Jason W. Moore is associate professor of sociology at Binghamton University, and coordinator of the World-Ecology Research Network. He writes frequently on the history of capitalism in Europe, Latin America, and the United States, from the 16th century to the neoliberal era. His latest book is Capitalism in the Web of Life: Ecology and the Accumulation of Capital (Verso, 2015). In this lecture, Moore argues that rise of capitalism in the centuries after 1450 marked an environment-making revolution greater than any since the dawn of agriculture. Arguing that capitalism develops not only through economic process but by cultural and territorial conquests, Moore shows how the modern world was forged in a peculiar - and destructive - relation of work and energy. Read more and register at go.osu.edu/moorej

Jocelyn Olcott is a scholar on the feminist history of modern Mexico. Her first book, Revolutionary Women in Postrevolutionary Mexico, explores questions of gender and citizenship in the 1930s. She is currently working on two book-length projects: a history of the 1975 U.N. International Women's Year Conference in Mexico City (under contract with Oxford University Press), and a biography of the activist and folksinger Concha Michel. In this talk, Olcott will consider the 1975 UN International Women's Year Conference in Mexico City to discuss the ways that 1970s feminism and the explosion of women's organizing around the world reoriented global policies around a host of issues ranging from population and food security to labor policies and environmental accords. Read more and register at go.osu.edu/olcottj

Jonas Bunte is assistant professor for public policy and political economy at University of Texas at Dallas. He is a political economist with a particular interest in the politics of finance. Bunte analyzes how distributional consequences of financial flows provide domestic actors the incentive for political action, and how domestic institutions shape this process. In this talk, Bunte will discuss how defense cooperation and economic cooperation are related. His research reveals that (1) defense and economic cooperation mutually increase the other, (2) countries that are highly active creditors in the loan network make for unattractive defense partners, (3) countries that borrow from the same creditors are more likely to cooperate in defense, and (4) governments tend to make loans to the same debtors as their defense partners. Read more and register at go.osu.edu/buntej

Paul Staniland is assistant professor of political science at the University of Chicago, where he co-directs the Program on International Security Policy. His research interests are in civil war, international security, and ethnic politics, primarily in South Asia. His current book project and related articles examine organizational cohesion and fragmentation in insurgent groups. In this talk, Staniland will offer a new theory of how states evaluate armed groups, arguing that ideological perception and instrumental incentives combine to assign groups to six different political roles. These roles, ranging from mortal enemies to business partners to undesirable, determine the strategies that governments pursue and the orders they seek to construct. Read more and register at go.osu.edu/staniland

In the 1950s and '60s, the United States Information Agency shipped sound recordings and printed music all over the world. The USIA's music collections embodied an attractive portrait of America's ethnic and stylistic diversity: jazz, classical, folk, musical theater, and popular songs were well represented. This talk, given by Mershon affiliate  Danielle Fosler-Lussier of the School of Music as part of the 2016-17 Arts and Humanities Inaugural Lecture series, shows that the USIA's program not only documented American music as it was, but also offered incentives that meaningfully shaped its creation. Her research has been funded by several grants from the Mershon Center.  Read more and register

The Alexander Hamilton Society will be hosting a debate over the best policies with which to combat terrorism, whether it is home-grown, ISIS or al Qaeda-inspired, or ISIS/al Qaeda directly, at home or abroad. We will be featuring  Matthew Kroenig (left), associate professor in the Department of Government and School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and senior fellow in the Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security at the Atlantic Council, and Jason Keiber, assistant professor history and political science at Otterbein University. Faculty advisor and Mershon affiliate Peter Mansoor, Gen. Raymond E. Mason Chair in Military History, will be moderating. As always, we will be serving FREE Coke and Wings over products.  Read more and register

Headlines about the Middle East are part of our daily news cycle. There's political turnover, volatile oil prices, Islamic extremism, and a refugee crisis that affects the entire world. Join us as we explore current hot spots in the Middle East and U.S. policy implications for the new administration. Richard K. Herrmann, professor and chair of political science, concentrates on international relations, international security, and political psychology. He is also interim director of the Mershon Center for International Security Studies, and has served as a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and on the Secretary of State's policy planning staff. Read more and register