Political Studies

Fionnuala Ní Aoláin | Protecting Human Rights in the Age of Counterterrorism

For the past two decades countering terrorism has been at the forefront of the foreign policy priorities of democracies. This has coincided with the growth of human rights narratives as a fundamental feature of such democracies. However, a number of counterterrorism measures, such as the use of unlawful detention at Guantanamo Bay, confirmation of “black sites” being used for interrogation and extended state surveillance powers, have raised serious human rights concerns.

Julie DeGraffenried | Never Forget: The Uses of Childhood Trauma in the Soviet Union

Children in the Soviet Union suffered horribly during World War II. Conditions created by an invading enemy and policy decisions by state authorities contributed to traumatic experiences for the young, experiences that were captured in officially-sanctioned images and narratives during the war. This talk will describe typical childhood trauma in the wartime USSR, offer examples of Soviet images that depicted children in wartime, and explore ways in which state authorities used these representations of children’s suffering for audiences young and old, during and after the war.

Stephen Polasky | Making Nature Count: Rewriting Economic and Political Rules so Nature Matters

Economic growth has transformed the planet with both positive (improved material standards of living) and negative impacts (degradation of the environment including air and water pollution, loss of biodiversity, ocean acidification, and climate change). One major cause of environmental degradation is that market systems reward firms for producing commodities but not for maintaining environment quality. Correcting this imbalance to properly account for the value of nature can be achieved using a variety of public and private sector approaches.