Pardee Graduate Council Hosts 6th Graduate Conference
The Pardee Graduate Council (PGC), the official graduate student organization of the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, hosted the 6th Annual Pardee School Graduate Conference on February 24-25, 2017 at 121 Bay State Road.
The theme for this year’s conference was “Walls or Bridges? Restructuring for a Better Tomorrow” with students presenting academic work identifying the forces of integration and disintegration and their impact on a variety of subjects around the world.
Stephen Kinzer, author and senior fellow in international and public affairs at Brown University, delivered the keynote address at the conference.
Kinzer’s keynote was followed by a full day of panels and discussions on February 25, 2017:
Environment Panel and Development Panel
Environment: What is the Future of Environment Policy?:
- Mike DiMuccio (Boston University): “Saudi Arabia: Obstructionism, Ossification, & Opportunism”
- Stepahnie Gagnon (Boston University): “The Environment-Poverty Nexus: Payments for Ecosystem Services and Poverty Alleviation”
- Philip Horowitz (Boston University): “CITES: Keeping an Eye on Illegal Elephant Trade”
Development: Bridging the Gap for a Better Tomorrow?:
- Eric Bindler (Boston University): “Small Island Finance: The Caribbean Development Bank’s Current and Potential Contributions to Bridging the Caribbean Climate Finance Gap”
- Ignacio Cardona (Harvard University): “Rethinking No Man’s Landscape”
- Takumi Onuma (Tufts University): “The Entrepreneurial Public Policy-Making: The Case of Business Improvement District”
- Samantha Robertson (Boston University): “Conditional Cash Transfers as a Panacea to Poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean? Not Yet but Potentially”
Religion and International Affairs Panel
Tearing Down the Walls of Religious Prejudice:
- Sana Haque (Boston University): “The Narrative of Islamophobia in European Media”
- Dina Wyler (Boston University): “A Vote with an Impact: An Analysis of How the Swiss Minaret Referendum Influenced Switzerland’s International Reputation”
International Treaties Panel
Restructuring for Tomorrow’s International System:
- Edward Henry (University of Massachusetts Boston): “Bridging the Final Frontier: Status of International Space Law”
- Bansari Kamdar (Boston University): “Trust-Building through Costly Signaling: Why Did the United States of America Sign the US-India Civil Nuclear Agreement with India in 2008?”
- Shanuki Tillekeratne (Boston University): “Security Implications of Bilateral Nuclear Agreements with India”
International Security Panel
Violent Non-State Actors in the Middle East:
- Justin O’Shea (Boston University): “ISIS: The Role of Ideology and Eschatology in the Islamic State”
- Christian Rodriguez (Boston University): “Crafting Militia Strategy: How Militias Manage their Evolving Relationships with the State”
All papers presented at the conference are original scholarship of MA and PhD candidates at Boston University, Harvard University, University of Massachusetts Boston, and Tufts University.
The conference is co-sponsored by the African Studies Center, Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies, Institute for Economic Development, Institute for the Study of Muslim Societies & Civilizations, and the International History Institute.