Stanford University

Society

FSI researchers work to understand continuity and change in societies as they confront their problems and opportunities. This includes the implications of migration and human trafficking. What happens to a society when young girls exit the sex trade? How do groups moving between locations impact societies, economies, self-identity and citizenship? What are the ethnic challenges faced by an increasingly diverse European Union? From a policy perspective, scholars also work to investigate the consequences of security-related measures for society and its values.

The Europe Center reflects much of FSI’s agenda of investigating societies, serving as a forum for experts to research the cultures, religions and people of Europe. The Center sponsors several seminars and lectures, as well as visiting scholars.

Societal research also addresses issues of demography and aging, such as the social and economic challenges of providing health care for an aging population. How do older adults make decisions, and what societal tools need to be in place to ensure the resulting decisions are well-informed? FSI regularly brings in international scholars to look at these issues. They discuss how adults care for their older parents in rural China as well as the economic aspects of aging populations in China and India.

A New Era in Cross-Strait Relations--Challenges, Opportunities, and Constraints

The symposium will bring together scholars and current and former government officials from Taiwan, China, and US to take stock of cross-strait relations over the past decade. It will also assess the future development of cross-strait interactions from different angles including economic, political, and security perspectives.

 

Friday, May 29, 2009

8:15 am to 8:45 am

Registration & Reception
Continental Breakfast

8:45 am to 9:00 am

Introduction by Larry Diamond, Director of CDDRL; Senior Fellow of Hoover Institution and FSI, Stanford University

9:00 am to 10:30 am

Session I: Cross-Strait Relations under the DPP Administration

Moderator: Larry Diamond, Director of CDDRL; Senior Fellow of Hoover Institution and FSI, Stanford University

Speakers:

  • Ming-tong Chen, Professor of Graduate Institute of National Development, National Taiwan University; Former Chairman of Mainland Affairs Council
  • TJ Cheng, Class of 1935 Professor of Political Science, College of William and Mary
  • Shih-chung Liu, Visiting Scholar, Brookings Institution; Former Vice Chairman of the Research and Planning Committee in Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs

10:30 am to 10:50 am

Break

10:50 am to 12:15 pm

Session II: Recent Development under the KMT Administration

Moderator: Ramon Myers, Senior Fellow Emeritus of Hoover Institution, Stanford University

Speakers:

  • Chien-Min Chao, Deputy Minister of Mainland Affairs Council; Professor of Graduate Institute of Development Studies, National Chengchi University 
  • Alan D. Romberg, Distinguished Fellow, The Henry L. Stimson Center

12:15 pm to 1:30 pm

Lunch

1:30 pm to 3:00 pm

Session III: Economic Dimension of Cross-Strait Relations

Moderator: Henry Rowen, Senior Fellow of Hoover Institution; Emeritus Director, Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, Stanford University

Speakers:

  • Steven Goldstein, Sophia Smith Professor of Government, Smith College
  • Cliff Tan, Consulting Professor, Stanford Center for International Development

3:00 pm to 3:20 pm

Break

3:20 pm to 4:45 pm

Session IV: Taiwan's Domestic Politics and Cross-Strait Relations

Moderator: Eric Yu, Research Fellow & Program Manager, CDDRL, Stanford University

Speakers:

  • Yi-cheng Jou, Founder, Third Society Party
  • Shelley Rigger, Brown Professor of Political Science, Davidson College

 

Saturday, May 30, 2009
8:30 am to 9:00 am Continental Breakfast
9:00 am to 10:30 am

Session V: Taiwan's Security and Cross-Strait Relations

Moderator: Larry Diamond, Director of CDDRL; Senior Fellow of Hoover Institution and FSI, Stanford University

Speakers:

  • Chong-Pin Lin, Professor of Graduate Institute of International Affairs and Strategic Studies, Tamkang University; Former Deputy Minister of Defense of ROC
  • Sam Suisheng Zhao, Professor and Executive Director of the Center for China-US Cooperation, University of Denver
10:30 am to 10:50 am Break
10:50 am to 12:30 pm

Session VI: Impact of Cross-Strait Exchanges on Mainland China

Moderator: TJ Cheng, Class of 1935 Professor of Political Science, College of William and Mary

Speakers:

  • Yun-han Chu, Distinguished Fellow of Institute of Political Science, Academia Sinica; Professor of Political Science, National Taiwan University
  • Gang Lin, Professor of Political Science, Shanghai Jiao Tong University
  • Robert Kapp, President of Robert A Kapp and Associate, Inc; Former President of the US - China Business Council
12:30 pm to 1:30 pm Lunch
1:30 pm to 3:00 pm Roundtable Conclusion

Frances C. Arrillaga Alumni Center

Symposiums

The Weakness of Liberalism and Its Political Consequences in Democratized Korea

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Although South Korea has democratized, the weakness of liberalism there as a major political ideology and value system has prevented the full flowering of democracy.  This talk will examine the historical roots of liberalism's failure to take firm root in Korean politics and society.  The causes of such weakness are to be found, in both of the two major social and political forces in Korean society,  conservatives and radical/progressive forces; neither has been or is liberal.  The resulting problems include a strong, highly centralized state and its authoritarian tendencies,  the failure to create a stable party system, civil society's weak autonomy vis-à-vis the state, and inadequate constitutional checks-and-balances among the three branches of government exacerbated by a weak judiciary.  With democratic practice falling ever farther behind the Korean people's aspirations, enhanced liberalism will not solve all problems.  Nevertheless, Dr. Choi argues, it could point the way toward a richer Korean democracy.

Jang Jip Choi is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Korea University, Seoul, Korea, and currently a Visiting Professor in the Sociology Department at Stanford University.  Specializing in contemporary political history in Korea, the theory of democracy, comparative politics and labor politics, professor Choi is the author of many books, scholarly articles and political commentaries on Korean politics,  including  Democracy after Democratization in Korea (2002),  Which Democracy? (2007), and From Minjung to Citizens (2008).  Professor Choi holds a B.A. in political science from Korea University, and  an M.A. and a Ph.D in Political Science from the University of Chicago. He was a professor in the department of political science at Korea University until his retirement in 2008.

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Philippines Conference Room

Jang Jip Choi Visiting Professor, Sociology Department, Stanford University Speaker
Seminars
Korea Program
Korean Studies Colloquium Series
Stanford Korea Democracy Project

Language Policy in Ukraine: What People Want the State to Do

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Kulyk’s talk at Stanford will focus on popular preferences regarding language policy of the Ukrainian state as revealed by a comprehensive survey conducted in December 2006, the first such survey ever conducted in Ukraine. He will analyze the respondents’ views of actual and desirable language use in different practices, legal statuses of languages, and evolution of the language situation in the country, both on the aggregate level and broken down by ethnic, linguistic, regional, generational and other categories. He will thus demonstrate both diversity and ambivalence of popular attitudes and discuss how they influenced the state policy by constraining a compromise between the adherents of opposing political courses and, at the same time, enabling the government and major parties to alternate between emphasizing and downplaying the language issue in their political rhetoric and practice.

Volodymyr Kulyk is a senior research fellow at the Institute of Political and Ethnic Studies, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, in Kyiv, from which he received his Ph.D. in 1999. Currently, he is a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. His research fields include politics of language and ethnicity in contemporary Ukraine and other multilingual societies, language ideologies, and media discourse. Kulyk is the author of two published books and numerous articles and book chapters on these topics in Ukrainian, English and other languages. His last published text is “Language Policies and Language Attitudes in Post-Orange Ukraine”, in Juliane Besters-Dilger (ed.), Language policy and language situation in Ukraine. Analysis and recommendations (Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 2008). His new book, Dyskurs ukraïns’kykh medii: Identychnosti, ideolohiï, vladni stosunky (Ukrainian Media Discourse: Identities, Ideologies, Power Relations) will be published in Kyiv later this year. He guest-edited a special issue of the International Journal of the Sociology of Language on “Languages and Language Ideologies in Ukraine”, to appear in early 2010. As a Wilson Center Fellow, Kulyk works on a project titled “Language, Identity and Democracy in Post-Soviet Ukraine”, which will result in an English-language book.

Jointly sponsored by the Forum on Contemporary Europe and the Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies.

Encina Ground Floor Conference Room

Volodymyr Kulyk Woodrow Wilson Center Fellow Speaker
Seminars

Religion and Secularization in Europe?

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AGENDA

9:30AM Welcome
10:00AM - 12:00PM
 Morning Session
  • “Religious Divisions After the Reformation: A Spur to Secularization?”
  • Benjamin Kaplan (University College London)
    “Judaism in Europe”
    John Efron (UC Berkeley)
2:00PM - 4:00PM
 First Afternoon Session
  • “Secularism and Islam in Europe”
    John Bowen (Washington University, Saint Louis)
  • “The Vatican, the EU, and the Enduring Dream of a ‘Catholic Europe”
    Tim Byrnes (Colgate University)
4:30PM - 6:30PM
 Second Afternoon Session
  • “American and European Exceptionalisms Revisited”
    Jose Casanova (Georgetown University)
  • “Is there really a religious Europe? Some remarks on European diversity”
    Friedrich Wilhelm Graf (Universität München)
6:30PM - 7:00PM Concluding Discussion

Co-sponsored by the Stanford Department of Religious Studies, the Taube Center for Jewish Studies, the Mediterranean Studies Forum, the Department of History, the Stanford Humanities Center,and the Forum on Contemporary Europe.

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Stanford Humanities Center
424 Santa Teresa Street
Stanford University

Symposiums

Mediterranean Film Series: "Inch'Allah Dimanche"

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Three internationally recognized films will be screened at Stanford University in April and May 2009. The screenings begin at 7:00 pm in Cubberley Auditorium located at the School of Education Building. Co-sponsored by the Mediterranean Studies Forum, the Forum on Contemporary Forum and the Department of Iberian and Latin American Cultures, the screenings are free and open to the public.

The three films, Gitmek: My Marlon and Brando (2008, Turkey/Iraq/Iran), Carol's Journey (2002, Spain/US), and Inch' allah Dimanche (2001, Algeria/France), address the issues of love and friendship across national borders. Each makes use of diverse cinematographic techniques and multiple languages in providing a critical reflection on different cultures, societies and political systems located in the Mediterranean Basin.

Inch' allah Dimanche will be screened on Wednesday, May 27th 2009. The film tells the passionate story of an Algerian immigrant woman struggling against old world traditions. Zouina leaves her homeland with her three children to join her husband in France, where he has been living for the past 10 years. In a land and culture foreign to her, she struggles against her mother-in-law's tyrannical hand and her husband's distrustful bitterness. The film received awards from Marrakech, Toronto, Bordeaux, and Amiens International Film Festival.

For a printable film schedule, visit: http://www.stanford.edu/group/mediterranean/film%20series%2009.pdf

Jointly sponsored by the Forum on Contemporary Europe, Mediterranean Studies Forum, and Department of Iberian and Latin American Cultures.

Cubberley Auditorium
Stanford University

Conferences

Mediterranean Film Series: "Carol's Journey"

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Three internationally recognized films will be screened at Stanford University in April and May 2009. The screenings begin at 7:00 pm in Cubberley Auditorium located at the School of Education Building. Co-sponsored by the Mediterranean Studies Forum, the Forum on Contemporary Forum and the Department of Iberian and Latin American Cultures, the screenings are free and open to the public.

The three films, Gitmek: My Marlon and Brando (2008, Turkey/Iraq/Iran), Carol's Journey (2002, Spain/US), and Inch' allah Dimanche (2001, Algeria/France), address the issues of love and friendship across national borders. Each makes use of diverse cinematographic techniques and multiple languages in providing a critical reflection on different cultures, societies and political systems located in the Mediterranean Basin.

Carol's Journey will be screened on May 6th 2009. The film describes the Spanish Civil War through the eyes of a 12-year-old. Uprooted from her home in New York, Carol travels to her mother's native village in Spain. Separated from her adored father, she struggles to adjust to her new life. Through her relationships with her grandfather, a teacher and a local boy, she gains a perspective on her situation in a nation divided. The film won the special mention at Berlin International Film Festival.

For a printable film schedule, visit: http://www.stanford.edu/group/mediterranean/film%20series%2009.pdf

Jointly sponsored by the Forum on Contemporary Europe, Mediterranean Studies Forum, and Department of Iberian and Latin American Cultures.


Cubberley Auditorium
Stanford University
Campus Map: http://campus-map.stanford.edu/

Conferences

Mediterranean Film Series: "Gitmek: My Marlon and Brando"

-

Three internationally recognized films will be screened at Stanford University in April and May 2009. The screenings begin at 7:00 pm in Cubberley Auditorium located at the School of Education Building. Co-sponsored by the Mediterranean Studies Forum, the Forum on Contemporary Forum and the Department of Iberian and Latin American Cultures, the screenings are free and open to the public.

The three films, Gitmek: My Marlon and Brando (2008, Turkey/Iraq/Iran), Carol's Journey (2002, Spain/US), and Inch' allah Dimanche (2001, Algeria/France), address the issues of love and friendship across national borders. Each makes use of diverse cinematographic techniques and multiple languages in providing a critical reflection on different cultures, societies and political systems located in the Mediterranean Basin.

Gitmek will be screened on Wednesday, April 29th 2009. It narrates the love story between Ayca, a Turkish actress, and Hama Ali, an Iraqi Kurdish actor, at the onset of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Ayca travels from Istanbul to the Iraqi border via Iran so that she can re-unite with her beloved. The journey takes her through breathtaking landscapes, strange encounters and terrifying times. The film received recognition and awards from Tribeca, Tokyo Sarajevo, Istanbul, Kerala, Jerusalem and Yerevan International Film Festival.

For a printable film schedule, visit: http://www.stanford.edu/group/mediterranean/film%20series%2009.pdf

Jointly sponsored by the Forum on Contemporary Europe, Mediterranean Studies Forum, and Department of Iberian and Latin American Cultures.

Cubberley Auditorium
Stanford University

Conferences

From Hegemony to Demise: The Politics of Lustration and the Crisis of the Church in Post-Communist Poland

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Professor Mikolaj Kunicki will present an overview of church-state relations in contemporary Poland. By focusing on the lustration of the Catholic clergy, he will discuss the decline of the political power of the church and its impact on the renegotiation of nationalist-religious identity.

Mikolaj Kunicki joined the department of history at Notre Dame in 2006. He earned his Ph.D. at Stanford University (2004). He also holds M.A. degrees from the University of London (1996), Central European University in Budapest (1994), and Warsaw University (1993). He taught at Stanford University and UC Berkeley and was a Junior Research Fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna in 2005-2006.

Kunicki is a historian of twentieth century Poland and Eastern Europe. His work focuses primarily on the role of nationalism in Polish and Eastern European history and analyzes the complex entanglement of fascism, communism, and Catholicism. He is particularly interested in exploring nationalist-communist affinities as well as the ideological kinship between the radical right and the extreme left. By doing so, he reevaluates and challenges the way a history of communist Poland and Eastern Europe has been understood and presented. He is also interested in Eastern European film, and devoted especially to examining cinematic representations of the national past and the status of film vis-à-vis communist regimes. Kunicki published in East European Politics and Societies, European Review of History, Transit, and Canadian Slavonic Revue.

Jointly sponsored by the Forum on Contemporary Europe and the Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies at Stanford University.

Encina Ground Floor Conference Room

Mikolaj Kunicki Assistant Professor, History, University of Notre Dame Speaker
Seminars
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