interdisciplinary training and planning around conducting international research.

Spring 2023 Schedule

From Plan A to Plan B: Designing Research for a Changing World (Thursday, February 16, 4:30 pm – 6:00 pm, Uris Hall G02)Beyond the IRB: Ethics and International Research (Wednesday, March 29, 4:30 pm – 6:00 pm, Uris Hall G08)Best Practices and Challenges in International Field Research (Thursday, March 30, 4:30 pm – 6:00 pm, Uris Hall G02)Finding a Research Focus through Creative Writing (Tuesday, April 18, 4:30 pm – 6:00 pm, Uris Hall G08)Travel Health and Safety Awareness for Conducting Research Abroad (Tuesday, May 9, 4:30 pm – 6:00 pm, Uris Hall G08)