Silverstein Forum, Stiteler Hall First Floor (Accessibility) / Free and open to the public

Attendees are encouraged the read Prof. Moghadam's paper, available here.

Discussant: Eve Troutt Powell (UPenn History)

RESISTANCE TO WOMEN’S EQUALITY AND EMPOWERMENT is widely assumed to be an intrinsic part of the politics and culture of Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia, as with other countries in the Middle East and North Africa. And yet, the region has experienced significant changes in women’s legal status, political participation, and social positions, along with continued contention over Muslim family law and women’s full and equal citizenship. Do the institutional and normative changes signal a shift in the “gender regime” from patriarchal to modern? To what extent have women’s rights organizations contributed to such changes?  While mapping the changes that have occurred, the paper will also identify the persistent constraints – endogenous and exogenous alike – that prevent both the empowerment of all women and broader socio-political transformation. 

Houston Hall (3417 Spruce Street), Bodek Lounge (1st Floor) (Accessibility)
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

With DANIEL GILLION (Political Science), SARAH BARRINGER GORDON (History / Law School), EMILIO PARRADO (Sociology and LALS), and DCC Director ROGERS SMITH.

IN THE WAKE OF THE RECENT PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, while some voters feel hopeful that America can be made "great again," others fear that this signals a furious backlash against decades of increasing cultural diversity and progress in recognizing the rights of racial, sexual, and ethnic minorities. White nationalists have been emboldened, and it is possible that the efforts already underway to roll back voting rights in many states can now proceed without substantial opposition from the federal government. The status of millions of unauthorized immigrants, who had reason to be hopeful as recently as 2013, is now highly precarious. And hate speech has cropped up in alarming ways throughout the nation and at the University of Pennsylvania itself.

As demographic trends thwart the ultimate dream of white nationalism - the U.S. is still on track, after all, to becoming "majority minority" someday - the ultimate result may be enduring, deep, and paralyzing national polarization.

Penn DCC is convening an interdisciplinary panel of noted University of Pennsylvania scholars to explore other possible scenarios. Perhaps advocates of an egalitarian multicultural society can devise policies to help accommodate and assist those white Americans made anxious and angry by their perceived cultural and economic eclipse. Meanwhile, if the new president's policies fail to improve the economic and cultural standing of those who voted for him, there may be a new way forward in 2020.

Silverstein Forum, Stiteler Hall First Floor (Accessibility) / Free and open to the public

Co-sponsored by the Alice Paul Center for Research on Gender, Sexuality & Women

Discussant: Beth Linker (UPenn Dept. of History & Sociology of Science)

College Hall, Room 209 (Accessibility)
Lunch provided.

Guillermo Garcia (Law, Harvard University)
"The Political Effects of Centralizing the Defense of the State in One Branch"

Aniruddha Jairam (Political Science, University of Pennsylvania)
"'The Law May Not Be Real, But the Lathi [Big Stick] Is': Dispute Resolution and State Capacity in an Indian District Court"

Silverstein Forum, Stiteler Hall First Floor (Accessibility) / Free and open to the public

Prof. Saldaña-Portillo will discuss two papers:
Critical Latin@ Indigeneities: A Paradigm Drift (PDF)
Life on Edge: Central American Asylum Seekers and the Limits of U.S.Liberalism (PDF)

Co-sponsored by the Alice Paul Center for Research on Gender, Sexuality & Women
and the Latin American and Latino Studies Program

Discussant: Tulia Falleti (Political Science)