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VOL. 8/1 (ISSUE 28) - February 1998
In this issue:
Over the past few years, we have further enriched the links we have fostered among scholars throughout East and Central Europe by facilitating contacts with their counterparts in less accessible parts of the former Soviet Union, in Latin America, and now in South Africa.
Our current projects strengthen professional connections among the new generation of scholars in all these regions, especially through participation in our Democracy & Diversity Institutes. Our 7th Cracow Institute will be in July 1998, and our 1st in Cape Town will be in January 1999. We are also continuing to involve our Senior and Junior Fellows throughout the world (along with their own academic colleagues) in an ongoing Electronic Workshop on Media.
Increasingly we have been able to expose our scholars to diverse perspectives in the social sciences through interaction with distinguished professors from different parts of the world. These include jointly taught seminars (e.g. Shlomo Avineri and Jorge Castañeda in the coming Cracow Institute) and recent faculty curricular workshops (e.g. Mustafa Emirbayer and David Plotke in Almaty and Bishkek, Ann Snitow in Osh).
In this issue of the Bulletin you will find the first of what we hope will be a regular series of Letters on cultural issues by Xu Wenli, an intellectual until last April under house arrest in Beijing. This represents one of our first exploratory links with China.
And finally, this semester we most warmly welcome our latest G-Tech Visiting Professor in Democracy, Father Michael Lapsley, a highly respected public intellectual and activist from South Africa.
- E.M.
Slovak President at the New School
President Michal Kovac of the Slovak Republic gave a talk entitled "Building a Civil Society in the Slovak Republic: Five Years of Independence and the Challenges Ahead" at the Graduate Faculty on January 26, hosted by The Transregional Center for Democratic Studies (TCDS) and the Foundation for a Civil Society (FCS). He was introduced by Jonathan Fanton, President of our university, and by Wendy Luers, President of FCS. Here are some of the salient points made by President Kovac in his speech:
• "Slovakia is one of those countries of the former Soviet block, that are undergoing today two complex and difficult processes. Since the end of 1989 when the communist regime fell, we have been through a vast and thorough transformation of our political, economic, and social system and of all strata of public life. Since its beginning in 1993 we have also been building our sovereign State and Slovak statehood which has been achieved by legal, peaceful, and civilized means in splitting the former Czecho-Slovak Federal Republic into two independent States."
• "The very reconstruction and functioning of a pluralistic democracy means, however, nothing with respect to its standard and quality, which is closely related to the level of political culture and then to developed civil society. The latter is the very sphere of public life where we have to do much more. Slovakia with its population of five million, has around fourteen thousand non-governmental organizations, groups, unions, associations, and foundations. Hundreds of thousands of mostly young people are either directly or indirectly involved in their activities. Development of an advanced civil and political culture still requires significantly longer time given the country's experience of half a century of totalitarian regimes - first during World War II, and then within the Soviet block. That is a task to be faced by several generations of Slovak citizens."
• "A well constructed and especially a well respected legal system and the rule of law are necessary for the functioning of economic and social life and for proper relations between citizens in a free society. Also in this sphere, as far as legislative work is concerned, we have made significant progress and have tried to approximate the legislation of the European Union, to whose membership we aspire. However, today we realize that the distance between a written law and its ingrained, respected form is often longer than necessary or even feasible."
• "After such optimistic information, a question arises why Slovakia has not joined the ranks of the most successful candidates for membership in both NATO and the EU? The historical NATO Summit held last year in Madrid decided to invite to join negotiations for membership the three most successful countries out of ten candidates - the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland. Along with Slovakia these countries are members of the Visegrad Group of Four (V4). Slovakia is the only country neighboring with all the other V4 members. (...) The decisions triggered disillusionment in Slovakia. Interpretations of causes of the failure vary. (...) They are particularly the con-sequences of specific steps made by the present Government Coalition on the local political scene since its assumption of power in November 1994. Lack of respect for democratic principles of the division of power and the absence of control over its actions, ignoring the Constitutional institutions of the Slovak Republic and their decisions, the questioning of the principles of the existence of a pluralistic society and legal state - all these are sources of the problems Slovakia struggles with today. They have to be seen in the context of a complex public transformation within a country that was not free, into the one with citizens responsible for a sovereign democratic state."
• "The foundation of a democratic society in Slovakia has been laid and definitely planted. This is proved by numerous activities of individual parties and institutions within our society. In this connection I should like to mention once again the broadly expanded network of non-governmental organizations and civil groups which are a vital guarantee of a bright prospective for Slovakia. Additional and equal guarantee lies in democratically and freely functioning local governments, independent trade unions, universities, and other institutions and organizations. Independent decision-making by the Constitutional Court is of utmost importance for Slovak democracy and the rule of law in our country. All that along with growing civil awareness, gives hope for a successful and timely solution to the present problems in my country."
An African Renaissance: Placing Hope in the Possible
by Garth le Pere
For centuries, much of the history of Africa has been seen through the prism of stereotyped images. The images, which characterized the continent, and in some quarters still do, are suggestive of a terminal pathology. In the words of the French Africanist, Jean-Francois Bayart, Africa is variously portrayed as "...doomed, crippled, disenchanted, adrift, coveted, betrayed or strangled, always with someone to blame." He goes on to describe a French cartoon where an African faces "the lottery of death" with the wheel spinning around several stark choices: famine, civil war, drought, apartheid, the invasion of locusts, corruption, and the AIDS epidemic. Western intellectual traditions have served Africa poorly and must take much of the responsibility for spinning a mythology of "barbarism, savagery and otherness." Indeed, it was none other than Hegel, one of the leading luminaries of western philosophy who had this to say about Africa:
It is not interesting from the point of view of its own history, but because we see man in a state of barbarism and savagery which is preventing him from being an integral part of civilization. Africa, as far back as history goes, has remained closed and without links with the rest of the world. It is a country of gold, which is closed in on itself, the country of infancy, beyond the daylight of conscious history, wrapped in blackness of night. Africa emerges from its "dark past" through the 19th and 20th centuries in fits and starts, essentially in a state of historical relativism: its existence and value are dependent on nature and deter-mined by its relations with the western world. As contemporary critics of imperialism, both Hobson and Lenin realized that Africa simply served as a pawn in a manipulative game among imperial powers who met to decide how to carve it up over tea at the Berlin Conference in 1886.
Without tracing the tragic and complex trajectory of its colonial and post-colonial past, Africa has arrived in the recent period to experience a wave of political change and social ferment spurred by what has been described as the global march of democracy. The opening up of state and society in a response to pressures for multi-party electoral rule, substantive political and economic reform and the adoption of pluralism thus provide a contextual template for robust debate and discussion of Africa's future.
What has recently emerged and has proven salutary is the notion of an "African Renaissance." The idea attempts to build conceptual and intellectual bridges that will lock all of Africa in a common destiny. It is a convenient ideological anchor for South Africa to moor its future with the rest of Africa after four decades of isolationism. The vision is very much a Nkrumahesque one which seeks to reconstruct Africa's political, social, and economic fabric - by its own energy and resources - through what might be called a new "theology of the possible." Varying interpretations and emphases are emerging, but such a vision has to do battle with some enduring symptoms of the pathologies described above.
Nevertheless, the transformative alchemy of the renaissance idea seeks to move Africa from the perilous margins of its contingent and uncertain past to becoming a full and active participant in the global arena. The timing is especially auspicious as it coincides with the diffusion effects of democratic transitions in other regions, a changing post-cold war geopolitical calculus, and a dramatic reordering of the global political economy. The renaissance idea thus has two dialectically linked dimensions: domestic and external. Domestically, the revival of Africa's fortunes has to take place in the context of competitive, participatory regimes with strong civic orientations. This is necessary in order to reign in authoritarian impulses, widespread parochial influences, and stifling patrimonial tendencies. While some empirical evidence refutes the thesis and economic statism still holds sway, normatively at least, democracies tend to be the best guarantors of monetary discipline, fiscal rectitude, and the encouragement of the private sector - all necessary conditions for economic growth.
Africa is being drawn into the global economic and multilateral system on exacting terms.
Externally, as The Economist would have it, domestic transformation comes up against three priorities. First, Africa has to gain access to the markets of the developed countries. The "Africa Initiative" of the United States, which encourages trade rather than aid, is seen as a step in the right direction. Secondly, Africa must be helped to help itself. As the "good governance" conditionally argument goes, those African countries that make real and substantial progress toward political reform and economic growth should be rewarded with say, balance-of-payments support and generous debt relief. And thirdly, the syndrome of Africa's aid addiction can be broken through a restrictive targeting of aid for specified and measurable purposes, such as tropical disease research, vaccination programs, and health and educational service.
Globalization and its neo-liberal orthodoxy present the continent with a Hobson's choice. Africa is, by compulsion, being drawn into the global economic and multilateral system on exacting terms, and its hand will not be strengthened by states with weak administrative capability or those which lack essential institutional and legal safeguards. Stable governments with strong leadership capacity are needed to mobilize the human and material resources necessary to render the renaissance idea more than a romantic notion.
Historically, African countries resemble the metaphorical goats in the Cameroonian proverb - they ate where they were tethered. All sorts of fables can be spun out of this proverb from which painful lessons can be drawn, especially in terms of the variety of pathologies hinted at above. The African renaissance as a theology of the possible is also emancipatory: it untethers us all to seek a common destiny.
Garth le Pere is the Executive Director of the Foundation for Global Dialogue, a South African Association for promoting inter-national cooperation based in Johannesburg. Last fall, the author visited the New School's South Africa Partnership Program and gave a lecture to the GF community.
G-Tech Visiting Professor, Father Michael Lapsley
It is our honor to announce the Spring G-Tech Visiting Professor in Democracy at the Graduate Faculty, Father Michael Lapsley, of South Africa. He currently works at the Trauma Center for Victims of Violence and Torture in Cape Town, which assists the Commission for Truth and Reconciliation, and will give a public lecture at the GF on April 6th.
Nelson Mandela wrote the foreword to the sensitively written and gripping book about the life and work of Father Michael Lapsley, entitled Priest and Partisan, A South African Journey, by Michael Worsnip (Ocean Press, 1996). Mandela writes: "We read about a foreigner who came to our country, and was transformed by what he saw of the injustice of apartheid. He could not remain aloof from the suffering of the people. In order to be true to himself, he had to participate in their struggle for liberation."
As a result of his outspokenness, anti-apartheid activities, and membership within the African National Congress, Michael Lapsley was often at odds with the church hierarchy, as well as with the then government. In 1990, he was the target of a letter bomb from South Africa, losing both hands and an eye. A theologian and mentor for Lapsley, Archbishop Trevor Huddleston highlights that: "[Lapsley's] theology is shaped and formed by action and experience, not by reading books." Lapsley indeed starts to theologize about his experience in a letter written only five months after the bombing: "Whilst I will permanently bear in my body the marks of disfigurement and disability, I do believe that I have gained through what I have experienced which will add new dimensions to what I can contribute as a priest and as a freedom fighter, particularly in the long task of helping to rebuild the lives and communities which have been shattered by apartheid." His resolve and compassion to continue in the struggle have only been heightened. In the words of Nelson Mandela: "It has a universal message about universal human suffering and our struggle for dignity and healing."
- S .S.
Notes on a Philosopher and Philosophical Inquiry
by Xu Wenli
The following is a correspondence we have received from Chinese dissident Xu Wenli. A physicist and former editor of the prominent unofficial journal April 5th Tribune, he was sentenced in 1981 to 15 years in prison for "counter-revolutionary crimes" related to his participation in the 1978-79 Democracy Wall Movement. Released in 1993, he was under house arrest until last April and currently lives in Beijing. I was rather embarrassed when Dr. Xu Yonghai asked me to preface his book, The Foundations for the Existence of the Mind, because his field of study, as well as the very topic itself, are beyond my comprehension.
An old saying goes, "spend a decade to cast a trusty sword." But Dr. Xu spent more than ten years writing this book. In the latter years (during his time in jail), he wrote down his theories in his mind with the pen of the soul, and now he has finally published them in written form. I was so moved by his spirit that I then ventured to write this introduction without having sufficient knowledge of the subject.
A more compelling reason for me to write this is the fact that Dr. Xu, a devout Christian, has always given his unconditional love to help those in need without asking for anything in return. Furthermore, Dr. Xu has passed this love on to all people, expressing his ultimate concern for the entire human family. This I think is especially precious and worthy of our recognition. Some people may say that Dr. Xu's work is very difficult, that it resists an easy reading because the style of writing and the train of thought are so unusual. As we all know, philosophical writing is frequently hard to comprehend; this goes for the writing of Ancient Greece, modern Germany, as well as of contemporary western countries. But this has not kept many generations of Chinese translators and scholars from introducing these texts to their fellow countrymen. Why are there so many difficult philosophical writings? Because, since ancient times, scholars have not ceased to inquire into the great but difficult questions, such as, Where did we come from, and where are we going?
No doubt these fundamental questions are necessary for people to ask. But the unseen, untouchable, and unknown world has not been explored or questioned by the Chinese since the ancient times of the Han Dynasty. The Han Chinese depended mainly on agriculture, and the way of life associated with it forced them to be concerned with more practical questions. Perhaps the ancient Chinese did try to study such questions, but were constrained by the pressures of their immediate environment and ultimately gave it up. Or perhaps they thought that inquiring into these questions was improper, and therefore refrained from doing so.
Once the Han Dynasty adopted Confucianism as state ideology, no other schools of thought, including Taoism and the once powerful Buddhism, had a chance to be a part of the mainstream philosophical tradition in China. Most Chinese philosophers put aside the questions concerning spiritual or divine matters, and maintained an attitude of "respectful distance" which neither affirmed nor denied them. They did not foresee that in avoiding this, they prevented the Han Chinese from exploring a transcendental conscious-ness and from developing a knowledge that might assist them in studying the universe. China was thus held back in the Medieval Age without being able to free itself.
In this sense, Dr. Xu's inquiry is both bold and groundbreaking. His book, which seems difficult, is worth recommending to those who are interested in exploring with him fundamental questions of being and knowing.
Xu Wenli
7th Annual Summer Institute in Cracow, Poland, July 12 - August 1, 1998
For the seventh consecutive year, we shall welcome fifty junior scholars from Eastern Europe, the U.S., and other parts of the world to the Democracy & Diversity Graduate Summer Cracow Institute, at its castle site overlooking the Vistula, for an intensive, three-week equivalent of a full semester's study in society, politics, and culture.
Originally designed by the East & Central Europe Program of the Graduate Faculty, New School for Social Research, the Institute remains an intimate, but now more broadly inter-national, forum for rigorous and lively examination of the challenges of democratic life. Our core faculty from the New School's GF will be joined this year by distinguished scholars and guest speakers from Israel, Mexico, Poland, Russia, and South Africa. In addition to our ever-evolving seminars on citizenship and the role of gender, the Institute's annual public policy workshop will emphasize the role of media and communications in relation to policy development.
Upon completion of the Institute, U.S. graduate students receive credits and non-U.S. participants receive certificates. Yet their unique, three-week experience does not end there. Because we encourage and facilitate further participation in the ongoing activities of ECEP and the more recently established Transregional Center for Democratic Studies, alumni soon find they have become active members of a much broader transregional community of open-minded scholars, who are committed to strengthening civil society and to bridging the gap between academia and the "real world". I hope you will consider joining us.
Elzbieta Matynia, Director, Transregional Center for Democratic Studies
Curriculum:
Continuity & Citizenship in Democratic Politics
Professor David Plotke, Dept. of Political Science, GF
How can democratic practices and institutions be sustained? What do political institutions and values contribute to democratic continuity? What is the role of self-interest? These questions require attention in both newer and more established democracies. To answer them we will focus on the activities and features of individual citizens. How should we understand the concept and practice of citizenship? What do citizens need to agree on for democratic politics to continue over time?
Problems in Democratic Culture
Professor Jeffrey Goldfarb, Dept of Sociology, GF
Political correctness, affirmative action, multiculturalism, and identity politics are controversial topics in the United States today. In this course these contemporary topics will be analyzed as part of the on-going struggle for a democratic culture. The controversies will be considered in historical and theoretical contexts, which involve on-going attempts to address the problems and promises of democracy in America. It will be a primary task of the class to consider how these issues relate to the pressing problems of the new democracies of East and Central Europe. Readings will include de Tocqueville's Democracy in America and a selection of Hannah Arendt's essays, as well as texts by Stephan Carter, Toni Morrison, Robert Bellah, Bell Hooks, Henry Louis Gates Jr., and Paul Berman.
Theories of Gender in Culture
Professor Ann Snitow, Committee on Gender Studies and Feminist Theory, GF
In its seventh year, this course continues to reflect on-going redefinitions of the field "gender studies" and now includes a wide range of material from scholars and emerging women's movements in East Central Europe and the former Soviet Union. This summer we will discuss the difficulties of finding relevant and useful entry points for feminism in the region. We will look at current efforts to include "women" inside the powerful international politics of "human rights" and at feminism's relationship to nationalism - with a critical assessment of different versions of "global feminism.
"Nation, Identity, Community"
Professor Shlomo Avineri, Dept. of Political Science, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel; Professor Jorge Castaneda, Dept. of Political Science, National Autonomous University of Mexico, Mexico City; Alex Grigorievs, National Democratic Institute, Moscow
Whether defined as philosophical concept, ideology, attitude, or group's state of mind, nationalism continues to be a major idée forcé of the last two centuries, leading to successive reconfigurations of the world map. This course will explore the origins of modern nationalism both in the Enlightenment and in the romantic movement, and will survey the current social science literature. Various approaches to the study of nationalism as a historical phenomenon will be investigated, with special attention given to Central European countries and Israel. In the second part of the seminar we will explore the questions of cultural identity, nation building, and multiculturalism in Mexico and Latin America at the end of this century. Finally, we will examine selected cases of ethnic conflict in Russia and discuss different strategies of conflict resolution.
For more information, please contact Ina Breuer at Tel: (212) 229-5580, fax: (212) 229-5894, or E-mail: BREUERI@NEWSCHOOL.EDU
Happy Marriage of Form and Content, Mass Media and the Public Sphere in Cyberspace: an update on the 1997/98 electronic workshop
by Shelley Hurt
The electronic workshop version of the Sawyer Seminar Mass Media and the Public Sphere began last fall and is successfully linking scholars from all corners of the globe in a virtual discussion of issues related to media, politics, and public policy. For the seminar, 25 people convene at the Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research in New York City every three weeks. Papers presented and transcripts of the sessions are e-mailed to all workshop participants. The seminar is coordinated by professors Andrew Arato and Jeffrey Goldfarb. The electronic workshop is a joint project by TCDS and the Sawyer Seminar Program, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The workshop has attracted interesting participants from diverse places, such as South Africa, Peru, Mexico, and the Ukraine. We are especially gratified by the fact that, in many cases, this reflects a continuation of the work and collaborative activities launched by TCDS, ECEP, and the GF in general. For instance, Zoya Solovieva, who works for the UNDP in Ukraine and is currently pursuing her Ph.D., was a participant in our 1997 Cracow Institute. Her research is "devoted to the study of patterns of communication between the state and the individual," and how they are changing during Ukraine's transition to democracy. Sakkie Mpanyane from South Africa, another 1997 Cracow alumnus, joined the electronic workshop to further his research on the question: "what contribution does the media, if any, have to offer an autonomous (or independent) public sphere?" Enrique Peruzzotti, who several years ago received his Ph.D. at the GF, is now teaching at the Universidad Torcuato Di Tella. He participates in the workshop because his research centers around civil society and the public sphere in the new Latin American democracies.
In addition to individual scholars, we also have larger study groups in the workshop. Some human rights groups joined because they realized that grasping the dynamics of the media can help or hinder the promotion of human rights. Members of the Croatian women's group, B.a.B.e. (Be active, Be emancipated) report that they "recently completed research, held a workshop, and developed a campaign concerning the status of women in Croatian media." Workshop participants, both scholars and activists, frequently underscore the importance of understanding the connections between media and democracy for developing an active public sphere. Since this knowledge helps to inform much of their work, participants have benefited tremendously from the seminar and from having a virtual forum where their questions and comments can be addressed by scholars at the GF and throughout the world who are concerned with similar or related issues.
Another exciting application of the electronic workshop has been for teaching purposes. Several professors are incorporating the seminar transcripts into their course curriculum. Professor Lucig H. Danielian teaches a graduate course, entitled "Comparative Public Opinion and Policy Making," to 12 political science students at the American University of Armenia. Susan Pearce, who also received her Ph.D. at the GF, is now teaching sociology at the University of Gdansk in Poland, under the auspices of the Civic Education Project. She will use the transcripts in her course, entitled "Sociology of Mass Media," as well as provide her students with the unique opportunity to dialogue with other scholars internationally. At Osh State University in Kyrgyzstan, Kanyshai Nurdinova is the head of one of five recently established Social Science Curriculum Centers in Central Asia which are all taking part in the workshop. She has 25 faculty members and doctoral students who conduct their research in the area of the public sphere and looks forward to the Center's ongoing scholarly collaboration with us. Bozena Mierzejewska of Warsaw, Poland, has compiled a group of 25 postgraduate students from the Program of European Studies at the Warsaw School of Economics and Sciences. According to Mierzejewska, who teaches two courses on communications, "this program is very new and represents a unique initiative" at her university. The first seminar of the Fall semester was entitled The Question of the Media and Public Sphere I: The Idea of the 'Public Sphere'. The presenters, Nancy Fraser, Jean Cohen, and Andrew Arato, discussed the theoretical foundations of a public sphere and civil society. Abby Peterson (University of Gottenburg) and Kyra Kosnick (NSSR-GF) sent enthusiastic comments about the first session, stating that it was comforting to see that there was a "general consensus for the need to open the discussion of the public sphere and the media beyond its classical and historical nation-state context." Kyra Kosnick considered "Fraser's theorizing of multiple sub-altern counter-publics very fruitful both theoretically and in terms of possible political processes." And she asked, "How do these multiple voices relate to and influence the policy and discourses of the 'dominant' public? I suppose the same question might be applied to the distinctions that Cohen and Arato make between civil and political publics." The second session which was entitled The Question of the Media and the Public Sphere II: Media Systems and Technologies in History, with presenters William Hoynes and Richard Kaplan, looked at the role of public television and radio for contributing to the relation-ship between media and democracy. The third session, entitled The Question of the Media and the Public Sphere III: The Concept of 'Media' and 'Mediation', with Paolo Carpignano, Sumita Chakravarty, and David Slocum, analyzed the concepts of 'media' and 'mediation' from the point of view of their theoretical significance for sociological analyses of mass media and their implications for the idea of the public sphere.
On November 7, 1997, the Sawyer Seminar on Mass Media and the Public Sphere organized the miniconference, Electronic Media and Democratic Politics. The conference was a forum for scholars to discuss the dramatic changes occurring as a result of the electronic media infiltrating both industrialized and developing democracies. The Honorable Mani Shankar Aiyar of India Today, formerly of the Office of the Prime Minister of India, conducted an engaging dialogue with Professor Monroe Price (Cardozo Law School) on the trajectory of Indian broadcasting. Professor Ulrich K. Preuss (Free University Berlin/Fall Visiting Professor at the GF) discussed the principles behind constitutional regulation of electronic mass media in Germany. Professor Miklos Haraszti (CEU, Budapest/ G-Tech Fall Visiting Professor in Democracy at the GF) concentrated on the roles of political parties, parliament, and the courts with respect to media politics and legislation in Hungary. Finally, Professor Monroe Price reviewed the various national responses to media globalization. This four-hour session will be available through e-mail. Please let me know if you are interested in receiving it.
During the Spring 1998 semester, we plan to build on the e-mail connections established last Fall. We will encourage further interaction among workshop participants by facilitating debate on the seminar papers and transcripts of the discussion sessions. Here are this semester's topics: Legal Institutions: Ownership and Media Regulations; Political Personality and Construction of Charisma in the Media; Media, Identity, and Social Movements; Media and the Political Process in New Europe; Media and Globalization; Media and Technology. The presenters for these sessions will include: Robin Wagner-Pacifici (Swarthmore College), Todd Gitlin (NYU), Jeffrey Goldfarb (NSSR-GF), Herbert Gans (Columbia University), and Gertrud Koch (Kultur-wissenschaftliches Institut Nordrhein-Westfalen). We anticipate that these sessions will provoke lively debate on the role of the media and its relationship to the public sphere and civil society.
To join the electronic workshop, write to mediacor@newschool.edu Please provide your name, the number of participants in your group, and the current research you or your group is working on. I will gladly send you transcripts from the first semester as well as the papers, which will be covered, in the upcoming seminars.
Shelley Hurt, coordinator of the electronic workshop, is a graduate student in the Department of Political Science at the Graduate Faculty
We would like to share with you some news about the latest accomplishments and whereabouts of our former associates. As you know, we try to maintain and build upon relationships with our alumni. Our Alumni Update is to let you know about their work, as it might relate to your own work, as well as to keep you abreast of the interesting activities of our global network of scholars.
Democracy Fellows at the New School
• Anna Laido (Estonia, '96/7) is currently working for the Open Estonia Foundation, a local Soros Foundation, as a program coordinator at the Career Information Center. She is studying at Tartu University, and will receive a Masters of Public Administration in the spring of 1998. Her thesis entails a comparative study on the connections between functions and structures of Estonian, Latvian, and Finnish Parliaments, 1990-1997. Marju Lauristin, Professor of Social Policy at Tartu University and Former Minister of Social Affairs, is her thesis supervisor.
• Peter Muursepp (Estonia, '93/4) spent the Spring Term of 1996/97 as a visiting research scholar at the Center for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science, London School of Economics and Political Science, working on his project concerning the philosophy of Rene Thom. In July 1997 he participated at the XXth International Congress of History of Science in Liege, Belgium. Since September 1, 1997, he is the Head of the Department of Philosophy at Tallinn Pedagogical University.
• Anna Sosnowska (Poland '93/4) is a Ph.D. candidate in Sociology at the Graduate School for Social Research (GSSR) in Warsaw, working in the fields of historical sociology and political theory. She has recently been a resident at the Institut fur die Wissenschaften vom Menschen (IWM) in Vienna, Austria, where she was doing preparatory work for an analysis of the contemporary political discourse in Poland on the concept of and attitudes toward "Europe" and the "West" and the self-perception of Poland as a country with peripheral status. Her article "Here, There - Confusion" is forthcoming in Studia Socjologiczne 4/1997; and "Theories of Social Change and Development in the Light of the Changes in Eastern Europe: The Need for a Global Approach," published in Kultura i Spoteczenstwo, was awarded first prize in the annual competition for the best term papers by the GSSR.
• Michal Vasecka (Slovakia, '96/7) is program coordinator for minority programs at the Open Society Fund, where he helped to establish a Roma board. He is a Ph.D. candidate in the department of sociology at Masaryk University in Brno, and is writing his thesis on Antisemitism in Central Europe after 1989. He is chairman of The Documentation Center for Research on Slovak Society, one of several Slovak organizations working with IWM in Vienna on a project on the Social Cost of Economic Transformation in Central and Eastern Europe. Additionally, he is working with the Constitutional and Legislative Policy Institute in Budapest on law programs in Slovakia, such as a constitutional jurisprudence program and a street law program. In conjunction with Professor of Political Science Iveta Radicova, he is working on curriculum development for a program of social and public policy studies to aid in the establishment of a Center for European Studies at Comenius University in Bratislava.
• Pavlo Kutuev (formerly Fedorchenko) (Ukraine, '95/6), an Associate Professor of Sociology and Political Science at the University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, was an IREX Visiting Scholar at the Robert Wagner School of Public Service, New York University. In March, he will visit the Department of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley. He then plans to conduct research on comparative politics and public administration in Britain until September of this year.
Democracy & Diversity
• Tiyani Mohlaba (South Africa, '96) recently visited the United States and joined us for several gatherings at the New School. As a business consultant for Arthur Anderson in Johannesburg, he works in the department of human resources, training employees in efficiency standards and bridging the gap between management and employees. Before coming to Cracow,he was President of the Students Union (which he still advises) at Witwatersrand University while studying for an Honors degree in African literature. While in New York, he commented: "In Cracow, my first experience outside of South Africa, I learned to respect people for who they are, regardless of their nationality." He plans to apply to graduate business programs in the United States to pursue an M.B.A.
• Kanishai Nurdinova (Kyrgyzstan, '97) visited us at the GF in October. She hosted a training seminar with Ann Snitow on Gender Studies at the newly established Social Science Curriculum Center at Osh State University, where she is Chair of the Philosophy Department.
• Mariusz Turowski (Poland, '97), a recent visiting scholar at IWM in Vienna, is a Ph.D. candidate in Philosophy at the University of Wroclaw. He works in the field of political theory, concentrating on the consequences of the Liberal-Communitarian debate, such as the influence this had on the (post)liberal idea of group and community rights, and the idea that tolerance does not refer to individuals but to communities. His most recent publications include: "Good Life within Institutions? Communitarian and Liberal Conceptions of Democracy" in Studies in Philosophy, Wroclaw 1997 (in Polish); and "Theology and Public Vocabulary: Contemporary Philosophical Relativism and Dimensions of Religious Community and Praxis," in Studies in Science and Theology, Heidelberg 1997 (in English).
Lectures (January - April 1998)
• Monday, January 26 Michal Kovac, President of the Slovak Republic gave a talk on Building a Civil Society in the Slovak Republic: Five Years of Independence and the Challenges Ahead.
• Friday, February 20 Kazimierz Poznanski, Professor of Economics at the Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington, Seattle, lectures on From Communism to Recession: Political Economy of Transition, 12pm, rm. 242.
• Thursday, March 12 Vladimir Tismaneanu, Professor of Political Science, University of Maryland, will speak on Post-Iliescu Romania: Challenges to Democratic Consolidation, 6pm, rm. 242.
• Monday, April 6 Father Michael Lapsley SSM, the Spring G-Tech Visiting Professor of Democracy at the GF, will speak on Confronting the Past and Creating the Future: The Road to Truth, Healing, and Forgiveness, 6pm, rm. 242.
• TCDS has begun a Work in Progress Workshop entitled Democratization and Political Culture. Conceived especially for our Visiting Democracy Fellows, the workshop gives scholars an opportunity to present their research to colleagues working on related topics. The sessions include presentations on civil society, gender, citizenship, Roma culture, national identity, and religious anti-Semitism in Central and Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union. A faculty commentator provides constructive feedback for the author and then moderates discussion.
For more info or to join, please call (212) 229-5580.
• Martin Butora, a longtime associate of TCDS/ECEP, and Thomas Skladony recently edited Slovakia 1996-1997, A Global Report on the State of Society.
• Stephen Gelb, Senior Economist, Development Bank of South Africa;
• Shireen Hassim, Human Sciences Research Council, Pretoria, South Africa;
• Helen Picard, Director, American Center, USIS, Cape Town, South Africa;
• Thomas N. Hull, Counselor for Public Affairs, American Embassy, Pretoria;
• Sipho S. Maseko, Dept. of Political Studies, School of Government, University of the Western Cape, Bellville;
• Frederik van Zyl Slabbert, Chairman of the Board, Open Society Foundation for South Africa, Johannesburg;
• Amanda Gouws, Director, African Gender Institute, University of Cape Town;
• Mahmood Mamdani, Director, Center for African Studies, Univ. of Cape Town;
• Alan Morris, Dept. of Sociology, Univ. of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg;
• Robert Earle, Deputy Associate Director for Educational and Cultural Affairs, United States Information Agency;
• Nadezhda Azhgikina, Editor of the women's page, Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Moscow, Russia;
• Ulrich K. Preuss, Free University Berlin, Fall Visiting Professor at the GF;
• Jorge Castañeda, Political Scientist, National Autonomous Univ. of Mexico;
• Jorge Pinto, Ambassador, Consulate General of Mexico, New York City;
• Haris Pasovic, filmmaker, Sarajevo;
• Vesna Kesic, B.a.B.e., women's human rights group, Zagreb, Croatia.
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