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“Geoffrey Wheatcroft, a British commentator and author with a reputation as an admirably pugnacious contrarian, recalls seeing Churchill in the House of Commons as a schoolboy in 1963,” writes Aldous, Eugene Meyer Professor of British History and Literature, in the Wall Street Journal. “‘For all that he was aged and infirm,’ [Wheatcroft] writes, ‘I was glad to have seen him for myself, and to have seen him where I did.’ In Churchill’s Shadow, Mr. Wheatcroft attempts ‘to make a reckoning’ with the man he saw on that day—not just with his life and legacy but also with ‘the long shadow he still casts.’”

“After almost two years of Covid-induced absence from Paris and Berlin, I returned to the old world to make a surprising discovery: Europe no longer understands the United States,” writes Walter Russell Mead, James Clarke Chace Professor of Foreign Affairs and the Humanities. “Between Washington’s shift to the Indo-Pacific, the lingering effects of the Trump presidency (along with fears of a return in 2024), and confusing signals emanating from the Biden administration, neither the Germans nor French know what to expect anymore.”

Associate Professor of Economics Pavlina Tcherneva interviews French economist Thomas Piketty as part of the first-ever Global Forum on Democratizing Work, a project of the Open Society University Network’s Economic Democracy Initiative. Piketty’s groundbreaking book Capital in the Twenty-First Century (2013), showed through data collected on 200 years of tax records from the United States and Europe, a “central contradiction of capitalism”—that the return on capital exceeds the rate of economic growth. Thus, without government intervention, the wealthy continue to grow wealthier leading to unsustainable and undemocratic levels of economic inequality.

In their conversation, Tcherneva and Piketty discuss the #democratizingwork movement, how it resonates with Piketty’s work on wealth inequality and the future of capitalism, and how collective, multifaceted, and organized actions and efforts can address economic inequality. “Human beings are not simple resources and human wellbeing cannot be governed by market forces alone,” says Tcherneva.

Thomas Piketty is Professor of Economics at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (École des hautes études en sciences sociales: EHESS), Associate Chair at the Paris School of Economics, and Centennial Professor of Economics in the International Inequalities Institute at the London School of Economics.

The American Ethnological Society has named Associate Professor of Anthropology Sophia Stamatopoulou-Robbins as a joint winner of the 2021 Sharon Stephens Book Prize.  The Sharon Stephens Book Prize is awarded biennially for a junior scholar’s first book in recognition of Sharon Stephens’ commitment to scholarship of the highest intellectual caliber informed by deep care for the world. Stamatopoulou-Robbins won for her book Waste Siege: The Life of Infrastructure in Palestine (Stanford University Press 2019), which has already received three book awards. 
 
The Prize Committee was unanimous in their praise for Stamatopoulou-Robbins’ Waste Siege: "which provides a nuanced perspective on the difficult topic of Israeli-Palestinian relations.  Through a careful sifting of the various sites at which waste from Israel threatens to overwhelm physical settings and the ordinary lives of Palestinians, Stamatopoulou-Robbins leads us to appreciate the structural impossibility of Palestinian self-government as a rejoinder to utopian fantasies of a two-state solution.  The tracing of the afterlives of bread in the midst of the hurly burly of urban lives and waste management projects, incomplete of necessity, suggests alternative geographies of food infrastructure and mutual aid.  We are treated to people who are fully fleshed-out and multi-dimensional and whose voices of rueful honesty, of humor mixed with anguish, continue to ring in our ears long after we put down the book.  A community under siege is connected to the rest of the world by waste.”

Her book has also won the Middle East Studies Association’s Albert Hourani Book Award, American Library Association's Choice Award for Outstanding Academic Title, and the American Anthropological Association’s Middle East Section (MES) Book Award.

“Several Canadian Forces investigations into domestic propaganda and influence operations recently concluded with the results pointing to findings that should concern both Canadians as well as members of the public in other democracies,” writes Emma Briant, visiting research associate in human rights. Influence activities aimed at Canadians included the monitoring of Black Lives Matter organizers and data mining of the social media accounts of members of the public, all supposedly part of a military effort to help the elderly in long-term care homes during the pandemic.

Human Rights and Global Public Health major Verónica Martínez-Cruz has been honored for her work to bridge language barriers and ensure full and equal participation of Hispanic residents in all aspects of civic, economic, and cultural life in the Hudson Valley. State Senator Michelle Hinchey (D-Saugerties) presented Martínez-Cruz with a New York State Senate Commendation Award.

“Verónica Martínez-Cruz is doing incredible work to build language justice in the Hudson Valley and create inclusive multilingual spaces that empower our Hispanic community to participate equally in our society,” Hinchey said. “Language is power, and it can determine whether a person has access to resources, information, and decision-making processes that affect their daily lives. Verónica possesses a deep understanding of these challenges, and despite being a full-time Bard College student and working other part-time jobs, she remains a committed advocate of our Spanish-speaking neighbors. For all of Verónica’s efforts to build a stronger and more connected community, it was my honor to present her with a Senate Commendation Award.”

Martínez-Cruz has served as a Council Member for both the Kingston Food Co-op and the Kingston Land Trust, as well as serving as a freelance interpreter and translator for area organizations, including the Hudson Valley Young Farmers Coalition, Kingston Midtown Arts District, Kingston YMCA Farm Project, and Catholic Charities of Orange, Sullivan, and Ulster Counties.

“As a faithful believer in Language Justice, it has always been of the utmost importance to me that language resources exist so that Spanish speakers and other immigrants living in and around Kingston can have access to understand and be a part of the changes that are happening every day in our community,” Martinez-Cruz said. “Although I did not expect this recognition, as I am only a small piece of the giant puzzle that is mutual aid, I thank Senator Hinchey for this great honor. Immigrants are part of our community and if we work together we can ensure not only a better future for us but also for future generations.”

Senator Hinchey gathered community members at the Pollinator Garden across from John F. Kennedy Elementary School in Kingston to honor Verónica with the Commendation Award in the presence of organizational collaborators including Executive Director of Kingston Land Trust Julia Farr, Kingston Food Co-op Council Chair Joe Greenberg, Kingston YMCA Farm Project Director and Farmer KayCee Wimbish, Kingston YMCA Farm Project Education Director, Susan Hereth, and members of the YMCA Youth Crew.