Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs

Matthew Rojansky will discuss the current state of the war in Ukraine and take questions from the audience.

Matthew Rojansky, the President and CEO of the U.S. Russia Foundation and a Distinguished Fellow at the Wilson Center’s Kennan Institute, is as much a regular at Congressional briefings and on prime-time news shows as he is on the streets of Moscow, Kyiv, or Berlin. One of the country’s leading analysts of US relations with Russia, Ukraine, and the region, he has advised governments and international organizations and leads track two diplomacy on Eurasian conflicts.

“Writing Crime: Transmigrated, Border Subjects and International Violence,” a talk by Professor Ileana Rodriguez, Distinguished Humanities Professor of Spanish at Ohio State University. “In this talk, I examine the case of Doris Ivania Jimenez, a woman who was raped and murdered on November 21, 2006, in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua. Implicated in the crime are Eric Stanley Volz, Julio Martin Chamorro Lopez, Armando Agustin Llanes Navarro and Nelson Antonio Lopez Danglas. Volz and Chamorro were indicted; Llanes and Danglas were exonerated.

“World Cup Soccer and the Global South: From South Africa 2010 to Brazil 2014” a presentation by Peter Alegi, professor of history at Michigan State University. He is the author of African Soccerscapes: How a Continent Changed the World’s Game (2010) and co-editor with Chris Bolsmann of Africa’ World Cup: Critical Reflection on Play, Patriotism, Spectatorship, and Space (University of Michigan Press, 2013).

Filmmaker Marilyn Solaya will travel all the way from Havana, Cuba to present her documentary In the Wrong Body (2010, 55 mins, Spanish with English subtitles). The film tells the story of Mavi Susel, who underwent the first gender reassignment operation in Cuba in 1988. In the Wrong Body explores such timely issues as the meaning of femininity in the macho and patriarchal society in Cuba where many stereotypes and prejudices still exist. Q&A with the filmmaker to follow screening.

A lecture by Aviv Chomsky, Professor of History and Coordinator of Latin American, Latino and Caribbean Studies, Salem State College. She is the author of A History of the Cuban Revolution (2010) and Linked Labor Histories: New England, Colombia, and the Making of a Global Working Class (2008). Sponsored by Latin American Studies Program.

The RCGA International and Global Colloquium Series presents “Answers to the Question ‘Is Russia Fascist?’” by Matt Walker, assistant professor of Russian.

In this panel, students will share their research on why democracies backslide today with specific reference to the experience of democratic backsliding and rise of populism in Poland, Hungary, Germany, Italy, and India. Organized by Prof. Sebnum Gumuscu and sponsored by the RCGA program on Global Trends in Autocracy and Democracy.

Student presenters include: Matei Vasile Goina, Sarah O’Dell, Vera Roussef, Katrina Rowe, and Eva Stanley.

RAJ CON from 4:30-6 pm. Come and enjoy pizza and soft drinks!

Stop by the Davis Library entrance to meet the Rohatyn Student Advisory Board and hear more about opportunities to engage with global affairs at Middlebury College! RSAB will be available to discuss submitting your work to the Middlebury Journal of Global Affairs, Hot Topics discussions, and more. When you stop by be sure to grab some goodies to make your study session a little sweeter!

Please join the Rohatyn Student Advisory Board for our monthly Hot Topics Lunch  in the RAJ Conference Room. This month, Prof. Dima Ayoub of the Arabic Department will be speaking on the recent protests in Iran and what it means to be a woman in Iran. Q&A to follow. This event is for students only and will feature lunch from Noonie’s.

The RCGA program on Global History presents Andrew Liu who will discuss his book Tea War: A History of Capitalism in China and India (Yale University Press, 2020).