Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs

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).

Hosted by the National Committee on US-China Relations, China Town Hall connects leading China experts with Americans around the country for a national conversation on the implications of China’s rise on U.S.-China relations and its impact on our towns, states, and nation.?Please join us on Wednesday, November 16, at 5:30 p.m. for a pre-webinar faculty-led talk on the history of Sino-US relations. Dinner to follow. The webinar will then be screened at 7:00 p.m. EST, and will feature former U.S. ambassador to Russia, China, and Singapore, Jon M. Huntsman Jr.

This inaugural event will feature two alums from Wellington Management Company LLP in a discussion about Applying Sustainability and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Factors in the Capital Markets:

Sandhya Subramanian Douglas ’93, P’25, Partner, Senior Managing Director, Director of Strategic Analysis and Implementation Soyibou Sylla ’20, Investment Science Associate The conversation will be moderated by Amanda Frank ’23.5 and Samuel Sullivan ’23.

Professor Stafano Mula of the Italian department will give a talk on the results of the recent Italian election and the implications of the election of Giorgia Meloni on the state of democracy in both Italy and the EU as a whole. The talk, as with all “Hot Topics” lunches organized by the Rohatyn Center, will be for students only. Lunch will be provided from Noonie’s. Following the talk, Professor Mula will lead a Q&A.

Please RSVP by Oct. 25 to ensure that an adequate amount of food is provided.

The Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs program on Global Economics presents Martin Saavedra. As the COVID-19 pandemic is turning into an endemic after three years, it is more urgent than ever to think about its long-term consequences. A comparison with the 1918 influenza provides that perspective.

In this presentation Professor Gulnaz Sharafutdinova (KCL) will present the key argument from her book The Red Mirror: Putin’s Leadership and Russia’s Insecure Identity (2020) about the political transformation that Russia has undergone over the past 10 years. Specifically, the focus will be on the socio-psychological analysis of the central pillars of Putin’s leadership including the propagation of ressentiment in the society by constructing the trauma of the 1990s and appealing to the main pillars of Soviet collective identity.

The RCGA program on Global Trends in Autocracy and Democracy presents Staffan Lindberg and his lecture and discussion “Cause for Alarm? Global Data on Democracy and Autocracy.”