Democracy Fellowships Program

The Pew Charitable Trusts Democracy II Fellowships, 1995 -1998

The Democracy Fellowships II grant (awarded in 1995 by The Pew Charitable Trusts and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation) enables us to bring to the Graduate Faculty annually for three consecutive years 7 junior instructors from the region, for intensive - substantive and curricular - training. The program concentrates on improving educational and research capacity in the general fields of political science, political sociology, and economics, with a special focus on the areas of public policy, government administration, and economic policy. The three semester-long Program provides the Fellows with the opportunity to develop,, in conjunction with GF faculty, a new course at the Graduate Faculty during the first two semesters. Each Fellow will then teach this new course upon their return at his or her home institution in the third semester.

Our Fellows are asked to attend courses which inform their chosen topics, and are presenters in our Policy Workshop. The Workshop last year was on general policy issue whereas this year's Workshop specifically deals with issues concerning the Media. In addition, they are asked to contribute to our Electonic Research Resource Handbook which is coordinated by David Perry of the Raymond Fogelman Library of the New School.
 

Fellowship Recipients, 1995 - 1996

Darius Aidukas (Vilnius, Lithuania) Mr. Aidukas is a 1993 Faculty of Law graduate at the University of Vilnius, and is currently a researcher at the Institute of International Relations and Political Science at the same university. He has taught courses on political theory and public policy at the University of Vilnius.

Pavel Fedorchenko (Kiev, Ukraine) Ph.D., Sociology, Kiev State University of Economics, 1994. M.A., Sociology and Political Science, Kiev State University of Economics, 1993. Mr. Fedorchenko is currently an Assistant Professor at Kiev-Mohyla Academy. He has worked at the Institute of Public Administration and Local Government, and is enrolled in their Master of Public Administration Program.

Dionyz Hochel (Bratislava, Slovakia) M.A., History and Philosophy, Comenius University, 1991. He is an Assistant Lecturer in the Political Science Department at Trnava University and is presently pursuing his doctoral studies at the same university. Mr. Hochel has co-taught a course on political ideology with our colleague Martin Butora. He has also studied under a T. G. Masaryk scholarship at the London School of Economics and at the Center for Civil Education in Los Angeles.

Mariela Vargova (Sofia, Bulgaria) M.A., Political Science, Sofia University. Ms. Vargova is currently a Ph.D. candidate and her dissertation is entitled "Constitutional Theory and Comparative Analysis in Eastern European Countries." She is also involved in a program of the Law Department at Sofia University.

Fellowship Recipients, 1996 - 1997

Andrew Klepikov (Kiev, Ukraine) Ph.D., Philosophy, Kiev Mohyla Academy, 1996. Mr. Klepikov is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Kiev Mohyla Academy. He plans to use the fellowship to prepare two courses, one on political institutions, and one on political discourse and the public sphere, both topics which he considers essential to the democratization process in Ukraine.

Boris Kostov (Bourgas, Bulgaria) M.A., Political Science, Sofia University, 1995. Mr. Kostov is presently a Ph.D. student at Sofia University, and is a Cracow alumnus. His primary research concerns the problems of European political integration and the wider implications of this process for global politics.

Anna Laido (Tallinn, Estonia) Post-graduate student, University of Tartu. Ms. Laido, another Cracow alumnus, also has experience at the Estonian Parliament, as a Secretary of a Parliamentary Faction of the Estonian Parliament, and has worked as a specialist for the Department of Foreign Relations. Her research interests concern educational and non-profit management issues.

Michal Vasecka (Bratislava, Slovakia) M.A., Sociology, Masaryk University, Brno, 1995. Mr. Vasecka teaches Public Policy Analysis at Academia Istropolitana, and is a Program Manager and Legal Advisor to INFOROMA, an NGO which aims to advocate on behalf of the Roma in Slovakia, and which is working for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Fellowship Recipients, 1997 - 1998

Halina Lemekh (Lviv, Ukraine). Ph.D. candidate, Philosophy and German, Lviv State University.  While completing her degree at Lviv State University, Ms. Lemekh has also been a Lecturer in English at its Faculty of International Relations. She has embarked on a dissertation which is entitled “Problems of Development of Non-Governmental Organizations in Transition States” and places special emphasis on the situation of Ukraine. She is developing a course while at the New School on civil society in East-Central Europe, with special emphasis on Ukraine.

Stanimir Kiskinov(Sofia, Bulgaria) Ph.D., Political Science, Sofia University, 1996. Mr. Kiskinov is a Lecturer in the Department of Public Administration at the New Bulgarian University and a Cultural Affairs Assistant at the American Embassy in Sofia. His Ph.D. dissertation was entitled “The Theater of Politics: Conceptual, Structural, and Situational Analysis of the Public Political Sphere.” While at the New School, Mr. Kiskinov hopes to explore this topic further, analyzing in particular the relationship between political theory and public policy institutions.

Jolanta Palidauskaite (Kaunas, Lithuania) Ph.D., Sociology, Kaunas University, 1996. Ms. Palidauskaite is a faculty member of the Public Administration Department of the Faculty of Administration at Kaunas University. Ms. Palidauskaite’s dissertation, entitled “The Development of Lithuanian Political Culture during the Re-establishment and Strengthening of Independence” was concerned with the development of political culture in Lithuania since the thirteenth century, concentrating particularly on the post-Cold War period. She will prepare two courses during her Fellowship year, one on Political Sociology, and another entitled Government, Mass Media, and the Public.

Andrej Skolkay (Bratislava, Slovakia) Ph.D. candidate, Political Science, Comenius University. M.A., Journalism, Comenius University, 1992. Mr. Skolkay is the founder and editor of  IQ Magazine, and has taught courses on politics and the media at Comenius University, Trnava University, and Academia Istropolitana. He was also a long-distance presenter in our Media, Politics, and Policy On-Line Workshop last year. His present research centers around the relationship between the media and politics in  Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland.
 
 

Andrew W. Mellon Democracy II Fellowships

 Fellowship Recipients, 1995 - 1996

Magda Iwanska (Warsaw, Poland) M.A., Warsaw University, Department of Sociology of Custom and Law, where she wrote a thesis on the "Birth of the Homosexual Movement in Poland". Ms. Iwanska also teaches courses on democratic institutions, human rights, and is interested in social minority rights at the Institute of Applied Social Sciences at Warsaw University.

Gábor Juhász (Budapest, Hungary) Master of Laws, Eötvös Loránd University, 1992, M.A., Policy Studies, University of Edinburgh, 1993. Mr. Juhász is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Policy of Eötvös Loránd University, where he is also a doctoral candidate. His dissertation is entitled "On the Effectiveness of Law in the Field of Social Policy."

Fellowship Recipients, 1996 - 1997

Malgorzata Gajda (Warsaw, Poland) M.A., English, University of Warsaw, 1993. She is a post-graduate student at the North American Studies Center of Lodz University and has taught courses on American culture in the English Department, University of Warsaw, where she has also been accepted as a Ph.D. student. Her research interests center around the representation of women in the media.

Agnes Kende (Budapest, Hungary) M.A., Sociology, Eotvos Lorand University, 1996. Ms. Kende is also the Executive Director of the Hungarian Federation of Free Radios, and has taught courses on national identity and cultural anthropology. Her research interests focuses on the situation of the Roma in Hungary and the integration of racial minorities within majoritarian state frameworks.

Fellowship Recipients, 1997 - 1998

Iva Krizova (Brno, Czech Republic). Ph.D. student, Sociology, Masaryk University. Ms. Krizova is a doctoral student at the Department of Sociology of Masaryk University in Brno. While at the New School, her academic focus was on public policy and gender studies. She was particularly interested in examining the ways that gender issues have been formulated in public policy debates in the United States in the hopes of finding useful models for considering policy issues in the Czech Republic.

Roza Vajda (Budapest, Hungary). M.A., Anthropology and English, Eotvos Lorand University, 1995. Ms. Vajda is currently conducting research on the cultural and political organizations of Hungarian Roma and is seeking to analyze processes of “tradition-making.” She developed a course on civil society institutions and ethnopolitics, using a cross-comparative perspective drawing on the American and Hungarian cases.