The state and governance in China have commonly been seen as non-religious. However, this does not imply they are devoid of ritualistic elements. As both the current CCP leadership and ordinary people seek to recuperate social life from market encroachment, affect-charged public rituals are experiencing a significant resurgence in contemporary urban governance and regime-building. Meanwhile, citizens’ sentiments and dispositions are becoming major subjects of the governing practices. In fact, this state deployment of secular rituals for affective governance can be traced back to early China (c. 1200 B.C. - c. 755 A.D.)—historical periods where indigenous ritual theories and practices flourished. This talk unravels to the audience the interplay of ritual and affect that are essential for understanding the theories and practices of governance in China, from the present to the past.

China Initiative Postdoctoral Fellow Shanni Zhao is a social and cultural anthropologist. She received her Ph.D. from Anthropology Department at Harvard University with a secondary field in Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies. Her research interests focus on urban governance, state-making, affect and sentiments, public and mediation, marriage and social reproduction, in both contemporary and 20-Century China.

Michael Puett is the Walter C. Klein Professor of Chinese History and Anthropology at Harvard University, as well as a member of the Committee on the Study of Religion. Puett joined the Harvard faculty in 1994 after earning his M.A. (1987) and Ph.D. (1994) from the Department of Anthropology at the University of Chicago. In his research, Puett aims to bring the study of China into our larger theoretical and comparative frameworks. His primary interests focus on the historical anthropology of China and on the ways in which ritual theory, social theory, and political theory from China may enrich contemporary theoretical discussions. 

About the Event

Join us in conversation with Catarina Lorenzo, Director of the RI-based organization Alliance to Mobilize our Resistance (AMOR); Liz Sweet, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition (MIRA); and Deborah Gonzalez, Law Professor and Director of the Immigration Clinic at Roger Williams University. This conversation will be moderated by Daniel Rodriguez, Associate Professor of History at Brown University.

The panel will address the effects of recent policies on local immigrant communities as well as how immigrant rights organizations are working to protect the rights of immigrant families.

In English with Spanish translation provided by headset.

Free and open to the public. For questions or to request special services, accommodations, or assistance, please contact clacs@brown.edu or (401)-863-2645

About the Speakers

Catarina Lorenzo is the Director of the Alliance to Mobilize Our Resistance (AMOR). Catarina is a Q’anjob’al-Maya woman from a small village in the mountains of Guatemala. She was the first person in her family, and one of the first from her village, to graduate from university. In Guatemala, Catarina worked for a number of human rights, women’s rights, indigenous rights, and social justice organizations. Since moving to Rhode Island, she has worked as a community organizer, and in June 2017, she began work as the director of AMOR. Catarina is also actively engaged in the large transnational community of Guatemalan migrants from her home region, producing and hosting a weekly radio program called ‘Rights in Action,’ which airs online and via FM in Guatemala.

Liz Sweet (she/her) is the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition (MIRA’s) Executive Director, taking the position in January 2022. Sweet brings to MIRA an 18-year record of advocating for immigrants and refugees. For the past six years, she served in senior leadership roles at HIAS (founded as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society), most recently as its Chief Operating Officer. A graduate of Northeastern University School of Law, Sweet set out to defend immigrants and asylum seekers in immigration detention during their deportation hearings. She later became the first full-time Director of the American Bar Association Immigration Justice Project in San Diego and then the Associate Director of the American Bar Commission on Immigration in Washington, DC. For the past six years, she has also served as the Chair of the Board of Detention Watch Network, a national coalition building power through collective advocacy, grassroots organizing, and strategic communications to abolish immigration detention in the United States.

Deborah Gonzalez is an attorney in Rhode Island and practices primarily in Immigration Law. She currently holds the position of Clinical Professor of Law at Roger Williams University School of Law and is the director of its Immigration Clinic. She is also one of the founding partners of Gonzalez Law Offices, Inc., in East Providence. She is a 2007 graduate of Roger Williams University School of Law. Debbie has dedicated her career to helping immigrants in Rhode Island obtain lawful status in the U.S. and/or to help fight against deportation.

About the Series

Responding to the recent rise in xenophobia and President Trump’s promises of mass deportation, this series looks at the history of U.S. immigration policy, its effects on migrant communities, and the work of local community organizations and advocates to protect immigrant families.

Join Taubman Director Wendy Schiller and political experts from Brown University for live commentary on President Trump’s first major address since taking office with his second administration. President Trump will be outlining his agenda to members of Congress and the nation. Tune in to hear an analysis of the sweeping changes promised and the priorities of the federal government.

This is event is limited to Brown students.

Students are invited for a lunchtime discussion with former U.S. Representative Elaine Luria, member of the January 6 Committee, to explore the boundaries of executive authority, the potential for government overreach against citizens, and discuss the mechanisms, both legal and institutional that exist to hold the administration in check. Moderated by Wendy Schiller, Interim Director of the Watson Institute. 

Elaine Luria served as the Representative for Virginia’s Second Congressional District from 2019-2023. While in Congress, she served as the Vice Chair of the House Armed Services Committee and as a member of the House Committee on Homeland Security and the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs. She also served as a member of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol.

In Congress, Luria championed a strong military; her work consistently resulted in
increased defense budgets, emphasizing shipbuilding and improving key capabilities in the Pacific. Luria was instrumental in the passage of the PACT Act, greatly increasing access to care for veterans with health conditions related to toxic exposure, such as burn pits. Luria was also a consistent voice on advanced nuclear technology, passing bipartisan legislation to field advanced reactor demonstration projects. Luria was also a strong proponent of clean energy, founding the bipartisan Offshore Wind Caucus to bring together legislators from across the aisle to facilitate the deployment of offshore wind. As a member of Congress, Rep. Luria was consistently lauded as one of the most bipartisan legislators and as the “most effective” freshman member of the House.

Before her election, Luria served two decades in the United States Navy, retiring at the rank of Commander, serving at sea on six ships as a nuclear-trained Surface Warfare Officer, with six deployments to the Middle East and Western Pacific, culminating her Navy career by commanding a combat-ready unit of 400 sailors. Luria graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy with a B.S. in Physics and History and received a Master’s in Engineering Management from Old Dominion University.
Since leaving Congress, Luria served as a visiting senior fellow at the Georgetown
University Institute of Politics and Public Service. Luria continues her work to advance national defense and the US maritime industry and serves on the Board of Directors of BAE Systems, Inc.

Join us on March 5, 2025 for a panel discussion moderated by Director of the Pandemic Center, Jennifer Nuzzo, DrPH, S.M.

This discussion featuring expert panelists will reflect on the valuable lessons learned and progress made since COVID-19 was characterized as a global pandemic by the World Health Organization and ask: What have we learned, what have we done, and how should we continue preparing for the next global pandemic?

Panel & Reception:
March 5, 2025 
Stephen Robert Hall, Room 101 (True North)
Panel Discussion - 4 - 5:15 p.m. | Reception 5:15 - 6 p.m. 

Panelists:

• Adam Levine, Associate Dean of Biology and Medicine, Director of the Center for Global Health Equity, Professor of Emergency Medicine
• Theresa Raimondo, Assistant Professor of Engineering
• Scott Rivkees, Associate Dean for Education in the School of Public Health, Professor of the Practice of Health Services, Policy and Practice
• Larry Warner, Chief Impact and Equity Officer at United Way of Rhode Island, President of the Rhode Island Public Health Association, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Health Services, Policy and Practice

This is an in-person event and registration is required. Please RSVP below. 

Please join Brown’s Arabic Program for a Dabke Workshop with instructor Karim Nagi. 

Pizza will be served!

This event has been sponsored by the Charles K. Colver Lectureships & Publications Fund. 

Middle East Colloquium series

About the Event
 Hidden within MIT’s Distinctive Collections, many architectural elements from the earliest days of the Institute still survive as part of the Rotch Art Collection. Among the artworks that were salvaged by conservators was a set of striking windows of gypsum and stained-glass, dating to the late 18th- to 19th c. Ottoman Empire. Similar stained-glass windows once graced the reception halls of elite homes, like al-ʿAzam Palace in Damascus and Bayt al-Razzaz in Cairo. Such halls have quickly disappeared due to the ravages of time, war, and recent earthquakes. Yet even prior to these events, many Ottoman-era windows came to Europe and the United States decontextualized as architectural elements or as part of full Islamic rooms, which visitors still admire today at institutions like the Victoria & Albert Museum in London and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

This exhibition illuminates the life of these historic windows, tracing their refracted histories from Egypt to MIT, their ongoing conservation, and the cutting-edge research they still prompt. Through facets of their narrative, these windows allow us to gaze into the history of architecture as a modern university discipline in the US and Europe. Their forms reflect key facets of architectural design in the Middle East and diverse approaches to the craft of window-making, which inspired collectors and designers across the nineteenth to twentieth centuries. This legacy of Islamic design continues to spark the imaginations of architects and artists in the region today (and abroad).

Curators from the Aga Khan Documentation Center (AKDC) uncovered these narratives through historical and archival research, alongside a new collaboration with the Wunsch Conservation Lab. Together, they commissioned a project conservator and documented the process of carefully cleaning and stabilizing these windows for exhibition and long-term preservation. They teamed up with MIT’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering and the Vitrocentre in Switzerland to run experiments to more precisely locate the origins of the materials used in these windows and their journey. Their research led to the commission of works from contemporary artist Dima Srouji (Palestine) and artisan Mohammd al-Dib (Egypt). 

About the Speaker
Gwendolyn Collaço is currently the Anne S.K. Brown Curator for Military & Society at Brown University’s John Hay Library. Prior to that, she held the position of Collection Curator of the Aga Khan Documentation Center at MIT, an archive relating to built environments of the Islamic world. There, she built a new collection of rare books, manuscripts, and art objects, which includes commissions from contemporary artists. Previously, she served as the Assistant Curator for Art of the Middle East at LACMA, where she contributed to the new permanent collection galleries and traveling exhibitions. Gwendolyn received her Ph.D. from the joint program for History of Art + Arch. and Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University, specializing in Islamic art. Her research interests span artistic exchanges between early-modern Islamic empires, Ottoman painting, print technologies of the Islamic world, and histories of collecting. Her current book project offers the first extended history of the commercial art market for manuscript paintings in Ottoman Istanbul. Her writing appears in journals, such as Ars Orientalis, Muqarnas, and several edited volumes.

https://www.avikunthak.com/feature-films/Vrindavani-Vairagya

The Taubman Center for American Politics and Policy is honored to host the Noah Krieger Memorial Lecture featuring Jake Tapper, anchor and Chief Washington Correspondent for CNN. A leading voice in American journalism, Tapper has built a reputation for sharp reporting, tough interviews, and a commitment to truth in an era of polarization and misinformation.

In this engaging lecture, Tapper will explore the challenges and responsibilities facing journalists today, from navigating the spread of disinformation to rebuilding public trust in the media. Drawing on his extensive career covering politics, policy, and international affairs, Tapper will provide a behind-the-scenes look at the role of journalism in shaping our democracy and holding leaders accountable.

Join us for an illuminating conversation on the power of the press, the fight for facts, and the future of truth in American public life.

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.

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