IPE Professor Pierre Ly and UW Instructor Cynthia Howson have just published an article at The Conversation based on their ongoing research on China's wine industry. See: "How China’s Winemakers Succeeded (without Stealing)"

 The authors visit Guanlan Vineyard with owner Yanzhi Zhang, a Beijing wine importer and Bordeaux-trained winemaker who is building two wineries in Ningxia.

IPE Senior Dinner pictures

IPE held its IPE Senior Dinner, an annual tradition for some 20 years. We were joined by IPE alumni Austin Scharff ('16), Mairin McKnight-Slottee ('14), Sierra Miller ('17), and Trevor Hanlin ('08), who talked about their careers after Puget Sound. There are 32 IPE majors who will graduate this year.

Professor Emelie Peine appeared on the podcast No Place Like Home, speaking about global food systems.

https://soundcloud.com/noplacelikehome

or

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/no-place-like-home/id1158028749?mt=2

#23 Food For Thought | How Then Shall We Live Pt. 2

Released Apr 04, 2018
Mary Anne and Anna Jane dive into part 2 of our series 'How Then Shall We Live?' which explores whether or not our personal choices matter in the fight against climate change. We ponder our personal eating habits and how they fit in with the larger food system. Our guest is Dr. Emelie Peine, an expert on food policy at the University of Puget Sound, who shares some eye-opening revelations. Here are the organizations Emelie mentioned:
- National Family Farm Coalition, http://nffc.net/
- Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, https://www.iatp.org/
- La Via Campesina, https://viacampesina.org/en/
- Civil Eats, https://civileats.com/
- Food First, https://foodfirst.org/

Professor Emeritus Mike Veseth, co-founder of the IPE Program (and the Idea of Wine course!), has a new book out, Around the World in Eighty Wines (2018).

Check it out here: https://www.amazon.com/Around-World-Eighty-Wines-Exploring-ebook/dp/B0762FV1KQ/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1508867356&sr=8-4

Graduation 2017

Commencement day for the class of 2017. The sun was out before we got to Baker Stadium. Luckily there was just a short bit of rain. Congratulations to all the graduates!

Puget Sound and IPE alumnus discussed in Patrick Eha's new book How Money Got Free: Bitcoin and the Fight for the Future of Finance

A great excerpt from Patrick Eha's new book How Money Got Free: Bitcoin and the Fight for the Future of Finance. There's prominent mention of Puget Sound and even Professor Dillman's class on the Illicit Global Economy! Eha discusses at length the career development of Nic Cary, an IPE and Business double major ('07) who is today the president of Blockchain, the world’s leading Bitcoin software company. Also quotes from UPS alumni Erik Voorhees and Nick Vasilius (IPE '07), who is a Puget Sound trustee.

 From Wired.com:

 How One Scrappy Startup Survived the Early Bitcoin Wars

Gabe Newman receives IPE International Internship Grant

Congratulations to Gabe Newman (IPE ’18) for his summer IPE internship! Gabe will be working for the World Trade Center in Tacoma, and is looking forward to utilizing his foreign language skills while conducting trade and market research. Gabe originally chose to be an IPE major because he enjoyed having a background in sociology, and was interested in further exploring global issues from an interdisciplinary perspective. Another IPE major recommended the IPE program to him, and Gabe quickly became fascinated with studying state and market relations on a global scale. He particularly appreciates studying China and East Asia through an IPE lens, especially by using neo-mercantilist and constructivist theory.

Next year, Gabe is hoping to write his thesis on the impacts of China’s export of renewable energy resources on China’s growing global governance and hegemony. Gabe is interested in investigating the ways in which the Chinese state innovates with green energy and how, despite being a world-class polluter, China is simultaneously becoming a world-class producer of renewable technology. Last summer, Gabe studied abroad in Shanghai, where he was able to focus on Chinese economics and immerse himself in the language and culture. In the future, Gabe would like to find a way to continue focusing on issues regarding China and renewable energy, perhaps by working for the State Department or local government. In his spare time, Gabe is a professional photographer who loves to cover portraiture, large events, nature and street photography, and photojournalism. Check out some of his work at gabrielnewmanphotography.com/.

IPE Commencement Ceremony photos - IPE class of 2017

Here are some photos from IPE's annual Commencement Ceremony and Reception on May 12th. It was great to see all the graduating seniors together and meet their families.

Congratulations to Clara Brown, Jensen Handwork, and Sierra Miller for receiving IPE's Pros Ta Akra Academic Achievement Award. Congrats also to Mia Kelliher, Katie Merrill, and Angelica Spearwoman, recipients of the Susan Strange Award.

IPE class of 2017

Nick, Brian, Miles, and Addison

Sierra, Katie, and Mia

Profs Ly, Kontogeorgopoulos, and Dillman with Angelica

Megan Sanders receives IPE International Internship Grant

Congratulations to Megan Sanders (IPE ’19) for her summer IPE internship! Megan will be interning with the State Department on public outreach, and is hoping to discover whether she would enjoy a career in domestic politics. When originally looking at colleges, Megan thought she wanted to study International Relations, but when she visited UPS, she was fascinated by the way the IPE program considers the economic and sociological sides of global affairs. Megan believes this background in economics and socio-anthropology will make her studies more well-rounded and increase her awareness of the complex factors contributing to how countries interact. So far, her favorite experience with the IPE program has been Nick Konto’s class on the political economy of Southeast Asia, and then studying abroad in Thailand with the LIASE program to learn about the significance of rice as a staple in the economy and culture of the region. In the future, Megan is considering a career with the US Department of State or an internationally-oriented NGO. In her free time, Megan loves swimming, traveling, and exploring Washington.

 

Katie Hart receives IPE International Internship Award

Congratulations to Katie Hart (IPE ’18) for her IPE Summer Internship and for her new position as the 2017-2018 IPE Program Assistant! Katie became an IPE major because she thoroughly enjoyed Lisa Nunn’s introductory IPE class and discussions of IPE theory. She also finds her IPE professors and her peers to be engaging, critical, and thoughtful, creating an environment where she can learn and have her beliefs challenged. This summer, Katie is interning with the Northwest Immigrants Rights Project here in Tacoma, Washington. Next year, Katie is looking forward to continuing her involvement with the IPE department and building the relationship between the department and the greater Tacoma community. Previously, Katie has studied abroad in Madrid, Spain while interning with the Red Cross of Madrid with one of their youth development programs. After graduation, Katie jokes with her parents that she would like to buy a one-way ticket to Argentina, backpack in Patagonia, and hope for the best, but in the long term she is interested in pursuing a career in immigration law in the Pacific Northwest. In her free time, Katie likes playing lacrosse, hiking, trail running, or drinking cappuccinos in coffee shops.

IPE senior thesis photos

Spring 2017 IPE senior thesis presentations wrapped up last week. Here are some photos from Professor Dillman's class.

Miles, Nick, and Addison

Jensen

Becca

Drew, Jensen, and Xander

Addison

Katie

Matt (standing)

Drew (presenting)

Professor Peine's IPE of Food and Hunger (IPE 331) redesigned for Fall 2017

Emelie Peine's IPE of Food and Hunger class (IPE 331) is being redesigned this fall to immerse students in experiential learning opportunities. Now accepting enrollment through my.pugetsound.edu!

IPE Field Trip to ThriftBooks

On April 7th, the IPE Program led a field trip to Thrift Books Warehouse in Auburn, WA. ThriftBooks is one of the world's largest online new and used book retailers with more than 7 million books in stock at any given time. Students got to meet the company CEO, take an exclusive tour of the facility, and ask about Thrift Books' business operations, partnerships with libraries, and impact on the environment. You can buy books from ThriftBooks at: https://www.thriftbooks.com

Photos courtesy of Gabriel Newman Photography www.gabrielnewmanphotography.com

IPE Summer Research Grant awarded to Pamela Lara Perez

Congratulations to Pamela Lara Perez (IPE ’18), who has been awarded a 2017 IPE Summer Research Grant! Pamela will travel to Chiapas, Mexico to study local indigenous women’s experiences with exercising and asserting their autonomy and self-determination. Pamela will use her Spanish language skills to conduct personal interviews with indigenous women; additionally, she will analyze how organizations like “Chiapas Indigenous” are taking actions to support the women. Pamela hopes to give a voice to the indigenous women in Chiapas by highlighting how they navigate living under Mexican law while possessing a separate culture and identity.

Previously, Pamela has studied abroad in Taiwan at Tunghai University, where she expanded her Chinese language skills and completed her Chinese minor. Pamela chose to be an IPE major because she wanted to connect the world on a larger scale, drawing on all realms of the social sciences with the flexibility to study multiple regions of the world. After she graduates, Pamela plans on working at an NGO for a year and then going to grad school to pursue a career where she can travel and help connect countries and people together. In her free time, Pamela enjoys traveling, hiking, reading, and discovering new restaurants – “I am always on the search for great food and new experiences!”

IPE Summer Research Grant awarded to Kyungin Kim

Congratulations to Kyungin Kim (IPE ’18) for being awarded a 2017 IPE Summer Research Grant! Kim is an international student who grew up in Seoul, Korea, and Shanghai, China. She decided to come to the US for college to explore and broaden her education, and she specifically chose to study International Political Economy at UPS because “I believe that all global events result from combinations of economic, political, and social forces, and therefore, these subjects should be studied in relation to one another.” Her region of interest is China, and some of her favorite scholars in academia are Atul Kohli, Ha-Joon Chang, and Edward Said. Her long-term goal is to eventually become a professor in the field of international relations or public health.

For her summer research project, she will be traveling to Jeju Island in Korea, where a skyrocketing number of Chinese investors have been pouring money into the local real estate market. This trend has been apparent since February 2010, when the local Jeju government’s immigration policy changed to allow foreign investors who maintain 500 million or more won’s worth of real estate for five years to personally qualify for a green card. Through ethnographic and textual research, Kim will assess the socioeconomic consequences of the property-purchasing trends among Chinese investors in Jeju Island, and determine whether the locals’ claims that the Chinese are launching a “modern-day territorial invasion” is legitimate or based or their constructed fear.

Q&A with Representative Gael Tarleton

Representative Gael Tarleton (D-Ballard), Washington State House Majority Floor Leader, held a Q&A session with IPE majors on February 7th. She discussed globalization, current national events, and some issues that the state legislature is dealing with. Thanks to all of you who attended!

Graduation 2016

Graduation for the IPE Class of 2016