Politika

Can someone see if they can find out any college newspaper stories describing visits / lectures by Klein and a YouTube to get a sense of his lecture style?  Reply here if you are doing this so we don’t duplicate effort.

Thanks!

Folks, three important announcements.

1. We are moving more seriously on Wesley Clark.  I will announce more specifics on the private email list.
2. Related to above, if any of the non-student steering committee members want to be on the email list, please let Joan Meyer know.  We don’t expect a lot of traffic, but the private list is where we are going to discuss fees, specific dates, proposed content for talks, etc.  I’d like it if the local alums were part of these conversations, but I’m sensitive to overloading email inboxes.
3. We are getting close to creating a Reed Political Science blog under the Reed domain.  This blog will move seamlessly in a week or so ;-).  You’ll all be members of this unless you ask otherwise.  The blog will be on the WordPress platform which is more flexible and since it’s at Reed, we can manage it more carefully.
   My hopes are that the blog can be used not only for PPLS but other political science related content, and perhaps even timely news and event commentary by professors and students in the department.

This is an open thread for questions, comments, and suggestions on the 2012-2013 PPLS lecture series.  We have identified these general themes for next year, but are open to other suggestions, if you read an interesting book, hear an interesting person at a lecture or on the radio or television, or have any other thoughts.

1. Politics or elections related speakers
2. Environmental politics and policy
3. Citizenship understood broadly (immigration, diversity, identity politics)
4. International affairs

This email came to Joan Meyer.  The reference below is to work that has come out of Yale (Don Green, now at Columbia, and Alan Gerber).  It is accurate that this has penetrated political campaigning on both sides of the aisle.  The email is a bit over the top, and we could secure the actual academics and not just the journalist!  However, I wonder if Issenberg may be on a book tour and thus be a cheap “get” for us.

General Wesley Clark was commander of NATO during Kosovo and ran briefly for President.  I believe he is currently an informal foreign policy advisor to the Obama administration.  He served as a White House fellow under Ford, and also served under both GOP and Democratic administrations.

I think he might be a good person to pursue for the Munk/Darling IR lecture series.  Thoughts?

I thought it might be interesting to see if Robert Caro, author of a four volume (and not yet complete!) biography of Lyndon Johnson, and a Pulitzer prize winning biography of Robert Moses, The Power Broker, would come to Reed.

Any thoughts on Caro?


CLOSED DISCUSSION

1. What is it?
1. The PPLS is a series established in 2001 to bring well known speakers in politics, public policy, and social policy to campus to enrich the campus community and build bridges with Portland.
2. The PPLS is described here: http://www.reed.edu/ppls/
2. Who pays for it?
1. The PPLS is funded out of a number of endowed funds that have been given to the College with the expectation that they would enhance learning and teaching and expose students to important issues of policy and politics.
3. What are the funds and lectures?
1. The Ducey Fund pays for the Ducey internship series and is also used to fund most of our lectures.
2. The Robinson Human Rights fund is a small lecture fund that we use for events concerned with human rights and justice.
3. The Munk-Darling Fund is intended for international affairs and foreign policy.  It also pays for the annual IR Simulation.
4. The Twohy Fund is directed to bringing Reed alumni back to campus who have been engaged in inspiring work for non-profits or other entities.  The events are expected to include workshops and training for students, along with a lecture when appropriate.