|
International Research Groups 2008-2009 Faculty Global and International Research Programs. In an effort to further global and international research excellence at Rutgers University, the office of the Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs initiated an annual competition for the creation of thematic interdisciplinary research work group in the areas of global and/or international concern. The aim of the research work group is to develop interconnections among departments, units, or schools by including faculty members and graduate students from different disciplines and/or encompassing multiple geographic regions. Each research group focuses on a theme in which Rutgers faculty members already excel or would like to develop new initiatives within an international and multi-disciplinary context. During the first competition, the following research groups, led by SAS faculty, were selected:
|
|
The Politics of Global Security (PoGS) |
|
|
|
|
The sense of security afforded by living within a known, bounded world is increasingly a thing of the past. In today’s transnational world, people migrate across the globe in unprecedented numbers and varieties, crossing borders to create novel, often destabilizing, encounters, while economic and cultural processes extend well beyond single nation-states. In the pursuit of security, people change the ways in which they live their lives, while governments go to war, restructure their economies, justify human rights violations, create policies on immigration, crime, climate, and commerce, and reconceptualize their place within a global political order. These transnational processes create uncertainty and ambiguity, calling into question present notions of security and leading states to implement policies of security-making that challenge established regimes of law, policing, and civil and human rights. Despite these various challenges, the joint effects of mobile populations, transnational cultures, and changing state and international systems of governance have been largely unexplored by the research community. At Rutgers, a number of scholars from a range of disciplinary departments and schools have been working independently to advance our understanding of the politics of global security, producing groundbreaking work on these subjects from a variety of perspectives and across a range of geographical regions. But until now, such work has proceeded without benefit of collaboration or communication with other Rutgers scholars working on related issues, and without contributing to the development of a University-wide program on the subject. The Faculty/Student Research Work Group on the Politics of Global Security works to foster individual research while helping to build a broader community of scholars doing critical study of global security issues at Rutgers. Daniel Goldstein, PI (SAS, Anthropology); Nell Balthrop-Flynn (SAS, Anthropology, GSNB-Anthropology graduate student); Jack Z. Bratich (SCILS, Journalism and Media Studies); Daniel G. Chatman (BSPPP, Urban Planning); Zaire Dinzey-Flores (SAS, Latino and Hispanic Caribbean Studies); Angelique Haugerud (SAS, Anthropology); David M. Hughes (SEBS, Human Ecology); Richard Nisa (SAS, Geography, GSNB-Geography graduate student); Robyn Rodriguez (SAS, Sociology). |
|
|
Global Sexualities and Women’s Human Rights |
|
|
|
|
In the past two decades, the relationship between sexualities and globalization has increasingly been studied by researchers in women’s studies and in other areas of the social sciences and humanities. The globalization of trade, finances, and investment has had a palpable effect on the sexual health and human rights of individuals, and on sexual meanings, sexual identities, particularly since the close of the 20th century. Research suggests that globalization and its manifestations-- increased mobility, the transformation of nation-states and citizenship and the emergence of transnational civil society--have had a profound impact on discourses and practices attached to sexuality. Similarly, human rights advocates, particularly women's and sexual rights activists have become increasingly aware of the relationship between globalization and evolving understandings of sexuality. In the 1990s women’s human rights activists along with sexual rights advocates played important roles in the creation and implementation of international agreements on sexual and reproductive rights. The multiple ways in which sexual and reproductive rights intersect with a wide range of health, human rights, social and economic justice and development issues were taken into account in those formulations. Nonetheless, macroeconomic policies, migration, reforms in the health sector, the rise of fundamentalisms, and militarization threaten the gains made in previous decades. In order to implement their strategies, rights advocates have explored the links between globalization and sexualities, seeking to sharpen their understanding of this relationship. This project brings together an interdisciplinary group of academic researchers at Rutgers and activists from different regions of the world to advance understandings of the relationship between globalization and sexualities from an activist and academic perspective. The advocates who form part of the groundbreaking sexual and women’s rights organizations can inform academic inquiry, and the vibrant research produced at Rutgers University in the growing area of sexuality studies can strengthen activists effectiveness as they work in diverse transnational networks. Ultimately, the connections developed within the work group (faculty and graduate students) and activist circle can become a vehicle for a more integrated perspective of the relationship between globalization and sexualities. Work Group Goals: - To develop comprehensive analysis of the relationships between globalization and sexualities.
- To support collaboration among Rutgers University faculty, graduate students, and international activists in the interdisciplinary field of globalization and sexualities.
- To identify the main issues presently at stake in relation to globalization and sexualities and sexual rights, as perceived through the academic and activist spheres and to identify the overlaps to instigate further collaboration.
- To position Rutgers University as a partner to human rights advocates and policy makers in relation to the themes of globalization, sexual health and rights.
Charlotte Bunch, PI (SAS, WGS, Center for Women’s Global Leadership); Carlos Decena (SAS, WGS, Hispanic and Latino Caribbean Studies); Yana Rodgers (SAS, WGS, Center for Women and Work): Jyl Josephson (FAS-Newark, Political Science, Women’s Studies); Ethel Brooks (SAS, WGS, Sociology); Cheryl Clarke (Social Justice Education); Anahi Russo Garrido (SAS, WGS, GSNB-Women’s and Gender Studies graduate student); Andrew Mazzachi (SAS, WGS, GSNB-Women’s and Gender Studies graduate student). |
|
|
Ways of Water: Gender, Community, Environment, Health, and Engineering |
|
|
|
|
The purpose of this project is to bring together scholars, graduate students, librarians, and others interested in different aspects and influences of water. A crucial natural resource with political, social, and economic implications, water is investigated from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. However, there is a critical need to bringtogether and integrate all this dispersed research. This project seeks to highlight the Rutgers University Libraries’ central role in providing a common ground and support for the scientists and social scientists from numerous schools, departments, and institutes and centers across Rutgers. Kayo Denda, PI (Women’s Studies Librarian); Joan Bennett (SEBS, Associate Vice President for the Promotion of Women in Science, Engineering and Math); Ethel Brooks (SAS, WGS, Sociology); Qizhong (George) Guo (SOE, Civil and Environmental Engineering); Karen Hartman (Social Work and Planning and Public Policy Librarian); Rebecca Gardner (Anthropology, Geography, and Human Ecology Librarian); Triveni Kuchi (Sociology and Instructional Services Librarian). |
|
|
|
