Articles by Kevin Matthews
Language from Scratch
According to Derek Bickerton of the U of Hawaii, the convergent evolution of creole languages permits us a window into the "default settings" of human speech.
Published on: 4/15/2008
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Danish Ambassador Touts 'Dangerous' Example
How Denmark stays progressive, pro-U.S., and thoroughly multilateral, as explained by Ambassador Friis Arne Petersen, the country's top representative in Washington.
Published on: 3/14/2008
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Hungry for Practical Approaches, Students Attend 'Rogue States' Policy Gathering
Students at the Burkle Center's March 11 conference add their voices to the debate over how best to wield the tools of foreign policy when dealing with governments seen as U.S. adversaries.
Published on: 3/12/2008
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Dormant Argentina
Argentine director Fernando "Pino" Solanas screens and discusses his 2007 documentary about his country's achievements in science and engineering.
Published on: 3/10/2008
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Can People Power Change Kenya?
Resolving the election crisis of 2007-08 is one thing, argues GRCA Research Associate Stephen Ndegwa, and addressing underlying injustices is quite another. Ndegwa and an engaged UCLA audience debate the likelihood of significant change from below.
Published on: 2/14/2008
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The 98 Percent Strategy
Nearly every women's rights bill passed by the Iranian reformist parliament that the Guardian Council effectively cast out in 2004 met one doom or another. Fatemeh Haghighatjoo, a former legislator, illuminates the paths of Iranian-style gridlock.
Published on: 1/16/2008
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10 Questions for Lynn Hunt
Professor of History Lynn Hunt's 2007 book "Inventing Human Rights: A History" was published with CIA-sponsored "torture flights," "enhanced interrogation techniques" and genocide all in the news. She spoke with UCLA International Institute Senior Writer Kevin Matthews about whether the very idea of human rights is now in danger, and how novels aided the concept's evolution.
Published on: 12/11/2007
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Last US Ambassador to USSR Makes Case for Cooperation
Ambassador Jack Matlock says that, on the most pressing global issues, the United States still needs Russia. Speaking ahead of parliamentary elections, he calls U.S. discussion of Putin's autocratic tendencies "overblown."
Published on: 12/4/2007
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Hope, Economic Transformation in Iraqi Marshlands
Peter Reiss, director of a USAID program to restore the world's second-largest wetlands, explains how Saddam Hussein's drainage of the area has altered an ancient culture.
Published on: 11/28/2007
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At UCLA, Mongolia's First Lady Seeks Ties with 'Third Neighbor'
Tsolmon Onon Enkhbayar addresses UCLA scholars and members of L.A.'s Mongolian community.
Published on: 10/30/2007
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