2010-2011 ANNUAL REPORT Academic Year I. Introduction 3 About the Committee on Global Thought 3 Committee Members 4 Summary of Activities 2010-2011 5 II. New Committee Members 7 III. Post-Doctoral Research Scholars 8 2010-2012 Cohort 8 2011-2012 Cohort 9 ANNUAL IV. Visiting Scholars 10 V. New Course Offerings 11 REPORT Fall 2010 11 Spring 2011 12 2010-2011 IV. Events 13 Invited Guests 14 Academic Fall 2010 14 Spring 2011 15 Year Co-Sponsors 16 2010-2011 Events Listing 17 Fall 2010 17 Spring 2011 21 Conference and Recurring Events 24 Colloquium on Governing Interdependence 24 Cities and Eco-Crises 25 Sovereign Wealth Funds and Other Long-Term Investors: a 26 New Form of Capitalism? ‘Impossible Narratives’ Historicizing Mass Trauma 29 What Does ‘Imperialism’ Mean in an Age of Global Finance? 30 Power and Pressure in the African Media 30 The Arrow Lecture 31 The Art of Citizenship in African Cities 32 VII. The Masters in Global Thought 34 VIII. Sovereign Wealth Funds and Other Long-Term Investors 35 IX. The World and Africa 36 X. 2011-2012 Preview 38 Preliminary 2011-2012 Events 38 On-Going Events in 2011-2012 38 XI. Contacts 39 Annual Report prepared by Sasha de Vogel I. INTRODUCTION About the Committee on Global Thought The Committee on Global Thought at Columbia University was established in 2006 as part of a larger effort to engage the University in the study of our increasingly complex global world. At the root of this larger effort is the recognition that many of the world’s problems, from poverty and inequality to issues of governance and justice, fall increasingly in the spaces between academic disciplines. The Committee uses its research and programs to connect law, the social sciences, humanities, public health, architecture, journalism and the natural sciences, to deepen our understanding of our increasingly global society. CGT explores global modernity from an innovative, interdisciplinary perspective. The Committee is designed to reconceptualize the theories and methodologies required to confront the challenges stemming from globalization. Columbia University’s President Lee Bollinger appointed distinguished Columbia University faculty from multiple disciplines to the Committee on Global Thought to explore and conceptualize global conditions and processes that are inherently interdisciplinary. CGT’s programs focus on questions and issues that cannot be studied through a single discipline but require novel combinations of existing and emerging types of research and knowledge. By cutting across disciplines, the Committee develops new conceptual categories for gathering and interpreting knowledge of the contemporary world. Co-chaired by Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Laureate University Professor, and Saskia Sassen, Robert S. Lynd Professor of Sociology, CGT has developed critical perspectives on global governance and finance, the political economy of development, governing interdependence, cultural dimensions of major global processes, and cities as a frontline for major transformations. Through collaborative workshops, seminar courses, and community events, the resulting analysis and research is shared with and developed by the Columbia community. In so doing, the Committee on Global Thought augments Columbia’s role as a Global University by fostering a community of scholars and practitioners who integrate and synthesize academic engagement with globalization. 3 COMMITTEE MEMBERS CO-CHAIRS Saskia Sassen Joseph Stiglitz Robert S. Lynd Professor of Sociology University Professor President, Initiative for Policy Dialogue MEMBERS Akeel Bilgrami Carol Gluck Director, Heyman Center for the Humanities George Sansom Professor of History Johnsonian Professor of Philosophy Professor of East Asian Languages and Cultures Patrick Bolton Michael W. Doyle Barbara and David Zalaznick Professor of Harold Brown Professor of International Affairs, Business and of Economics Law and Political Science Co-Director, Center on Global Governance, Columbia Law School Partha Chatterjee José Antonio Ocampo Professor of Anthropology Professor of Professional Practice at the School of International and Public Affairs Co-President, Initiative for Policy Dialogue John Coatsworth Richard G. Parker Dean, School of International and Public Affairs Professor of Sociomedical Sciences Interim Provost, Columbia University Director, Center for Gender, Sexuality, and Professor of International and Public Affairs Health and of History Mamadou Diouf Katharina Pistor Director, Institute for African Studies at the Michael I. Sovern Professor of Law School of International and Public Affairs Director, Center on Global Legal Transformation Leitner Family Professor of African Studies Nicholas Dirks Sudhir Venkatesh Executive Vice President, Arts and Sciences William B. Ransford Professor of Sociology Dean, Faculty of Arts and Sciences 4 SUMMARY OF ACTIVITIES 2010-2011 In 2010-2011, CGT developed its Isenman, Albert Sachs, and Collin Sekajugo among membership, welcoming Richard Parker, Professor others. Panel topics included: Locating Africa of Anthropology and Professor of Sociomedical within the Financial Crisis, Prospects for 21st Sciences, and Sudhir Venkatesh, William B. Century African Agriculture, Global Aid in Africa, Ransford Professor of Sociology, to the Art and Social Justice in South Africa, Power and Committee. Post-doctoral research fellows Pressure: The Media Influence in Africa Etienne Smith and Antara Haldar joined the Saskia Sassen hosted her second annual Columbia University community for two-year conference analyzing cities and acute challenges. appointments, and the 2010 Post-Doc search This year, “Cities and Eco-Crises” explored the yielded two top candidates, Hannah Appel and relationship of cities with acute ecological crises. Daniel Immerwahr, who will join CGT in Fall 2011. The conference looked at such diverse topics as CGT faculty and scholars offered new courses on land-grabs and their consequences, forced postcolonial Africa, political reform in China and migration to cities and environmental refugees, overcoming trauma in the Middle East. climate change and systems resilience to climate CGT continued to host high-profile series of variability, engineering and technology of public, multi-disciplinary conversations during the flooding, urban services and the challenges of 2010-2011 academic year. “The World and Africa,” waste management. a year-long series of panels, conferences, In October 2010, CGT hosted a 2-day workshops, film screenings and other events conference exploring how sovereign wealth funds examined Africa’s place in the world through can capitalize on their long-term horizon by illuminating important features of Africa’s investing in public goods. “Sovereign Wealth globalization, in historical perspective. Visitor Funds and Other Long-Term Investors: a New invitations included: Prime Minister Meles Zenawi Form of Capitalism?” brought together academics, of Ethiopia, Kofi Annan, Louis Kasakende, Paul policymakers, economic thinkers and fund 5 managers for a uniquely interdisciplinary set of Thought. Drawing on the strengths of the panel discussions. Keynote addresses from Vice Committee’s faculty, its interdisciplinary nature President Al Gore and George Soros were opened and the popular course rubric is has developed to the students, in conjunction with the World over the years- this degree offering will expand, Leaders Forum. Panel topics included: existing research and take the lead in this Benchmarking and Performance Standards, emerging field of study. Modeled partly on the Fostering Development through Socially degree offerings of the Committee on Social Responsible Investment, Managing Risk During Thought at the University of Chicago, one of its Macroeconomic Uncertainty, Sovereign Wealth core aims is to develop new categories for thinking Funds and World Governance. about and for interpreting existing data sets. A key In light of the popular uprisings in the stepping stone for this program is the focus on Middle East and North Africa in Spring 2011, the questions and issues that cannot be studied Committee assembled a series of panels to through a single discipline but require novel interrogate the events in Egypt. The first panel, combinations of existing and emerging types of “Egypt Arising” was held the day before the research and knowledge. This project cuts across resignation of Hosni Mubarak. The subsequent the humanities, the social sciences, the natural panels placed the Egyptian transition in the sciences, law, public health, architecture and broader context of democratic transitions and the planning. The proposed program will consist of an longer-term political and economic challenges academic year of study, including a thesis and faced by the nation. three core courses, Global Governance, Global As CGT continues to expand its influence at Political Economy, and Global Culture and Politics, the University and tackle new intellectual and which will address foundational questions of interdisciplinary horizons, CGT has submitted, for substance, method, data and interpretation to 6 review, a proposal for a MA degree in Global provide an intellectual framework. 6 II. NEW COMMITTEE MEMBERS University President Lee Bollinger appointed two new professors to the committee in the 2010- 2011 academic year. Their membership broadens the scope of the committee’s work to include the public health sector, and deepens its research in sociology Richard Parker Sudhir Venkatesh Professor of Sociomedical Sciences and William