THE FELLOWS AND VISITORS OF THE

2013-2014 ACADEMIC YEAR

DER TAGESSPIEGEL
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2013
VOLUME 69/Nr. 21 816
AMERICAN
ACADEMY
Theinternational humanrights regimeis
much newer thanwe usually realize, and
moreintenselycontested. Afteroverfour
decades of rapid growth since the
mid-1970s, its future is clouded by the
rise of newforces at home andabroad.
It was a revolution in international af-
fairs whenin1945the UNCharter incor-
porated the principle that "the United
Nations shall promote universal re-
spect for, and observance of, human
rights and fundamental freedoms" and
committed its members to "joint and se-
parate action" for the achievement of
these goals. Although the human rights
concept built on earlier ideas (like the
eighteenth-century rights of man) and
movements (like the nineteenth-century
anti-slavery movement), human rights
as we understand the concept today was
unprecedented in several ways: the
rights were "universal" instead of apply-
ing only to citizens or specified vulnera-
ble groups; they not only set limits but
imposed positive obligations on govern-
ments; they obligated not only govern-
ments but "all organs of society," and
they were codified not only in national
laws and constitutions but in internatio-
nal law. In1948, the UNGeneral Assem-
bly spelled out the rights the UN would
promote by adopting the Universal De-
claration of Human Rights.
From this root grew what is today a
complex body of international human
rights law. The website of the UN High
Commissioner for Human Rights lists
about 100 conventions, protocols, and
statutes, bywhichsovereignstatesunder-
take commitments to one another about
how they will treat their own citizens.
Most of the treaties have been joined by
most states inthe international system.
Besides the explosion of normative en-
actments, the global social movement to
promote human rights has expanded.
One website lists over eleven thousand
self-proclaimed human rights civil so-
ciety organizations in existence around
the world today. Human rights has been
mainstreamed into Americanforeignpo-
licy since the mid-1970s and became a
pillar of European Union foreign policy
with the adoption of the Common Fo-
reign and Security Policy (CFSP) in
1992. The family of UN institutions de-
voted to human rights has grown: for
example, the Office of the High Commis-
sioner for Human Rights was establis-
hed as recently as 1993. The European
Court of Human Rights and the In-
ter-American Court of Human Rights
were established in 1953 and 1979, re-
spectively, but both experienced drama-
tic increases in their dockets starting in
the late 1990s. The AfricanCourt of Hu-
man and People's Rights was establis-
hed in 2004. "Humanitarian interven-
tion" justified if not necessarily moti-
vatedby humanrights priorities has be-
come an increasingly common feature
of international politics.
Today, this record of expansion is at a
turning point. Human rights has ene-
mies. Within the US, they include legal
theorists who question the legitimacy of
international lawand say that American
obligations are defined solely by our
own Constitution; cultural relativists
who believe that people outside the US
do not want the same rights that we
want; cultural conservatives who be-
lieve that we ourselves should not have
some of the rights that advocates have
labeled universal (such as equality for
women and sexual minorities); and pro-
secutors of the "war on terror" who be-
lieve that national security trumps due
process and justifies torture.
Outside the US, the challengers to hu-
man rights include powerful authorita-
rian governments such as those of China
andRussia, which exert increasing influ-
ence on the way newly emerging norms
are defined for such issues as the proper
bounds of information freedom on the
Internet, and the right of civil society or-
ganizations to receive financial support
from abroad. Women's human rights
continue come under attack in funda-
This newacademic year has special
significance for the American Academy
in Berlin, as it does for Germans and
Americans alike. 2014 is the twentieth
anniversary of the Academy's founding,
by Richard C. Holbrooke and a small
group of Germans and Americans com-
mitted to maintaining strong intellectual
ties through the indeterminacies of the
post-Cold War world. But 2014 also
marks the one-hundredth anniversary of
the onset of Europe's civilizational
self-immolation during World War I, and
the 25 years since the West's triumph
over Communismfollowing the fall of the
Berlin Wall. This confluence causes us
to reflect both on what we have achieved
and what we are facing.
There were so many certitudes after
1989, whether "the end of history" or
the triumph of the West and market
capitalism. History, famously written by
the victors, however, is not always true
history. Today, globalization, technologi-
cal change, and the maturing of a new
generation mean that things we thought
were stable are now changing beyond
recognition. Given the efflorescence of
new global challenges, the context of
US-European relations is also changing,
in some ways dramatically. Thus, as we
complete our twentieth year, the Aca-
demy is proud to say that we have built
a dynamic foundation of academic, cul-
tural, and intellectual dialogue that
spans not just across Germany and
America, but also across conventional
professional divisions, the kind of reach
necessary to generate new thinking and
new ideas indeed, new traditions.
Today, Germany finds itself required
to think over its approach to the world
in the space it inhabits. The country's
success has led it to become recogni-
zed as one of the world's most admi-
red. But with success comes responsibi-
lity. This was the point of President
Obama's appeal in his Berlin speech on
June 19 that "complacency is not the
character of great nations." He unders-
cored howdeeply the United States wis-
hes to work with Germany in articulating
a shared understanding of responsibi-
lity, which is, after all, a central tenet of
democratic political theory.
This year's class of fellows and guests
is especially attuned to the traditions
and the opportunities for managing
change in relations across the Atlantic.
The time generously granted their inves-
tigations in Berlin also makes it possi-
ble for them to develop real and lasting
relationships with their German counter-
parts. It is precisely these relationships
that generate deeper cultural understan-
ding and initiate the kinds of active and
dynamic intellectual exchange that will
help us all to address key challenges of
the present century. Gary Smith
The author is Executive Director of
the American Academy in Berlin
American Academy in Berlin
Supplement of Der Tagesspiegel.
Editors: Rolf Brockschmidt,
with Malte Mau and R. Jay Magill (AAB).
Art Direction: Sabine Wilms
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Address: 10876 Berlin
Phone: +49 30 29021-0
Front Page Photo: Annette Hornischer
The American Academy in Berlin
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www.americanacademy.de
Chairman: A. Michael Hoffman
American Academy 2013_Der Tagesspiegel_September_21_2013_2
By Andrew J. Nathan
In 1953 the Uni-
ted Nations foun-
ded the Euro-
pean Court of
Human Rights
to secure funda-
mental civil and
political rights
to everyone
within its
jurisdiction.
Photo:
AFP ImageForum
Against
Complacency
Imprint
The Global Struggle
over Human Rights
Much is at stake in the
contestation over the
international human
rights regime. Can this
long-cherished strategy
to create a safer world
be rescued from new
challenges at home
and abroad?
mentalist communities not only in the
Muslimworldbut inother religious com-
munities. Advances in communications
technology empower not only citizens
but also political police around the
world. New weapons like drones, laser
blinding weapons, and cyber weapons
raise new challenges to the laws of war.
Even the human rights movement's
friends can hurt it, when they stretch
the norms too far and reduce the sacro-
sanct quality of the original idea, which
in the end is its most important asset.
Much is at stake. Human rights is not
only a matter of culture and values. It is
also a long-standing matter of European
and American strategy to create a safer
world for individuals and our societies.
We are safer as citizens, businesspeople,
scholars, and tourists when we live in a
world with reliable rule of law. Regimes
are more stable when they are grounded
in the consent of the people. As nations,
we can trust each other more when each
country's strategic intentions are sha-
ped in an open political process. There
is ever more reason to work to develop
the strategic vision that gave rise to the
modern human rights regime in the af-
termath of the Second World War.
Andrew J. Nathan is Class of 1919 Pro-
fessor of Political Science at Columbia
University
President Obama said that he has spent
four and a half years working to end
wars, not to start them. Has the adminis-
tration the will to push for military ac-
tions against the Assad regime?
I think the option is still on the table.
This is a risk the Obama administration
has decided it is prepared to take to
stand firm against this threat to huma-
nity, essentially against the use of chemi-
cal weapons. A likely scenario could be
a Security Council resolution that sets
forth a procedure for disarmament,
which, should Syria not comply, entitles
UN member states to "use all necessary
means" to enforce the resolution or pro-
mise "serious consequences" for
non-performance.
Will the perpetrators of chemical attacks in
Syria be held accountable for their deeds
beyond weapons inspections?
I firmly believe that someday those indi-
viduals should be held accountable un-
der the law, including for other atrocity
crimes in Syria. The Security Council
could leverage justice for peace by requi-
ring that unless Syria fully cooperates
with the disarmament procedures there
will be an automatic referral of their use
of chemical weapons to the Internatio-
nal Criminal Court. Russia should be
able to agree to that because it has pled-
ged Syrian cooperation and claims it is
the rebels who launched the attack.
What can Germany contribute?
Firstly, Germany can lend its voice in
support of what President Obama is see-
king to achieve in the talks with the Rus-
sians. Secondly, as a NATO member,
Germany can stand very firmin defense
of NATO principles, including article
five of the Washington Treaty, the col-
lective self-defense provision of NATO
members, and thus of Turkey. Third,
Germany is already demonstrating its
commitment to the humanitarian catas-
trophe by accepting significant numbers
of refugees. There's never a shortage of
what can be done to support the refugee
camps in the region itself.
Will the Syrian regime survive this crisis,
maybe even with Assad as president?
The more interesting question is whet-
her Bashar al-Assad's future dictates li-
ving in exile or ultimately facing the bar
of justice in Den Haag.
David Scheffer is Professor of Law,
and Director, Center for International Hu-
man Rights at Northwestern University
Interview conducted by Malte Mau.
3_September_21_2013_Der Tagesspiegel American Academy 2013
The Red Line
The first US Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes
Issues on the question of accountability in Syria
Stable regimes are grounded
in the consent of the people
Mit uns kennt Ihr Erfolg keine Grenzen.
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In the winter of 1889, the small Galician
townof Wadowice, inthe Austro-Hunga-
rian Empire, was gripped by a sensatio-
nal trial. The defendants were Jewish tra-
vel agents from the nearby town of Os-
wiecim - known to the world today as
Auschwitz.
Located at the juncture of Prussian,
Russian, and Austrian railway lines, Os-
wiecim had recently developed a boo-
ming emigration business. Since 1880,
hundreds of thousands of East Europe-
ans trekked toward the German ports of
Hamburg and Bremen en route to Ame-
rica. The 65 defendants in the case were
accusedof seducing emigrants into aban-
doning their homeland with false promi-
ses of American riches. In reality, prose-
cutors argued, East European peasants
were delivered to hard labor in Ameri-
can factories, mines, and brothels.
If the Wadowice trial had been just
another expos of local corruption, it
might have passed unnoticed. But the
case came to implicate much more than
a group of shady travel agents. As the
prosecuting attorney argued in his clo-
sing statement, the trial was a referen-
dum on emigration itself, "one of the
most important, burning problems of
the day." And emigration, he insisted,
posed a grave threat to the basic ideal of
freedom in the Habsburg Empire. He
claimed that the travel agents of Oswie-
cimwere guilty of no less than "introdu-
cing a slave trade into the free land of
Austria."
The trial at Wadowice marked the be-
ginning of a century-long campaign to
prevent emigrationfromEast Central Eu-
rope. After World War II, the "captivity"
of East Europeans behind the Iron Cur-
tain became a quintessential symbol of
Communist unfreedom. In1948theUni-
ted Nations included freedom to emi-
grateonitslist of basichumanrights. The
collapse of Communism is indelibly lin-
ked to images of champagne corks pop-
ping atop the Berlin Wall and Easterners
streamingintotheWest for thefirst time.
Today, freedom of mobility within Eu-
ropeandamongEuropeansisconsidered
one of the hallmark achievements of the
EuropeanUnion.
The Iron Curtain did not, however,
simply descend overnight in 1945,
1948, or 1961. Its foundation was argu-
ably laid a century earlier, when Habs-
burg officials and social reformers first
mobilized to stop the haemorrhaging
flowof population to the West.
Numbers offer some clue as to why
emigration became a burning social and
political question in Austria-Hungary.
In the first decade of the twentieth cen-
tury alone, one in ten citizens five mil-
lion people left the Empire. Between
1901 and 1910, almost 25precent of all
immigrants to the United States hailed
from the Habsburg lands.
After the First World War, borders clo-
sed in the West, but the campaign
against emigration only escalated in the
East. One of the first priorities of East
Central Europe's new self-declared na-
tion-states was to prevent people from
leaving them. Restrictions on emigra-
tion almost immediately followed the
establishment of new nation-states in
East Central Europe.
Following World War II, East Euro-
pean governments were more deter-
minedthan ever to reverse the tide of mi-
gration from East to West. Postwar emi-
gration policies reflected familiar con-
cerns: a radical push for national homo-
geneity, the need for labour to fuel eco-
nomic reconstruction, and the pro-nata-
list ideology pervasive across Europe af-
ter 1945. By 1947 the Czechoslovak go-
vernment still technically a republican
democracy had banned emigration en-
tirely, along with all travel abroad for pri-
vate purposes, including tourismor visi-
ting family abroad.
Postwar migration politics also repre-
sented the opening act to the new and
more polarizing ideological dramas of
the Cold War. Nowmore than ever, state
officials in Eastern Europe linked emi-
gration to slavery, capitalist exploita-
tion, and moral ruin. Meanwhile, in the
Cold War West, "escapees" fromthe So-
cialist bloc became living symbols of to-
talitarian oppression. During the Cold
War era, the ability to emigrate came to
define the very boundaries between
East and West, along with the meaning
of freedomitself.
In the aftermath of the Cold War, mo-
bility and freedom remain tightly linked
in our understanding of democracy and
human rights. And yet the right to emi-
grate is illusory in most of the world. A
"human right" to exit one's country is
little more than a ticket to statelessness
in a world of closed borders. For many
emigrants, migration is a path to impri-
sonment andimmobility in the West, rat-
her than to freedom. In the United
States, thousands of asylum seekers
(and tens of thousands of immigrants)
are detained for months or years in jails
or jail-like detention centers while their
cases are adjudicated. Freedomof move-
ment within the European Union has
been accompanied by increasingly strict
measures to keep out non-European im-
migrants. In 2012, 335,895 individuals
sought asylumin EUmember states. Alt-
hough the EUadopted a Common Euro-
peanAsylumSysteminJune 2013, desig-
ned to harmonize the treatment of asy-
lumseekers, thousands remain in deten-
tion in substandard conditions.
The fundamental conflict betweenide-
als of national sovereignty and freedom
of movement may ultimately be impossi-
ble to reconcile. Debates about emigra-
tionand immigration, however, are inex-
tricable fromthis longer history of ideas
about slavery, freedom, and free labor.
In crafting migration policies today, we
should take heed of this history. Once
states begin to see migration as a tool of
population policies, it is all too easy to
treat migrants as members of groups rat-
her than individuals. Twentieth-century
history has demonstrated that when
states begin to see individual migrants
as members of "surplus" or "desirable"
populations to be imported or exported
at will, both mobility and freedomare il-
lusory for everyone.
Tara Zahra is Professor of East Euro-
pean History at the University of Chicago
By Tara Zahra
American Academy 2013_Der Tagesspiegel_September_21_2013_4
Almost there: Eastern European emigrants
on a ship in 1900, of the New York coast. An
immigration test awaits them.
Photo: mauritius images
Exodus from the East
The Iron Curtain did
not simply descend after
the Second World War.
Its foundation was laid a
century earlier, when
the Habsburg Empire
tried to stem the
increasing flow of its
citizens to the West
The right to emigrate is
illusory in most of the world
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Holtzbrinck Fellow. Celebrated author
Kiran Desai draws from her rich cultu-
ral background to create characters
that must reconcile the pull of contem-
porary love and the force of traditional
roles. Her 2006 novel, The Inheritance
of Loss, was translated into forty
languages and won numerous awards.
While in Berlin, Desai will be working
on a new novel, The Loneliness of So-
nia and Sunny, which examines mani-
festations of solitude across geogra-
phical, technological, and emotional
terrains of the globalized world.
Mary Ellen von der Heyden Fellow in
Fiction. We are encouraged to worship
the nuclear family by laws, mores, cul-
ture, and tradition. But family is not al-
ways so easy. Ben Marcus, an author
and professor of creative writing at Co-
lumbia University, will use his stay in
Berlin to work on a new novel that rumi-
nates upon the intense, sometimes
disturbing dynamics of family life. Yet
having just published a new collection
of short stories, Leaving the Sea (first
in German, as An Land gehen), he'll
first be making the literary rounds.
Daimler Fellow. On the eve of 9/11,
the writer Leslie Dunton-Downer en-
countered the singing voice of a young
Muslim man named Aqnazar in the
mountainous area of Tajikistan. She
went on to learn classical Persian and
Tajik, direct a play for Aqnazar in Paris,
co-produce a documentary film, and
accompany him on a US tour. Dunton -
Downer's memoir project The Rumi Sin-
ger will take the reader on a journey
through the musical landscape of Taji-
kistan in the context of global events
surrounding September 11, 2001.
Dirk Ippen Fellow. Dexter Filkins is
best known for his coverage of the
wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and for
groundbreaking coverage of America's
deepening military and political crisis
in the region. A Pulitzer Prize finalist in
2002 and a recipient in 2009, Filkins
is also author of the 2008 book The
Forever War, about his experiences in
Iraq and Afghanistan. Now a staff wri-
ter at the New Yorker, Filkins will be
working in Berlin on a historical novel
that moves between Europe and
Pakistan.
Mary Ellen von der Heyden Fellow in
Fiction. His sterling reputation prece-
des him. Jonatham Lethem, the
MacArthur-winning author of prizewin-
ning books, among them Motherless
Brooklyn (1999 and The Fortress of
Solitude (2003), will be in Berlin to
continue a project he is calling "Love
Boy, The Class, and Other Future Ficti-
ons," a basket of in-progress novels
and novellas. Lethem holds the estee-
med Roy E. Disney Chair of Creative
Writing at Pomona College, the
position tragically vacated by David
Foster Wallace.
Guna S. Mundheim Fellow in the
Visual Arts. Known for her engage-
ment with the human figure and use of
found materials, Huma Bhabha's
works veer towards the grotesque. Few
artists have addressed the pathos of
Promethean overreach with the
strength of this Pakistani-born Ameri-
can sculptor, whose work is in the col-
lections of the Whitney Museum and
MoMA, among many others. In Berlin,
Bhabha will continue resuscitating the
possibilities of figuration and develop
bronze sculptures in preparation for an
exhibition in 2014.
Guna S. Mundheim Fellow in the
Visual Arts. Photographer and media
artist LaToya Ruby Frazier, whose work
has been shown at the Whitney Bien-
nial (2012), the Venice Biennale
(2011), and MoMA's PS1 (2010), be-
lieves the city of Eisenhttenstadt, out-
side Berlin, will provide a compelling
comparison to Braddock, Pennsylva-
nia, where she has long lived and wor-
ked. Frazier's heartbreaking documen-
tation reports the decline of Brad-
dock's once-flourishing steel industry
through projects that marry social do-
cumentary photography and the power
of everyday speech.
Inga Maren Otto Fellow in Music
Composition. Matthew Goodheart is a
composer, improviser, and sound ar-
tist from San Francisco whose works
have been performed throughout
North America and Europe. Following
an early career as a free-jazz pianist,
he found a renewed interest in compo-
sition, focusing on microtonality,
acoustics, and the spatial properties
of sound. In Berlin, Goodheart will be-
gin work on a curiously complex piece
for fourteen musicians divided into
four ensembles and eight compu-
ter-controlled metal percussion
instruments.
Dirk Ippen Fellow. After starting as an
assistant photographer to fashion -
photo icon Patrick Demarchelier, in
1980, Dominique Nabokov branched
out and blossomed on her own. Her
fashion, portrait, and interior images
have appeared in the New Yorker,
Vogue, Vanity Fair, Le Monde, and Le
Nouvel Observateur, among others. Na-
bokov's books New York Living Rooms
(1998) and Paris Living Rooms (2002)
will soon be joined by an elegant third,
Berlin Living Rooms, which she began
in 2012.
The 2013/2
The Academys sixteenth class of fellows is compri
journalists, artists, policy experts, and one comp
and resources to pursue independent study an
as well as with Berlins vibrant aca
HUMA BHABHA
LATOYA RUBY FRAZIER
MATTHEW GOODHEART
DOMINIQUE NABOKOV
American Academy 2013_Der Tagesspiegel_September_21_2013_6
LITERATURE
ART AND MUSIC
KIRAN DESAI
BEN MARCUS
LESLIE DUNTON-DOWNER
DEXTER FILKINS
JONATHAN LETHEM
Anna-Maria Kellen Fellow. Some histo-
rians of international relations have
argued that dictatorships cannot, by
nature, develop nuclear weapons.
Ergo, Iran will not. Wolf Schfer, a his-
torian at Stony Brook University, is wor-
king on a topic that will help further illu-
minate this assumption: he's compa-
ring the Manhattan Project with Nazi
Germany's atomic program to see how
functional and dysfunctional gover-
nance and management factors can
make or break large and complex re-
search and development programs.
Berthold Leibinger Fellow. During the
Cold War, the "captivity" of East Euro-
peans behind the Iron Curtain became
a symbol of Communist oppression.
But that curtain did not descend over-
night. Its foundation, says University of
Chicago historian Tara Zahra, was laid
before the First World War. Based on
archival research in Austria, Czech Re-
public, Poland, France, and Germany,
Zahra's study suggests that East Euro-
pean concerns about emigration, as
much as Western xenophobia, were
the cause of fortified borders.
Siemens Fellow. Vanderbilt University
historian Dennis Dickerson's book on
the African American civil-rights acti-
vist William Nelson is long overdue.
Nelson and other black leaders of the
1950s Benjamin Mays, Howard Thur-
man, and Mordechai Johnson were
crucial to the emergence of the Ameri-
can Civil Rights Movement of the
1960s. Dickerson's project delivers
the much deserved recognition of Nel-
son as a broker of Gandhian nonvio-
lence that forged the crucible of Martin
Luther King's fight for racial justice.
Ellen Maria Gorrissen Fellow. One of
the most important scholars of moder-
nist art history working today, Linda
Henderson, of the University of Texas
at Austin, has revolutionized our under-
standing of early twentieth-century art.
Accordingly, her Berlin project on the
"energies of modernism" will not be
about filling holes in existing scholar-
ship. Rather, it will attempt to
transform the ways we think about
modernism in relation to science as it
transpired at the onset of the
twentieth century.
Bosch Public Policy Fellow. There are
mountains of books about the US
army that fought in World War II but sur-
prisingly few about the army that suc-
ceeded it. Brian Linn, a military histo-
rian at Texas A&M University, will em-
ploy Elvis Presley to illustrate how the
military changed in the post-World War
II era, when millions were "trained" to
become ideal American citizens.
Linn's exposure to German life will be
important for rendering the symbiotic
relationship between West Germany
and US soldiers during the Cold War.
Anna-Maria Kellen Felllow. In 2011,
Ronald Suny, the director of the Eisen-
berg Institute of Historical Studies at
the University of Michigan, published A
Question of Genocide, in which he
dealt with the causes of the Armenian
massacre. In Berlin, he will further in-
vestigate the "why" of this genocide.
Instead of making singular national or
religious conflicts responsible for the
mass slaughter, Suny emphasizes a
narrative of perceived threat, which
made the annihilation of Armenians
appear to Turks as a measure of ratio-
nal self-protection.
Siemens Fellow. How is it that Machia-
velli, that arch-theorist of cynical politi-
cal manipulation, has lately featured
prominently in a number of projects ai-
med at deepening the experience of
democracy? Tracing this curious tra-
jectory while in Berlin, historian War-
ren Breckman, from the University of
Pennsylvania, will dive into European
political thought, particularly Arendt,
Strauss, and Schmidt, and into some
tracts of left-wing theorists employing
Machiavelli to articulate their versions
of radical democracy.
Nina Maria Gorrissen Fellow in
History. Germans are political; 'twas
always so. To prove it, James Brophy, a
historian at the University of Delaware,
is examining the links between Ger-
man publishing and the broader public
sphere between 1770-1870. By focu-
sing on the era's individual publishers,
Brophy highlights dynamic political en-
gagement across the ideological spect-
rum, and thereby aims to put to rest
the myth that German political culture
before Bismarck was inherently pas-
sive, obedient, or beholden to
authority.
2014 Fellows
sed of twenty-seven outstanding scholars, writers,
poser. The Berlin Prize affords fellows the time
nd to engage with their German counterparts
ademic, cultural, and political life.
WOLF SCHFER
TARA ZAHRA
WARREN BRECKMAN
JAMES BROPHY
The fellows in PUBLIC POLICY and
HUMANITIES followon the next page.
HISTORY
DENNIS DICKERSON
LINDA HENDERSON
BRIAN LINN
RONALD SUNY
7_September_21_2013_Der Tagesspiegel_American Academy 2013
John P. Birkelund Fellow. Poet and cri-
tic Susan Stewart, winner of a 1997 Ma-
cArthur grant and a 2003 Book Critics
Circle Award, comes fromPrinceton Uni-
versity with the ambitious agenda of fi-
nishing two projects. The first is about
the representation of ruins in Western
art and literature. The second is the
completion of a newbook of poems. For
both she will visit the Kupferstichkabi-
nett and the Gemldegalerie, engaging
primary material with both a critical and
a creative voice.
Axel Springer Fellow. The election of
Hassan Rouhani's to Iran's presidency
in June appears to be a victory for re-
formers. New hope seems to be blos-
soming, subsequent the crushing of
the opposition Green movement in
2009. Journalist Laura Secor has long
followed the country's political transfor-
mation, writing primarily for the New
Yorker. In Berlin she will continue work
on her book Fugitives from Paradise, a
combination intellectual history, biogra-
phy, and report about the emergence
of democratic reform in Iran.
Nina Maria Gorrissen Fellow in
History. The Neue Nationalgalarie is
one of the most defining buildings de-
signed by the visionary architect Lud-
wig Mies van der Rohe, whose archi-
tectural legacy in Berlin was establis-
hed decades prior. Dietrich Neumann,
a professor of modern architecture
and urbanism at Brown University, has
come specifically to Berlin to continue
work on a critical biography of the Bau-
haus luminary.
John P. Birkelund Fellow. It took the
French poet and essayist Francis Ponge
(1899-1988) more than half a lifetime
to decide to take up "the sun" as an ob-
ject of consideration. Literary scholar
Thomas Schestag is working on an edi-
tion of the Ponge's unpublished dos-
sier "Le soleil," which involves delving
into the poet's unique notebooks, sket-
ches, and wordplay to survey Ponge's
sweeping, if cautious, literary imagina-
tion, and providing transcriptions, trans-
lations, and philological commentary.
German Transatlantic Program
Fellow. Given the number of people for-
ced into migration by environmental,
social, and military conditions, Felicity
Scott's project is timely. A professor of
architecture and theory at Columbia
University, her project will investigate
the responses to growing urban unrest
in the developed and developing
worlds between the years 1966 and
1979, when unique forms of archi-
tecture played a crucial role in the ma-
nagement of urban populations.
Holtzbrinck Fellow. Why did some very
smart people at the end of World War
II make some very poor choices parti-
cularly Western intellectuals who
chose to collaborate with the Soviets?
Journalist and writer Sylvia Nasar a
former correspondent at the New York
Times and Fortune, and author of the
bestselling biography A Beautiful Mind
(1998) is in Berlin to seek an ans-
wer. Here she plans to trace the archi-
val trails of collaborators, among them
the OSS officer Jrgen Kuczynski.
Ellen Maria Gorrissen Fellow. To learn
of the future, look first to the past.
This advice is not lost on Egyptologist
Janet Richards, of the University of Mi-
chigan, who since 1995 has directed
the Abydos Middle Cemetery Project,
an investigation of a late third-millen-
nium BCE mortuary, where the tomb of
Weni the Elder, a political official, was
rediscovered. In Berlin, Richards plans
to complete a book called Writing An-
cient Lives, about ancient Egyptian re-
sponses to large political crises.
SUSAN STEWART
Axel Springer Fellow. The idea of the
universality of human rights is the cor-
nerstone of international human rights
law. But as political scientist Andrew
Nathan of Columbia University argues,
human rights should not be viewed as
a consolidated achievement; it requi-
res the renewed cultivation of norms.
During his stay in Berlin, Nathan will
research European foreign ministries
concerned with human rights issues
for his study of the future of the inter-
national human rights regime.
Bosch Public Policy Fellow. Having
had a front-row seat as a policymaker
and adviser to Madeleine Albright du-
ring the Yugoslav Wars will be of great
use to David Scheffer, the first US Am-
bassador-at-Large for War Crimes Is-
sues (1997-2001) and now a profes-
sor of law at Northwestern University.
In Berlin, Scheffer will be exploring
American foreign policy during these
years, relying upon a hundred personal
notebooks, newly declassified cables,
and highly focused interviews with key
decision-makers of the period.
Axel Springer Fellow. Where could be
better than the American Academy in
Berlin for writing a book about Richard
C. Holbrooke, that towering figure of
US diplomacy who founded the institu-
tion in 1994, just as he was finishing
his tenure as US Ambassador to Ger-
many and a year before his successful
negotiation of the Dayton Accords.
Award-winning author and New Yorker
staff writer George Packer, who just pu-
blished The Unwinding to critical
acclaim, will trace Holbrooke's career
from Vietnam to Afghanistan and Pakis-
tan, his very last diplomatic mission.
JANET RICHARDS
LAURA SECOR
DIETRICH NEUMANN
THOMAS SCHESTAG
FELICITY SCOTT
SYLVIA NASAR
ANDREW NATHAN
DAVID SCHEFFER
GEORGE PACKER
American Academy 2013_Der Tagesspiegel_September_21_2013_8
HUMANITIES PUBLIC POLICY
The American Academy in Berlin looks
forward again to welcoming a number of
outstanding distinguished visitors to the
HansArnholdCenter. Duringtheirstays,
which last from one to four weeks, visi-
tors partakeinahigh-level programcom-
prisedof a series of private meetings and
public exchanges, including a public
lecture, to facilitate a robust exchange of
views between Germany and the United
States.
October opens with the Academy hos-
ting, for several weeks, an internatio-
nally acclaimed couple from Princeton
University. Robert O. Keohane (Allianz
Distinguished Visitor), one of the lea-
ding theorists in international relations
and professor of international affairs at
the Woodrow Wilson School for Public
and International Affairs, will discuss
the future of American leadership and
multilateral institutions in a post-hege-
monic world on October 10.
Five days later, Nannerl O. Keohane (Ri-
chard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Visi-
tor), the first female president of both a
women's college, Wellesley, and a major
researchuniversity, Duke, will address in
the importance of women's leadership
anddiscuss her more than three decades
of servicetothefieldof highereducation.
On October 16, Lisa Anderson (Richard
C. HolbrookeDistinguishedVisitor), are-
nowned specialist on politics in the
Middle East and North Africa and cur-
rentlythepresident of theAmericanUni-
versity in Cairo, will explore the recent
andcontesteddevelopmentsinArabpoli-
tics. Financial expert David Lipton (Kurt
Viermietz Distinguished Visitor), First
DeputyManagingDirectoroftheInterna-
tional MonetaryFundandformerSpecial
Assistant to the President Obama, will
discuss Germany's role in an intercon-
nectedworldonOctober 31.
Concluding this fall's impressive
roll-call is Vaclav Smil (EADS Distinguis-
hed Visitor), a leading expert on energy
andenvironmental science, whowill out-
line trends in current and future global
energy issues onNovember 14.
Fascinatingguests havealreadyconfir-
med their visits for spring 2014: Richard
N. Haass (Lloyd Cutler Distinguished Vi-
sitor), former Director of Policy Plan-
ning for the US Department of State, US
Special Envoy for Northern Ireland, and
currentlythe president of the Council on
ForeignRelations; Thomas Campbell (Ma-
rina Kellen French Distinguished Visi-
tor), Director of the Metropolitan Mu-
seumof Art; George Rupp (Marina Kellen
French Distinguished Visitor), former
president of Rice University and of Co-
lumbia University, in New York, and
since2002thepresidentof theInternatio-
nal Rescue Committee; Roberta Smith
(MarinaKellenFrenchDistinguishedVi-
sitor), Chief Art Criticat theNewYorkTi-
mes; and Jane Holl Lute (Richard C. Hol-
brooke Distinguished Visitor), former
Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security
andcurrentlypresident of theCouncil on
CyberSecurity.
Malte Mau
Luminary Guests
The Distinguished
Visitor program brings
leading Americans from
foreign policy, culture,
and economics to Berlin
9_September_21_2013_Der Tagesspiegel_American Academy 2013
Roger W. Ferguson, former
vice chairman of the US Fede-
ral Reserve and a distinguis-
hed visitor, discusses financial
developments with German
politician Kurt Biedenkopf
Photo: Annette Hornischer
Sie haben die Idee und den Plan. Um Ihren Ideen eine Perspektive zu
geben, untersttzen wir Sie mit Beratung und Finanzierungsangeboten.
Sie sind der Unternehmer wir sind die Frderbank in Berlin.
Wir geben Ihren Ideen eine Perspektive.
www.ibb.de
The Dark
Seeking medical
novelty under the
battered gray skies
of Dsseldorf,
Ben Marcuss Julian
Bledstein heads
down a path to
nothing good
On a dark winter morning at the Mller-
haus men's hostel, Julian Bledstein reached
for his dopp kit. At home he could medicate
himself blindfolded, but here, across the
ocean, it wasn't so easy. The room stank,
and more than one young man was snoring.
The beds in the old gymnasium were sin-
gles, which didn't keep certain of the guests
fromcoupling when the lights went out. So-
metimes Julian could hear them going at it,
fornicating as if with silencers on. He stu-
died the sounds when he couldn't sleep,
picturingthe worst: animals strappedtobre-
athing machines, children smothered under
blankets. In the morning he could never tell
just who had been making love. The men
dressed and left for the day, avoiding eye
contact, mesmerized in the glow of their
cell phones.
Julian held his breath and squeezed the
syringe, draining untold dollars worth of
questionable medicine into the flesh of his
thigh. He clipped a bag holding the last of
his money to the metal underside of his
bed. His father's hard-earned money. Not
enough euros left. Not nearly enough.
He'd have to make a call, poor-mouth into
the phone until his father's wallet spit out
more bills.
He left the hostel and took the stone path
down to nothing good. This morning he
was on his way, yet again, to meet Hayley's
train. Sweet, sweet Hayley. She wouldfail to
appear today, no doubt, as she had failed to
appear every day for the past two weeks. It
seemed more and more likely that his
lovely, explosively angry girlfriend
wouldn't be joining himin Germany even
though they'd spent months planning the
trip, Julian Googling deep into his unem-
ployed afternoons back home, Hayley pin-
ging him sexy links from work whenever
she could. A food-truck map, day treks
along the Knigsallee. First they'd destroy
England and France, lay waste to the Old
World, then drop into freaking Dsseldorf
for the last, broken leg of the journey.
It was meant to be a romantic medi-
cal-tourist getaway, a young invalid and his
ladyfriendsampling the experimental medi-
cine of the Rhine. But they'd fought in
France, and he'd come to Dsseldorf ahead
of her. Now he waited not so hopefully, not
so patiently dragging himself between the
hostel, the train station, and the Internet
caf, checking vainly for messages from
Hayley while seeking treatment at the cli-
nic up on the hill.
Treatment, well, that perhaps wasn't the
wordfor it. His was one of the hopeless con-
ditions. An allergy to his own blood, as he
not so scientifically thought of it. An allergy
tohimself was more like it. His immune sys-
tem was mistaken, fighting against the
home team. Or his immune system knew
exactly what it was doing. These days auto-
immune diseases were the most sophistica-
ted way to undermine yourself, to be your
own worst enemy.
Back home he'dtriedit all, andfelt nodif-
ferent. The steroids, the nerve blocks, the
premium plasma. He'd eaten only green
food until it ran down his legs. Then for a
long time he'd tried nothing. He'd tried
school, then tried dropping out, living, in
his mid-twenties, in his old room in his fat-
her's house. Through it all, though, he had
mostly tried Hayley, as in, really really tried
her, and he could see how very tried she'd
become.
It was Hayley who'd pushed for this trip,
so that Julian could finally have a shot at the
newmedical approach they'd read so much
about, a possible breakthroughwithrare au-
toimmune disorders. In Germany, a shining
outpost on the medical frontier, they tried
what was forbidden or unconscionable el-
sewhere. And for a fee they'd try it on you.
Massive doses of it. You could bathe in its
miracle waters. You could practically get
stem-cell Jell-O shooters at the bar on
Thursday nights. So long as, you know, you
waived yes, waived goodbye to your
rights, your family, your life. It was not such
a terrible trade.
On Julian's first day, the clinic had bran-
dished a very fine needle. It had gleamed in
the cold fluorescent light of the guinea-pig
room. Fromhis wheezing torso, the doctors
had drawn blood and marrow, his deep, pri-
vate syrup boiledit, thenspoon fedit back
to him until he sizzled, until he just about
glowed. Of course the whole thing was
more complicated than that, particularly
the dark arts they conjured on his marrow
once they'd smuggled it out of him. They
spun it, cleaned it, damn near weaponized
it, then sold it back to him for cash. Zero
sum medicine, since he'd grown it himself,
inwhat Hayley, digging intohis ribs, hadcal-
led "The Julian Farm." Except that the sum
was a good deal larger than zero.
And after a fewweeks you'd be better. In
his wellness fantasies, Julian always pictu-
red himself scrubbed clean, nicely dressed,
suddenly funny and charming. Better, in
every goddamned way. But, of course,
throughout these treatments, as he'd disco-
vered, your frowning doctors hedged and
balked and shat caveats, until the promise
of recovery was off the table, out of the
The Owl
by Susan Stewart
I thought somehow a piece of cloth was tossed
into the night, a piece of cloth that flew
up, then across, beyond the window.
A tablecloth or handkerchief, a knot
somehowunfolding, folded, pushing through
the thickness of the dark. I thought somehow
a piece of cloth was lost beyond the line-
released, although it seemed as if a knot
still hung, unfolding. Some human hand could not
have thrown that high, or lent such force to cloth,
and yet I knewno god would mind a square
of air so small. And still it moved and still
it swooped and disappeared beyond the pane.
The after-image went, a blot beyond
the icy glass. And, closer, there stood winter
grass so black it had no substance
until I looked again and sawit tipped
with brittle frost. An acre there (a common-
place), a line of trees, a line of stars.
So look it up: you'll find that you could lose
your sense of depth,
a leaf, a sheaf
of paper, pillow-
case, or heart-
shaped face,
a shrieking hiss,
like winds, like
death, all tangled
there in branches.
I called this poem"the owl,"
the name that, like a key, locked out the dark
and later let me close my book and sleep
a winter dream. And yet the truth remains
that I can't knowjust what I saw, and if
it comes each night, each dream, each star, or not
at all. It's not, it's never, evident
that waiting has no reason. The circuit of the world
belies the chaos of its forms-(the kind
of thing astronomers
look down to write
in books).
And still I thought a piece of cloth
had flown outside my window, or human hands
had freed a wing, or churning gods revealed
themselves, or, greater news, a northern owl,
a snowy owl descended.
FromRed Rover (University of Chicago Press)
Susan Stewart is a poet, critic, and
Avalon Foundation University Professor in the
Humanities and Director of the Society of Fellows
in the Liberal Arts at Princeton University
American Academy 2013_Der Tagesspiegel_21. September 2013_10
By Ben Marcus
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ESTABLISHED IN PERPETUITY
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This list documents the contri-
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room, nowhere near the building.
This morning he ducked the stares of
shopkeepers, who guarded their doors
against him, the pale American who spent
no money. They must have come to recog-
nize his sickly figure by now. What was left
of it. Godknows they'dgawked. ToJulian, it
seemed that they could see right through
his clothes, and they were not amused.
You'd need more than clothing to hide a
body like his. You'd need a shovel, a tarp.
Tarps were designedtocover menlike him.
The shopkeepers stood and stared as Ju-
lian passed. He could only walk faster, win-
cing, until they released him from eye con-
tact. Had anyone, he wondered, ever stu-
died the biology of being seen? The rava-
ging, the way it literally burned when you
fetched up in people's sightline and they
took aim at you with their minds? He wan-
tedtosummona lookof kindness andcurio-
sity in return, a look that might make them
forgive his miserly ways, his trespass on
their ancient, superior city. But his face la-
ckedthe power to convey. He'dstoppedtry-
ing to use it for silent communication the
semaphore you performed overseas, absent
a shared language, to suggest that you were
not a murderer. Such facial language was
for apes, or some mime troupe in Vermont.
Mummenschanz people who emoted for a
living. He ate with his face and spoke with
it. Sometimes he hid it in his hands. That
should have been enough.
Anyway, why not let them think that he
meant them harm, these people of Dssel-
dorf? Give them a good scare. A man dres-
sed up as his own corpse, in a costume sim-
ply called Julian. Too bad he couldn't distri-
bute his graypelt enmasse, sothat a popula-
tion of eye-sunken Julians could limp
throughGermany, beggingfor candy, mutte-
ring, "Trick or treat, Ses oder Saures."
For now, he was the only one who got to
wear it.
Ittookhimjustonesuckingsprintonaciga-
rettetoreachthetrainstation, adomedbuil-
ding in rust-colored stone. After a fewmor-
nings inside, braving the crush of travelers
whoreekedof chowder, he figuredhe didn't
need to enter the dank space just to wait for
Hayley. Agranite ledge opposite the station
offereda perfect viewof the decamping pas-
sengers. Every morning locals poured from
the building wrapped in hemp and straw.
The fancier ones wore the waxed canvas
coats of hunters. Occasionally an American
or twospoiledthe tasteful palettewithvaca-
tioncolors, releasinghigh-strungmoodsasif
bymegaphone: Ihavearrivedinyourhistoric
city and I am the happiest person you will
ever know! Let me rub my joy on you! They
shot into the town square like clowns fired
from a cannon, mugging their snack-smea-
redfaces at someimaginedcamera.
Even if the Americans were shrewd
enough to go native, shodding themselves
in the earth-brown padabouts of Europe-
ans, wearing sweaters and satchels instead
of parkas and backpacks, then their faces,
haunted by the tourist advisories, gave
them away. Julian pictured them on the
train ride into town, the German landscape
scrolling by in fairy-tale colors outside their
windows while they huddled over their Fo-
dor's, steeling themselves when they came
to the warning that visitors who showed
fear or uncertainty were the first to be sin-
gled out. Targeted through binoculars by
cunning locals, led down unmarked streets
into an alley designed precisely for killing,
where they'dbe robbed anderasedfromthe
world. Even in modern Germany. Even in
the civilized world. Especially in the civili-
zed world!
Tourists and, for that matter, all people
were merely accidents of physics, foamy
chuff in the wake of a larger activity. That
wouldn't be explicitly stated in the Fodor's.
Not insomanywords. Bodies were the jetti-
sonedwaste of something too great tocom-
prehend. And the so-called inner life of
these bodies was biological sewage, produ-
cedby an organismthat was, itself, a higher
form of waste. Duh! People were statisti-
cally insignificant, a rounding error. Boo
freaking hoo. Since he'd gotten sick, since
he'd started frequenting online illness fo-
rums, particularlythe terminal ones, where
thegoddamnsunnysideof life was systema-
tically shut down, this had become ob-
vious.
Maybe, though, interms of day-to-daysur-
vival, it was best to put this stuff out of his
mind. Our smallness, the very very convin-
cingwayinwhichour presence failedtomat-
ter, sometimes had to go without saying.
That was a tombstone inscription: Julian
Bledstein. He went without saying.
Or, Here lies Julian Bledstein. He lied to
himself and nowhe lies here.
This story is excerpted
fromBen Marcuss forthcoming
book of short stories
Leaving the Sea (Knopf, 2014).
11_September_21_2013_Der Tagesspiegel_American Academy 2013
Final Destination.
"First theyd destroy
England and France,
lay waste to the
Old World, then
drop into freaking
Dsseldorf for the
last, broken leg of
the journey."

Photo: ullstein bild
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DIVERSITY
2013
Als Referenten und Referentinnen nehmen unter anderem teil:
Auf der Konferenz DIVERSITY disktutieren wir mit Experten
und Expertinnen, wie Vielfalt in deutschen Unternehmen und
Institutionen erfolgreich genutzt werden kann. Neben Keynotes und
Paneldiskussionen wird es erstmalig einen Diversity Slam geben.
Vier Workshop-Formate setzen den Schwerpunkt auf konkrete
Handlungsanleitungen, ganz im Sinne eines Best Practice. Wie
lsst sich der Diversity-Gedanke nachhaltig vermitteln? Dabei geht
es auch um unbewusste Vorurteile und die Messbarkeit des Erfolgs.
Unsere Partner:
28. und 29. November in Berlin
Anmeldung und Information:
www.diversity-konferenz.de
Tel. (030) 29021 - 587 (Mo. bis Fr. 9.00 - 18.00 Uhr)
Cem zdemir
Bundesvorsitzender
Bndnis 90/
Die Grnen
Prof. Dr. Gerald Hther
Sachbuchautor
und Professor fr
Neurobiologie an der
Universitt Gttingen
Ana-Cristina Grohnert
Ernst & Young GmbH,
Vorsitzende des
Vorstandes,
Charta der Vielfalt e. V.
Prof Dr.
Gertraude Krell
Prof. Dr. Marion Schick
Vorstandsmitglied
Deutsche Telekom AG
Wilfried Porth
Personalvorstand
und Arbeitsdirektor
der Daimler AG
Monika Schulz-Strelow
Prsidentin FidAR e.V.
Prof. Dr. Isabell Welpe
TU Mnchen
Dr. Armgard von Reden
Leibniz Universitt
Hannover
Hier wird Wissen zur Bhnenshow: Experten und
Expertinnen aus Wissenschaft und Praxis haben beim
Diversity Slam zehn Minuten Zeit, ihre Idee, ihr Best-
Practice-Beispiel oder ihr Studienergebnis zum Thema Diversity vorzustellen.
Bei der Prsentation sind alle Hilfsmittel erlaubt. Der perfekte Slam-Vortrag ist
kurzweilig, unterhaltsam und leicht verstndlich. Denn: Das Publikum bildet die Jury
und entscheidet, wer der beste Slammer ist. Unser Sponsor die Deutsche Bahn
untersttzt den Diversity Slam.
Die Workshops
1. Der fehlende Baustein den Nutzen von
Diversity Management messen
2. Die Summe der Teile Dimensionen zum
ganzheitlichen Diversity-Ansatz
3. Unconscious Bias Wie knnen Stereotype
berwunden werden? (sponsored by Deutsche Bank)
4. Diversity by Design