Audio/Video

Click here for video from Thursday evenings panel at the 31st Norris and Margery Bendetson EPIIC International Symposium, Europe in Turmoil. 

The End of History? The Changing Nature of European Identity

Mario de Caro, Professor of Moral Philosophy, Università Roma Tre, Italy

Jocelyne Cesari, Author, Why the West Fears Islam: An Exploration of Islam in Western Liberal Democracies

Presentation of Dr. Jean Mayer Global Citizenship Award by Hannah Gersten, EPIIC Colloquium, and Obaid Farooqui, Tufts Muslim Students Association

Ioannis Evrigenis, Professor of Political Theory, Tufts University

Andreas Føllesdal, Co-director, MultiRights, on the Legitimacy of Multi-Level Human Rights Judiciary, European Research Council

Thomas Geisel, Mayor, Dusseldorf, Germany

Presentation of the Robert and JoAnn Bendetson Public Diplomacy Award by Shawn Patterson, EPIIC Colloquium

Moderator: Reece Wallace, EPIIC Colloquium

Carol R. Saivetz is a research associate at Harvard’s Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies and a research affiliate at the Security Studies Program at MIT, where she is running a seminar series on Central Asia and Afghanistan.  From 1995-2005, she was the Executive Director of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, the major professional organization in the field of Russian, Eurasian, and East European studies.  From 1992-2006, she was a Lecturer in Government at Harvard, where she taught courses about Russia and the Middle East.  She is currently teaching Russian foreign policy in the Political Science Department at MIT.  Professor Saivetz has consulted for the US Government on topics ranging from energy politics in the Caspian Sea region to Russian policy toward Iran.  She is the author and contributing co-editor of five books and numerous articles on Soviet and now Russian foreign policy issues, including an assessment of the “reset,” Russian policies toward the other Soviet successor states, and Russian attitudes toward the “Arab Spring.”  Her current research interest is energy competition in and around the Black Sea region.  Her most recent publications analyze the newly resurgent Russia’s foreign policies—including energy policies and reactions to EU and NATO expansion.

Part 1: Religion and the European Project
Elizabeth H. Prodromou is Visiting Associate Professor of Conflict Resolution at The Fletcher School for Law & Diplomacy at Tufts University, where she teaches in the Program in International Negotiation and Conflict Resolution. She is Co-Chair of the Eastern Mediterranean and Europe Study Group at Harvard University’s Center for European Studies. Before coming to Fletcher, Prodromou served a diplomatic appointment as Vice Chair and Commissioner on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (2004-2012); and since 2011, is a member of the U.S. Secretary of State’s Religion & Foreign Policy Working Group, serving on the Subgroup on Religious Freedom, Democracy, and Security in the Middle East and North Africa. Her research deals with issues of religious freedom, democratization, and security threats, with particular focus on comparative religion-political regimes in the Near East and on Transatlantic responses to religious radicalism. Published widely in scholarly and policy journals and international media, she has been involved in research and advisory work for international and non-governmental organizations on religious freedom rights. Her current research focuses on rights of religious minorities under secularist and non-secularist regimes, as well as on strategies of religious institutions to state repression and persecution.
Part 2: Committee Presentations and Discussions

The Program Committee will present its current discussions for feedback from the class and invited guests.  Special Events, Voices from the Field, Inquiry and the International Students Committees will also provide brief overviews.

Margareta (Magda) Matache is a Roma rights activist from Romania. In 2012 she was awarded a Hauser postdoctoral fellowship at the FXB Center, where currently she works as an instructor. From 2005 to 2012 Matache was the executive director of Romani CRISS (www.romanicriss.org), a leading NGO that defends and promotes the rights of Roma. During her tenure Romani CRISS took a stand against discrimination in landmark cases targeting the president, prime minister, and foreign minister of Romania. The organization’s advocacy and litigation efforts also contributed to the approval of the domestic School Desegregation Bill. Prior to this work Matache served as a youth worker and trainer on cultural diversity and minority rights. She has also worked as an election observer in the Western Balkans and has implemented well-known initiatives, including “Roma and the Stability Pact in South-Eastern Europe” and “Roma Use Your Ballot Wisely.” She completed her doctoral research work in the early childhood development of Romani children at the Faculty of Political Sciences, University of Bucharest, and holds a Master’s degree in European Social Policies. Her publications and research have covered the rights, agency, and social ecology of Romani children and adolescents, early childhood development, Romani women, anti-Roma violence, and segregation in education.