Current Events
WIRA Conference: The Cold War of the Middle East — 10/5 & 6
The Second Annual Wesleyan International Relations Associations Conference:
“The Cold War of the Middle East: Saudi Arabia-Iran Relations”
Since tensions have been escalating recently between the two nations, with notable US involvement, this is particularly timely topic. From nuclear concerns to religious conflict, this topic features multiple facets that cannot be understood alone. Though the conflict is a complex one, we hope this day long conference will shed light onto the region’s politics and offer some insight into possibilities for conflict resolution or into the plausibility of military action.
Schedule of Events:
Friday, Oct. 5
Zikrayat, Kickoff concert: 8:00-10:00pm
Saturday, Oct. 6
Registration begins at 12 pm
Opening speaker and panel discussion: 1:00-4:30pm
Keynote address by Robin Wright: 5:00-6:00pm
Social Justice Conference — April 21! Register now to participate or present a session!
Social Justice Leadership Conference:
The Social Justice Leadership Conference (SJLC) is a collaborative effort which 
provides a space for students, student groups, community members, alumni, faculty, and staff to discuss social justice and to learn and refine leadership skills. SJLC seeks to empower its participants to create change by applying the skills and knowledge acquired during the conference.
Students, student groups, alumni, community members, faculty and staff facilitate sessions in their area of interest or expertise. Sessions focus on leadership skills that may be applied to any social movement and on the many manifestations of injustice and how participants can be involved in creating change. SJLC provides participants with resources and opportunities for engagement on campus, in Middletown, in Connecticut and across the globe.
Wesleyan Forum for International Development! — Sat., Feb. 18
The Wesleyan Forum for International Development
Saturday, February 18, 2012 9:30 am – 5 pm
Check-in table at 41 Wyllys.
Attendance is free. No registration is required. Come and go as you please.
Free breakfast, Iguanas Ranas lunch and book for those who arrive by 10 am.
Come engage in a dialogue about what works and what doesn’t in international development. Through lectures, panel discussions and workshops with student groups, you will hear from researchers, alumni and students about their successes and challenges in fields that include public health, education and technology.
For students who have interned, volunteered or worked internationally–or for those interested in doing so in the future–this Forum is a space for you to think critically about how to do so in a way that makes a positive impact. It will connect you to resources for getting involved, including opportunities for internships, fellowships and research. For the complete schedule with locations, click here. Speakers include:
Academics
– David Rice (Executive Director of the NYU Development Research Institute)
– Nafisa Halim (Assistant Professor at BU’s Center for Global Health & Development, researches women’s political empowerment, health and education)
– Rema Hanna (Assistant Professor at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, researches how to improve the provision of services to the poor in developing countries)
– Jenny Ruducha (Research Scientist at BU’s Center for Global Health & Development, conducts impact evaluations of interventions in public health)
Alumni
– Amir Hasson ’98 (Founder of United Villages, a social enterprise that empowers the rural poor in India by providing products, services and information)
– Nathanael Goldberg ’97 (Policy director at Innovations for Poverty Action, which pioneered the use of randomized control trials to test the effectiveness of interventions in development)
– Connor Brannen ’10 (Policy analyst at the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab at MIT)
– Liana Woskie ’10 (Global Health Corps fellow at Partners in Health)
Students
– Ali Chaudry ’12 (Founder of Possibilities Pakistan, which increases access to higher education by providing free college counseling to Pakistani secondary students)
– Tasmiha Khan ’12 (Founder of Brighter Dawns, which increases access to clean water and sanitation in Bangladesh)
– Kennedy Odede ’12, (Founder of Shining Hope for Communities, which combats gender inequality and extreme poverty by linking free schools for girls with social services in Kenya)
– Raghu Appasani ’12 (Founder of the MINDS Foundation, which raises awareness about mental illness and provides healthcare in India)
For more information, visit the Forum’s Facebook page.
This event is sponsored by the Wesleyan Student Assembly, the Department of Government, the Office of Academic Affairs, Wesleyan World Wednesdays and the Patricelli Center for Social Entrepreneurship.
WIRA: “Deciphering Pakistan and U.S.-Pakistan Relations” — 9/30-10/1 — limited seating, get tickets now!
The Wesleyan International Relations Association invites you to its 2011 Conference,
“Deciphering Pakistan and US-Pakistan Relations”
organized in collaboration with
Wesleyan South Asian Studies Faculty and Wesleyan Pakistan Flood Relief Initiative.
The conference includes panel discussions, a key note talk,
a sufi-rock concert by Junoon and a movie screening of Ramchand Pakistani.
FREE TO ATTEND (Sept 30 – Oct 1).
Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT.
To get more details or to register, visit our website at www.wirac.org.
Limited seats available
The conference aims to increase understanding and awareness about Pakistan from its culture to its politics, and US-Pak relations. The conference’s speakers are among the top commentators, officials and scholars on Pakistan and US-Pakistan relations, and the event will be open to the students, faculty and the larger public.
Panelists and guest speakers include:
– Shahid Javed Burki (Former Vice President of World Bank and Former Finance Minister of Pakistan)
– Stanley Wolpert (Emeritus professor of History in University of California, LA, focuses on political and intellectual history of modern south asia)
– Najam Sethi (the editor-in-chief of The Friday Times and of Geo News in Pakistan. He is the only Asian journalist to receive three international press freedom awards in a decade).
– Ambassador Howard B. Schaffer (Former Ambassador of Pakistan, India and Bangladesh; spent 36 years of foreign service career focusing on US relations with South Asia)
– Asim Khwaja (the Sumitomo-FASID Professor of International Finance and Development at the Harvard Kennedy School and the faculty chair of the MPA/ID program).
– Humeira Iqtidar (Research fellow at the Centre of South Asian Studies and at Cambridge University. She focuses on secularism, feminism and Islamism).
– Najeeb Ghauri (the founder, Chairman and CEO of NetSol Technologies, Inc, and Vice President of US-Pak Business Council)
Social Events:
– Junoon Concert by Salman Ahmed. Junoon is a sufi rock band from Pakistan and is considered one of Pakistan’s most successful band; the Q magazine regarded them as “One of the biggest bands in the world” and The New York Times called Junoon “the U2 of Pakistan.” Ahmed is the pioneer of Sufi rock, author of Rock n Roll Jihad and UN ambassador for peace (Sample Music: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQQLeB7efog)
– Ramchand Pakistani Screening and Q&A with director, Mehreen Jabbar. Ramchand Pakistani is a Pakistani film that tells a true story about a boy who inadvertently crosses the border between Pakistan and India and the following ordeal that his family has to go through. The film has won the Audience award at Fribourg International Film Festival, Switzerland. (Trailer: http://www.ramchandpakistani.com/Preview.htm)
Seats are limited. So, please register through the Registration Form.
If you want to buy the tickets for the Concert, Lunch and/or Dinner with the speakers, please go through the Wesleyan Box Office, either in person at the Usdan Univeristy Center or online at http://purchase.tickets.com/buy/TicketPurchase?orgid=24317. The tickets for the concert, lunch, and dinner are titled respectively, Junoon, Pakistani/Indian Lunch, and Dinner/Discussion With the Speakers. Tickets are limited, so please make your purchase soon.
For the schedule, visit: http://wirac.org/schedule.php. Proceeds from the conference will go to Wesleyan Pakistan Flood Relief Initiative. For more details, please contact our team at wira.conf@gmail.com.
Regards, Wesleyan International Relations Association
PTIR Talk: Prof. F. Christine Fair on Lashkar-e-Taiba & Pakistan — 4/7
Dr. F. Christine Fair, Georgetown University
“Lashkar-e-Taiba and Pakistan”
Thurs., April 7, 2011 4:30-6:00 p.m. PAC 001
Reception to Follow
Dr. Fair is an assistant professor in the Center for Peace and Security Studies (CPASS), within Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. Previously, she has served as a senior political scientist with the RAND Corporation, a political officer to the United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan in Kabul, and a senior research associate in USIP’s Center for Conflict Analysis and Prevention. She is also a senior fellow with the Counter Terrorism Center at West Point. Dr. Fair holds a B.S. in Biological Chemistry, an M.A. in Public Policy, an M.A in South Asian Languages and Civilizations, and a Ph.D. in South Asian Languages and Civilizations, all from the University of Chicago. Her research focuses upon political and military affairs in South Asia. She has authored, co-authored, and co-edited several books including Treading Softly on Sacred Ground: Counterinsurgency Operations on Sacred Space (Oxford University Press, 2008), The Madrassah Challenge: Militancy and Religious Education in Pakistan (USIP, 2008), Fortifying Pakistan: The Role of U.S. Internal Security Assistance (USIP, 2006); among others, and has written numerous peer-reviewed articles covering a range of security issues in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. She is a member of the International Institute of Strategic Studies, the Council on Foreign Relations, and serves on the editorial board of Studies in Conflict and Terrorism.
This event is sponsored by the Allbritton Center for the Study of Public Life and the Program on Terrorism and Insurgency Research. For more information, please contact Erica Chenoweth at echenoweth@wesleyan.edu. Click here for information on future PTIR Speaker Series events.
Cambridge v. Wesleyan Debate 3/31 8 p.m.
The Cambridge Debates
Thursday, March 31, 2011 8 p.m. Daniel Family Commons
The Cambridge Union Society from Cambridge, England is the oldest student union in the world. They join forces with Wesleyan’s Woodrow Wilson Debate Society to debate the rise of facebook. Don’t miss out on this wildly entertaining program!
Free Admission. For more information call x2460
The Wesleyan Media Project: Post-Election Wrap-Up and Forum 12/3
The Wesleyan Media Project’s Post-Election Wrap-Up and Public Forum
Friday, December 3 at 1 p.m. in Usdan 108
Event is free and open to the public (though seating is limited)
Welcome and Project Overview
“Interest Groups & Citizens United” – Professor Michael Franz, Bowdoin College and Wesleyan Media Project Co-Director
“Advertising Trends in 2010” – Professor Travis Ridout, Washington State University and Wesleyan Media Project Co-Director
“Implications for 2012” – Professor Elvin Lim, Wesleyan University, Department of Government
Question and Answer Period