Take your learning to the next level with regional and thematic minors from the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies and our programs. Whatever your major and career goals, our wide geographical reach and interdisciplinary focus provide opportunities for you to expand your global knowledge and broaden your approach to your studies and the world. Find out if an Einaudi Center minor is right for you and how to apply.

Co-sponsored by the Tatkon Center for First-Year Students

Contact: einaudi_center@einaudi.cornell.edu; https://einaudi.cornell.edu/learn/minors-and-academics

Explore options beyond academia and discover how to make informed decisions for career choices in government, non-profits and industry. Test-drive career opportunities through career panels, individual and group sessions, site visits and more. Visit website for more details.

Contact: sap@cornell.edu

Is the Einaudi Center's International Relations minor for you? Here's a chance to find out. Graduates go on to successful careers in fields like international law, economics, agriculture, trade, finance, journalism, education, and government service.

Contact: irm@einaudi.cornell.edu; https://einaudi.cornell.edu/academics/international-relations-minor

This LASP summer research grant provides funding for in-country research costs for graduate pre-dissertation work in Latin America or the Caribbean. (The grant does not cover international airfare; students should also apply for an Einaudi Center Travel Grant for airfare.) LASP will offer up to three research grants to qualified graduate students who need to conduct field research over the summer of 2021. Grant amounts may vary from $500 to $1,500. The graduate minor in Latin American (and Caribbean) studies allows students to acquire in-depth knowledge of the region, which will enhance their expertise for future research and professional advancement. The main requirement is to have a Latin American studies field faculty member as a member of a student’s committee.

Contact: lasp@cornell.edu, https://lasp.einaudi.cornell.edu/

The Fulbright U.S. Student Program provides full funding for graduate and professional students conducting research or teaching in any field in more than 150 countries. Open to U.S. citizens only.

The Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Program supports doctoral students conducting research in modern languages or area studies for six to 12 months. Open to U.S. citizens and permanent residents of the United States. Travel to Western European countries is not eligible.

Contact: fulbright@einaudi.cornell.edu, https://einaudi.cornell.edu/fulbright-us-student-program

Existing work presents mixed findings on the impact of weather events on international mobility. Relying on fine-grained data over a long-time span (1980-2019) in the Mexico-U.S. setting, we turn to machine learning (ML) tools to first determine if weather events can predict migration choices of 150,000+ individuals. We use random-forest models which allow us to include a comprehensive list of weather indicators measured at various lags, and to consider complex interactions among the inputs. These models rely on data-driven model selection, optimize predictive performance, but often produce ‘black-box’ results. In our case, the results show that weather indicators offer at best a modest improvement in migration predictions. We then attempt to open the black box and model the linkages between select weather indicators and migration choices. We find the combination of precipitation and temperature extremes and their particular sequencing to be crucial to predicting weather-driven migration responses out of Mexico. We also show heterogeneity in these responses by household wealth status. Specifically, we find that wealthier households in rural communities migrate in the immediate aftermath of a negative weather shock (relative to the ‘normal’ weather in their community), while poorer households need to experience a positive weather event following a negative one in order to migrate to the United States. This pattern suggests that migration as an adaptation strategy might be available to select households in the developing world, and the most vulnerable might be excluded from resorting on an international trip unless they experience particular sequences of weather events that allow them to raise the necessary funds first.

Filiz Garip is Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs at Princeton University. Her research lies at the intersection of migration, economic sociology and inequality. Within this general area, she studies the mechanisms that enable or constrain mobility and lead to greater or lesser degrees of social and economic inequality. Her work has appeared in American Journal of Sociology, Demography, Population and Development Review. She is also the author of On the Move: Changing Mechanisms of Mexico-U.S. Migration (Princeton University Press, 2016).

The Migration Studies minor is a university-wide, interdisciplinary undergraduate minor that prepares students to understand the historical and contemporary contexts and factors that drive international migration and shape migrant experiences around the globe. This minor draws on the rich course offerings found across the humanities and social sciences at Cornell, and is designed to draw students outside of their major fields and to extend their knowledge beyond a single country.

Contact: migration-minor@einaudi.cornell.edu, https://einaudi.cornell.edu/migration-studies-minor

The Latin American Studies Minor is an undergraduate minor across disciplines that will allow students to explore the history, culture, government, politics, economy and languages of Latin America and the Caribbean. Qualifying courses can be found in almost every college.

Contact: lasp@cornell.edu, https://lasp.einaudi.cornell.edu/

The Einaudi Center International Research Travel Grants provide travel support for Cornell graduate students conducting short-term research and/or fieldwork outside the United States. They also provide travel support for professional students engaged in various academic experiences in the international arena.

Contact: einaudi_center@einaudi.cornell.edu; https://einaudi.cornell.edu/funding/travel-grants

The Cornell Contemporary China Initiative (CCCI) welcomes Ana Candela, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Binghamton University to speak and discuss her extensive research on

From Compradors to Hacendados:
Cantonese Merchants In Peru and the Expanding Settler Colonial Frontiers of the Cantonese Pacific

Embracing the gendered and racialized settler colonial imaginaries that animated Peruvian nation-making, Cantonese merchants deployed new ideas about nature, labor, and technology to position themselves as ideal colonos chinos (Chinese settlers) and overseas Chinese pioneers (xianqiao). Through these activities and imaginaries, Cantonese merchants brought greater coherence to a broader Cantonese Pacific world that linked South China and northern coastal Peru through migration and commerce during an era of expanding industrial capitalism.

Eli Friedman, Chair, ILR School and Director of the CCCI for Spring '21 hosts and moderates. Professor Friedman teaches the course that is linked to this lecture series, ILRIC 4395, Empire of Migrants.

CCCI was established to create a forum for scholars, researchers, and students with contemporary China interests in any aspect of contemporary China. CCCI is a collaborative effort of the East Asia Program, CAPS, and Asian Studies.