Putting Courage at the Center: Reflections on Gandhi w/ Uday Mehta
2015-10-21 18:00 - 19:30 (America/New_York)
The Sixth Annual Carol Breckenridge Memorial Lecture in South Asian History:The India China Institute is pleased to co-sponsor a public talk by Professor Uday Mehta titled “Putting Courage at the Center: Reflections on Gandhi.”

What might it mean to place courage and related notions such as a willingness to die at the center of one’s conception of an ethical life, both for individuals and collectivities? In many ways this pursuit was the informing creed of Gandhi’s life and the link between his ethical and political philosophy. For Gandhi, courage had a centrality that trumped even his opposition to war and the British Empire. It also gave a distinctive hue to the specific connection that Gandhi identified between courage and democracy – a connection that gave no special precedence to familiar political conceptions of democracy.

Uday Singh Mehta is a political theorist whose work encompasses a wide spectrum of philosophical traditions. He has worked on the relationship between freedom and imagination, liberalism’s complex link with colonialism and empire, and more recently with issues of war, peace and non-violence. He is the author of two books, The Anxiety of Freedom: Imagination and Individuality in the Political Thought of John Locke (Cornell University Press, 1992), and Liberalism and Empire: Nineteenth Century British Liberal Thought (University of Chicago Press, 1999). In 2002, he was named a Carnegie Foundation scholar. He is currently completing a book on the moral and political thought of M.K. Gandhi. He was an undergraduate at S warthmore College, where he studied mathematics and philosophy. He received his Ph.D. in political philosophy from Princeton University. He has taught at Princeton University, Cornell, MIT, the University of Chicago and the University of Pennsylvania.The talk will be followed by a reception. RSVP through eventbrite is welcome but not necessary to attend.

Global Warming and the Rise of Asia w/ Amitav Ghosh & Prasenjit Duara
2016-02-12 17:30 - 19:30
Global Warming & the Rise of Asia w/ Amitav Ghosh and Prasenjit Duara

The India China Institute engages two renowned intellectuals – Amitav Ghosh and Prasenjit Duara – in a conversation on climate change and capitalism in Asia.

Opening remarks by The New School President David van Zandt.

Conversation moderated by ICI Research Scholar and NYU History Professor David Ludden.

Friday, Feb 12th, 20165:30 -7:30 PM

63 Fifth Ave, Tishman AuditoriumUniversity Center, The New School

SOLD OUT

Watch Livestream – starts at 5:30 pm EST

Amitav Ghosh

Empire and the Anthropocene: Asia’s place in the genealogy of global warming

In accounts of the Anthropocene, and of the present climate crisis, capitalism is usually the pivot on which the narrative turns. But this narrative overlooks a driver of history that is of equal importance: Empire and imperialism. The relation between capitalism and empire is not, and has never been, a simple one: in relation to global warming the imperatives of capital and empire have often pushed in different directions, producing some unexpected and counter-intuitive results. To look at the climate crisis through the prism of Empire is to recognize that the continent of Asia is conceptually critical to every aspect of global warming: it’s causes, it’s philosophical and historical implications, and to the possibility of a global response to it.

Amitav Ghosh was born in Calcutta and grew up in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. He is the author of one book of non-fiction, a collection of essays and eight novels, of which the most recent is Flood of Fire (Book 3 in the Ibis Trilogy). His books have won prizes in India, Europe and Myanmar and he has been awarded honorary degrees by the Sorbonne, Paris, and by Queens College, New York.

Prasenjit Duara

Network Asia and the Problem of Sustainability

The December 2015 Climate Change Summit (COP21) was a landmark event for the global recognition of the planetary crisis of sustainability. But as is well known there are significant gaps between recognition and implementation of the largely voluntary commitments; the latter depends upon a range of monumental transformations not only in the market and technological management of carbon emissions but also notions of sovereignty that will have to allow for extra-national monitoring and changes in expectations and life-styles.

The same globalization process which has brought about this recognition had in the last decade also accelerated capitalist regionalization of the world, including the re-connection of Asian societies, especially around China, India and Southeast Asia, particularly ASEAN. While policy makers intended the integration of Asia to enhance capitalist competitiveness, the new or renewed connections will have to be mobilized equally to address problems of regional and global sustainability. What are the forces working for sustainability in the region and how can they be enhanced?

Prasenjit Duara is the Oscar Tang Chair of East Asian Studies at Duke University. Born and educated in India, he received his PhD in Chinese history from Harvard University. He was Professor of History and East Asian Studies at University of Chicago (1991-2008) and Raffles Professor and Director of Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore (2008-2015). His latest book is The Crisis of Global Modernity: Asian Traditions and a Sustainable Future (Cambridge 2014).

Co-sponsors: Global Studies and Environmental Studies at Eugene Lang College, The Center for Public Scholarship, South Asia – New York University, Baruch College – CUNY.

e-Waste Tsunami
2016-03-05 - 2016-03-26
e-waste Tsunami

Sheila C. Johnson Design CenterArnold and Sheila Aronson Galleries

March 5 – March 26, 2016Opening reception: Friday, March 4, 6:00-8:00 p.m.

Behind the virtual worlds conjured by our computers and mobile phones is the very real world of electronic trash—e-waste: where electronic equipment goes to die. Tracing the journey from wealthy desktops to the poorest corners of the world, this multi-media exhibition defines new ways to see and connect the global ecosystems behind the creation, use and disposal of products and services in today’s technologically connected world. Understanding the interrelation of the ecosystems is key to the design of new products and services that will address and alleviate the e-waste problem. Can industrial design, which plays a major role in creating this problem, be part of its solution?

The exhibition features documentary photographs of those who work with e-waste on a daily basis from the frontline in Delhi, India, along with data visualizations revealing the scale of the problem. Real data and “exploded view” models explore the nature of product manufacture and assembly. Exhibition visitors are introduced to the physicality of electronic products and the end of life cycle of manufactured objects, raising the question – Why are we currently not designing for this occurrence?

This exhibition is a joint work of the students of Parsons’ School of Constructed Environments, Industrial Design MFA creating exploded view assemblies which make up a product, and STUDIOFYNN’s photographic documentary and data visualization. The assemblies paired with photo documentary and data analysis inspire urgency around creating new approaches to design and consumption, international public policy and human rights advocacy. Comprehensive solutions to this problem will come about when all stakeholders – legislators, designers, policy makers, NGOs, corporations and last but not least, citizens take responsibility and participate.

Co-sponsored by the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center, Parsons School of Constructed Environments, and the India China Institute at The New School. In-kind support for printing generously provided by Duggal.

RELATED PROGRAMS:

e-waste Tsunami: Design & Policy Response – Panel Discussion Friday, March 11, 2016, 6:00-8:00 p.m.Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Auditorium, 66 Fifth Avenue

This panel brings together designers, policy experts, and supply-chain participants to raise e-waste awareness and imagine best practice scenarios. The immediate audiences are those who are involved in the design and manufacture of consumer and electronic products, while the secondary audience is very broad and covers those concerned with the broader environmental and social issues around manufactured goods and consumerism. This will be of interest to anyone who wishes to expand their view on the eco systems around the products of technology we consume today.

Introduction: Brian McGrath, Dean, Parsons School of Constructed Environments

Interlocutor: Rama Chorpash, Director MFA Industrial Design, Parsons

Panelists:

Shaun Fynn, CEO and Creative Director, Studio Fynn
Amita Singh D.Sc CFO and Director of Quantitative Research, Studio Fynn
John S. Shegerian, Co-founder, Chairman and CEO of Electronic Recyclers International (ERI) and Urban Mining
Prasad Boradkar, Professor, Industrial Design, Senior Sustainability Scholar, Arizona State University.

Admission is Free; no tickets or reservations required; seating is first-come, first-served.

Nepal: A Year Since The Earthquake
2016-05-06 18:00 - 19:30
A Discussion on International Crisis Group’s Report

Nepal’s Divisive New Constitution: An Existential Crisis

The International Crisis Group, in partnership with India China Institute (ICI), will present its latest report, “Nepal’s Divisive New Constitution: An Existential Crisis.”
The earthquakes that rocked Nepal in Spring 2015 were followed by a period of political instability linked to a contentious constitution-writing process. Since the constitution was passed last September amid deadly protests, the country’s ethnic, social and political fractures have only deepened. Meanwhile, earthquake relief efforts have also been hampered by political infighting and corruption.
This special event aims to reframe the arguments regarding Nepal’s current political situation and move the discourse in a more productive direction. Panelists will examine the political, legal, and human rights challenges ahead, and recommend options for the international community to engage constructively to prevent further instability.

Discussion Panel:

Anagha Neelakantan, International Crisis Group

Anagha Neelakantan is Crisis Group’s Deputy Asia Program Director, assisting the Program Director in leading research, analysis, policy prescription and advocacy activities of the Asia Program, overseeing and managing field staff, while ensuring timely communications between field and headquarters, spread across three sub-regional projects: South Asia, Southeast Asia and Northeast Asia. Anagha follows in particular political transitions including peace processes, ethnic and other entrenched violent social conflicts, constitution-making, human rights, demobilisation and security sector reform, governance issues, India’s foreign policy and the role of geopolitics in conflict resolution. Anagha worked in Nepal from 2000-2013, as Crisis Group’s senior analyst for Nepal, an analyst with the United Nations Mission in Nepal, and as executive editor of the Nepali Times weekly. In 2014, she worked in Myanmar with the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue.

Ashish Pradhan, International Crisis Group

Ashish Pradhan is Crisis Group’s UN Advocacy and Research Analyst and is based in New York where he supports the organisation’s advocacy at the United Nations. He assists in providing detailed analyses of developments at the Security Council to ensure adequate reflection of UN perspectives in Crisis Group publications. He also supports advocacy with UN officials, NGOs, and diplomats from a variety of UN member-states on country-specific crises and policy issues covered by Crisis Group. And he conducts research on thematic issues covered in Crisis Group reports, including on jihadi militancy in South Asia. He previously worked for Crisis Group’s Kathmandu office from 2010-2013 while analyzing Nepal’s peace and constitution-writing processes with a particular focus on identity politics, minority rights, and the federalism debate.

Richard Bennett, Amnesty International (formerly with OHCHR-Nepal)

Richard Bennett joined Amnesty International in March 2014 as Asia-Pacific Director and from July 2015 has been Head of Amnesty’s New York Office. Previously he served with the United Nations in senior human rights posts, heading the human rights components of peacekeeping operations in Sierra Leone, Timor-Leste, Afghanistan and South Sudan. From 2007 to 2010 Richard was the Representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Nepal. He has also been Chief of Staff for the Secretary-General’s Panel of Experts on Sri Lanka and Special Adviser to the Assistant Secretary General for Human Rights in New York. A citizen of New Zealand and the UK, Richard worked for a decade at the NZ Human Rights Commission before joining the UN.

Rohan Edrisinha, UN Department of Political Affairs (formerly with UNDP in Nepal)

Rohan Edrisinha is a Senior Political Officer and Constitutional Advisor in the Policy and Mediation Division of the Department of Political Affairs of the U.N. He taught at the Faculty of Law, University of Colombo from 1986 to 2011. He served as the constitutional advisor to UNDP Nepal and the head of its constitution support programme from 2011 to 2014. In 2015, he functioned as an independent consultant on constitutional reform and federalism in Myanmar, and as a governance advisor to UNDP Sri Lanka. He taught at the Faculty of Law, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, in 1995 and was a visiting fellow at Harvard University (2005) and the University of Toronto (2009). He was a founder Director and Head of the Legal and Constitutional Unit of the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA), Sri Lanka, from 1996 to 2010.

Moderated By:

Ashok Gurung, India China Institute

Ashok Gurung is the senior director of the India China Institute (ICI) and is Professor of Practice in the Julien J. Studley Graduate Program in International Affairs at The New School. A founding director of ICI, he is responsible for establishing and the overall development, management, and coordination of ICI programs and projects in India, China, and the United States. A native of Nepal, he has taught several courses on development management, political and social issues in Nepal at the New School. Ashok has over twenty years of international development experience as an educator, researcher, manager, grant-maker, policy analyst, activist and training facilitator with civil society groups, academic institutions, foundations and multi-lateral organizations, and governments worldwide. Among various roles, he was the program officer for the International Fellowships Program, the largest global leadership initiative ($280 million) of the Ford Foundation.

Public Talk & Book Launch: China's Future
2016-05-09 18:00 - 20:00
Watch Here

Join India China Institute for a discussion on what the future holds for China with David Shambaugh.

Book Description

China’s future is arguably the most consequential question in global affairs. Having enjoyed unprecedented levels of growth, China is at a critical juncture in the development of its economy, society, polity, national security, and international relations. The direction the nation takes at this turning point will determine whether it stalls or continues to develop and prosper.

Will China be successful in implementing a new wave of transformational reforms that could last decades and make it the world’s leading superpower? Or will its leaders shy away from the drastic changes required because the regime’s power is at risk? If so, will that lead to prolonged stagnation or even regime collapse? Might China move down a more liberal or even democratic path? Or will China instead emerge as a hard, authoritarian and aggressive superstate?

In this new book, David Shambaugh argues that these potential pathways are all possibilities – but they depend on key decisions yet to be made by China’s leaders, different pressures from within Chinese society, as well as actions taken by other nations. Assessing these scenarios and their implications, he offers a thoughtful and clear study of China’s future for all those seeking to understand the country’s likely trajectory over the coming decade and beyond.

About David Shambaugh

David Shambaugh is is an internationally recognized authority and author on contemporary China and the international relations of Asia, with a strong interest in the European Union and transatlantic issues. He is currently the Director of the China Policy Program and a Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at George Washington University. Professor Shambaugh is a prolific author, having published more than 30 books and 300 articles.

Watch the video of David Shambaugh’s talk below.

Social Justice, Peace, & Sustainable Futures - ICSD Closing Session
2016-09-22 18:00 - 20:00 | Tishman Auditorium, The New School, 63 Fifth Ave Room U100, New York, NY, 10003, USA
Social Justice, Peace, & Sustainable Futures

Closing Session of the International Conference on Sustainable Development (ICSD)

Thursday, September 22nd, 6-8 pm63 Fifth Avenue, Tishman Auditorium (Room 100), New York

RSVP NOW (Limited Seating)

The Earth Institute, Columbia University; the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN); the Global Association of Master’s in Development Practice Programs (MDP); and India China Institute (ICI), The New School are partnering on the Fourth Annual International Conference on Sustainable Development (ICSD) on September 21 & 22, 2016. The New School will host the closing session of the conference, entitled Social Justice, Peace, & Sustainable Futures, on September 22, from 6 pm to 8 pm.
In 2015 United Nations member states adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the most ambitious and encompassing agenda to date. The SDGs call for the eradication of poverty and hunger (SDGs 1 and 2), the achievement of universal healthcare and education (SDGs 3 and 4), sustainable cities that support resilient communities (SDG 11), and an end to conflict and the promotion of peace and justice (SDG 16). The closing session of ICSD will focus on the theme of SDGs 16 and its interconnectedness with other SDG priorities. Speakers will discuss how the promotion of peace and good governance globally are critical to achieving poverty eradication, universal health care and education, sustainable cities, and the preservation of ecosystem services.
Program Agenda

5:15 Doors Open, Seating begins

6:00 Welcome, David E. Van Zandt, President, The New School

6:10 Opening Remarks, Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Director, Sustainable Development Solutions Network and Director, Center for Sustainable Development, Columbia University
Professor Sachs will thank ICI, The New School for this wonderful partnership. He will talk broadly about the unprecedented agenda of the SDGs, especially their commitment to equality and social justice, and the role of good governance in strong institutions in their realization.

6:20 Video Message from President Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia
In the President’s video message he discussed the recent progress towards peace between the federal government and the FARC in Colombia, and also Colombia’s strong commitment to the SDGs.

6:30 Keynote Address, John Cardinal Onaiyekan, Archbishop of Abuja
The Archbishop will discuss inter-faith partnerships for peace, how peace is fundamental to the achievement of all the SDGs, and how faith communities can come together to accelerate progress on the SDGs.

6:50 Discussants
Each person will make brief (5 minute) remarks in response to the earlier presentations and the event themes (social justice, peace, and sustainable futures)

Yves Leterme, Secretary General, UN IDEA; Former Prime Minister of Belgium
Abigail Moy, Director, Global Legal Empowerment Network, Namati
Mary Watson, Executive Dean for Public Engagement, The New School

7:05 Expanded Discussion
Prof. Sachs and Cardinal Onaiyekan will each have 5 minutes to respond to the discussants.

7:15 Discussion, Moderated by Ashok Gurung, Director, India China Institute, The New School
The moderator will put a few questions to the five panelists, and then open up the floor for questions from the audience.

Please direct all press inquiries to info@ic-sd.org. You can also follow ICSD on Twitter, connect with ICSD on Facebook.

Participant Biographies
David E. Van Zandt became The New School’s president in 2011. He has advanced a vision for The New School that elevates the university’s core values of creativity and social engagement and connects its strengths in design, social research, liberal arts, and performance. He has led the development of strategic initiatives to deepen The New School’s commitment to student success, global education, new and distinctive educational models, and institutional effectiveness and assessment.
David has spoken and written widely on higher education, including regular articles in the Huffington Post on topics such as college accountability, universities and the creative economy, and the importance of education that fosters innovation and the courage to bring about positive change in the world. He has spoken on panels at the United Nations, the Taihu World Culture Forum, and the World Summit on Innovation and Entrepreneurship. He holds an AB from Princeton University, a JD from Yale Law School, and a PhD in sociology from the London School of Economics.
Jeffrey D. Sachs is a world-renowned professor of economics, leader in sustainable development, senior UN advisor, bestselling author, and syndicated columnist whose monthly newspaper columns appear in more than 100 countries. He is the co-recipient of the 2015 Blue Planet Prize, the leading global prize for environmental leadership. He has twice been named among Time Magazine’s 100 most influential world leaders. He was called by the New York Times, “probably the most important economist in the world,” and by Time Magazine “the world’s best known economist.” A recent survey by The Economist Magazine ranked Professor Sachs as among the world’s three most influential living economists of the past decade.
Professor Sachs served as the Director of the Earth Institute from 2002 to 2016. He was appointed University Professor at Columbia University in 2016, and also serves as Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development, and Professor of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University. He is Special Advisor to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the Sustainable Development Goals, and previously advised both UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the Millennium Development Goals. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis in Laxenburg, Austria. Sachs is Director of both the Center for Sustainable Development, and the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network under the auspices of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
H.E. John Cardinal Onaiyekan is the Archbishop of Abuja, Nigeria, and a Co-Moderator of the World Council and Co-Chair of the African Council of Religious Leaders at Religions for Peace. His Eminence Onaiyekan was elevated to Cardinal on 24 November 2012. He was born on 29 January 1944 in Kabba, Nigeria. He received a licentiate in theology, a licentiate in Sacred Scriptures and a doctorate in theology from Pontifical Urbanian University. Cardinal Onaiyekan was ordained in 1969 at Sacred Heart Church in Kabba. He served in a variety of posts as a priest before he was ordained titular bishop of Tunusuda and auxiliary bishop of Ilorian on 6 January 1983. He was later appointed Bishop of Ilorin in 1984 and then Coadjutor Bishop of Abuja in 1990. Cardinal Onaiyekan became Bishop of Abuja on 28 September 1992 and Archbishop of Abuja on 26 March 1994. Cardinal Onaiyekan has served as President of the Christian Association of Nigeria and President of the Catholics Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria. He has also served as President of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar. He currently serves as a Member of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith and as a Member of the Presidential Committee of the Pontificial Council for the Family. Cardinal Onaiyekan was named Paz Christi International’s 2012 Peace Laureate.
Yves Leterme, a Belgian national, is the Secretary-General of the Stockholm-based intergovernmental organization International IDEA. Prior to International IDEA, Leterme served as Prime Minister of Belgium (2007 to 2011) and then as Deputy Secretary General of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Paris (2011 to 2014).
Before serving as Prime Minister, Leterme held a variety of political posts in Belgium. After starting his career as an Alderman in his home town of Ypres, he became a Member of Parliament in the Chamber of Representatives, Group Chairman and leader of the opposition, Secretary-General and Chairman of the CD&V party, Minister-President and Minister for Agriculture of the Flemish Government, Federal Senator, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of the Budget and Mobility, and Minister of Foreign Affairs. During Leterme’s tenure as Prime Minister, Belgium held the Presidency of the European Union. Leterme has also worked, inter alia, as a deputy auditor at the Belgian Court of Audit and as an administrator at the European Parliament. Leterme, who was born on 6 October 1960, has degrees in Law and in Political Sciences from the University of Ghent.
Abigail Moy is Director of the Global Legal Empowerment Network at Namati. Abigail has worked with access to justice programs in Africa, Latin America, and South Asia, in cooperation with the World Bank, The Asia Foundation, Fundacion Soros-Guatemala, and Timap for Justice. She previously clerked for the Hon. David H. Coar in the Northern District of Illinois, served in the Office of the Legal Adviser at the United States Department of State, and worked in the New York office of White & Case, LLP. Abigail was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship, graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School, and holds a master’s degree in law and development from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.
Mary R. Watson is the Executive Dean of the New School for Public Engagement. She has served as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs for the Milano School of International Affairs, Management, and Urban Policy, and she was previously the Chair of the graduate programs in Organizational Change and Nonprofit Management. Watson is a recipient of The New School’s Distinguished University Teaching Award. She earned her PhD in organization studies from Vanderbilt University.
Watson serves in leadership roles worldwide to reimagine management, sustainability, and innovation education. Watson is a founding steering committee member of the The New School Social Innovation Initiative, a university-wide initiative that created The New Challenge, the New School’s social innovation ideas competition, as well as The New School Collaboratory, a university wide fund and action research project to study collaboration between the University and its community partners. She has been active in Ashoka University’s global network, a project of more than 20 universities advancing empathy and innovation education. Watson is a member of 50+20, a global network of business school deans and partners reinventing management education worldwide, focusing on sustainability, collaboration, and globally responsible leadership. The 50+20 project, in partnership with the Globally Responsible Leadership Initiative (GLRI, Brussels), Principles for Responsible Leadership (New York, PRME), and the UN Global Compact, has launched a higher education leadership innovation cohort project in four global locations: The New School (January 2014), University of St. Gallen in Switzerland, Oulu University in Finland, and CENTRUM in Peru.

Reflections on the Cultural Revolution - Student Movements in 1968
2016-09-29 16:00 - 18:00
Student Movements, 1968: In Industrialized Countries and in China

A Public Talk by Professor Xu Youyu

Thursday, September 29, 2016 – 4:00-6:00 PM

80 Fifth Ave, Room 529, The New School

This year is the 50th anniversary of the Cultural Revolution in China. To mark this extraordinary period in Chinese history, the India China Institute has organized several events that examine the revolution’s significance and its lasting impact on China and the world. The events will feature leading scholars on the subject, some of whom experienced the revolution firsthand.

Seminar Series:

Reflections of the Cultural Revolution is a seminar series with Xu Youyu, a Professor at the Chinese Academy of Social Science and a current Scholar in Resident at The New School. The cultural revolution was full of violence and suppression, and continues to be shrouded in conspiracy. This seminar series is comprised of four parts, with each part focusing on a different theme, and attempts to address some of the crucial questions concerning the movement. Professor Xu will deal with key controversies surrounding each theme and develop his own positions.

Xu Youyu was a teenager in the Red Guard at the time of the Chinese Revolution and witnessed the Tiananmen Square protest of 1989. As a pro-democracy activist, Xu was one of the most prominent signatories of the 2008 Charter 08 manifesto, which demanded political and humanitarian reforms in China.

This is the third lecture in this series with Professor Xu. This seminar will explore Mao’s motives in launching the Cultural Revolution. Was the movement a political purge under the disguise of anti-revisionism? Was it a fight for social ideals, or simply a power struggle?

To RSVP for the event click here.

Chat & Chai - Information Session 2016
2016-09-30 16:00 - 18:00
ICI’s annual Chat & Chai is an information session featuring Student Fellow presentations from past recipients of our Student Summer Travel & Research Grants. Each year ICI awards six undergraduate or graduate students with $3,000 to support an independent study project, or to defray the cost of attending a New School program in India or China. Students who spent the 2016 summer in India and China will present brief reflections on their work and experiences abroad.

You can read more about the 2016 Student Fellows and see photos of their trips on the Student Blog here.

The information session will provide information regarding the 2017 fellowship, offer information about job opportunities and volunteer positions with the India China Institute, as well as serve as a networking event for anyone interested in India and China. The event is free and open to all New School members.

Light snacks and refreshments will be provided.

Please RSVP for the event at: chatnchai2016.eventbrite.com

Global Himalaya and Sustainable Futures
2016-10-11 17:30 - 19:30
Global Himalaya and Sustainable Futures: A Panel Discussion

Tuesday, October 11th | 5:30-7:30pm

Orozco Room (710), 66 W. 12th St. The New School

Join the India China Institute and the Himalayan Universities Consortium for an engaging panel discussion on the state of the Himalayas and questions of sustainable futures in the region. Panelists will present their insights and experiences from working in the region, and their thoughts on the future of the Himalayas from both a regional and global perspective. An RSVP is required for this event.

Featured speakers include:

Dr. Eklabya Sharma, ICIMOD
Prof. Pasang Sherpa, The New School
Prof. Alton Byers, University of Colorado
Ms. Lisabeth Hilton, Founding Director of The Third Pole
Prof. Mark Turin, University of British Columbia

Reflections on the Chinese Cultural Revolution - Impact and Legacy
2016-10-13 16:00 - 17:30
Impact and Legacy of the Cultural Revolution

A Public Talk by Professor Xu Youyu

Thursday, October 13, 2016

4:00-5:30 PM, Orozco Room

This year is the 50th anniversary of the Cultural Revolution in China. To mark this extraordinary period in Chinese history, the India China Institute has organized several events that examine the revolution’s significance and its lasting impact on China and the world. The events will feature leading scholars on the subject, some of whom experienced the revolution firsthand.

Seminar Series:

Reflections of the Cultural Revolution is a seminar series with Xu Youyu, a Professor at the Chinese Academy of Social Science and a current Scholar in Resident at The New School. The cultural revolution was full of violence and suppression, and continues to be shrouded in conspiracy. This seminar series is comprised of four parts, with each part focusing on a different theme, and attempts to address some of the crucial questions concerning the movement. Professor Xu will deal with key controversies surrounding each theme and develop his own positions.

Xu Youyu was a teenager in the Red Guard at the time of the Chinese Revolution and witnessed the Tiananmen Square protest of 1989. As a pro-democracy activist, Xu was one of the most prominent signatories of the 2008 Charter 08 manifesto, which demanded political and humanitarian reforms in China.

This is the fourth and final lecture in this series with Professor Xu. This seminar will explore whether the Cultural Revolution was a period of great democracy or anti-democracy? Why do Mao’s former loyal followers fight for democracy? Do Chinese today condemn the Cultural Revolution, or view it with some nostalgia?

A link to RSVP for the event will be posted here.

Reflections on the Cultural Revolution: Impact and Legacy of the Cultural Revolution
2016-10-13 16:00 - 17:30
Impact and Legacy of the Cultural RevolutionProfessor Xu Youyu, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and Scholar in Residence, The New School.

Thursday, October 13th, 4:00-5:30 PM80 Fifth Ave (#529), The New School

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the launching of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. The “cultural” revolution was full of violence and suppression, and shrouded in conspiracy. It stunned the world and lasted 10 years. However, the topic has been a taboo in discourse and academic studies in China. The seminar series, attempting to address some of the crucial questions concerning the movement, is comprised of four parts, with each part focusing on a different theme. The speaker will deal with key controversies surrounding each theme and develop his own positions.
Impact and Legacy of the Cultural Revolution: Was the Cultural Revolution a period of great democracy or anti-democracy? Why do Mao’s former loyal followers fight for democracy? Do Chinese today condemn the Cultural Revolution, or view it with some nostalgia?

Triple Play | 3 Films on Kashmir w/ Filmmaker Sarah Singh
2016-10-27 17:45 - 19:00
TRIPLE PLAY: Three films on Kashmir
Film Screening and Panel Discussion on Kashmir
Award-winning filmmaker and New School alumna Sarah Singh
Panel – Mohamed Junaid and Prof. Nitin Sawhney in conversation with Sarah Singh
5:45pm-7pm | Theresa Lang Community Center (55 W 13th St, NY)

All three films are approximately 10 min each.

The Sky Below (segment from her award-winning documentary)
A Million Rivers (segment from her new surrealist fiction work)
Sufiyana: Music of the 21st Century (segment from a new film in progress)

These three completely different film works offers a rare opportunity to construct a cubistic portrait of a people, land, culture, history, and future, thereby expanding the narrative portrayal regarding one of the most disturbing and dangerous regional issues of our time. Kashmir is at the forefront of global politics, like a stick of dynamite between two nuclear nations. The region has been called a ‘frozen conflict’ in which many thousands of lives have been destroyed by a deadly cocktail of internal and external players over decades.
What are the possible outcomes or ways forward in what appears to be an increasingly hostile and desperate clash where ramifications echo across the world, and importantly, resonate immediately across Central, South, and East Asia?
The event is co-sponsored by The India China Institute, the School of Media Studies and the Engage Media Lab at The New School.
Event on Facebook.
About the Filmmaker
Sarah Singh was born in Patiala, Punjab, India and moved to the US in 1974. She is an award-winning filmArtist and has completed two feature-length films, several short film works, and is in the development of a third feature film. Sarah has worked in the film and TV industry for over a decade. Prior to that she exhibited paintings, drawings and photography. Starting from her first solo show in 1996 at the Prithvi Gallery in Juhu, Bombay, her work has been privately collected. She is on the Board of Advisors for Sindhi Voices Project and The Journal for Ethnic and Migration Studies.
You can learn more about Singh’s work on her website. You can follow Sarah on @sarahsinghNY.
The Sky Below is a critically-acclaimed doc on the 1947 Partition of the Subcontinent and the Kashmir question.
A Million Rivers recently had its’ world premiere at the V&A Museum and will premiere in New York later this Fall. This is an opportunity to get a sneak preview of one of the main thematic aspects of this work. The film starts Om Puri, Lillete Dubey and Asif Basra as “the man from Kashmir”.
Music For the 21st Century is a new film series devoted to exploring music traditions and practices across the Subcontinent. This segment showcases a memorial concert for the world’s last known Kashmir Sufiyana master, Ghulam Mohammed Saznawaz.

Working In Mumbai: The Works of RMA Architects
2016-11-15 17:00 - 18:30
Architects working in India are dealing with a range of social, cultural and economic phenomena that are rapidly molding the built environment there. Rahul Mehrotra, founding principal of RMA Architects, will discuss his firm’s unique multidisciplinary approach to working in Mumbai and responding to that city’s kinetic and complex milieu.This event will also be livestreamed. Click here to view.

**The Stephen Weiss Lecture Series is made possible by an endowment established by The Karan-Weiss Foundation, Donna Karan, Gabrielle Karan, Corey Weiss, and Lisa Weiss. The Fall 2016 Stephan Weiss Lecture is co-sponsored by The New School’s India-China Institute and Parsons’ School of Design Strategies.

FOOD, POWER AND POLITICS: A response to Roxy Paine’s Dinner of the Dictators, 1993-95
2016-11-29 18:00
One of The New School Art Collection’s most significant works will be installed on campus: Roxy Paine’s Dinner of the Dictators, 1993-95 from November 19, 2016 to January 4, 2017 in the Sheila Johnson Design Center’s Arnold and Sheila Aronson Gallery at 66 5th Avenue.This seminal work, recently restored by the artist, will act as a point of departure for a broader discussion of food, power, and politics, featuring Paul Freedman, Chester D. Tripp Professor of History, Yale University, Nina Khrushcheva, Professor of International Affairs at The New School, and moderated by Fabio Parasecoli, Associate Professor and Director of Food Studies Initiatives at The New School.

Sponsored by the University Art Collection, Parsons School of Design, the Food Studies Program, and the India China Institute at The New School.

Roundtable Discussion: Harvard-Yenching Institute Young Scholars
2017-03-29 16:00 - 18:00
The India China Institute is pleased to be hosting several emerging scholars from the Harvard-Yenching Institute. This is an exciting opportunity for New School members to learn about and provide feedback on the research being done by a new generation of scholars on the frontier of India-China scholarship.

Seating is limited, and an RSVP is required to attend.

Mountains and Sacred Landscapes Conference
2017-04-20 17:45 - 2017-04-23 14:00
The India China Institute (ICI) at The New School, the International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture (ISSRNC), American University’s Center for Latin American and Latino Studies (CLALS), and the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) are excited to announce an international conference on Mountains and Sacred Landscapes at The New School in New York City from Thursday, April 20th to Sunday, April 23rd, 2017. The conference will include the latest research on the intersections of religion, nature and culture and will also feature a special presentation from the India China Institute’s three-year research project on Sacred Landscapes and Sustainable Futures in the Himalaya (Sacred Himalaya Initiative).

Diverse mountain communities from the Himalayas to the Andes to the Appalachians face growing pressures linked to social and ecological changes. Melting glaciers, shifting agricultural patterns, conflicts over mining and resource extraction, and risks to livelihoods, the consequences of increasingly erratic global climate change, pose unknown future challenges to many sacred landscapes, including mountain communities and ecosystems and those beings, human and nonhuman alike, who rely on these habitats. Scholars have even suggested we have entered a fundamentally new geologic epoch called the Anthropocene.

The conference seeks to critically explore how the idea of sacred landscapes is entangled with these communities, with a particular interest in topics related to mountain landscapes. Some of the issues we hope to explore include: major challenges and opportunities facing communities in the 21st century; religious conceptualizations of place and landscape; relationships between mountain spiritualities and peoples adapting to climate change; traditional ecological knowledge held by communities that can help address issues of social and ecological justice; the future of mountain and forest peoples; and the fate of more than human worlds inhabiting these diverse landscapes. What kinds of meanings shape and are shaped by the effects of climate change, mass extinction, human population growth, and the ecological degradation of mountains, forests, rivers, and other sacred landscapes? How do ritual activities linked to sacred landscapes respond to environmental challenges, or not? How do mountains—as highly biodiverse ecosystems, as critical sources of water, energy, and materials, as repositories of tradition, and as sacred beings—remain vital components in ongoing processes of religious change? How do understandings of the sacred manifest within and across different landscapes, such as deserts, rivers, or forests?

You can view and download the pdf version of the Conference Program.

Book Launch w/ Jonathan Bach
2017-04-26 18:00 - 20:00
LEARNING FROM SHENZEN: CHINA’S POST-MAO EXPERIMENT FROM SPECIAL ZONE TO MODEL CITY

Please join us on Wednesday evening, April 26th, for a reception celebrating the publication of Learning from Shenzhen: China’s Post-Mao Experiment from Special Zone to Model City, edited by Mary Ann O’Donnell, Winnie Wong, & Jonathan Bach (University of Chicago Press, 2017).

This multidisciplinary volume presents an account of China’s contemporary transformation via one of its most important yet overlooked cities: Shenzhen, located just north of Hong Kong. From an experimental site as the first of China’s special economic zones, Shenzhen is now a dominant city at the crossroads of the global economy, a UNESCO City of Design, and the hub of China’s emerging technology industries. A city of contradictions, it embodies the spatial and temporal intricacies of the contemporary urban experience. The book explores especially how urban villages and informal institutions enabled social transformation. Through cases of labor, architecture, gender, public health, politics, education, and more, this urban case study serves to explore critical problems for modern-day China and beyond.

The book just received prominent mention in the latest Economist magazine special feature on the Pearl River Delta.

Remarks by co-editor and author, Jonathan Bach, chair of the Global Studies Program (New School), Mark Frazier, Professor of Politics (New School), and special guest Na Fu, Luce Visiting Scholar in Urban Studies at Trinity College and head of the research department at the Shenzhen Center for Design.

Refreshments will be served and books will be available for purchase at a discount.

Sponsored by the interdisciplinary programs in Global Studies, Urban Studies, and Environmental Studies, the India China Institute, the Department of Anthropology, and the Graduate Program in International Affairs.

India China: Rethinking Borders and Security - Book Launch
2017-05-22 16:00 - 18:00
India China: Rethinking Borders and Security

Book launch with authors: L.H.M. Ling, Adriana Abdenur, Payal Banerjee, Nimmi Kurian, Mahendra P. Lama, Li Bo

Monday, May 22, 4:00-6:oo pmOrozco Room (712), 66 West 12th St

Remarks by:Mary Watson, Executive Dean, NSPETansen Sen, Professor, CUNYAshok Gurung, Senior Director, ICI

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University of Michigan Press (2016)

About the Book

Challenging the Westphalian view of international relations, which focuses on the sovereignty of states and the inevitable potential for conflict, the authors from the Borderlands Study Group reconceive borders as capillaries enabling the flow of material, cultural, and social benefits through local communities, nation-states, and entire regions. By emphasizing local agency and regional interdependencies, this metaphor reconfigures current narratives about the China India border and opens a new perspective on the long history of the Silk Roads, the modern BCIM Initiative, and dam construction along the Nu River in China and the Teesta River in India.

Together, the authors show that positive interaction among people on both sides of a border generates larger, cross-border communities, which can pressure for cooperation and development. India China offers the hope that people divided by arbitrary geo-political boundaries can circumvent race, gender, class, religion, and other social barriers, to form more inclusive institutions and forms of governance.

Ling and her collaborators have ambitions that are not merely explanatory but also transformative: they seek not merely to make sense of an existing conflict, but by diagnosing it in terms of blocked flows and interrupted balances, they seek to envision ways to resolve (or, better, to dis-solve) it. If the more typical IR explanatory social-scientific question would be ‘why is this India-China conflict as virulent as it is?,’ their question is instead ‘what does the present state of the conflict reveal about how to change things?’ The transformative question encompasses the explanatory question and presses it onto novel terrain; call the results ‘explanation-plus.’ —Patrick Thaddeus Jackson, Editor, Configurations Series, University of Michigan Press and Professor, School of International Service, American University

About the Authors

L. H. M. Ling is Professor of International Affairs at The New School in New York, USA.

Adriana Abdenur is a Fellow with the Igarapé Institute, in Rio de Janeiro, and a Productivity Scholar with the Brazilian National Council for Technological and Scientific Development (CNPq).

Payal Banerjee is an Associate Professor with the Department of Sociology at Smith College in Northampton, MA.

Nimmi Kurian is an Associate Professor at the Centre for Policy Research (CPR) in New Delhi, India, and India Representative, India China Institute, The New School, New York.

Mahendra P. Lama is a Professor in the School of International Studies at Jawarhalal Nehru University (JNU) in New Delhi, India.

Li Bo is a part-time consultant for environmental grant-making in China and chief editor of the Green Cover Book: Annual Review of China’s Environment, a Chinese publication. At the same time, he runs a small organic farm by Lake Huron in Canada.

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What Would a UN-Country-City Partnership Look Like? w/ Aromar Revi
2017-09-20 17:30 - 19:00
Preparing the World to Implement the SDG’s:

What would a UN-Country-City Partnership Look Like?

Public talk with former ICI fellow Aromar Revi

Sept 20, 2017 | 5:30-7pm

Dorothy Hirshon Suite (#205), 66 W 12th St, The New School

Join us in welcoming Aromar Revi, a former ICI fellow, for a talk on preparing the world to implement the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). He is a global expert on Sustainable Development; Co-Chair of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), from where he helped lead a successful global campaign for an urban Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 11) as part of the UN’s 2030 development agenda, which brought major global urban institutions and over 300 cities and organisations together. He has the distinction of addressing the UN General Assembly twice on the theme of sustainable cities, in 2014 and 2017.

About the Speaker

Aromar’s policy, practice and research work lie at the interface of sustainability and climate science; and the emerging discipline of ‘urban science’, that he is helping define internationally. He is a member of the UCL-Nature Sustainability Expert Panel on urban research and global sustainability. In 2016, UNSDSN & the SDG Academy launched the first 75-session global Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on Sustainable Cities & SDG 11, curated by him featuring 30 of the world’s leading urbanists. 10,000 participants from 110 countries have registered for this.

EMERGING PUBLIC SPACE INOF THE PEARL RIVER DELTA SYMPOSIUM
2017-09-22 00:00
The purpose of the symposium is to discuss variations of the concept of urban public space and multiplicities of public spatial practice that have emerged in the context of the Pearl River Delta’s rapid urban development in the last forty years. We are particularly interested in exploring characteristics that make the public space and socio-spatial practices in this region distinct from urban development in China and East Asia in general, as well as searching for research practices and points of view that are currently emerging or have been under-explored in this context.The symposium brings together fourteen participants who will present different perspectives on this expansive theme from the fields of urbanism, architecture, planning, sociology, and politics both academics and professional practitioners. The talks will be informative in reporting on findings from current research and practice, and are aimed at constituting a series of provocations about the innovative ways of framing and conceptualizing public space inof Pearl River Delta.

ORGANIZED IN COLLABORATION with the School of Design at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and with the India China Institute, The New School

SPONSORED BY the School of Design Strategies, Parsons School of Design, Urban @Parsons, and The India China Institute, The New School

CONFERENCE SCHEDULE:
9:00 WELCOME / GENERAL INTRODUCTION:
Tim Marshall, Provost, The New School
Joel Towers, Executive Dean, Parsons School of Design
Ashok Gurung, Director, India China Institute
9:30 SESSION 1
Moderated by Miodrag Mitrasinovic, The New School
Adam Frampton, Columbia University
Georgeen Theodore, NJIT
Jonathan Bach, The New School
Adrian Blackwell, Uof Waterloo
Brian McGrath, The New School
11:30-12:00 PANEL DISCUSSION
moderated by Mark Frazier
12:00-1:00 LUNCH
1:00 SESSION 2
Moderated by Mark Frazier, The New School
David Grahame Shane, Columbia University
Yang Xiaochun and Gao Wenxiu, Shenzhen
University
Tim Simpson, University of Macau
Stefan Al, UPenn
Margaret Crawford, UC Berkeley
3:00-3:30 PANEL DISCUSSION
Moderated by Miodrag Mitrasinovic
3:30-4:00 COFFEE BREAK
4:00-5:00 ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION
Moderated by Tim Jachna, Hong Kong Polytechnic SD

Rebel Retirement Through Informal Exit Networks: Evidence from India w/ Rumela Sen
2017-10-02 16:00 - 18:00
Rebel Retirement Through Informal Exit Networks: Evidence from India
A CESIC Seminar w/
Post-Doctoral Research Fellow Rumela Sen
Oct 2, 20174-6 pm, Orozco Room

Under what conditions do insurgents give up arms and return to the same political processes that they had once sought to overthrow? A lot has been written on why men and women rebel. But we know very little about how rebels quit. In this paper I show that rebels quit through informal exit networks that thrive in the underbelly of grassroots associations of civic participation. They are made up of ordinary people in conflict zones who live their everyday lives one foot in democracy and one foot in insurgency.
The empirical puzzle for this study is drawn from the ongoing Maoist insurgency in India that has claimed 6,760 lives in the last ten years and has been acknowledged as the biggest internal security threat that the country has ever faced. Despite comparable conflict intensity (measured in terms of incidents and casualties) and unified command structure of the rebel organization, retirement is exceptionally high in the south and very low in the north. Further, both in the north and in the south, rebel retirement is concentrated in some districts and not others.
About the Speaker
Rumela Sen is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Political Science at Columbia University. She studied Comparative Politics in the Department of Government at Cornell University. Her current research focuses on rebel retirement and reintegration with empirical evidence drawn primarily from South Asia.

Live Baccarat Calculations: Macau Machine Gaming and the Production of the Post-Socialist Subject
2017-10-05 17:30 - 19:30 | Klein Conference Room, 66 West 12th Street 5th Floor, New York, NY, 10011, USA
Following Portugal’s return of Macau to the People’s Republic of China in 1999, the local government liberalized the city’s 150-year-old casino monopoly concession and invited participation by select foreign gaming companies. Over the following decade these companies produced a phantasmagoric Macau cityscape comprised of enormous integrated casino resorts such as the Venetian, Parisian, Wynn, MGM, and City of Dreams. As a result, tiny Macau is now the world’s most lucrative site of casino gaming, and is visited by more than 30 million tourists per year. The majority of Macau’s casino revenues are derived from Chinese high-rollers who gamble in private VIP rooms. However, due to a recent slowdown of China’s economy, as well as a central government crackdown on corruption and tightening of illicit cross-border financial flows, Macau’s VIP gambling revenues have decreased significantly. Therefore, Macau’s gaming operators are seeking to diversify the industry and to target Chinese ‘mass market’ tourists. This paper analyzes an electronic casino game called LIVE Baccarat, which was specifically created for the Macau market and designed to appeal to ordinary Chinese gamblers. Drawing on the work of Michel Callon and Michel Foucault, I explore the ways in which the LIVE Baccarat gaming machine ‘economizes’ the casino game of baccarat by introducing novel betting functions which require gamblers to engage in various forms of financial calculation. LIVE Baccarat may be understood as an apparatus, or dispositif, of subjection of a Chinese ‘mass market’ gambler – an individuated, speculating, calculating, and risk-taking subject, and a form of ‘human capital’ that Foucault might call an ‘entrepreneur of the self’. This nascent Chinese economic subject is not only important to Macau’s gaming industry, but to post-socialist market reforms in the PRC, and perhaps ultimately to the sustainability of global capitalism.This is an India China Institute event, co-sponsored by the School of Design Strategies, Parsons School of Design, and the Global Studies Program, The New School
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Welfare, Work, And Poverty: Social Assistance in China W/ Qin Gao
2017-10-12 16:00 - 17:30
Welfare, Work, And Poverty

Talk by Professor Qin Gao

October 12, 2017 | 4:00-5:30 pmHirshon Suite | 55 W 13th St NY New York NY 10011

Welfare, Work, and Poverty, Professor Qin Gao’s new book, provides the first systematic and comprehensive evaluation of the impacts and effectiveness of China’s primary social assistance program — Minimum Livelihood Guarantee, or Dibao — since its inception in 1993. Dibao serves the dual function of providing a basic safety net for the poor and maintaining social and political stability. Despite currently being the world’s largest welfare program in terms of population coverage, evidence on Dibao’s performance has been lacking. This book offers important new empirical evidence and draws policy lessons that are timely and useful for both China and beyond. Welfare, Work, and Poverty is essential reading for political scientists, economists, sociologists, public policy researchers, and social workers interested in learning about and understanding contemporary China.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Qin Gao is a professor at the Columbia School of Social Work (CSSW), a faculty affiliate of the Columbia Population Research Center and of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, and the director of Columbia University’s China Center for Social Policy. She is also an Academic Board Member of the China Institute for Income Distribution at Beijing Normal University and a Public Intellectual Fellow of the National Committee on United States-China Relations. Before joining the CSSW faculty, she was a professor and the Coordinator of International Initiatives at Fordham University’s Graduate School of Social Service. Dr. Gao’s current research examines the following topics: 1) the Chinese welfare state in transition: size, structure, and redistributive effects; 2) effectiveness and impacts of dibao, China’s primary social assistance program, and other anti-poverty policies and programs; 3) gender inequality in time use in China and beyond; 4) social protection for rural-to-urban migrants in China and Asian American immigrants; and 5) cross-national comparative social policies and programs. Dr. Gao’s work has been supported by multiple national and international funding sources such as the National Social Science Fund of China, UNICEF, and the World Bank.

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Reversing Roles? Environmental Politics and Policy in China and the US in the Trump and Xi Jingping Era w/ Robert Gottlieb
2017-10-18 18:00 - 20:00
Reversing Roles?

Environmental Politics and Policy in China and the US in the Trump and Xi Jingping Era

A book talk by Professor Robert Gottlieb

October 18, 2017 | 6:00-8:00 pm

Orozco Room (712), 66 W. 12th St

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About the Talk

Has there been a role reversal between the US and China on the environment?

China has long been considered an environmental outlier — horrendous smog episodes, water unfit to drink and even to irrigate, huge increases in the number of cars on the road, a global leader in the use of pesticides, a major coal producer and importer, a reluctant participant in global climate negotiations until recently, and more. The US, until November 9, had been seen as at least modestly responsive to environmental concerns. Now with Donald Trump and Scott Pruitt ensconced in Washington seeking to systematically dismantle the environmental policy system in contrast to the passage of environmental legislation and a new role around climate change in China, the roles do seem to be reversing. Is that an accurate view?

The answer is yes and no. The talk will compare current US and China environmental approaches in such areas as air pollution, transportation, and food as well as climate change, and the interplay between national and local or regional government policies and their implementation. It will point to the role of social movements and popular protests to help us understand what has changed and why. And it will look at the structural barriers for change: the nature of China’s embrace of marketization, developmentalism, and urbanization on the one hand, and the continuing power of the fossil fuel industry and other environmentally problematic industry forces in the U.S. to shape or at least block policies.

About the Speaker

Robert Gottlieb is Emeritus Professor at Occidental College and founder and former executive director of the Urban & Environmental Policy Institute. He is the author or co-author of more than a dozen books; his most recent book, co-authored with Simon Ng, is Global Cities: Urban Environments in Los Angeles, Hong Kong, and China (MIT Press).

Sponsored by The New School’s interdisciplinary programs in Global Studies, Urban Studies, and Environmental Studies, and the India China Institute.

Reimagining Youth and Politics in India w/Shehla Rashid
2017-10-23 18:30 - 20:00
Reimagining Youth and Politics in India

Talk by Shehla Rashid

October 23, 2017 | 6:30-8:00 pmKellen Auditorium (#101) | 66 Fifth Avenue, NY, The New School

About the Talk

Shehla Rashid represents one of the most important voices in the anti-fascist struggles in India. She was the Vice President of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Student Union and a member of the All India Student Association. She is currently finishing a MPhil in Law and Governance at JNU.

A 2016 interview with Rashid for The Wire.

A 2016 video of Rashid giving a speech on campus at JNU.

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Religious Change and Disturbed Religious Ecosystems in Jiangsu, China w/ Robert Weller
2017-10-26 16:00 - 18:00
Religious Change and Disturbed Religious Ecosystems in Jiangsu, China

Talk by Professor Robert Weller

October 26, 2017 | 4:00-6:00 pmOrozco Room (#712) | 66 W. 12th St, NY, The New School

About the Talk

Rapid urban expansion in wealthy parts of China has led to the resettlement of many villagers into high-rise buildings, making earlier forms of material and cultural life impossible. At the same time, large-scale urban reconstruction has displaced many old city neighborhoods. One result is that the territorially-based religion described in much of the anthropological and historical literature has become increasingly untenable as the entire ecosystem surrounding it has grown unstable. This talk examines what appears to be an especially creative zone for religious innovation: the expanding urban edge. The cases come from various cities in southern Jiangsu and focus on ghost attacks, a spirit medium network, and innovations in the forms and objects of temple worship. Theoretically, the paper thinks about ecosystems in the broadest sense of complexly articulated systems, without assuming a divide between nature and culture.

About the Speaker

Robert Weller is Professor of Anthropology & Director of Graduate Studies at Boston University. Weller’s work concentrates on China and Taiwan in comparative perspective. His actual research topics, however, are eclectic—running from ghosts to politics, rebellions to landscape paintings. Perhaps what unites everything is an interest in finding the limits to authority in all its settings. His publications include Unities and Diversities in Chinese Religion (1987), Resistance, Chaos, and Control in China: Taiping Rebels, Taiwanese Ghosts and Tiananmen (1994), Alternate Civilities: Chinese Culture and the Prospects for Democracy (1999), Discovering Nature: Globalization and Environmental Culture in China and Taiwan (2006), and Ritual and Its Consequences: An Essay on the Limits of Sincerity (2008).

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Media Politics in China: Improvising Power Under Authoritarianism
2017-11-03 16:00 - 18:00
Media Politics in China: Improvising Power Under Authoritarianism

A CESIC Talk with Maria Repnikova

November 3, 2017 | 4:00-6:00 pmKlein Conference Room (#501) | 66 W. 12th St, NY, The New School

About the Talk

Who watches over the party-state? In her new book, Maria Repnikova reveals the webs of an uneasy partnership between critical journalists and the state in China. More than merely a passive mouthpiece or a dissident voice, the media in China also plays a critical oversight role, one more frequently associated with liberal democracies than with authoritarian systems. Chinese central officials cautiously endorse media supervision as a feedback mechanism, as journalists carve out space for critical reporting by positioning themselves as aiding the agenda of the central state. Drawing on rare access in the field, Media Politics in China examines the process of guarded improvisation that has definedthis volatile partnership over the past decade on a routine basis and in the aftermath of major crisis events. Combined with a comparative analysis of media politics in the Soviet Union and contemporary Russia, the book highlights the distinctiveness of Chinese journalist-state relations, as well as the renewed pressures facing them in the Xi era.

About the Speaker

Dr. Maria Repnikova is a scholar of global communication, with a comparative focus on China and Russia. Her research examines the processes of political resistance and persuasion in illiberal political contexts, drawing on ethnographic research approaches and extensive time in the field. Maria holds a doctorate from the University of Oxford, where she was a Rhodes Scholar.

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The 19th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party and the Futures of Chinese Politics
2017-12-04 16:00 - 18:00
The 19th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party and the Futures of Chinese Politics

December 4, 2017 | 4:00-6:00 pmOrozco Room (712) | 66 W. 12th St, NY, The New School

A Public Talk with Andrew Nathan Columbia University | Hua Ze China Rights in Action | L.H.M. Ling The New School | Mark Frazier The New School | Xu Youyu Chinese Academy of Social Sciences | Zha Jianying Writer

About the Talk

As the now undisputed, strong leader of modern China, Xi Jinping is uniquely positioned to determine China’s future. Through his emphasis on the ‘Belt and Road’ Initiative, (BRI), Xi demonstrates his intention for China to shape the contours of global affairs as well.

At the 19th Party Congress, Xi Jinping’s ideas on China’s development and role in global affairs were incorporated in the Party’s Constitution. With only five years in office, Xi has attained a level of personalized power and authority not seen in China in decades. But will Xi’s supremacy go unchallenged in the future? What are the prospects for political change in China under Xi’s self-stated “New Era of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics”. A panel of China experts will discuss these and related questions about China following the 19th Party Congress.

About the Book

This panel on China’s multiple political futures is being held in connection with the recent publication of To Build a Free China: A Citizen’s Journey (Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2017) by Xu Zhiyong, a former ICI fellow, and translated by Joshua Rosenzweig and Yaxue Cao.

Dr. Xu is a prominent legal scholar, civil rights lawyer, activist, and founder of the New Citizens’ Movement. He was named one of Asia Weekly’s People of the Year in 2005 and one of the Southern People’s Weekly Top Ten Young Leaders of China in 2006. He was an ICI Fellow from 2008 to 2010. Professor Andrew Nathan, who wrote the introduction of the book, will share his thoughts and insights on the specific questions explored by Xu Zhiyong.

This event is organized in partnership with Columbia University’s Weatherhead East Asian Institute and co-sponsored by The New School’s Global Studies Program and the Julien J. Studley Graduate Program in International Affairs.

Agrarian Elites in Urban Real Estate: Urban and Land Transformations along New Economic Corridors in Liberalizing India
2018-03-05 16:00 - 18:00
Professor Sai Balakrishnan will be exploring the narrative movements of urbanization in contemporary India from megacities to the contested geographies along new economic corridors. As policymakers search for new market-oriented means for the transfer of land from agrarian constituencies to infrastructural promoters and urban developers, the re-allocation of property control is erupting into volatile land-based social conflicts. Professor Balakrishnan puts forward the argument that some of India’s most decisive conflicts over its urban futures will unfold in these corridor regions where electorally strong agrarian propertied classes are coming into direct encounters with financially powerful incoming urban firms. She calls for new theories of land and urbanization that are capable of incorporating within them the agrarian political economy. Through focusing on the agrarian to urban land-use change along India’s first economic corridor, the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, she articulates how diverse agrarian property regimes shape the trajectories of contemporary urbanization in liberalizing India.An India China Institute public event. RSVP here to register for the event.

Xi Jinping and China's Success Trap
2018-04-02 17:30 - 19:00
Drawing on Professor Mohanty’s more than three decades of research, this talk will focus on how China’s “reform and open door” policy evolved and helped achieve tremendous economic success. Professor Mohanty will also examine how this policy has generated serious social and environmental problems.

In his recent book, ‘China’s Transformation: The Success Story and the Success Trap’, Mohanty argues that the consequences of this story of success and growth are so strong that it has been difficult for China to change its main development path and to achieve a desirable level of equity and sustainability. Professor Mohanty describes this as the “success trap” that China is currently grappling with.

This event is organized by the India China Institute and co-sponsored by the Global Studies Program at The New School

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