Stanford University

Culture

Surfing on a Rocket: Reporting China's Internet Boom

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About the seminar

With almost 500 million internet users, China's online community is the world's largest - that fact is well known. But it's also incredibly vibrant, filled with active netizens and entrepreneurs who are pushing the boundaries of control and developing new ways of interacting online. CNN's Kristie Lu Stout has stayed on the pulse of the internet in China for over a decade - interviewing a wide array of newsmakers including Sina CEO Charles Chao and wired activist/artist Ai Weiwei. She has also worked in the industry as an early employee at Beijing's Sohu.com in the 1990s. Ms. Stout offered her unique perspective on the online experience in China, and how journalists can best report China's Internet culture.

About the speaker

Based out of CNN's Asia-Pacific headquarters in Hong Kong, Kristie Lu Stout is an award-winning anchor/correspondent for CNN International. She has reported on the world's major new stories and the people behind those stories for over a decade. She has interviewed figures in a wide range of current events including Myanmar pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, and global pop superstar Lady Gaga. Ms. Stout holds both a bachelor's and a master's degree from Stanford University, and studied advanced Mandarin Chinese at Beijing's Tsinghua University.

N302, Oberndorf Event Center
3rd Floor, North Building
Stanford Graduate School of Business

Kristie Lu Stout Anchor/Correspondent Speaker CNN International
Seminars

The Rise of China and Taiwan's Response: Implications for the United States

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The complex triangular relationship between China, Taiwan, and the United States has a long and storied history, and most recently, China’s meteoric economic rise has forced a reconsideration of positions by all parties involved. China is on target to become the largest world economy in terms of purchasing power parity within the next decade, and this explosive economic growth is coupled with military expansion that challenges the existing security circumstances in the region. These developments, in turn, have put Taiwan on a path towards economic dependence, international isolation, and security threats, and Beijing’s increasing leverage in Washington allows for yet further indirect influence on cross-Strait relations.

Dr. Yeong-kuang Ger will discuss the background surrounding these issues to provide a context for analysis on the future of this important triangular relationship, and will address in particular the policy moves made by all three parties in adjustment to this changing status quo, as well as the strategy of President Ma’s administration since his election in 2008. Dr. Ger will conclude with a discussion of the implications of these developments for the United States moving forward, with an emphasis on Taiwan’s geopolitical importance to the peace and prosperity of the region as a whole.

Dr. Yeong-kuang Ger is a Member of the Control Yuan of the Republic of China, and a Professor in the Department of Political Science and the Graduate Institute of National Development at National Taiwan University. Dr. Ger received his undergraduate degree from National Taiwan University, and his Ph.D. from the Department of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 2009 he was awarded the Freedom Medal of Honor by the Philippine Council for World Freedom. 

In addition to his responsibilities with the Yuan and NTU, he acts as a Board Member of the American Association for Chinese Studies; and he is also a Member of the Review Committee, Center for Asian Studies, Chu Hai College in Hong Kong. Dr Ger has authored nine books and over 80 journal articles and conference papers on politics, culture, development and security in Taiwan and East Asia. His recent books include: Political Parties and Electoral Politics (2011); Security Challenges in the Asia Pacific Region: The Taiwan Factor with M.J. Vinod and S.Y. Surendra Kumar (2009); Ideology and Development: Dr. Sun Yat-sen’s Thoughts and Taiwan’s Developmental Experience (2005); and Party Politics and Democratic Development (2001).

Philippines Conference Room

Dr. Yeong-kuang Ger Member of the Control Yuan, Republic of China; Professor of Political Science, National Taiwan University Speaker
Conferences

An ASEAN Community by 2015? Prospects and Implications for Asia and the United States

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The Association of Southeast Asian Nations has challenged itself is to become a single integrated community by 2015.  The prospect has raised high hopes inside the region.  Will they be met?  Efforts to build the community have intensified, yet the clock ticks and the deadline looms.  Although the result will not match what local enthusiasts of regional unification want to see, but it will likely exceed the expectations of skeptical outsiders.  ASEAN is the linchpin of East Asian regionalism, by design and by default.  What happens to the Association over the next several years has far-reaching implications for the United States, China, and not least for the states and peoples of Southeast Asia.  In his talk, Prof. Pongsudhirak will tease out these dynamics, assess their significance, and explore possible futures beyond 2015.

Thitinan Pongsudhirak heads the Institute of Security and International Studies and teaches international political economy at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok.  In 2010 he was an FSI-Humanities Center International Visitor at Stanford and, in spring 2011, a visiting professor at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies.  He has written many articles, chapters, and books on ASEAN and East Asian affairs, and on Thai politics, political economy, and foreign policy.  He has worked for The Nation newspaper (Bangkok), The Economist Intelligence Unit, and Independent Economic Analysis (London).  He currently serves on the editorial boards of Asian Politics & Policy, Contemporary Southeast Asia, the Journal of Current Southeast Asian Studies, and South East Asia Research.  His degrees are from the London School of Economics (PhD), Johns Hopkins University (School of Advanced International Studies, MA), and the University of California, Santa Barbara (BA). 

Daniel and Nancy Okimoto Conference Room

Thitinan Pongsudhirak

Stanford Humanities Center
424 Santa Teresa St.
Stanford, CA 94305

(650) 723-3052
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FSI-Stanford Humanities Center International Visiting Scholar

Thitinan Pongsudhirak is a high-profile expert on contemporary political, economic, and foreign-policy issues in Thailand today  He is also a prolific author; witness his op ed, "Moving beyond Thaksin," in the 25 February 2010 Wall Street Journal.

Pongsudhirak is not senior in years, but he is in stature.  His career path has been meteoric since he earned his BA in political science with distinction at UC-Santa Barbara not long ago. In 2001 he received the United Kingdom's Best Dissertation Prize for his doctoral thesis at the London School of Economics on the political economy of Thailand's 1997 economic crisis.

Since 2006 he has held an associate professorship in international relations at Thailand's premier institution of higher education, Chulalongkorn University, while simultaneously heading the Institute of Security and International Studies, the country's leading think tank on foreign affairs.

His many publications include: "After the Red Uprising," Far East Economic Review, May 2009; "Why Thais Are Angry," The New York Times, 18 April 2009; "Thailand Since the Coup," Journal of Democracy, October-December 2008; and "Thaksin: Competitive Authoritarian and Flawed Dissident," in Dissident Democrats: The Challenge of Democratic Leadership in Asia, ed. John Kane et al. (2008).  He has written on bilateral free-trade areas in Asia, co-authored a book on Thailand's trade policy, and is admired by Southeast Asianist historians for having insightfully revisited, in a 2007 essay, the sensitive matter of Thailand's role during World War II.

He was a Salzburg Global Seminar Faculty Member in June 2009, Japan Foundation's Cultural Leader in 2008, and a Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (Singapore) in 2005.  For ten years, in tandem with his academic career, he worked as an analyst for The Economist's Intelligence Unit.

Thitinan Pongsudhirak Professor of International Political Economy, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand Speaker
Seminars

Barbara Honigmann International Conference

International Conference co-sponsored by Rosenzweig-Minerva Research Center at The Hebrew University in Jerusalem, the Taube Center for Jewish Studies, the Goethe-Institut in Jerusalem, and the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung in Jerusalem.

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Rosenzweig - Minerva Research Center
The Hebrew University, Jerusalem

Barbara Honigmann Keynote Speaker Author and Artist
Michael Mertes Director Speaker the Israel Office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung
Reuven Amitai Dean of the Humanities Speaker The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Yfaat Weiss Director of the Rosenzweig Minerva Research Center Speaker The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Anja Siegemund Speaker Leo Baeck Institute Jerusalem
Bettina Bannasch Speaker University of Augsburg
Thomas Nolden Panelist Wellesley College
Carola Hilfrich Moderator The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Lilla Balint Panelist Stanford University
Susanne Zepp Panelist Free University Berlin / Simon Dubnow Institute for Jewish History and Culture, Leipzig

Amir Eshel

Dept of German Studies
Building 260, Room 204
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-2030

(650) 723-0413 (650) 725-8421
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Edward Clark Crossett Professor of Humanistic Studies
Professor of Comparative Literature
Professor of German Studies
Eshel.jpg MA, PhD

Amir Eshel is Edward Clark Crossett Professor of Humanistic Studies. He is Professor of German Studies and Comparative Literature and as of 2019 Director of Comparative Literature and its graduate program. His Stanford affiliations include The Taube Center for Jewish Studies, Modern Thought & Literature, and The Europe Center at Stanford University’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. He is also the faculty director of Stanford’s research group on The Contemporary and of the Poetic Media Lab at Stanford’s Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis (CESTA). His research focuses on contemporary literature and the arts as they touch on philosophy, specifically on memory, history, political thought, and ethics.

Amir Eshel is the author of Poetic Thinking Today (Stanford University Press, 2019); German translation at Suhrkamp Verlag, 2020). Previous books include Futurity: Contemporary Literature and the Quest for the Past (The University of Chicago Press in 2013). The German version of the book, Zukünftigkeit: Die zeitgenössische Literatur und die Vergangenheit, appeared in 2012 with Suhrkamp Verlag. Together with Rachel Seelig, he co-edited The German-Hebrew Dialogue: Studies of Encounter and Exchange (2018). In 2014, he co-edited with Ulrich Baer a book of essays on Hannah Arendt, Hannah Arendt: zwischen den Disziplinen; and also co-edited a book of essays on Barbara Honigmann with Yfaat Weiss, Kurz hinter der Wahrheit und dicht neben der Lüge (2013).

Earlier scholarship includes the books Zeit der Zäsur: Jüdische Lyriker im Angesicht der Shoah (1999), and Das Ungesagte Schreiben: Israelische Prosa und das Problem der Palästinensischen Flucht und Vertreibung (2006). Amir Eshel has also published essays on Franz Kafka, Hannah Arendt, Paul Celan, Dani Karavan, Gerhard Richter, W.G. Sebald, Günter Grass, Alexander Kluge, Barbara Honigmann, Durs Grünbein, Dan Pagis, S. Yizhar, and Yoram Kaniyuk.

Amir Eshel’s poetry includes a 2018 book with the artist Gerhard Richter, Zeichnungen/רישומים, a work which brings together 25 drawings by Richter from the clycle 40 Tage and Eshel’s bi-lingual poetry in Hebrew and German. In 2020, Mossad Bialik brings his Hebrew poetry collection בין מדבר למדבר, Between Deserts.

Amir Eshel is a recipient of fellowships from the Alexander von Humboldt and the Friedrich Ebert foundations and received the Award for Distinguished Teaching from the School of Humanities and Sciences.

Affiliated faculty of The Europe Center
Affiliated faculty of The Taube Center for Jewish Studies
Faculty Director of The Contemporary Research Group
Faculty Director of the Poetic Media Lab
CV
Amir Eshel Moderator Stanford University
Michael Hasenclever Panelist Berlin
Ruth Fine Moderator The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Yaniv Feller Panelist University of Toronto
Natasha Gordinsky Panelist Simon Dubnow Institute for Jewish History and Culture, Leipzig
Yoav Rinon Moderator Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Karin Neuburger Panelist Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Idan Gillo Panelist Stanford University
Marcus Silber Moderator University of Haifa
Galili Shahar Panelist Tel Aviv University
Galit Hasan-Rokem Moderator The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Amir Engel Panelist Goethe University, Frankfurt
Conferences

Anna Westerstahl Stenport

Encina Hall
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305

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Visiting Associate Professor and Anna Lindh Fellow, The Europe Center
Stenport.jpg PhD

As a Visiting Associate Professor and Anna Lindh fellow in The Europe Center, Anna Westerstahl Stenport researches the contemporary European and Nordic film and media industries. Her interests include production studies and digital convergence culture and span investigations into aesthetics, film genre, and thematic analyses. She includes practitioner perspectives in her work and incorporates extensive interview material in her writing. Current scholarship focuses on contemporary Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish film industry culture. She is the author of a book on Swedish director Lukas Moodysson's debut feature 'Show Me Love'  (University of Washington Press Nordic Film Classics Series, 2012). Current research includes film adaptations of Scandinavian crime writers Stieg Larsson, Henning Mankell, and others.  

Anna also researches turn-of-the century European literature, drama, and culture with an emphasis on economic history. She has written extensively on Swedish author and playwright August Strindberg. Works include the book Locating August Strindberg's Prose: Modernism, Transnationalism, and Setting (University of Toronto Press, 2010) and numerous articles and book chapters.  

A native of Sweden's Göteborg, Anna holds degrees from Uppsala University and a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. She is an Affiliate Associate Professor at the University of Gothenburg, as well as a tenured professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.   

Program on Human Rights Collaboratory: Cultural Heritage - Copyrights/Copywrongs: property rights, human rights and heritage

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The Program on Human Rights Collaboratory Series is an interdisciplinary investigation of human rights in the humanities. It is funded under the Stanford Presidential Fund for Innovation in International Studies as the third in a sequence of pursuing peace and security, improving governance and advancing well-being.

Rosemary J. Coombe has a Tier One Canada Research Chair in Law, Communication and Cultural Studies at York University in Toronto, where she teaches in the Communications and Culture Joint PhD/MA  Programme, and is cross-appointed to the Osgoode Hall Faculty of Law Graduate Programme and the Graduate Programme in Social and Political Thought. Prior  to being awarded one of Canada's first Research Chairs, she was Full Professor at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law. She holds a JSD from Stanford University with a PhD Minor in anthropology and publishes in the fields of anthropology, cultural studies and interdisciplinary legal studies. Her work addresses the cultural, political and social implications of intellectual property laws, the politics of cultural property, neoliberalism and human rights.

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Building 500, Seminar Room

Rosemary Coombe Canada Research Chair in Law, Communication and Culture Speaker York University
Workshops
Human Well-Being and Human Rights Collaboratory

Re-examining the State of Japanese Entrepreneurship

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Event Overview:

In the US, entrepreneurship is the engine that drives economic growth. Especially in Silicon Valley, people understand how this engine works: how entrepreneurs behave, how they view risk, where they get their funding, how their successes are rewarded, and what happens when their ventures fail. What about their Japanese counterparts? The conventional wisdom in the US is that Japanese entrepreneurship is not only different from the American variety but is also less vibrant, less well-funded, more risk-averse, and generally a less important "engine" for overall economic growth.  Is this conventional wisdom generally correct? Or are the perceived shortcomings of the Japanese entrepreneurial system (for example, the vastly lower venture capital investment figures routinely quoted) just that -- "perceived" rather than real? What business and cultural factors could explain such misperceptions, and what are the implications for cross-border entrepreneurial opportunities?  Join our panelists, Robert Eberhart, Kenji Kushida, and Lisa Katayama, as they discuss the myths, reality and promise of Japanese entrepreneurship and its impact on the overall Japanese economy.

Keizai Society’s theme for the remainder of 2011 is “Recovery and Renewal – Toward a New Japan of Compassion and Growth.” Going forward, all 2011 programs of Keizai Society will be dedicated to building awareness of the crisis in Japan and sustaining Japan’s recovery efforts. Also proceeds from these programs shall be donated to Keizai’s Japan Relief Fund. Please come and find out what the real impact of the disaster is and where we go from here to recover, renew and grow again.

Panelist Bio:

Mr. Robert Eberhart is a researcher at Stanford’s Program on Regions of  Innovation and Entrepreneurship where he leads the Stanford Project on Japanese Entrepreneurship.  His research focuses on comparative corporate governance of growth companies with special emphasis on Japan and the role of Japanese institutions in fostering entrepreneurship.  He is a member of the Academy of Management, the International Society for New Institutional Economics, on the board of advisors to Japan’s Global Entrepreneurship Week, and an advisor to Japan’s Board of Director’s Training Institute.  He serves as an academic advisor to the American Chamber of Commerce’s Task Force on New Growth Strategies and is a frequent speaker and guest lecturer in various programs at Stanford and Japan.  Mr. Eberhart received a Master’s degree in Economics from the University of Michigan after undergraduate studies in Finance at Michigan State University.  He is a doctoral candidate in Stanford’s department of Management Science and Engineering.  

Dr. Kenji Kushida is a research associate at the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford University.  He is also an affiliated researcher with the Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy (BRIE) at the University of California Berkeley.  He completed his PhD in Political Science at the University of California Berkeley, and holds Masters and Bachelors Degrees from Stanford University in East Asian Studies and Economics.  Dr. Kushida’s ongoing research interests are focused on politics, institutions, and markets, mainly in Japan, Korea, and the United States. His publications include analyses of how Information Technologies are transforming services activities, understanding the emerging Cloud Computing markets, and the political economies of broadband and mobile in Japan and South Korea. He recently completed a study on entrepreneurship in Japan’s ICT sector, and plays an active role in facilitating exchange between Japanese startups and Silicon Valley. He has also authored two books in Japanese: “Baikaruchaa to nihonjin [Biculturalism and the Japanese:  Beyond English Linguistic Capabilities]” and “International school nyumon [International Schools, an Introduction]”.

Ms.  Lisa Katayama is a San Francisco-based journalist who writes about Japanese culture, technology, and entrepreneurship for Wired, Popular Science, Fast Company, and The New York Times Magazine. She is also the founder of The Tofu Project, a highly curated boutique program that will bring 10 of the most successful, innovative young entrepreneurs from Japan to SF for a 7-day design and out of the box thinking crash course at the end of October.    

She is also a producer for PRI's Studio360 radio show, the author of a book called Urawaza: Secret Everyday Tips and Tricks from Japan, and a correspondent for Boing Boing, one of Time Magazine's five most essential blogs of 2010, and has spoken about Japanese web culture to the BBC, CNN, ABC, Martha Stewart Radio, and at venues like O'Reilly's ETech conference and the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan. Her personal web site, TokyoMango, was a runner up for the Weblog Awards in 2009. She has a BA in International Relations and French from Tufts University and a MA in Human Rights from Columbia University. When she's not working, she rock climbs, does triathlons, and plays the ukulele to her two dogs.

 

Online live cast provided via Ustream

FEES:  FREE for those who rsvp before 9/19/2011 at 5:00 p.m. (PDT)

Log-in instructions for the live cast will be sent on 9/20/2011 to those who registered

Fenwick & West LLP, 801 California St., Mountain View, CA

Robert Eberhart SRIE Researcher Panelist Stanford Project on Japanese Entrepreneurship

Kenji E. Kushida

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Former Research Scholar, Japan Program
kenji_kushida_2.jpg MA, PhD
Kenji E. Kushida was a research scholar with the Japan Program at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center from 2014 through January 2022. Prior to that at APARC, he was a Takahashi Research Associate in Japanese Studies (2011-14) and a Shorenstein Postdoctoral Fellow (2010-11).
 
Kushida’s research and projects are focused on the following streams: 1) how politics and regulations shape the development and diffusion of Information Technology such as AI; 2) institutional underpinnings of the Silicon Valley ecosystem, 2) Japan's transforming political economy, 3) Japan's startup ecosystem, 4) the role of foreign multinational firms in Japan, 4) Japan's Fukushima nuclear disaster. He spearheaded the Silicon Valley - New Japan project that brought together large Japanese firms and the Silicon Valley ecosystem.

He has published several books and numerous articles in each of these streams, including “The Politics of Commoditization in Global ICT Industries,” “Japan’s Startup Ecosystem,” "How Politics and Market Dynamics Trapped Innovations in Japan’s Domestic 'Galapagos' Telecommunications Sector," “Cloud Computing: From Scarcity to Abundance,” and others. His latest business book in Japanese is “The Algorithmic Revolution’s Disruption: a Silicon Valley Vantage on IoT, Fintech, Cloud, and AI” (Asahi Shimbun Shuppan 2016).

Kushida has appeared in media including The New York Times, Washington Post, Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Nikkei Business, Diamond Harvard Business Review, NHK, PBS NewsHour, and NPR. He is also a trustee of the Japan ICU Foundation, alumni of the Trilateral Commission David Rockefeller Fellows, and a member of the Mansfield Foundation Network for the Future. Kushida has written two general audience books in Japanese, entitled Biculturalism and the Japanese: Beyond English Linguistic Capabilities (Chuko Shinsho, 2006) and International Schools, an Introduction (Fusosha, 2008).

Kushida holds a PhD in political science from the University of California, Berkeley. He received his MA in East Asian Studies and BAs in economics and East Asian Studies with Honors, all from Stanford University.
Kenji Kushida Research Associate in Japanese Studie Panelist Stanford University APARC; Affiliated Researcher, BRIE
Lisa Katayama Journalist and Founder of the Tofu Project Panelist
Panel Discussions

SPICE Honors Top Two High School Scholars at Japan Day Event

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The Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (SPICE) honored two of the top students of the 2011 Reischauer Scholars Program (RSP) at a Japan Day event at Stanford University on August 19, 2011. The RSP, an online course on Japan and U.S.–Japan relations that is offered to high school sophomores, juniors, and seniors across the United States, recognized the students based on their coursework and exceptional research essays.

Japan Day featured welcoming comments by Professor Coit D. Blacker, FSI Director; an overview of the RSP by Naomi Funahashi, RSP Coordinator and Instructor; opening remarks on Japan and U.S.–Japan relations by Consul General Hiroshi Inomata, Consulate General of Japan in San Francisco; and a lecture on post-earthquake Japan by Professor Emeritus Nisuke Ando, Kyoto University and Doshisha University. The program was highlighted by presentations by student honorees Lindsey Henderson and Mathieu Rolfo, who wrote research essays on Japan’s use of stories to construct a national identity, and on Okinawa’s role post-World War II, respectively. Professor Emeritus Daniel I. Okimoto and Professor Phillip Lipscy commented on the students’ essays. Gary Mukai, SPICE Director, facilitated the event.

Named in honor of former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Edwin O. Reischauer, a leading educator and noted scholar of Japanese history and culture, the RSP annually selects 25–30 exceptional high school students from throughout the United States to engage in intensive study of Japan. Through Internet-based lectures and discussions, the program provides students with a broad overview of Japan, with a special focus on the U.S.–Japan relationship. Prominent scholars affiliated with Stanford University, the University of Tokyo, the University of Hawaii, and other institutions provide lectures and engage students in online dialogue. The RSP received funding for the first three years (2004–06) of the program from the United States-Japan Foundation. Funding for 2007 and 2008 was provided by the Center for Global Partnership, the Japan Foundation. Funding since 2009 has been provided by the Japan Fund, FSI, Stanford University.

The RSP is currently accepting applications for the 2012 program. For more information about the RSP, visit www.reischauerscholars.org or contact Gary Mukai, RSP Coordinator and Instructor, at nfunahashi@stanford.edu.

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Left to right: Professor Phillip Lipscy, Professor Emeritus Daniel Okimoto, Michiko Okimoto, Lindsey Henderson, Mathieu Rolfo, Former Ambassador Michael H. Armacost, Professor Emeritus Nisuke Ando, and Consul General Hiroshi Inomata
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SPICE honored two of the top students of the 2011 Reischauer Scholars Program (RSP) at a Japan Day event at Stanford University on August 19, 2011.

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Muslims of India: Their Politics, Identity, and Economy

India’s 160 million Muslims differ geographically by language, socio-economic status, and culture. The Muslim-Indian community shares a common trajectory of challenges in their political power and socio-economic status. Their identity, in the eyes of the average Indian, is evermore monolithic and faith-based. To some politicians, Muslim Indians are now considered a security risk. In a talk held August 10 at the Commonwealth Club of California, Rafiq Dossani discussed the causes of their challenges and possible future.

 

Commonwealth Club of California

Rafiq Dossani

No longer in residence.

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R_Dossani_headshot.jpg PhD

Rafiq Dossani was a senior research scholar at Stanford University's Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) and erstwhile director of the Stanford Center for South Asia. His research interests include South Asian security, government, higher education, technology, and business.  

Dossani’s most recent book is Knowledge Perspectives of New Product Development, co-edited with D. Assimakopoulos and E. Carayannis, published in 2011 by Springer. His earlier books include Does South Asia Exist?, published in 2010 by Shorenstein APARC; India Arriving, published in 2007 by AMACOM Books/American Management Association (reprinted in India in 2008 by McGraw-Hill, and in China in 2009 by Oriental Publishing House); Prospects for Peace in South Asia, co-edited with Henry Rowen, published in 2005 by Stanford University Press; and Telecommunications Reform in India, published in 2002 by Greenwood Press. One book is under preparation: Higher Education in the BRIC Countries, co-authored with Martin Carnoy and others, to be published in 2012.

Dossani currently chairs FOCUS USA, a non-profit organization that supports emergency relief in the developing world. Between 2004 and 2010, he was a trustee of Hidden Villa, a non-profit educational organization in the Bay Area. He also serves on the board of the Industry Studies Association, and is chair of the Industry Studies Association Annual Conference for 2010–12.

Earlier, Dossani worked for the Robert Fleming Investment Banking group, first as CEO of its India operations and later as head of its San Francisco operations. He also previously served as the chairman and CEO of a stockbroking firm on the OTCEI stock exchange in India, as the deputy editor of Business India Weekly, and as a professor of finance at Pennsylvania State University.

Dossani holds a BA in economics from St. Stephen's College, New Delhi, India; an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, India; and a PhD in finance from Northwestern University.

Senior Research Scholar
Executive Director, South Asia Initiative
Rafiq Dossani Speaker
Lectures

The Middle East After the Arab Spring: Economics, Identity, Strategy

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BIOGRAPHY OF VALI NASR

Vali Nasr is Professor of International Politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy of Tufts University, Senior Advisor at Kissinger Associates, Senior Fellow at Foreign Policy at Brookings Institution, and a columnist at Bloomberg View. He served as Senior Advisor to U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Ambassador Richard Holbrooke between 2009 and 2011. He has previously served as Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and Senior Fellow at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

He is a specialist on political and social developments in the Muslim world and is the author of Forces of Fortune: The Rise of a New Middle Class and How it Will Change Our World (Free Press, 2009); The Shia Revival: How Conflicts within Islam will Shape the Future (W.W. Norton, 2006); and Democracy in Iran: History and the Quest for Liberty (Oxford University Press, 2006); as well as a number of other books and numerous articles in academic journals and encyclopedias.

He has advised senior American policy makers, world leaders, and businesses including the President, Secretary of State, senior members of the Congress, and presidential campaigns, and has written for New York Times, Foreign Affairs, The New Republic, Newsweek, Time, Christian Science Monitor, Financial Times, Foreign Policy, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post, and has provided frequent expert commentary to CNN, BBC, National Public Radio, Newshour, ABC News, CBS News, NBC News, and has been a guest on the Charlie Rose Show and Meet the Press, the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The Colbert Report, Real Time with Bill Maher, GPS with Fareed Zakaria, and This Week with Christiane Amanpour.

He is a member of Board of Trustees of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and National Democratic Institute; and has been the recipient of grants from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, and the Social Science Research Council. He is a Carnegie Scholar for 2006.

He received his BA from Tufts University in International Relations summa cum laude and was initiated into Phi Beta Kappa in 1983. He earned his masters from the Fletcher School of Law in and Diplomacy in international economics and Middle East studies in 1984, and his PhD from MIT in political science in 1991.

S.T. LEE LECTURE

The S.T. Lee Lecture was established by Seng Tee Lee, a businessman and philanthropist located in Singapore, with the dual objectives of raising public understanding of the complex policy issues facing the global community today and increasing public support for informed international cooperation.  The S.T. Lee Distinguished Lecturer is chosen for his or her international reputation as a leader in international political, economic, social and health issues, and strategic policy-making concerns.

Previous S.T. Lee Lecturers have included John Prendergast, author and human rights activist, the Honorable Robert Hormats, Under Secretary of State for Economic, Energy, and Agricultural Affairs, the Nobel Prize-winning author Orhan Pamuk, Joseph F. Nye, the Dean emeritus and Sultan of Oman Professor of International Relations, the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, and Dr. Paul Farmer, Professor of Medicine and Medical Anthropology, Harvard University and Medical Director of the Clinique Bon Sauveur in Cange, Hait.

Bechtel Conference Center

Vali Nasr Professor of International Politics, Tufts University Speaker
Lectures
S.T. Lee Lectureship
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