GLOBIS Friday Forum, March 30

Please join us Friday, March 30th, from 2:00 to 3:00PM for the next installment in the ongoing Friday Forum Series hosted by The Center for the Study of Global Issues (GLOBIS), to be held in the 4th floor conference room of the Franklin House. This week's talk "Empty Nets: Social Democracy and the 'Catchall Party Theory' in Germany and Sweden." will be delivered by Dr. Christopher Allen of the Department of International Affairs at the University of Georgia. An abstract follows:

The social democratic parties of both Germany and Sweden were part of the "third way" movement common to such political parties during the 1990s. By continuing to moderate their positions and move away from their traditional bases, they seemed to embody -- one generation later -- the essence of Otto Kirscheimer's thesis. But in doing so, each of them opened up their left flanks and saw considerable growth of both Green and Left (former communist) parties fill the policy space that social democracy had relinquished. Both parties no longer lead their governments. This paper will ask whether the Kirscheimer thesis: a) was executed poorly by these social democratic parties; b) is no longer relevant for social democratic parties with the proliferation of smaller parties in many parliamentary systems; or c) needs fundamental revision not by trying to "catch all", but to catch a broader left that they may have missed by following Kirscheimer's thesis.

Also, please plan ahead for the next forum. On Friday, April 6th, at 2:00PM, Mr. Regan Damron and Mr. Nathan Freeman, both graduate students in the Department of International Affairs, will present talks in preparation for the Midwest Political Science Association conference. In addition, if anyone is interested in presenting a paper, thesis, prospectus, or dissertation to an interested and informed audience, please contact Jon Polk at the e-mail address or phone number listed below.

GLOBIS is located in the historic Franklin House on the corner of Thomas St. and Broad St. at the Northern edge of campus. Please email jonpolk@uga.edu or call 706-542-6633 for directions or to be removed from our mailing list.

2007 Holmes/Hunter Lecture

The twenty-second annual Holmes/Hunter Lecture will be delivered Tuesday, April 3, by Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin. This year's Holmes/Hunter Lecture begins at 2:00 p.m. in the Chapel. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Franklin was elected Atlanta's 58th mayor in 2001 in her first bid for public office and was re-elected last year. She is the first African-American woman to serve as mayor of a major southern city.

The Holmes-Hunter Lecture was established in 1985 to honor Hamilton Holmes and Charlayne Hunter Gault, who in 1961 became the first African Americans to enroll at UGA. Lecture speakers focus on race relations, black history or aspects of higher education with implications for race relations. Previous speakers for the Holmes/Hunter Lecture include Andrew Young, Jesse Jackson, Vernon Jordan, Nikki Giovanni, and Deborah Roberts.

Sibley Lecture

The 102nd Sibley Lecture, sponsored by the Dean Rusk Center, will be held on Tuesday, March 27 at 2:30 p.m. in the university Chapel. Giving a presentation entitled, "A Balanced View of American Power," the Honorable Lee H. Hamilton, co-chair of the Iraq Study Group and vice-chair of the 9/11 Commission, will be discussing how America can use its power around the world to pragmatically protect its interests and advance its values.

More information, including a bio of the speaker, may be found here:

http://www.uga.edu/ruskcenter/hamilton.html

Russell Undergraduate Teaching Award

Congratulations to Dr. Jaroslav Tir on being named a recipient of the 2007 Richard B. Russell Teaching Award. Funded by the Richard B. Russell Foundation, the award recognizes excellence in undergraduate instruction at The University of Georgia by faculty members in their early academic careers.

Dr. Tir has been with the university since fall 2003. His book, Redrawing the Map to Promote Peace: Territorial Dispute Management via Territorial Changes, was published by Lexington Books in 2006. In his time at UGA Dr. Tir has taught undergraduate classes on international relations, comparative politics, and developed and taught a new course on modern warfare.

He is also the program director for the university’s Ecuador Conflict Resolution Study Abroad program in Quito, and is an instructor for the Croatia Maymester Study Abroad program.

Outstanding GTA Award

Congratulations to Ms. Esther Skelley, a student in our Ph.D. program, on being named a recipient of a 2007 Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award. The award recognizes graduate teaching and laboratory assistants who have excelled in instruction. Previously, Ms. Skelley had received a 2005 Graduate Student Excellence in Research Award.

In the news

Dr. Gary Bertsch and his work with the Center for International Trade and Security are featured in today's Athens Banner-Herald in an article written by Loran Smith.