The 2016 U.S. presidential election was marked by sharp contrasts between the major party candidates on domestic policies, as well as both presidential nominees seeking to create clear distinctions from President Obama's foreign policies. The election also featured a marked departure from the normal way questions of race and nationality were addressed. The issues raised by the 2016 election are crucial for the academic understanding of elections. Did the marked foreign policy differences affect vote choice? What role did racial and religious identity play? How important was a generalized resentment of governing elites amplified by social media? What about gender and domestic issues such as Obamacare? This conference brings together political science and communication scholars to consider these forces that affected the election and its outcome. Read more and register at go.osu.edu/2016election

Cosette Creamer is Benjamin E. Lippincott Chair in Political Economy at the University of Minnesota and affiliated faculty at the University of Minnesota Law School. Her research and teaching interests rest at the intersection of international and comparative law, politics, and the empirical analysis of law. The substantive focus of her research spans trade and economic law, international arbitration and dispute resolution, and human rights. In this talk, Creamer will discuss when the WTO's dispute settlement system asserts authority over or defers to the regulatory choices of government. Read more and register at go.osu.edu/creamerc

Manon Pignot is a French historian specializing in the experience of children during war. She is a senior lecturer at the Jules Verne University of Picardy and a junior member of the Institut Universitaire de France. In this event, she will discuss the growing subfield of "teen combatants"  in the history of children at war, the history of war violence in general, and World War I in particular. Too young to be legally enlisted as conscripts in 1914-1918, teen combatants also felt that they were too old to remain on the home front. This lecture will explore the cross-European phenomenon of "teen combatants" both as a rite of passage into male adulthood and as a transgression of wartime norms. Read more and register at go.osu.edu/pignotm

	Thomas Wood

A national conversation on China taking place in 80+ communities throughout the United States, the CHINA Town Hall at Ohio State University begins with a talk at 6 p.m. by Tashi Rabgey (left), Research Professor of International Affairs, Elliot School of International Affairs, The George Washington University, on  "Missing Territoriality: Tibet and the Governance Paradigm in the People's Republic of China," followed by a live webcast discussion with Ambassador Susan E. Rice, former national security adviser and ambassador to the United Nations, moderated by Stephen Orlins, president of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations. Read more

The Center for a Shared Society at Givat Haviva aims to build an inclusive, sustainable, thriving Israeli democracy based on mutual responsibility and civic equality. Its leading work has been recognized by the award of the UNESCO Prize for Peace Education. Yaniv Sagee, executive director of Givat Haviva International, and Mohammad Darawshe, director of Shared Society education department, will discuss how they engage Israel's divided communities in collective action towards the advancement of a shared vision of the future. They will also consider how their model for developing equality and coexistence might be applied in other contexts of societies with deep historical, political and social rifts. Read more

Frances FitzGerald's newest book, The Evangelicals: The Struggle to Shape America, was published on April 4, 2017 and is a definitive history of the evangelical movement, its central figures, and its long-reaching influence upon American history, politics, and culture. This talk will be about how evangelicals influenced 19th century history, the split within the movement that led to the culture wars of the 20th century, and the future of evangelicals in 21st century politics. FitzGerald's talk will be followed by a panel discussion that will be moderated by Mershon affiliate Paul Beck (Political Science, Ohio State). The panelists will include Tim Ahrens (Senior Minister of First Congregational Church, UCC in downtown Columbus), and Rich Nathan (Senior Pastor of Vineyard Columbus). Read more and register

J.D. Vance will propose a hands-on approach to problems facing his native state of Ohio: opioid addiction, under-preparedness of the workforce, and domestic instability. Through his non-profit organization, Our Ohio Renewal, Vance, a 2009 alumnus of Ohio State, will tackle these issues that shaped his upbringing in Middletown, Ohio, subject of Hillbilly Elegy, Vance's No. 1 New York Times best-seller.  Described as a "brilliant book" and  "one of the most important" reads of 2016,  Hillbilly Elegy  is a searing portrait of the lives of the white working class, providing timely perspective on the rise of political populism and the growing concerns of many Americans.  Read more and register