Fall 2020

Fall 2020 Presenters

September 8

Daniel AldrichDaniel Aldrich, Director of the Security and Resilience Studies Program and Professor in political science and public policy, Northeastern University

“How Social Ties Matter Before, During, and After Crisis”

To get a better idea of his work, consult the following articles:

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Abstract: The March 11, 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and associated tsunami and nuclear meltdowns took nearly 20,000 lives, created half a million refugees, and affected energy policies as far away as Germany, Switzerland, and Italy. In Japan, mortality rates in coastal communities in the Tohoku region were not constant; instead, they varied widely from town to town. During the recovery period, some towns have rebuilt damaged infrastructure, reopened schools, and repopulated down towns. Others have not been as successful. What explains the variation in mortality during the tsunami and recovery after the disaster? Using data gathered from extended fieldwork, interviews, and surveys, Aldrich looks closely at the role of social capital and networks to provide concrete suggestions for ways to help us survive and thrive in disaster. While many of us envision disaster mitigation in terms of physical infrastructure, the findings instead point to the power of social infrastructure to reduce mortality and accelerate post disaster recovery.

Bio: Daniel Aldrich is director of the security and resilience studies program and professor in political science and public policy at Northeastern University in Boston. An award winning author, Aldrich has published five books including Building Resilience and Black Wave, more than 55 peer-reviewed articles, and written op-eds for the New York Times, CNN, HuffPost, and many other media outlets. He has spent more than five years in India, Japan, and Africa carrying out fieldwork and his work has been funded by the Fulbright Foundation, the Abe Foundation, and the Japan Foundation, among other institutions. He tweets at @danielpaldrich

September 15

Nicolas DuquetteNicolas Duquette, Associate professor, USC Price School of Public Policy

“Inequality and Giving”

To get a better idea of his work, consult the following article:

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Abstract: We develop a model where the income distribution directly affects the marginal utility of charitable giving. In a laboratory experiment, we incentivized participants to make donations to a real-world charity. Donations respond like a normal good to our income and price treatments. By randomizing the endowment distribution, we also identify a causal effect of inequality on giving behavior. On both the intensive and extensive margins, donations fell when inequality was higher. Our results conflict with theories that predict greater inequality increases charitable giving, but are consistent with the empirical evidence that charitable giving is low when inequality is high.

Bio: Nicolas Duquette is an associate professor at the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy. Duquette’s research uses the tools of economics, politics and history to trace the development and behavior of nonprofit organizations. He received his PhD in economics from the University of Michigan in 2014. His work has been published in outlets including the Journal of Public Economics, Journal of Business History, and Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly.

September 22

Suparna ChaudhrySuparna Chaudhry, Assistant Professor of International Affairs, Lewis & Clark College

“Uncivil Societies: Explaining State Crackdown on NGOs”

To get a better idea of her work, consult the following article:

Abstract: The last two decades have seen a proliferation of laws designed to limit the influence of civil society organizations, with more than 130 countries obstructing, repressing, or closing the legal environment for non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Why do states perceive NGOs as costly or threatening to their interests? How do states weigh the costs and benefits of using violent and non-violent strategies of crackdown and under what conditions do they use one over the other to repress NGOs? This talk will show that the choice of crackdown against costly NGOs is dependent on two main factors: (1) the nature of the threat posed by these groups and (2) the international consequences of cracking down on them. Violent crackdown is more likely in the face of immediate threats, such as ongoing mobilization. However, states cannot use violence against all costly NGOs, because state agents may refuse to implement such orders, violence may increase the state’s criminal liability, reduce its legitimacy internationally, violate human rights treaties, and result in further mobilization against the regime. Therefore, states have sought alternate, less costly ways to control these groups. States adopt what I term “administrative crackdown,” which is the passage of legal restrictions to create barriers to entry, funding, and advocacy. Besides overcoming the negative consequences associated with violence, administrative crackdown is a more efficient long-term strategy to deal with costly NGOs. The talk will conclude by discussing the implications of this crackdown on donors, NGOs and philanthropy towards CSOs working in besieged countries.

Bio: Suparna Chaudhry is an assistant professor of international affairs at Lewis & Clark College and an affiliated scholar with the International Justice Lab at the College of William & Mary. Her research interests include human rights, nonprofits, and political violence, with a specific focus on the causes of state persecution of NGOs and its consequences for donors, nonprofits and philanthropy. In 2018, she received the American Political Science Association’s (APSA) Human Rights Section's award for Best Dissertation, as well as the International Studies Association’s (ISA) Best Human Rights Paper Award. She received her Ph.D. from Yale University's Department of Political Science.

September 29

Jennifer DodgeJennifer Dodge, Associate Professor, Rockefeller College, University at Albany, SUNY

“Community Organizing and Environmental Conflicts: Centering Discursive Engagement”

To get a better idea of her work, consult the following articles:

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Abstract: Political theorists have long recognized the role that civil society organizations play in shaping public discourse, both in the sense of 1) generating and reframing meaning and of 2) supporting processes of deliberation, dialogue and even conflictual discourse. This presentation will elaborate on the concept discursive engagement that Jennifer Dodge and Susan Appe have been developing to theorize about this critical work that civil society organization do to reflect on society and create social change. Dr. Dodge will draw on research she has done over the years on community organizing and environmental conflicts – touching on some combination of environmental justice, fracking, and climate justice in the US, and oil extraction in Colombia – to illuminate the work that social change organizations do in relation to discursive engagement (and how it connects to having an impact). Understanding this work is critically important in our current political climate. John Dryzek, a prominent deliberative democracy theorist, argues that discursive contestation is a defining feature of contemporary politics. We can see this in the US in the polarized divisions between the right and left on most controversial public policy topics such as immigration, criminal justice, climate change and reproductive health. The divisions can be so severe that reality itself is understood and experienced entirely differently by contending groups. How can social change organizations effectively participate in such a climate? How do they? And where do they fail? When we understand the features of discursive engagement, we are closer to understanding now only what is transpiring in contemporary politics, but also how to intervene effectively, to shut down degenerate discourse (that causes harm), to build bridges across groups who might find common ground, and to reimagine new alternative policy measures to overcome impasse and build a more just and sustainable society. The multiple crises we currently face in economic decline, environmental degradation, and racial injustice can be aided by rigorous discursive engagement.

Bio: Jennifer Dodge is associate professor in the Department of Public Administration and Policy at Rockefeller College, University at Albany – SUNY. She is a leader among the second generation of scholars in the Interpretive and Critical Policy Analysis communities, serving as co-editor of Critical Policy Studies, advisor and organizer of various conference tracks related to critical studies in the nonprofit and public policy fields, and frequent contributor to scholarly work on critical studies related to public policy and civil society research. Her research focuses on the interpretation of policy conflict, and the role of civil society organizations in supporting citizen participation in policy discourse, mostly in the environmental field. She is interested in explaining how policy conflict affects decision making and policy formulation, and how conflict can be used productively to create more just and sustainable policy. She also frequently writes about interpretive and qualitative research methodologies.

October 13

Tyrone Freeman

Tyrone Freeman, Assistant Professor of Philanthropic Studies; Director of Undergraduate Programs, Lilly Family School of Philanthropy

“The Process of Researching, Writing, Revising, and Publishing Madam C.J. Walker’s Gospel of Giving: Black Women’s Philanthropy during Jim Crow”

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Abstract: In researching the life of Madam C.J. Walker (1867-1919), the early twentieth century African American female philanthropist and entrepreneur, I found that the current historiography and archival practices of American philanthropy offered little context or method for seeing, understanding and engaging her approach to giving on its own terms. She did not fit within the ways historians have framed the history of philanthropy in America, and reading her archives required a different kind of nuance and approach. By engaging the historiographies and scholarly communities of Black women’s history and African American life and culture, I constructed frameworks and lenses for viewing Walker, her peers and her community in context. As a result, I articulated a vibrant and deeply rooted history and tradition of giving not well represented in extant philanthropy historiography.

In this presentation, I will explore the historiographies and methodologies of Black Women’s History and Africana Studies that informed this process of bringing my historical research to life in Madam C.J. Walker’s Gospel of Giving: Black Women’s Philanthropy during Jim Crow (University of Illinois Press, 2020). I will review the book’s key arguments and conceptual frameworks regarding the historical character of Black women’s giving, the nature of philanthropy as a human phenomenon, and discuss why I think it is a philanthropic studies text.

Bio: Tyrone McKinley Freeman is an award-winning scholar who serves as assistant professor of philanthropic studies and director of undergraduate programs at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, and adjunct assistant professor of Africana Studies at IU Indianapolis. Previously, he was a professional fundraiser for social services, community development, and higher education organizations. He was also associate director of The Fund Raising School where he trained nonprofit leaders in the United States, Africa, Asia, and Europe. His research focuses on the history of African American philanthropy, philanthropy in communities of color, the history of American philanthropy, and philanthropy and fundraising in higher education. His book, Madam C.J. Walker’s Gospel of Giving: Black Women’s Philanthropy during Jim Crow (University of Illinois Press, 2020) examines African American women’s generosity and history of charitable giving, activism, education, and social service provision through the life and example of Madam C.J. Walker, the early twentieth century philanthropist and entrepreneur.

October 20

Marie Stettler KleineMarie Stettler Kleine, Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Science, Technology, and Society at Virginia Tech and Lake Doctoral Dissertation Fellow 2020-21

“Aren’t all Engineers Humanitarians? Tensions of the Religiosity and Secularization of Engineering for Good”

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Abstract: Over the last 20 years, engineering service projects have become relatively commonplace in university settings— as an alternative mode of engineering training and as an extracurricular activity. Founded in 2002, Engineers Without Borders-USA now enlists close to 10,000 volunteer members (2019), enabling students and professionals to participate in engineering development projects around the world. Alongside nonprofit participation, curricula and scholarship increasingly critique and help shape what humanitarian engineering is and can be. In this paper, I describe how service, international development, and social justice are core tenets to the participating engineers’ identity and work. But all three of these principles have complicated histories, rooted in both religious and secular values. Differing interpretations of “doing good” are shaped by historical reconciliations with colonialism and religious paternalism, development and hegemonic power, and the challenges of defining and implementing social justice. These contradictory and contentious interpretations of humanitarian action play out in humanitarian engineering projects in both religious and secular institutions. This paper draws on a larger comparative project of engineering for good university programs, ultimately asking “what is engineering for?” by interrogating what it means to do it “for good.”

Bio: Marie Stettler Kleine conducts research on the cultural dimensions of engineering practice and pedagogy. As a science and technology studies scholar, she is especially interested in the roles of religious and secular values in engineers’ pursuit to “do good” through “humanitarian engineering”—exploring its origins, purposes, and potential futures. Her current project uncovers individual and institutional tensions and harmonies when engineers participate in philanthropy. Marie’s interest in values in professional cultures also extends to innovation and its experts. With Matthew Wisnioski and Eric Hintz, Marie co-edited Does America Need More Innovators? (MIT Press, 2019). This project engaged innovation’s champions, critics, and reformers in critical participation. Marie holds a B.S. in mechanical engineering and international studies from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and an M.S. in Science and Technology Studies from Virginia Tech where she is currently a Ph.D. candidate.

October 27

Michelle SchumateMichelle Shumate, Founding director of Network for Nonprofit and Social Impact (NNSI); Professor in Communication Studies and Associate Faculty, Institute for Policy Research

“The effectiveness of social impact networks”

To get a better idea of her work, consult the following article:

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Abstract: In hopes of achieving a more significant social impact, philanthropists and social impact organizations have built networks, or collaborative arrangements of three or more organizations (sometimes hundreds). Leaders design these networks to make an impact using project-, learning-, policy- catalyst- or systems-alignment-based theories of action. This talk describes social impact networks features and, drawing from a forthcoming book entitled Networks for Social Impact (Oxford University Press), illustrates their diversity using a broad range of case studies. Next, Professor Shumate will describe her current research comparing the effectiveness of 26 education-networks in the United States. The talk concludes by describing the dead ends, dilemmas, and pathways for networks hoping to achieve a social impact.

Bio: Michelle Shumate is the founding director of Network for Nonprofit and Social Impact (NNSI). NNSI is dedicated to answering the question: How can nonprofit networks be rewired for maximum social impact? In addition, she is a Professor in Communication Studies and an Associate Faculty at the Institute for Policy Research. Her research focuses on how to design interorganizational networks to make the most social impact. The National Science Foundation recognized her research with a CAREER award. Her research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and Army Research Office. Nonprofit Quarterly, Stanford Social Innovation Review, and the Conference Board have featured her work.

November 10

Beth BreezeBeth Breeze, Director, Centre for Philanthropy, University of Kent, UK

“The Philanthropy Paradox”

To get a better idea of her work, consult the following articles:

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Abstract: In this talk I will share new data on public attitudes to philanthropy that highlight a long-standing and increasingly problematic paradox: that people feel far more positively about philanthropy than they do about philanthropists. Most of us regularly benefit from donations made by others that have funded things we need and want in our daily lives: medical research and health care, a better local environment, access to the arts and education, and a stronger community that is a more pleasant, safer place to live and work. Yet whilst the fruits of philanthropy are largely unproblematic, there is growing criticism of those providing the funding, especially those making the largest donations. A number of recent books, articles, talks and media comment have depicted big giving as inherently problematic, undemocratic, or even a ‘charade’ to keep elites on top. In this talk I will argue that we need to better understood the diverse and mutually reinforcing nature of current critiques, and address the slippage between appreciating what donations achieve and those who make the donations, if we wish to ensure the sustainability of philanthropically-funded activity.

Bio: Beth worked as a fundraiser and charity manager for a decade before co-founding the Centre for Philanthropy at the University of Kent in 2008 where she now leads a team conducting research and teaching courses on philanthropy and fundraising, including an innovative master’s in philanthropic studies taught by distance learning. She researched and wrote the annual Coutts Million Pound Donor Report from 2008-2017, co-authored Richer Lives: why rich people give (2013), The Logic of Charity: Great Expectations in Hard Times (2015) and co-edited The Philanthropy Reader (2016). Her latest book The New Fundraisers: who organizes charitable giving in contemporary society? won the AFP Skystone Research Partners book prize for 2018. Her current research interests include collaborative giving, and the role of volunteers in fundraising, and her next book is entitled In Defence of Philanthropy.