UNU Midday Forum:

 "Academics Under Threat:
The IIE Scholar Rescue Fund World Report"

1:15 to 2:45 pm,Tuesday, April 14th, 2009
Conference Room 5, UN Headquarters, New York

 
The United Nations University Office in New York is pleased to present the UNU Midday Forum: “Academics Under Threat: The IIE Scholar Rescue Fund World Report” on April 14th, 2009, from 1:15pm to 2:45pm, at the United Nations Headquarters.

This discussion is part of the successful ongoing UNU series of midday seminars—the UNU Midday Forum. The UNU Office in New York aims to provide an intimate setting for the exchange of ideas and experiences, related to topics currently researched within the UNU and the UN, giving academics, policy makers and practitioners an opportunity to participate in the work of the organization in a constructive and informal setting. UNU has worked with IIE on a number of issues, including hosting rescued scholars within UNU-ILI (Jordan).

The Scholar Rescue Fund World Report, funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, is an effort to share with a larger community the breadth and nature of the persecution of scholars around the globe. It is based on data from the first five years of activity of the Scholar Rescue Fund (SRF). SRF is a program within the Institute of International Education (IIE) which provides support and safe haven to threatened scholars. Scholars in any field and from any country may apply for one-year fellowships (renewable up to one additional year) to continue productive academic work at safe host institutions anywhere in the world. 

The World Report is based primarily on data collected from 2002 to 2007 from 847 applicants to the Scholar Rescue Fund, 140 of whom were awarded life and career-saving grants. This data is correlated with information from other sources in an effort to illustrate potential links between the persecution of academics and conditions that exist within specific countries. In analyzing these cases, the SRF World Report has four goals: first, it aims to illustrate that academic oppression is a widespread and serious problem that often goes unnoticed and unpunished; second, it attempts to provide an understanding of who is being persecuted, how, and by whom; third, it seeks to explore why scholars are being persecuted in certain countries, extrapolating from correlations between various country indicators and conditions of academic oppression; and fourth, it proposes a number of new ideas and programs to aid in reducing the persecution of academics worldwide.

Speakers:

Dr. Henry Jarecki, Chairman of the Scholar Rescue Fund

Dr. Vartan Gregorian, President of the Carnegie Corporation of New York

Dr. Allan Goodman, President of the Institute of International Education

SRF Scholar, A Current SRF Grantee

Moderator:

Dr. Jean-Marc Coicaud, Director, United Nations University Office in New York

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For more information on the event and more, please visit the UNU ONY homepage: http://www.ony.unu.edu

For inquiries, please contact Mr. Brian Clayton, (tel: 212-963-6387; e-mail: brian@ony.unu.edu)

Access to the Venue--If you do not have a United Nations ID, please select "Non-UN Pass Holder" under "Affiliation" when registering. On the day of the event, proceed through security at the UN visitor's entrance (46th Street and 1st Avenue) to the main lobby.  A UNU staff member will greet you from 12:45 pm to provide you with a pass to access the conference room.