Stanford University

Society

FSI researchers work to understand continuity and change in societies as they confront their problems and opportunities. This includes the implications of migration and human trafficking. What happens to a society when young girls exit the sex trade? How do groups moving between locations impact societies, economies, self-identity and citizenship? What are the ethnic challenges faced by an increasingly diverse European Union? From a policy perspective, scholars also work to investigate the consequences of security-related measures for society and its values.

The Europe Center reflects much of FSI’s agenda of investigating societies, serving as a forum for experts to research the cultures, religions and people of Europe. The Center sponsors several seminars and lectures, as well as visiting scholars.

Societal research also addresses issues of demography and aging, such as the social and economic challenges of providing health care for an aging population. How do older adults make decisions, and what societal tools need to be in place to ensure the resulting decisions are well-informed? FSI regularly brings in international scholars to look at these issues. They discuss how adults care for their older parents in rural China as well as the economic aspects of aging populations in China and India.

Iraq: Comparing Explanations for America's Failure

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Lawrence F. Kaplan is senior editor at The New Republic, where he writes about U.S. foreign policy and international affairs. At this seminar, he will discuss military operations in Iraq, the implications for politics here at home, and competing explanations for what went wrong. On this last point, the speaker hopes to engage in a dialogue with the audience.

Encina Basement Conference Room

Lawrence Kaplan Senior Editor Speaker The New Republic
Seminars

The Growth and Influence of Anti-Americanism in South Korea on ROK-US Relations

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Dr. Hakjoon Kim has been President and Publisher of Dong-A Ilbo (East Asia Daily) since 2001. His career has spanned the fields of journalism, public policy and academia. After earning his Ph.D. in political science from the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1972, Kim spend a year as a research associate as the university's Asian Studies Program in the University Center for International Studies and as a research assistant professor in the Department of Political Science. In 1973 he returned to Korea and spent the next 16 years as a professor and a visiting scholar at various universities in Korea and then in Japan, the United States, Germany, Austria, and London.

In 1989, Kim was elected to the Korean National Assembly and became the chief policy assistant, press secretary, and spokesperson for the president of Korea. In 1993 he rejoined the academic world as chairperson of the board of directors and professor at Dankook University while still keeping one foot in the policy world as advisor to the Korean Ministry of Unification and then to the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Affairs.

During this time, Dr. Kim was also publishing books in English on Korean politics, books in Korean on the history of Russia and the Soviet Union, and publishing articles in numerous journals, such as Asian Survey (UC Berkeley), Journal of Northeast Asian Studies (Washington, D.C.), Japan Review of International Affairs (Tokyo), Korea and World Affairs (Seoul), Security Dialogue (Oslo), Far Eastern Affairs (Moscow) and other professional journals. In 1983 he won the Best Book Prize, which was awarded by the Korean Political Science Association for his book Han'guk Chongch'i Ron (On Korean Politics,) Seoul, 1983.

Philippines Conference Room

Hakjoon Kim President and Publisher, Dong A Ilbo, Korea Speaker
Seminars
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Trade on Human Terms: Transforming Trade for Human Development in Asia and the Pacific

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Against the backdrop of export-led growth of some economies -- most notably China and India -- human development issues in Asia tend to be overlooked. The 2006 report Trade on Human Terms, produced by the United Nations Development Programme, finds that trade has contributed to further increasing the inequality both between and within countries. In addition, it warns that many of the region's open economies, particularly the East Asian success stories, are creating far fewer jobs, especially for youth and women, and experiencing "jobless growth." Many of the developing countries in the Asia-Pacific are now net importers of agricultural products; food security has thus become an emerging issue.

While Asia and the Pacific have embraced globalization, the regions poor are being left behind and will be so without determined action by governments. The report recommends that those countries adopt bold new policies that harness trade and economic growth, suggesting an "eight-point agenda" that includes investing for competitiveness; adopting strategic trade policies; restoring a focus on agriculture; combating jobless growth; and others.

Dr. Hafiz A. Pasha will discuss the findings and recommendations of this ground-breaking and thoughtful report which can be viewed at:

Asia - Pacific Human Development Report 2006

Dr. Hafiz A. Pasha is UN assistant secretary-general and UNDP assistant administrator and director of the Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific. He has served as the commerce and trade minister, minister for finance and economic affairs, deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, and education minister in three government administrations in Pakistan.

Prior to his government work, Dr. Pasha was the vice chancellor/president of the University of Karachi and dean and director of the Institute of Business Administration in Karachi, Pakistan.

Dr. Pasha has published extensively in the fields of trade, public finance, social development, and poverty reduction. He has an M.A. from Cambridge University and a Ph.D. from Stanford University.

Pasha was recently awarded the Congressional Medal of Achievement by the Philippines Congress in recognition of his work on poverty reduction, achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by the Asia-Pacific countries and his role in leading UNDP's response to the 2004 tsunami tragedy.

Philippines Conference Room

Hafiz A. Pasha UN Assistant Secretary General and Director of the Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific Speaker The United Nations Development Programme
Seminars

Transitions from Hybrid Regimes: External Influence and Domestic Constraints in Rule of Law Reforms

The Rule of Law is perhaps the key indicator of democratic consolidation and quality, yet its development has eluded many transitional states. At the dawn of the 21st Century international actors play a critical, yet under-researched role in domestic processes of democratic development. This project brings together these two insights to develop new theoretical and empirical knowledge about the interaction between external influence and domestic legal, institutional and normative development.

Is the U.S. - South Korea Alliance in Jeopardy?

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Recently, former senior officials of South Korean President Roh's own administration have expressed serious concern about his approach to North Korea and to the alliance with the U.S. Mr. Straub will examine the prospects for the U.S.-South Korean alliance, especially in light of major differences between the two governments over how to deal with North Korea. He will also explain the origins and the nature of anti-Americanism in South Korea today, and offer his views on how the U.S. and South Korea could put their alliance on a sounder footing.

David Straub retired from the U.S. Department of State in 2006 as a Senior Foreign Service Officer after a 30-year career focused on Northeast Asian affairs. He worked over 12 years on Korean affairs, first arriving in Seoul in 1979, just months before the assassination of President Park Chung Hee. He served as head of the political section at the U.S. embassy in Seoul from 1999 to 2002 during popular protests against the U.S., and played a key working-level role in the Six-Party Talks on North Korea's nuclear program as the State Department's Korea country desk director from 2002 to 2004.

Straub's final assignment was as the State Department's Japan country desk director in 2004, when he was co-leader of the U.S. delegation to talks with Japan on the realignment of the U.S.-Japan alliance and of U.S. military bases in Japan. He currently works as a consultant with Northeast Asia Associates, and lectures on U.S.-Korean relations at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C. He is fluent in Korean, Japanese, and German.

Philippines Conference Room

David Straub former Korea Country Director Speaker the United States Department of State
Seminars
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Choosing not to choose: Ambiguity aversion in younger and older adults

"Ambiguity aversion" occurs when people prefer making no choice at all to making an ambiguous risky choice, even if the ambiguous choice holds higher expected value. Behavioral evidence suggests that a majority of individuals show some degree of ambiguity aversion, and older adults may be especially prone to this bias, which could have specific consequences for healthcare decisions. In this study the investigators examine ambiguity aversion in young and old adults using a standard experimental "Ellsberg Paradox" task as well as a more generalizable healthcare decision-making task.

Age, Affect Valuation, and Health-Related Decision-Making

What accounts for differences in "ideal affect," or the affective states that people value and ideally want to feel? The investigators predict that ideal affect influences what people do to feel good and what decisions they make. Preliminary studies suggest that younger adults value excitement states more and calm states less than do older adults, with middle age adults falling in between the groups. Therefore, age differences in mood-producing behaviors and decision making may be mediated by ideal affect.

Benefits and Costs of Health Insurance Choice among Older Adults: The Case of Medicare Prescription Drug Plans

The perceptions of policy makers regarding the ability and desire of Medicare beneficiaries to make choices regarding their health insurance coverage has shaped the development of the Medicare program in fundamental, yet sometimes contradictory, ways. Yet relatively little is known about the factors that affect the decision making of older adults in this context.

Boris Lanin

Stanford Humanities Center
424 Santa Teresa Street, #212
Stanford, CA 94305-4015

(650) 724-8165 (650) 723-1895
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Humanities and International Studies Fellow
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Boris Lanin has taught literature and rhetoric in Russia, UK, Japan, Hungary, and the USA. His current position is Head of Literature and Principal Research Professor at the Russian Academy of Education (Moscow).

Project Summary

Symbols of Power and Political Rhetoric in NIS: The Montage of Attractions in Totalitarian and Post-Soviet Culture examines semiological aspects of the project of political culture in the post-Soviet NIS. The study focuses on the emergence, character, and social functions of the symbolic and discursive polarization between new authorities and the populace, as reflected in public ceremonies, demonstrations, open public meetings, and spectacles.

Yo Yo Ma and SPICE work with Chicago public schools

Authors
Johanna Wee
Date
Paragraphs
Chicago Tribune article features Yo Yo Ma's introduction of SPICE Silk Road curriculum to Chicago public schools. SPICE director Gary Mukai, who helped design the curriculum, is quoted.

Yo-Yo Ma sat on the edge of the small stage at the Art Institute, his cello resting across his lap.

"See this fingerboard?" the acclaimed cellist asked the audience. "It is made out of ebony, which comes from Africa."

"The red varnish," he said, massaging the body of the instrument, "comes from as far away as Malaysia."

"The hair on the bow comes from Mongolia and the wood of the bow can be found only in Brazil," he said.

Ma's multicultural cello seemed the perfect metaphor for his most recent endeavor: bringing the rich artistic and cultural history of the Silk Road to Chicago Public Schools students.

The Silk Road, the ancient network of trade routes that crisscrossed Eurasia through the 1500s, served as the main conduit for the cultural exchange of goods, art and music. And when Ma sat down and played a soulful partita by Turkish composer Ahmed Adnan Saygun, he showed that cultural exchange enriches the world.

"This is a global instrument," he said. "And by bringing the world together ... beautiful music can be made."

Ma was in town Monday as part of Silk Road Chicago, a yearlong citywide celebration inspired by the art, music and culture along the historic road that stretched from Japan and China through central Asia and into the Mediterranean. The Chicago series is part of the larger Silk Road Project, a multiyear, multicity odyssey created by Ma.

Specifically, Ma spent the day helping introduce a new Silk Road school curriculum to Chicago Public Schools teachers.

Through a collaboration with the Art Institute, 80 Chicago teachers will spend the week discovering the Silk Road and learning how best to explain its importance to students.

"It's sometimes difficult to get students to engage in something that seems so far removed from their lives," explained Gary Mukai, from Stanford University, who helped develop the Silk Road curriculum. "We hope we can help students make a link to their own lives by engaging them musically, mathematically and artistically in the Silk Road history."

Through the lesson plan, students can trace the history of Asia and the West through the important innovations that migrated along the Silk Road. Students will learn that gunpowder, the magnetic compass, lacquer crafts and, of course, silk, flowed from East and West and back.

Musical forms and instruments also traveled the Silk Road, as string, wind and percussion instruments from the East and the West influenced each other. Cymbals were introduced into China from India. The Chinese gongs traveled to Europe. And the Persian mizmar, a reed instrument, seems to have been the ancestor of the European oboe and clarinet.

Ma implored the teachers to reach out to students and help create a "spark" that will open their minds to the "amazing cultures around them."

"As teachers, you are incredible guides into a world that you can make a most exciting place," he said.

The Silk Road is a metaphor that "joins us together not only in material things but in spiritual ways," he said. "You can translate that to your students."

Don Gibson, a music teacher from Dyett High School on the South Side, said the Silk Road will help him incorporate history lessons into his music courses.

"Through the Silk Road music lessons, I can broaden their understanding of cultures and the history of those cultures," Gibson said. "To be inspired by the music, sometimes, you have to know its history."

READER CONNECTION
Would you like to learn more about the Silk Road Chicago events? Visit the Silk Road Project.

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