global understanding

Richard Rubenstein attends conference in Rome on peacemaking in Ukraine

Mariam Aburdeineh — Tue, 28 Jun 2022 19:20:16 +0000

Richard Rubenstein attends conference in Rome on peacemaking in Ukraine Mariam Aburdeineh Tue, 06/28/2022 - 15:20

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��AV Carter School professor Richard Rubenstein attended a workshop conference at the Pontifical Academy for Social Sciences at the Vatican on June 6-7 to discuss peacemaking in Ukraine and other global conflict sites. The conference was organized by the U.N. Development Solutions Network headed by Columbia University professor Jeffrey Sachs.

Carter School professor Richard Rubenstein speaks on peacemaking in Ukraine at the Vatican. Photo by Gabriella C. Marino.

“The purpose was to produce a statement that would be given to the pope and that might also influence the parties to the conflict in Ukraine,” Rubenstein said.

“The meeting addressed the question of how to prevent the conflict in Ukraine from becoming a ‘frozen conflict,’ and the need for early peace negotiations,” Rubenstein said. “While the issue of what kinds of concessions might need to be made by both parties was discussed, the experts were in agreement that trust needs to be built on both sides and that a guarantee of peace in Eastern Europe is a necessity.”

About 40 VIPs were in attendance, including Romano Prodi, former prime minister of Italy and 10th president of the European Commission; Jeffrey Sachs, university professor at Columbia University; Michael von der Schulenburg, former United Nations assistant secretary-general in UN Peace Missions; Mario Marazziti, former deputy and president of Human Rights Committee, Italian Parliament; and Nina Khrushcheva, professor of international affairs at The New School.

Attendees each gave a 10- to 15-minute presentation, Rubenstein said, which included open discussions.

“The statement is now getting more signatories,” said Rubenstein. “It was a good meeting, and it may have some results. We’ll see.”

What do you hope the impact of the statement will be?

“What we want to happen is to get the document into places where it will be discussed by decision makers.”

What was the pope’s reaction?

“Pope Francis has already made a statement on this. The pope says to stop dramatizing, stop trying to turn this into some type of titanic struggle about the fate of an autocracy—that’s not what it’s about. It’s a very interesting statement by the pope and, I think, partly, that’s a response to our discussion.”

What was your role at the conference?

“One of my roles there was to raise the question of when this is all over, how do these people learn to live with each other again? What kind of reconciliation is going to be possible considering how many people are getting killed and how much bitterness has been created by the war?”

What does this say about the Carter School and Mason to be represented at the meeting?

“It’s a really good sign. It’s not just our expertise in negotiation that's being recognized, but our independence of mind and our ability to think about the possibilities of peacemaking even in a wartime atmosphere. Everyone at the conference understood that peacemakers may be blessed, but this doesn’t mean they will be popular.”

Attendees at the Pontifical Academy for Social Sciences outside of the Vatican. Photo credit: Gabriella C. Marino

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Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution

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New program welcomes Afghan scholars to Mason

Mariam Aburdeineh — Fri, 04 Feb 2022 19:21:53 +0000

New program welcomes Afghan scholars to Mason Mariam Aburdeineh Fri, 02/04/2022 - 14:21

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Alpaslan Özerdem

��AV's Fairfax Campus. Photo by Evan Cantwell/Creative Services/��AV

To support Afghan refugees needing to relaunch their careers in the United States, ��AV is inviting scholars and researchers who have recently left Afghanistan to apply for an academic appointment as visiting scholars.

“At Mason, we care about what happens in our societies whether here in Virginia, regionally, nationally or globally,” said Alpaslan Özerdem, dean of Mason’s Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution.

“As the Carter School, we wanted to respond to the crisis in a way that we’d address a critical cluster of challenges effectively, through our own resources and capacities as an academic institution,” he said. “It was almost a natural reaction for us to think about ways of helping.”

“The Office of the Provost is committed to help our deans and respective academic units welcome Afghan professors and researchers to our institution and have a potential impact on their safety and scholarly work”, said Laurence Bray, associate provost for graduate education.

The program is open to Afghans who have legal residence in the United States or are in the process of obtaining a U.S. Visa. Selected scholars selected will receive financial and institutional support from Mason for a year, with a possible option for renewal.

“As visiting scholars, they’d be able to integrate themselves in both ongoing and prospective research initiatives, leading to opportunities for the renewal of their Mason affiliation,” Özerdem said. “More importantly, with their wealth of experience in post-conflict reconstruction and peacebuilding, as well as their specific areas of disciplinary expertise, Afghan scholars and researchers have so much to contribute to U.S. higher education [and to Mason].”

The scholars will be evaluated on criteria including their credentials, ability to travel to the United States, professional experience, and a field of study that aligns with a participating Mason school or college.

The program speaks to Mason’s mission.

“We value not only diversity and access, but also fraternity and solidarity in responding to socio-economic and political challenges,” Özerdem said. “It was great that this idea by the Carter School was integrated into the university’s plans for responding to higher education needs of Afghan refugees, and it is wonderful that the program is already up and running.”

The Afghan Scholars program also provides an opportunity for giving back, Özerdem said.

“There are many people in our communities who would like to help Afghan refugees, and by supporting this program, they’d have a direct contribution in helping those scholars rebuild their lives,” he said. “Historically, there have been many examples in which scholars who fled to the U.S. have generously contributed to the development of sciences and technology in this country, and now we have an opportunity to make it happen again.”

For more information and to apply to the Afghan Scholars Program, click here.

The Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution, in partnership with ��AV, is committed to supporting at least one Afghan scholar. If you would like to support the program, please visit this link to make a gift: https://advancement.gmu.edu/22CAR1

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Horror films bring a global perspective

Colleen Rich — Mon, 28 Oct 2019 09:00:00 +0000

Horror films bring a global perspective Colleen Rich Mon, 10/28/2019 - 05:00

October is the month when most people indulge in their favorite scary movies, but for some students at ��AV, horror is their homework.

FAVS 300 Global Horror Film is a three-credit course that explores the horror film genre with an international lens, and looks at the social and political contexts behind the creation of the films. The class fulfills the Global Understanding requirement in the Mason Core so it attracts students from all majors. Film and video studies (FAVS) majors have the option to do a creative final project and make a video instead of writing a final paper.

The course covers topics from vampires, zombies, slasher movies, and aliens to horror parody and Alfred Hitchcock. Whole weeks are devoted to Japanese, Korean, Iranian, and Latin American horror. Recent screenings for the class have featured Tomas Alfredsson’s “Let the Right One In” and Andrzej Zulawski’s “Possession” mixed in with clips from George Romero’s “Dawn of the Dead” and Brian de Palma’s “Carrie,” depending on the discussion topic that week.

The class is not for the faint of heart—there is a lot of film theory.

This semester there are two sections taught by FAVS adjunct faculty members and filmmakers Samirah Alkassim and Maillim “May” Santiago.

This is Santiago’s second semester teaching the course. She said she enjoys exposing students to films they wouldn’t ordinarily encounter.

“I try and bring in a lot of underappreciated, horror-specific films,” said Santiago, who also does a horror film podcast, Horrorspiria. “It's a really interesting genre to look at through the social lens. I like bringing that globalization angle and having frank discussions about it and how they feel about it.”

Samirah Alkassim

Many students in the classes are already horror fans. Computational and data sciences major Jared McDonough said he has read a lot of horror, but this is his first film class.

“I wanted to try out some parts of the horror genre that I hadn’t been exposed to,” he said.

Film and video studies major Thomas [student prefers to use first name] is one of the students choosing to do a video for his final project. His video is about vampires and will explore LGBT themes.

“During our vampire class, there was a lot of a discussion about hidden lives,” said Thomas. “I plan to explore that aspect in this video.”

The three- to five-minute video isn’t an easy project. Filmmakers have to turn in a film treatment early in the semester and provide a budget and shooting script when the video is completed. The project must reference some aspect of horror covered in class. They also have a screening of the videos at the end of the semester, and the instructors award extra credit to classmates willing to work on the productions.

Maillim "May" Santiago

Alkassim and Santiago are also working on book on the same topic with Ziad Foty of Catholic University, who has taught Mason’s Global Horror Film class in the past. The book is an edited anthology incorporating many of the readings the instructors already use along with some original essays.

“We all feel like there are some gaps in the scholarship about horror cinema, gaps really specific to areas in the world,” said Alkassim, who writes about Arab cinema. “And that is not because there are no horror films in those areas, but because most of the scholarship is Western based.”