Table of Contents
May 1994 - Vol. 4/No.4
Issue Number 15
Elzbieta Matynia: Director and Editor
Sharon Cooley: Program Associate
Philip Pezeshki: Executive Editor
Justyna Duriasz: Staff Associate
Published quarterly by the East and Central Europe Program.
Funded by the Andrew W. Mellon
Foundation & the Ford Foundation.
Table of ContentsNotes from Armenia, March 1994Through centuries of genocide and conquest, manuscripts and books became the bearer of national identity. Every Armenian will tell you that during the 1915 genocide, the first instinct of every Armenian woman was to flee not with a child and a loaf of bread but with a child and an old manuscript. Today there are more than ten thousand historic Armenian manuscripts, many of them exquisitely illuminated, available for study in Matendaran, an archive, museum, and research institute all in one, in the center of Yerevan.
But for Armenia it is not a normal world.
One glance at the map explains why Armenia's intellectual achievements, which were virtually inaccessible to outsiders, still are. An officially Christian country since 301, Armenia had the misfortune of sharing borders with the mighty Persian and Ottoman Empires. Armenia is now the smallest of the three former Soviet Republics of the Transcaucasus--the others being Georgia and Azerbaijan.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, tiny Nagorno-Karabakh, home to 160,000 Armenians, has been fighting to break away from Azerbaijan. A direct result of this war is the tight road blockade of Aremenia by its neighbors. Since Armenia has to rely on the import of grain and all other raw materials except copper, it is now held hostage.
Before Armenia could recover from the major earthquake of December, 1988, the country was hit by the combined pressures of the transition to a market economy and the deprivations caused by the blockade. The latter has entailed a second year without heat, electricity, or gas in this highland country where the winters are known for their harshness.
The economic hardships and the lack of heating and electric lighting affect the very functioning of the country. The largest and most prestigious educational institution in Armenia, Yerevan State University, was closed during the coldest winter months. But when it opened in March, the graphic evidence of hardship was already there: walls and floors damaged by leaks, rooms still chilled by the winter cold despite the warm spring day.
While a more comprehensive, long-range collaboration still needs further development, there are certain things which we at the New School can do almost immediately. With a little luck in overcoming the considerable visa and transport obstacles, we hope to include some Armenian scholars and students in our Democracy Seminar meeting in May and in this year's session of the Cracow Summer Institute. -- Elzbieta Matynia
The Roma in Slovakia The Roma (also known in English as "Gypsies") form the second largest minority group in Slovakia. In 1991, the Roma of former Czechoslovakia obtained the right to freely proclaim themselves as members of a distinct minority in the census. In Slovakia, 80,627 Roma (1.52% of the citizens of Slovakia), officially declared themselves as such. According to estimates of the urban and communal offices of the state administration from 1989, however, as many as 253,943 Roma live in Slovakia, thus constituting 4.8% of the population. Since these statistics did not include Roma who have a standard of living comparable to that of the majority population, Roma political and cultural activists estimate that the number of Roma in Slovakia is even higher, citing a figure of 350,000 to 400,000 in Slovakia.
The Romany population tends to suffer disproportionately from higher rates of poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, crime and disease. When discussing "the Roma problem", most references focus on the part of the Romany population living in very poor rural and urban conditions. The number of Roma living in unbearable conditions in rural communities and devastated central city zones is agglomerating and represents a potentially very serious societal, social and economic problem. Roma often live 2-3 kilometers outside of a village in camps of settlements with only a few dirty houses without facilities, in cellars, or in cardboard or wooden shacks. Some of the camps, such as the one near Rudnany in Eastern Slovakia, were built on dumping grounds or other areas containing materials such as mercury and arsenic.
In order to understand the present situation of the Roma in Slovakia, the problem must be considered historically. Early in this century, the Roma in Slovakia, as elsewhere in Europe, formed an ethnic community, living on the social periphery of the mainstream population. State policy nearly always focussed on the Romany population not as a distinct ethnic minority, but rather perceived it as a particularly anti-social and criminal group. This attitude was reflected in the policy of collecting special police evidence--fingerprint collections of members of Romany groups (1925), a law about wandering Roma (1927), and so on. During the Second World War, approximately 6 to 7 thousand Roma from Bohemia and Moravia died in a special concentration camp at Auschwitz. The Slovak State also copied the racist legislation of the German Reich, establishing special labor camps for the Roma, who were forbidden to travel with public transport, were allowed admission to towns and communities only on limited days and hours, had their settlement units separated from public roads, and so on. After the occupation of Slovakia by the German army, mass killings of Roma occurred in many places.
After World War II, the policy of the state was oriented toward one of assimilation of the Roma--in 1958, Law No. 74, "On the permanent settlement of nomadic and semi-nomadic people", forcibly limited the movement of that part of the Roma (perhaps 5%-10%) who still travelled on a regular basis. In the same year, the highest organ of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia passed a resolution, the aim of which was to be "the final assimilation of the Gypsy population". The so-called "Gypsy question" was reduced to a "problem of a socially-backward section of the population". The solution to the high number of children in Roma families took the form of financial incentives for Roma women to undergo sterilization. State arrangements were also oriented to solving the problem of housing by the liquidation of backward Romany settlements and resettlement of the Roma to urban settings. Although Romany cultural and ethnic identity was denied, organs of the state administration in communities and towns gave annual accounts of "the Gypsy population". This evidence was collected without the knowledge of the Roma, who were categorized according to the criteria of the social services. Similarly, when there was a census, people were not able to proclaim their Romany ethnic identity, but census officers nevertheless marked the forms without the respondents' knowledge to indicate that they were in fact Roma.
In April 1991, the demand for the equalization of the Roma with the other ethnic minorities in Slovakia was accepted by the Government of the Slovak Republic. The Declaration of Basic Human Rights and Freedoms accepted by the Federal Assembly of Czechoslovakia on January 9, 1991, also secured the Roma's right to freely decide their own ethnic affiliation. Individual ministries were developing initiatives for the Romany minority, securing their rights in the fields of culture and education.
The disintegration of Czechoslovakia has created new problems for the Romany minority in both newly-formed countries. Since 1992, Czech society has been increasingly apprehensive about mass migration of Roma from Slovakia to the Czech Republic. This fear persists despite a sociological study completed in Summer 1992, which found that no concentrated migrations to the Czech part of the country had appeared until that time among the Slovak Roma.
In both the Czech Republic and Slovakia, responses of local authorities to increasing crime and social unrest have led to the passing of local regulations and decrees which embody a peculiar kind of discrimination against minorities. These regulations have disproportionately affected Roma. After the dissolution of the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic, some of its residents automatically acquired Slovak citizenship, even though they were born in the Czech Republic, had been living there for a long time, and had their places of permanent residence there (a condition accorded importance by the law). By this legal act they became aliens in their current homes and would have to apply for Czech citizenship if they wished. The procedures required were particularly difficult for the Roma, who were handicapped most seriously by the condition that citizenship could be obtained only by a person without a record of criminial activity in the previous five years. This five-year limit is equal to the requirements in other countries for refugees who have never had citizenship rights there. It was not so difficult to acquire Slovak citizenship: everyone who had a permanent residence in the Slovak Republic before dissolution of the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic became a Slovak citizen.
Another example of these decrees was the so-called Jirkov Decree of December 3, 1992, which empowered that municipality to dislocate persons from their residences without a judicial order or other legal action or court decision primarily because of violations of norms and regulations for hygiene. This would surely have facilitated and simplified the process of getting rid of "unadaptables", predominantly the Roma. Jirkov's representatives were asked for the text of their decree by their colleagues from several other northern Czech towns (e.g. Ustí on Laba, Chomutov, Most, etc.).
These events inspired the proposal of an extraordinary anti-immigration bill in the Czech Parliament, which in many aspects went further than the local decree of Jirkov; e.g. it instructed citizens to contact a registration office if they wished to accommodate in their flats persons without permanent residences of their own, while police officers and other qualified persons would have been entitled to enter homes and inspect them. Ultimately, the bill was not passed in the Czech Parliament, but had been discussed; this fact alone clearly expresses the negative attitude toward the Roma. The Romany Civic Initiative lodged a protest, but this did not prevent the occurrence of several instances in which Roma citizens were forced by police officers to relocate to Slovakia with their families.
A similar tendency has developed among local state organs in Slovakia as well. In Spisské Podhradie, a small town in Eastern Slovakia with a high concentration of Roma, the Mayor signed a decree in July 1993 which explicitly denied the Roma and other "suspicious" persons of certain basic rights. Allegedly an attempt to reduce Romany criminality, this decree was contradicted not only the Slovak Constitution but also international civil rights standards. Although the National Council condemned and abolished the decree the next week, before it could go into effect (two weeks were necessary), comparable measures were taken by the government: the police presence in Spisské Podhradie was increased. Many other mayors had agreed with the original decree and had wished to use it, had it not been found unconstitutional.
Similarly, on August 7, 1993, in a televised interview, the mayor of the town of Kezmarok stated that city police would be empowered to require Roma to show identification documents at any time in any place. He was asked, "What measures would be used, hypothetically, if someone's documents were not in conformity with the law?" He answered, "for example, permission [would be granted the police] to detain suspected Roma criminals for 2-3 days for examination; if the Roma were given welfare, they should do some work for public purposes, etc.".
The affair was also complicated by an implicitly anti-Roma statement made by former Slovak Prime Minister Meciar at a meeting with local representatives in Spisské Podhradie in early September. He talked about socially unadaptable persons, but everybody knew he meant the Roma. Indeed, there is general anti-Roma sentiment among Slovak officials at all levels. The mass media carry a similar bias and suggest few specific solutions except reinforcing the police presence in these regions. Ironically, an all-powerful police was also a primary tool of the previous totalitarian regime.
It is apparent that in general people in Slovakia, even those elected as local representatives, are not aware of their human and civic rights. They do not understand what measures are acceptable, what are appropriate attitudes, or what kinds of behavior lead to racial prejudice.
Ideally, the problems of the Roma and other minorities should be solved on regional and community levels. It is essential to create mechanisms for constant consultation between communities' leaderships and minority representatives and organizations. Solutions to the problems of a region's minorities must be integrated with that region's overall development. Ideally, the central government should create effective administrative and judicial mechanisms to remedy discriminatory acts against Roma and other minorities. Furthermore, it should provide services to the regions to help them more comprehensively integrate the development of Roma and other minority communities. Without a more decentralized approach to regional development (e.g. a better-functioning banking system to provide loans, more local authority in real rather than formal terms), even the most well-intentioned local governments will be unable to seriously address these problems.
Klara Orgovanova, a Slovak psychologist, was a member of a Roma delegation hosted in the U.S. by the Project on Ethnic Relations (PER) in Princeton, N.J. Other members of the delegation included Nicolae Gheorghe, a Romanian sociologist and Coordinating Secretary of the Federation of Roma in Romania; and Andrzej Mirga, President of the Roma Association in Poland. His report, entitled, "Roma Ethnopolitics", describes conditions for the Roma in Poland. It was also delivered to the Congressional Subcommittee and is available from the ECEP.
Revitalizing Psychology in Romania In March 1993, we travelled to Romania for an initial assessment. We visited the three major Psychology Departments, housed at the state universities of Bucharest, Iasi, and Cluj. A small and fairly new Department exists at the University of Timisoara, and Programs in Psychology can be found at other state universities, such as those at Sibiu and Brasov, but those at Bucharest, Iasi, and Cluj are unquestionably the most important in the country. Together they will produce approximately 225 psychologists each year.
The three Departments differ substantially in educational philosophy, involvement of faculty in teaching and research, and resources. The Psychology Department at the University of Iasi is the smallest and has the fewest resources of the three. It admits 40 students a year and has a faculty of 18. Its chair, Prof. Dr. Adrian Neculau, has firm control over the Department and is an important figure in the University, serving on its five-member Governing Board. He is a social psychologist with a strong interest in social representations and plans a graduate program in the theory of social representation. Neculau has strong connections with pre-eminent practitioners of this style of psychology, especially Serge Moscovici of the Graduate Faculty. The Department has a small computer network; a library with few, if any recent books on Cognitive Psychology; and severe space limitations, which hampers growth.
The Psychology Department at the University of Cluj was shaped in the 1950's by an experimental psychologist who studied in America under the auspices of a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship. As a consequence, it has consistently maintained an experimental approach to psychology. It currently admits approximately 60 students a year and has a faculty of 15 full-time members. The Department chair, Prof. Dr. Radu, is a social psychologist firmly committed to the growth of experimental psychology. The library has arranged for donations of several journals published by the American Psychological Association (APA) and has made a concerted effort to purchase Cognitive Psychology books with their limited funds. The Department has a computer lab open to students. Its Clinical Program received a large TEMPUS grant (from the E.U.). The grant has allowed this program to build a laboratory comparable to those found in the West.
The Psychology Department at the University of Bucharest is the largest in the country, with faculty of 13 full-time members and 12 part-time members. At present, they admit 90 students a year. The Department library subscribes to only one psychology journal, The American Psychologist, and has no money to purchase new books. We could not inspect the central library; after it was destroyed in the rioting of 1989, its collection was housed outside of Bucharest. Consequently, until the library can be rebuilt, its collection remains effectively inaccessible. The Department has a computer network, but limited laboratory space. Our impression was that space was a scarcer resource at Bucharest than at any other institution we visited.
Several observations hold for all three of the University Departments. First, all the Departments have five-year undergraduate programs, although Cluj is considering conversion to a standard American four-year program, with an optional five-year Masters degree. The programs are class-intensive, with students attending class 30-35 hours a week. Given the limited availability of photocopying, library resources, and free time, students do not have lengthy reading assignments, as they would in the U.S., nor must they write thoroughly researched papers. Rather, their efforts are concentrated on passing an examination (usually oral) given at the end of the semester, which basically tests the material covered in the classroom. In Romania, there are no formal graduate programs along the American model. Students interested in a Ph.D must sit for three exams and complete a dissertation. There is no structured classwork. Most candidates for the degree are already employed full-time, often as the junior faculty of the institution in which they are seeking their Ph.D.
Second, all the Departments have more faculty slots available to them than they can presently fill. The teaching requirements associated with these slots are currently met with adjuncts or the "doubling up" of the current faculty members' responsibilities. Iasi, Cluj, and Bucharest do not want to rush into hiring; they want to bide their time and select the "best and the brightest." Nevertheless, this employment opportunity means that the departments will hire many young psychologists in the next few years. In Romania, people do not move from institution to institution during their careers. New faculty are selected from the brightest undergraduates. Thus, it is quite possible to have a dramatic effect on the character of a department by assisting in the intellectual growth of undergraduates who have been targeted by the faculty as possible junior appointments.
Third, the present understaffing creates a major problem for junior faculty. They often must take a double or triple load so that the Department can meet its teaching requirements. A major reason for faculty's willingness to increase their teaching load is that they do not earn enough from a single appointment to live. In order to support a family, a faculty member must hold at least two full-time jobs, or 24 (and sometimes 30) teaching hours a week. This excessive teaching load means that most junior faculty find it impossible to engage in an intensive research project. The administrators that we talked to recognize that this heavy teaching load is a problem, but hope that as more full-time faculty are hired, the situation will become less onerous. The administrators are, however, unable to say how faculty could live on the single salary they would receive once the hiring is complete.
Fourth, as might be expected after 15 years of interdiction, faculty have difficulty remaining current with the literature. Courses often are "read" from notes developed before the interdiction. Students have the vague feeling that their instruction is not up to international standards and sorely want more rigor in the classroom. We should note in this regard that the students seem quite able and would no doubt respond admirably to whatever demands were placed on them. They were incredibly eager to learn and were extremely willing to work hard.
On the basis of these observations, we developed several programs aimed at addressing some of the deficiencies we observed. Several programs initiated and/or funded from the McDonnell Foundation grant include a visiting and exchange teachers program, a visiting scholars program, a library development program, a publishing support program, a research Fellowship program, a Romanian psychology conference, and an equipment purchasing program. We plan to pursue each of these programs throughout the grant period. In addition, we will continue to involve other foundations, such as the Soros Foundation, in our work.
Further details on the proposed revitalization programs for Romanian psychology can be requested from Professor William Hirst,Chair of the Graduate Faculty's Department of Psychology. David Manier is a doctoral student in the Department.
An Old University Reborn In 1817, however, the Kiev-Mohyla Academy was closed by edict of the Russian Czar and was reopened two years later as the Kiev Theological Academy. During the Soviet regime the site was to become the Higher Political School of the Soviet Navy.
Only after Ukraine gained its independence in 1991, was the Kiev-Mohyla Academy reopened as an independent international university--the UMKA--and the first non-governmental school of higher education in Ukraine. In 1992, the first 228 students were enrolled.
Today the Kiev-Mohyla Academy strives to become a Western-style university, while maintaining its strongest national educational and cultural traditions. Its goal is to train world-class professionals who can ensure the political, economic and cultural development of Ukraine and the integration of the country into the community of developed nations. The educational programs are based largely on the principles of a liberal arts education. Professors enjoy the freedom to choose their curricula, forms and methods of teaching. Students are free to plan their course of study and to choose an extensive number of elective courses. In fact, many of them come to the UKMA after successfully completing 1-3 years of study at other universities. Courses are taught in both Ukrainian and English.
At present, there are three faculties at the UKMA: the Faculty of Humanities (history, philosophy, cultural studies, and religion), the Faculty of Social Sciences (economics, sociology, political science), and the Faculty of Natural Sciences (ecology, radiology, biology, physics). In addition, the UKMA has a publishing center, museum, gallery of fine arts, library and computer center.
As with every new institution, the UKMA is faced with many challenges: inadequate financial resources, lack of administrative experience and an hostile external environment. However, the library's holdings do number over 100, 000 volumes, many of which are not available at other libraries in Ukraine.
In general, the University can pride itself on more advantages than shortcomings. The UKMA is independent of the still heavily centralized Ministry of Education of Ukraine. The Academy's International Advisory Board consists of such prominent figures as Z. Brzezinski and G. Shevelov (USA), B. Hawrylyshyn (Switzerland); R. Pietsch (Germany), J. Los (Poland), and others. Much of the success achieved by the UKMA can be attributed to its dynamic and talented rector, Viacheslav Brioukhovetsky.
The UKMA is striving to become, like its famous Akademia predecessor, a true educational and scientific center of Ukraine and an equal partner of leading European and American universities. Initial linkages were established with the New School's President Jonathan Fanton and Professor José Casanova during their Summer 1993, visit.
Alexander Pavliuk, a Senior Lecturer at the UKMA, is currently a Fellow at the Kennan Institute in Washington, D.C. He took part in our 1992 Summer Institute in Cracow.
The following report was delivered on April 14, 1994, at a hearing before the U.S. Congressional Committee on Foreign Affairs; Subcommittee on International Security, International Organizations, and Human Rights.
WORKING GROUP ON NATIONALITY
AND DIVERSITYThe participants in the working group on nationality and ethnicity were: Aristide Zolberg, Professor of Political Science at the New School for Social Research, New York; Ira Katznelson, Professor of Political Science at the New School for Social Research, New York; Martin Butora and Zora Butorová, Center for Social Analysis, Bratislava, Slovakia; Alex Grigorievs, Center for A Free Press, Riga, Latvia; Gabor Hamza, Professor of Law, Law Faculty of the University of Budapest (ELTE), Hungary; Marcin Król, editor of Res Publica and Professor at Warsaw University; Igor Barsegian, ethno-sociologist from the Armenian Academy of Sciences and Fulbright Fellow at the CUNY Graduate Center, New York.
The discussion of the meeting focussed on four issues: liberal political theory, analytical templates, the utilization and representation of history, and case studies.
Multiculturalism, ethnic pluralism, and difference challenge the liberal political tradition based upon tolerance and individual rights. Faced with this challenge, how can modern liberalism deal with ethnic, cultural, national difference? Liberal doctrine, from the start, has valued religious toleration, at least for Christians, but liberalism's views about deep diversity, minority status, nationalism and nationality, and more, broadly, incommensurable moral systems and ways of life are very diverse. The discussion of the working group focused upon three issues facing modern liberalism:
1) who is eligible to be a citizen of a liberal order, and at what price?
2) what does toleration mean, and how can we avoid the implicit heirarchy of accomodation?
3) to what extent does a tradition which is rights-based find a place for "group categories"?
Rather than viewing overlapping issues of ethnic, national, racial, linguisitic, and cultural difference as the same, the group attempted to sort out different typologies of majority-minority situations. The discussion centered on the uniqueness of various configurational approaches: large minorities within a polity such as the examples of Latvia and Estonia; language minorities which are part of a dominant majority elsewhere such as Hungarians in Slovakia or Romania; diaspora communities such as the Armenian diaspora and the situation of the Roma in Eastern Europe. The discussion focuses upon institutional arrangments such as schools, privileges, rights, and public policies in different majority-minority situations.
The working group briefly considered constructions of usable history, various inventions of national and ethnic tradition, and utilization of history aimed at the reinforcement of group solidarities, majority-minority relations, justification of claims, and resolution of conflicts.
In concluding the day's meetings, members of the working group agreed to present case studies at the Democracy Conference in Stupava: the absence of nationalism in Poland (Marcin Król); the situation of Hungarians in neighboring countries (Gabor Hamza); issues of citizenship in Latvia (Alex Grigorievs); Hungarian-Slovak dialogue in Slovakia (Martin Burtora and Zora Butorová); Armenian diaspora (Igor Barsegian). Ira Katznelson and Aristide Zolberg will also circulate a discussion paper identifying seminar issues.
Siobhan Kattago is a doctoral student in the GF, a member of the Nationality and Diversity Working Group, and an assistant to the Democracy Seminar.
DEMOCRACY SEMINARMay 28: 9:00-1:00 p.m.
Political Parties and Party Systems in East and Central Europe
The Return of the Left in East and Central Europe (Andrew Arato,
USA)
Commentators: Ciprian Tripon, Romania; Andras Kovacs, Hungary; Andras Tapolcai, Hungary; Marius-Povilas Saulauskas, Lithuania; Taras Vozniak, Ukraine; Sona Szomolanynova, Slovakia; Milos Ziak, Slovakia; Pavel Demes, Slovakia; Werner Patzelt, Germany; Renata Salecl, Slovenia; Jacek Kurczewski, Poland.
May 28: 3:30-6:30 p.m.
Religion and the Public Sphere
Religion and Democracy in Post- Communist Societies (Jose Casanova, USA)
Commentators: Marcin Krol, Poland; Edmund Mokrzycki, Poland; Rumyana Kolorava, Bulgaria; Daniel Pastircak, Slovakia; Ulrich Preuss, Germany; Jeffrey Goldfarb, USA; Alexander Smolar, Poland; Elzbieta Matynia, USA.
May 29: 9:00-1:00 p.m.
Nationality and Diversity: Challenges to Liberalism and Democracy
Nationality and Diversity (Aristide Zolberg and Ira Katznelson, USA)
Commentators: Marcin Krol, Poland; Gabor Hamza, Hungary; Virgis Valentinavicius, Lithuania; Yaroslav Hrytsak, Ukraine; Martin Butora, Slovakia; Tatiana Rosova, Slovakia; Milan Zemko, Slovakia; Vladimir Muller, Czech Republic; Petra Schellenberger, Germany; Ivan Vejvoda, Yugoslavia.
May 29 3:30-6:30 p.m.
Smaller meetings of the respective Working Groups for the further planning of their collaborative research projects.
COMMITTEE ON THE STUDY OF DEMOCRACYSOCI 131 Democratic Theory (3 cr.)
Andrew Arato
The course will present the philosophical and historical foundations of the main concepts of democratic theory. After exploring the contrast between normative and empirical theory, we will present major modern and contemporary models of representative and direct democracy. Among the key concepts examined will be representation, citizenship, parliamentarianism, federalism, public sphere, civil and political society, economic democracy, associations and pluralism, rule of law, fundamental rights, and constitutionalism and judicial review. We will pay considerable attention to the relationship of democracy to revolutions and constitution making. We will read works of both classical and contemporary authors.
SOCI200 Democracy Proseminar: Post-Communism: Paradoxes of Roads Towards Freedom (3 cr.)
Adam Michnik
This proseminar will continue the work of our older Democracy Seminar, but will focus on the on-going work of our advanced students, faculty, and visitors. Our first theme will be the relationship of intellectuals to the public sphere.
SOCI206 Tutorial: East and Central Europe (1.5 cr.)
Andrew Arato & Elzbieta Matynia
These tutorials will have a workshop character, and are designed to introduce students in the Committee to the politics and society of areas of the world with which they are insufficiently familiar, from the point of view of democratization and problems of established democracies. The student-led, faculty-supervised tutorial will be offered each semester.
The Committee's courses are administered by the New School Admissions and Registration offices. Call 212/229-5620 for more information.
Going Home To Poland: Some Farewell
ThoughtsStudying at the New School has meant being exposed to and participating in the life of an American university. Not only could one write a dissertation on the differences between the Polish and American systems of education, but the Graduate Faculty itself is a very unique place. I was continually impressed by the incredible diversity of the student body. Sharing classes with people of from college age to seventy-years old reaffirmed for me that all ages offer versatile and distinct experiences.
The different styles of teaching, and especially the amount and intensity of discussions between professors and students, was also quite striking. I was lucky enough to have studied at the Faculty of History (Warsaw University), which had been reformed during the Solidarity period. Students there were encouraged to engage in intense discussions, too, but we were very similar in terms of age; city of origin (Warsaw); and intellectual, social, and political backgrounds. As fruitful and useful as our discussions were for our generation and education, they would sound pretty flat compared to what one might hear at 65 Fifth Avenue.
The hierarchical structure of student-professor relations, or rather the lack of it, is also quite striking. This affects both social and scholarly student-faculty relations. At the GF, however, people often address each other by their first names and don't worry much about status differences. Students' ideas are taken seriously; a good professor would never tell a student: "You are wrong; believe me, I know better." Instead, either might say, "You are wrong", but will then spell out their argument to challenge the other to think through their claims.
These three years were such a positive and enriching experience that it's difficult to find the proper words to both express my feelings and to thank all the people I have met while being here.
Justyna Duriasz was a Katarzyna Kalwinska Fellow at the GF and was an active member of the ECEP. We thank her for her invaluable assistance over the past three years and look forward to working with her in the future.
NOTESIN MARCH:
Tuesday, March 29
l Ambassador Warren Zimmerman, recent Director of the Bureau for Refugee Programs, U.S. State Department, spoke on The State Department's Role in U.S. Foreign Policy Making.
IN APRIL:
Monday, April 4
l Prof. Marcin Król, Institute of Applied Social Sciences, Warsaw University, and Editor-in-Chief of Res Publica, spoke on The Realm of the Political in the New Democracies.
Monday, April 18
l Three Roma leaders from the region: Nicolae Gheorghe, a Romanian sociologist; Klara Orgovanova, a Slovak psychologist; and Andrzej Mirga, an ethnographer from Poland; spoke on Political Transition and the Roma in Eastern Europe.
Wednesday, April 27
l Prof. Dimitar Ivanov, Chair, Dept. of Political Theory, Sofia University, spoke at the New York Democracy Seminar on Democratization in Bulgaria?
IN MAY:
Monday, May 2
l AICA (International Association of Art Critics)-USA Section held their annual meeting (open to the public), Rising From the Rubble: Getting a Critical Foothold on the New Artworld in the U.S. and Eastern and Western Europe.
Tuesday, May 3
l Prof. Elena Michailovska, Chair, Dept. of Sociology, Sofia Univ., spoke on Biographical Challenges and Collective Memory in Post-Communist Bulgarian Society (1989-1993).
Wednesday, May 11
l Konstanty Gebert, journalist from Warsaw, spoke at the New York Democracy Seminar on Bosnia: Another Holcaust?: On the Conintuity of Mass Murder.
World Policy Journal's Policy
ForumThe rationale for the project arose from the recognition that democracy depends upon an active public policy debate, which in turn is dependent upon the growth and development of independent policy analysts. In the recent past, policy analysis in Central and Eastern Europe was tightly controlled by the Communist Party, particularly in such vital areas as the economy, regional security, and government institution. And now, many of those who might be in a position to contribute to this debate--those with expertise in the organization of market economies, constitutionalism and civil society, and international relations--are themselves in government.
As a result, there is a dearth of young policy-oriented scholars and leaders capable of sustaining a debate that lays out the main policy options. Beginning with the Fall 1994 issue, the WPI's quarterly, the World Policy Journal, will address this problem by providing a forum for those younger voices; a series of special sections will be devoted exclusively to key aspects of the transitions to democracy in Central and Eastern Europe, one on each of the following issues: security, economic reform, constitutionalism, and ethnic and nationalist conflict. Writers from the region will be predominantly featured.
In conjunction with publication of the special section of the Journal, the Institute will conduct workshops in the region, which will bring together local analysts and policy makers with several of their American and Western European counterparts. In addition to encouraging debate among Journal contributors, the workshops will provide assistance with the preparation of articles for American and East European audiences.
The project, therefore, will work toward the following outcomes:
1) To nurture younger policy analysts and independent policy institutes in the region and to strengthen communication and ties among them;
2) To broaden the debate in the region as well as in the U.S. and Western Europe on critical transition issues, with particular emphasis on Western support of greater regional cooperation;
3) To elevate the importance of the transition in the overall U.S. foreign policy debate.
The World Policy Institute is an educational and public policy institute engaged in policy research and public education on critical world problems and U.S. international policy.
For more information, contact Katharine Cornell, Senior Fellow and Project Coordinator, at 212/229-5808.
Meeting
Meetings were held this Spring with:
Mihran Abgabian, President, American University in Armenia; Rafael
Matevossian, Pro-Rector, Yerevan State University; Edward Magrarian,
Dean, Faculty of Philosophy, Sociology and Psychology, Yerevan State University;
Albert
Naltchadjian, social psychologist, Armenian Academy of Sciences;
Armen
Khanbabian, editor-in-chief, Respublika Armenia; Dimitar
Ivanov, Chair, Dept. of Political Science, Sofia University; Elena
Michailovska, Chair, Dept. of Sociology, Sofia University; Andrzej
Mirga, ethnographer, Jagiellonian University, and President of The
Roma Association in Poland; Karen Greenberg, Director, Consortium
for Academic Partnership, Central European University; Svetlana Slapstak,
Director, Institutum Studiorum Humanitatis, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia;
Alex
Grigorievs, Chair, Center for A Free Press, Riga, Latvia; Prof.
Marcin Król, Graduate School for Social Science, Warsaw, and
Editor-in-Chief of Res Publica.
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