Ishan Ashutosh is a critical human geographer whose work encompasses the study of migration, the politics of race and ethnicity from an international and comparative perspective, and urban studies. His research examines the multiple and contested representations of South Asia through projects situation in migration and area studies. The first research project focuses on transnational politics of South Asian diasporas in multiple urban centers in the United States, Canada and Britain. The second research project examines the constructions of South Asia in the social sciences as a site of knowledge production. This talk examines the shifting relations between the Indian nation-state and the South Asian diaspora. Read more and register at go.osu.edu/ashutoshi

David Edelstein is associate professor in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service and Department of Government at Georgetown University. His research and teaching focus on international security, international relations theory, and U.S. foreign policy. His first book is Occupational Hazards: Success and Failure in Military Occupation (Cornell, 2008). He is currently engaged in two major research projects. One is on the time horizons of political leaders in international politics, and the other examines exit strategies from military interventions. In this talk, Edelstein will explore what past cases of rising great powers might lead us to expect in the case of China. Read more and register at go.osu.edu/edelsteind

While it is commonplace for women to conduct fieldwork in Antarctica today, this was not always the case. With funding from the National Science Foundation and facing skepticism from the U.S. Navy, a team from Ohio State's Institute for Polar Studies (now called the Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center) arrived in Antarctica in 1969. The expedition received much attention for breaking the gender barrier, but undertook serious research in the McMurdo Dry Valleys. Terry Tickhill, one of the members of the team, pursued studies in ecology following the expedition and recently retired from a career in the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and National Park Service. Read more

In 1676, two New England Indian families experienced the horror of being sold into Atlantic slavery. One family made it back to freedom. In telling their stories, Mershon affiliate Margaret Newell will reveal the hidden history of Indian slavery in early America. This lecture is based on Newell's new book, Brethren by Nature: New England Indians, Colonists, and the Origins of American Slavery (Cornell, 2015), which reveals a little-known aspect of American history: English colonists in New England enslaved thousands of Indians. Massachusetts became the first English colony to legalize slavery in 1641, and the colonists' desire for slaves shaped the major New England Indian wars. Register here

The Alexander Hamilton Society OSU Chapter will host David Schenker (left), director of the Program on Arab Politics at Washington Institute for Near East Policy, and Mershon affiliate Christopher Gelpi, Chair of Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution, for a discussion on the Syrian civil war, the resulting refugee crisis, the Russian incursion, ISIS's role in the conflict, and what U.S. policy should be. They will discuss whether the United States should put "boots on the ground" in Syria. Moderating will be AHS faculty advisor and Mershon affiliate Peter Mansoor. Food and Coke products will be available.  Read more and register

Joshua Sanborn is head of the Department of History and chair of the Russian and East European Studies Program at Lafayette College. He is author of Imperial Apocalypse: The Great War and the Destruction of the Russian Empire (Oxford University Press, 2014); Drafting the Russian Nation: Military Conscription, Total War, and Mass Politics, 1905-1925, and, with co-author Annette Timm, Gender, Sex, and the Shaping of Modern Europe. Pizza and refreshments will be served.