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Wed. 01/29 @ 12PM - Technology and the Rise of Great Powers w/LUNCH - @ICPL
Fri. 3/7 @12PM - Climate Change, Gender, and Biomass Cookstoves in India w/LUNCH @ ICPL
Fri. 3/7 @12PM - Climate Change, Gender, and Biomass Cookstoves in India w/LUNCH @ ICPL
SPRING 2025 EVENTS
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PRESENTED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA DEPARTMENTS OF POLITICAL SCIENCE AND CENTER FOR ASIAN AND PACIFIC STUDIES
In this talk, focused on his new book, Technology and the Rise of the Great Powers, Jeffrey Ding offers a different explanation of how technological revolutions affect competition among great powers. Rather than focusing on which state was the first to introduce major innovations, he investigates why some states were more successful than others at adapting and embracing general-purpose technologies at scale.
Drawing on historical case studies of past industrial revolutions and statistical analysis, Ding develops a theory that emphasizes institutional adaptations oriented around diffusing technological advances throughout the economy. Applying GPT diffusion theory to analyze US-China competition in AI, Ding’s book derives novel insights into how today’s technological breakthroughs will affect the US-China power balance and the optimal strategies for the US and China to pursue.
Jeffrey Ding, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at George Washington University. His bookTechnology and the Rise of Great Powers, published with Princeton University Press, investigates how past technological revolutions influenced the rise and fall of great powers, with implications for US–China competition in emerging technologies like AI. Ding’s research has been published in European Journal of International Relations, Foreign Affairs, International Studies Quarterly, Review of International Political Economy, and Security Studies. He received his DPhil in 2021 from the University of Oxford, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar, and earned his BA in 2016 at the University of Iowa.
Drawing on historical case studies of past industrial revolutions and statistical analysis, Ding develops a theory that emphasizes institutional adaptations oriented around diffusing technological advances throughout the economy. Applying GPT diffusion theory to analyze US-China competition in AI, Ding’s book derives novel insights into how today’s technological breakthroughs will affect the US-China power balance and the optimal strategies for the US and China to pursue.
Jeffrey Ding, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at George Washington University. His bookTechnology and the Rise of Great Powers, published with Princeton University Press, investigates how past technological revolutions influenced the rise and fall of great powers, with implications for US–China competition in emerging technologies like AI. Ding’s research has been published in European Journal of International Relations, Foreign Affairs, International Studies Quarterly, Review of International Political Economy, and Security Studies. He received his DPhil in 2021 from the University of Oxford, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar, and earned his BA in 2016 at the University of Iowa.
Technology and the Rise of Great Powers w/LUNCH
With virtual speaker Jeffrey Ding, PhD
Wednesday, January 29th, 2025
12:00PM - 1:00PM
Iowa City Public Library
Also Streaming Online
With virtual speaker Jeffrey Ding, PhD
Wednesday, January 29th, 2025
12:00PM - 1:00PM
Iowa City Public Library
Also Streaming Online
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PRESENTED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA CENTER FOR ASIAN AND PACIFIC STUDIES
Historically, industrialized countries have created our climate crisis but have yet to take responsibility for the development dilemmas associated with climate change. The solutions proposed at the international level have largely prioritized technical fixes, including new cooking technologies and carbon credit accounting. Highlighting perspectives from below – the lives and livelihoods of marginalized people – illuminates several problems with these approaches.
Using feminist and anthropological methods to study biomass stoves and efforts to improve them in India, Dr. Khandelwal identifies problems related to carbon market solutions and their associated power dynamics to shed new light on the nexus of cooking technologies, biomass-based livelihoods, gender, and climate change and to expand the kinds of solutions we imagine as possible.
Meena Khandelwal is a feminist anthropologist known for her pioneering research on Hindu celibacy and monastic life that puts gender at the center. Her book Women in Ochre Robes (SUNY Press 2004) focuses on the everyday lives of women initiated into sannyasa – one of several Hindu renunciant traditions. These women walk away from marriage, family ties, wealth, caste, and professional status for a life of celibacy and spiritual discipline. Khandelwal’s research suggests that sexuality and celibacy are mutually constructed and that abstinence should be accounted for in the field of sexuality studies. She co-edited a volume with Sondra Hausner and Ann Grodzins Gold entitled Women’s Renunciation in South Asia (Palgrave Macmillan 2006). A South-Asian edition of this book was published with the title Nuns, Yoginis, Saints and Singers (Zubaan 2007). Khandelwal has also studied transnational aspects of Hindu renunciation and published on the topic of foreign swamis who have migrated to India (“Foreign Swamis at Home in India” 2007) as well as cosmopolitanism and spiritual tourism in Rishikesh – yoga capital of the world (“The Cosmopolitan Guru” 2012).
Using feminist and anthropological methods to study biomass stoves and efforts to improve them in India, Dr. Khandelwal identifies problems related to carbon market solutions and their associated power dynamics to shed new light on the nexus of cooking technologies, biomass-based livelihoods, gender, and climate change and to expand the kinds of solutions we imagine as possible.
Meena Khandelwal is a feminist anthropologist known for her pioneering research on Hindu celibacy and monastic life that puts gender at the center. Her book Women in Ochre Robes (SUNY Press 2004) focuses on the everyday lives of women initiated into sannyasa – one of several Hindu renunciant traditions. These women walk away from marriage, family ties, wealth, caste, and professional status for a life of celibacy and spiritual discipline. Khandelwal’s research suggests that sexuality and celibacy are mutually constructed and that abstinence should be accounted for in the field of sexuality studies. She co-edited a volume with Sondra Hausner and Ann Grodzins Gold entitled Women’s Renunciation in South Asia (Palgrave Macmillan 2006). A South-Asian edition of this book was published with the title Nuns, Yoginis, Saints and Singers (Zubaan 2007). Khandelwal has also studied transnational aspects of Hindu renunciation and published on the topic of foreign swamis who have migrated to India (“Foreign Swamis at Home in India” 2007) as well as cosmopolitanism and spiritual tourism in Rishikesh – yoga capital of the world (“The Cosmopolitan Guru” 2012).
Climate Change, Gender, and Biomass Cookstoves in India w/LUNCH
With speaker Meena Khandelwal, PhD
Friday, March 7th, 2025
12:00PM - 1:00PM
Iowa City Public Library
Also Streaming Online
With speaker Meena Khandelwal, PhD
Friday, March 7th, 2025
12:00PM - 1:00PM
Iowa City Public Library
Also Streaming Online
