Fall 2025 Application Deadline for Brown in Washington. Applications and any supporting materials must be received by this date. 

*lunch served*

Despite the apparent bounty of the Inflation Reduction Act, private sector investment in clean tech has been on a downward trend since 2023. Now with the new administration’s pivot to hydrocarbons, general antipathy towards renewable energy and clean tech, and denial that climate change is even a problem, what hope is there for green investment in Trump’s carbon economy?

Join Rhodes Center Director Mark Blyth in conversation with Tom Steyer, climate investor, philanthropist, and environmentalist.

Audience Q&A to follow.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Tom is the founder and co-executive chair of Galvanize Climate Solutions, a climate-focused global investment firm. Central to the firm’s thesis is the belief of an absolute, unequivocal need to win in the marketplace with clean products and services that are cheaper, faster, and better. He is also a New York Times bestselling author, having released his first book Cheaper, Faster, Better: How We’ll Win the Climate War in May 2024.

After earning his MBA from Stanford, in 1986 Steyer founded Farallon Capital Management, a San Francisco-based hedge fund that pioneered the strategy known as “absolute return investing,” and which grew to $36 billion in assets under management. In 2012, he left his firm to devote his time, money, and energy to climate issues.

Steyer played a key role in preserving California’s Global Warming Solutions Act, while also working to pass clean energy initiatives and advocate for environmental justice across the country. He also co-founded Beneficial State Bank, a triple bottom line community development bank focused on justice and sustainability, and TomKat Ranch, a regenerative ranch dedicated to raising cattle with a negative carbon footprint.

In 2013, Steyer founded NextGen America (formerly known as NextGen Climate), the largest youth voter engagement organization in American history, whose climate-focused messaging and outreach helped lead to record levels of youth turnout in recent elections.

He was a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate with a campaign centered on addressing climate change, and later that year he served as co-chair for California Governor Gavin Newsom’s Business and Jobs Recovery Task Force. In addition, he co-chaired Vice President Biden’s Climate Engagement Advisory Council to help mobilize climate voters.

He lives in San Francisco, enjoys spending time with family, and can always be counted on by friends to relay the latest climate data (whether they are interested in hearing it or not).

Across the world, women’s political inclusion at the local level has expanded, but does it lead to broader systemic change? In her book, Representation from Below, Tanushree Goyal challenges conventional wisdom by exploring how women in local politics drive transformations within political parties and democratic structures. Through extensive fieldwork, gender quota analysis, and novel data from India, she introduces the concept of inclusive party-building—a process where women recruit others, reshape party structures, and gain influence over party elites. This talk will highlight key findings, including how women’s political participation benefits not just representation but also strengthens parties themselves.

Speaker: Tanushree Goyal, Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, Princeton University.

Join the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies for a community celebration. Coffee, music, and pastries will be served by Café Modesto. All are welcome.

Join us for an engaging conversation with Willie Gaynor, Founder of Rock Creek Advisors, LLC, and Senior Vice President at EnTrustPermal LLC. Gaynor brings decades of experience in political strategy, public-private partnerships, and investment management. Over his distinguished career, he has worked with presidential candidates, governors, and Fortune 100 companies, in addition to serving in senior roles during the Bush Administration.

In this lunch discussion, Gaynor will share insights on the intersection of politics, business, and investment strategy, highlighting his experience with political campaigns, corporate advisory work, and his role in the 2016-2017 U.S. presidential transition. Whether you’re interested in the dynamics of political leadership, business development, or financial strategy, this conversation promises to offer unique perspectives on shaping policy and driving results in both the public and private sectors.

Aviad Moreno (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev) will give an in person and livestream public lecture entitled “Jewish Migrants to Israel from Muslim Countries and the Shaping of Israeli Identity” on Monday, March 10, 2025 from 4:00-5:30 pm in the Joukowsky Forum, Watson Institute at 111 Thayer Street.  Sponsored by the Program in Judaic Studies. 

Watch the Livestream

This talk will examine the evolving role of Jewish immigrants from Muslim countries in Israel, who, by the 1960s, already constituted more than half of Israel’s Jewish population. It offers a broad perspective on how they have been treated and how they have influenced Israeli culture, politics, and identity. Key themes will include cultural identities, forms of resistance and nationalism, and the rise of a middle class within these communities. The lecture will also address their contributions to diplomacy and transregional cultural exchanges, particularly in the context of the Middle East conflict.

Aviad Moreno is a faculty member at the Ben-Gurion Research Institute at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. He has held fellowships at Tel Aviv University, the University of Michigan, and the University of Pennsylvania. His research focuses on the Jews in the Middle East and North Africa and their migrations, with an emphasis on Morocco. His scholarship includes the recently published book Entwined Homelands, Empowered Diasporas: Hispanic Moroccan Jews and Their Globalizing Community, which was awarded a National Jewish Book Award in 2025; the co-edited volume The Long History of Mizrahim: New Directions in the Study of Jews from Islamic Countries; and a forthcoming anthology in Arabic on Jewish migration from Muslim countries from a perspective grounded in global history.

Students are invited to meet with Professor Christina Greer prior to her 4pm talk, “American Politics 2025: What now and where do we go from here?”

Christina Greer is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Fordham University, Lincoln Center (Manhattan) campus. Her research and teaching focus on American politics, Black ethnic politics, campaigns and elections, and public opinion.

She is the author of “Black Ethnics: Race, Immigration, and the Pursuit of the American Dream”, “How to Build a Democracy from Fannie Lou Hamer and Barbara Jordan to Stacey Abrams”, and co-editor of “Black Politics in Transition: Immigration, Suburbanization, and Gentrification”.

Greer writes a weekly column for The Amsterdam News, is a frequent political commentator on several media outlets, and is the co-host of FAQ-NYC.

Join the Watson Institute for a “Dialogue Across Difference” discussion with Christina Greer, Associate Professor of Political Science at Fordham University. Professor Greer will be in conversation with Wendy Schiller, Interim Director of the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, Director of the Taubman Center for American Politics and Policy, and Alison S. Ressler Professor of Political Science. The discussion is co-hosted by Brown’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion.

Christina Greer is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Fordham University, Lincoln Center (Manhattan) campus. Her research and teaching focus on American politics, Black ethnic politics, campaigns and elections, and public opinion.

She is the author of “Black Ethnics: Race, Immigration, and the Pursuit of the American Dream”, “How to Build a Democracy from Fannie Lou Hamer and Barbara Jordan to Stacey Abrams”, and co-editor of “Black Politics in Transition: Immigration, Suburbanization, and Gentrification”.

Greer writes a weekly column for The Amsterdam News, is a frequent political commentator on several media outlets, and is the co-host of FAQ-NYC.

Join Watson Senior Fellow Malika Saada Saar ’92, former Global Head of Human Rights at YouTube, for a fireside chat on Building AI for Humanity with Erin Teague, Chief Product Officer at Character.AI.

Erin Teague is the Chief Product Officer at Character.AI where she is responsible for the product management, design, user research, data science, marketing and community functions. Prior to her current position, she was a senior director of product management at Google. In this role, she served as the product and technical advisor to Google’s Chief Technologist across important product areas including Search, Gemini, Ads, Maps, Assistant, Payments, Shopping and Long-term Bets product areas. Prior to this role, she was the global product lead across several YouTube verticals including Sports, Film, and TV. She led YouTube’s Virtual and Augmented Reality product team, where she was responsible for immersive video and created the YouTube VR app, which is rated #1 across multiple platforms. She also founded and led YouTube’s Racial Justice, Equity, and Product Inclusion product teams. Before YouTube, Teague was the director of product for Yahoo’s Fantasy Sports and product manager at Twitter. She began her career as a software engineer at Morgan Stanley, where she designed algorithms embedded in electronic trading applications in the firm’s Algorithmic Trading Technology group.

Teague is the recipient of the BET Her Tech Maven Award and has been recognized as one of the “100 Most Influential Women in Silicon Valley” by Silicon Valley Business Journal, “The Next Generation of Tech Stars” by Refinery29, “40 Under 40 in Silicon Valley.” She has also been named one of Glamour Magazine’s “35 Women Under 35 Who Are Changing the Tech Industry” and one of Business Insider’s “Silicon Valley 100.”

Originally from Detroit, Michigan, Teague holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, where she was a Morgan Stanley Fellow, and a BSE in computer engineering from the University of Michigan, where she graduated with distinction as an Intel Scholar.

Malika Saada Saar is a highly accomplished human rights lawyer with extensive experience in civil and human rights law, tech policy development, multi-stakeholder engagement, and the responsible governance and use of AI. As Google’s Global Head of Human Rights at YouTube, she led a team responsible for integrating human rights principles across Trust & Safety, Government Affairs and Public Policy, Legal, and Product teams.

About the Event

CLACS-affiliated graduate students, Licelot Caraballo (Anthropology), Lauren Prince (Africana Studies), and Alexandria Miller (Africana Studies), will be discussing Afro-Caribbean Feminisms as part of their research. 

About the Series
Graduate students and faculty affiliated with the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies are invited to present their work at this roundtable luncheon series. Faculty and graduate student research presentations will alternate on a biweekly basis. All are welcome.

Join Watson Institute Interim Director Wendy Schiller for a lunchtime conversation with Allison Lombardo ’05, Senior Fellow in International and Public Affairs. Lombardo will discuss her time as Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Organization Affairs at the U.S. Department of State, and her path from Brown to the Biden administration. 

Allison Lombardo served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Organization Affairs at the U.S. Department of State, with a focus on human rights and humanitarian affairs during the Biden Administration from 2021-2025. Prior to this appointment, Ms. Lombardo was a strategy consultant at Deloitte.

Ms. Lombardo’s prior public service began at the U.S. Department of State in 2009 as a Presidential Management Fellow in the Office of the Special Envoy for Sudan. From 2009 through 2012, she represented the United States at peace talks between Sudan and South Sudan, and from 2013- 2014 served as a Director for African Affairs at the National Security Council.

In 2016, Ms. Lombardo served as Senior Advisor to the USAID Administrator, where she guided action on humanitarian issues and international development policy in Africa and Latin America. Prior to her time in public service, Allison worked for UN Special Representative on Business and Human Rights and Human Rights Watch. Ms. Lombardo graduated from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and from Brown University.

When and why do authoritarian secret police agencies publicize their work? Comparative scholarship on intelligence and security emphasizes either the benefits of disclosure for external signaling or the requirement for transparency and accountability under democratic oversight. These explanations, however, do not satisfactorily explain Chinese security and intelligence agencies’ public communications. Drawing on evidence from China’s secret police agency, the Ministry of State Security, we argue that authoritarian intelligence organizations publicize their work for three other reasons: mobilizing citizens to engage in reporting to mitigate the problems of preference falsification and information suppression under autocracy, signaling the loyalty of coercive agents to the autocrat, and signaling strength on the part of the counter-intelligence and coercive apparatus. We find evidence supporting these three explanations in a comprehensive analysis of all MSS posts during the Ministry’s first six months on Weixin. Our findings shed empirical light on an important but heretofore puzzling case, and fill important gaps in our comparative understanding of intelligence organizations, especially their functions under autocratic political systems. 

Sheena Chestnut Greitens is Associate Professor at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, where she directs UT’s Asia Policy Program and serves as editor-in-chief of the Texas National Security Review. Dr. Chestnut Greitens currently serves as Visiting Associate Professor in Indo-Pacific Security at the U.S. Army War College’s China Landpower Studies Center, and is a nonresident scholar with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Her research focuses on security and authoritarian politics in East Asia, and she is currently finishing a book on how internal security shapes Chinese grand strategy. She is the author of two previous books, Politics of the North Korean Diaspora (Cambridge 2023) and Dictators and Their Secret Police (Cambridge, 2016), which won multiple academic awards. She previously served on the faculty at the University of Missouri (2015-2020). Chestnut Greitens received her PhD from Harvard University; an MPhil from Oxford University, where she studied as a Marshall Scholar; and a B.A. with honors from Stanford University.

Two long time members of the GPD community will present their ongoing research projects, followed by discussion.

This session we will hear from Archana Ramanujam, a PhD candidate in Sociology, who will discuss her project “Refining Inequality: Negotiating Environmental Policy in the Dutch Empire” and Luiz Paulo Ferraz, a PhD candidate in History, who will discuss his project “When Freedom Took Flight: Indigenous Leaders and the International Resistance Against Brazil’s Military Dictatorship (1974-1980)”

The Taubman Center for American Politics and Policy is pleased to present the Alexander Meiklejohn Lecture featuring Tom Perez, former U.S. Secretary of Labor, Chair of the Democratic National Committee, and renowned advocate for civil rights and constitutional freedoms.

In this timely lecture, Perez will explore the enduring principles of freedom enshrined in the U.S. Constitution and their relevance in today’s political and social landscape. Drawing on his decades of experience in public service, Perez will examine the challenges to constitutional rights, the importance of civic participation, and the role of leadership in safeguarding democracy.

At a moment when questions of justice, equality, and democratic values are at the forefront of national discourse, Perez will offer a powerful reflection on how we can honor the Constitution’s promise of freedom while building a more inclusive and equitable future.

This event will be moderated by former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele.

A conversation with Molly Phee, Ambassador and former Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs. Moderated by Professor Wendy J. Schiller, Interim Director of the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs.

• Open to the Public, Reception to Follow
• This Keynote Presentation is part of the March 13-14 conference:
• Democracy, Diplomacy and Development in Africa

About the speaker

Molly Phee is a senior U.S. diplomat known for her strategic leadership in navigating complex political and security challenges. She has led negotiations to end conflicts, build coalitions, and arrange humanitarian access across Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia. She has operated effectively in insecure environments collaborating with the U.S. military, USAID and other U.S. government agencies, the UN, international NGOs, foreign partners, and civilian stakeholders.

While serving as U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, she oversaw U.S. government engagement in 49 African countries, driving outcomes in trade and investment, conflict resolution, and democracy and human rights. She oversaw 275 domestic employees, more than a thousand overseas employees, and 12,000 local staff while monitoring billions of dollars in assistance and operational budgets. Other key assignments include U.S. Ambassador to South Sudan, deputy Chief of Mission in Ethiopia, deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation, acting Assistant Secretary for International Organizations, director for Iraq at the National Security Council, deputy Security Council Coordinator at the U.S. mission to the UN, and assignments at U.S. embassies in Iraq, Egypt, Kuwait and Jordan.

A trained Arabist with extensive experience in the Middle East, she was a member of the Joint Strategic Assessment Team headed by Ambassador Ryan Crocker and General David Petraeus that successfully revised the U.S. campaign plan in Iraq in 2007. Her work has been recognized with the Distinguished Honor Award, the Presidential Rank Award, the Order of the British Empire, and other prestigious commendations for leadership in diplomacy and peacebuilding. Molly earned a B.A. from Indiana University and a M.A.L.D. from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.

Exploring family stories reveals the rich history of a seventh-century Buddhist shrine.

As a young girl in Bombay, Kirin Narayan was enthralled by her father’s stories about how their ancestors had made the ancient rock-cut cave temples at Ellora. Recalling those stories as an adult, she was inspired to learn more about the caves, especially the Buddhist worship hall known as the “Vishwakarma cave.” Immersing herself in family history, oral traditions, and works by archaeologists, art historians, scholars of Buddhism, Indologists, and Sanskritists, Narayan set out to answer the question of how this cave came to be venerated as the home of Vishwakarma, the god of making in Hindu and Buddhist traditions.

Cave of My Ancestors represents the perfect blend of Narayan’s skills as a researcher and writer. Her quest to trace her family’s stories took her to Ellora; through libraries, archives, and museums around the world; and across disciplinary borders. Equal parts scholarship, detective story, and memoir, Narayan’s book ably leads readers through centuries of history, offering a sensitive meditation on devotion, wonder, and all that connects us to place, family, the past, and the divine.

About the Speaker

Marisol de la Cadena became an anthropologist in Peru, England, France and the USA. She is a professor in the STS and Anthropology departments at UC Davis.

She works on the interfaces of STS and non-STS, major and minor politics, history, and the a-historical, the possible and the impossible. She enjoys thinking about what she calls ethnographic concepts – those that blur the distinction between theory and the empirical and can indicate the limits of both. Overall, I revel in what I call ‘not knowing’ as an epistemic stance. She realized this in Cuzco, as she co-labored with Mariano and Nazario Turpo, father and son, Quechua thinker-doers. They presented her with the eventfulness of the ahistorical, then unfathomable to her, and coached her to grasp that what to me was—a mountain for example–was not only such. Currently, she follows cow-making practices across labscapes and landscapes in Colombia thinking about life and death as intra-connected conceptions.

About the Event

The talk will discuss the economic, biological, and conceptual conditions underpinning the breeding of either cows or cattle in Colombian fincas. Considering this difference has important consequences for life beyond Colombia.

Funded by Alexander Charles Paul Fort MD ’04 and Nicholas McLaury Fort MD ’09 Lectureship on Latin America Fund

Thinking about law school? Join Professor Ari Gabinet of Brown University for an in-depth discussion on the law school admissions process. With extensive experience advising students on their law school applications and academic careers, Professor Gabinet will share strategies for crafting a compelling application, insights into what admissions committees look for, and advice on how to stand out in a competitive field.

This session will also cover trends in legal education, the role of personal statements, and how to leverage extracurricular experiences to strengthen your application. Whether you’re applying soon or just considering your options, this lunch will provide valuable guidance for anyone interested in pursuing a legal career.

Join the photographer Robert Nickelsberg for a talk on the photography exhibit “Legacy of Lies”

Artist Statement:

The photographs by Robert Nickelsberg offer a visual historical record of the first years of the civil war in El Salvador that is significant in the range and depth of its coverage of the conflict and illuminating in its critical view of the United States’ involvement, which was an important test of Cold War counterinsurgency strategy after the Vietnam war. The images of the violence and death form the foundational period that forced many Salvadorans to flee north to the U.S. creating the chaos and political gridlock along the U.S.-Mexican border.

Reception and book signing to follow.  

Exhibit open February 19 to May 30, 2025

2nd Floor, Watson Institute, 111 Thayer Street

Arvind Rajagopal is a Professor of Media Studies at NYU, affiliated with Sociology and Social and Cultural Analysis. His work explores comparative media, media theory, and postcolonial states. He is the author of Politics After Television and The Indian Public Sphere, among others, and has received awards from the MacArthur and Rockefeller Foundations. He has also been a fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton) and the Woodrow Wilson Center (Washington, DC).

*Lunch served*

The rise of an industry tasked with the collection of medical debts in the United States is a relatively recent development. Physicians and hospitals have long held themselves apart from profit maximization and have expressed a moral aversion to immiserating patients in the pursuit of unpaid debts. This is particularly true of nonprofit hospitals, which find their origins in almshouses, community associations and religious orders. In addition, while creditors have tremendous powers at their disposal in seeking to collect, including lawsuits, wage garnishment, and property liens, medical providers recoup relatively little even when they resort to such aggressive measures.

Why, then, in the last forty years, have US nonprofit hospitals increasingly turned to third-party debt collection, debt sales, and lawsuits against patient debtors? Answering this question demands an investigation of shifts in health insurance, hospital finance, and the moral economy of care. It also requires an understanding of physicians’ progressive disengagement from debt collection. What was once an unavoidably personal negotiation has become an administrative and legal process divorced from clinical obligations. This talk draws on historical research and new data to explain how unremunerative practices causing financial harm to patients became standard practice.

Audience Q & A to follow.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Luke Messac is a physician and historian at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. He received his BA from Harvard University, his MD and PhD from the University of Pennsylvania, and completed his residency training in emergency medicine at Rhode Island Hospital.

Dr. Messac’s early research was on the history and political economy of health care in Africa. His first book, No More to Spend (Oxford University Press, 2020) was a history of the practice of medicine under regimes of austerity in British colonial Africa. He has also published widely in medical and historical journals on a range of subjects including the development of national income accounting, the origins of trade regulations for medicinal opiates, and determinants of population-level mortality rates. His most recent work focuses on the rise of the medical debt collection industry in the United States. This is the subject of his book Your Money or Your Life (Oxford University Press, 2023). His has published in leading journals including the New England Journal of Medicine and Health Affairs and has testified before the United States Senate. He lives with his wife and two children in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.

The Office of University Postdoctoral Affairs (OUPA) at Brown University is pleased to announce the second annual postdoctoral research symposium on Thursday, March 27, 2025 in the Stephen Robert ’62 Campus Center and Sayles Hall.

This symposium will feature the innovative research being conducted by postdoctoral scholars at Brown and include the following:

• A professional development workshop for postdoctoral scholars
• The Postdoctoral Excellence Awards ceremony in Sayles Hall
  
• A poster session accompanied by a reception in Sayles Hall

While this symposium is designed for postdoctoral research associates and postdoctoral fellows with primary appointments at Brown as well as equivalent postdoctoral appointees with a Brown affiliation at a Brown-affiliated hospital, OUPA is extending the invitation to attend this event to members of the Brown community who could benefit from attending and networking with colleagues.

A submission form for the poster session was shared with the postdoctoral community in December 2024, and a registration form for the workshop will be shared in January 2025 following the Winter Break.

About the Event

The event will begin with a screening of the award-winning “Bring Them Home” documentary, which will last around thirty minutes. Then, Andrew and Rob will participate in a moderated panel discussion on the film and the deported veteran movement. Finally, audience members will have the opportunity to ask questions.

About the Documentary

“Bring Them Home” is a powerful award-winning documentary exploring the harrowing issue of deported veterans—a group who has honorably served yet finds themselves exiled by the very nation they defended. This gripping film reveals the harsh realities of non-citizen soldiers who confront the threat of deportation due to shifting immigration laws, intertwining personal sacrifice with national identity. Through intimate portraits, “Bring Them Home” spotlights the emotional and psychological battles these veterans face post-service—mental health struggles and moral injury—while they wage a larger fight for justice and re-entry into the U.S. It’s a stark examination of policy versus human cost, of citizenship entangled with service. Helmed by Tamara Jay and Rike Boomgaarden, Executive produced by Andrei Drei “Drei” Rosca, and Elaine Carmody and produced by Rob Young Walker, with Excuse My Accent and Dream Roots Creative, the documentary is a critical look at patriotism’s fine print, questioning who gets to call America home.

About the Panelists

Andrew Steinberg is an experienced grassroots organizer and researcher passionate about combining law, policy, and community organizing to create transformative change. He graduated magna cum laude with honors from Brown University, where his studies focused on the history of deported veterans and their advocacy. He is active in the deported veteran movement and served on the board of the Deported Veterans Support House, a shelter and community resource center for exiled ex-servicemembers in Tijuana, Mexico. He is currently completing a concurrent Juris Doctor degree at Georgetown Law and a Master in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School.

Rob Young is an award-winning filmmaker, music artist, social entrepreneur, and humanitarian. As the founder of Excuse My Accent and CEO of Rob Young Productions, he focuses on creating platforms that invoke change through music, events, and film while uplifting inner cultural non-profit initiatives.

Through his commitment to spreading awareness of social issues, Rob has been a formative speaker on DE&I and a creative visionary. His work ranges from an award-winning film about deported veterans, “Bring Them Home,” which was shown at the United States Capitol building, leading over 50 legislators to sign on to the Veteran Service Recognition Act. This marquee event was in partnership with prominent non-profits ImmDef, ACLU, and LULAC. This impactful documentary short spawned from his hit record “Excuse My Accent,” further showing his ability to utilize creativity in all facets to uplift impactful conversations. Rob is also a creative visionary working with many organizations, including the National Alliance of Mental Illness, the Washington State Department of Equity, the first ever in United States government history, and more.

From its inception, Israel has defined itself as both Jewish and democratic—a dual identity that has shaped the nation’s history and continues to generate deep tensions. Over the past two years, the most turbulent since the state’s founding, these tensions have intensified, deepening political, social, and religious divisions. This lecture will explore the key challenges facing Israel’s democratic institutions, social fabric, and future as a shared society.

Masua Sagiv is the Koret Visiting Assistant Professor of Jewish and Israel Studies at University of California, Berkeley, and Senior Faculty at the Shalom Hartman Institute based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Dr. Sagiv’s scholarly work focuses on contemporary Judaism in Israel as a culture, a religion, and a nationality, as well as being part of Israel’s identity as a Jewish and democratic state. Her research explores the role of law, state actors, and civil society organizations in promoting social change across diverse issues: shared society, religion and gender, religion and state, and Jewish peoplehood. Her book, Radical Conservatism (in Hebrew), on the halakhic feminist struggle in Israel, was published by Carmel Publishing House in 2024.

At the 6th Brown-MIT Doctoral Development Workshop doctoral students interested in development will present their work-in-progress to familiar and new audiences. The workshop is co-organized by the Graduate Program in Development (GPD) at Brown University and the International Development Group (IDG) in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning (DUSP) at MIT.

Brown-MIT Doctoral Development Workshop
Graduate Program in Development (Watson Institute at Brown)&
The International Development Group (DUSP-MIT)

This years’ conference will be held on the MIT campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Friday April 4, 2025

Please note that morning sessions will be held in room 9-415. Lunch and afternoon sessions will be held in room 9-217

10:30-10:40

Welcome, introductions and workshop framing

Patrick Heller (Brown) and Jason Jackson (MIT)

10:40-12:30 Session 1

“Urban Adaptation Financing for Rapidly Growing Amazonian Cities” Mrinalini Penumaka (MIT) and Sylvia Jiménez Riofríoa (MIT)

Discussant: Maria Arievitch (Brown)

“Public Goods with Corporate Sponsors” Sai Pitre (Brown)

Discussant: Benjamin Muñoz Rojas(MIT)

11:30-11:40 mini-break

“China’s High-tech, Low-road trap” JS Tan (MIT)

Discussant: Yitong Liu (Brown)

“The Fiscal and Financial Roots of Unfinished Residential Construction: Evidence from China and India” Aidon Li

Discussant: Chenab Navalkha (MIT)

12:30-1:30 Lunch

1:30-2:20 - Session 2

“The Multispecies Caste Economy, Violence, and Autonomy along Chittagong’s Karnafuli River” Annabelle Suitor Tan (Brown)

Discussant: Mrinalini Penumaka (MIT)

“Resistance in Women’s Work: A View from the Indian Platform Economy” Amrita Nair (MIT)

Discussant: Yulin Yang (Brown)

2:20-2:30 mini-break

“Solar Demand of Small Firms: Evidence from Kenya” Jiayue Zhang (Brown)

Discussant: TBD (MIT)

“Punishment Before Guilt: Media, Punitiveness, and the Rise of Pretrial Detention” Benjamin Muñoz Rojas(MIT)

Discussant: Jiayue Zhang (Brown)

3:20-3:45 Coffee Break

3:45-5:00 Session 3

“On God, investors, and copper: A dispute for the origin of the value of nature”” Diego Alonso (MIT)

Discussant: Aidon Li (Brown)

“Central Banking in Growth Models in the Global South”

Sanghyun Cho and Soeun Kim (Brown)

Discussant: JS Tan (MIT)

“Globalization in an increasingly borderized world” Adeposi Adeogun (MIT)

Discussant: Annabelle Suitor (Brown)

*Lunch provided*

The power to create money is foundational to the state. In the United States, that power has been largely delegated to private banks governed by an independent central bank. Putting monetary policy in the hands of a set of insulated, non-elected experts has fueled the popular rejection of expertise as well as a widespread dissatisfaction with democratically elected officials. In Our Money, Leah Downey makes a principled case against central bank independence (CBI) by both challenging the economic theory behind it and developing a democratic rationale for sustaining the power of the legislature to determine who can create money and on what terms. How states govern money creation has an impact on the capacity of the people and their elected officials to steer policy over time. In a healthy democracy, Downey argues, the balance of power over money creation matters.

Audience Q & A to follow.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Leah Downey is a junior research scholar at St. John’s College, Cambridge where she works on democratic theory and macroeconomic policymaking. Downey holds B.A.s in Mathematics and Economics from UNC Chapel Hill, an MSc in Economics & Philosophy from the LSE, and a PhD in Government from Harvard University. Her research considers the democratic implications of how states make policy. As such, she has written on topics including the administrative state, monetary policy, macrofinance and the green transition, and the meaning of security in politics and economics.