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.

The concept of money is about to be fundamentally redefined, says Eswar Prasad, the Tolani Senior Professor of Trade Policy at Cornell University.

In a live, virtual Chats in the Stacks book talk on his new book, The Future of Money: How the Digital Revolution Is Transforming Currencies and Finance (Harvard University Press, 2021), Prasad explains how this transformation will impact corporations, banks, states, and individuals. Changes may lead to improvements in efficiency, personalization of services, and market access for the unbanked, but they may also bring instability, lack of accountability, and the erosion of privacy. The Future of Money explains how to maximize the best and prepare against the worst, as businesses, governments, and individuals embrace new financial technologies that have the power to fundamentally change our lives.

Prasad is also a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and previous chief of the financial studies division in the International Monetary Fund’s research department. A live Q&A will follow the talk. The audience is encouraged to submit their questions in the chat.

Dr. Kuruvilla's book talk scheduled for November 9 ,2021 is being postponed. It will be re-listed on the events.cornell.edu calendar as soon new date has been confirmed. We apologize for any inconvenience.

In the absence of a global regulatory system for labor standards, many companies have been developing and enforcing their own codes of conduct aimed at preventing “sweatshop” conditions in their supply chains. While these programs may be touted by businesses that develop them, little has been known about their actual effectiveness, says Sarosh Kuruvilla, professor of industrial relations, Asian studies, and public affairs. In a live, virtual Chats in the Stacks book talk on Private Regulation of Labor Standards in Global Supply Chains (Cornell University Press, 2021) Kuruvilla will share findings from his comprehensive investigation into the world of private, voluntary labor-condition regulation. Built upon a deep dive into data from companies, multi-stakeholder institutions, and auditing firms, the book seeks to understand the impact of current labor standards and consider systematic improvements that will positively impact the lives of workers in global supply chains.

A live Q&A will follow the talk. The audience is encouraged to submit their questions in the chat.

This presentation has been postponed.

Abstract:

In late 2018, the Indian YouTube channel T-Series became the most highly subscribed channel in the world, surpassing Swedish vlogger Pewdie Pie with 63 billion views and 88 million subscribers. In this talk, I investigate the successful expansion of YouTube in India over the past decade by attending to the intertwining of music-media aesthetics and infrastructural shifts.

Focusing on the videos and career of Shraddha Sharma, who became India’s first “YouTube star” in 2011, I highlight an aesthetics of intimacy that marked successful Indian YouTube musical acts between 2011 and 2015. In tandem, the talk outlines the changes in telecommunications and digital infrastructure that have enabled the widespread consumption of streaming media in India. Drawing together anthropological literature on infrastructures and ethnomusicological work on the social nature of aesthetics, I argue that the phenomenal success of YouTube in India over the past decade can best be understood as corporate responsiveness to increasing infrastructural availability through the modality of musical aesthetics.

Bio:

Anaar Desai-Stephens is an Assistant Professor of Ethnomusicology at the Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester. Anaar received her Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology from Cornell University in 2017, where she received the annual Donald J. Grout award for best dissertation in music. Her work has been supported by Cornell University’s Randel Dissertation and Teaching fellowship and the American Musicological Society’s Howard Mayer Brown Fellowship.

Her in-process monograph, Voicing Aspiration: Bollywood Songs and the Dreamwork of Contemporary India, explores the role of popular music as a medium for aspirational self-transformation in neoliberalizing India. She is the co-editor of “Musical Feelings and Affective Politics,” a recently published double issue of the interdisciplinary journal Culture Theory Critique. Trained as a violinist, Anaar is an active performer across a range of genres and currently plays with the Brazilian forró band “Forró estrellas du norte” (North Stars Forró).

A three-day, international conference bringing together communities, scholars and policymakers.

We will present our research findings from Indigenous and rural societies in the Pamir Mountains of Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, as well as the Standing Rock Sioux Nation and Oneida Lake Watershed in the United States of America. These Indigenous and rural communities have contributed least to the anthropogenic climate crisis but are facing its harshest consequences. While these peoples are largely ignored, we are creating an enabling environment for their voices to be heard at our three-day conference. Rhythms of the Land Conference will present findings from the Ecological Calendars for Climate Adaptation Project (ECCAP) undertaken by a team of students and scholars from the USA, Germany, Italy, and China.

Oct. 11
To include presentations of our research findings on building local level anticipatory capacity for climate change through implementable ecological calendars. Our research will also be communicated through works of art presented by prominent Indigenous artists from around the world. The diverse calendars for each community will be presented within an artistic aesthetic. Preview the community reports.

Oct. 12
Will be devoted to policy formulation, communication of climate adaptation strategies, and next steps in applied research.

Oct. 13
Will identify specific initiatives for action. Collective insights from presenters offer a sustainable roadmap for climate change adaptation – and hope - for all, regardless of political ideology.

COVID-19 event public safety requirements:

RSVP for public events required by Oct. 10 (Registration is full)Wear masks at all times during the event.Every participant is expected to be fully vaccinated.
Oct. 11 public programming to include:

Nevin Welcome Center, Cornell Botanic Gardens

9 a.m. - 10 a.m.
Environmental Justice and Indigenous Communities
James Ross, Teetl’it Gwich’in, Past Chief of Fort McPherson and
Negotiator of the Gwich’in Land Claim Agreement

10 a.m - 10:40 a.m.
Methodology of Hope – The Role of Ecological Calendars in Responding to the Challenge of Climate Change
Dr. Karim-Aly Kassam, International Professor of Environmental & Indigenous Studies, Dept. of Natural Resources & the Environment

Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art

3:15 p.m. - 3:55 p.m.
Measurements meet human observations:integrating distinctive ways of knowing in the Pamir Mountains to assess local climate change
Professor Cyrus Samimi, University of Bayreuth, Germany

4:00 p.m. - 4:50 p.m.
Artists and Communities Panel Conversation: Environmental Justice
Frederick McDonald, Past-Chief Executive Officer Fort McKay First Nation
Natani Notah, Navajo interdisciplinary artist and educator
Tony David, Director, Environmental Division, Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe

Oct. 12 public programming to include:

Nevin Welcome Center, Cornell Botanic Gardens

8:30 a.m. - 9:10 a.m.
What Are the Challenges for Climate Change Adaptation for Indigenous and Rural Communities?
James Ross, Teetl’it Gwich’in, Past Chief of Fort McPherson and Negotiator of the Gwich’in Land Claim Agreement

Schwartz Performing Arts Center

5:55 p.m. - 6:35 p.m.
Where Do We Go from Here? Concrete Outcomes for Climate Adaptations
James Ransom, Past Chief Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe, Past Director, Environment Program, SRMT

6:45 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Dance Performance: Blood, Water, Earth
Chancellor Santee Smith

Cornell University is located on the traditional homelands of the Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫ' (the Cayuga Nation). The Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫ' are members of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, an alliance of six sovereign Nations with a historic and contemporary presence on this land. The Confederacy precedes the establishment of Cornell University, New York state, and the United States of America. We acknowledge the painful history of Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫ' dispossession, and honor the ongoing connection of Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫ' people, past and present, to these lands and waters.