Update on Our Activities

Dear Members and Friends:

Since I last posted, Program Chair Lisa Richey and I have been very busy trying to maximize the GSCIS’s presence at the next ISA, despite the fact that caucuses are allotted so few slots in the program. We know that if we prove ourselves capable this time around (as we will), we will be able to secure more slots in the future. We are sponsoring/co-sponsoring panels on inter-sectional approaches to the GS, teaching and research about the GS, emerging powers, and gender/race perspectives. In addition, we have finalized an innovative panel which was supported by ISA’s president, within the theme of civil society and the information era. Various regional scholars will participate virtually with discussants located on the spot in San Diego. I am certainly preparing to push forward various publications from the presentations in San Diego.

I should add that we are pleased that other sections have been so supportive of us. Special kudos to Aseem Prakash who heads IPE. We will be inviting other sections to participate in the luncheon for Ali Mazrui.

Our website is also up, our constitution drawn up (still subject to member approval in S.D.), and we have initiated these two blogs – one by me, primarily used to post messages which would take too long to be routed via ISA, and the second by Secretary-Treasurer Griffin, intended to be a more legitimate blog. A short newsletter should be coming out soon. if you wish to publicize anything you’ve done or provide conference information etc, please do so soon. Photos, podcasts etc. are particularly welcome so that we can liven things up a bit. Just send to me or to Clifford Griffin.

Clifford has opened up a blog on Prof. Ali Mazrui who will be our first distinguished scholar honoree. Please write anything complimentary about him on the blog. We will collect these comments up until the convention for forwarding to him as a package. Prof. Mazrui will receive a certificate in San Diego at a (for now, “box”) luncheon which we are trying to arrange in as classy a manner as possible given ISA’s time and style restrictions. More information will be available soon.

Participants need to register for the ISA Convention by October 17th. Other convention information is available on the ISA website so there is no need to repeat it here.

Fiinally, we have offered to sponsor a panel on "Exploring 'Difference' in International relations: Theory and Practice in the Global South" for the BISA/ISA Joint Convention next June in Edinburgh. We await word on whether our panel has been accepted.

jbw