CEMP and SPP Professors Participate in Multidisciplinary and Cross-Cultural Exchange
by Jocelyn Rappaport
The Center for Emerging Market Policies (CEMP), one of the School of Public Policy’s (SPP’s) newest research centers, is developing international research networks, particularly in Asia. Recently, CEMP co-organized and cofunded two back-to-back workshops in Singapore in October. The SPP delegation was headed by Professor Kingsley Haynes, former SPP dean, and Associate Professor Ramkishen Rajan, workshop co-organizer and CEMP codirector. Joining them were Professor Andrew Hughes Hallett, CEMP codirector; Assistant Professor Sonia Ketkar, CEMP associate director; Professor David Hart; and Assistant Professor Siona Listokin.
The first day and a half workshop, Global Movement of Ideas, People and Resources: Towards Robust and Sustainable Growth, was organized by the Centre for Liberal Arts and Social Sciences and the Division of Economics of Nanyang Technological University (NTU).
"The purpose of this multidisciplinary workshop was to present and discuss high-quality academic papers providing a multidisciplinary perspective on the major economic, political, and social challenges sweeping the world in the face of globalization," says Rajan.
According to Rajan, the organizers received high-quality papers, which were organized into five broad sessions: Issues in Pensions and Fiscal Policy, Issues in Trade and FDI, Monetary and Exchange Rate Policies and Regimes, Issues in Regional Development (China), and Issues in Energy and Sustainable Development. Two of NTU’s Five Peaks of Excellence (part of NTU's five-year strategic plan), New Silk Road and Sustainable Earth, were directly addressed by the last two sessions.
In addition to SPP faculty members, academic participants included faculty members from the Division of Economics and the Division of Sociology at NTU, the School of Economics at Singapore Management University, and the School of Business and Finance at Bond University. The workshop also drew participants from other departments within NTU and economists, statisticians, and policymakers from the government, including the Department of Statistics, the Civil Service College, and the Ministry of Trade and Industry. Rajan attributes the workshop’s success of stimulating discussion beyond a narrow disciplinary or academic focus to the high caliber of diverse participants and the broad support from different academic disciplines, universities, and experts from academia and government.
Follow-up activities show that the Global Movement workshop has generated support and prospective academic collaborations. Walter Theseira (NTU) and Rajan plan to edit and publish a conference volume, collecting extensions of selected works presented at the workshop. In addition, Associate Professor Ahmed Khalid (Bond University) proposed a workshop series that will focus on issues in international financial and macroeconomic policy, which would be organized with Bond University, NTU’s Division of Economics, and SPP. Rajan says that SPP wants to build on the success of the Global Movement workshop and intends to host a reciprocal workshop for delegates from Nanyang Technological University in 2011. Also, NTU and Mason are exploring a memorandum of understanding to enhance bilateral cooperation.
The second workshop in Singapore—Globalization, Growth, and Governance—brought together academics from five universities to focus on corporate governance, finance and capital flows, and entrepreneurship and small and medium-size enterprises in Asia. This workshop, held on October 13, was organized by CEMP, the National University of Singapore’s Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (a leading research institute in Southeast Asia where Rajan is a visiting senior research fellow), and the University of South Australia’s Centre for Asian Business. The workshop encouraged high-level and diverse academic debate and networking activities, and helped showcase CEMP, as well as SPP, faculty research interests and strengths to the region. Negotiations are under way to publish the workshop proceedings, which would be edited by SPP’s Siona Listokin and the University of South Australia’s Tony Cavoli.
These workshops and activity are only the beginning for this new center. Keep up to date with CEMP and its future workshops to be held in Washington, D.C.; Asia; and Australia.