Institute for European Studies
Gazette
CORNELL UNIVERSITY
The ongoing debate in Europe over the commercialization of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) has raised questions as to the apparent differences between European and American public opinion in their respective concerns with food safety and the risks of genetic engineering.
Whereas some European activists point to a higher awareness for food safety and environmental protection among European consumers, U.S. officials claim that the recent food crises are due to thelack of trust of the European consumer in their regulatory institutions, and point to the absence of a European equivalent of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. As the debate heated up, positions tended to be oversimplified: the aggressive pro-biotech position of the U.S. government would be the result _ critics argue _ of the influence of powerful agribusiness conglomerates, which have invested heavily in agricultural biotechnology. On the other hand, EU reluctance to authorize the introduction of new genetically modified crops, or its emphasis on unambiguous labeling rules, is proof for its critics of the environmental movement's grip on European institutions, in the absence of a science-based regulatory framework.
The situation is, however, more complex, and the interests at stake less stable. To begin with, the `European' character of the anti-GM position is far from clear. Much of the protest against genetically modified foods has been carried out by national groups, and has depended on national political circumstances. (The opposition of the British Tories and conservative newspapers to genetically modified organisms, in an effort to erode Blair's public support, is perhaps a good example of the degree to which the anti-GM alliances have had their roots, and the conditions for their success, in national politics. The `mad cow' scandal created a propitious environment for the political use of food safety in the UK.) In fact, environmental and consumer umbrella organizations in Brussels were quite slow in picking up the GM issue, and did so only at the request of national groups that were already active in their respective countries.
Moreover, most of the decisions on this issue made by the European Council have been taken by a small, qualified majority of Member States. And critics point out that national, protectionist interests lie behind some of those decisions. In this sense the EU position can be described as the amalgamation of heterogeneous, national interests.
But within this heterogeneity it is still possible to discern some underlying elements of the EU approach to food safety and risk regulation. These elements may have a lasting significance for European politics. First of all, the resilience of the European position in the face of strong pressures from the United States and international organizations points to the increasing importance of the European public in shaping the international stance of its institutions. These international disputes help European citizens to perceive the EU as the true representative of their interests and concerns.
The representation of environmental concerns at the European level may be a second aspect of the transformations set in motion by the GMO debate. As noted above, much of the organized protest against GMOs has followed national patterns of mobilization, even when carried out by international groups. But it is equally true that these actions have often targeted European institutions, rather than national governments. Environmental activists, moreover, see in the anti-GM campaign the first example of successful transnational networking across Europe. The media has consistently presented this issue as a `European' one, and a truly European public opinion may be the most important element to come out of the debate.
Finally, the politics of the current controversy may help turn the `precautionary principle' into the central concept underlying the European approach to food regulation. In essence, this principle asserts the need for protective measures even in the absence of conclusive or definitive scientific evidence as to the expected effects of the actions or products under regulatory scrutiny. This principle has been recently invoked to justify the de facto `moratorium' on the introduction of new GMOs into the EU countries.
The concept of `precaution' is obviously flexible _ it was in fact originally intended to provide regulators with a large degree of discretion, and the extent of `scientific certainty' is more often than not contested _ but it serves to exemplify a qualitatively different approach to risk regulation, one that may take citizens' concerns into account in a new way, weighing and combining differently public opinion and scientific evidence.
It remains to be seen whether the GMO controversy, in its European version, will be able to cross the Atlantic and affect U.S. domestic politics. The density of European-American relationships, and the institutional framework set up by the New Transatlantic Agenda would seem to facilitate this diffusion. This new framework incorporates business, environmental and consumer groups in formal `transatlantic dialogues'. The idea is to provide an early-warning system for future trade disputes, and to incorporate important social interests into the framing and negotiation of harmonized regulations.
European environmental and consumer groups aim to use these `dialogues' as a vehicle to diffuse their position on GMOs to the United States, trying to establish new links with their American counterparts in order to set a common agenda on biotechnology. They aim, that is, to create awareness within the United States, in order to put domestic pressure on the U.S. government. This `triangulation' would be similar, they claim, to the one that American and European biotechnology industries, together with the U.S. government, have been effecting on the European institutions. But creating a common agenda on biotechnology among environmental and consumer groups across the Atlantic won't be an easy task. Differences in priorities and campaign strategies will become clearer in this process of negotiation, and may prove difficult to surmount. U.S. and European groups working on international trade have a long tradition of collaboration, but this is not the case in other environmental areas, such as biotechnology or food regulation.
The powerful economic interests supposedly driving the biotechnology revolution are hardly more homogeneous. The interests of `life sciences' companies with a heavy investment in genetically modified crops and agricultural biotechnology, do not necessarily coincide with those of pharmaceutical companies, which fear that a `spillover effect' of the GMO controversy may affect their business lines. European biotechnology industry lobbies have been less active than their American counterparts in challenging the anti-GM campaign. Divisions within industry also exist with respect to the viability of a strict labeling legislation for genetically modified organisms. In fact, the issue of labeling diversifies the economic interests at stake in the GM debate, as food processors and retailers may use the `GM-free' label for competitive advantage. Powerful British and French corporations have already pursued this strategy. In the United States, for example, Archer Daniels Midland now asks suppliers to segregate between genetically modified and non-modified crops, and will pay a premium for non-modified grain. As a consequence, new technologies for the segregation of GM and GM-free crops, and for the testing of genetically modified ingredients in processed foods are being developed, and economic actors are quickly repositioning themselves in this new scenario.
The traffic across the Atlantic is thus clearly complex and multidirectional. Positions and interests are in a state of flux. Below and beyond the formal conflict of governmental positions different social groups find ways of influencing each other, modifying public perceptions and preferences. The U.S. political system, in any case, is not an easy target for transnational influences, and it will be difficult for European activists to enroll their American counterparts in their strategies. But the opposition to genetically modified organisms has a long and complex history in this country, and the European debates have lent a new visibility to the efforts of American groups. The FDA itself has recently initiated public meetings to rethink its position on engineered foods, and 49 members of Congress have asked for a revision of the regulatory approach to GMOs _ which has been based on the principle of `substantial equivalence' between genetically modified and conventional crops _ and the introduction of new mandatory labeling rules. The notion of consumer choice _ the option not to consume genetically modified foods, which would require a strict labeling regulation _ is probably the principle most capable of traveling across the Atlantic.
Back in Europe, it is clear that the implications of the GMO debate go far beyond the regulation of a particular biotechnology sector. Together with other current controversies concerning food safety and environmental protection, this debate will help define what kind of polity the European Union will be. The definition of `acceptable risk' and `precaution' in environmental and health matters, the role of public concerns and citizen groups in shaping science policy, and the extent to which these principles will determine the participation of the EU as a coherent actor in the international arena, may become some of the features of this emerging political entity.
One of the many functions of IES is to coordinate information on the many programs and projects in European studies underway throughout the array of schools and departments at Cornell. The Central and Eastern European Program (CEEP), developed by the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and the International Programs in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences provides Cornell University with ties to eighteen academic and research institutions in Hungary, Poland, and the Slovak Republic, and is unique among universities in the United States.
In 1997, CALS and IAP launched an initiative with Central European countries to foster the sustainable development of rural communities, with an emphasis on agricultural and environmental resources. The goals of this initiative are to develop programs which promote institutional strengthening of Cornell University and cooperating institutions in Central and Eastern Europe; engage researchers in multidisciplinary approaches to solving problems; and promote research, education and extension/outreach services that are immediately and visibly useful to both the public and the private sector.
An initial planning workshop, "Agricultural and Rural Development: Restructuring, Modernization and Competitiveness," held in Sielinko, Poland, in 1998, identified five priority areas: rural development; environmental issues; quality assurance and safety of agricultural and food products; agricultural market economics; and biotechnology. The second workshop, held in Ithaca, New York in 1999, involved the Sielinko planners and a Cornell and Central European coordinator for each of the five focus areas, and established working groups for each area. Funding for both workshops was provided as part of a three-year planning grant by the Alfred Jurzykowski Foundation and CALS.
Two working groups, Biotechnology and Agricultural Market Economics, have received funding from NATO to support their activities. In October 1999, a NATO Advanced Research Workshop on "The Use of Agriculturally Important Genes in Biotechnology," organized and directed by Prof. Geza Hrazdina, (Food Science-Geneva) was held in Szeged, Hungary. Dr. Janos Pauk of the Cereal Research Non-Profit Company of Szeged was the co-director. Participants included scientists from Hungary, Poland, the Slovak Republic, the Czech Republic, Romania, Croatia and Slovenia. Cornell participants included H.S. Aldwinckle (Plant Pathology-Geneva), Jim Haldeman (IAP), Minou Hemmat (Horticultural Sciences-Geneva), Richard Cahoon (CIT) and Geza Hrazdina. The five sessions included Genetic Engineering of Crops, Genome Analysis, Plant Transformations, Breeding for Resistance, and Legal Aspects of Biotechnology. Additional funding was provided by IAP and Hungarian sources. CEEP has received funding for a second NATO Advanced Research Workshop, on "Economics of the Dairy Industry in Central and Eastern Europe," to be coordinated by Prof. Loren Tauer (ARME).
In December 1999, Cornell University, August Cieszowski University and Warsaw Agricultural University in Poland, the Slovak Agricultural University, and Hungary's University of Agricultral Sciences hosted a multidisciplinary conference on rural development in Poprad, Slovak Republic. Prof. David Brown (Rural Sociology) directed this project, which attracted over eighty scholars and policymakers from the U.S. and Europe for a three-day discussion of rural development in Central and Eastern Europe, to establish high-priority research issues and form a research network for future collaboration. Funding was provided by the Farm Foundation, the Open Society Foundation, USDA-CREES, and Cornell University.
The Environmental Issues working group, directed by Prof. Harold Van Es (Soil, Crop, and Atmospheric Sciences), is proposing a five-year program which includes an international conference in 2000 to assess the current status of research related to best management practices for environmental protection, and the framework for outreach and extension in each country. The Quality and Safety Assurance of Agricultural and Foods Products working group, directed by Prof. Robert Gravani (Food Science), will design an action plan to improve the quality and strengthen the safety of food to reduce the risk of foodborne illness. Prof. Ralph Obendorf (SCAS) is developing a distance-learning course on soils, in cooperation with the vice-rector of August Cieszkowski University, and the rector of Olsztyn University of Agriculture, Poland.
Reports of the above workshops, as well as information on ongoing projects and developments, can be obtained through the IAP office at 255-2283, or e-mail Jim Haldeman (jeh5@cornell.edu) or Denise Percey (dmp3@cornell.edu.)
George Gibian, 1924-1999
European Studies has lost a dear friend and a treasured colleague. On 24 October, 1999, George Gibian, Professor of Russian Literature at Cornell since 1961, died suddenly in the home that he shared with his longtime partner, Karen Brazell. George’s life was unusually rich, reflecting when and where he lived; who he was; what he saw firsthand; and who he became. George was born in Prague in 1924. With the Munich Agreement and its guarantee of a German takeover of Czechoslovakia, George was sent to England—for safety and for his studies. In 1940, after a harrowing journey across the Atlantic, the Gibian family settled in the United States. A Europe in war, however, beckoned George to return. He did so as a member of the 94th Infantry Division—which landed in Normandy in 1944, participated in the Battle of the Bulge, and then, at the end of the war, was assigned to occupy the southern part of Czechoslovakia. George was decorated with the Bronze Star with the V device for Valor. By the age of twenty-one, therefore, George had experienced a great deal from a remarkable array of vantage points—as a central European, as a victim of Hitler who managed to escape, as an emigrant to the United States, and as a member of the Allied forces. His life combined the extremes of the Euratlantic experience in a turbulent period. After receiving his Ph.D in English from Harvard University, George taught at Smith College, Amherst College, and the University of California at Berkeley before joining the faculty at Cornell in 1961. In the process, he again demonstrated his remarkable capacity for change—in this instance by shifting his specialization from English to Comparative Literature and Russian Literature. Indeed, his contributions to Russian literature were foundational. Over the course of his lifetime, he wrote and edited twenty books and published ninety articles. He will be best remembered by students and faculty alike for his “Critical Editions” of the classics of Russian Literature for W.W.Norton.
While an undeniable part of his story, these facts do not capture adequately the George Gibian we knew and valued. Here, what stands out are three characteristics. One was his sheer level of activity, intellectual and physical. Just as he was ever ready to develop new courses that tapped into aspects of Russian and east-central European culture, so he was until his sudden death an ardent traveller, hiker, and tennis-player. This was a man who was most comfortable when his body or his mind—even both— were on the move. Another characteristic: George always managed to make things around him more interesting. His engagement with people and ideas was infectious. Finally, perhaps most rare was his humility. He was too fair-minded and too full of curiosity to pull rank. He was a good listener and a ready student. He enjoyed his life and those lucky enough to know him. He was as interested as he was interesting. We will miss him.
Valerie Bunce
Chair Dept. of Government
VISITORS
Anna Eliasson (1998-99) Columbia University, is nearing completion of her dissertation on security policy choices of small states in western Europe. Her other research interests include the role of regional institutions in implementing and consolidating domestic economic reforms, with a particular focus on western Europe and Latin America. Ms. Eliasson also holds a Peace Studies Graduate Fellowship.
Elena Iankova is a Research Associate with the Institute for European Studies. Dr. Iankova has a grant with Peter Katzenstein (Govt) from the National Council for Eurasian and East European Research for a study of the eastward enlargement of the EU. They also received a 1999-2000 German Marshall Fund Award.
Oleg Proskurin (1998-2000) is Associate Professor of Russian Literature at Moscow Pedagogical University. He is an expert on nineteenth-century Russian literature, and during his stay at Cornell he is working on a project entitled "Between New Rome and New Jerusalem: Political Mythology, Rhetoric of Power and Russian Literature in the Early Nineteenth Century."
Dietmar Schirmer is DAAD Visiting Professor of Government. He is an expert on European politics and culture who teaches at the Freie Universität in Berlin. He teaches two courses each semester on European topics.
Uschi Backes-Gellner (March - August 2000) is a Professor of Business Administration and Director of the Institute of Personnel Economics at the University of Cologne, Germany. She is also co-director of the Institute for Small and Medium Size Enterprises, Bonn, Germany. In 1998 she received the Albertus Magnus-Best Teaching Award of the University of Cologne. She has published Betriebliche Bildungs- und Wettbewerbsstrategien im deutsch-britischen Vergleich (Corporate Training and Production Strategies - a comparison between Germany and Great Britain and Personalökonomie. Fortgeschrittene Anwendungen für das Management (Personnel Economics, Advanced Textbook), with Edward Lazear and Birgitta Wolff, will be forthcoming in 2000.
Winand Gellner (March - August 2000) is a professor of political science at the University of Passau, Germany. His research focuses on political parties and interest groups in Germany and political think tanks in the US and Germany. He also works on issues of equal access to radio and television broadcasting.
REGIONAL FELLOWSHIPS
The Regional Visiting Fellows Program of the Institute for European Studies promotes cooperation between Cornell University and regional two- and four-year colleges by providing support for faculty in all areas of modern European studies to engage in research and curriculum development. The fellowships, which include library privileges, an e-mail account, and full inclusion in all IES-sponsored events, are currently available to full-time and part-time continuing faculty at SUNY-Cortland, Ithaca College, Wells College, Elmira College, Tompkins-Cortland Community College and Broome Community College for a term of up to three years.
Thirteen area faculty from six disciplines have been awarded fellowships for the 1999-2000 academic year. Applications for the 2000-2001 program will be available in February through the IES office. Application deadline: May 1, 2000; appointments effective July 1, 2000.
Binghamton University
Alan Weber, Research Associate of English
Elmira College
Lynne Diamond-Nigh, Associate Professor of Romance Languages
Gerald C. Parkhouse, Corning Glass Professor of International Business
Robert Shephard, Associate Professor of History
Hartwick College
Nameeta Mathur, Dr. Jacob Jimeson Teaching Fellow of History
Ithaca College
Mairead Byrne , Lecturer of English Literature
Aida Hozi, Assistant Professor of Politics/Government
Jelena Stojanivic, Assistant Professor and Gallery Director of Art History
Zenon V. Wasyliw, Associate Professor of History
John Wolohan, Associate Professor of Exercise Science
SUNY-Cortland
Gordon Beadle, Professor of History
Kathryn Kramer, Assistant Professor of Art History
Sanford Gutman, Professor of History
Wells College
Cynthia J. Koepp, Associate Professor of History
UPCOMING EVENTS and PROGRAM NEWS
Conferences
The End of Art: Aesthetics and Knowledge after Hegel, a conference organized by Peter Gilgen, Department of German Studies, will convene March 31 - April 1, 2000 in the Guerlac Room, AD White House. Kizer Walker, Department of German Studies, is organizing a conference on The Great War and the New Century: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on World War I which will take place April 28 - 29, 2000 in the Guerlac Room of the AD White House.
Einaudi Chair
María Jesús Buxó i Rey, Professor of Anthropology at the Central University of Barcelona and Einaudi Chair in European and International Studies for 1999-2000 delivered this year's Einaudi Lecture on September 28. She spoke on "Fields of Passion: Anthropology, Ethnicity and Violence" which will soon be available as a Working Paper. She spoke to other groups on campus as well, giving a lunchtime seminar in Latin American Studies on "Security of Children in the Streets: Examples from Latin America." She addressed the Anthropology Colloquium Series --"On Risk and Security," graduate students in the Architecture Department --"City Development and Identity in Barcelona" and graduate students in City and Regional Planning-- "Gardens of Barcelona." In the fall semester she taught a course entitled "Intercultural Ethnoscapes: Spain and America" (Anthro 280/Latino Studies 280, Latin American Studies 280). Professor Buxó reached far beyond her class, counseling students from Cornell Abroad who plan to study in Spanish universities and Ph.D. students from Government and Anthropology who plan to do comparative studies between the US and Europe or are working on topics related to cognitive and symbolic anthropology. She also advised and critiqued research projects to be developed in Barcelona and the Mediterranean area, and in addition wrote letters so that those students might access the Spanish universities and connect with professors in Spain.
The Einaudi Chair for 2000-2001 will be Angelo Torre, Professor at the University of Genoa, Italy. Torre teaches early modern history and the history of modern Historiography. Since 1992 he has co-directed the "Seminario Permanente di Storia Locale" and in 1997 received the prize of the Turin Academy of Sciences for the book Dalla Comune alle "Annales" with co-author L. Allegra. He will offer a course in the History Department next fall, titled "Practicies and Collective Identites in Olde Regime Europe."
Program in French Studies Conference.
French Histories of Sexualities: From Second Sex to Parity and Pacs. Organized by Anne Berger, Romance Studies, the conference featured Michèle Riot-Sarcey, well known historian of women and the political sphere, Anne Garréta, professor of 18th-century literature, writer and specialist in queer studies, Peggy Kamuf, who spoke on Judith Butler's work and Beauvoirian feminism from a "deconstructive" perspective, Judith Mayne, a film studies specialist, and Ranji Khanna who works on women, the Maghreb and post-coloniality. The conference culminated in a roundtable, on November 5th and 6th, 1999.
A.D. White Professor
A.D. White Professor-at-Large Haris Silajdñiƒ, Co-President of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia-Hercegovina, spent a week at Cornell in October, when he gave a public lecture on "Bosnia's Road to Europe: Opportunities and Obstacles," visited several classes, and met with groups of undergraduates in European Studies as well as faculty members. He also addressed the Peace Studies Program seminar on "The Dayton Accord: When Does a Peace Treaty Become Maltreatment?"
Canadian Studies
In collaboration with the Peace Studies Program, and with support from the Canadian Consulate in Buffalo, IES sponsored three lectures: Daniel Weinstock (U. of Montreal) took "Another Look at Constitutionalism and Secession"; and Jack Granatstein, Director and CEO of the Canadian War Museum, gave a public lecture on "Who Killed Canadian History?", followed by a PSP seminar on "Why Does Canada Need a War Museum? The Politics of Public History." Two members of the Consulate staff, Kerry Mitchell and Daniel Kolundzic, joined us for the latter event.
Eurosim 2000
his year 13 students participated in the annual Eurosim Model European Union conference held in Prague. Cornell students teamed with students from European universities to represent Sweden and Ireland. The conference, which took place over winter break from January 9th to the 12th, is hosted by the New York State Consortium for Model European Union Simulations (NYSCEUS) and alternates yearly between sites in Europe and New York state. This year's simulation involved a simulated Intergovernmental Conference of European leaders to reform the European Union's foreign policy making apparatus. Students served as European heads of state, foreign ministers and worked on various Council of Minister committees, working groups and parliamentary committees to address greater cooperation and coordination of policies and institutional reform of the EU. Students also worked to solve a surprise, mock foreign policy crises involving tensions in Cyprus. As one participant Aleksander Ejsmont (Govt/History '01) noted, "The conference not only enhanced our understanding of the functions - and limits - of the European Union's decision making process, but also gave us the opportunity to engage in discussion with students from throughout Europe and the United States."
Special Exhibition
From August 15 to October 26, Cornell University Library will host Living and Reliving the Icelandic Sagas, a traveling exhibition of manuscripts narrating the thousand-year history of the Icelandic saga. This exhibition, cosponsored by the National and University Library of Iceland, the Library of Congress, the Icelandic Collection of the University of Manitoba Library and the Fiske Icelandic Collection of the Cornell University Library, will display rare manuscripts, many from the 17th and 18th centuries, never before seen in North America. The collection will be on display only in Reykjavíc, Washington, D.C., Ithaca, NY and Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Symposium
An international symposium, The Saga Literature and the Shaping of Icelandic Culture, we be held on May 24th and 25th in the Mumford Room of the Library of Congress, to coincide with the opening of the manuscript exhibition in the Jefferson Building. Fifteen scholars from North America, Europe and Australia will speak on the influence of the Icelandic sagas on western civilization in the past millennium. The symposium proceedings are open to the public. An archaeological exhibition at the National Museum of Natural History, West-Viking: the North Atlantic Saga, presented by the Arctic Studies Center, will open on April 29th.
For further information on the exhibition, visit the Fiske Icelandic Collection website at http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/fiske, or contact Patrick J. Stevens, Curator, (607) 255-3530, e-mail fiskeref@cornell.edu.
STUDENT NEWS
Jana Hranaiova (Sicca 1995, Dept. of Agricultural, Resource and Managerial Economics) published a Working Paper, July 1999 - Price Behavior in Emerging Stock Markets: Cases of Poland and Slovakia.
Alexei Soshnin with William Tomek and Harry de Gorter, Dept. of Agricultural, Resource and Managerial Economics Published a Working Paper, August 1999 - Elasticities of Demand for Imported Meats in Russia.
Sharon Chaitin (2000) has shared the 1999-2000 Francis Tomasic Prize for best honors proposal. Sharon is in the College Scholar Program and is also enrolled in the Modern European Studies Concentration. Her proposal is an anthropological study of Tribunaux d'Instance in Paris.
Beate Sissenich (Sicca 1998, Government) spent the fall semester at the European Trade Union Institute, where she did dissertation research on EU enlargement and the transposition and implementation of the EU social acquis in Poland and Hungary. She will spend the spring semester at CEU Budapest. She plans to interview representatives of labor and employer organizations and government officials on the process of preparing for EU accession in the social policy field.
Frederick Conger Wood Fellowship
The Wood Fellowship (Woodies) funds undergraduates who wish to conduct research in Europe during the summer following their junior year. Applicants submit an independent research proposal that is supported by a faculty advisor and which usually provides the basis for a senior honors thesis. The Institute for European Studies thanks Frederick Ahl (Classics), Dietmar Schirmer (Government) and Elena Iankova (IES) for their time spent evaluating this year's applicants. The committee selected five outstanding students to receive the Frederick Conger Wood Fellowship for summer 2000.
Jennifer Baker is a junior in the College of Human Ecology, majoring in Nutritional Sciences. A recent transfer from Vanderbilt University, Jennifer came to Cornell in order to better pursue her research interests in the incorporation of molecular aspects of nutrition into the study of chronic disease in populations. Through her Wood Fellowship, Jennifer will participate in the analysis of data from a twins study conducted at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, which will focus on the possible heritability of various risk factors in coronary heart disease. She will be working with Dr. Geraldine McNeill of the University of Aberdeen Department of Medicine and Therapeutics. Her faculty mentor at Cornell will be Patricia Cassano, a Senior Research Associate in the Division of Nutritional Sciences of the College of Human Ecology.
Molly Duggins is a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences. In addition to her major in Art History, Molly is also a participant in the College Scholar Program. Her Wood Fellowship will fund archival and architectural research in Paris and its environs on her topic of Monstrous Creations: Medieval Interpretations of Indian Art as Transmitted through Travelers' Tales of the Twelfth through the Fourteenth Centuries. Her summer research will follow a spring semester at Sarah Lawrence College in Paris, and will provide the foundation for her senior art history honors thesis. Her faculty advisors at Cornell will be Robert Calkins and Kaja McGowan of the Art History Department.
Saúl Mercado is an Anthropology major in his junior year in the College of Arts and Sciences. Through his Wood Fellowship, he will be conducting an ethnographic study at the Universitat de Barcelona under the supervision of Professor María Jesús Buxó i Rey, the Institute for European Studies' current Einaudi Chairholder. The study will explore the issue of bilingualism in Barcelona, with a concentration on the interactions and tensions between Castillian and Catalan. The first significant research in this area since the publication of Kathryn Woolard's Double Talk in 1979, Saúl's project will also address the use of Castillian and Catalan in the Spanish media. Saúl is also the recipient of a Mellon Minority Fellowship through Cornell University.
Melissa Mortazavi is a junior pursuing a double major in Government and Theater in the College of Arts and Sciences. Her Wood Fellowship will fund a research project entitled Revisioning the Hegemonic Soul: Thatcherism to Blairism and the 21st Century. Topics will include the future of British social democracy, and the effects of recent changes in British political direction on the future of the EU. Melissa, working under the supervision of Dietmar Schirmer, DAAD Professor at Cornell, will conduct interviews in London, Scotland, and Brussels.
Damon Williams is completing his junior year as a Religious Studies major in the College of Arts and Sciences. He is particularly interested in the study of contemporary monasticism as both a religious vocation and a sociological phenomenon, and recently completed a five-week term as a "student" monk at the Mt. Saviour monastery in Big Flats, New York. Through his Wood Fellowship, Damon will conduct fieldwork in two recently founded progressive European monasteries, the Europakloster in St. Gilgen, Austria, and a Buddhist-Christian monastic community in the city of Wurzburg, founded by Father Willgis Juger, in the capacity of Mönch auf Zeit ("monk for a time.") The information gained from his role as participant observer will form the basis of his senior honors thesis. He will be working with Jane Marie Law, Krusen Professor of World Religions.
FACULTY NEWS
David Brown (Rural Soc) was elected President of the Rural Sociological Association.
Val Bunce (Govt) was named President-elect of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies (AAASS) at their fall meeting in St.Louis.
Peter Dear (STS) and Mary Jacobus (English) were awarded NEH fellowships.
Art Groos (German Studies) was awarded a Humboldt Prize for research in Germany.
Peter Holquist (History) is a Fellow at the Hoover Institute, Palo Alto.
Scott McMillin (English) shared the Sohmer-Hall Prize for outstanding work in early English theater and staging.
Walter Pintner (History) retired in December and has moved to California.
Sheryl Reiss (History of Art) has been awarded a Renaissance Society of America research grant.
Dan Schwarz (English) won a Stephen H.Weiss Fellowship Award for excellence in teaching.
Sid Tarrow was elected to the Executive Committee of the European Community Studies Association (ECSA), where he chairs the Committee on the Network of EU Centers.
Several Cornell faculty, affiliates and graduate students will be attending the Twelfth International Conference of Europeanists this spring, either as a presenter, discussant or chair of a session. They include Julie Hemment (Anthro), Aida Hozic ( IES Regional Visiting Fellow), Peter Katzenstein (Govt), Jonas Pontusson (Govt and IES) and David Rueda (Govt).
OUTREACH
For the 1999-2000 year, the IES outreach office launched two major initiatives to promote greater cooperation between Cornell and area educators at all levels. Our Regional Visiting Fellows program, which welcomed its first 14 participants from five area colleges on Dec. 1, will help area Europeanists increase contact not only with colleagues at Cornell, but with each other. The new IES Summer Research Associate Program will provide access to Cornell libraries for faculty at more distantly located institutions. See the Grants and Fellowships section of the Gazette for more information on both opportunities. In addition to these initiatives, IES outreach has met with representatives of European programs at SUNY-Cortland, Ithaca College, and Tompkins-Cortland Community College; a reception for area faculty in Central/East European Studies in honor of Grzegorz Kolodko, former Finance Minster and First Deputy Minster of Poland, included representatives of several area programs.
Social studies teachers throughout New York State are working to implement new state guidelines for the 9th-10th grade global studies curriculum. IES, in collaboration with the other area studies programs of the Einaudi Center, is working to help educators prepare for the change. We began our Fall activities calendar with a workshop for area teachers on Chronology vs. Area Studies in the Global Studies Curriculum on Sept. 1st; this was followed by the organization of a panel discussion, Global Studies or World History? which was presented at the Mid-Atlantic World History Association conference Oct. 1-2 in Fredonia, NY. Participants included Pat Wasyliw, IES Outreach Coordinator, Mary-Therese Pasquale-Bowen and Colleen Ledley of Ithaca High School, and Zenon Wasyliw, Assistant Professor of History and Director of Social Studies Education at Ithaca College. On September 23rd, Maria Zezina, professor of History at Moscow State University, led a workshop for area social studies teachers on Teaching History in the Old Soviet Union and the New Russia, at Ithaca High School. IES also provided speakers and an informational booth at the Southern Tier chapter of the New York State Language Teachers Association, which met at the DeWitt Middle School in Ithaca on Sept. 18.
Upcoming outreach events include participation in Paradigms in World History: Global Studies and World History, a SUNY Conversation in the Disciplines to be held at Binghamton University March 3-4; providing speakers for the Central New York Social Studies Association teacher- training workshops in Syracuse, NY, April 4; and providing speakers for area global studies and language classrooms throughout the year. The 2000 Summer Institute for High School Teachers will be held during the last week of June. The topic, A European Historian Becomes a World Historian, will feature Jean Quataert, Professor of History at Binghamton University.
Summer Research Opportunities at Cornell
In June 2000, IES will inaugurate a new program to support research in modern European studies at the Cornell University libraries. The IES Summer Research Associate program will provide free near-campus housing and library privileges for a period of one or two weeks in the month of June. This program is open to all full- or part-time continuing faculty at any U.S. college or university. Applicants must submit a 2-3 page prospectus outlining the research project and explaining the significance of access to the Cornell collections. Preference will be given to applicants whose research make use of the special collections at Cornell, and who are not in close geographical proximity to Ithaca, New York. Guidelines and application forms will be available on the IES website and from the IES outreach office by February 1, 2000. All applications must be received by April 1; notification by May 1. Further information on the special library collections at Cornell may be obtained by visiting the Cornell Libraries website at http://campusgw.library.cornell.edu/. For more information, contact: Pat Wasyliw, (607) 255-7592.
Now that we have all safely negotiated the treacherous passage to a new century, we can shed any lingering fin de siècle gloom or doom and look forward to new directions and new opportunities. The future activities of IES depend in some measure on the outcome of the Title VI competition; our application was submitted with a whole day to spare, and we are grateful to all the faculty and staff who put in so many overtime hours to compile, read, criticize, rewrite, format and print the document. We should hear the official verdict in late spring. In the meantime, an IES planning committee has been formed to develop recommendations for strengthening the study of Europe and for supporting faculty research and curricular innovation.
Our exchange agreement with the University of Turin has generated a number of spring activities: political scientists Massimo Salvadori and Francesco Tuccari will visit Cornell in February and April respectively; in March Jonas Pontusson and Angelo Picchierri will lead a conference in Turin on Production cultures and the politics of labor-market regulation in Europe and the US, and in May historians Larry Moore and Maurizio Vaudagna host a conference on The American Century, also in Turin.
Here on campus, Outreach Coordinator Pat Wasyliw has developed new ties between IES and the Central and East European Program in the College of Agriculture. One of several fields of interest is biotechnology, an area of great strength at Cornell and where Europe is playing a significant and sometimes unpopular role! In this issue we feature a short essay by Science and Technology graduate student Javier Lezaun on the impact of European consumers on American industry. Pat is also working hard to make Cornell's resources accessible to colleagues in regional colleges and high schools.
In January we welcomed Shanna Rock, who will be working on our publications and who helped to redesign this Gazette. Shanna is a student in Corporate Communications at Ithaca College, majoring in Organizational Communication, Learning and Design. Teresa Tenorio, a Biology and Society major, joined our staff last fall as a student assistant. Jonas Pontusson will complete his four-year term as IES Director in June, and is looking forward to fewer meetings and more time in the library. I shall be on leave this semester in Florence, a true hardship post.
Susan Tarrow
The following working papers are available from the Institute for European Studies for $4.00 (please add $1.50 for shipping). All orders must be prepaid; make checks payable to Cornell University and mail to the Institute for European Studies, 120 Uris Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853. For a complete list see our website: www.einaudi.cornell.edu/europe.
Institute for European Studies Working Paper Series - 1999
99.1 Iankova, Elena. Converging with Europe? Central and Eastern Europe's Return to Capitalism.
99.2 Hirashima, Kenji. The Road to Public Deficit: A Comparative Institutional Analysis of Post-war Japanese and German Economic Policy. This paper is only available through the Columbia International Affairs Online
San Giacomo Charitable Foundation Working Paper Series - 1999
99.1 Tarrow, Sidney. Mad Cows and Activists: Contentious Politics in the Trilateral Democracies.
99.2 Rodriguez, Eunice, Pedro Gallo de Puelles and Albert J. Jovell. The Spanish Health Care System Reform: Shar ing Lessons on Challenges and Accomplishments.
99.3 Saraceno, Chiara. Gendered Policies: Family Obligations and Social Policies in Europe.
99.4 Pontusson, Jonas, David Rueda, and Christopher Way. The Role of Political Institutional Variables in the Making of Gendered Patterns of Wage Inequality: A Comparative Analysis of OECD Countries.
99.5 Bush, Evelyn and Pete Simi (U. of Nevada, Las Vegas). Harvesting Contention: European Integration, Supra national Institutions, and Farmers' Protests, 1992-1997.
99.6 Kettnaker, Vera. The European Conflict Over Genetically-Engineered Crops.
99.7 Guiraudon, Virginia. (Harvard University). Weak Weapons of the Weak? Transnational Mobilization Around Migration in the European Union.