Research Professor

 Department of Political Science (UW)

Contact Information

Office Location:  CIGI
Phone Number: 519.885.2444 x229
E-mail:  jlang@balsillieschool.ca

Education

Sc.D., Harvard School of Public Health, Harvard University, 1988-in epidemiology
M.S., Harvard School of Public Health, Harvard University, 1983-in epidemiology
M.P.A., John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, 1982-in health policy
Ph.D., University of New Hampshire, 1977-in psycholinguistics and cognitive psychology
M.A., University of New Hampshire, 1974-in psycholinguistics and cognitive psychology
A.B., Boston State College, 1969-in psychology and mathematics

Areas of Specialization

U.S. foreign policy
Cold War crises and conflicts
Conflict prevention
The method of critical oral history
Empathy in international affairs and international security

Short Bio

Conflict prevention and international security is janet's (yes, it is spelled with a lower case "j") third full-fledged career. After graduating from college, she earned a masters and doctorate in cognitive psychology and psycholinguistics, following which she spent ten years investigating language development, testing various hypotheses generated by Noam Chomsky's theories of the relations between language and mind, and teaching. Then, finding psycholinguistics too removed from pressing social issues that concerned her, janet pursued a career in public health, first at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, then at Harvard School of Public Health, from which she received a masters and doctorate in epidemiology and biostatistics-subjects she taught, and to which she devoted her research, throughout the 1990s at Boston University's School of Public Health. Following her treatment for breast cancer and a rare blood cancer in 2000, she has devoted her research and teaching solely to international security and conflict prevention, in collaboration with her colleague and husband, James Blight. Since beginning to work exclusively in international affairs, she has co-authored two books and many articles, been centrally involved with two award-winning documentary films (The Fog of War and Virtual JFK) and has lectured across North America, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East on the lessons and implications of her research with Jim Blight on the Cuban missile crisis, the U.S. war in Vietnam and other Cold War episodes. Together with colleagues at MIT and George Washington University, janet and Jim have recently embarked on a project focused on U.S.-Iran relations since the Islamic Revolution. janet enjoys playing golf and hiking and has, since moving to Canada, become fascinated and all too often confused by the sport of curling.

Most recent scholarly publications

(with Blight JG, Welch DA.) Vietnam if Kennedy Had Lived: Virtual JFK (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2009). (The companion book to the Koji Masutani film, "Virtual JFK.")

(with Blight JG.) The Fog of War: Lessons From the Life of Robert McNamara (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005). (The companion book to the Errol Morris film, "The Fog of War," released by Sony Classics Entertainment, 19 December 2003.)

(with Blight JG.) A Quiet Revolution: An Introduction to the Critical Oral History of the Cuban Missile Crisis at Brown University's Watson Institute for International Studies (published by the institute, design and layout by Murphy and Murphy, Providence, RI, May 2003, provided free of charge to researchers and instructors interested in the missile crisis and/or critical oral history).

(with Blight JG.) "When Empathy Failed: Using Critical Oral History to Revisit the Collapse of U.S.-Soviet Detente in the Carter-Brezhnev Years." Journal of Cold War Studies, due to be published in the Spring 2010 issue (with commentaries by five scholar-practioners, with responses from the authors).

(with Blight JG.) "Virtual JFK: The 44th President's Foreign Policy Challenge." Truthdig.com, posted on 29 October 2008.

Recent Awards

Recipient of the 2009 Golden Palm Award from the Mexico International film Festival for Virtual JFK: Vietnam if Kennedy Had Lived (Co-producer).

Elected in 2008 to membership in the Screenwriters Guild of America/West, by virtue of having been co-writer (with janet M. Lang and Koji Masutani) of the script for Virtual JFK: Vietnam if Kennedy Had Lived.

Finalist for the 2008 Special Jury Prize, and for Best International Feature Film, for Virtual JFK: Vietnam, if Kennedy Had Lived, at Hot Docs: The Toronto International Documentary Film Festival. (Co-producer)

Rockefeller Foundation Resident Fellow, Villa Serbelloni, Bellagio, Italy, August-September 2005, to pursue work (with James G. Blight and David A. Welch) on a book manuscript, Virtual JFK: Vietnam, if Kennedy Had Lived.

Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, for The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons From the Life of Robert S. McNamara, given to Director Errol Morris and Sony Pictures Classics, at ceremonies in Los Angeles, CA, February 2004. (Principal adviser, with James Blight, to both Errol Morris, and to his subject, Robert S. McNamara, for the three years "The Fog of War" was in production.)

Courses Taught