The Department of Political Science will host its monthly colloquium with scholars from around the world presenting their research to faculty, students and staff.
The academic conference will be from noon to 1 p.m. Friday in Academic Services building 1.104 on the Edinburg campus and simultaneously broadcasted via video to Student Union 2.24 in Brownsville with a 30-minute Q&A after the presentation.
The purpose of these monthly colloquiums, “Is to introduce them to, sort of, up-to-date scholarship that’s being done from people from around the country and get people thinking about research,” said Clyde Barrow, a political science professor and department chair.
“I would like to see some historians there too, so it’s kind of a mix, interdisciplinary gathering and I expect to see faculty, senior students, graduate students asking questions,” said Samee Lashari, event speaker and an associate political science professor at UTRGV.
Lashari will present his findings from his research that will be published in a book next year.
The basis of his research is on the rise and fall of China and the Indian subcontinent in the world system, to see how various regions of the world have gained economic power at the cost of some other regions losing power.
Lashari’s research is an update on the findings of Immanuel Wallerstein, an American sociologist and economic historian, who published this idea of a global view of world system analysis in the 1970’s.
“Wallerstein proposed the idea that the world is no more a three-tier system,” he said. “Actually, it’s a four-tier system now. Whereas, we see that there is a core and then there is a semi core.”
So far, to the best of his knowledge, Lashari is the only researcher using the term “semi core.”
“That is a new term in itself and it’s kind of a new theory to an extent, so it’s an interesting research,” he said.
According to Lashari, the rise of Asia is a popular topic.
“World system is very suitable theory to explain that and I think students can learn a lot about this new perspective,” he said.
Lashari said he looks forward to collaborating further on this topic and others.
The next colloquium will be held from noon to 1 p.m. Dec. 6 simultaneously on the Edinburg and Brownsville campuses where speaker William Sokoloff, an associate political science professor, will present the basis of his book “Political Pedagogy: A Critical, Radical and Utopian Perspective.”
“The basis of the research is a historical analysis of the discipline of political science in terms of the ways in which it educates young people, students, to be democratic citizens,” Sokoloff said. “How it’s fulfilled that project and how it has not fulfilled that project.”
He said it is important to attend to share ideas, learn new perspectives and learn about new research to see how it fits into a democracy.
“I think it’s gonna be a lot of fun,” Sokoloff said. “I encourage UTRGV students to attend. My goal is to show how studying political science is relevant to what’s happening today with, not only with the [Donald] Trump presidency, but with the election in 2020.”
