Balsillie School of International Affairs

PhD Dissertation Defence: Three Essays on Associations Between Sexual Risk Behaviours, and Certain Beliefs and Perceptions About Antiretroviral Therapy in Botswana
2019-06-18 11:00 - 14:00 (America/Toronto) | In Person, Balsillie School of International Affairs, 67 Erb Street West, Waterloo, ON, N2L 6C2, Canada
Wayne Gill‘s PhD dissertation defence.
Advisor: Alan Whiteside
Committee: Sue Horton, Zitha Mokomane
Internal/external: Larry Swatuk
External: Dr. King Holmes, University of Washington

Film Screening: In the Dark Times - A Culture in Exile
2019-06-06 19:00 - 21:00
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Join us for a screening of the film In the Dark Times – A Culture in Exile by Thomas Büsch & Sabine Küper-Büsch in honour of World Refugee Day in the Waterloo Region, followed by a Q and A with the filmmakers.
About the Film: The topic of culture in exile and the importance of supporting communities such as Syrian refugees in Istanbul is also the topic of Küper-Büsch and Büsch’s film In the Dark Times – A Culture in Exile and will be introduced in this presentation and screened in the evening followed by a short Q & A with filmmakers. In the Dark Times – A Culture in Exile describes the life and cultural strategies of artists, actors, musicians, activists, with a common forced migration background who are currently living in host countries like Turkey and Jordan. The film explores these artists’ impressive productions in film, dance, and theatre in Istanbul and Amman as they struggle to build up a new cultural identity in exile.
About the Filmmakers: Thomas Büsch and Sabine Küper-Büsch are filmmakers and curators from Germany, based in Istanbul. They are co-founders of The Mahalla Festival, through the Istanbul-based association Diyalog Derneği. The association aims to promote exchange and cooperation in order to facilitate intercultural understanding and cultural dialogue between communities.
This film screening is part of the workshop “Opening Communities to Newcomers: Cosmopolitanism, Solidarity Activism & Cultural Connections“.
The workshop made possible with the support of funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada; the Balsillie School of International Affairs; Wilfrid Laurier and Trent Universities; Laurier’s International Migration Research Centre and Sabancı University’s Istanbul Policy Centre.

Arts Evening: Opening Communities to Newcomers
2019-06-05 19:00 - 21:30
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Join us for an evening celebrating the arts and their transformative power to open communities to newcomers in honour of World Refugee Day in the Waterloo Region.
Featuring discussion, art & performances by:
Crossing the Border Photo Exhibit
Photographer Kemal Vural Tarlan, Director and Co-founder, Kırkayak Kultur, Turkey
as he discusses his photos documenting the people, things, and spaces along Turkey’s border with Syria, and in Jordan, Lebanon, and France, since January 2012.
The X-Page: A Storytelling Workshop
Project coordinator, Carrie Snyder, along with co-coordinator and educational consultant, Dr. Lamees Al Ethari, and writing coach, Tasneem Jamal explain the power behind this writing workshop based on a method taught by Lynda Barry, an American graphic novelist and teacher. The result is a A Quilt of Stories, a selection of stories written by 19 immigrant or refugee women from different backgrounds. Select performances will be provided including: Ms. Amna Kulsoom’s “A Day at School”, Ms. Yomatie Persaud’s “Role Reversal” and Ms. Paulina Rodriguez’s “Teaching of Nature”.
Theatre Performance: Adrenaline
Written and acted by Ahmad Meree and directed by Majdi Bou-Matar. The performance features Jabr, a young Syrian man spending his first New year’s Eve in Canada who looks back and remembers his last New Year’s Eve in Syria with family.
Closing performance by Waterloo Region’s The Levant Community Dabke Dance Group.
This arts evening is part of the workshop “Opening Communities to Newcomers: Cosmopolitanism, Solidarity Activism & Cultural Connections“.
The workshop is made possible with the support of funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada; the Balsillie School of International Affairs; Wilfrid Laurier and Trent Universities; Laurier’s International Migration Research Centre and Sabancı University’s Istanbul Policy Centre.

Opening Communities to Newcomers: Cosmopolitanism, Solidarity Activism and Cultural Connections Workshop
2019-06-05 17:00 - 2019-06-07 17:00
In recent years, xenophobic right wing and populist movements have emerged and strengthened across Europe and North America. While many governments are struggling to accommodate growing pluralism within this context, a variety of civil society initiatives have also emerged, motivated by the desire to welcome newcomers. For example, movements such as Germany’s Welcome Culture (Willkommenskultur), Denmark’s Kind Citizens (Venligboerne), and other, smaller-scale initiatives have demonstrated creativity in fostering pluralism in environments largely hostile to difference. In Turkey, a country hosting 3.7 million Syrians, civil society initiatives have also arisen, with the aim of helping integrate these refugees.
This workshop, organized by Dr. Kim Rygiel (Wilfrid Laurier University/BSIA) and Dr. Feyzi Baban (Trent University), brings together academics, artists and civil society groups from across Europe and North America interested in fostering pluralism and opening communities to newcomers. The workshop focuses on understanding why, how and under what conditions some communities are more open to cultural differences than others and what types of projects facilitate openness to newcomers. Here, the arts play an important role. Participants will reflect on conceptual issues such as cosmopolitanism and solidarity and on how civil society initiatives, particularly using the arts, provide alternative sites from which to challenge notions of who belongs within the community and ways of fostering living together.
The workshop includes 3 events open to the public in honor of Waterloo Region’s celebration of World Refugee Day:
• June 5th Arts evening
• June 6th Documentary screening of In the Dark Times – A Culture in Exile followed by Q & A with filmmakers, Thomas Büsch and Sabine Küper- Büsch
• June 7th Roundtable: Local Organizing in The Waterloo Region: Making Communities Welcoming for Newcomers
The workshop made possible with the support of funding from the
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada;
the Balsillie School of International Affairs;
Wilfrid Laurier and Trent Universities;
Laurier’s International Migration Research Centre
and Sabancı University’s Istanbul Policy Centre.
If you would like to be involved, please contact Kim Rygiel krygiel@wlu.ca.

From Political Won't To Political Will: Observations on Global Health Action as a Social Movement
2019-06-03 12:00 - 13:30
What is political will? Why should we care about it? He also asks how can we generate more of it to help us in our work to combat inertia and surmount barriers to creating better access to health and healthcare for the billions of people in need around the globe? How can we explain the different responses to environmental degradation, tobacco control and the HIV/AIDS epidemic when compared to the state of the response to the global epidemic of non-communicable diseases or the call for universal health coverage by 2030? Perspectives from political science and social movement theory point the way to a preliminary explanation.
About the speaker
Dr. Jeff Sturchio is a global health thought leader and trusted counselor for senior leaders in the private sector, multilateral organizations, governments, NGOS and foundations. Jeff is the President and CEO at Rabin Martin. He is former President and CEO of the Global Health Council. Before joining the Council in 2009, Dr. Sturchio was vice president of Corporate Responsibility at Merck & Co. Inc., and president of The Merck Company Foundation.
He is currently also chairman of the U.S. Corporate Council on Africa, chairman of the BroadReach Institute for Training and Education and a member of the boards of ACHAP, Friends of the Global Fight Against AIDS, TB and Malaria and the Science History Institute. Dr. Sturchio is also a visiting scholar at the Institute for Applied Economics, Global Health and the Study of Business Enterprise at Johns Hopkins University; Senior Associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies; a principal of the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network; Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Arthur W. Page Society; and an advisor to amfAR, Intrahealth International, Partnership for Quality Medical Donations, the Global Health Group at the University of California San Francisco and the Rutgers Global Health Institute. His publications include Noncommunicable diseases in the developing world: addressing global gaps in policy research (edited with L. Galambos, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014) and The Road to Universal Health Coverage: Innovation, Equity and the New Health Economy (edited with I. Kickbusch and L. Galambos, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019).

The X-Page Presents: "Quilt of Stories"
2019-05-26 14:00 - 16:00
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During a 12-week writing and performance workshop facilitated by local professional artists, 19 refugee and immigrant women from Waterloo Region each developed a personal narrative. They then worked collaboratively to bring their individual stories together into a cohesive presentation to be shared publicly.
A reception will follow the performance.
This event at the BSIA/CIGI Campus is being hosted by the International Migration Research Centre (IMRC).
Event poster

Economics for a Burning Planet: Challenging the Logic of the Growth Economy
2019-05-23 19:00 - 21:30
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The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted in 2015 as a collective action plan for UN Member States to ensure a more peaceful and prosperous world by 2030. Sustainable Development Goal 8 focuses on building sustainable economic growth, ensuring decent work for all, and addressing labour market inequality. However, in the context of a finite planet experiencing climate breakdown, some experts see inherent inconsistencies in this goal. A particular point of conflict is the idea that economic growth is necessary to address the imbalances that exist in access to the market. This panel, “Economics for a Burning Planet: Challenging the Logic of the Growth Economy,” will explore alternative approaches to sustainability that address the desired outcomes of SDG 8, including the ‘degrowth’ movement.
Dr. Leah Temper (Department of Natural Resource Sciences, McGill University), Dr. Peter Victor (Author ‘Managing without Growth’), Dr. Deborah McGregor (Indigenous Environmental Justice, York U), and Indigenous Climate Action co-founder Eriel Deranger, will present four distinct perspectives on the notion of ‘sustainable and equitable growth’. These panelists bring extensive expertise and unique perspectives that inform potential solutions for both addressing the fundamental goals of the SDG, while also contesting the assumption that this can only be accomplished by further expanding the world’s economy.
Copies of Peter Victor’s second edition of his important work “Managing without Growth” will be available for sale at the event, along with other key works from ecological economics.
This event is presented as the public keynote of the Canadian Society for Ecological Economics (CANSEE) 12th Biennial Conference: “Engaging Economies of Change” in partnership with the Balsillie School of International Affairs, the Centre for International Governance Innovation and Power Shift WR.

Waterloo Symposium on Technology and Society: The Simple Economics of Artificial Intelligence
2019-05-15 19:00 - 21:00
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The Centre for Security Governance is hosting the second Waterloo Symposium on Technology & Society. We are excited to welcome Avi Goldfarb, Rotman Chair in Artificial Intelligence and Healthcare and Professor of Marketing at Rotman, who will be speaking on “The Simple Economics of Artificial Intelligence.” Avi is also Chief Data Scientist at the Creative Destruction Lab, Senior Editor at Marketing Science, and a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research.
In this keynote lecture Avi will recast the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) as a drop in the cost of prediction. By doing so, he will lift the curtain on the AI-is-magic hype and show how basic tools from economics provide clarity about the AI revolution and a basis for action by CEOs, managers, policy makers, investors, and entrepreneurs. The impact of AI will be profound, but the economic framework for understanding it is surprisingly simple. Artificial Intelligence does the seemingly impossible, magically bringing machines to life – driving cars, trading stocks, and teaching children. But facing the sea change that AI will bring can be paralyzing. How should companies set strategies, governments design policies, and people plan their lives for a world so different from what we know?
The Waterloo Symposium on Technology & Society seeks to promote public discourse in Canada and beyond on the societal challenges and opportunities created by innovations in four primary areas: artificial intelligence, robotics, big data and social media.
For more information, visit the CSG website, or reserve a ticket here. If you have any questions, please reach me at mbunch@secgovgroup.com.

Up/Rooted 2: Gender, Sexuality and Refuge in Canada
2019-05-14 12:00 - 16:30
The BSIA in collaboration with Wilfrid Laurier University and the International Migration Research Center (IMRC) is hosting this half-day workshop. This workshop will explore challenges and opportunities for migrant, refugee, and indigenous communities. It is a follow up to Up/Rooted: Refugees, Resettlement, Community, an international conference held at Wilfrid Laurier University and the Balsillie School of International Affairs.
In early spring 2017, the highly successful international conference Up/Rooted was organized with the support and input of several community partners. Attended by hundreds of members of the community over three days, it was a pivotal event in drawing attention to, and providing insights into refugee issues in contemporary and historical contexts in the Waterloo region and the world beyond. This follow up workshop is a smaller scale event to allow for in depth conversational exchange and focused discussion. It is exploratory, in nature, and participants are not expected to present formal academic papers. The event will provide a platform for discussions from diverse sets of experiences and perspective angles in order to learn from each other.
Possible topics could include:
• health and well-being
• access to employment and housing
• food security
• aging and family dynamics
• family separation and reunification
• social isolation
• rethinking families across transnational contexts
• intergenerational trauma
• survivor guilt
• gendering transnational subjects
• LGBTQ identities in transnational contexts
• mental health needs
• wisdom traditions
The workshop will bring together approximately 20 representatives from community-based organizations, grassroots groups, artists, frontline workers, researchers, policy makers, political leaders, community members and students in focused discussions to consider the following broad questions in light of the specific topics mentioned above:
• What are the core issues at the intersection of gender, sexuality and refugee experiences?
• What are the best practices from the viewpoints of community based organizations, service providers, and those who access services?
• What policy recommendations could be made to municipal, provincial and federal governments?
• How would you change the narrative and what other kinds of stories are there that need to be told?
The workshop is co-organized by Dr. Carol Duncan and Dr. Jenna Hennebry. The workshop is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
You can register for the workshop by contacting Rosemary Kimani-Dupuis, email: rkimani-dupuis@balsillieschool.ca

Confronting the Global Forced Migration Crisis
2019-05-09 12:00 - 13:30
Erol Yayboke, Deputy Director and Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), examines the lessons learned from the Center’s Task Force on the Global Forced Migration Crisis.
From the report:
Almost 66 million people worldwide have been forced from home by conflict. Between 180 and 320 million people could be displaced by 2030. This global crisis already poses serious challenges to economic growth, stability, and national security, as well as an enormous human toll affecting tens of millions of people. Spending on forced migration now accounts for over 10 percent of total ODA at over $25 billion worldwide, yet mostly addresses symptoms of the crisis rather than root causes or longterm development. Fragile states in the developing world are sheltering the clear majority of forced migrants while risking collapse. Ultimately, no country can confront this crisis alone.
In May 2018, CSIS and its task force published a major report on how forced migration should be confronted and what you need to know to understand this global crisis.
The report defines a forced migrant as anyone who has been forced to leave home. The term appreciates the often appropriate and separate considerations relevant for different groups while acknowledging that not every person forced from home fits conveniently into one group or another.
About the speaker
Erol Yayboke is deputy director and senior fellow with the Project on U.S. Leadership in Development (USLD) and Project on Prosperity and Development (PPD) at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). His specific research interests include U.S. foreign assistance, the role of the private sector in the developing world, good governance, migration, forced displacement, development economics, and innovation-led economic growth. Previously, he served in several capacities with the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign and was a program/research manager on the Evidence for Policy Design (EPoD) team at the Center for International Development at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. Mr. Yayboke also has long-term field experience working for organizations (Global Communities, Save the Children, and AECOM International Development) in Iraq, Afghanistan, South Sudan, and the Somali Region of Ethiopia, serving in various senior country and project management roles. He is a member of the board of directors for the Andi Leadership Institute for Young Women, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit. Mr. Yayboke holds an M.P.A. from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin and a B.B.A. in international business also from the University of Texas at Austin.

Eating Tomorrow: The Battle for the Future of Food
2019-05-08 19:00 - 21:00
Join author, Timothy A. Wise on a worldwide journey to understand the continued prevalence of hunger amid plenty. If the world now has record levels of grain production, why does it also have rising indices of hunger and malnutrition? Wise makes a convincing case that increasing the industrial production of agricultural commodities does almost nothing for the world’s hungry. Oddly enough, it can even make them hungrier. He argues that agribusiness and its well-heeled philanthropic promoters have hijacked food policies to feed corporate interests. Rather than helping the hungry eat today, they are undermining sustainable food production and destroying the natural resources—land, air, water, climate—we all will need to eat tomorrow.
This talk is co-sponsored by the Waterloo Food Issues Group, the Global Food Politics Group and the Global Political Economy Research Cluster.

About the speaker
Timothy A. Wise is a senior researcher at the Small Planet Institute, where he directs the Land and Food Rights Program. He is also a senior research fellow at Tufts University’s Global Development and Environment Institute, where he founded and directed its Globalization and Sustainable Development Program. He previously served as executive director of the U.S.-based aid agency Grassroots International. He is the author of Eating Tomorrow: Agribusiness, Family Farmers, and the Battle for the Future of Food (The New Press) and Confronting Globalization: Economic Integration and Popular Resistance in Mexico. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Palestinian Refugees From Syria: A New Displacement Away From Home
2019-04-25 19:00 - 21:00
Palestinian statelessness is one of the world’s most persistent refugee crises; it goes back to 1948 when more than 750,000 Palestinians were displaced from Palestine as a result of the establishment of the state of Israel. Today more than half a million Palestinian refugees, who have resided in Syria since 1948, are reliving the trauma of their statelessness through the current Syrian conflict. The social marginalization and legal preciousness of Palestinian stateless refugees during the Syrian conflict are, in fact, examples of the limitations of the international refugee protection system which allow the exclusion of millions of refugees as they do not fit within its legal frameworks. Palestinians were never protected by the international protection regime as they have been subject to a set of legal structures that prevent them from officially accessing international refugee protection. Yet, during the current Syrian conflict, this group of refugees has experienced multiple layers of discrimination and rejections that push them to seek refuge in other destinations through life-threatening journeys. This talk addresses the particular predicament of Palestinian refugees from Syria, a predicament that powerfully reveals the political nature of the legal framework that governs stateless Palestinians.
About the speaker
Maissaa Almustafa recently defended her dissertation “Refugees from Syria Caught Between War and Borders: A Journey Towards Protection“.

Fifth BSIA Global Political Economy Dissertation Workshop
2019-04-25 08:00 - 2019-04-26 17:00
By Invitation Only
The Global Political Economy/WatPEG Research Cluster is hosting this dissertation workshop to provide selected PhD students the opportunity to present work in progress to an interdisciplinary audience of faculty and students. For more information about the selection process (now closed), see the Call for Proposals.
Participating Faculty (preliminary list):
John Abraham, Wilfrid Laurier University
Andrea Collins, University of Waterloo
Patricia Goff, Wilfrid Laurier University
Derek Hall, Wilfrid Laurier University
Eric Helleiner, University of Waterloo
Pierre Siklos, Wilfrid Laurier University
Larry Swatuk, University of Waterloo
Heather Whiteside, University of Waterloo
Randy Wigle, Wilfrid Laurier University

Inclusive Trade: Justice, Innovation or More of the Same?
2019-04-24 19:00 - 20:30
The notion of “inclusive trade” has taken hold in the policies of many national governments – Canada, Chile and New Zealand most prominent among them – and in the work of international organizations, including the World Trade Organization and the OECD. All inclusive trade policies focus on women, and small and medium-sized enterprises. Some also focus on Indigenous peoples, as well as issues like investor-state dispute settlement. Does inclusive trade deliver anything new to those groups that have not typically been included in conversations about trade? Dr. Patricia Goff argues two things in answer to this question. First, grounded in Nancy Fraser’s three justice idioms, Dr. Goff argues that inclusive trade may not always deliver economic gain (or mitigate economic loss). In Fraser’s terms, an inclusive trade strategy may not provide for ‘redistribution,’ but it can offer important opportunities for ‘recognition’ and ‘representation.’ Second, drawing on the debate about positive and negative integration, Dr. Goff argues that the inclusive trade agenda has the potential to be a qualitatively different way of developing trade policy by seeking to incorporate compensatory adjustment strategies for those who might suffer dislocation from trade liberalization directly into trade agreements. Ultimately, the inclusive trade agenda is an important strand in the debate about trade justice.
About the speaker:
Patricia Goff (PhD Northwestern) is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Wilfrid Laurier University and Senior Fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI). She has held visiting positions at the School of International Relations, University of Southern California and the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva. She is the author of Limits to Liberalization: Local Culture in a Global Market Place (Cornell University Press) and co-editor of Identity and Global Politics: Empirical and Theoretical Elaborations (with Kevin Dunn) and Irrelevant or Indispensable: The UN in the 21st Century (with Paul Heinbecker). She is the author of the Cultural Diplomacy chapter in the Oxford Handbook of Modern Diplomacy and the Cultural Diplomacy entry in the Oxford Bibliographies series. Recent publications include ‘Limits to Deep Integration: Canada between the EU and the US,’ Cambridge Review of International Affairs (2018); ‘Federalism and International Trade Policy: The Canadian Provinces in Comparative Perspective’ (co-authored with Jörg Broschek), Institute for Research on Public Policy Insight No. 23 (2018); and ‘NAFTA 2.0: Whither the Cultural Exemption?’ International Journal (2017).

PhD Dissertation Defence: Governing Chinese Engagement with the Hydrocarbon-Rich Countries; Examining Chinese Investment in the Hydrocarbon Sector of Canada and Russia
2019-04-24 08:00 - 11:00
Anastasia Ufimtseva‘s PhD Dissertation Defence.
Advisor: Derek Hall
Committee: Bessma Momani and Hongying Wang
Internal/external examiner: Jörg Broschek
External examiner: Gaye Christoffersen, Johns Hopkins University, Nanjing China
Abstract

Waterloo Symposium on Technology and Society: Disruptive Technology - Do Robots Want Your Job?
2019-04-16 19:00 - 21:00
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The Centre for Security Governance is hosting the Waterloo Symposium on Technology & Society, and we are excited to announce our first speaker in the series, futurist and New York Times best selling author, Martin Ford. This keynote lecture, “Disruptive Technology — Do Robots want Your Job?” will explore the ways in which AI and automation (robots) are outpacing humans in a range of sectors, from education to law, agriculture to healthcare, management and beyond. Ford will discuss the implications of a new industrial revolution and role of basic, guaranteed income as automation displaces a human workforce. He offers a realistic view of what the future of work — and your place in it — will look like. Beyond pragmatic concerns, Ford addresses a bigger question: can accelerating technology disrupt our entire economic system to the point where a fundamental restructuring is required? This next industrial revolution, Ford argues, will not be like the last one. In the past, even as jobs were eliminated, jobs were created to replace them. Increasingly, new machines will be able to take care of themselves, making fewer jobs necessary. Will basic, guaranteed income be implemented?
Martin Ford is a futurist, New York Times Bestselling Author and Silicon Valley Entrepreneur. He is a leading expert on the Robot Revolution, Artificial Intelligence, Job Automation, and the Impact of Accelerating Technology on Workplaces, the Economy and Society. He is the founder of a Silicon Valley-based software development firm and the author of three books: Architects of Intelligence, the New York Times bestselling Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future, and The Lights in the Tunnel: Automation, Accelerating Technology and the Economy of the Future. Martin has over 25 years of experience in computer design and software development, and holds a computer engineering degree from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and a graduate business degree from UCLA. He has written for publications including Fortune, Forbes, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Project Syndicate, The Huffington Post and The Fiscal Times. Ford has also appeared on numerous radio and television shows, including programs on NPR and CNBC.
The Waterloo Symposium on Technology & Society seeks to promote public discourse in Canada and beyond on the societal challenges and opportunities created by innovations in four primary areas: artificial intelligence, robotics, big data and social media.
For more information, visit the CSG website, or reserve a ticket here. If you have any questions, please reach me at mbunch@secgovgroup.com.

Building Resilient Communities: Responding to the New Realities of Newcomer Trajectories in Canadian Cities
2019-04-11 17:30 - 19:00
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Community representatives and researchers share their experiences with responding to challenges, crises, and change in relation to migration. The panel will discuss community and institutional level resilience, illuminating strategies for responding to shocks and change as communities and individuals cope with changing realities of migration in Canada.
Confirmed speakers include:
Jenna Hennebry
Tara Bedard, LIP Chair / KW City Network BRMC (Facilitator)
Ana Luz Martinez, KW Multicultural Centre
Peter Donahue, Laurier International
Rana Aljaroudi, Canadian Arab Women’s Association
Fran Hannigan, University of Waterloo
With opening and closing remarks by Jenna Hennebry and Valerie Preston.
A reception will follow the discussion.

Some Gendered Aspects of Migration: Resilience of Indian Nurses Abroad
2019-04-11 12:30 - 13:45
Thousands of nurses from India go to work abroad, leaving at an early age. Most of them will then enter in a process of step by step migration, having to adjust to different contexts and countries. These young women have been raised in a very protected way into family where autonomy of women is far from being a norm. This presentation intends to highlight and analyze the ways these women manage to cope as much as possible with all the challenges they have to face in order to live far from home and in a lot more independent manner. The concept of resilience will then be questioned to verify if and how it may be fruitfully applied in the context of nurses’ migration.
About the speaker
Marie Percot is an anthropologist who has focused her research on South Asia, in particular she has worked on the migration of Indian nurses to the Gulf countries.
This event is sponsored by

Curing the World from Injustices? Norm Failures in the Case of Humanitarian Arms Control
2019-04-04 12:15 - 13:30
Justice as a motive plays a powerful role in many scientific disciplines, such as in Political Theory, International Law or International Relations. While these disciplines draw on justice issues in very different ways, some common features can also be identified. Beyond this theoretical perspective, justice motives work in political practice as a powerful engine for norm-building efforts. Humanitarian and human rights motives provided actors with persuasive arguments triggering initiatives on humanitarian arms control. In the negotiations of the UN Program of Action on Small Arms and Light Weapons as well as on the Arms Trade Treaty, states were unable to agree on crucial norms which inhibit the effective implementation of both global governance agreements.
About the speaker
Dr. Simone Wisotzki is a Project Director and Member of Executive Board at the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (PRIF). Her research areas include international ethics, humanitarian arms control, arms exports, and gender studies. She is a consultant to the German government and parliament and has been a member of the German delegation to the BMS and Review Conferences of the United Nations Program of Action on the Illicit Trafficking of Small Arms and Light Weapons (UNPoA).

Socio-Cultural and Political Implications of Artificial Intelligence Summit
2019-04-03 18:30 - 2019-04-04 17:00
This two day Summit will showcase the research of Global Engagement Seminar (GES) Program students. Interactive student exhibitions will be on display, inviting participation from the broader Waterloo community. We hope to engage in important conversations about the impacts of Artificial Intelligence, such as automation of jobs, corporate ownership, biases of algorithms and privacy concerns. The objective is to contribute towards the development of meaningful responses to timely global issues.
The summit also includes the round table discussion, “Why Artificial Intelligence Matters” and keynote addresses “Artificial Intelligence and The Future of Work” featuring David Jones and “What is Missing is Still There” featuring Mimi Onuoha. For more details, visit https://uwaterloo.ca/global-engagement-program/events/2019-summit
Please register at https://gesprogram-summit.eventbrite.ca for one or more of the following:
April 3, 6:30pm – Roundtable and Reception
April 4, 10:00am – Student Exhibitions, Lunch and Keynote (David Jones)
April 4, 2:00pm – Student Exhibitions, Dinner and Keynote (Mimi Onuoha)
April 4, 6:30pm – Student Presentations and Reception
The GES Program brings together students from across all six University faculties. It applies methods drawn from diverse disciplines to study global problems where politics, economics, science, philosophy, history, and technology intersect.

CANCELLED: Mobilities, Medications, and Institutional Mazes: Ethical and Practical Dilemmas for People with Illness and Disability
2019-04-01 11:30 - 13:00
This event has been cancelled.
If the late Stephen Hawking had wanted to settle in Canada, he would likely have been denied. This is because he was disabled. Federal immigration law and policy exclude people with illness and disability on medical grounds. This is referred to as medical inadmissibility. Dr. Bisaillon examines impediments to migration and mobility produced through health related policies at federal and both inter- and intra-provincial levels. These lines of inquiry are conceptually connected by their location at the “medico-legal borderlands”: interdisciplinary spaces of professional practice and intellectual inquiry where the institutions of law and policy, medicine and health care, and social services and immigration co-exist and overlap. Examining both the broader social implications, and lived experiences, this talk examines medical inadmissibility in Canadian federal immigration law alongside the gaps in provincial health and social care, and pharmaceutical coverage, that people with illness or disability face.
About the speaker
Dr. Laura Bisaillon is a leading social scientist of medical inadmissibility and HIV-related policy in Canadian immigration law. She is Assistant Professor in the Interdisciplinary Centre for Health and Society at the University of Toronto. Her research asks questions at the “medico-legal borderlands” and illuminates how state interests affect health care processes, provider practices, and individuals in their roles as patients and migrants. Her award winning dissertation has been reformulated into a book, “Screening and Screaming in Exile: Medical Examination and the Immigration Health Work of People with HIV”, currently under review with the University of British Columbia Press. Dr. Bisaillon’s broader work examines medico-legal borderlands in Ethiopia, Eritrea, Iran and most recently Romania.

PhD Dissertation Defence: Refugees from Syria Caught Between War and Borders: A Journey Towards Protection
2019-04-01 10:00 - 13:00
Maissaa Almustafa‘s PhD Dissertation Defence, “Refugees from Syria Caught Between War and Borders: A Journey Towards Protection”.
Advisor: Kim Rygiel
Committee: Suzan Ilcan, Jasmin Habib
Internal/external examiner: Bree Akesson, Wilfrid Laurier University
External examiner: Heather Johnson, Queen’s University, Belfast
Abstract

Pre-Summit Keynote: Socio-Cultural and Political Implications of Artificial Intelligence
2019-03-29 19:00 - 21:30
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A Renaissance Man for the 21st century, Jaron Lanier is a computer scientist, composer, artist, and author who writes on numerous topics, including high-technology business, the social impact of technology, the philosophy of consciousness and information, Internet politics, and the future of humanism.
A pioneer in virtual reality (a term he coined), Lanier founded VPL Research, the first company to sell VR products, and led teams creating VR applications for medicine, design, and numerous other fields.
In 2010, Lanier was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time Magazine. In recent years he has also been named one of top one hundred public intellectuals in the world by Foreign Policy magazine, one of the top 50 World Thinkers by Prospect magazine, and one of history’s 300 or so greatest inventors in the Encyclopedia Britannica. In 2009 Jaron Lanier received a Lifetime Career Award from the IEEE, the preeminent international engineering society.
Can’t make it to the event? Watch it live here.

Trade Agreements and Access to Affordable Medicines: From the TRIPS Agreement to the USMCA
2019-03-26 11:45 - 13:00
In 1995, the World Trade Organization’s TRIPS (Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) Agreement ushered in a global regime of intellectual property rights that was widely criticised for placing medicines out of reach for large parts of the world’s population. A host of bilateral and regional free trade agreements negotiated since this time have further extended and expanded intellectual property rights for pharmaceuticals in many countries, delaying the market entry of generic medicines. This trend has continued largely unabated in recent years, despite the increasing strain high cost medicines are placing on pharmaceutical budgets even in high-income countries. The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA or NAFTA 2.0) is the latest example. Building on provisions from the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) that were suspended by the other parties after the withdrawal of the United States, the USMCA goes further, mandating a special 10-year market exclusivity period for biologic medicines, which include many new cancer and immunotherapy treatments. This presentation traces the evolution of provisions in trade agreements with implications for access to medicines, culminating in the USMCA, and examines the potential impacts, particularly for access to high cost biologics.
About the speaker
Dr Deborah Gleeson is a senior lecturer in the School of Psychology and Public Health at La Trobe University, Australia, and an Associate at La Trobe University’s Centre for Health Law and Society. Deborah holds a Graduate Diploma in Health Promotion, a Master of Public Health and a PhD in Health Policy. The main focus of her research is the interface between trade and investment agreements and public health, and she has more than 30 peer-reviewed publications on this topic, covering a range of topic areas including access to affordable medicines, alcohol and tobacco policy, and food and nutrition. Deborah co-convenes the Political Economy of Health Special Interest Group of the Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA) and frequently represents PHAA on matters related to trade and health. She received a PHAA President’s Award 2015 for public health leadership, engagement and commitment on the impact of international trade issues on public health.

Protecting Canada from the Threat of Populism
2019-03-25 19:00 - 21:00
Register via Eventbrite
Ben Rowswell, the Canadian International Council (CIC) President and Research Director, will draw on his observations of populism in Venezuela, the United Kingdom and the United States to argue that it represents a rival form of politics to democracy. He will demonstrate how misleading and hostile perceptions of the international system are a mainstay of populist politics, and will issue a call to all Canadians to engage in informed and respectful debate about international relations as a means to uphold our democratic traditions.
About the speaker
Ben Rowswell was appointed President and Research Director of the Canadian International Council on November 19, 2018.
Ben has 25 years of experience as a practitioner of international relations. He earned his expertise in international security serving with the United Nations in Mogadishu, Somalia in 1993, as Canada’s first diplomatic envoy to Baghdad, Iraq, after the fall of Saddam Hussein, and as the head of the NATO Provincial Reconstruction Team in Kandahar at the height of Canada’s involvement in Afghanistan.
Ben has advised top levels of government on international strategy in the Privy Council Office during the tenures of Jean Chrétien and Stephen Harper, and at the Washington DC Center for Strategic and International Studies from 2003 to 2004.
But his abiding passion is the defence of human rights and democracy. He established the Democracy Unit of Global Affairs Canada, worked closely with human rights movements as a political officer in the Canadian Embassy to Egypt, and most recently as Canada’s Ambassador to Venezuela from 2014 to 2017.
Throughout his career, Ben has sought to engage citizens in the practice of international relations. After a fellowship at Stanford University that introduced him to the powerful role that individuals can play in global affairs, he pioneered the practice of digital diplomacy at Global Affairs Canada. This same passion led him to join Farhaan Ladhani in founding software startup called Betterplace, which tailors opportunities for citizens to engage in civic action through a mobile app.
This event is co-sponsored by the Canadian International Council and Wilfrid Laurier University.

Rethinking IR and IPE Research Workshop
2019-03-25 10:00 - 13:00
The aim of this workshop on rethinking International Relations and International Political Economy research is to discuss methodologies, ontologies and epistemologies that converse with and challenge mainstream approaches to International Relations and IPE research.
Speakers
“Beyond Eurocentric IPE history: the non-Listian origins of East Asian neomercantilism”
– Eric Helleiner, University of Waterloo
“What Andean Philosophy Can Teach Us about Ontology in IR”
– Tamara Ann Trownsell, Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Ecuador
“Considering the Environment in the Future of Feminist IPE”
– Andrea M. Collins, University of Waterloo
“Identity, Regime Change and Ontological Security”
– Edelgard Mahant, York University
“Considering the Environment in the Future of Feminist IPE”
– Andrea Collins, University of Waterloo
“Sociology as critique. The methodology of critically analysing structures of power in global governance”
– Catherine Goetze, University of Tasmania
“The state of methodology in International Studies and International Relations postgraduate teaching in South America”
– Raul Salgado Espinoza and Ernesto Vivares, Flasco-Ecuador
Moderator: Cheryl Martens, Universidad San Francisco de Quito
Workshop Abstracts and Speaker Bios

Global Health: Bridging the Disciplinary Divides Workshop
2019-03-25 08:00 - 2019-03-26 17:00
The BSIA is hosting a two day workshop from March 25-26, 2019. The theme of the workshop is “Global Health: Bridging the Disciplinary Divides.” The objective of the workshop is to examine how different disciplines approach, analyse and understand key global health challenges; if and how these different approaches impede research and policy progress; and how to overcome interdisciplinary divisions to make progress in research and policy on global health issues. We hope that the outcomes of the conference will include journal articles as well as the establishment of an International Consortium on Social Science and Global Health.
The workshop will begin with a plenary session to discuss the challenges of interdisciplinary research as well as policy action. It then will break into three smaller thematic groups: mental health, governance of medicines, and the deliberate targeting of health workers during violent conflict.
The organizers include Karen Grepin (BSIA), Valerie Percival (NPSIA), Amy Patterson (University of the South), Garrett Wallace Brown (Leeds), Owain Williams (University of Queensland), and James Orbinski (York University). The workshop is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Balsillie School of International Affairs, the University of Leeds, the University of the South, and Carleton University.
We would be pleased to welcome participation from BSIA faculty and PhD students with interests in interdisciplinary research, global health research, or any of the associated themes. There is no formal presentation required for your participation. Prior to the workshop, participants will be sent a list of questions to address, such as: What are the key research challenges in your field? How does your discipline study this issue? What are the key policy challenges? What are the key obstacles to progress in both research and policy? How do interdisciplinary challenges affect research, as well as policy or programs?
If you are interested in participating, please contact one of the workshop organizers, Amber Warnat at AmberWarnat@cmail.carleton.ca, who will provide you with the agenda and other details on the workshop.

Setting Up the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank
2019-03-21 12:00 - 13:30
The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) opened for business in 2016, as a $100 billion multilateral development bank that finances public and private infrastructure projects for Asia. AIIB’s founders, led by China, first spanned Asia, Europe and the Middle East—now its footprint is global. The birth of this new international financial institution has drawn comparisons and contrasts with its counterparts, such as the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. How does AIIB reflect the heritage of these counterparts and the innovation of the 21st century? Now that AIIB has begun its fourth year of operation, how has it fared?
About the speaker
Natalie Lichtenstein was the Inaugural General Counsel at AIIB and Chief Counsel for AIIB’s establishment. She retired from a 30-year legal career at the World Bank, including lending operations in China and other countries, and institutional governance issues and reforms. She has taught Chinese law since the 1980s. Most recently, she authored A Comparative Guide to the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (Oxford 2018), an insider’s guide to the AIIB and its progenitors.

Brexit, Single Market and the Crisis of Governability
2019-03-18 11:30 - 13:00
The vote to leave the European Union and the administrative chaos surrounding British “exit” have dominated domestic debate in the UK, where “leaving the single market” is described by supporters as a seamless solution to economic and social divisions within British society. It is more accurately viewed as transforming the British state in profound and unpredictable ways, and as a countermovement against the neoliberal mode of European integration and a disruption to the single market. This discussion will review the domestic impacts (governability) for the UK of leaving the single market, the effect of Brexit on the single market in Europe, and the safeguards in place to mitigate the risks on the European single market.
About the speaker
Michelle Egan is a CFR Fellow (IAF) to Canada for academic year 2018-2019. She is a Jean Monnet Chair and Professor in the School of International Service (SIS), American University, in Washington DC. Michelle Egan is also a Global Fellow at the Wilson Center. She is editor of the Palgrave Series on European Union, past Chair of the European Union Studies Association (EUSA), the largest professional association in European studies, and has received multiple fellowships including Jean Monnet, Braudel, German Marshall Fund, Bosch, Wilson Center, and Council of Foreign Relations. She is working on a new book tentatively titled Constitutional Compacts, Intergovernmental Relations and Managing Trade in Federal Systems. She has published two single authored books with Oxford University Press, including the award winning Single Markets: Economic Integration in Europe and the United States (Oxford, 2015), as well as edited volumes, journal articles, and book chapters. She has been a commentator on various media including Al Jazeera, CNN International, CTV, NPR Marketplace, NPR the World, Sirius Radio, and has been quoted in various newspaper outlets in Denmark, US, Columbia, and Spain.

2019 Prospective Student Open House
2019-03-15 13:00 - 16:30
By Invitation Only
The Balsillie School welcomes prospective students to tour the campus, and meet faculty, alumni and current students.
Agenda
