Business Meeting San Francisco

This is a reminder to caucus members that the Caucus Business Meeting will be held on Friday, April 5th at 12.30 pm (after the Distinguished Scholar Luncheon to be held in the Urban Tavern restaurant from 11.15 am), in Golden Gate 8, Hilton Union Square. The agenda is the following:
1.      Report on 2012-13 activities and plans for next year (Chair)
2.      Report on Finances (Treasurer)
3.      Vote on constitution
4.      Elections: Nominations are invited from the floor for the following EXCOM positions: Africa specialist; Latin American specialist; Eurasian or South in the North specialist) as well as other positions.
5.      Second Global South International Studies Conference (bids open)
6.      Any other business.

WInter-Spring 2013 Newsletter and Elections

Newsletter

The Winter-Spring 2013 newsletter has been sent to ISA for posting to the isanet/GSCIS website.
Please don't forget to let us know if you are coming to the luncheon for Dr. Sundaram in San Francisco! The food will be quite tasty.



Elections
A nominations committee headed by Seifudein Adem is now  seeking nominations for the Executive Committee. The EXCOM works on the principle of geographic representation. Please write to adems@binghamton.edu if you wish to serve.

Urgent: Looking for Roommate, San Francisco

Dear GSCIS -Colleagues,

I hope this email finds you well and in the midst of your preparations for the ISA Convention. Is anyone still looking for a room to share in San Francisco?
I’m urgently looking for someone to share my twin room at the Parc 55 Hotel with between the 2nd and 7th April 2013. Unfortunately, my original roommate has fallen seriously ill and she thus had to cancel her attendance.
Should you be interested, please send me an email by Friday evening (1st)– as this is critical for my further travel plans from Europe. My email-ID is: r.mageza@soz.uni-frankfurt.de

Thanks and (hopefully) looking forward to a barrage of emails,


Rirhandu Mageza

Your Attention Needed: Luncheon for Distinguished Scholar Honoree Jomo Sundaram

The Global South Caucus will hold its second Distinguished Scholar luncheon in honor of Dr. Jomo Sundaram in the (very nice) Urban Tavern Private Dining Room of the San Francisco Hilton on Friday April 5,  11.15am-12.30pm. Like last year when we honored Prof. Ali Mazrui, Prof. Sundaram will give a short talk.
Space is at a premium because of hotel limitations. Members wishing to attend will be accommodated on a first come, first serve basis and are asked to give a token donation of $10 ($5 for students) to help subsidize the event. Every effort will be made, as a priority, to accommodate persons who are presenting papers on GSCIS panels. Please let me know ASAP if you wish to attend.

Here is Dr. Sundaram's c.v. posted on the blog last year: Update: he is currently  Assistant Director-General, Economic and Social Development Department (FAO)

Dr. Jomo Sundaram, CV online :
http://unstats.un.org/unsd/

Please let either the Chair (jbraveboy-wagner@gc.cuny.edu) or the Treasurer (adems@binghamton.edu) know by the end of February if you plan to attend. It looks like fun!

Attention: Newsletter

A new newsletter is being put together as I write this. If you have any information you wish to include, please send to D. Cassells at diana.cassells@gmail.com.

Second Global South International Studies Conference Bids

Dear Friends:
In the wake of the success of the First Global South International Studies Conference, we are inviting  bids from institutions and persons willing to  hold the Second GSIS Conference. At Menton, indications of interest came from institutions in India, Brazil, and the New Orleans. We would like to encourage those institutions and any others who wish to, to formulate proposals and send then to the Caucus Chair (jbraveboy-wagner@gc.cuny.edu). The Chair will establish a committee which will include the Menton Chair Imad Mansour, to consider proposals. You should of course, include a timetable for holding the conference.

  

Fellowship, Geneva

THE GRADUATE INSTITUTE
of INTERNATIONAL and DEVELOPMENT STUDIES, Geneva, Switzerland
CALL FOR APPLICATIONS
Global South Workshop 2013
The Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva is pleased to announce
this fellowship opportunity for PhD students from Southern Universities.
The Global South Workshop is a week-long workshop for talented Ph.D. students from Southern
universities researching topics at the intersection of international studies and development studies. The workshop will give selected participants the opportunity to present and discuss their research in a seminar format. The 2013 workshop is jointly organised by the Graduate Institute, Geneva and El Colegio de México, Mexico City; it will take place from 30 November to 7 December 2013 in Mexico City.
OBJECTIVE
This programme is intended to facilitate a network of young scholars from southern countries by
providing them opportunities to interact and share experiences with fellow scholars from the south, and develop collaborative frameworks and projects that may help advance the salience of southern perspectives in their fields and disciplines.
FUNDING
The scholarship is funded by the Swiss Federal Department for Foreign Affairs; it will cover expenses for travel, accommodation and meals, and offer a small stipend to cover other costs.
CONDITIONS
Candidates must fulfil the following conditions:
- Eligible candidates should be nearing completion of their Ph.Ds at a Southern university;
- The research topic must be relevant to International and Development studies;
- Knowledge of English is essential.
APPLICATION
The deadline for receipt of applications is 30 April 2013.
Candidates must complete the online application form which includes:
- A statement of motivation;
- A curriculum vitae
- Contact details of two academic referees;
- A 2,000-word summary of the Ph.D. project along with the chapters outline.
CONTACT
Tel +41 22 908 43 84
southworkshop@graduateinstitute.ch
http://graduateinstitute.ch/southworkshop

Happy 2013

Happy 2013 to everyone! We hope that the new year will be productive and successful for all members.

As everyone knows, we were preoccupied in November-December with the First Global South International Studies Conference held in Menton, France. Thanks to the hard work of Imad Mansour and his team of dedicated and proactive students at Sciences-Po, the conference was widely deemed to be a success. Despite the travel distances, despite the rather busy time of year, despite the impact of Sandy in the United States, and even, in a lighter vein, despite the intermittent rainy weather in the normally-sunny Mediterranean -- participants came from around the world: India, Brazil, Sudan, Nigeria, Korea, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, U.S.-based scholars, French, British and other academics. The presence of younger scholars was particularly noticeable. The 17 panels covered the three themes of teaching, research and theorizing, introducing many innovative ideas and materials. There were no back-to-back panels - which made for a long intense day of discussions and critiques of each paper.Most of all, the conference provided participants with the opportunity to network and get to know one another, and provided the Caucus hierarchy with an opportunity to expand the membership and gather ideas about our focus and future.

      For more on and about the conference, please see the chair's report in the winter/spring GSCIS newsletter which will be out soon. If you are interested, some of the papers from the conference are still available at http://fgsisc.com/conference-papers/. Apart from thanking Imad and his students, we thank all the participants, Sciences-Po Menton director Bernard el Ghoul, and those who provided administrative support at ISA HQ. (Note: photos here are from fgsisc.com)
      One initiative discussed by EXCOM members who attended the conference was the establishment of an African Initiative similar to the Developing Eurasia initiative currently sponsored by Jason Strakes in Georgia. Africa is indisputably underrepresented in terms of teaching and research in international studies, and scholars from Africa are underrepresented at international conferences. Pending further discussion by Council, Eric Deguila of Benin will begin work on the initiative.  

The San Francisco ISA annual conference will be here before we know it (early April). You probably have noticed that most of the caucus panels are clustered on the last day, Saturday,which is admittedly inconvenient for participants who like to or have to attend during the earlier part of the week. However, it also means that we have one convenient day to network and discuss. So if you have to choose, perhaps you can skip the earlier part of the week this time around and make sure to be there for the latter half of the conference. Please note that on Friday we will hold our Distinguished Scholar event which begins with a presentation by our nominee Dr. Jomo Sundaram (FAO: ). This will be followed by a luncheon for no more than 20-25 people (because of the size of the room available). The luncheon will be co-sponsored with the Academic Council for UN Study (ACUNS). All caucus members are invited to this lunch ($10 contribution), on a first-come, first served basis. Please let us know if you will attend by emailing Treasurer Seifudein Adem at adems@binghamton.edu, cc'd to the Chair at jbraveboy-wagner@gc.cuny.edu. Finally, our business meeting will be held immediately after these events. Please put all of this on your calendar.