In the 2020-2021 academic year, IRIS NRC was pleased to provide funding for guest lecturers to present on transregional themes in various courses at UW-Madison.

April 22, 2021

Michael Barnett presented a guest lecture “Humanitarianism: Then and Now” to 10 students of Professor Jon Pevehouse’s course Public Affairs 850- international Governance in the Master of International Public Affairs (MIPA). The lecture provided an overview of the history of humanitarianism, ending with current debates and focusing on world politics and offered a Q&A session with students.

Michael N. Barnett is a Constructivist scholar and professor of international relations at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs.

April 21, 2021

Steven Kamin was a guest lecturer in Professor Menzie Chinn’s course Public Affairs 854- Macroeconomic Policy and International Financial Regulation in the Master of International Public Affairs (MIPA). The lecture provided 17 students a review of the the spillovers of U.S. monetary policy to foreign economies, the centrality of the dollar in the global financial system, and that actions taken by the Federal Reserve to stabilize financial markets and support economic activity during the pandemic.

Steven B. Kamin is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he studies international macroeconomic and financial issues.

March 18, 2021

Dipali Mukhopadhyay created a video presentation titled “State building, counter-terrorism, and sovereignty” as a guest lecturer for the International Studies 101 course with an enrollment of 140 students.

Dipali Mukhopadhyay is an Adjunct Associate Professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, where she is also a faculty affiliate of the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies.

March 16, 2021

Laurence Delina presented to Professor Greg Nemet’s course Public Affairs 866 – International Governance. The title of the talk was “Energy access and resilience: Sustainable energy in the Philippines & Thailand” and was presented to 22 students.

Laurence L. Delina is a Visiting Research Fellow at the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future and was, from 2015-2019, a Post-doctoral Associate at the Center. He is currently an Assistant Professor at the Division of Environment and Sustainability at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

March 3, 2021

Tahir Imin was a guest lecturer in Scott Straus’s course International Studies 434- The Politics of Human Rights. The title of the talk was “On Uyghur Human Rights Activism.” The class of 153 students learned about human rights activism in the context of ongoing atrocities against the Uighur population of western China.

Tahir Imin is an Uyghur activist, political scientist, former political prisoner, founder of United News Network and Uyghur Times, and the president of Uyghur Intellectuals Association. He currently manages the Uyghur Culture Project and International Uyghurology information Center.

March 1, 2021

Margaret Peters recorded a lecture titled “Immigration and Globalization” for use as a core lecture on human movement in the International Studies 101 course with an enrollment of 140 students. The presentation, based on Peters’ award-winning book Trading Barriers: Immigration and the Remaking of Globalization, was about immigration and how it has been affected by globalization.

Margaret Peters is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at UCLA.

February 17, 2021

Courtney Hillebrecht delivered a guest lecture on her area of expertise, regional human rights courts, and appeared for an in-person Zoom Q & A with 150 students in the PS-IS 434 course. The presentation, titled “Current Trends in International Human Rights Litigation: Challenges and Opportunities”, focused on three current trends in international human rights adjudication: strategic litigation at regional human rights courts in order to advance domestic human rights policy; changing standards regarding compliance and reparations; and backlash against international human rights courts.

Dr. Courtney Hillebrecht is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

November 19, 2021

Lindsay Mayka delivered a lecture to the International Studies 101 class for a module on human rights. Dr. Mayka talked to 269 students about her research on human rights in Colombia and on the ways in which human rights frames can be deployed by state actors to constrain rights. Erica Simmons, Associate Professor of Political Science and International Studies and IS Faculty Director, invited the guest speaker to the course.

Dr. Lindsay R. Mayka is an Assistant Professor of Government at Colby College.