May on 'The MacMillan Report'

Poverty in Bangladesh and foreign policy in Japan were among the topics of discussion in May on “The MacMillan Report,” a one-on-one interview show presented by Yale’s Whitney and Betty MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale. Other programs this month looked at identity and belonging in Northeast India, and how money “really works.”

Designed to showcase the innovative research by Yale faculty in international and area studies, “The MacMillan Report” is hosted by Marilyn Wilkes, communications director at the MacMillan Center, and airs on Wednesdays at noon during the academic year. Each segment runs between 15 and 20 minutes long.

Launched in October of 2008, the show has featured more than 200 faculty members (see the show’s archive).

“Breaking the Hunger Cycle in Bangladesh”

Mushfiq Mobarak, professor of economics
May 3

Mobarak, a professor in Yale’s School of Management and Department of Economics, conducts field experiments exploring ways to induce people in developing countries to adopt technologies or behaviors that are likely to improve their welfare. He also examines the implications of scaling up development interventions that are proven effective in such trials. He is currently collaborating with Evidence Action in multiple countries to replicate, test, and scale his research program that encourages rural to urban seasonal migration to counter seasonal poverty. This program, called No Lean Season, is supported by GiveWell.org, Good Ventures and the Global Innovation Fund, and the start-up accelerator Y-Combinator. Mobarak was recently awarded a 2017 Andrew Carnegie Fellowship to continue his research for this program.

“’Normative Power Japan’: Settling for Chinese Democracy?”

André Asplund, Japan Foundation’s Center for Global Partnership Postdoctoral Associate
May 10

Asplund specializes in Japanese foreign policy and diplomacy in East and Southeast Asia. He is particularly interested in how Japan’s normative ambitions of spreading human rights and democracy fits within its international relations with non-democratic and strategic partners in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). He is currently looking at Japanese foreign aid and EU free trade agreements with Vietnam — a nation of growing strategic importance for the two self-proclaimed “civilian powers.” He has also written on the process of institutionalizing human rights in Southeast Asia through the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights, and it’s something that he is still closely observing.

“Being Mizo: Identity and Belonging in Northeast India”

Joy Pachuau, professor at the Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharla Nehru University in New Delhi
May 17

Pachuau is currently at the Program in Agrarian Studies at the Macmillan Center on a Fulbright-Nehru Academic Excellence Fellowship. Her research interests include the history of Christianity in India and the socio-cultural history of Northeast India. Her recent published works include “Being Mizo” (OUP 2014), “The Camera as Witness” (with Willem van Schendel, CUP 2015) and “Christianity in Indian History” (eds. with Tanika Sarkar and P. Malekandathil, Primus 2016).

“Money Talks: Explaining How Money Really Works”

Frederick Wherry, professor of sociology
May 24

Wherry is an economic and cultural sociologist who toggles between domestic and global investigations of money, value, and social life. Since 2008, he has published five books and a four-volume encyclopedia. He serves as vice president of the Social Science History Association and will serve as president starting in November 2017. He is also chair-elect of the Economic Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association and past chair of the Consumers and Consumption Section. He serves on the Policy Board of the Journal of Consumer Research and on the Advisory Board of Race in the Marketplace Network. At Yale, he is co-director of the Center for Cultural Sociology. His work has explored how people use narratives, social ties, and dynamic performances to understand, contest, and transform the value of places and things.