Welcome!
The Harriman Institute at Columbia University is the oldest academic institution in the United States devoted to the study of the countries of the former Soviet Union, East Central Europe and the Balkans. Our mission is to serve our large and diverse community at the university and beyond by supporting instruction and dialogue, sponsoring vibrant, multidisciplinary events that bring together our extraordinary resources of faculty, students, and alumni. Most importantly, we are committed to training the next generation of regional specialists to play leadership roles in setting the academic and scholarly agenda, making policy and challenging accepted truths about how we study our rapidly changing world.
I’d like to highlight some of the innovative events from the 2011 fall semester at the Harriman. We opened the academic year with a photography exhibit entitled, “Joseph Brodsky: Moments in a Life,” a collection brought together by Mikhail Milchik, the chairman of the Brodsky Museum Foundation, and curated by Natalia Sharymova.
In early September we hosted Ambassador Salome Samadashvili, Head of the Mission of Georgia to the European Union, and Ambassador to the Kingdom of Belgium and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, who spoke about Georgia’s changing relationship with the EU since the 2008 war with Russia. Soon after, Maria Damanaki, EU Commissioner on Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, came to discuss the relationship between markets and political power and how it has been affecting Europe.
In light of the upcoming national elections in Russia, we collaborated with the National Endowment for Democracy to welcome Denis Volkov of the Levada Center, Russia’s most highly regarded independent polling organization. Then, we joined forces with the Institute of Modern Russia to stage an engaging panel discussion between Boris Nemtsov, a Russian politician and co-chairman of the Democratic opposition movement Solidarnost (Solidarity), the environmental activist Evgeniya Chirikova, and the director of the New York-based governmental think tank, the Institute for Democracy and Cooperation, Andranik Migranyan.
In October, we welcomed the current World Boxing Council (WBC) heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko, who is also leader of the emerging political opposition party, the Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform (UDAR). Klitschko discussed his vision to create a modern and democratic Ukraine. We were also very excited for our first collaboration with Carnegie Hall, on a wonderful afternoon of talks, panel discussions, and music, in honor of Pyotr Tchaikovsky.
In mid-November returned to our discussion of the Russian elections with a panel entitled, “Putin’s Russia and the Upcoming Elections.” It was comprised of five distinguished speakers—Nikolay Petrov and Maria Lipman, from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Moscow; the economist Konstantin Sonin from the New Economic School in Moscow; Yulia Latynina, a journalist at Echo of Moscow, Novaya Gazeta, and the Moscow Times, and Alena Ledeneva from the UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies—and proved to be an invigorating and thought-provoking discussion.
We will wrap up the semester with an all-day conference about the conflicts in Abkhazia, Nagorno Karabakh, South Ossetia and Transnistria entitled, “Frozen Conflicts Twenty Years After the Fall of the Soviet Union,” but have many other exciting events to come, so please take a look at the events section on our website for a full listing.
Unless otherwise specified, Harriman Institute events are free and open to the public. We urge you to visit the Harriman website often, and to follow us on Twitter for daily updates. Please send suggestions for events and initiatives you would like to see the Harriman Institute undertake. We hope to see or hear from you soon.
Regards,
Timothy M. Frye
Director, Harriman Institute
Link to website
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