News@E40 | Older

	News@E40 November 4, 2015 Useful Guide to Using Japanese Government Archives Mayumi Fukushima, a PhD student in the MIT Department of Political Science's Security Studies Program, has published a very useful guide to using Japanese government archives on the widely used H-Diplo. "As a former Japanese Foreign Service officer, I did not imagine how hard it would be for outside researchers to identify and find archival documents relevant to their research questions. It was not until I searched the Japanese diplomatic archives myself as an academic that I learned the challenges foreign researchers faced in accessing governmental documents," says Fukushima. Full Publication
	News@E40 October 20, 2015 MIT Generation Global 2015 MIT Generation Global is a fellowship program for MIT students who are passionate about solving global problems and want to share that passion with local high school students. This year's participating high school was Prospect Hill Academy (PHA) in Central Square, Cambridge. MIT Generation Global brought together a team of two MIT students, a PHA faculty member, and a K-12 curriculum expert to design and facilitate a two-week, problem-based program for a group of PHA high school students. The program culminated July 10 in a public event where the high school students presented their solutions to healthcare scarcity to a panel of experts. Watch video
	News@E40 October 1, 2015 Luce Fellowship deadline Oct. 22 Thursday, October 22, is the deadline for the Luce Scholars Program. Young scholars from a wide variety of intellectual fields will be placed in 10-month internships in selected countries in Asia. The fellowship is aimed for those with no prior experience in the region. Nominees must be American citizens not yet 30 years old on July 1, 2016, and who have earned at least a bachelor's degree or expect to receive one by July 1, 2016. More information
	News@E40 September 16, 2015 Secrecy, surveillance, privacy, and IR The Center convened a meeting on "Secrecy, Surveillance, Privacy, and International Relations," in April 2015. The two-day seminar included talks from multiple experts working in such fields as academia, journalism, and law. Topics included: secrecy norms, technology, case studies, and relevance to international relations. The conference memos are available here.
	News@E40 August 27, 2015 General Dunford visits CIS General Joseph Dunford, Jr. visited the MIT Center for International Studies on August 27, 2015. General Dunford met with Richard Samuels, Ford International Professor of Political Science and director of CIS, Paul Heer, CIS Robert E Wilhelm Fellow and former National Intelligence Officer for East Asia, and Taylor Fravel, associate professor of political science at MIT, to discuss East Asian security.
	News@E40 June 2, 2015 Armenian genocide and Armenia today On May 13, 2015, the Center on the United States and Europe at the Brookings Institution, the Center for International Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the Hrant Dink Memorial Human Rights and Justice Lectureship at MIT, and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace held a conference on the Armenian genocide at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC. The aim of the conference was to inform public debate on the evolution of the Armenian genocide. Conference panelists represented a diversity of expertise and experience, but all shared in their scholarly approach to examining the events of 1915 and the critical issues affecting Armenia today. Read full report
	News@E40 March 25, 2015 Einstein Foundation interviews Samuels Richard Samuels, Ford International Professor of Political Science and Director of CIS, is also an Einstein Visiting Fellow, Graduate School of East Asian Studies, at the Einstein Foundation in Berlin. The Einstein Foundation featured a Q&A with Samuels that is available here: Read more
	News@E40 March 4, 2015 Dolev receives MIT excellence award David Dolev, assistant director of the MISTI and managing director of the MIT-Israel PRogram, was honored with the Excellence Award for Advancing Inclusion and Global Perspectives in recognition of the programs he has developed that promote greater understanding across the MIT community and beyond. His inventive program MISTI 2.0 is designed to develop MIT students into dynamic leaders with a global perspective. In the MIT-Israel Program, he has created opportunities for hundreds of MIT students to work and do research in Israel, a pioneer in fields like energy and the environment. In the MIT-MEET Program, Dolev helps recruit and prepare MIT students to promote interaction and camaraderie between Israeli and Palestinian high-school students as they bond around a passion for new technologies. Read more
	News@E40 January 9, 2015 Wickremesinghe elected PM of Sri Lanka The Center is thrilled to announce that Ranil Wickremesinghe was recently elected prime minister of Sri Lanka. Wickremesinghe was a CIS Robert E. Wilhelm Fellow in the spring of 2014. While at MIT, he focused on how to formulate a constitution sans an executive presidency. He also worked with faculty and students interested in Asian regional issues. In addition, he was the key speaker at Starr Forum: The Indian Ocean: The Vortex of Destiny. Wickremesinghe was prime minister of Sri Lanka twice before, from May 7, 1993 to August 19, 1994, and from December 9, 2001 to April 6, 2004.
	News@E40 November 6, 2014 MIT alumnus elected Governor of Pennsylvania Tom Wolf, an alumnus of the MIT Department of Political Science, has been elected governor of Pennsylvania. He came to MIT in 1974 after studying Indian history in London and serving three years in the Peace Corps in Orissa. At MIT, he was a student of Walter Dean Burnham in American political history and Myron Weiner in political demography. His doctoral dissertation won the E.E. Schattschneider Prize of the American Political Science Association for the best doctoral dissertation in the field of American politics. Notwithstanding his very promising prospects as an academic, governor-elect Wolf chose to return to his hometown and expand the family business. From that base, he became one of southeastern Pennsylvania's most philanthropic business leaders. He has served on the department's visiting committee and is a charter member of the CIS advisory board. CIS director, Richard Samuels, was his classmate in the political science PhD program, and celebrated governor elect Wolf's victory with their friends and families in York, Pennsylvania. Samuels remarked, "The citizens of Pennsylvania have made a splendid choice. They are fortunate to have so bright and dedicated a leader."
	News@E40 July 17, 2014 In memoriam: JoAnn Carmin Associate Professor JoAnn Carmin passed away on July 15, 2014. Carmin had been on the faculty of MIT's Department of Urban Studies and Planning since 2003 and was the founding director of the Center's Program on Environmental Governance and Sustainability. "JoAnn was a great colleague, smart, savvy, and deeply committed to doing good in the world. She came to us with an idea for a new program, which she headed and made into a success—the Program on Environmental Governance and Sustainability. It was focused on student research, and I'm sure she made a huge difference in many students' lives," said John Tirman, executive director and principal research scientist at CIS.
	News@E40 May 15, 2014 CIS awards 16 summer study grants The Center is pleased to announce the recipients of its summer study grants. The grants have been awarded to 16 doctoral students in international affairs at MIT. Each will receive up to $3,000 for summer studies, which may be used for fieldwork, archival research, or home-based research and write-up.
	News@E40 April 2, 2014 MISTI's Perez honored for leadership April Julich Perez, associate director of the MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives (MISTI) has been honored for her leadership with a 2014 MIT Excellence Award for Bringing Out the Best. "In her role at MISTI, April has distinguished herself in her ability to mentor, inspire, and empower each member of her staff—encouraging them to take on new responsibilities and supporting them every step of the way," said Institute Community and Equity Officer Edmund Bertschinger, who presented Perez with the award at a ceremony held February 25. Read more
	News@E40 February 26, 2014 US-Iran project book explores 'Misperceptions' The long-running US-Iran Project, which has brought together policy makers from both countries to explore fraught periods in the relationship, has produced a second book, U.S.-Iran Misperceptions: A Dialogue, published in February by Bloomsbury Press. John Tirman, CIS executive director, is coeditor and coauthor with Abbas Maleki, a former Robert Wilhelm Fellow at the Center and associate professor of energy policy at Sharif University of Technology in Tehran. Other contributors include Robert Jervis, Hossein Mousavian, Hussein Banai, Robert Reardon, Kayhan Barzegar, Steven Miller and Matthew Bunn. It is unique format in which Iranians and Americans write about each others role in the Gulf, on nuclear matters, and other issues.
	News@E40 February 20, 2014 Gavin begins work as Stanton chair This year marks a major extension of MIT's engagement with nuclear studies with the appointment of Francis Gavin as the first Frank Stanton Chair in Nuclear Policy Studies, on the strength of a $5 million endowment from the Stanton Foundation. The Department of Political Science and its interdisciplinary Security Studies Program have been deeply engaged with these topics since the 1970s. "We're in a renaissance of nuclear studies now, and MIT is at the center of it—a majority of the scholars whose work I most admire have come from this program," says Gavin, who joins the Institute after 14 years at the University of Texas at Austin. Read more
	News@E40 December 4, 2013 MISTI receives NAFSA award MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives (MISTI) was recently presented with the 2013 Senator Paul Simon Spotlight Award during International Education Week in Washington, D.C. The award is granted by NAFSA: Association of International Educators to innovative university programs that make a significant contribution to campus internationalization. "MISTI has spawned entrepreneurs, academics, and venture capitalists who work on the global stage with language skills on top of advanced technological prowess." Read more
	News@E40 June 11, 2013 CIS and Wilson Center receive NSF grant CIS and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars are collaborating on a $233,000 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to help realize potential benefits and to address potential ecological effects of synthetic biology. The project will be conducted jointly by the Center's Program on Emerging Technologies, directed by MIT professor Kenneth Oye, and the Synthetic Biology Project at the Wilson Center. It will build on four previous workshops that brought together a wide range of scientists, regulators, NGOs, companies, and other stakeholders to discuss possible ecological risks associated with synthetic biology products and to identify sources of uncertainty over risks. Read more
	News@E40 May 16, 2013 Rebecca Ochoa receives SHASS award Rebecca Ochoa, from CIS Headquarters, received an Infinite Mile Award from the School of Humanities, Arts, & Social Sciences (SHASS). The School's Rewards and Recognition Program recognizes individuals (and teams) who make contributions to the organizations within SHASS, as well as exceptional contributions that benefit the entire School and the Institute. Award recipients represent the best of SHASS employees. Rebecca received the award in the category "Unsung Hero" for her strong work ethic and leadership skills along with her outstanding work in event planning, videography, and training.
	News@E40 May 1, 2013 Wood's 'Putin' piece among most read Elizabeth Wood, MIT professor of history and director of the MIT-Russia Program, has been recognized for writing one of the top 10 most read articles in Slavic journals for the year 2012. Brill Publishers made the announcement and is allowing free access to the top 10 articles from May 1 to July 1, 2013. Professor Wood's piece is available here: Performing Memory: Vladimir Putin and the Celebration of World War II in Russia. Congratulations!
	News@E40 April 23, 2013 CIS staff joins human chain At 2:50 pm on Monday, April 22, the state of Massachusetts paused in silence to honor the victims of the attacks and their families. "At the same time, hundreds of people linked hands and formed a human chain on Vassar Street from the MIT Police Station to the memorial where Officer Collier was slain, outside the MIT Stata Center. Those attending formed a continuous chain stretching more than eight-tenths of a mile, blocking traffic at the busy intersection with Massachusetts Avenue," reports the The Tech. Several CIS staff members joined the human chain.