Oxford Latin American Graduate Seminar Series Trinity Term 2020. Week 5
Alan Brejnholt – Loughborough University London
‘Institutional determinants of Brazilian MNCs’ CSR engagement: Green colonialism or corporate irresponsibility?’
Discussant: Beat Grüninger, Fundação Instituto de Administração São Paulo
Jordan Buchanan – University of Cambridge
‘Breaking the Isthmus: The Consequences of the Panama Canal on Latin America’s International Economy, 1914-1930’
Discussant: Dr Johnhenry Gonzalez, University of Cambridge
If you wish to join the seminar, please access the event link to Microsoft Teams here or send emilie.curryova@sant.ox.ac.uk your e-mail address so we can register you in our Teams platform.
Alan's PhD research at Loughborough University concerns the rise of companies from Latin America as institutional players in in the global arena and their response to sustainability. Alan takes a critical angle to corporate social responsibility (CSR) of particularly Brazilian multinational companies to appreciate their social and environmental engagement. He recently contributed to the Oxford Handbook on State Capitalism with a chapter on theorising the relationship of the State and CSR. Prior to joining academia, he holds experiences from the private and social sector working in the interdisciplinary field of business and politics.
Beat Grüninger is Partner of BSD Group – an ELEVATE Company. After graduating in Linguistics at the University of Zurich and a post graduating in Developing Countries at the Federal Polytechnic School Zurich (ETHZ), Beat worked at the Swiss Committee for UNICEF as a communication officer. In 1998, he co-founded BSD Consulting, a consultancy in sustainability and corporate responsibility. He is acting as a consultant for CSR and Sustainability, giving advice to multinationals and national Brazilian firms. He also acts as trainer of certified courses of GRI and Integrated Reporting and lectures at leading business schools in São Paulo.
Jordan Buchanan is from Edinburgh, Scotland, and is currently a postgraduate student at the University of Cambridge on the MPhil in World History. His research is focused on the Panama Canal and Argentina’s international economic position between 1914-1929. He completed his honours degree at the University of Dundee in History and Politics in 2019. Alongside this he has served ten years as an army reservist, currently working in military intelligence, having previously served in the Parachute Regiment. He will conduct a research stay at Colegio de Mexico from August-December 2020 to expand his research on the Panama Canal and Latin America. Alongside this, he has served ten years as an army reservist in both the Military Intelligence Corp and the Parachute Regiment.
Dr John Henry Gonzalez is a lecturer in Caribbean and Atlantic History at the University of Cambridge. Dr Gonzalez is a historian of the Caribbean, with a primary focus on the history of Haiti. His work grows out of lengthy periods of research in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Dr Gonzalez received his B.A. in history from Harvard College and PhD in history from the University of Chicago. He was a postdoctoral fellow at Duke and worked for four years as an assistant professor of Caribbean history at the University of South Florida at Tampa.
