Political Science Weekly Digest for Friday, September 25, 2025
August 29, 2025
We acknowledge and respect the Lək̓ʷəŋən (Songhees and Xʷsepsəm/Esquimalt) Peoples on whose territory the university stands, and the Lək̓ʷəŋən and W̱SÁNEĆ Peoples whose historical relationships with the land continue to this day.
POLITICAL SCIENCE ANNOUNCEMENTS
CONGRATULATIONS TO CLAIRE CUTLER!
Congratulations to Claire who has been selected as the recipient of the 2024-25 Lifetime Achievement Award in the Faculty of Social Sciences! The citation reads: “As the first woman in your department to reach the rank of full professor, you have been a trailblazer whose leadership and scholarship have inspired others to follow. Your widely cited research and international recognition speak to the profound influence of your work, while equally important, your dedication to teaching and mentorship has left a lasting mark on generations of students and colleagues, many of whom continue to build on the path you helped chart.”
CONGRATULATIONS TO ANDREW WENDER!
Congratulations to Andrew who has been selected as the recipient of the 2024-25 Teaching Excellence Award in the Faculty of Social Sciences! The citation reads: “Your teaching career is distinguished by both its breadth and its depth, spanning Political Science, History, and Religious Studies, and engaging students in some of the most complex and challenging topics of our time. Students and colleagues alike remark on your ability to approach these subjects with both courage and compassion, fostering a classroom climate of respect, intellectual curiosity, and integrity. You are known not only for your energy and passion in the lecture hall but also for your remarkable capacity to connect personally with students, even in very large classes. Through your scholarship, leadership, and tireless dedication to teaching, you exemplify what it means to inspire excellence in others.”
POLI 2025 LANSDOWNE VISITOR
ALISON BRYSK, Chair and Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Global Studies, UC Santa Barbara
Department Seminar: “Abortion Rights Backlash: The Struggle for Democracy in Europe and the Americas"
Tuesday, September 16, 2:30 pm, HSD A264
Public lecture: “Reinventing Human Rights in a Post-American World”
Wednesday, September 17, 7 pm, DTB A102
In a time of worldwide humanitarian crisis and democratic backsliding, how can we imagine a future for human rights? Does the loss of American leadership of the liberal world order--however limited and uneven--undermine global governance or open new possibilities? And how can a renewed vision of human rights guide us towards the next era of global cooperation?
Dr. Alison Brysk is the author of eight books on human rights, democracy, globalization, social movements, gender and Latin American politics. She is the author of Abortion Rights Backlash: The struggles for Democracy in Europe and the Americas (Oxford University Press). Brysk has been a Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center; Fulbright Professor in Canada, India and at Oxford.
POLI UGRAD MEET & GREET
Wednesday, September 24, 4-6 pm, VERTIGO LOUNGE, SUB
Mark your calendars for the annual POLI Undergrad Meet and Greet. This event is a great opportunity to share information about the department as well as build a strong connection with our incoming students.
UVIC ANNOUNCMENTS
CSRS: SPECIAL COFFEE TALK
Alex Livingston, Associate Professor of Government, Cornell University
Tuesday, September 9, 11-noon, CLE B007 Register here
Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” stands as a landmark of twentieth-century political thought. Its call for loving lawbreaking, Socratic gadflies, and fidelity to higher law continues to shape debates on civil disobedience, making the letter unavoidable in scholarship on dissent. Yet this literature often sidesteps King’s religious framing, treating it as a liability rather than a resource. This paper recasts the letter as prophetic witness rather than philosophical argument. By attending to its sermonic rhetoric, biblical symbolism, and intertextual echoes, it recovers the prophetic register of King’s public philosophy and shows the ways it unsettles liberal assumptions about law, democracy, and religion’s public role.
Alexander Livingston is Associate Professor of Government at Cornell University. He is the author of Damn Great Empires! William James and the Politics of Pragmatism, and has published widely on civil disobedience, race, religion, and American political thought. His current book project, Soul Force: The Prophetic Political Thought of Martin Luther King, Jr., situates King’s reflections on love, law, and power within the religious and political traditions of the Black freedom struggle, challenging liberal legalist interpretations of civil disobedience, and recovering religious insights for secular theories of nonviolent resistance and democratic transformation.
Questions? E-mail csrs@uvic.ca.
LINGUISTICS, LANGUAGES & CULTURES: LANSDOWNE LECTURE
“Remembering, Restorying, and Reclaiming in the Wake of Erasure”
Saturday, September 13, 4:30 pm, First Peoples House
Organized by Colonial Injustices and Current Realities
What becomes possible when remembering histories are led by Indigenous communities and accountable to Indigenous homelands? Drawing from California-based examples, this lecture offers a guide for how the decolonial practices of remembering, restorying, and reclaiming can reimagine archival work, institutional accountability, and public memory by centering Indigenous knowledge, sovereignty, and ceremonial care to construct prosperous Indigenous futures.
Theresa Jean Ambo is an Associate Professor at UCLA in the Departments of American Indian Studies and Education. Her primary research examines historical and contemporary relationships between Native Nations and public universities. She also collaborates with community members and colleagues to examine settler land acknowledgment statements and histories of universities.
Kelly Leah Stewart is a Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow in the American Indian Studies Center at UCLA and Assistant Professor at California State University, Long Beach in the American Indian Studies program. Her primary research examines the intergenerational legacy of Catholic-run mission boarding schools in California. In addition to being collaborators, Theresa and Kelly are sisters. They are the daughters of Lane and Dolores Stewart. Through their maternal lineage, they are Gabrielino/Tongva and Luiseno/Payómkawichum, descending from the villages of Wa’aachnga, Jaibepet, and Toibingna. Along with their older sister, Ramona Rodriguez, and younger brother, Lane “Buddy” Stewart, they were born and raised in Awiingna.
If you have an item for the newsletter, or would like to be on the mailing list, please contact barlowr@uvic.ca.