NYU’s Center for Global Affairs Announces Its February 2009 Events

Attention Listings Editors

The NYU Center for Global Affairs at New York University’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies announces its February 2009 schedule of events and lectures, which includes: Worldly Perspectives with Clyde Haberman, NYC columnist for The New York Times; as well as the “Thursday Brown-bag Series,” Conflict, Security, and Development: Issues, Actors, and Approaches, a collaboration with NYU Wagner (www.nyu.edu/wagner/international/), The popular film event Politics and Art in Cinema: Films That Made a Difference hosted by filmmaker and journalist Holly Carter, International Careers: Practical Advice and Real-Life Experience, and panel discussions moderated by Carolyn Kissane of the Center for Global Affairs (CGA).

NYU’s Global Affairs events are free and open to the public. Space is limited and reservations are required. Register by phone at (212) 992-8380 or e-mail your details to scps.global.affairs@nyu.edu. Your public event registration request will be confirmed via e-mail on the Friday prior to the scheduled event. Unless otherwise indicated, all public events are held at the Center for Global Affairs, Woolworth Building, 15 Barclay Street, 4th Floor (Between Broadway and Church Street). More information is also available at www.scps.nyu.edu/cga.

• Thursday, February 3 at 6.30p.m. International Careers in the Private Sector. Part of the “International Careers: Practical Advice and Real-Life Experience ” series, this panel will be moderated by Everett Myers, an international investment banker and will include panelists Chris Gadomski, managing editor of New Energy Finance; Steven Godeke, principal, Godeke Consulting; as well as Cortney Rhoads Stapleton, vice-president of Bliss PR and PR director, Spotlight Children.
• Wednesday, February 4 at 6.30 p.m. Worldly Perspectives with Clyde Haberman, New York Times with Elisabeth Rosenthal, international environment correspondent, International Herald Tribune/New York Times. Elisabeth Rosenthal has been a reporter with the International Herald Tribune/New York Times since 1994. For the last four years she has covered global environmental issues, based in Paris and Rome. From 1997 to 2003 she was a correspondent for the New York Times in Beijing, China and she covered the 2004 U.S. Presidential campaign. She has won numerous awards for her work from (among others) the Asia Society, the United Nations, and the Newswomen’s Club of New York.
• Thursday, February 5 at 12.30 p.m. Brown-bag Lunchtime Series: Where Has the Russian Mafiya Gone? And Why Should We Care? with Mark Galeotti, clinical associate professor, Center for Global Affairs. In the 1990s, Russian organized crime-or fear of it-seemed everywhere, from CIA threat assessments to Bond movies. Since then, it seems to have dropped off the media radar. Galeotti discusses how modern organized crime-networked, entrepreneurial, multiethnic and transnational-is adapting and working within state and economic structures. Note location: NYU Wagner at the Puck Building-295 Lafayette St., 2nd Fl; RSVP by visiting www.wagner.nyu.edu/events/conflictseries.php or by calling 212.992.8380.
• Tuesday, February 10 at 6 p.m. Graduate Information Session: M.S. in Global Affairs Discover how the M.S. in Global Affairs can transform your future. Note Location: Marriot Marquis,1535 Broadway, 4th Floor.
• Wednesday, February 11 at 6.30 p.m. Elections and Energy: What’s Next for Canada and the United States. Co-sponsored by the Consulate-General of Canada. A panel discussion on the energy policy implications of the most recent federal elections in Canada and the United States, Panel participants include: Joseph Doucet, Enbridge Professor of Energy Policy, University of Alberta’s School of Business; Carmen Dybwad, president, Energy Council of Canada; Edward Morse, managing director and chief economist, LCM Commodities; Rachel Ziemba, senior analyst, RGE Monitor.
• Thursday, February 12 at 12.30 p.m. Brown-bag Lunchtime Series: Reprodcutive Health of War-Affected Populations: What Do We Know? With Dr. Therese McGinn, associate professor, clinical population and family health, and director-RAISE Initiative, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. The traditional focus of relief agencies during emergencies has been the provision of food, water, shelter, and basic health care, while reproductive health services have rarely been made available to refugees or the displaced. McGinn outlines how world attention has been drawn to reproductive health issues; and how the reproductive health of a population is affected, in turn, by refugee or displaced status. Note location: NYU Wagner at the Puck Building-295 Lafayette St., 2nd Fl; RSVP by visiting www.wagner.nyu.edu/events/conflictseries.php or by calling 212.992.8380.
• Friday, February 13th at 6.30 p.m. United Nations Peace and Security Reform. Issues in peace and security continue to be a fundamental task of the United Nations 64 years after its founding. Recent developments, however, have presented new challenges to the international community, demanding a modernization of the organization. With 192 Member States, any modification involves a vast political and operational effort. This discussion, hosted by graduate students, will involve leaders in the field as they discuss reforms taking place and the way ahead.
• Wednesday February 18 at 6 p.m. Politics and Art in Cinema: Pather Panchali (India, 1955). Set in the 1920s, a boy, Apu, is born to a poor Brahmin family in a village in Bengal. The father, a poet and priest, cannot earn enough to support his family. Apu’s sister, Durga, is forever stealing guavas from the neighbor’s orchards. With a rich sense of place and time the film suggests an intimate connection between the human and natural world. Directed by Satyajit Ray. 115 minutes.
• Thursday February 19 at 12.30 p.m. Brown-bag Lunchtime Series: Challenges and Hope for Development- The Case of Rwanda and Darfur Survivors with Mary Kayitesi Blewitt, founder and director, Survivors Fund (SURF); nominee for 2005 Nobel Peace Prize. In the fifteen years since nearly one million people were killed in the Rwandan Genocide, SURF has worked to develop an integrated approach to helping survivors deal with and recover from their losses. Blewitt will talk about SURF’s model for helping survivors rebuild their lives and how it can be applied to the situation in Darfur.
• Thursday, February 19 at 6.30p.m. International Careers with Nongovernmental Organizations and Volunteer Organizations. Part of the “International Careers: Practical Advice and Real-Life Experience ” series, this panel will be moderated by Carolyn Kissane, clinical associate professor, Center for Global Affairs, and includes panelists James Allen Smith, vice president and director of research and education, Rockefeller Archive Center; Jenna Slotin, program officer, International Peace Institute; and Rena Kokalari, deputy field organizer, Presidential Campaign for Barack Obama.
• Tuesday February 24 at 6.30 p.m. Democracy and Global Identity Panel. In this series CGA Clinical Associate Professor Carolyn Kissane moderates thoughtful discussion examining the relationship between global citizenship, national identity, and individual responsibility. She is joined by special guests Carol Gilligan, University Professor at NYU; Chris Walker, director-studies, Freedom House; as well as Edwin D. Webb and David A. J. Richards, co-authors of The Deepening Darkness: Patriarchy, Resistance, and Democracy’s Future (2008).
• Wednesday, February 25 at 1.00 p.m. Peace Corps Information Session: Learn how the Peace Corps can fit into your career path. Over 800 NYU alumni and more than 4,000 New York City residents have joined the Peace Corps since 1961. Positions are available for U.S. citizens with a wide variety of backgrounds
• Wednesday, February 25 at 6.30 p.m. Worldly Perspectives with Clyde Haberman, New York Times with James Bennet editor-in-chief, The Atlantic. James Bennet was named The Atlantic’s 14th editor-in-chief in 2006. Before joining The Atlantic, Bennet was the Jerusalem Bureau Chief and White House correspondent for The New York Times. A graduate of Yale University, Bennet began his career at The Washington Monthly.
• Thursday, February 26th at 12.30 p.m. Brown-bag Lunchtime Series: Voting for Peace- Building Democracies in Post-Conflict Countries. Lecture by Thomas Flores, clinical assistant professor, Center for Global Affairs. Flores will discuss how in the wake of violent civil conflict, democratization is often seen as a central tenet of the post-conflict reconstruction plan. Despite these goals, nascent democracies confront daunting obstacles on the road to recovery, and early elections are often a conduit to further violence. Note location: NYU Wagner at the Puck Building-295 Lafayette St., 2nd Fl; RSVP by visiting www.wagner.nyu.edu/events/conflictseries.php or by calling 212.992.8380.
• Thursday, February 26 at 6.30 p.m. “In Print” series: Peter Galbraith, Unintended Consequences. In Unintended Consequences: How War in Iraq Strengthened America’s Enemies, Galbraith surveys the occupation in Iraq, now in its fifth year, with strong words for optimists who regard the surge as a road to victory. The author argues that the war has achieved the opposite of many of its stated objectives and discusses a possible Iraqi three-state solution, whereby the country would be divided by ethnic group. Peter W. Galbraith served as the first U.S. Ambassador to Croatia. He is currently the Senior Diplomatic Fellow at the Center for Arms Control and Nonproliferation and a regular contributor to the New York Review of Books.

EDITORS NOTE: The new NYU Center for Global Affairs, within the University’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies [www.scps.nyu.edu], is located in the School’s state-of-the-art facility in the Woolworth Building - one of downtown New York’s architectural treasures. The Center presents provocative and timely public events regarding the latest topics in world affairs (formerly held at the NYU Vernon Center for International Affairs), and houses a new graduate program in global studies and myriad non-degree courses in international affairs.