2013 News Archive

December 27, 2013
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  • December 12, 2013: Morten Jerven's book, Poor Numbers made Bill Gates' book list for 2013.
  • December 11, 2013: The School has its own Facebook page now!
  • November 21, 2013: Simons Chair Jeff Checkel will be giving a keynote address  at the conference 'A New Narrative for Europe?' - sponsored by the European Commission Representation to Denmark and the Danish Institute of International Studies.
  • November 20, 2013: Michael Howard will be speaking on Southeast Asian textiles as art at the Honolulu Museum of Art.
  • November 14, 2013: Morten Jerven's research is highlighted in the Globe and Mail.  Read the article here.
  • November 7, 2013: Morten Jerven will be speaking about Poor Numbers at the African Studies Centre, Leiden, Netherlands.
  • October 22, 2013: The Globe and Mail today published its annualCanadian University Report.  It included an article on the virtues of interdisciplinary programs and lists five of them that are said to be at the forefront. The list includes International Studies at Simon Fraser University. See article.
  • October 21, 2013: Simons Chair Jeff Checkel has been re-elected for a three-year term (2014-2016) to the Board of Editors of International Organization, one of the leading international relations journals in the world.
  • October 11, 2013: Morten Jerven speaks at the IMF/World Bank Annual Meeting in Washington, DC.
  • October 8, 2013: The School celebrates its 7th year anniversary with a talk/book launch on Canada-Africa relations, followed by a reception for IS and LAS alumni. Click here for details. The mood of the event was captured by talented alumna, Krystal Renschler (BAIS 2012). Click here to see the photos. Read about the event on SFU Vancouver's In the City blog here.
  • October 3, 2013: Public lecture by Chris Fuller on Caste and the Middle Class in Modern India.
  • October 3, 2013: Public lecture by Takis Pappas, 'Europe's New 'Weimar Republic'?'
  • October 2, 2013: Onur Bakiner and Tamir Moustafa discuss social protests in the Middle East. Click here for details.
  • October 2, 2013: Public lecture by Takis Pappas, 'Weimar Republic? Legitimation crisis, party system change, and the rise of political extremism in Greece'.
  • September 30, 2013: Roundtable on the future of Canada's international development agenda.
  • September 21 & 28, 2013: A Celebration of Multiculturalism and Social Entrepreneurship among Canadian-Asian Communities.  
  • September 20, 2013: Public lecture by Katherine Verdery on 'Ethnography in the Archives of the Romanian Secret Police'.
  • September 20, 2013: Morten Jerven presented his paper at the UNU-WIDER Conference on Inclusive Growth in Africa in Helsinki, Finland.  
  • September 19, 2013: Morten Jerven has been prevented from presenting his research on African Statistics at UNECA. Read the breaking story here. Morten Jerven's statement can be found here.  
  • September 18, 2013: Public lecture by former Korean Prime Minister, Dr. Un-Chan Chung - 'Hope, Compassion and the Can-do Spirit: Korea's Past, Present and the Future'.
  • September 13-14, 2013: Simons Chair Jeff Checkel hosted an international workshop at the School on 'Socialization and Organized Political Violence.'  Click here for the program.
  • September 11, 2013: Read Paul Meyer's commentary on the CWC and the current initiative to bring Syria on board this treaty and destroy its chemical weapons here.
  • September 3, 2013: A warm welcome to our first Simons Research Fellow,Matt Scalena!
  • September 3, 2013: Read Paul Meyer's commentary on the appropriate response to the Syrian government's use of chemical weapons here.
  • August 22, 2013: Public lecture 'Art Communities in Northern Thailand' byWattana Wattanapun. 
  • August 8, 2013: Congratulations to John Harriss and Martha Snodgrass on their UPF award in support of their work on the Canadian Journal of Development Studies.
  • July 22, 2013: NEW undergraduate program effective Fall 2013 -International Studies and World Literature Joint Major.  
  • July 3, 2013: Read Onur Bakiner's commentary on the protests in Turkey here.
  • June 28, 2013: Congratulations to incoming MA student, Andrew McKinnon on his SSHRC award!
  • June 24, 2013: Another SSHRC win for International Studies - congratulations to Onur Bakiner!
  • June 13, 2013: Read Paul Meyer's commentary on the US Presidential Decision Directive on cyber operations here.
  • May 27, 2013: Congratulations to graduate student, Alicia Tallack on her SSHRC award!
  • May 22, 2013: Lukáš Hyrman's essay 'On Hungarian Revolution' in Greg Feldman's IS 419 Culture, Population and Militarization course (Spring 2013) has been named the 2013 Best Undergraduate International Studies Essay Award. Congratulations!
  • May 16, 2013: Public lecture 'Creating Home Away from Home: Mobile Phones and Migrant Workers in Asia' by Grace Roldan (De La Salle University).
  • May 10, 2013: Give Peace a Chance: Peace Negotiations in Colombia and Turkey workshops at SFU Harbour Centre and UBC Liu Institute.
  • May 8, 2013: Morten Jerven will discuss his book, Poor Numbers at the Royal African Society, UK.  
  • May 7, 2013: Check out Michael Howard's new book, Cultural Revival and the Peoples of Ta Van Commune, Sa Pa, Northern Vietnam.
  • May 6, 2013: Read Bill Gates' review of Morten Jerven's Poor Numbers here.
  • May 2, 2013: Read Paul Meyer's commentary on the NPT and the problems posed for it by the failure to date to convene a promised conference on a WMD-free zone in the Middle East.
  • April 26, 2013: To support undergraduate student travel, the International Studies Undergraduate Travel Award has been created.  The School has also created a Best Undergraduate International Studies Essay award (by nomination from faculty members only).
  • April 24, 2013: Morten Jerven will discuss his book, Poor Numbers at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies.  Clickhere for more details.
  • April 24, 2013: A warm congratulations to Greg Feldman, Morten Jerven and Paul Warwick on their SSHRC awards!
  • April-May 2013: Simons Chair Jeff Checkel will be leading two doctoral seminars on civil war at the Research School in Peace and Conflict, Peace Research Institute Oslo.
  • April 19, 2013: Morten Jerven's Poor Numbers book launch.  Click here to read the SFU news article about Morten's book and conference.  Click here to read The Vancouver Sun's article on Poor Numbers.
  • Read Onur Bakiner's article, 'Is Turkey coming to terms with its past? Politics of memory and majoritarian conservatism' in the Journal of Nationalism and Ethnicity here.
  • Read Paul Meyer's op-ed which comments on some alarming recommendations coming from a senior advisory board to the US Department of Defense.
  • April 8-9, 2013: Peter Katzenstein, Carpenter Professor of International Studies at Cornell University, will be visiting the School as the term's next Simons Series speaker.  Click here for details!
  • April 4, 2013: Islam in the Hinterlands book launch.  Co-sponsored by the Centre for the Comparative Study of Muslim Societies and Cultures.
  • Jeff Checkel's latest book, Transnational Dynamics of Civil War, has just been published by Cambridge University Press!
  • Morten Jerven draws on his new book Poor Numbers to examine if Africa is rising in an article published in Foreign Policy on January 28. Click here to read the article. He was also recently interviewed in the Economist. Click here for details. The book was published this week by Cornell University Press.
  • Read Paul Meyer's commentary on the EU's proposed Code of Conduct for Outer Space and related problems here.
  • March 21, 2013: Free public lecture by Clara Han - 'A Bullet Killed My Son: Textures of Events'. Click here for more details. Presented by the Latin American Studies Program.
  • March 14, 2013: Free public lecture by Nancy Postero - 'Wedding the Nation: Spectacles of Indigeneity in Plurinational Bolivia'.  Click here for details. Presented by the Latin American Studies Program.
  • March 13, 2013: President's Faculty Lecture Series by Tamir Moustafa - 'Islamic Law and Women’s Rights: The View from Malaysia'.  Click here for more details.
  • February 4-5, 2013: Scott Straus (University of Wisconsin) will be the term's first speaker in the Simons Series on the Social Dynamics of Peace and Conflict.  Click here for details.
  • January 28, 2013: Free public lecture - Is Social Media a Scientific Tool of the 21st Century? by Rebecca Chiao, Founder of HarrassMap, Cairo. Click here for details.
  • January 28, 2013: Free public lecture - The International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and You. Click here for details.
  • Morten Jerven, author of Poor Numbers, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the quality of data coming out of Africa on income, growth, and population. Jerven argues that the inconsistency of the numbers and methodology both across countries and within a country across time, makes many empirical studies of African progress meaningless. The conversation closes with a discussion of what might be done to improve data collection in poor countries. Click here for more details.