The following students have been appointed Undergraduate Student Associates for the 2013–2014 academic year and have received grants to support travel in connection with their senior thesis research on international affairs.

Ainara Arcelus (Applied Mathematics) Williams/Lodge International Government and Public Affairs Fellow. A statistical analysis of Zara factory conditions.

Xanni Brown (Social Studies) Rogers Family Research Fellow. Causes and diffusions of recent mineworker protests in South Africa.

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The Canada Program has concluded another successful year with the support of the William Lyon Mackenzie King Endowment. The program hosted two annual visiting professorships with accomplished scholars engaged in comparative teaching and research on Canada, supported student dissertation and thesis research on Canadian topics, presented distinguished speakers through the popular Canada Seminar, and organized an annual faculty conference. The program now looks toward the 2013–2014 academic year and prepares to welcome an incoming cohort of affiliates no less achieving or promising than those...

Ethnic Struggle, Coexistence, and Democratization in Eastern Europe

By Sherrill Stroschein

In societies divided on ethnic and religious lines, problems of democracy are magnified—particularly where groups are mobilized into...

Weatherhead Center Faculty Associate Receives Gold Medal of Honor

Herbert C. Kelman, the Richard Clarke Cabot Professor of Social Ethics, Emeritus, received the Gold Medal of Honor from the Federal Capital of Vienna, “in recognition of his significant achievements.” The medal was presented to him at a ceremony in Vienna’s City Hall on December 12, 2012. Professor Kelman was born in Vienna in 1927, escaped Nazi persecution with his family in 1939, and settled in the United States in 1940.

Former Weatherhead Center Academy Scholar is Awarded Fairbank Prize...

Beth A. Simmons

The past seven years have been extraordinarily positive ones for me and for the intellectual life of the Center. I assumed the directorship one year after moving into the glorious Knafel Building at 1737 Cambridge Street. The new surroundings were the symbol of the Center’s vigorous intellectual life, and our close connection with the other international area centers and the Department of Government. The building has been filled with a stunning array of seminars, conferences, and workshops these last seven years. Our...

by Janet I. Lewis

International donors have heavily invested in decentralization programs in developing countries, to the tune of over 7.4 billion dollars since 1990.¹ They did so amidst a global shift in the 1980s and 1990s away from centralized political and economic regimes, and in the wake of widely-held expectations that decentralization reforms would bring about numerous benefits—from consolidating democracy to improving local service delivery and mitigating ethnic conflict. However, recent research shows that...

Interview by Kristin Caulfield & Megan Countey

Dara Kay Cohen has always been interested in studying violence, but she explored several different directions before she found her current path....

The spring 2013 issue of Centerpiece focuses on the Center's recent activities, including the Undergraduate Thesis Conference and the Fellows reunion. The feature, “Local Governance and the Recentralization of Political Power in African States” by Janet I. Lewis, argues that decentralization reforms can contribute to an unintended recentralization of power. And finally, the feature “In Conversation with…,” is an interview with Assistant Professor Dara Kay Cohen that focuses on her recent projects on sexual violence during wartime and the path Professor Cohen took to reach her current research.... Read more about Spring 2013, Volume 27 Number 2