Academic Year 2022–2023
Jump to: Spring 2023
The Weatherhead Spotlight showcases the research and debates of the various units and affiliates of the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs.
The goal of the Spotlight each year is to tease out the robust discussions happening within each respective group and invite the WCFIA community to engage with the ongoing conversations.
All WCFIA affiliates are invited to attend! Lunch will be available starting at 12:00 noon; we will start promptly at 12:15 p.m. and end at 1:15 p.m. sharp. We will meet in the Bowie-Vernon Room (CGIS K262). The Spotlight is chaired by the Center’s acting director.
Fall 2022
Wednesday, September 21
Featuring the Canada Program
“Resource Colony, Transnational Actor: Canada in a Burning World (Introducing the Canada Program, 2022–23)”
- Kathy Bickmore, William Lyon Mackenzie King Visiting Professor of Canadian Studies, Canada Program. Professor, Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto.
- Judith Ellen Brunton, William Lyon Mackenzie King Postdoctoral Fellow, Canada Program. PhD, Department for the Study of Religion, University of Toronto.
- Pamela Klassen, William Lyon Mackenzie King Visiting Professor of Canadian Studies, Canada Program. Professor, Department for the Study of Religion, University of Toronto.
- Daniel Manulak, William Lyon Mackenzie King Postdoctoral Fellow, Canada Program. PhD, Department of History, Western University, Canada.
Wednesday, October 12
Featuring the Graduate Student Associates Program
“When Home Is the Mouth of a Shark: A Study of Boko Haram's Terror and the Continuum of Displacement”
- Gbemisola Abiola, Graduate Student Associate. PhD Candidate, Department of African and African American Studies and Department of Anthropology, Harvard University.
- Discussant: Orelia Jonathan, Graduate Student Associate. PhD Candidate, Harvard Graduate School of Education.
- Discussant: Derek J. Robey, Graduate Student Associate; Graduate Research Fellow, Canada Program. PhD Candidate, Department of Sociology, Harvard University.
- Chair: Erez Manela, Acting Center Director (2022–2023); Director, Graduate Student Programs. Professor of History, Department of History, Harvard University.
Wednesday, November 2
Featuring The Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies
“Rethinking Responses to Forced Displacement in Africa”
- Sophia Balakian, Academy Scholar, The Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies. Assistant Professor, School of Integrative Studies, George Mason University. “Forged Identities or Just Resistance? Reframing State/NGO Discourses of ‘Fraud’ in Refugee Resettlement from Kenya."
- Yang-Yang Zhou, Academy Scholar, The Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies. Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, University of British Columbia; CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholar, CIFAR. “Inclusive Refugee-Hosting in Uganda Improves Local Development, Increases Incumbent Support, and Prevents Public Backlash."
- Chair: Timothy J. Colton, Chair, The Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies. Morris and Anna Feldberg Professor of Government and Russian Studies, Department of Government, Harvard University.
Wednesday, November 30
Featuring the Weatherhead Scholars Program
"The (Ir)Relevance of National Borders in an Era of Climate Change"
- David Leblang, Visiting Scholar, Weatherhead Scholars Program (fall 2022). Ambassador Henry Taylor Professor of Politics, Department of Politics; Compton Professor, Miller Center of Public Affairs; Professor of Public Policy, Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, University of Virginia.
- Discussant: Giovanni Matera, Raphael Morrison Dorman Memorial Postdoctoral Fellow, Weatherhead Scholars Program; Affiliate, Weatherhead Research Cluster on Comparative Inequality and Inclusion. PhD, Department of Sociology, L’École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS), Paris.
- Chair: Erin Goodman, Director, Weatherhead Scholars Program.
Spring 2023
Wednesday, January 25
Featuring the Program on U.S.-Japan Relations
“The State, Business, and Populism: Japan in Comparative Perspective”
- Trevor Incerti, Postdoctoral Fellow, Program on U.S.-Japan Relations. PhD, Department of Political Science, Yale University. “Who Benefits from the Revolving Door? Evidence from Japan”
- Willy Jou, Academic Associate, Program on U.S.-Japan Relations. Associate Professor, School of Political Science and Economics, Waseda University. “Authoritarian Populist Attitudes in Japan”
- Moderator: Christina L. Davis, Director, Program on U.S.-Japan Relations. Edwin O. Reischauer Professor of Japanese Politics, Department of Government; Susan S. and Kenneth L. Wallach Professor, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University.
Wednesday, February 15
Featuring SCANCOR at the Weatherhead Center
“SCANCOR Weatherhead Scholars Present Their Research”
- Giovanni Cardillo, Visiting Scholar, SCANCOR at the Weatherhead Center (spring 2023). Assistant Professor, Department of Management, University of Bologna. “Political Connections, Bank Lending, and the Role of Female Directors”
- Øivind Hagen, Visiting Scholar, SCANCOR at the Weatherhead Center. Associate Professor, Department of Leadership and Organizational Behaviour, BI Norwegian Business School. “Stories of Adjustments and Hope: How the Pandemic Took Away the Future of Work, and How Newspapers Reconnected Us with It”
- Sabina Nielsen, Visiting Scholar, SCANCOR at the Weatherhead Center (spring 2023). Professor of International Business, Department of International Economics, Government and Business, Copenhagen Business School. “Solving the Paradox of Diversity: A Multilevel Perspective”
- Ed Saeidi, Visiting Scholar, SCANCOR at the Weatherhead Center (spring 2023). Associate Professor, Department of Strategy and Entrepreneurship, BI Norwegian Business School. “Do Foreign Firms Substitute for US Venture Capital?”
- Iiris Saittakari, Visiting Scholar, SCANCOR at the Weatherhead Center (spring 2023). Assistant Professor, Department of Management Studies, Aalto University. “Non-Physical Determinants of Multinationals’ Location Choice Processes”
- Chair: Theodore J. Gilman, Executive Director.
Wednesday, March 8
Featuring the Weatherhead Research Cluster on Migration
“Implicit Bias in Intergroup Perception”
- Mahzarin R. Banaji, Richard Clarke Cabot Professor of Social Ethics, Department of Psychology, Harvard University.
- Chair: Jacqueline Bhabha, Chair, Weatherhead Research Cluster on Migration. Professor of the Practice of Health and Human Rights, Department of Global Health and Population; Director of Research, François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; Jeremiah Smith Jr. Lecturer on Law, Harvard Law School.
- Chair: Sarah Dryden-Peterson, Chair, Weatherhead Research Cluster on Migration. Director, REACH; Associate Professor of Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Wednesday, March 29
Featuring the Weatherhead Research Cluster on Business and Government
PLEASE NOTE: This session of the Weatherhead Spotlight has been cancelled.
“Precarious Ties: Business and Political Elites in Authoritarian Asia”
- Meg Elizabeth Rithmire, Chair, Weatherhead Research Cluster on Regions in a Multipolar World. F. Warren McFarlan Associate Professor of Business Administration, Business, Government, and the International Economy Unit, Harvard Business School.
- Discussant: Gautam Nair, Chair, Weatherhead Research Cluster on Business and Government. Assistant Professor of Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School.
Wednesday, April 19
Featuring the Weatherhead Research Cluster on Comparative Inequality and Inclusion
“Comparative Research on Precarity and Insecurity”
- Lorenza Antonucci, German Kennedy Memorial Fellow, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University. Associate Professor, School of Social Policy, University of Birmingham. "The Shape of Insecurity in Europe: Why and How Insecurity Is Increasing in the Old Continent"
- Elena Ayala-Hurtado, Graduate Student Affiliate; Weatherhead Center Dissertation Fellow. PhD Candidate, Department of Sociology, Harvard University. “Qualities and Configurations of Insecurity in the United States and Spain”
- Gianluca Busilacchi, Visiting Scholar, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University (fall 2022). Associate Professor of Economic Sociology, University of Macerata. “Poverty Regimes and In-Work Poverty: A European Comparative Analysis”
- Chair: Michèle Lamont, Chair, Weatherhead Research Cluster on Comparative Inequality and Inclusion. Robert I. Goldman Professor of European Studies; Professor of Sociology and of African and African American Studies, Departments of Sociology and African and African American Studies, Harvard University.