Articles from:September 2016

  • Downtown Revitalization in St. Catharines: Building the Vibrant Public Space

    Monday, September 26, 2016 | By

    Michael Ripmeester, Geography
    With guest panelists: Walter Sendzik, Mayor of St. Catharines; and David Siegel, Political Science
    Moderator: Charles Conteh, Director of the Niagara Community Observatory

    Brought to you by the Department of Geography, the Department of Political Science and the Niagara Community Observatory

    Monday, September 26, 2016
    10:00 am – 12:00 pm
    Carins 207

    Recent downtown redevelopment efforts in St. Catharines have focused on building a creative cluster that has involved the construction of facilities tied to art and cultural development. This cluster helps support the myriad of restaurants and coffee shops that populate the core. As part of a larger research project, Dr. Ripmeester, a professor in the Geography Department at Brock University, surveyed 300 downtown residents about their thoughts on the development. He outlined his findings in Policy Brief #25 for the Niagara Community Observatory. In this special joint Speaker Series event, we are very excited to announce that Dr. Ripmeester will present his research, followed by the insights of local government expert Dr. David Siegel and the Mayor of St. Catharines Walter Sendzik.

    For further information, please contact Zachary Spicer.

    Categories: Events

  • Politics and Film: In the Loop (2009, Oscar Nomination, Best Screenplay)

    Thursday, September 22, 2016 | By

    Thursday, September 22, 2016
    7 p.m.
    The Film House, 250 St. Paul St. West
    Admission: $9; Members: $7

    The Department of Political Science presents the inaugural film in its Politics and Film series. In the Loop, director Armando Ianucci’s (Veep, The Thick of It) darkly satiric film about the American and British rush to war in Iraq in 2003, is newly relevant thanks to this summer’s Chilcot Report’s condemnation of UK Prime Minister Tony Blair’s role in the invasion.

    The screening will be followed by a Q&A with the Department’s Paul Hamilton.

    For more information, please contact Blayne Haggart at [email protected].

    Categories: Events

  • Bojan Ratkovic: Republican Nationalism

    Thursday, September 15, 2016 | By

    September 15, 2016
    2:00-5:00 pm
    Plaza 600F

    This project deals with the ongoing importance of nations, cultures, and politics in the modern world, and with the complex and layered relationships between them. Despite the expanding phenomenon of globalization, which promises to open up borders and tear down the boundaries between peoples, nations remain the most important actors in international politics and nationalism continues to be a potent force throughout the world.

    This project explores the significance of nations and cultures for politics, with special emphasis on the importance of nationalism and nationalist theory in the twenty-first century. I argue that there are significant gaps in the literature on republican political theory and on nationalism, and I address these gaps by turning to the writings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Rousseau’s philosophy uniquely combines nationalism with republican citizenship and participatory democracy, and his perspective shares many commonalities with David Miller, a contemporary nationalist thinker who combines the principle of nationality with republican citizenship.

    I argue that the theories of Rousseau and Miller form the foundations of republican nationalism; a unique strand of nationalist theory that is distinct from other perspectives―and from liberal nationalism in particular―and should be treated as separate in the literature. I seek to develop republican nationalism as a theoretical framework that looks at the major questions in the literature from a novel perspective and provides new solutions to some of the discipline’s most persistent problems. By identifying republican nationalism as an approach that is firmly rooted in the wider traditions of republicanism and nationalism, and by demonstrating that this approach is distinct from liberal nationalism and other alternative perspectives, I hope to make valuable contributions to the literature and help move the debate within nationalist theory forward.

    I conclude by emphasizing the continuing relevance of nations, cultures, and politics in the modern world, and by stressing that nationalism is likely to remain a potent force in world affairs. For this reason, it is still as crucial as ever to treat nations and nationalism as serious subjects of academic study, and to keep the debates currently taking place within nationalist theory moving forward.

    Bojan Ratkovic is a recent graduate of the PhD program in Political Science at The University of Western Ontario, where he studied political theory. He received his MA and BA from the Department of Political Science at Brock University.

    For further information, please contact Zachary Spicer.

    Categories: Events