GCPL newsletter February ‘25
Our programming and planning for this semester continues, with the preparation of our spring seminar, nailing down the final details of our Switzerland trip, and opening applications to join the Garfield Center for Public Leadership next academic year.
Prepping for the GCPL Spring Seminar
Everything is now set for the GCPL’s zoom-based seminar – titled “Debt and Democracy in America,” featuring Harvard Professor and Former IMF Chief Economist Ken Rogoff – this coming Thursday, on February 6. We have had strong turnout for this event, which is a reflection of multiple factors: the timeliness of the topic, the prominence – at least in economics and business circles – of the guest speaker, as well as a great team effort by multiple people to promote this seminar to differing organizations in the Northeast Ohio region.
Meanwhile, we have also been promoting this event to our high school partners, including teachers and students at Crestwood, Streetsboro, and Hudson, as well as Episcopal High School in Washington, DC.
Final Prep for the Swiss Trip
We are now in the truly final stages of planning for the GCPL trip to Switzerland in March. We have been able to schedule two more meetings during our time in Switzerland. While we’re in Geneva, we will be meeting with representatives of the UN’s International Organization on Migration. This will be a natural complement to our fall seminar on US immigration, providing it will give a more global perspective on the topic, whereas our fall seminar focused very much on the western hemisphere.
We will also be meeting – at the UN’s main Geneva HQ, the Palais des Nations – with representatives of the International, Impartial, and Independent Mechanism for Syria (IIIM-Syria), which investigates and prosecutes perpetrators of war crimes in Syria. This meeting will provide an excellent opportunity for the students to get a better sense of the sort of work the UN does, while also educating them further about the current geopolitical situation in Syria.
We have also added another cultural activity to our agenda, as we will be having a guild hall dinner in one of Zurich’s ancient dining clubs.
Recruitment
We have reached the point in the semester in which now we are opening applications to join the GCPL for the 25-26 academic year. After a very successful round of recruitment last year, we look forward to hearing from those who are interested in joining and participating in our programming throughout the year.
James Thompson, Ph.D.
Department of Political Science
ThompsonJA@Hiram.edu
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