Ann Towns is associate professor in political science at University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Her research deals with questions about norms, international hierarchies and resistance in international politics, generally with a focus on gender. She is currently conducting a large research project on gender norms and practices in diplomacy, an inter-state institution that has long been dominated by men but where more women have entered within the past decade. As part of this project, she will carry out field work among diplomats in Washington, D.C., during 2017-18 and in Stockholm 2018-19. Towns is the author of Women and States: Norms and Hierarchies in International Society (Cambridge, 2010) and co-editor of Gendering Diplomacy and International Negotiation, with Karin Aggestam (Palgrave, 2017). Read more and register at go.osu.edu/townsa

Joshua Busby is associate professor at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at University of Texas-Austin. He has published widely on transnational advocacy movements, climate change, global health, and other topics. Busby is the author of Moral Movements and Foreign Policy (Cambridge, 2010), and AIDS Drugs for All: Social Movements and Market Transformations, with Ethan Kapstein (Cambridge, 2013). He was a leading researcher on the Climate Change and African Political Stability (CCAPS) project, a $7.5 million grant from the Department of Defense under its Minerva Initiative. He is the principal investigator under the Complex Emergencies and Political Stability in Asia (CEPSA) project, a $2 million project also funded by the Minerva Initiative. At this event, Busby will discuss the field of environmental security and what might be done to address the real security consequences associated with climate change. Read more and register at  go.osu.edu/busbyj

Ali Çarkoğlu is professor of international relations at Koç University in Istanbul, Turkey, where he has been dean at the College of Administrative Sciences and Economics since 2013. His recent research focuses on voting behavior, party systems and political parties, religiosity, social capital, public opinion, and Turkish politics. At this event, Çarkoğlu will explore the influence of ideology and identity on public opinion about the use of force to support protesters with political claims in a neighboring state by  discussing three nationally representative field survey experiments conducted in 2014-15 outside the United States. Read more and register at  go.osu.edu/carkoglua

The United States fought the long and costly wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with an all-volunteer force, even as some service members were deployed for three and even four tours of duty. In the wake of these wars, it is appropriate and useful to discuss the state of America's all-volunteer force. How well has it worked? Will it work in the future? Is it fair, efficient, and sustainable? This conference, organized by retired Maj. Gen. Dennis Laich (left), Richard Herrmann, and Trevor Brown, is part of a series of national events examining the all-volunteer force and democracy in America. It features well-known scholars and commentators on military affairs including Andrew Bacevich, Boston University; retired Col. Larry Wilkerson, College of William and Mary; and Lawrence Korb, Center for American Progress. Read more and register at  go.osu.edu/FutureofAVF

Jenann Ismael is professor of philosophy at University of Arizona. Most of her work falls into two classes. The first concerns the philosophy of physics including the structure of space and time, the foundations of quantum mechanics, the role of simplicity and symmetry in physics, and questions about the nature of probability, natural laws and causal relations. The second includes mind, cognition, phenomenology, and the nature of perspective. In this talk, Ismael will point out the connection between fatalism and determinism by linking determinism to totality and totality to transcendence to provide insight into the sort of freedom we have. Read more and register at  go.osu.edu/ismaelj

The Center for Historical Research welcomes Yale historian Gilbert Joseph for a discussion of revolution as a force in Mexican society, politics, and U.S. relations through the 20th century and beyond. Joseph has shaped the field of modern Latin American history as president of the Latin American Studies Association, former editor of the Hispanic American Historical Review, and author or editor of 17 books on revolution and social movements as well as U.S.-Latin American relations in the Cold War era, including Revolution from Without: Yucatán, Mexico, and the United States, 1880-1924 (Alabama, 1993) and (with Jürgen Buchenau) Mexico's Once and Future Revolution: Social Upheaval and the Challenge of Rule since the Late Nineteenth Century (Duke, 2013). 

The 2018 Midwest Slavic Conference will feature a day and a half of panels covering Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Eurasia, and Southeastern Europe from a variety of disciplines and perspectives. Undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, and independent scholars from across the country and outside the United States will participate.

A reception and keynote address will open the conference on the night of Friday, March 23, featuring Tara Zahra (left) discussing her latest book, The Great Departure: Mass Migration from Eastern Europe and the Making of the Free World. On Saturday, March 24, the conference will open with a special plenary panel, "Borders, Barriers, and Belonging: A Spotlight on Global Migration." Jeffrey Cohen (Ohio State), Steven Lee (UC Berkeley), Eleanor Paynter (Ohio State), Sunnie Rucker-Chang (University of Cincinnati), and Johanna Sellman (Ohio State) will discuss movement and migration from the perspective of five world regions.

The conference is open to students, faculty, independent scholars, and the public, but registration is required. Read more and register

Erika Monahan is associate professor of Russian history at University of New Mexico. She will speak about her recent book, The Merchants of Siberia: Trade in Early Modern Eurasia (Cornell, 2016), which received an honorable mention for the Early Slavic Studies Association Book Prize. In the book, Monahan reconsiders commerce in early modern Russia by reconstructing the trading world of Siberia and the careers of merchants who traded there. She demonstrates that trade was a key component of how the Muscovite state sought to assert its authority in the Siberian periphery. By contextualizing merchants and places of Siberian trade in the increasingly connected economies of the early modern period, Monahan argues that Russia was not the "outlier" that most 20th century characterizations portrayed.

David M. Lampton is Hyman Professor and director of China Studies at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. Having started his academic career at The Ohio State University Lampton is chairman of the The Asia Foundation, former president of the National Committee on United States-China Relations, and former dean of faculty at SAIS. He is the author of Same Bed, Different Dreams: Managing U.S.-China Relations, 1989-2000 (2001); The Three Faces of Chinese Power: Might, Money, and Minds (2008); and The Making of Chinese Foreign and Security Policy (editor, 2001). Hampton will discuss  what lies ahead in the U.S.-China relationship a gainst a backdrop that includes nuclear threats between North Korea and the United States, an uncertain future in multilateral trade agreements around the globe, and critical midterm elections in the United States.  Read more and register