May 16, 2012

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Returning to the Old New World or the New Old World? Ludmila Shtern Discusses her New Book.

December 9, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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Ludmila Shtern

Ludmila Shtern

Ludmila Shtern, scholar at the Women’s Studies Research Center at Brandeis University and published author, presented her new book Return to the Old New World at the WSRC early in November. The book is currently in manuscript in Russian and is sitting on the desk of a Russian publisher in Moscow. The volume summarizes Shtern’s observations of the changes that have taken place in Russia since the demise of the Soviet Union. She has collected a number of stories and experiences spanning from 1990-2010, during which period she has been to Russia twelve times.

Shtern was born in Leningrad in the Soviet Union (now Saint Petersburg in Russia). She emigrated to the US in 1976 with her family and has lived in the US since then. She did not return to Russia until 1990. Given these circumstances her views on Russia have changed somewhat as she has gained a new lens to observe her home country. Her recollections have been shaped by her Russian heritage as well as by her American perspective; this combination brings highly interesting and complex contrasts to her writing.

Shtern’s very well received previous book about the Nobel Prize-winning Russian poet Joseph Brodsky has made her a recognizable figure in Russian literature, which has led to invitations to many well-known events and locations. Her last trip to Russia was filled with such important literary events. These stories of spectacular events and meetings with celebrated figures in Russian literature were the focus of her presentation.  In her speech, Shtern spoke about one experience in particular, which she added to her book as the final chapter, giving the meaning of the title of the book a slight twist. In this chapter, she discusses the tumultuous week she spent in St. Petersburg on her last visit to Russia. She had been invited to an international gathering commemorating Brodsky in St. Petersburg. Highly suspicious events took place at this event and for the rest of her stay in St. Petersburg, which Shtern summarized in an intriguing fashion. Her encounters and experiences of this week left her shaken up and uncertain of her opinion on modern Russia.

In Shtern’s story, told with great wit and suspense, she discusses her personal changes in attitude coming from America. She ended her presentation by acknowledging that in her eyes, Russia has not changed much even after all that has happened since 1990. Even though her book is entitled Return to the Old New World, her final chapter states that it really is a “Return to the New Old World.” In her writing, Shtern has captured her experiences confronting questionable behavior and a sense of distrust still remaining in Russian culture, hidden beneath the well advertised new face of Russia. Her captivating words and richly detailed account, engaged her audience fully, leaving nearly everyone personally invested in the story, which led to an enthusiastic discussion trying to solve the mystery of Shtern’s story. The group was forced to end it without finding a solution. The audience left  the presentation with puzzling questions still lingering in the room.

Filed Under: Alia Goldfarb, Authors, Blogs, Europe, Global Campus, Regions, Students

Award Winning German Author Martin Walzer Addresses Brandeis Students on the Complexities of Public Speaking

November 18, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Martin Walzer Feat

Martin Walzer

Last week at the Faculty Club, critically acclaimed German author Martin Walzer addressed students and faculty on the art of public speaking. Walzer, Born in 1927 and raised in Nazi Germany under the shadow of World War II, quickly became one of the most important authors of contemporary German literature. In fact, in 1955, “Group 47”, an influential German literary association seen as Germany’s moral compass, awarded Walser a prestigious prize for one of his stories. In 1998,  Walser was awarded the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade in 1998. During Walser’s acceptance speech, however,  he triggered a heated  debate on what to do with the German past, namely, Holocaust remembrance. His trip to the United States is part of the “do Deutsch” event series on German culture and language. The do Deutsch campaign aims to raise awareness among students and their parents, teachers of German and political decision makers as well as the media of the value of language learning.

After receiving flak for his 1998 acceptance speech, Walzer defended himself in his work “On Talking to Yourself: A Flagrant Attempt.” To explain his reasoning behind his speech, specifically, why he was so dissatisfied with German Holocaust remembrance, Walzer first defines two forms of public speaking: prepared addresses and spontaneous internal conversation. While the former is utilized to prove a point, the latter occurs when the speaker essentially “talks from the heart.” According to Walzer, it is the latter form of speech that is desirable and the former that is despicable. Conceptually, it seems a bit tacky to prepare a speech in advance to an unprepared audience.  Rather, the ideal form of public speaking is an unprepared and spontaneous speech. The speaker should talk as if having a dialogue with his or herself.  In other words, a “soliloquy” in which the audience is privy. In doing so, Walzer believes that the speaker is better able to communicate a message since spontaneity will flush out what the author truly thinks. On the other hand, rehearsed rhetoric often uses formalized phrases and fails to grasp the audience’s attention nearly as well as unprepared speech.

Thus, Walzer’s acceptance speech expressed frustration with the way Germans were reconciling with the past; primarily with leaders and politicians who employed ritualized Holocaust commemoration speeches. In doing so, Walzer felt that they were detracting from the German individual’s ability to reflect and come to terms with their own conscious. Walzer lashed out against those German public speakers, asserting, “There’s no chance of making yourself into a better person through righteous sentences, to serve the victims linguistically by casting convenient aspersions at the Germans, who either because of guilt or shame or even moral exhaustion can’t do it themselves any more” (Walzer, 114).

Therefore, Walzer felt that Holocaust remembrance speakers must refrain from using the often repeated language that is employed whenever Holocaust remembrance comes up and instead use “an unauthorized…unbaptized usage of language” (Walzer 116). By utilizing such “involuntary language,” the speaker is better equipped to remind the audience of their own experiences rather than make them feel as if they are the target of a rehearsed address.

Walzer meant to reform the way Holocaust commemoration was undertaken, not to do without it. It was this misinterpretation that prompted a national dialogue and compelled Walzer to defend himself publicly. And I think Walzer was just in bringing attention to the unfortunate way Holocaust remembrance speeches were taking the place of individual reflection. And I am convinced on his views of public speaking: I think he’s right in that an audience would rather prefer to hear a speaker talk from the heart than use formalized speech to prove a point. Whenever  a speaker or a lecturer rambles on from a prepared speech that was memorized, I always find myself dozing off or find myself hearing but not listening. On the other hand, when a speaker is unprepared I feel engaged and actually actively listen as opposed to passively hearing. I just wish Herr Walzer’s view on public speaking would reach the ears of some of the professors here at Brandeis. If your a professor and half of the class is falling asleep and the other half giving you blank stares, its probably because your rambling a rehashed speech you gave last semester. Instead, why not try to mix it up so it doesn’t become routine and boring?

 

 

 

Filed Under: Authors, Blogs, Europe, Global Campus, Nahum Gilliat, Regions, Students

Heller School “Tuesday Talks” Lecture Series Presents: Global Health Spending: Learning to Do More With Less

November 8, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Global Health Feat

Professor Allyala Krishna Nandakumar

Last week, Professor Allyala Krishna Nandakumar presented a lecture titled, “Global Health Spending: Learning to Do More with Less. ” The lecture was one of a series known as “Tuesday Talks,” a lecture series held by the Heller School for Social Policy and Management. The lecture room was fully attended by faculty, staff,  students, and alumni who came to hear Nandakumar explain the problems with our global health spending, namely, that we need to spend the funds we have more efficiently.

The world spends about 5 trillion on health a year. While this enormous amount has only increased over the past decade, the rate of morbidity and mortality has not decreased at the rate one would expect if such funds and technology are available. For instance, since 1990, annual child mortality decreased by 30%. Yet still, 8.8 million children died in 2008. This unfortunate disparity, according to a World Bank  assessment, is the result of poorly managed projects and an inefficient allocation of funds. Moreover, many of these projects share similar characteristics: negligible monitoring and evaluation, inadequate supervision, lack of baseline data for which to set realistic targets, and insufficient political or institutional analysis to name a few.

To complicate matters, the majority of donor funds go to Third World countries where corrupt governments misuse them.  Since 2008, however, the majority of donations have been channeled through NGO’s or non-governmental organizations in order to offset the rampant corruption.

Another complication is that low-come countries are often dependent on donor funds from high-income countries. This dependency is very dangerous for a state since donor funds are volatile and therefore unsustainable. This is especially disconcerting because many low-income states substitute donor funding as the sole means for government health spending.  This dependency is also harmful because states receiving funds are not allowed to decide how to allocate funds: much of global health spending is “disease specific” in that donors typically donate for a specific cause such as HIV AIDS or malaria, and thus states who receive funds may not even be able to use them.

Another issue with global health spending is the unequal distribution of donors. Low-income countries, which compose 85% of the world’s population, only contribute 14.3% share of global health funds. Meanwhile, high-income countries, which compose 15% of the world’s population, contribute 82% of the global health spending. For instance, Ethiopia spends less than $10 per person on health; the US, nearly $7,300.  This places a burden on high-income countries such as the United States, to sustain the health programs of other countries. Surprisingly, while the United States is the leader in global health funding, the second largest source of funding comes not from a country but from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Where are countries like Britain, France, and Germany? This interesting fact shows that other high-income states aren’t pulling enough weight.

Evidently, there are many problems with our global health spending. It goes without saying that millions of people shouldn’t have to die every year from diseases that could have been cured or treated but weren’t due to rampant corruption and a host of problems in our global health spending. We have the funds, we just need to allocate them more efficiently. To remedy these problems, we can employ numerous measures: increase accountability and transparency of governments to combat corruption, ensure that funds reach beneficiaries directly to avoid waste, empower individuals with health vouchers, and reform the health care system. Only then can we prevent needless death and disease. For more information on global health spending, visit the World Health Organization online.

 

Filed Under: Africa, Authors, Blogs, Central Asia, East Asia, Europe, Global Campus, Latin America & the Caribbean, Middle East, Nahum Gilliat, Regions, South Asia, Students

Israeli Author Michal Govrin Shares her Story as the Daughter of a Holocaust Survivor

November 7, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Michallarge
Michal Govrin

Michal Govrin

Wednesday, October 26, Michal Govrin, an acclaimed Israeli Author, held a speech on her newest book “Hold on to the Sun.” The book is a collection of short stories and essays exploring her own wandering through life, finding her place and her relationship to her identity as the daughter of a Holocaust survivor.

Govrin’s beautiful words guided the audience through stories of her life and snippets of her newly translated book. She spoke of her mother, who had survived the Holocaust and how this influenced her youth in Israel. Govrin’s mother rarely spoke of her past in Europe and her life before the Holocaust. Yet, Govrin did learn of the most important events of her mother’s past and of her older half-brother, who had been murdered as a young boy during the Holocaust. It was only when Govrin lived in Paris studying at the University of Paris working towards her PhD that she realized there were “cracks in her existence,” which she felt the need to discover further. Being in Europe, so close to where her brother had died and so much of her mother’s past had occurred, she felt a deep connection to this specific part of her identity for the first time. Govrin revealed some of her innermost thoughts and feelings during this process of discovery and facing this sad chapter of her family’s history to the audience present at her presentation.

The stories and essays shed a new light on the Holocaust and its aftermath for individuals around the globe. Govrin’s captivating writing and powerful yet sensitive words describe a very unique experience of one Israeli woman and her path to discovering all the layers of persona, even the ones shaded by the darkest of past experiences. Govrin’s artistic approach aims to leave the reader moved and inspired to go out and find their own path and explore their own cracks in their own existence. Her open and honest presentation certainly left many in the audience with a sense of fascination and opened doors to one’s own path of self-discovery.

To read more about Michal Govrin and her presentation on her book “Hold on to the Sun”, visit The Hoot and The Justice.

Filed Under: Alia Goldfarb, Authors, Blogs, Europe, Global Campus, Israel, Middle East, Regions, Students

Secrets of the Aztecs, Mayans, and Romans Revealed at the Third Annual Archeology Symposium

October 21, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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Kate McMahon, University of Southern Maine

Last Friday, the Anthropology Department, as part of Massachusetts Archaeology Month, showcased its 3rd annual Archeology Symposium in Rapaporte Treasure Hall. At the event, archaeology graduate students from all over the northeast – Harvard University, University of Montreal, University of Southern Maine, as well as Brandeis – presented their research and laboratory analysis from their fieldwork.

Jeffrey Dobereiner, a Brandeis alum who graduated in 2009 and is now a second year graduate student at Harvard University, presented fascinating discoveries from his research in Mexico in which he explored the alternate segments of Aztec ethnicity. His presentation, titled “Multiscalar Identity in Archaeology: A Diachronic Perspective on Aztecs and Their Ancients 1300-1521,” showed how his analysis of Aztec iconography from the rise of the urban city center Tenochtitlan revealed a new Aztec identity category revolving around urban life.

The discoveries of Betsy Marzahn Ramos were equally as interesting. Ramos, a Brandeis graduate student, presented her findings from her excavations in Guatemala. Her presentation, “Preliminary Results for the Analysis of Sierra del Lacandon Ceramics”, documented how the stylistic differences in ancient Mayan ceramics were indicative of one’s political views. Ramos analyzed and contrasted ceramics from two rival Mayan cities: Yaxchilan and Pierdas Negras, finding distinct qualities in each. Ramos also showed how the ceramics excavated from cities and towns between the major rival cities indicated allegiance to either rival city. Ramos validated her findings be showing how cities closer to Yaxchilan had similar ceramic styles to those found at Yaxchilan and cities closer to Pierdas Negras also had similar ceramic styles to those found at Pierdas Negras. More importantly, those cities and towns in the middle exhibited ceramic styles of both major cities. Thus, a city with similar ceramic styles to Yaxchilan indicated that its community shared political viewpoints.

Natalie Sussman, a Brandeis graduate student, presented research from excavations in Italy and North Africa in which she uncovered an interesting fact about Roman life. Her presentation, titled “The Roman ‘Frantic Passion’ for Purple: A Geographic Analysis of the Murex Dye Industry from the late Roman Republican Period to Late Empire,” revealed how the Roman popular elite held a fascination for the color purple. In fact, wearing purple indicated wealth and prestige and therefore symbolized status. For instance, Roman senators were known to wear purple to symbolize their power. The senators would wear a toga that was a plain white wool toga with a purple stripe along the border. Even victorious generals sported entirely purple togas with gold embroidery. Purple dye was so sacred that it was even reserved for the emperor.  Sussman explained the popularization of purple at the time: “purple” tended to appear more like crimson, and the more expensive the dye (i.e. those worn by the emperor) would be the color of blood, suggestive of symbolism related to death and victory. Sussman’s excavation also uncovered imitation dye sites which she claims that it shows that desire to wear purple was so strong that even the poor were able to obtain imitation dye so they could dress in elite fashion.

Sussman emboldened her theory by finding a correlation between the number of dye production sites and Roman stability and prosperity. She showed that the number of dye production sites were at its peak during the Roman golden age or “Pax Romana” and declined during periods of Roman instability. Sussman therefore concluded with the most likely explanation and backbone of her theory: since purple dye was a luxury and only the wealth could afford it, it naturally declined during tough periods and increased during prosperity.

The 3rd Archeology Symposium was a fantastic event and a huge success. Each presentation allowed the audience to step back in time and surmise from the artifacts uncovered at excavations, what life was like for the great ancient societies, be it Mayans, Aztecs, or Romans. Upon closer examination, one finds that life isn’t as different today as it was then and that while the times have changed, the commonly expressed values and wants humans exhibit have not.

Filed Under: Authors, Blogs, Europe, Global Campus, Latin America & the Caribbean, Nahum Gilliat, Regions, Students

Reflections on a Mass Murder: Seventy Years after Babi Yar

October 13, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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Often cited as the largest single massacre of the Holocaust, the murder of 33,771 Jews between September 29 and 30 in 1941 at the Babi Yar ravine outside Kiev – subsequently used as a site for the killing of between 100,000 and 150,000 Ukrainians, Jews, Roma, and Soviet POWs in the following months – is of great significance not only in terms of its historical context of the Holocaust, but also in terms of the responses to the event after the fact.

Karel Berkhoff answers questions from the audience

In the first half of the symposium, the speakers dealt with the event by examining it through the lenses of the current level of knowledge about what happened prior to and during the main massacre from the 29th to 30th, as well as how it was discussed in Yiddish press in the following years and decades.  Professor Karel Berkhoff began the symposium, discussing the body of knowledge that is and is not known about events at Babi Yar. What is startling is both the amount known and the rareness of the sources. As he pointed out, the massacre from the 29th to the 30th virtually wiped out the entire Jewish population of Kiev, leaving very few survivors. As a result, very little is known about Jewish responses in the days leading to the massacre, as well as details of the event itself. The details that are known, perhaps in part because of their rareness, are remarkably clear synecdoche of the event, with two in particular standing out.

The first elicits not only a sense of the horror but also offers insight into the total number killed. He describes that from the testimony of one individual they now know that at a certain point the German soldiers took the identification papers from the Jews and burned them, coldly cementing the fact that they would not be surviving the day as well as complicating the assumption that because no papers were found in the site, the Germans must have saved them for more accurate records. The second is much smaller, but far greater in magnitude because of its specificity. It comes from recently found writings describing the night before the massacre, and the guilt and terror felt by parents that they had not taken their children away from the city and the impending events.

Professor Gennady Estraikh followed Berkhoff, but between the speakers two Brandeis students – David Benger ’14 and Daniel Shpolyansky ’14 – read the poem “I (Untitled)” by Ilya Ehrenburg (introducted by Professor ChaeRan Freeze). Read in both Russian and English, the poem vividly captured the horror and tragedy of the event, as well as dovetailed into a discussion of the ability to talk about the event in a public setting.  Through this poem of a survivor Freeze introduced the idea of Babi Yar as a symbol, with different meanings to all Soviet citizens, paving the way for further discussion regarding the treatment of the event as such.

Estraikh centered his talk around notions of resistance and Kiddush Hashem in relation to the events at Babi Yar. Kiddush Hashem is a Hebrew term meaning the sanctification of the name [of God], and in practice is a descriptor for any act by a Jew that brings honor or respect to God. In particular, the treatment of the massacre at Babi Yar and the actions of victims acted as a symbol for the ongoing issue of resistance and victimization. He specifically focused on Yiddish newspapers, and describes that within them very little attention was paid to the incident. He describes individual instances in the 1940s in which Babi Yar was either alluded to or outright mentioned in print and film, but in each case either discussion of the event was either so muted as to be unrecognizable or censored outright.

From the 1960s the notion of resistance came more into play. In one question, it was noted that some writings seemed to imply that the majority of those killed at Babi

Gennady Estraikh speaks on Babi Yar in the Yiddish press

Yar were women, children, and older individuals, in a sense trying to justify the seeming inability of people to make any form of resistance or fighting. His answer exemplified the problems with dealing with Babi Yar in the Soviet context. He described that at the time there were very public notions that in World War II Jews were, for the most part, hiding, and did not participate. Thus, there was a movement on the part of the community to show that this idea was fundamentally flawed, leading to a number of articles on the well established tradition of Jewish fighting and shying away from discussing circumstances in which no resistance was possible, like Babi Yar.

The first half of the event certainly opened the door for major discussions beginning from the events at Babi Yar but touching on issues far beyond. The research being done is astonishing, and given the short nature of the symposium is a great credit to the speakers that they were able to so eloquently convey their research, but also emphasizes the magnitude of research being done and yet to be done.

Filed Under: Ariana Hajmiragha, Authors, Blogs, Europe, Global Campus, Regions, Students

Meet the new OGA Office Assistants!

October 4, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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Nahum Gilliat '14

Major(s): Political Science, English

Minor(s): Legal Studies, International and Global Studies

Year of Graduation: 2013

Previous Education: Salanter Akiba of Riverdale

Clubs/Organizations: Brandeis Billiards Club, Brandeis Football Club, AIPAC, BZA

“As free citizens in a political democracy, we have a responsibility to be interested and involved in the affairs of the human community, be it at the local or the global level.” ~Paul Wellstone

Nahum Gilliat was born with a global perspective: though he currently resides in Bronx, New York, he originally hails from London, England. In addition to his inherent talents for “soccer,” his bi-cultural perspective instilled in him a sense of passion and consciousness towards global affairs.  In fact, it was Nahum’s interest in international relations that steered him to want to work at the Office of Global Affairs.

At Brandeis, Nahum hopes to major in Political Science and minor in both IGS and Legal Studies. His passion for law is a new-found interest: last summer, Nahum worked on the Hill for his Representative, Eliot L. Engel (D-NY-17).  During his internship, he shadowed the foreign affairs adviser; learning about heated foreign affairs issues as well as the complexities of the legislative process.

Nahum hopes to explore his recent law interest and enrich his global interests by studying abroad in he Hague in Spring 2013. The program is perfectly tailored to him: he expects to learn about the International Criminal Court (ICC) as well as take classes on international law.

 

Alia Goldfarb '13

Major: Theatre Arts (Musical Theatre)

Minor: Peace, Conflict and Coexistence Studies

Year of Graduation: 2013

Home region/country: Basel, Switzerland

Previous Education: Gymnasium Leonhard, Basel, Switzerland

Clubs/Organizations on Campus: B-Deis Records, Undergraduate Theatre Collective, Building Attendant at Spingold Theatre

“I think of myself as a ‘global citizen’ not because I have traveled a lot and seen quite a few things, but because I am sincerely interested and personally invested in global issues and I am constantly working on contributing in positive ways. In my eyes it’s about keeping an open mind and heart, to really hear other people’s opinions, and find a way to communicate across all boundaries.”

Growing up in the Swiss-German part of Switzerland, Alia Goldfarb was exposed to an extremely multicultural and multilingual lifestyle from early on. Firstly, Switzerland has four national languages and being a ‘land of refuge,’ harbors a substantial minority of people with diverse cultural heritage from all over the world seeking asylum. Further, she is a dual citizen (American/Swiss), comes from mixed religious heritage (Jewish/Christian) and has a Half-Brazilian stepsister. For the first ten years of her life, Alia lived in a largely Muslim neighborhood of her city. After elementary school, her family moved to the only Jewish and slightly more upper class area of Basel, giving her a completely new perspective on her lifestyle and surroundings.

Besides these complex circumstances Alia grew up in, her family always enjoyed traveling a lot. Thus she has seen a vast number of countries and cultures throughout the years of summers and short vacations abroad. To top it off, her love of languages has allowed her to study six languages in school and is working on learning a seventh. Being so immersed in this diverse setting, her fascination for cultural complexities, languages and the lives of people from different countries sparked at a young age.

In high school, Alia was always highly interested in humanitarian issues and sought ways to be actively engaged in finding solutions to global concerns. During her third year, she found her passion for women’s rights, specifically women living in third world countries, and immediately begun research in the field. Her work led to an 80 page senior thesis on cultural violence against women and a benefit concert to support educational programs on female genital mutilation, which raised over $10,000. As she moved to the U.S. for college, her passion for women’s rights has remained a part of her life, however her education at Brandeis has expanded her interest global and humanitarian affairs vastly. While it has taught her about many individual problems within the bigger global picture, the biggest lesson she has learned is how many different social and cultural aspects are all linked together inseparably.

Today, Alia studies religious issues, political matters and political/social power abuse, human rights, women’s and gender issues, conflict resolution, education and performing arts. Her goal is to find a way to combine her artistic endeavors with her knowledge of education and conflict resolution to find ways to communicate across boundaries and help individuals and/or communities to build a healthy, independent and fulfilling lifestyle for as many people as possible.

Filed Under: Authors, Blogs, Europe, Nahum Gilliat, Profiles, Regions

IBS Alumni Spotlight: Yuki Hasegawa MA ’10

September 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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This profile is reposted, by permission, from the International Business School.  Click here to read the original profile.

Going Global with Goldman Sachs: Investing in Human Resources

Degree/Year of Graduation: Master of Arts in International Economics and Finance, 2010

Current employment: Human Capital Management Analyst, Goldman Sachs

Previous experience: Barclays Capital, McLagan Partners, Clean Water Action

Yuki Hasegawa MA ’10, a human resources analyst at Goldman Sachs, helps manage training and development programs for the investment bank’s most important asset: its talent. “I’m someone who really believes in finding an individual’s potential,” said Hasegawa, who is originally from Yokohama, Japan, but also spent his childhood in Zurich, Switzerland. “My team plays a big role in the future success of Goldman Sachs because we have an impact on the talent that’s already here and the talent that we hire.”

His group provides training for a range of the firm’s employees, from entry-level analysts to senior vice presidents. Hasegawa’s team is dedicated to the firm’s legal and internal audit, compliance and human resources divisions. “What I do involves strategic thinking: looking at our budget and our resources, and then coming up with solutions to best develop people’s skills and abilities, and figure out ways to mentor them and give them greater job opportunities,” he said. “It’s a big responsibility because, as Lloyd [CEO of Goldman Sachs] says, ‘our talent is our number one asset.’”

Hasegawa got his first taste of leadership development at Brandeis International Business School. “Just about every class I took entailed group project work of some kind,” he said. “I learned to be nimble and how to interact with, and lead, a team of people who come from very different cultures, backgrounds and perspectives. I learned to identify people’s competencies and determine what leadership style would work best to motivate them. These details are critical to a team’s dynamic.”

“Now that I work for a global company where every day I’m expected to work with people from the U.K., Hong Kong, Japan or India, I really appreciate that I had this experience as a business school student.”

His degree has helped him in other ways, too. For starters, it gave him a shot of confidence and some much-needed exposure to the professional world. Hasegawa, who did his undergraduate studies at Brandeis, entered the Master’s program straight from college. “My first year of business school was really my senior year in college,” he said. “I was taking classes alongside people who have spent a lot of time in the working world, and already had great careers. At first it was intimidating, but the second-year students mentored and challenged me, and then when it was time to graduate, they helped me find a good job.”

The degree also made him conversant in the language of finance. “I have a firm understanding of business, capital markets and macro-economic drivers because of what I learned at Brandeis,” he said.

For now, Hasegawa plans to stay put in New York, but his job may soon involve an overseas posting. “I love my job and I’ve been given a lot of opportunities: I get to work with managing directors and be part of teams that are executing large projects for our firm,” he said. “I was recently asked to go to Hong Kong and Tokyo to manage a program there. I really feel I’m progressing.”

Filed Under: East Asia, Europe, Profiles

Competing and Converging Narratives

September 26, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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From left to right: Prof. Hale, Prof. Gaskins, Allyson Goose of the Office of Study Abroad, Prof. Sundiata, Kylie Vallario '12

Summer break and the incredible experiences traveling students and faculty embark upon remains among the most exciting and useful aspects of life in any university. Rarely does the opportunity come up to hear about the experiences of others, however: a gap the event “What Did You Do Last Summer?” aimed to close. Sponsored by the African and Afro-American Studies Department and moderated by Professor Faith Lois Smith, the experiences of six Brandeisians were highlighted: two undergraduates (Jessye Kass ’13 and Kylie Vallario ’12) and four professors  (Jane Hale, Richard Gaskins, Ibrahim Sundiata, and Pashington Obeng).

As participants reflected in discussion later in the event, the notion of narrative as understood by one’s self and by others played a large role in the events of the summer. The speakers noted the inherent difficulty in contending with different narratives, particularly when tied to being a traveler in a foreign land.

Jessye Kass, who visited Ghana for the third time this summer with the Sorensen Fellowship Program, founded her own non-governmental organization based around art therapy in rural villages. In particular, she brought up the issue of the conflicting aims of anthropology and social justice in difficult situations, since anthropology stipulates detached observation and social justice demands intervention.

She was followed by Kylie Vallario, who spent time studying race and human rights with a focus on public health in Salvatore, Brazil. The necessity of striking a balance between one’s sense of self and cultural understandings were emphasized in her talk.   She relayed tales of the conflicts she observed on the topic of academic discussion about religion as well as regarding the question of asserting feminism in a culturally appropriate manner.

Professor Hale traveled to Haiti and Lesotho this summer, and broadened the discussion to address a myriad of situations across the globe, including her past experiences in Senegal. She emphasized that it is people who make places what they are, and advised future study abroad participants to meet local people (to not only socialize with expatriates). Along the same lines, she described the worthiness of learning at least the greetings in the local language, for the sake of both communication and respect for the culture.

Having led the Summer 2011 Brandeis in The Hague program, Professor Gaskins offered another perspective on the notion of narrative through his experiences with the International Criminal Court. There, different local, global, and foreign perspectives compete and attempt to combine to create a solid position through the proceedings.  He described the complexity of the issues debated with regards to both the background of the trial and its impact on the local community in the present and future. He ended by noting how small one’s perspective is without multiple sides of an issue, an essential idea applicable to not only law but also life.

From left to right: Prof. Obeng, Jessye Kass '13, Prof. Smith, Prof. Hale

Professor Sundiata first explicitly brought up the notion of narratives when discussing his recent travels in Ghana, related to collective and individual memory. Specifically, he discussed Elmina Castle – one of the most prominent slave trade forts in Ghana – to illustrate the idea of competing narratives. He discussed: heritage tourism, the problems of being a tourist in a place of pain, and the sincerity of a docent during his tour of the castle (who made a point to avoid sensationalism).  These stories raising the issue of competing, conflicting, and equally valid narratives to prominence.

Finally, Professor Obeng spoke of his time in India with two undergraduates from Harvard and Wellesley, and the problems with simplistic or one-dimensional views of situations. He discussed this in relation to race, caste, and disenfranchisement in India, pointing out the lack of a single root cause of marginalization, despite the many factors leading to it.

After further discussion regarding experiences and reactions to their own and others’ travels, the event wrapped up with speakers giving advice to those studying or traveling abroad now or in the future. Of the advice given, two sentiments in particular stood out. First, Professor Hale stressed the importance of traveling with the ability to fail: she advised that people know when they travel that is failure possible, and everything will be all right if they do. Second, Kylie Vollario stressed the importance of keeping an open mind not only about the culture one is visiting, but also about one’s self. Only by pushing ones boundaries can the culture and situation be experienced fully.

Filed Under: Africa, Ariana Hajmiragha, Authors, Blogs, Brandeis in The Hague, Europe, Global Campus, Haiti, India, Latin America & the Caribbean, Regions, South Asia, Students

Reflections on a summer in The Hague

August 30, 2011 By 1 Comment
Josh, Zach, and Will at a group dinner at a restaurant called Cafe de Koets.

Students who partook in the Summer 2011 Brandeis in The Hague Program had astounding, life-changing experiences.  They explored first-hand how international courts confront a range of global problems–meeting with judges, advocates, and academic specialists for a broad survey of the international legal process.  Below are a few quotes from participants that demonstrate this amazing journey.

Brandeis undergraduates Josh Kelly '14, Zach Malis '12, and Will Guild '14 at a group dinner at the restaurant Cafe de Koets.

“This program meshed together the academic and cultural experience I was looking for. It was an unbelievable trip and I would recommend it to anybody with an interest in the world and law.” – Zach Malis ’12

“Professor Gaskins is a thoughtful and diligent professor. It was not only my pleasure to be taught by him, but his guidance was an integral part to the valuable learning experience I had in The Hague.” – Will Guild ’14

“I learned so much while on this program, and I also had the most amazing time. I had very high expectations for the program overall, and it exceeded those expectations!” – Julia Kuperminc ’13

For more information about this program, please contact Richard Gaskins or Alyssa Grinberg in the Office of Study Abroad.

Admissions Deadlines:
October 3, 2011:  Spring 2012 Semester Program
February 17, 2012:  Spring 2013 Semester Program
March 16, 2012:  Summer 2012 Program

Read also:

Study abroad office promotes new Hague, Israel programs (The Hoot)

Brandeis in The Hague explores major legal issues (BrandeisNOW)

Filed Under: Abroad, Authors, Blogs, Brandeis in The Hague, Europe, Global Affairs Updates, Regions, Shelby Bleiweis, Staff

Frankfurt, then Belgian Waffles

April 6, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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This article was reposted by permission from the blog “Freiburg and…..” by Darryl Joo.  The original article can be read here.

Weeks 4-7; Freiburg again, then Frankfurt to Brussels.

Back in Freiburg, and into the routine. Classes were in full session, and every day proceeded like every other. Mondays, 10:45 – 1:30. Tuesdays, 10:45-6:00. Wednesdays, 10:45-12:15. Thursdays, 10:45-1:30. Fridays, 9:00-1:30. Not to say the days were monotonous, of course, but things have started to take a regular cycle, of which I could easily get used to. Between classes and homework, weekends are a chance to take a day trip to Colmar or Strasbourg in France, or Basel in Switzerland, or anywhere else our regional ticket provides access. The more audacious take a weekend out to Amsterdam or Milan, but I suppose I’m just biding my time until my Eurorail ticket is validated in late March. Europe remains as beautiful and unchanging as ever, but I do suppose the romance of it has worn off. After all, there are only so many cathedrals and castles you can visit before they start looking a little too similar to one another. Don’t get me wrong—the Notre Dame Cathedral in Strasbourg was incredible, more ornate and intricate than the Minster in Freiburg, but it just didn’t quite have that same feeling as looking at the Freiburg Minster on my very first day in Europe.

But as if in response to my continuing adaptation to my surroundings, just as I was beginning to be able to have some grasp of the language in Germany, I was thrown on another trip around Europe.

Frankfurt from the Eurotower

A 5:30 AM wake-up call for a 6:15 AM bus ride to Frankfurt am Main, Germany—dressed in business formal. We were to visit the European Central Bank to hear some speakers. The speakers themselves were okay, but I’ll save the gory details. The first presentation was more like an information session about the workings of the ECB, and the second presentation more like hearing a lady try to give a presentation about a topic she simply wasn’t familiar with from a powerpoint presentation prepared by someone else. Frankfurt itself was a very strange mix of modernity and antiquity. A small group of people and I were afforded the chance to take an elevator up to the top of the Eurotower, where an observation deck provided a 360 degree view of Frankfurt from some 54 stories high, where we could see the many skyscrapers peaking high above the Old City center. Appropriately nicknamed “Bankfurt” or “Mainhattan,” most of the skyscrapers were financial centers. Detusche Bank here, Volksbank there, Commerzbank over there…  And after a short afternoon in Frankfurt, we were put back in the bus for a trip to Brussels, Belgium.

The biggest shock about being in Brussels was the language. Of their three official languages, German is not one of them. Instead, nearly everyone speaks French; when I went to the bar and tried to speak German, I was greeted with a strange look and a response in English. Strangely enough, being in Belgium reminded me of the first bit of shock upon arriving in Germany. A sense of non-belonging and foreignness, I simply felt like a tourist. Then I decided that it wasn’t such a big deal, and simply decided I would enjoy my time, even if it meant that I decided to act like a tourist. After all, it was my first time in Brussels.

My favorite part of belgium… aside from the beer

So I went to the infamous “Delirium Cafe,” with their extensive collection of Belgian beers (the menu rotates every week, but I believe the total is some 2,000 different kinds) and the fountain with the peeing baby (“Manneken Pis”). The fountain was pretty disappointing. Where I was expecting an enormous fountain in a city center of a urinating baby, it was closer to the size of an actual baby. But then, I suppose it’s a good thing that it was the size of an actual baby. The Belgian waffles were delicious, but I unfortunately didn’t have the opportunity to try the french fries… which were actually invented in Belgium. Aside from the waffles, beer, and peeing babies, I also visited the European Commission with the program, as well as the European Council the day after. Then our short three days were over as quickly as it had begun, and suddenly, I was back on the bus.

And now, as I’m on the highway en route to Paris, all I can say is this:

German beer is still better than Belgian beer. Au revoire, Brussels!

Filed Under: Abroad, Blogs, Europe, Regions

Global Brandeis Profile: Holly Devon ’11

April 6, 2011 By 1 Comment
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Holly Devon '11

Year of Graduation: 2011
Major: Comparative Literature
Minor: French
Home region/country: Los Angeles, California
Previous Education: Santa Monica High School
Clubs/Organizations on Campus: Brandeis Al-Quds Partnership Fellow, Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance, WOW Fellow

“I’d just like to continue being in places that make me feel alive, and continue having conversations and contributing however I can.”

While traveling, learning, and working over the course of her Brandeis career, Holly Devon has certainly pursued her passions successfully. Beginning her freshman year, her application and subsequent acceptance to the Brandeis Al-Quds University Partnership program triggered a series of travel experiences both powerful and exciting. She describes how “I just kind of like to get in there, mix it up with whatever opportunities I have. Literature is my passion, intellectually, amongst a lot of others – I’m a very typical Brandeis liberal arts student, I take a little of everything each semester – but I’d just like to continue being in places that make me feel alive, and continue having conversations and contribute however I can.”

Her adventures are certainly reflective of this, having traveled to Istanbul and Jerusalem with the Al-Quds University Partnership, to Kenya with an Oxford volunteer program, to France for study abroad, and to Argentina with a WOW fellowship. The Al-Quds University trip started her involvement with Brandeis and the opportunities therein, and she described it as “just a really humbling experience, really powerful, really hard, scary, but I felt really glad that I did that.”

From there, her summer expeditions became more non-governmental organization focused: she worked with NGOs in both Africa and Latin America, about which she says “comparing the [the two] was also really interesting.” Possessing strong convictions of the necessity for respect on the part of the volunteers for the people being helped as well as on the part of the people for themselves, she describes how she “felt sickened a lot of the time [in Africa] because there was this sort of expectation, in a way, that we were supposed to impart our cultural knowledge on to them. It was kind of paternalistic … there are a lot of problems in Africa that don’t have to do with the obvious – AIDS, poverty, war – I think there’s a lot of it also going on that we neglect to see how important it is that people feel like they have something to offer.”

She emphasizes the importance of respect; saying that what makes the difference is “how you think of it, and how respectful you are.” This emphasis on respect is reflected in her experiences with Confluir, a local NGO in Argentina devoted to acting as a legal and local intermediary between the people of the communities and the NGOs in the region. She describes how it was “also engaged in a larger conversation about poverty and education,” with a markedly greater sense of self-sufficiency and self-respect.

At the same time, it proved to be a challenge to her greater level of immersion into the community and culture. “I’ve never been in a position like that before, where I really felt I had to just trust people around me,” she says. “I didn’t really know anything about my surroundings, I was just trying to kind of plug in and work with them and do anything I could.”

She describes these opportunities as some of the most powerful in her life, and hopes to continue this encountering of new cultures and places this summer, potentially returning to Al-Quds University to foster more inter-student relationships between that university and ours. Whatever her future holds, it will surely be filled with more powerful experiences and conversations, helping and making her feel alive.

For more information about the Al Quds University/Brandeis University Partnership, please click here.

Filed Under: Africa, Ariana Hajmiragha, Authors, Europe, Israel, Latin America & the Caribbean, Middle East, Profiles, Regions, Students

Global Brandeis Profile: Eve Markvardt ’13

March 17, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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Eve Markvardt '13

Major/Year of Graduation: Anthropology, 2013

Home region/country: Born in Kaluga, Russia, and raised in Finland (high school in Helsinki)

Previous Education: United World College (2007-2009)

Clubs/Organizations on Campus: Davis Scholar, Community Advisor of Deroy in Massell Quad

“I think it’s very important to be self aware, and understand why you act the way you act. I think if people would stop often and think, they would continue with a different vision.”

From Russia, to Finland, to Canada, and finally to the USA, Eve Markvardt has found the freedom to be who she wants to be and her passion in the field of anthropology. Exposed to the subject in high school, she says “I took anthropology as an IB subject, and I just fell in love with it, because I think it reflects so many questions I have about the world, and just trying to understand different people, how they interact, and how they don’t understand each other and why they will never understand each other.”

Anthropology seems to have been a part of her life from a very early on, having moved from Russia to Finland at the age of ten, bringing an exposure to very different cultures and the difficulties that lie in navigating between them. She embraces this identity, saying “myself, I think I identify almost as both,” explaining, “my family’s very Russian…but at the same time, my schooling was mostly in Finland, over the conscious years of my life after I was ten.”

Continuing from this multicultural beginning, during high school Eve applied to the United World College, and in 2007 moved to Vancouver Island, Canada. “I think it’s great to be exposed to different communities. That’s something I experienced at the UWC,” she says. “In my first year my roommates were from Malaysia, Argentina, Canada, and Aruba, and then I roomed with someone from Brazil, so you get exposed to so many different viewpoints.”

Eve in Helsinki Senate Square in 2009

Describing herself as “a very reflective person,” she depicts living in Canada and the US as being marked by a sense of liberation. She explains, “when I arrived in Canada I got this huge feeling of freedom, and it still continues when I am here. It’s freedom to be whoever you want to be; because when I was in Finland I was always the Russian, and when I go to Russia I am always the Finnish girl, so I never really am the thing in the place I am.” She thinks about her identity, and actions, a great deal; as she explains, “I think it’s very important to be self aware, and understand why you act the way you act. I think if people would stop often and think, they would continue with a different vision.”

What really comes through about Eve is her incredible open-mindedness and optimism. Seeing the best in everything, she describes first coming to Brandeis: “being at Brandeis felt very not diverse at first. It was like, whoa, everyone is American; and even though Brandeis says it has such a big percentage of international students, it felt like nothing to me. But you do find a different kind of diversity, the more you stay here and the more you interact with people, and I think I really enjoy that.” Smiling and open, she looks forward to the future with hope and excitement, bringing an anthropological perspective with her.

Filed Under: Ariana Hajmiragha, Authors, Blogs, Europe, Profiles, Regions, Students

Rome Is Where The Heart Is

March 16, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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Marie Zazueta '10 poses in front of the Fontana di Trevi

Over February break, I, along with 16 other Brandeis students, traveled to Rome. This trip was sponsored by the Catholic Student Organization. A relatively small fee of $600 covered our airfare, our stay in a 4-star hotel, most of our meals, and transportation. Father Walter Cuenin, the Catholic chaplain at Brandeis, took us on the trip. He began this opportunity 4 years ago when he started working at Brandeis. Father Cuenin was ordained as a priest in St. Peter’s Basilica 40 years ago and spent 7 years of his life living in Rome, so the city holds particular meaning to him.

On the first day of our travels, we had a walking tour of Rome. This trip was a great opportunity for us to explore not only the birthplace of Western civilization, but the roots of Catholicism. For us as Catholic students, this was an amazing way to connect with our spirituality and our identities as Catholics.  We went to the Fontana di Trevi, the Pantheon, and the Spanish Steps. The next day we went to the Colosseum and the Roman Forum.

We spent two different days at the Vatican. The first was a Sunday and we had mass led by Father Cuenin in a private chapel in St. Peter’s Basilica. We then climbed the St. Peter’s dome, which was fantastic – but if you’re afraid of heights like I am, you’ve been warned!  Our second day at the Vatican was our second to last day in Rome. We had an audience with the pope, who blessed our group. There were thousands of people from countries all over the world. Being with such a diverse group of people, but who all shared the Catholic faith, was an interesting and eye-opening experience. After that, we explored the Vatican Museum and went to the Sistine Chapel.

Rev. Walter Cuenin, Catholic chaplain and coordinator of the Interfaith Chaplaincy at Brandeis.

Along with the time spent in Rome and the Vatican, we also took a day trip to Assisi, the home of St. Francis of Assisi. Assisi is a small, medieval town in the hills of central Italy. While there, we were able to explore old, beautiful churches, climb up to an old castle, and experience the beauty of the Italian countryside. It was great to get a perspective of Italy apart from the bustling metropolis of Rome.

One thing that I found very interesting was the meshing of pre-Christian Roman practices and early Christian practices, which could be seen most clearly through the architecture.  The most famous example is the Pantheon. After the fall of Rome, the Pantheon, which before had been an homage to the Roman gods, was converted into a church dedicated to St. Mary and the Martyrs. Additionally, the Temple of Minerva in Assisi was also later turned into a church. I thought this was particularly fascinating because the Temple of Minerva has Roman pillars and does not resemble a church at all.

A new addition to this year’s trip were two Jewish students. Father Cuenin had the idea to bring students from other faiths on the trip, and plans to expand this in future years. In Pinky Polack’s March 8 article about the trip, “When in Rome”, she quotes Father Cuenin as saying: “When you are with someone from another faith, you learn you are connected, even though you are different”. Having non-Catholic students on the trip was certainly beneficial. The small group size of 17 people led to a shared feeling of bonding.  I think I can speak for all of us when I say that it was the closeness I felt with the other students that really made this experience memorable, regardless of religious background.

For more information on the trip, read Pinky Polack’s article from The Justice here.

Filed Under: Abroad, Authors, Blogs, Europe, Marie Zazueta, Regions, Students

IBS Alumni Spotlight: Ari Alushaj MSF ’10

February 4, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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This article was re-posted by permission of the International Business School.  You may view the original profile here.

Ari Alushaj MSF ’10

Global education, global career

Masters of Science in Finance 2010

Current employment: Bank of New York Mellon, Corporate Action Global Custody Specialist

Previous work experience: Investors Bank and Trust

“I always looked forward to class – spending time with my fellow students and hearing lectures from amazing Brandeis professors. It was such a stimulating environment.”

February 1, 2011 WALTHAM, Mass. - As a Global Custody Specialist at Bank of New York Mellon, Ari Alushaj MSF ’10 is responsible for managing and controlling high levels of risk and liability for the bank’s clients in over 65 markets around the world. Every day, she helps oversee cash and security transactions worth millions of dollars in foreign currency.

“It’s a challenging job, but two years ago I decided I wanted to give my career a boost, so I started to look into graduate school,” she says. “I wanted a program that was globally focused, had a rigorous curriculum, and would enable me to go to school but still work fulltime.”

The Master of Science in Finance degree at Brandeis International Business School was an ideal match. Alushaj admits that balancing graduate studies with her grueling work schedule wasn’t always easy. “But it was well worth it,” she says. “I always looked forward to class – spending time with my fellow students and hearing lectures from amazing Brandeis professors. It was such a stimulating environment.”

For Alushaj, who was born in Albania and moved to the U.S. as a teenager, the highlight of the program was the diverse and international student body. “We’d dissect a case and there was always someone in the class who had done the kind of work we were discussing who could give the rest of the class a first-hand account of how things happen in reality,” she says. “One day in a class on corporate governance, we talked about the financial fraud case at Parmalat, the Italian food and dairy company. There were students in the class from Italy who had grown up with the company. They understood why it collapsed – they lived it – and they helped give the rest of us context. It made business and finance come alive.”

The program’s emphasis on teamwork has also served her well. “A lot of your professional success is determined by how well you work with others,” she says. “At IBS, we did many group projects where we had to learn how to merge different work styles to get the job done. We had to learn to work as a team, and take advantage of the fact that we all bring different strengths and perspectives to the table. That’s exactly the way it is in the real world.”

She is confident the network she created at IBS will be of great benefit to her career. “The contacts I made at IBS – both students and professors – have been so supportive in helping me plot my next big career move,” she says. “Since I graduated, a number of exciting professional opportunities have cropped up. My plan is to stay with my current company for a while longer, but eventually I’d like to work abroad at a global financial services or legal company.”

Filed Under: Europe, Profiles, Regions
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