Reception for BU-Warwick Partnership and South-South Conference Held at Pardee House

Pardee House was the venue of an evening reception held in honor of the Boston University-University of Warwick partnership and of the participants of two related conferences: the Pardee Center conference on “The Future of South-South Economic Relations” and BU/Warwick conference on “Business and Government After the Crash.” In addition to the participants of the two conferences, the reception was also attended by a number of visitors from the University of Warwick as well as faculty and administration leaders from Boston University.

Prof. Kevin Smith, who chairs the BU steering committee for the BU-Warwick Partnership, began with welcome remarks and explained the goals and emerging results of the partnership. This was followed by remarks from Prof. Richard Higgott (Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the University of Warwick), Prof. Graham Wilson (Chair of the Boston University Department of Political Science) and Prof. Adil Najam (Director of the Pardee Center, and Professor of International Relations and of Geography and Environment at Boston University).

The BU-Warwick University partnership was launched in 2008 “to leverage the strengths of each institution through research collaboration in new and emerging disciplines.” The partnership has already resulted in a number of joint research initiatives recently a strategic funding initiative for joint research and educational programs between the two universities was announced. The research workshop on “Business and Government After the Crash” is one of the collaborative research initiatives coming out of the program, being led by Prof. Graham Wilson (Chair, Department of Political Science, Boston University) and Prof. Wyn Grant (Department of Politics and International Studies, Warwick University).

This conference is being held parallel to the Pardee Center conference on “South-South Economic Relations” which brings together leading experts from across the world to look at the emerging dynamics of economic – and especially trade – relations amongst developing countries. Papers presented at the conference are expected to lead to a book to be published in 2011.