SID Program News

Welcome to the Spring SID alumni e-newsletter! In this edition, we feature community members who work on health care reform, access to education, and urban ecology. We also include updates from Professors Richard Lockwood, Joan Kaufman, Maria Green and Attila Klein on their recent work in food security, human rights, ecology, and HIV/AIDs and public policy.

In late January, former US President Jimmy Carter addressed the Brandeis campus, and in the last few months the Heller School has hosted a few new programs, including the Philosophy Cafe and weekend Pro-seminars taught by distinguished outside scholars. Moreover, we have received good news that the Heller School/SID Program has been designated as a host institution for World Bank Scholars pursuing graduate degrees.

Carter Address
Dr. Mari Fitzduff, Professor of Coexistence and Director of the Master's Program in Intercommunal Coexistence, moderated the question and answer session during President Carter's visit to Brandeis. She commented that, "Two things were very energizing about the Carter debate. The first was that so many people cared enough to develop very challenging questions to President Carter about the many issues in his book with which they disagreed. The second was that the disagreements that many had with the President were dealt with in a manner that is consonant with democracy - i.e. the ordered demonstrations outside the venue, and the provision of a listening space inside the venue. Provision for both hearing and challenge space on issues with which we disagree is the essence of what democracy at its best should mean." (Watch the video streaming of the event.)

Philosophy Cafe
To create a space for discussion of the deep issues that affect development, SID and the Brandeis Philosophy Department inaugurated the Philosophy Cafe in mid February. In the tradition of the popular "philosophy for the people" meetings that started in a Paris cafe in the 1990s, Chair of the Philosophy Department Andreas Teuber led SID students on an exploration of thoughts, concerns and key questions, such as: Why do we do good? Who benefits more from doing good, the self, others, or both? Why are we engaged in development work? Do we really help the poor when we do development work or are we simply helping ourselves? What is the source of all motivations for doing right: are we responding to a divine call or is it simply an act of humanity?

SID Pro-Seminars
Following the first Pro-seminar on genocide by Gerry Kaplan, SID's Center for International Development (CID) hosted Dr. Abdullahi Ahmed An-Nai'im, Charles Howard Candler Professor of Law at Emory Law School, from Sudan. Drawing on particular examples from Africa, but using concepts and themes that are applicable anywhere in the world, the Pro-seminar from March 9-11 examined how notions of universal rights apply in vastly different cultural and religious settings. SID alums who have taken Professor Green's course on the Rights-based Approach will probably recall reading Dr. Nai'im's articles.

World Bank
Before leaving for sabbatical last December, SID Director and Professor Laurence Simon announced the good news that the World Bank selected Brandeis, specifically the Heller School/SID Program, as one of eight universities in the US, and one of only 54 in the world, as a host institution for World Bank Scholars pursuing graduate degrees. In the US, the Heller School is in the company of Columbia, Cornell, Duke, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, University of Chicago, and Williams.

The next SID alumni e-newsletter is scheduled for May 2007. We look forward to including your professional and personal news to share with the SID community. Write to us at sid@brandeis.edu.


Photo on front page: Rhoderick Samonte, MA 06, with Dr. An-Nai'im
Second photo above: Tamer Qarmout, MA 07, from Palestine, asking a question during the Carter Address
Third photo: Students and Professor Green in the Pro-Seminar with Dr. An-Nai'im