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SENIOR FELLOWS
BARTAL, ISRAEL
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Professor, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
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Presentation Title:
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"The Kinnus Project: Wissenschaft des Judentums
and the Fashioning of a 'National Culture' in Palestine."
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Presentation Abstract:
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"Mif'al Ha-kinus"
("The project of Ingathering") has been a major segment of the
Zionist cultural enterprise. The idea of collecting literary as well as oral
Jewish texts and re-shaping them into a new viable "National
Culture", emerged in 19th century Germany. Its Palestine extension,
however, was imported from Eastern Europe and has paid a considerable role
in the political culture of pre-statehood Israeli society. It simultaneously
involved Jewish religious symbols and highly secularized nationalist ones.
Much of the cultural activity that was aimed at creating a new Hebrew
Culture took place outside of the academic sphere: it was the
involvement of nationalist-minded intellectuals (writers, editors,
school-teachers etc.) that had shaped the politics of culture. Political
parties, The "Histadrut"(Labor trade union) and other political
and semi-political organizations financed the project, and disseminated its
messages. In the post-1948 era, the state took over in many ways,
"Nationalized" much of that project and monopolized the cultural
arena. The shift from self-proclaimed voluntary "national" culture
to "state" culture was followed by the emergence of
"counter-culture" movements of all sorts. The new cultural trends
revolted against the "invented" Zionist reading of the Jewish past
and de-constructed the hegemonic narrative of the "Ingathering
project".
KEMPNY, MARIAN
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Professor, Polish
Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
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Presentation Title:
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"Globalization
of Democracy and Conditions for Democratic Community in the Glocalized World"
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Presentation Abstract:
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Globalization and democracy
are concepts notoriously contested in their meanings. However, my intention
is not to provide an overview of the basic interpretative frames that are
imposed on democracy/democratization by social science, but to focus on a
selected approach to globalization in order to disclose why cultural
globalization and democracy intrinsically matter to each other. Undoubtedly,
the globalization processes have been transforming the conditions under
which territorial democracies operate nowadays; therefore, it is needed to
thoroughly discuss the concept of political community itself. Only by
examining a variety of factors connected with the mechanisms that shape
'community' under glocalized conditions will it be possible to define the
way in which at present democracy and cultural change influence each other.
MIRGA, ANDRZEJ
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Visiting Professor (Rutgers University), Chairman of the Project on
Ethnic Relations Romani Advisory Council, Princeton, NJ; a Kosciuszko
Fellow, Rutgers
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Presentation Title:
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"Deconstructing the Stigma--The Roma/Gypsies in Post-Communist
Context"
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Presentation Abstract:
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Can ethnic minorities such as the Roma/Gypsies enhance standards of
democracy and the democratization process? The thesis of the project is that
the Roma minority, as a powerless, despised, and stigmatized group, can
reveal or uncover the weak points in the newly emerged democracies in
Central Eastern Europe. Although it may sound heretical, the Roma minority
presents a real challenge for democracy in the region: under the impact of
both external (international institutions) and internal (Romani and non
Romani NGO's) pressures, the newly democratized states need to modify or
develop anew their minority-related policies. As they do so, the depth of
their democratic institutions and standards are tested and improved.
- The Roma minority poses a real challenge to the key values of democracy
defined by Diamond as "…moderation, tolerance, civility, efficacy,
knowledge, and participation." Since the dissolution of communism, the
Roma have been subjected to deadly violence by racist groups and mob
persecution at the local community level. They have also experienced
institutional and societal discrimination, exemplified by anti-Roma
hate-speech and negative stereotyping in local and national media well as by
police abuse. In addition, the Kosovo War, as the earlier Bosnian War,
proved that in "nationalistic" conflicts in mixed-population
areas, small ethnic groups (such as the Roma) often become scapegoats and
victims, as their "national" loyalties are perceived as
questionable.
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PELEG, ILAN
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Charles A. Dana Professor of Government and Law, Lafayette College,
Easton, Pennsylvania
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Presentation Title:
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"Democracy and Hegemonic Statehood. Israel and Other Cases."
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Presentation Abstract:
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The presentation focuses on ways in which "communal" (including
ethnic) democracies -- which are, by definition, limited and flawed --
transform themselves into either consociational or liberal democracies. The
routes through which the transformation occurs are empirically examined by
focusing on Israel and, to some extent, other cases. The Israeli case is
particularly instructive since it is a mixed model (rather than merely an
"ethnic democracy"), where communalism (a "Jewish State"
despite a binational reality) lives side by side with consociationalism
(especially within the Jewish sector). Both communal and consociational
arrangements are under serious challenge to liberalize, although communalism
is under mainly political pressure (e.g. the rise of Arab vote, the
appearance of human rights discourse) while consociationalism is assaulted
legally (especially by the Supreme Court). Several cases of historical
transformations are compared to the Israeli case (e.g. Canadian and Spanish
move from communalism to consociationalism, Poland's "nationalizing
state" prior to World War II), as well as some contemporary cases
(India, Sri Lanka, etc.).
ZAVIRSEK, DARJA
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Professor, School for Social Work, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
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Presentation Title:
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"Memory Work as 'Shadow Work' in Democracy"
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Presentation Abstract:
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The presentation focuses on different forms of memory work such as
fantasies, individual and collective memory as a form of remembering past
events, as well as a way of creating history and community. The paper
explores the individual memory and collective memory nexus as well as
individual and collective forgetfulness of the survivors of communist era
mental health hospitals and institutions for persons with disabilities.
Approaching memory from the micro-level perspective, allows one to realize
that in most post communist countries there are no testimonies of mental
health survivors, women escaping violence or persons with disabilities.
Their experiences are "events without the witness," since the
institutional staffs deny their personal experience, and they themselves do
not have any opportunities to share their experience in the public. Today
their experience still remains invisible.
- One of the most important issues in any work on collective memory is
"how institutions remember." How do institutions create a
normative theory? To answer these questions, one needs to find out how much
personal/individual memory differs from institutional memory. The right to
express and narrate personal experiences with institutions of the communist
past is one of the most important rights underpinning the democratization of
everyday life. The memory work is a part of the democratization process of
postcommunist societies, since one of the characteristics of these societies
is the collective forgetting, facilitated by the state institutions that
dominate the domain of memory formation. Memory work of persons whose
political subjectivity was denied in the past is especially important,
because their individual memories, that are now shared in a specific public
framework, help to create new collective identities of the emerging
disability movements. Only via the formation of their own collective memory
can the disabled create a community and thus claim political and civic
rights.
EXTERNAL FELLOWS
KOPELOWITZ, EZRA
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Lecturer, Department of Behavioral Sciences, Ruppin Institute, Israel
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Presentation Title:
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"Work in Progress Toward a New Paradigm for the Study of Religion in
Israel's Ethnic Democracy"
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Presentation Abstract:
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In this paper I develop a theory for determining the differences between
extreme and moderate political movements in ethno-democracies. The paper
draws exclusively on the Israeli experience, but I hope to use the ensuing
discussion as an opportunity to begin to think about the similarities and
differences between religion in the Israeli and Eastern European
ethno-democratic contexts. I focus on the question of why some religious
Jewish political movements are able to form coalitions with non-religious
groups, while others regard cooperation as problematic at best, or a
violation of religious doctrine at worst. Each movement constructs an
ideological boundary to distinguish itself from other religious and
non-religious groups. The boundary is the product of three factors: (1) The
role of the state in structuring the social organization of religion, (2)
doctrinal perceptions of the religious ramifications of political
cooperation with other Jews, and (3) the authority granted to each
movement's rabbinic leadership to determine the limits of cooperation. The
boundary dictates the logic of religious political action and guides an
analysis of the difference between moderate and extreme ethno-religious
politics.
LASUT, FILIP
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Junior Fulbright Fellow, Slovakia, associated with the CRCEES
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Presentation Title:
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"Phenomenon of Nationalism in Czech and Slovak Republics After
1989"
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Presentation Abstract:
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After the fall of the communist regimes, a new phenomenon has arisen in
many countries formerly belonging to the so-called Soviet Bloc. The ideology
of communism has been replaced by nationalisms in several cases which took
various shapes and forms of expression--some hidden some open and
unambiguous. Importantly, nationalism had always been latently present in
most of the former communist countries; therefore, its recent rise should
not be considered a completely new phenomenon.
- In my paper I focus upon the phenomenon of nationalism in the former
Czechoslovakia (until 1992) and in the newly formed national states--Czech
and Slovak republics (from 1993 to present). I compare the occurrence and
various forms of the studied phenomenon in the two republics, but I will
focus on the Slovak republic, where nationalism dominated the national-level
politics in the years 1992 - 1998.
VOROS, KATLIN
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Doctoral Candidate, Department of History, Central European
University, Budapest, Hungary
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Presentation Title:
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"Hungarian Jews and the 'Civic Religion' of Nationalism"
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Presentation Abstract:
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The primary chronological scope of the paper is the era of the
Austro-Hungarian Monarchy (1867-1914). The history of Hungarian Jewry in the
period is often considered to be "unique", inasmuch as there
emerged a "Western European Jewry" in an "Eastern
European" country based on a "social contract of
assimilation" between the Hungarian (national-liberal) ruling elite and
Hungarian (Reform) Jewry. The paper attempts to overcome the prevalent
conceptual dichotomies that often restrict discussions about the fundamental
and intricately interrelated questions of assimilation. Jewish identity and
(Hungarian) nationalism and offers an integrative approach within the
broader framework of political and social change. The paper addresses both
the Hungarian attitudes and policies towards Jews and the Jewish responses
to these policies, at different levels. The paper addresses also the
oft-mentioned puzzle of how Hungary, a "paradise for Jews," could
transform almost overnight (1918) into a country permeated with
anti-Semitism and exclusivism. Thus, the dual objective of the paper is to
demonstrate the significance of the historical, social, cultural or
"regional" context in interpreting assimilation, nationalism
identity or democracy and the relevance of history for our understanding of
the present state of affairs, for example in Hungary, where the "Jewish
question" as a social problem has recently re-emerged in the media.
RUTGERS FELLOWS
ALAMGIR, ALENA
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Graduate Student, Department of Sociology
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Presentation Title:
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"A History on Display: An Attempt at a Semiological and Sociological
Analysis of Collective Representations"
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Presentation Abstract:
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Using primarily the structural theories of Roland Barthes and
Claude Levi-Strauss this paper explores ways in which the Czech national
discourse creates its new - i.e., post- and non- communist and post-state
division, identity through modification of old identity/ties. In this
process, certain events, or aspects of these events, are neglected or
disregarded, while others are fore-grounded. A photographic exhibition
"10 Years After. . ." consisting of 48 photographs taken by
photographers of the most prominent Czech news agency is used as the
empirical material
on which the problems of identity formation, "invention of
tradition" and presentation of a collective Self are studied. The
analysis is not limited to the visual (pictorial) part of the exhibit, but
extends also to the written commentaries accompanying each picture. It
is further argued that since the exhibit is a meaningful whole it can be
analyzed as a
narrative. This narrative contains several subunits and displays
characteristics of a classical (anthropological) myth as described by Claude
Levi-Strauss, as well as of modern 'mythologies' as theorized by Roland
Barthes. Finally, the text attempts to build bridges between the
(hermeneutic) analyses of texts and the ways in which history and political
science analyze reality: while the text (narrative) is studied very closely
and interpreted according to its own inner logic, Todorova's rephrasing of
Derrida's famous question into "qu'est-ce qu'il y a de hors texte"
is also taken seriously.
GAYAZOVA, OLYA
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Graduate Student, Department of Political Science
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Presentation Title:
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"Expectations - The Yeast of Violence? The Role of Leaders'
Expectations in the Political Decisions Preceding Ethnic Wars. Cases of
Tatarstan and Chechnya."
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Presentation Abstract:
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Why did mass ethnic bloodshed erupt in Chechnya and not
in Tatarstan (the first Russian Federation's republic to issue the
Declaration of Independence)? This is an unanswered and in the West largely
overlooked question. In this paper I hypothesize a causal link between the
intensity of leaders' expectations about the prospective utility of violence
as a means of policy-making and the likelihood of the eruption of ethnic
wars. The hypothesis is researched within the frame of a systematic
comparison of the secessionist conflicts in Tatarstan and Chechnya. I
examine politicians' expectations related to the use of force and focus
mostly on the policies of the chief executives in Moscow, Grozny and Kazan.
In addition to a post-factum explanation for the non-violent but
palpable achievements of Tatarstan and the tragedy of Chechnya, I introduce
a theoretical model and claim it is generalizable to every case of
centrifugal tendencies and tensions.
MUSLINER, LOUISE
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Graduate Student, Department of Political Science
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Presentation Title:
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"Roma/Gypsies in Romania: A Legacy of Exclusion Based on
Myth"
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Presentation Abstract:
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This paper explores the differentiation between the myth of the 'gypsy'
and the reality of the Roma. The 'gypsy' is a complicated creation by
dominant cultures that marginalizes and criminalizes a group of people with
a diverse heritage. The Roma are attempting to reconstitute an image
combining some of the traditions that have passed into the mainstream as
'gypsy', as well as provide more complexity. However, the myths that provide
the image of the gypsy were not intended to identify an ethnic minority.
They were meant to identify and stigmatize an 'other' that could provide an
explanation for criminal populations. While the interaction between
Roma/Gypsies and different European groups is complicated, the view of the
gypsy is unchanging and monolithic. Eastern Europe utilized a degree of
nationalist rhetoric and sentiment to galvanize opposition forces against
Communist rule. During the transition from Communism, the Roma saw an
opportunity to finally begin participating in the political environment.
Difficulties arose from their lack of experience, from not participating in
the nationalist rhetoric before the fall of Communism and from perceptions
on both sides of the validity of the negative myths that comprise a stubborn
view of the Roma. To illustrate the problems for the Roma in attempting to
destigmatize themselves of the gypsy image, I use Romania as a case study
and in particular, an event in Bucharest in June, 1990. Protest movements
had been active in registering their displeasure with certain policies of
the ruling party, the NSF. After securing a victory at the polls, the
government brought in miners from the Jiu Valley to suppress the protest
movements. The action was justified by a further attack on Roma
neighborhoods, claiming that Gypsies were the cause of the growing crime
rate.
RUS, IONAS A.
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Graduate Student, Department of Political Science
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Presentation Title:
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"Variables Affecting Nation-Building: The Bukovinian Romanian Case
from 1880 to 1918"
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Presentation Abstract:
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In this paper, the author tests an amended version of a model previously
developed by him for the Bessarabian Moldovans/Romanians. This is
accomplished for a case in which nation-building produced generalized
nationalism. The Bukovinian Romanian-language elementary education system
was the key facilitator of nation-building, whereas the post-elementary
system was a catalyst for irredentism. Economic modernization
(industrialization, urbanization, etc.) mildly hindered nation-building,
while the neutral multi-national Austrian state played no significant role
either way. The process of nation-building did not affect ethnic Romanians
who did not use Romanian as their colloquial language.
TAUB, GADI
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Doctoral Candidate, Department of History
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Presentation Title:
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"Changing Conceptions: The Shift in
Israeli Ideas of the Relations Between the Individual and the
Collective."
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Presentation Abstract:
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Israel's conceptions of the nature of the relationship between the
individual and the collective have undergone a sharp and drastic change.
While less than a generation ago the public sphere was seen as the necessary
and legitimate arena of realizing one's potentials, contemporary literature
testifies to the coexistence of different world views. More and more we see
an opposition between the individual's right to self realization and the
demands of the collective. Read closely however, one finds not only a
yearning for liberation from suffocating collectivism, but also a mourning
of the loss of its force to bestow direction and coherence to individual
lives.
TUMURSUKH, UNDARYA
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Graduate Student, Department of Political Science
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Presentation Title:
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"Masculine Constructions of National
Identity and Man-Made Images of the Mongolian Woman in Post-Socialist
Mongolia."
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Presentation Abstract:
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Mongolia's successful establishment of liberal democratic institutions
has been accompanied by an equally successful intensification of the
conservative xenophobic discourse that projects a radically biologized
notion of the Mongolian national identity. This identity is centered around
a notion of the patriarchal control over Mongolian women's bodies and
sexuality as a precondition for preserving Mongolia's national security,
political sovereignty and cultural independence. Capitalizing on Mongolians'
deep-seated anxieties vis-à-vis its two neighbors and other powerful
states, conservative nationalists have inundated the public sphere achieving
a near-hegemonic power to decide what is legitimate and what is not in the
Mongolian society and, consequently, to constrain, if not to displace,
efforts to promote greater gender equity and equality in Mongolia and
advance more women-friendly versions of the Mongolian national identity.
CONVENERS AND ORGANIZERS
ARONOFF, MYRON
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Professor, Department of Political Science, Rutgers University
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Presentation Title:
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"The Americanization of Israeli
Politics and Realignment of the Party System."
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Presentation Abstract:
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In the past fifty years Israel has undergone dramatic demographic,
territorial, social, economic, political, and cultural changes. It has moved
from socialism to a market driven economy. The major politics parties have
moved from oligarchic selection of parliamentary candidates (reminiscent of
democratic centralism) to primaries, which involve a broad base of party
members in their selection. The political system has evolved from a pure
parliamentary system to a hybrid incorporating presidential direct election
of the executive. Election campaigns, formerly focused on party and issue
and relied on mass rallies and house parties. They are now run by American
consultants focusing exclusively on the candidate for premier and are
entirely media events. The executive, legislative, and judiciary are
becoming more independent of one another. Israel's political culture evolved
from one in which collectivism and voluntarism, expressed in the notion of chalutizut
(pioneering) symbolized the hegemony of labor Zionism to one in which core
Zionist beliefs are challenged in a competition between liberal civic and
militant ethno-nationalist alternatives to republican Zionism. These
challenges are due to a combination of global trends and indigenous forces.
Given the economic and political dependence of Israel on the United States
and the tremendous American cultural influence on Israel through the media
and academic institutions, the perception of Americanization (although
simplistic in its reductionism) is well founded and captures a part of
reality. Those who support this trend are proponents of liberalization and
an inclusive civic form of Israeli collective identity while those who
oppose it as a modern form of Hellenization (assimilation to Western
culture) support the more exclusive ethno-nationalism and revitalized
Zionism.
KUBIK, JAN
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Professor, Department of Political Science, Rutgers University
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Presentation Title:
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"Civil Society as a Discourse and as a Form of Social Organization
in Communism and Post-Communism"
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Presentation Abstract:
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There is an intriguing cacophony of opinions on the role of civil society
in post communist transformations. Consider the role of civil society as a
form of social organization. Some analysts believe civil society brought
about the downfall of communism, but disintegrated in the aftermath of
communism's collapse. Others diagnose a revival of civil society after 1989
(including this author). Furthermore, some writers construe civil society as
a necessary precondition of democracy (most prominently Ernest Gellner and
Robert Putnam), while others view it as a specific Western product that may
be irrelevant or even detrimental in non-Western contexts (for example,
British social anthropologist Chris Hann). Similarly, there is no agreement
among the "natives" and ethnographers/sociologists as to the
usefulness of "civil society" as a category of discourse developed
to navigate or understand post communist realities.
- In my presentation I will analyze some of these discussions, try to
untangle conceptual confusion that seems to underlie them, and offer some
observations on the role of civil society in democratic consolidation in
Poland, based on my own studies.
FERNANDEZ, ARIEL
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Doctoral Student, Department of Political Science, Rutgers University
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Presentation Title:
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"The Cultural Politics of the Development of The Black Public Sphere
in Cuba 1902-1990s."
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Presentation Abstract:
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The notion that Cuba is a country without a
historically significant race problem is false. This idea in its many
variations is still often heard among regular Cubans in day-to-day
conversation, but it is also an idea that is not uncommon in scholarly
circles. The reasons why this notion is so resilient are many.
For example, one reason for its long life is that it is based on a
theoretical approach to race that is excessively reliant on an erroneous
understanding of the function of race in the United States, which has
traditionally been the Latin American referent in regards to the judging of
race relations.
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- A culturalist theoretical
approach to thinking about race will reveal that Cuba has always had its own
historically unique system of racial understanding and subsequent racial
order characterized by systematic patterns of privileging and
disempowerment. Although since the advent of the Revolution, the Cuban State
has admirably dedicated itself to the principle of racial equality, it has
failed to fully “eradicate” these Cuban patterns of racial
understandings embedded as they are in the
“private” and “civil” societies of the nation. Consequently,
when we consider the country’s present conditions of profound economic
crisis—and Cuba’s subsequent adaptation of a tourist economy to address
this crisis—we find that the preexistent but “hidden” cultural grammar
of racial understanding has given rise to a problematic new racial
environment that is at odds with the nation’s view of itself as, if not a
racial democracy, then at least, a country for which race is indeed a
non-issue for its citizens.
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