Academic Year 2023–2024
Jump to: Spring 2024
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 Weatherhead community to engage with the ongoing conversations.
All Weatherhead 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 director.
Fall 2023
Wednesday, September 6
Featuring the Weatherhead Research Cluster on Identity Politics
“Exploring Post-War Identity Politics: Preliminary Insights from Bosnia, Lebanon, and Northern Ireland”
- Melani Cammett, Center Director; Chair, Weatherhead Research Cluster on Identity Politics. Clarence Dillon Professor of International Affairs, Department of Government, Harvard University.
Wednesday, October 4
Featuring SCANCOR at the Weatherhead Center
“SCANCOR Scholars Present Their Research”
- Mansoor Afzali, Visiting Scholar, SCANCOR at the Weatherhead Center (fall 2023). Assistant Professor, Department of Accounting, Hanken School of Economics. “Do Local Climate Change Perceptions Matter for Corporate Environmental Responsibility?”
- Johan Hvenmark, Visiting Scholar, SCANCOR at the Weatherhead Center. Associate Professor, Department of Religion and Civil Society, Center for Civil Society Research, Marie Cederschiöld University, Stockholm. “‘It’s Complicated’: Exploring Civil Society—Market Relationships”
- Eleni Tsingou, Visiting Scholar, SCANCOR at the Weatherhead Center (fall 2023). Professor with Special Responsibilities, Department of Organization, Copenhagen Business School. “The Role of Data in Healthcare Innovation: Gift Markets in the Commercialization of Femtech”
- Teck Ming (Terence) Tan, Visiting Scholar, SCANCOR at the Weatherhead Center (fall 2023). Associate Professor, Department of Marketing, Management and International Business, University of Oulu. “Nurturing a Future of Decentralized Trust through Social Movements and Ethical Global Governance”
- Elisabeth Naima Mikkelsen, Visiting Scholar, SCANCOR at the Weatherhead Center. Associate Professor, Department of Organization, Copenhagen Business School. “Formation of Rape Myths in Policing”
- Chair: Frank Dobbin, Director, SCANCOR at the Weatherhead Center. Henry Ford II Professor of the Social Sciences; Chair, Department of Sociology, Harvard University.
Wednesday, October 18
Featuring the Program on US-Japan Relations
“Globalization and Economic Security in Asia and Beyond”
- Matthew Brummer, Policy Innovations Fellow, Program on US-Japan Relations. Assistant Professor, Science, Technology and Innovation Policy Program, National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS). "Threats, Alliances, and the Securitization of Japan’s National Innovation System"
- Jemma Kim, Visiting Scholar, Program on US-Japan Relations. Professor, School of Global Japanese Studies, Meiji University. “Japan’s Geopolitical Strategy and Trade Dynamics in the Asia-Pacific Region”
- Asei Ito, Visiting Scholar, Program on US-Japan Relations. Associate Professor, Institute of Social Science, The University of Tokyo. “Xi Jinping’s Effect on Firms, Markets, and Security”
- Moderator: Christina L. Davis, Director, Program on US-Japan Relations. Edwin O. Reischauer Professor of Japanese Politics, Department of Government, Harvard University.
Wednesday, November 1
Featuring the Weatherhead Research Cluster on Business and Government
“Precarious Ties: Business and the State in Authoritarian Asia”
- Meg Elizabeth Rithmire, F. Warren McFarlan Associate Professor of Business Administration, Business, Government, and the International Economy Unit, Harvard Business School.
- Chair: Jeffry A. Frieden, Chair, Weatherhead Research Cluster on Business and Government. Stanfield Professor of International Peace, Department of Government, Harvard University.
Wednesday, November 15
Featuring the Graduate Student Associates Program
“Educating for an Uncertain Future”
- Elena Ayala-Hurtado, Graduate Student Associate; Weatherhead Center Dissertation Fellow. PhD Candidate, Department of Sociology, Harvard University. “The Expectational Liminality of Insecure College Graduates in Spain and the United States”
- Julia Smith Coyoli, Graduate Student Associate; Weatherhead Center Dissertation Fellow. PhD Candidate, Department of Government, Harvard University. “The Politics of Student Learning in Mexico”
- Jingyun Dai, Graduate Student Associate. PhD Candidate, Department of Sociology, Harvard University. “Gender, Class Origin, and Imagined Futures in Elite Higher Education in China”
- Orelia Jonathan, Graduate Student Associate. PhD Candidate, Harvard Graduate School of Education. “What, How, and Why We Teach: Teachers as Makers of Peace in South Sudan”
- Chair: Erez Manela, Director, Graduate Student Programs. Francis Lee Higginson Professor of History, Department of History, Harvard University.
Wednesday, November 29
Featuring STAR Lab
“Good Company: The Harvard STAR Lab and Businesses Creating Positive Social and Environmental Impacts”
- Michael J. Hiscox, Director; STAR Lab. Clarence Dillon Professor of International Affairs, Department of Government, Harvard University.
- Saika Belal, Postdoctoral Fellow, STAR Lab. PhD Candidate, Department of Agriculture & Resource Economics, University of California, Berkeley.
- Nurit Nobel, Postdoctoral Fellow, STAR Lab. PhD, Department of Marketing and Strategy, Stockholm School of Economics.
Spring 2024
Wednesday, January 24
Featuring The Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies
“Mexican Drug Wars: Origins and Transformations”
- Marco Alcocer, Academy Scholar, The Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies. PhD, Department of Political Science, University of California, San Diego. “Cutting Hydra’s Head: Leadership Decapitation and Cartel Fragmentation in Mexico”
- Joel Herrera, Academy Scholar, The Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies. PhD, Department of Sociology, University of California, Los Angeles. “Building States and Illicit Markets in Postrevolutionary Mexico”
- Moderator: George Soroka, Executive Officer, The Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies.
Wednesday, February 7
Featuring the Weatherhead Scholars Program
“Climate and Commodities”
- Asmaa Elgamal, Hicham Alaoui Postdoctoral Fellow, Weatherhead Scholars Program. PhD, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “Land as Commodity and Colonial Legacy: Knowledge, Environment, and Property in Morocco”
- Angélica Márquez-Osuna, Postdoctoral Fellow, Weatherhead Scholars Program. PhD, Department of History of Science, Harvard University. “Honey and Bees in the Tropics”
- Diego F. Osorio, Fellow, Weatherhead Scholars Program. Senior Advisor, Government of Canada; PhD Candidate, Utrecht University; Adjunct Professor, Adler University. "Climate Change, Peace, and Security: A Case for a Full Interdisciplinary and Interinstitutional Approach"
- Moderator: Walid Hammam, Director, Weatherhead Scholars Program.
Wednesday, February 21
Featuring the Canada Program
“Imagining Canada: Indigenous Relations and Colonial Institutions”
- Anna Christensen, Graduate Research Fellow, Canada Program. PhD Candidate, Department of History of Science, Harvard University. “Narrativizing Indigeneity and Extinction in Nineteenth Century Newfoundland”
- Daniel Frim, Graduate Research Fellow, Canada Program. PhD Candidate, Committee on the Study of Religion, Harvard University. “Describing Personal Names in Early-Twentieth-Century Kwak’wala”
- Aden Solway, Graduate Research Fellow, Canada Program. PhD Candidate, Department of Art, Film, and Visual Studies, Harvard University. “The Cultural Politics of Decolonization (Canadian and Indigenous Museologies)”
- Moderator: Judith Ellen Brunton, William Lyon Mackenzie King Postdoctoral Fellow, Canada Program. PhD, Department for the Study of Religion, University of Toronto.
- Chair: Antonia Maioni, William Lyon Mackenzie King Visiting Professor of Canadian Studies, Canada Program; Affiliate, Weatherhead Research Cluster on Comparative Inequality and Inclusion. Professor, Department of Equity, Ethics and Policy, School of Population and Global Health, McGill University.
Wednesday, March 6
Featuring the Weatherhead Research Cluster on Migration
“Sheltering Migrants in Boston: Perspectives from Healthcare and Local Government on the Challenges and Opportunities for Solidarity”
- Margaret Sullivan, Instructor; Health and Human Rights Fellow, François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
- Monique Tú Nguyen, Executive Director, Mayor’s Office for Immigrant Advancement, City of Boston.
- Moderator: 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.
- Moderator: Sarah Dryden-Peterson, Chair, Weatherhead Research Cluster on Migration. Director, REACH; Professor of Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Wednesday, March 20
Featuring the Weatherhead Research Cluster on Climate Change
“Introducing the Weatherhead Research Cluster on Climate Change: Establishing an Academic Pipeline in the Social Sciences”
- Tridevi Chakma, PhD Candidate, PhD in Public Policy Program, Harvard Kennedy School. “The Causes and Consequences of Urban Heat Islands”
- Aleksandra Conevska, PhD Candidate, Department of Government, Harvard University. “Do Green Parties Affect Environmental Outcomes?”
- Daniel Alain Evrard, PhD Candidate, Department of Sociology, Harvard University; James M. and Cathleen D. Stone Fellow in Inequality and Wealth Concentration, Harvard Kennedy School. “‘An Island of Sanity in a Sea of Lunacy’ Oil Production, Carbon Leakage, and the Rise of Petro-Environmentalism”
- Elizabeth Thom, PhD Candidate in Government and Social Policy, Department of Government, Harvard University; PhD in Social Policy Program and Malcolm Wiener PhD Scholar in Poverty and Justice, Harvard Kennedy School. “Social Programs and the Political Consequences of Extractive Industry Dominance: Evidence from Central Appalachia”
- Moderator: Dustin Tingley, Chair, Weatherhead Research Cluster on Climate Change. Professor of Government, Department of Government, Harvard University.
Wednesday, April 3
Featuring the Weatherhead Research Cluster on Comparative Inequality and Inclusion
“Processes of Inclusion/Exclusion Compared”
- Luca Carbone, Affiliate, Weatherhead Research Cluster on Comparative Inequality and Inclusion. Fellow in Sociology, Department of Sociology, Harvard University; PhD Candidate, School for Mass Communication Research, KU Leuven, Belgium. “Adolescents’ Meritocratic Beliefs and Their Favorite Music: Pathways toward Internalization&rdquo
- Camille Hamidi, Affiliate, Weatherhead Research Cluster on Comparative Inequality and Inclusion; Visiting Scholar, Weatherhead Scholars Program (spring 2024). Professor, Political Science, University of Lyon. “Non Profits Promoting Equal Opportunity in French Education: What Is Their Success a Case Of?&rdquo
- Riva Kastoryano, Affiliate, Weatherhead Research Cluster on Comparative Inequality and Inclusion. Visiting Professor of Sociology, Department of Sociology, Harvard University; Research Director, National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS); Professor, SciencesPo Paris. “Transnationalism: A Challenge to Multiculturalism”
- Mari Sanchez, Affiliate, Weatherhead Research Cluster on Comparative Inequality and Inclusion; Graduate Student Affiliate. PhD Candidate, Department of Sociology, Harvard University. “Non-White Meta-Categories in the United States and United Kingdom: Unpacking the Language of Racial Difference and Justice”
- Moderator: 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.