Endangered Scholars Worldwide: Introduction

Abstract

Endangered Scholars Worldwide: Introduction IN TH IS ISSUE OF SOCIAL R ESEA R CH WE ARE INTRODUCING A N E W FEATURE that we hope will appear regularly in our pages. We resolve to dedicate a section ofeachfuture issue to a listing ofendangered and imprisoned scholars worldwide. We will publish the names ofthese scholars and provide sources of further details, along with as much information as we can about what actions we are being asked to take on their behalf. We recognize that there are many organizations both in the United States and elsewhere already doing this work, but we think adding our voice to those already speaking up can only help put pressure on the people and states responsiblefor these injustices. Our hope is that world opinion will help persuade them to free the individuals they unjustly imprison and persecute. We see this new effort as completely consistent not only with our own history as a journal but with the intensifying need to call attention to the increasing, often brutal, attempts to silence our colleagues around the world. Those of our readers who are familiar with the history of Social Research may know that it was launched in 1934 by the small group ofEuropean schol­ ars whom AlvinJohnson, the New School’sfirstpresident, rescuedfrom Hitler’s Germany and the spread offascism throughout Europe. The New School for Social Research (formerly known as the Graduate Faculty) began with this group ofexiles, who constituted what was originally known as the “University in Exile.” Social Research: An International Q uarterly of the Political and Social Sciences was established as the voice of these rescued and exiled scholars and intellectuals. Now, almost 75 years later, we once again wish to provide a voice for endangered and imprisoned scholars everywhere, and we think ourfounders would enthusiastically endorse this effort. Endangered Scholars W orldw ide v A word about why now: We have been motivated to launch this effort in response to the illegal arrest of two people who in the recent past were members of the New Schoolfamily. One of those arrested, Dr. Kian Tajbakhsh, is a friend, a Social Research author, and was a colleague at the New School from 1994 until 2001, teaching urban policy and politics. The other is Dr. Berhanu Nega, who received his Ph.D. in Economics from the New Schoolfor Social Research in 1991. We are initiating this special feature by singling out Kian Tajbakhsh and Berhanu Nega from the many other scholars and intellectuals suffering similar fates— such as Haleh Esfandiari, who also was arrested by Iranian authorities on May 8, 2007 and is also being held in Evin Prison in Tehran, or Professor Mesfin Woldemariam, who, like Dr. Nega, was arrested in Ethiopia in 2005 and remains in prison— because Doctors Tajbakhsh and Nega are part of our immediate family. In subsequent issues we will spread our atten­ tion globally, wherever it is needed, and provide information about scholars everywhere who are endangered sometimes for simply doing their scholarly work and sometimes for speaking out against the injustices around them. —Arien Mack, Editor “ Endangered Scholars Worldwide," the title of the new section that debuts this month in Social Research, succinctly sums up an urgent and ongoing matter ofgrave concern. It is onlyfitting that The New School, originallyfounded to provide a safe havenfor intellectuals at risk, joins the community ofthose dedi­ cated to calling attention to and taking action on behalfofthosefacing danger. I wholeheartedly applaud this inspired effort to champion the cause ofmembers of our “ family,”as well as other imperiled scholars across the globe. —Bob Kerrey, President, The New School vi social research ...