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NYU Global Leadership Summit 2016: Taking Action On The European Refugee Crisis

Posted on May 20, 2016, modified on May 18, 2016 by Martha J Bekink

The NYU Global Leadership Summit 2016: Taking Action on the European Refugee Crisis will be held in Prague from 21 – 24 May.

Global issues like the European Refugee Crisis demonstrate that the challenges of the 21st century are simply too large and complex to be solved by a select group of people. Our times call for a new approach to leadership – one that is ethical, inclusive, and collaborative. This is the challenge at the core of the Summit theme. A cohort of undergraduate students from across New York University’s campuses and global sites are invited to participate in weekend long, intensive leadership development program to rethink leadership as collective work and examine the European Refugee Crisis from a “systems” perspective. Summit participants will engage in peer-to-peer experiential learning workshops and learn from leadership development experts, as well as thought leaders, practitioners and policy makers.

We welcome everyone in the NYU community to join this global conversation to share questions, thoughts, and insights. Stay tuned to the dialogue on social media by following @nyuleads throughout the weekend! You can tweet @nyuleads and follow our hashtags #NYULeadershipSummit16 #NYUGlobalLeaders to see what Summit participants are talking about. Please direct any questions by emailing leadershipsummit@nyu.edu.

NYU Prague Student Robert Ramkishun Reflects on Ally Week 2016 in Prague

Posted on May 14, 2016, modified on May 18, 2016 by Martha J Bekink

This reflection originally appeared on the blog NYU Prague Now!. See the complete story and further photos there.

NYU Prague Student Robert Ramkishun recently commented on Ally Week 2016 in Prague:

“allyship (v.) is an active and consistent practice of unlearning and re-evaluating beliefs and actions, in which a person seeks to work in solidarity with a marginalized individual or group of people”

During the second week of April, members from the NYU community all over the world celebrated Ally Week. At NYU Prague, Ally Week Ambassadors Avi Grundner, Coty Novak, and Robert Ramkishun teamed up with NYU Prague’s staff to put together a series of events on various types of allyship. By highlighting the struggles and lives of different groups of traditionally marginalized peoples, both around the world and within the Czech Republic, students were able to increase their awareness of the individual and collective injustices many in society face and deepen their understanding about the experiences of others.

The week’s events included a screening of the documentary film “Czechs Against Czechs,” with a Q&A with the film’s director Tomáš Kratochvíl, a “Talk about Pride” on life as LGBTQ+ in Prague and around the world, a visit to the Invisible Exhibition, and a party at a local bar.

In “Czechs Against Czechs,” Kratochvíl, a member of the ethnic majority population in the Czech Republic, goes to live in a desperately poor ghetto in north Bohemia with a Roma, an oppressed ethnic minority, family. Along the way, he encounters far-right activists who organize anti-Roma demonstrations, as well as members of the public who don’t hide their hatred of the ethnic minority. During the Q&A, Kratochvíl and the students discussed a plethora of things, including the obstacles Kratochvíl faced in making the film and the parallels between Czech society and American society in how they treat ethnic minorities.

At the “Talk about Pride,” Tereza Pelechova, coordinator of Prague Pride, Petr Pavek, founder of LGBTQ+ club at Charles University, and Julie Koubova, an IT specialist at company in Prague, discussed life as LGBTQ+ in the Czech Republic and the obstacles many members of the LGBTQ+ community face in the country. In addition to discussing issues present in the Czech Republic, the NYU students in attendance were able to offer insight into what life as LGBTQ+ life is like in their respective cities and countries. During the talk, NYU Prague served food catered by Ethnocatering, an organization that employs migrants and uses all of its profits to aid their employees during the immigration process.

The Invisible Exhibition gave students a chance to understand what life without one of senses is like for one hour. During the exhibition, the students, with the help of a guide who was blind, had to rely on their sense of smell, touch, hearing, and balance in order to navigate various set ups including a kitchen, a forest, and a bar. The exhibition gave those who can see a greater understanding of what life is like for those who cannot and equipped them for some tools for assisting those who cannot see.

NYU Prague Students Learn from Former Political Prisoners

Posted on May 4, 2016, modified on May 2, 2016 by Martha J Bekink

NYU Prague students recently visited uranium mines and labor camps in Jachymov- a small town in Western Bohemia – where they met two Czechoslovak political prisoners who had been incarcerated there by the Communist regime in the 1950s.

NYU Prague worked closely with a nonprofit organization that is archiving the former prisoners’ stories. One of the prisoners hadn’t been back to the camp since 1955 when he attempted to escape by digging a tunnel. Hearing his first-hand testimonial was an eye-opening and emotional experience.

One NYU Prague student, Emily Bertha, wrote about the trip on the blog NYU Prague Now! You can read an excerpt below.

When I signed up for the Political Prisoners trip to Jachymov, I knew it was not going to be a weekend full of lighthearted laughs and unicorns. Yet I also knew meeting with former political prisoners imprisoned during the communist regime in Czechoslovakia was going to be an experience I wanted, and needed, to have.

We began the first day by visiting an old uranium mine where prisoners were made to work which quite frankly blew my mine. We hiked up a replica of horribly steep steps afterwards to visit the nearby site of one of the political camps. … We hiked past the lake to another political prisoner camp where a former prisoner, Mr. Tomík, was waiting to talk to us about his time in the camp.

Mr. Tomik had not been back to the camp since his escape in 1955. He dug a tunnel over the course of three months and escaped with nine other prisoners in November of that year. In order to keep the tunnel undiscovered by guards, they covered it with wood shavings since they dug it in a workshop in the camp. When they escaped, they sprinkled spices to hide their scent from the guards’ dogs. The escaped prisoners made it the woods, but eventually the group split. Mr. Tomik passionately told us how he was shot while trying to cross over to his next destination. He ran until he passed out; he woke up to a dog sniffing him. Mr. Tomik was taken to a prison in Slovakia where he was held until the prisoners were eventually liberated. His original crime? He was simply part of Catholic affiliated sports teams. He also was found playing with unloaded guns he discovered left behind by soldiers during World War II,and communists claimed he was attempting to protest the regime.

This is the fourth semester NYU Prague has organized this trip with an NGO called politicalprisoners.eu to educate the public about a little-known period of history whose victims are becoming fewer and fewer. The goal of the organization is to collect oral histories of those persecuted; NYU Prague students have also been working as interns to help collect the stories.

Gallatin Global Faculty Symposium on Migration held at NYU Prague

Posted on April 18, 2016, modified on April 12, 2016 by Martha J Bekink

Faculty from Gallatin joined academic colleagues from all of the NYU European sites, Tel Aviv and Accra for intensive discussions at a symposium entitled Human Migration and Nationalist Anxiety in March. There were a total of 27 faculty members present for the roundtable event, including Susanne Wofford, the Dean of Gallatin and NYU Vice President for Global Affairs Nancy Morrison.

This year, the current refugee crisis made the Gallatin symposium – which Gallatin has organized at different sites since 2013 – especially urgent. NYU Prague became the fourth European site to host the event; earlier symposia have taken place in Florence (on the politics of collecting); in London (on human rights); and in Berlin (on migration and national identity).

According to organizer Professor Patrick McCreery, Gallatin’s goal in sponsoring these events is two-fold: first, to create a conversation about topical issues that is high level, small-scale, comparative and interdisciplinary; and second, to build intellectual networks among NYU-affiliated faculty in many different locations. They are especially concerned to introduce faculty at the Gallatin School to colleagues with shared interests who are part of the University’s global network.

NYU Prague is increasingly becoming a place where people interested in the topic of migration are coming together. A number of NYU Prague faculty are researching issues related the migration and earlier this year the Prague site organized an international conference called Tackling the Refugee Crisis in Europe.

In addition to conferences, NYU Prague is in the process of exploring the possibility of setting up an academic program on migration. “This could be a European hub for research about migration, where ideas merge, activities get discussed. Prague is a natural location for this given our complicated history with emigration, immigration plus our proximity to Western and Eastern Europe,” noted Professor Vanda Thorne, Assistant Director of Academics at NYU Prague.

This year, the conference covered three areas: Experience and feeling (how do people perceive the migration issue?), Sovereignty (how do European states define their national identity?), and the rethinking of human rights in the context of Hannah Arendt and post WWI. Participants noted the many differences between American and Europeans points of view – the idea of nation states in Europe has a huge impact on the view of migration here, as does the history of Communism. Participants included experts on migration flow, gender, politics, media and law, in addition to a leading contemporary Arab playwright and a medieval historian who brought broader perspectives to the table.

Participants agreed that in 2017 the symposium could change its format and open up to a wider audience. “We want to connect our discussions with real life, tie what we are saying in to NGOs, and offer academic support for institutions dealing with this, to field organizations,” said Vanda Thorne.

NYU Prague Director’s novel chosen to be part of Reading Europe Campaign

Posted on April 7, 2016, modified on April 11, 2016 by Martha J Bekink

NYU Prague Director Jiri Pehe’s novel, Three Faces of an Angel, was chosen as one of the Europe’s “best indie novels” by British publishers for Reading Europe – a campaign against the so-called Brexit campaign. The campaign was featured in The Guardian and is one of many recently-launched programs led by UK artists concerned about what impact leaving the EU could have on British arts.

Reading Now is led by Dedalus Books, an independent British publisher to promote novels from EU countries that have been translated and published by UK independent publishers. The list includes 49 titles and intends to “let the reader know the literature, history and culture of each country better”. In addition to Jiri Pehe, authors on the list include Stefan Zweig (Austria), Eça de Queirós (Portugal) and Diego Marani (Finland).

Three Faces of an Angel tells the story of three generations of a Czech-German-Jewish family in the 20th century; the tragic events of this period of Central European history are intertwined with the characters‘ stories. In the forward to the book, Dr. Marketa Goetz-Stankiewitz writes that „the novel uncovers this turbulent period with its linguistic, national and racial complexities: its brutality occasionally tempered by humour, and ultimately its absurdity.“

Read the complete article in the Guardian here.

NYU Madrigal Singers in Prague

Posted on April 1, 2016, modified on March 31, 2016 by Martha J Bekink

The NYU Madrigal Singers, directed by Nancy Shankman, and the NYU Jazz Choir, directed by Ira Shankman, have spent a week on tour in Prague, sharing their love of music and singing to people from another language and culture.

“We decided to come to Prague, in addition to it being a wonderful city and good experience for our students, we wanted to connect with NYU Prague, since many of our music education students are studying there this semester,”explained Nancy and Ira Shankman, who organized a similar tour at NYU Abu Dhabi 4 years ago.

Concerts were presented at St. Martin in the Wall Church, in the Richter Palace of NYU Prague, and at a local Czech high school. “The students of the high school were very engaged, a wonderful audience, and some of them even came to other concerts,” said Shankman. The members of the choir, many of whom are music education majors, also are visited music classes at the International School in Prague.

One of the most exciting aspects of the project was the coming together of cultures through music. At the concert at St. Martin in the Wall Church, the NYU choirs performed with two Czech choirs: Antifona and Alikvotni Sbor Spektrum. “One of the choirs, the Alikvotni Sbor Spektrum, was very untypical of choral singing as we know it,” noted Nancy Shankman. “Their two-tone throat singing was a concept that was fascinating for both our two directors and all of our singers.”

At NYU Prague, the Madrigal Singers and the Jazz Choir were joined by the NYU Prague Vocal Ensemble – a choir made up of current NYU Prague students. “It was great having the choirs from New York here, especially as four of the members were NYU Prague alumni who studied here in our music program,” said Marta Fleischhansova, the music program coordinator. The NYU choirs were impressed by the quality of the NYU Prague choir, led by NYU Prague profesor Marek Valasek and made up primarily of music education students from Steindhardt.

The choirs perform all kinds of music, from classical to rock to musical theatre. The program on their Prague tour included classical music as well as pieces by Simon and Garfunkel, Steven Sondheim, John Lennon.

The tour was partly funded by the performances that the NYU Choirs do outside of school. The Music and Performing Arts Department also contributed funds to this project.

NYU Prague Conference on Refugee Crisis Includes Czech Minister of Human Rights and Equal Opportunities

Posted on November 30, 2015 by Martha J Bekink

Top experts and public figures gathered at NYU Prague to discuss the Europe’s most pressing issue at a conference entitled Tackling the Refugee Crisis in Europe. The Havel Classroom at NYU Prague was full to bursting to hear international experts discuss the topic, and an audience far beyond Prague participated via live streaming.
“As an American academic institution with numerous bases in Europe, NYU is in a unique position to open up this topic. We felt it was our responsibility to provide a space where ideas could be exchanged between academics from different cultures and professionals who are dealing with the issues directly,“ said Vanda Thorne, Assistant Director for Academics at NYU Prague, who organized the conference with Associate Director Thea Favaloro and NYU Prague Professor Salim Murad.
“Our crisis is a crisis of fear of the possible future – the idea of losing European values, though we don’t quite know which values we might lose,” said Czech Minister of Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Jiri Dienstbier. Fear is widespread in Europe and being used by many politicians to boost populist messages, he noted, and by a media to make sensational headlines.
panel with Minister Jiri Dienstbier
“Panelists were afraid of the word xenophobia, and they used the word fear instead,“ criticized NYU Prague student Ashley Sweeney, who spent part of her fall break volunteering on the Serbian border. NYU Prague Director Jiri Pehe challenged the panelists on their definintion of xenophobia – which, he noted, is defined as “fear of strangers.“ Minister Deinstbeir responded to the challenge by saying “I believe there is a difference between fear and hatred. But it may change very easily if we don’t offer good answers.“
The international voices included that of NYU’s Professor Rodney Benson (Steindhardt), author of an award-winning book comparing French and American migration. He joined leading political analysts Jacques Rupnik of Sciences Po in Paris and Muriel Blaive of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, as well as Arndt Freiherr Freyag von Loringhoven, the German Ambassador to the Czech Republic.
The conference was split into three panels, each looking at the issue from a different angle: the media portrayal of refugees, how the crisis has shaped concepts of national identity, and the governments’ role in communicating the refugee crisis to the citizens.
conference panel
The conference was not only for students at NYU Prague. NYU Prague invited other global sites to join us by screening the panels at other sites. “We want to make what we do here accessible around the world,“ said Martina Faltova, Assistant Director for Student Affairs at NYU Prague.
Videos of the conference have been posted on NYU Stream as well as the YouTube channel of the NYU Prague Institute for Democracy, Education and Culture. Please note that to access NYU Stream you must log in using an NYU Account (the YouTube videos do not require you to log in).
audience member asking a question
Tackling the Refugee Crisis in Europe – November 9, 2015
NYU Stream
Panel 1 : Media and Society (Chair: Salim Murad, Panelists: Rodney Benson, Tomas Lindner)
https://stream.nyu.edu/media/Tackling+the+Refugee+Crisis+in+Europe_Conference_part_1.mp4/1_dsvyfh27/20734521
Panel 2: Nations and Borders (Chair: Jiri Pehe; Panelists: Jacques Rupnik, Arndt Freiherr Freytag von Loringhoven, Muriel Blaive, Jan Urban)
https://stream.nyu.edu/media/Tackling+the+Refugee+Crisis+in+Europe_Conference_part_2.mp4/1_d5rd1lmo
Panel 3: Government and Citizens (Chair: Pavel Fischer; Panelists: Minister Jiri Dientstbier, Jan Machacek, Simon Panek, Tomas Zdechovsky)
https://stream.nyu.edu/media/Tackling+the+Refugee+Crisis+in+Europe_Conference_part_3/1_tgwv9wxp/20734521
YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-nA4hzkJbBN0-IVrmu0burTbzz00NrAl

Latest edition of PragueCast explores the theme “refuge”

Posted on November 24, 2015 by Martha J Bekink

<img alt="refugees at border crossing" src="https://wp.nyu.edu/global_dimensions/wp-content/uploads/sites/3335/2016/01/IMG_1762.JPG" width="640" height="426" /
The latest edition of the PragueCast is online! The theme is "refuge". It features an interview with a Syrian refugee in the Czech Republic, a look at NGOs helping refugees, what Czechs feel about Muslims and asylum-seekers, plus reportage from the Bapska-Berkasovo border crossing between Serbia and Croatia. Photos were taken by PragueCast member Ashley Sweeney at the Bapska-Berkasovo border crossing.
Listen/Like/Share here:
https://soundcloud.com/nyupraguecast
https://www.facebook.com/nyupraguecast/?
https://twitter.com/Praguecast
tents at border crossing ref=aymt_homepage_panel
children celebrating birthday at border camp

NYU Prague hosts Professor Michael Beckerman from the Department of Music at the College of Arts and Sciences

Posted on October 23, 2015 by Martha J Bekink

Michael Beckerman, a world-renowned musicologist specializing in Czech and Eastern European music, came to Prague as the keynote speaker at Sounding Czech, a conference on aural history organized by NYU Prague and The Center for European and Mediterranean Studies. The graduate conference addressed the role of sound and aurality in the histories of Bohemia and Moravia, bridging such diverse fields as musicology, history, literary and film studies, and oral history. It explored how the aural can contribute to historical knowledge.
Professor Beckerman is a leading expert on Czech composers; he has written books on Dvorak, Janacek and Martinu, and he is currently studying the music of Gideon Klein, a composer who wrote music in Terezin and died in a concentration camp. Last year he received an honorary doctorate from Palacky University in the Czech Republic, and he is also a recipient of the Janacek Medal from the Czech Ministry of Culture.
The goal of the conference was to investigate the relationship between sound and history, inviting academics to discuss such topics as the political uses of sound or music in a Czech context, the historical investigation of sites and moments in which sound or music has played an important role, the role of voice and voicelessness in Czech culture and history, Czech modes of sound transmission and audio technology, and language as a form of sound. It was organized by graduate students in history and musicology from NYU and University College London.
panelists

NYU Prague Responds to the Refugee Crisis in Europe

Posted on October 15, 2015 by Martha J Bekink

items for sale to support refugees
NYU Prague director Jiri Pehe has signed an open letter calling upon Central European intellectuals to show solidarity with the refugees and the rest of Europe, adding his name to a list of over 100 signatories that include Poland’s former presidents and former Czech, Lithuanian and Hungarian prime ministers.
“In the name of our humanity, our principles and values, we call upon the authorities and people of our region to demonstrate practical solidarity towards refugees so that they may find safe haven in our midst and enjoy freedom to choose their own future,” it said. The impassioned appeal has been making waves around Europe and was published in the Guardian, The Washington Post, and numerous other publications. The entire letter can be read here: https://euobserver.com/opinion/130323.
“I admire Jiri Pehe’s courage,“ said sociologist and NYU Prague professor Salim Murad. “His is one of the few voices in Czech media that advocates humanity, not hatred towards the refugees.“
As refugees start entering the Czech Republic in accordance with the recent decision by the EU, the issue is certainly not going to go away. To promote further dialogue NYU Prague is organizing a conference in November with leading political and academic figures – including the Czech Minister for Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Jiri Dientsbier, political scientists Jacques Rupnik and Muriel Blaive, and human rights activist Simon Panek, the director of People in Need – one of the largest human rights NGOs in Europe. “The conference will discuss the refugee crisis from three different perspectives – nations and borders, governments and citizens and media and society,“ said organizer Vanda Thorne, Assistant Director of Academics at NYU Prague.
At NYU Prague, students and faculty have also been initiating activities to help the Syrian refugees. “My students are so interested in understanding the crisis and comparing it to the situation in the US,“ said Professor Murad. “Tammy Hsu (Steinhardt 17) came to me with the idea of doing a charity drive and bake sale, and on the same day, Jiri Pehe asked me if I would help organize a discussion about the crisis for our students. Tammy and I decided to combine the two ideas and make September 23 a Day for Refugees at NYU Prague.“
“With the current refugee crisis happening right before us, it’s hard to ignore how many people’s lives have been affected,” said Tammy Hsu. “The Student Council organizes bake sales every semester and this semester we saw it fitting to do a charity bake sale to help the refugees even in the slightest.“ The bake sale raised over $200, which has been donated to a local charity that assists the refugeees.
Professor Murad invited experts from two local NGOs that work with refugees to NYU Prague to explain the situation of the migrants. Why is over 80% of Czech public is against having refugees from Syria? “Over 99% of the Czech population has never met a refugee or a Muslim… the fear is based on stereotypes propagated by the me-dia, and our political leaders are only adding to the hysteria,“ said Martin Rozumek, the Director of the Czech Organizaton for Aid to Refugees.
“I hope [the Day for Refugees] was a catalyst to conversations among NYU students about the current refugee crisis, and that we continue to become more informed,“ said Tammy.
Meanwhile, Salim Murad has invited Tammy Hsu to talk to his Czech students at the University of Southern Bohemia about her efforts to help the Syrian refugees. “Maybe we can inspire the Czech students to organize a Festival of Good Will similar to the NYU students‘ initiative.“
students listening to the panel