Ralph Bunche Institute

Political Incorporation of Immigrants in Japan: The Focus on the Intention of Citizenship Acquisition
2025-09-08 16:00 - 18:30 UTC | Graduate Center Room 5203, 365 Fifth Ave, New York, NY, 10016, United States
Join us for our first co-sponsored event of the Fall 2025 Semester
Political Incorporation of Immigrants in Japan:
The Focus on the Intention of Citizenship Acquisition

The Public Policy Workshop and IRelevant – are collaborating with the Ralph Institute for International Studies and the International Migration Studies Program to sponsor a presentation by Prof. Hirohisa Takensohita, who is visiting from the Department of Political Science at Keio University in Tokyo, Japan.
He will speak on, “Political Incorporation of Immigrants in Japan: The Focus on the Intention of Citizenship Acquisition,” on Monday next week 9/8 at 4.15pm. The event will be in person in the Ralph Bunche Institute suite and remote.
Prof. Michael Sharpe will moderate the conversation.

Monday, September 8th, 4:15 p.m. (ET)
Ralph Bunche Institute
365 Fifth Ave, Room 5203
New York, NY 10016

Copyright © 2025 Ralph Bunche Institute, All rights reserved.

Ukraine Moving Towards Peace?
2025-10-15 18:00 - 20:00 UTC | Graduate Center, Skylight Room 9th Floor, 365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY, 10016, United States
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RSVP HERE

Furious Minds: The Making of the MAGA New Right
2025-11-04 08:00 - 17:00 UTC | Graduate Center Room 8301, 365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY, 10016, United States
Join for a conversation between Laura Field and Richard Wolin on the intellectual descent from mid-century conservatism to Trumpism—one tracing its historical gestation, the other its ideological mutation—and as a warning that the U.S. now faces a radical, post-conservative right driven more by myth and ressentiment than by any genuine political philosophy.

Book Event: The Information State
2026-03-16 18:00 - 19:30 (America/New_York) | Graduate Center, Skylight Room 9th Floor, 365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY, 10016, United States
A conversation between Jacob Siegel and Eli Karetny

Date: March 16, 2026
Time: 6:00PM
Place: Skylight Room, Graduate Center CUNY 365 Fifth Ave, New York.

We’re often told that disinformation is everywhere and that it’s endangering our democracy. But what if the war on disinformation itself is really just a weapon to squash any and all legitimate dissent?
The Information State is an incisive examination of how we reached the point where anything that contradicts the dominant narrative can be labeled dangerous disinformation. Tablet contributor Jacob Siegel charts how the technological infrastructure built to make society safer and more rational has steadily replaced democratic freedoms with systems of digital control. Commercial Internet applications now double as military-grade surveillance and influence tools. Government tech partnerships established after 2001 in response to the global war on terror took on a life of their own and now target Americans.
Instead of competing for voters’ support, the information state uses censorship, mass surveillance, and algorithmic manipulation to shape public perceptions as it tries to engineer reality. Government officials requested that social media companies boost stories about Donald Trump’s alleged connections to Russia, while censoring those about Hunter Biden’s laptops, the origins of the COVID-19 virus, and the war in Ukraine.
An alliance between government and tech companies formed to wage the war on terror has evolved into an unholy new kind of technocratic state and turned against America’s own citizens. Laws signed by President Obama as he left office fused together the media, NGOs, the national security complex, and big tech companies into an unelected ruling party. In short, the information war came home and completely overtook American politics during the hyperpolarization of the Trump era and the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Information State is an urgent, necessary book that sounds the alarm on where society is headed in the age of AI if we don’t relearn how to think for ourselves and ask searching questions about whether information can ever be a substitute for truth.We’re often told that disinformation is everywhere and that it’s endangering our democracy. But what if the war on disinformation itself is really just a weapon to squash any and all legitimate dissent?
The Information State is an incisive examination of how we reached the point where anything that contradicts the dominant narrative can be labeled dangerous disinformation. Tablet contributor Jacob Siegel charts how the technological infrastructure built to make society safer and more rational has steadily replaced democratic freedoms with systems of digital control. Commercial Internet applications now double as military-grade surveillance and influence tools. Government tech partnerships established after 2001 in response to the global war on terror took on a life of their own and now target Americans.
Instead of competing for voters’ support, the information state uses censorship, mass surveillance, and algorithmic manipulation to shape public perceptions as it tries to engineer reality. Government officials requested that social media companies boost stories about Donald Trump’s alleged connections to Russia, while censoring those about Hunter Biden’s laptops, the origins of the COVID-19 virus, and the war in Ukraine.
An alliance between government and tech companies formed to wage the war on terror has evolved into an unholy new kind of technocratic state and turned against America’s own citizens. Laws signed by President Obama as he left office fused together the media, NGOs, the national security complex, and big tech companies into an unelected ruling party. In short, the information war came home and completely overtook American politics during the hyperpolarization of the Trump era and the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Information State is an urgent, necessary book that sounds the alarm on where society is headed in the age of AI if we don’t relearn how to think for ourselves and ask searching questions about whether information can ever be a substitute for truth.

The Origins and Future of the United Nations
2026-04-20 17:00 - 19:00 UTC | Graduate Center Room 5203, 365 Fifth Ave, New York, NY, 10016, United States
Moderator
John Torpey, Director
Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies
Presenters
Lukas Haynes, RBI Visiting Scholar, discussing Peace Through Power:
FDR’s Military Leaders and the Pragmatism of the UN Charter
Tapio Kanninen, RBI Senior Fellow, discussing Revitalizing the United Nations:
Making and Keeping the Peace
Commentators
Richard Gowan, International Crisis Group
Stephen Schlesinger, World Policy Institute (ret.)
Date and time
Monday, April 20, 2026 5-6:30pm
Wine and Cheese Reception to Follow
Place
Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies, Room 5203
CUNY Graduate Center
365 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10016

The Reality of UFOs/UAP
2026-05-06 18:00 - 20:30 UTC | Proshansky Auditorium, 365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY, 10016, United States
A presentation by journalist Leslie Kean who has been investigating and reporting on the subject for over 25 years. Q&A moderated by RBI Acting Director, Eli Karetny.
RSVP for The Reality of UFOs/UAP - May 6. 6PM

Leslie Kean is an investigative journalist and author of the 2010 New York Times bestseller UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go On the Record. She has been covering UFOs/UAP for the mainstream since 2000. Kean and reporter Ralph Blumenthal have contributed articles to The New York Times on UFOs/UAPs for eight years, beginning with a game-changing front page story about a secret Pentagon UFO program in 2017, written with Helene Cooper. Kean’s over two decades of reporting on UFOs was profiled in The New Yorker in 2021. Kean and Blumenthal broke the story of whistleblower David Grusch in The Debrief in 2023, which led to an open Congressional hearing. Kean also helped produce two seasons of the NatGeo documentary series “UFOs: Investigating the Unknown” (2025) streaming on Hulu.

Kean is also the author of Glowing Auras and ‘Black Money’: The Pentagon’s Mysterious U.F.O. Program and was Ezra Klein’s NY
