#AcademicRunPlaylist - 9/17/24

I've had a pretty crazy few days, complete with a quick trip down to NYC with David Barrett for an excellent Welliba event! While on the train I was also able to relax and listen to some talks for my #AcademicRunPlaylist!

First was an interesting talk by Husein Inusah on decolonizing AI and shaping sustainable futures at the Institute for Science and Ethics (IWE) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwmId-gTmaM

Next was an excellent talk by Mary Gray on ethical concerns in AI research at the University of Pennsylvania https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJz2z7Abmfg

Next was an engaging conversation on arbitration, organizing college athletes, and other labor issues at the Burnes Center for Social Change with Seth Harris, Roberto Corrada, and Harry Katz https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeFgzHxzPyU&t=1s

Next was a great pair of talks by Takatoshi Ito and Nobuhiro Kiyotaki on the current challenges facing Japan's economy and possible government solutions (tldr; immigration) at Tokyo College. FYI I listened to the Japanese version so I can't vouch for the quality of the translation
English: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdTZGcplpkw
Japanese: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmxTijKWEVM

Next was an informative panel on the long, winding road of the EU's recent Google shopping judgement and what it's ~15 year path means for the future of antitrust in the EU on the Digital Markets Research Hub with Matthew Cole, Lena Hornkohl, and Christian Bergqvist https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypmsFxNwqXc

Next was a fascinating talk by David Kennedy on the interactions between law, economics, and culture at Sciences Po https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVrV1H8KDxM

Last was "Indigenous Continent" by Pekka Hämäläinen. North American history is inextricably intertwined with colonization and genocide, and this book charts and analyzes that history by taking a more indigenous-centric and holistic approach. Starting in prehistory, Hämäläinen reviews the archaeological evidence of North American civilizations and the spread of people, agricultural practices, and technologies. With the arrival of Europeans the method shifts to one that reviews the written historical record, and it's here that my most significant issue with this book lies.

As far as I can tell, no oral history sources are included from indigenous peoples. I get why - it's much harder to collect and contextualize that kind of data - but it leaves much of this book still smacking of Eurocentrism until the 19th century.

Leaving that aside, this book provides an extremely rich, fresh analysis of the arc of North American development through the millennia and recent centuries, effectively putting to bed many self serving US and European narratives and highlighting the power and agency of indigenous people even through the heyday of US expansion. Highly recommend https://wwnorton.com/books/9781631496998