50 Years of International Education at Berkeley

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the US Department of Education Title VI program, known at its inception as the National Defense Education Act. In 1959, at the height of the Cold War and following the launch of the Russian satellite Sputnik, the U.S. Congress funded Title VI of its National Defense Education Act to build an infrastructure for international education on university campuses across the nation. UC Berkeley has participated in Title VI since its inception and now receives nearly $3.5 million annually in support of its world area centers and language programs. In recognition of the program’s successes and its continued importance to the Berkeley campus, the eight Berkeley Institutes and Centers receiving Title VI funding hosted an event on March 6, 2009, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Title VI. George Breslauer, UC Berkeley’s Executive Vice Chancellor & Provost, was interviewed for this anniversary and spoke about the importance of Title VI. "Title VI has been indispensable not only for our area research centers but for thousands of students and young scholars,” he said, adding that “without Title VI, we would not be able to offer some of the innovative programs that prepare Berkeley students to be globally aware citizens." Watch the entire interview with Vice Chancellor Breslauer here

Jason Wittenberg receives the APSA's 2009 Biennial Hubert Morken Award

Jason Wittenberg (Political Science) was the recipient of the 2009 biennial Hubert Morken Award for his book, Crucibles of Political Loyalty: Church Institutions and Electoral Continuity in Hungary (Cambridge University Press, 2006).  The Hubert Morken Award is given by the Religion and Politics section of the American Political Science Association for the best publication dealing with religion and politics published in 2006 or 2007. The Institute congratulates Professor Wittenberg on his recent achievment.

Professor Emeritus Simon Karlinsky dies at the age of 84

Our friend and colleague Simon Karlinsky died peacefully at home on July 5, 2009, at the age of 84. A distinguished Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures, he taught in Berkeley for over thirty years. It is difficult to imagine the contemporary study of early Russian drama, Gogol', Chekhov, Tchaikovsky, Diaghilev, Russia's gay literature and culture, Stravinsky, Nabokov, Tsvetaeva, and the Russian emigration in general without Simon's pioneering efforts. He is the author and editor of numerous books, including The Sexual Labyrinth of Nikolai Gogol; Marina Tsvetaeva: The Woman, Her World, and Her Poetry; Russian Drama from Its Beginnings to the Age of Pushkin; Dear Bunny, Dear Volodya: The Nabokov-Wilson Letters, 1940-1971 (editor); Letters of Anton Chekhov. (Co-editor with Michael Henry Heim); Anton Chekhov's Life and Thought; Vladimir Zlobin, A Difficult Soul: Zinaida Gippius; Boris Poplavsky, Collected Works. 3 vols. (Co-editor with Anthony Olcott); The Bitter Air of Exile: Russian Writers in the West 1922-1972 (Co-editor with Alfred Appel, Jr.); Marina Cvetaeva: Her life and Art. He is survived by his husband, Peter Carleton. Interment will be private.

ISEEES Graduate Student Support Fund

We would like to thank everyone who contributed to the ISEEES Graduate Student Support Fund and helped us achieve our $5000 goal by December 31, 2008. Thanks to your generous support, we qualified for a matching donation from an anonymous donor, as well as a match from the Chancellor's Challenge program. Thus, we were able to raise over $20,000—an effective start to capitalizing this important fund that will support graduate students in our area. Please refer to our Giving page for this and other opportunities to show your support for ISEEES.

Black-Leather Pragmatist

Ken Jowitt, Robson Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Berkeley and the Pres and Maurine Hotchkis Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution was the speaker at ISEEES annual Colin Miller Memorial Lecture. In his talk, he challenged the Western world to shed its outdated and simplistic view of world powers as divided into autocracies and Western-style democracies. Read more