In this inaugural event, students representing CMC research institutes and centers will present their projects, experiences and insights. Spanning the disciplines of finance, economics, government, international studies, humanistic studies, human rights, environment, individual freedom, and leadership, the evening promises to be thought-provoking and inspiring. 

The Atheneum invited David Dreier ‘75 and William Mundall as panelists for this showing. At a time when the world’s two acknowledged superpowers seem to be moving towards economic and political conflict, a new feature documentary explores how the destiny of both countries became so deeply and inextricably intertwined. By examining the day-to-day lives of ordinary Chinese and American citizens, this feature-length documentary asks: Can the United States survive the rise of China? Is confrontation inevitable? Produced over five years, shot on four continents, and created with the participation of three U.S. secretaries of state, the documentary captures compelling stories that highlight the global stakes, challenges and opportunities of the world’s most important bilateral relationship. A Q & A and discussion with former Congressman David Dreier ’75 and the film’s producer William Mundell will follow the screening.

The Athenaeum invited Robert Kagan. For seven decades, American leadership has kept at bay the jungle of great power conflict, nationalism and tribalism, and spheres of influence. Drawing from his latest book, "The Jungle Grows Back: America and Our Imperiled World,” Robert Kagan, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, will reflect on what comes next for the United States.

Robert Kagan is the Stephen & Barbara Friedman Senior Fellow with the Project on International Order and Strategy in the foreign policy program at Brookings. He is a contributing columnist at The Washington Post. A prolific writer, his newest book is “The Jungle Grows Back: America and Our Imperiled World” (Knopf, 2018).  His previous book was The New York Times bestseller, “The World America Made” (Knopf, 2012).

For his writings, Politico Magazine named Kagan one of the “Politico 50” in 2016, the “thinkers, doers and visionaries transforming American politics in 2016.” His most recent pieces include “The Twilight of the Liberal World Order” in “Brookings Big Ideas for America” and “Backing into World War III” in Foreign Policy.

He served in the State Department from 1984 to 1988 as a member of the policy planning staff, as principal speechwriter for Secretary of State George P. Shultz, and as deputy for policy in the Bureau of Inter-American Affairs.

He is a graduate of Yale University and Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and holds a doctorate in American history from American University.

The Athenaeum invited Sudha Pai. With a reorientation from the desire for social justice to economic aspiration, two rapid shifts are visible in the political preferences of Dalits in India’s northern state of Uttar Pradesh. Attracted by promises of development and cultural inclusion, the Dalits—previously referred to more generally as “Untouchables”—were drawn away from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) towards the dominant and nationalist BJP in the 2014 elections. But since 2015, violent protests by Dalits across India against rising atrocities point to disillusionment with the BJP. Sudha Pai, a political science scholar and researcher, will address these changing equations which indicate fragmentation between Ambedkarite and Hindutvawadi Dalits with consequences for the “Dalit Question” and the 2019 Indian elections.

Sudha Pai taught political science at the Centre for Political Studies and served as rector from 2011 to 2015 at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Currently, she is president of PRAMAN (Policy Research and Management Network) a research institute that undertakes research on areas such as health, agriculture, foreign policy, and education for the government, NGOs, and in collaboration with university departments. She is also a visiting fellow at the Indian Institute of Dalit Studies, New Delhi. She was a national fellow, Indian Council of Social Science Research, New Delhi in 2016 to 2017 and senior fellow at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library Teen Murti, New Delhi from 2006 to 2009 where she wrote “Developmental State and the Dalit Question in Madhya Pradesh: Congress Response” (Routledge, 2010).

Pai was awarded the faculty research fellowship, Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute Canada, in 1996. She has been a member of many projects including SIDA and UNIRISD. Based on her extensive research on Uttar Pradesh, she has also served on the governing body of the Govind Vallabh Pant Institute, Allahabad, and the Giri Institute of Development Studies, Lucknow.

Pai joined the Centre for Political Studies in 1980 as assistant professor where she taught courses and guided research in the field of Indian politics, public policy and comparative politics. Her graduation and post-graduation was from the University of Delhi and her M/Phil and Ph.D. from the Centre for Political Studies. She was assistant professor from 1972 to 1975 at Gargi College for Women, Delhi University.

Her books include “Dalit Assertion and the Unfinished Democratic Revolution: The BSP in Uttar Pradesh” (Sage 2002); “Indian Parliament: A Critical Appraisal” (ed. with Avinash Kumar, Orient Blackswan, 2014, 2016); “Handbook on Politics in the Indian States Regions, Political Parties and Economic Reforms” (ed. Oxford University Press, 2013, 2015); “Revisiting 1956 B.R. Ambedkar and States Reorganization” (co-authored, Orient Blackswan, 2014, 2015) and more recently “Everyday Communalism: Riots in Contemporary Uttar Pradesh” (Oxford University Press, 2018). She is also a regular contributor to thewire.in and other media.

Pai has been selected to receive the South Asian Studies Association's (SASA) 2019 Exemplar Award for Academic Achievement and will be speaking at the SASA's spring conference to be held at CMC in early March 2019.

The Athenaeum invited Rana Mitter. Beijing’s policies continue to dominate the news in the Asia-Pacific region. Will China and Japan clash in the seas of East Asia? Will China be able to implement social welfare policies to calm dissent and social unrest? Why did it take so long for China to become a major power? One unexpected but crucial story that helps illuminate these different questions is the wrenching history of China’s experience during World War II, in the epic war against Japan from 1937 to 1945, when over 14 million Chinese died and some 80 million became refugees. Rana Mitter, professor of history and politics of modern China at Oxford University, will outline how and why the battered China of wartime became today’s superpower-in-the-making and explore the impact of the memory of that war to effectuate domestic and international politics in present day China.

Rana Mitter is director of the University China Centre at the University of Oxford, where he is a professor of the history and politics of modern China.

He is the author of several books, including the award-winning “A Bitter Revolution: China’s Struggle with the Modern World” (Oxford, 2004). His most recent book “Forgotten Ally: China’s World War II” was named as a 2013 Book of the Year in the Financial Times and the Economist, won the 2014 Duke of Westminster’s Medal for Military Literature, and was a finalist for the Bernard Schwartz prize of the Asia Society of New York.

In the UK he is a regular presenter of the arts and ideas program Free Thinking on BBC Radio 3. He comments regularly on contemporary Chinese politics and society in media around the world and has spoken at forums including the World Economic Forum at Davos. His reviews and essays have appeared in newspapers including the Financial Times, International New York Times, Guardian, Telegraph, Caijing, and South China Morning Post. He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2015.

CMC alumna Jamie Curran ‘16 was invited for career counseling for international relations majors.

This event was only open to juniors and seniors. The event was held in Kravis 161.

CMC alumnus Daniel Cui ‘18 speaks on his experience at Triage Consulting Group.