I don't pretend to have a great deal of expertise in these areas (and
realize that there might be "networking" problems to overcome to get the
information on panels out to the scholars that do), but I think that
issues of gender, race, and ethnicity and the way they influence/are
influenced by global political economy are areas that PEWS is extremely
weak in now. For instance, there's a startling LACK of dialogue between
PEWS folks and people who identify with the issue of "women in
development." Another enormously important issue where these
dynamics converge is that of international migration (which is also THE
leading real world political issue in the part of the country where I
live). I can't remember recent PEWS sponsored panels that addressed
either of these issues -- or, for that matter, others related to race,
ethnicity or gender. Maybe it's time to consider doing that.
dave smith
sociology, uc-irvine