May 2009

Ion Bogdan Vasi authored a chapter in An Introduction to Social Entrepreneurship: Voices, Preconditions, Contexts. The book, edited by Rafael Ziegler, sets entrepreneurship in a historical context, from its philanthropic beginnings in the Victorian era to the present day, all against the backdrop of contemporary global capitalism. Professor Vasi’s chapter is entitled “New Heroes, Old Theories? Toward a Sociological Perspective on Social Entrepreneurship.” More

Douglas Almond co-authored a paper for The Quarterly Journal of Economics entitled “Chernobyl’s Subclinical Legacy: Prenatal Exposure to Radioactive Fallout and School Outcomes in Sweden.” Professor Almond and his co-authors, Lena Edlundz and Mårten Palme, use prenatal exposure to Chernobyl fallout in Sweden as a natural experiment in cognitive ability. More

Sharyn O’Halloran co-authored a chapter in Trade Disputes and the Dispute Settlement Understanding of the WTO: An Interdisciplinary Assessment. In their essay, Professor O’Halloran, David Epstein and Amy Widsten investigate how party politics influences WTO member states’ compliance with adverse rulings. More

Preston Keat published The Fat Tail: The Power of Political Knowledge for Strategic Investing, co-authored with Ian Bremmer. Keat is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at SIPA and Research Director of Eurasia Group, a global political risk consultancy. In their book, Bremmer and Keat discuss a broad range of political risks, including geopolitical, country, and micro-level risks. They explain these political risks, and lay out how to effectively recognize, communicate, and mitigate them. More

Read a review of The Fat Tail: The Power of Political Knowledge for Strategic Investing in Forbes.

Andrea Bubula and Geoffrey Jehle each received SIPA’s Distinguished Teaching Award for 2009. The awards were offered in two categories. Professor Bubula won for courses with enrollment of 45 students or more; Professor Jehle for courses with fewer than 45 students. More

Rashid Khalidi and four other Columbia professors have been named fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a prestigious honorary society and center for independent policy research founded in 1780, bringing “the arts and sciences into constructive interplay with the leaders of both the public and private sectors,” according to its Web site. More

Claudia Dreifus appeared on a panel at the Origins Symposium at Arizona State University, inaugurating ASU's Origins Initiative. Dreifus is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at SIPA. The symposium brought together 70 of the world's leading scientists and scholars to explore key issues associated with existence, our past and our future. Professor Dreifus appeared on a panel on Science and Culture, with Neil deGrasse Tyson, Hugh Downs, Ann Druyan and Lucy Hawking. More

Global Leadership Awards: SIPA honored two leaders in their fields and a nonprofit organization at its Ninth Annual Global Leadership Awards dinner. The award winners for 2009 are Christiane Amanpour, CNN’s chief international correspondent; Dr. Arminio Fraga, former SIPA professor and founding partner of Brazil’s Gavea Investimentos; and the New America Foundation. In bestowing its annual Global Leadership Awards, SIPA recognizes individuals or organizations that exemplify the qualities and achievements that SIPA seeks to embody. More

Public Policy Case Competition: Fifteen policy students tackled a real world problem in SIPA's Public Policy Case Competition on April 10: "What will it take to turn around an inefficient and beleaguered state medical claims processing system?" The winning team of Garrett Wright (MIA ’10), Chelsea Gorr (MIA ’10) and Aurora Cardenas (MPA ’09) crafted a solution and took top honors in the contest. More

Brazilian Mining Workshop Wins Award: A student team from SIPA’s Workshop in Development Practice received this year’s Leous Parry Award for Progressive Sustainability for its work on promoting social dialogue on the impacts of mining company operations in Pará, Brazil. The award was created by two SIPA alumni, J.P. Leous and Neal Parry, to support interdisciplinary approaches to protecting the environment and promoting sustainable development. More

Find a Job: The Office of Career Services (OCS) introduces SIPAlink, an online recruitment database. SIPAlink features online job listings, internships, employer information sessions and much more. Register now to find out more about this new service from OCS. More

Lost Voices of Darfur: SIPA presented Lost Voices of Darfur: An Unveiling in the International Affairs Building. The exhibit, largely comprising drawings by children, presents the story of Darfur as experienced by its people; from their memories of peace, through the attacks on their villages, to their subsequent flight to save their lives. More

Michael Oren (MIA ’78) has been appointed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to become Israel’s next ambassador to the United States. Oren completed a BA at Columbia College, an MIA at SIPA, and was an International Fellow. He has taught at Georgetown, Harvard and Yale, and is known for advocating that Israel unilaterally withdraw from the West Bank. More

Alumni Day: SIPA's first Alumni Day on April 25 brought together more than 100 alumni spanning four decades, from as far away as Venezuela, Belgium, Canada and the U.K. Alumni Day featured policy panels on President Obama’s domestic and foreign policy agendas, and roundtables on career transitions and market trends. More

Shagun Mehrotra (MIA ’06) published Bankruptcy to Billions: How the Indian Railways Transformed, co-authored with Sudhir Kumar, adviser to the Minister of Railways. Shagun is pursuing doctoral studies at Columbia University. Bankruptcy to Billions is a preliminary version of his more comprehensive dissertation that explores the conditions under which state-owned enterprises improve infrastructure services developing countries. More

Fernando Gómez-Mont, Mexican Secretary of the Interior, will address the Columbia community on Thursday, May 14 at 10:30 a.m., in Room 1512 of the International Affairs Building. Gómez-Mont was appointed by by President Felipe Calderón in November of 2008.

Brent Scowcroft to Deliver Graduation Address: Former National Security Advisor and SIPA Advisory Board member General Brent Scowcroft will deliver SIPA’s 2009 graduation address. SIPA graduation will be held Monday, May 18 at 2 p.m. at Riverside Church, 490 Riverside Drive. More information about graduation is available here.

Learn more about General Brent Scowcroft here.

Stephen Sestanovich on President Obama’s relations with Congress, The Washington Post

Stuart Gottlieb on torture vs. war, The New York Times

Steven Cohen on Earth Day, USA Today

Jeffrey Sachs on the cost of “going green,” ABC News

Gary Sick on religious radicals and the financial crisis, Newsweek

John Coatsworth and Jeffrey Sachs on the Global Center in Amman, The Christian Science Monitor

John Coatsworth on President Obama and the Summit of the Americas, BBC

Richard Betts on NATO’s identity crisis, The New York Times

Joseph Stiglitz on the dollar and the SDR, Time

Stuart Gottlieb writes "Obama’s Drone-strike Counterterrorism Policy," Foreign Policy

Robert Lieberman on race and President Obama, El Mercurio (Spanish)

Joseph Stiglitz on the breakup of big banks, The Wall Street Journal

Jeffrey Sachs writes "Homegrown Aid," The New York Times

Gary Sick on why Iran is hungry for business with the U.S., Business Week

Neil Quartaro on the Somali pirates in a podcast for The Takeaway.

To contribute news and information for Inside SIPA, contact Alex Burnett, Communications Officer, at 212-851-1818 or ab3178@columbia.edu.