“Ifn an event that chairman Theodore C./ Sorensen called an “historic occasion,”

_ ‘,the international advisory board of theCenter convened for the first time onMarch 7, 2000 in New York City.

Fifteen distinguished leaders andactivists have joined the Board, which ischarged with advising and shaping theCenter’s work. Representing politics, law,scholarship, activism, the arts, and otherfields, the board members’ extraordinarydiversity of experience promises to givethe Center a unique opportunity to devel-op ideas that cross usual professional anddisciplinary boundaries.

At the inaugural meeting, board mem-bers discussed the history, mission, cur-rent projects, and future prospects of theCenter. Citing the need for sustained

attention to ethical issues in the intema-tional arena, the board recommended thatthe Center remain focused on conflictsand crises arising within and betweencountries. The Board further recommend-ed that the Center examine the “ethics ofintervention” as a principal focus in thecoming years.

Board members also laid out an ambi-tious series of possible programs for theCenter to undertake and suggested criteriaby which the Center’s success could bejudged after a three to five year timespan.

The Board is scheduled to meet for-mally on an annual basis, but informalmeetings may take place between sessionsin conjunction with Center conferencesand other events.

(See Board List on page 2)

Front row, lef to right: Ismat Kittani, Kerry Kennedy Cuomo, Theodore C. Sorensen (chair),Stephen J. Solarz, Judith Schneide,:

Back row: Daniel Terris, Sari Nusseibeh, Jehuda Reinharz (president of BrandeisUniversity), Paul Simon, Liv Vllmann, Gabrielle Kirk McDonald, JamesCarroll, Joshua Steiner; Diego Arria

Not pictured: Richard J. Goldstone, Tommy Koh, George E Shultz

As part of the Center’s partnershipwith the Jerusalem Foundation,Brandeis University professor and for-mer U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert B.Reich is delivering two public lecturesin Israel in the spring of 2000.

The first, “Ethics, Public Service,and Income Inequality,” is being givenat the Laromme Hotel in Jerusalem onMay 28. The second, “Globalizationand Its Discontents,” is being deliveredat Tel Aviv University on May 30. TheCenter will publish the Jerusalem lec-ture later in 2000.

The lectures are part of the series,“Ethics and Human Values,” under theauspices of Mishkenot Sha’ananim.The Center has worked wi thMishkenot Sha’ananim to provideethics seminars for Israeli profession-als in law, medicine, and the military.

n Undergraduates headabroad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

n Coexistence Initiativeupdate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

n The Kosovo intervention:Two perspectives . . . . . . . . . . .4, 5

n “Doing Justice andLoving Mercy” . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

n The Japanese AmericanInternment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

n Empathy with“Apartheid’s Crusader” . . . . . . . .7

I “A New Public Education” . . . . . .8

“5Xiolence and suffering wrack a distant land. Those unaffected watch from afar.‘\ / When are they obligated to act to relieve the suffering? What kinds of actions should

they take? If they act, will they do more harm than good?These questions roiled the international community during the 1990s. Action and inac-

tion influenced events in troubled regions of the world. Bosnia, Somalia, Rwanda, Kosovo,East Timor. We are still sorting out the interventions and non-interventions of the pastdecade, and wondering whether there is a firm basis for more principled and more effectivecourses in the future.

The question of the “ethics of intervention” will govern the work of the Center over the nextseveral years. The Center’s advisory board has recommended that we look both backward andforward, in search of ways that scholarly analysis and the insights of practitioners can providea stronger basis for decision making and a greater public involvement in those decisions.

Some of this work involves an examination of recent conflicts. Board member RichardGoldstone is chairing the Independent Commission on Kosovo, whose work will point tolessons for the future. The debate over these issues is intense, and we intend to consider avariety of viewpoints. The excerpts in this newsletter from recent talks by Michael Ignatieffand Kevin Clements - who were on opposite sides regarding the NATO intervention inKosovo - illustrate the divide.

But we should also cast a wider net in search of fundamentals. As we consider thistheme, we plan to draw on the insights not only of political theorists and actors, but on awide range of disciplines and professionals. We need the insights of moral philosophers toplace intervention in its philosophical context. Historians will help us to compare theevents of recent decades with the actions of men and women in earlier eras. We will drawupon the experience of professionals in fields like law and medicine who deal with inter-vention on a smaller scale in their daily practice. And we will look to the ways that writersand artists have explored this theme in their creative work.

The world is too complex for simple rules of conduct that could govern every situation.Instead, our goal is to provide the tools for informed and reflective decision making foractions in the public sphere. Intervention is a matter not only for leaders but for the citizensof their commonwealths.

As we move forward, the theme of the “ethics of intervention” will complement ourongoing work on the Brandeis Initiative in Intercommunal Coexistence. To the extent thatmany of the international interventions of recent years have revolved around ethnic andracial conflict, the connection is a natural one for our work.

We welcome your thoughts and suggestions as we plan the activities that will bringthese questions to life.A

2%J&Dan Terris,Director

Theodore C. Sorensen, SeniorCounsel. Paul, Weiss. Rifkind. Wharton& Garrison, New York (chair)

Diego Arria, former Amhassador to theUnited Nations, VenezuelaJames Carroll, author, MassachusettsRichard J. Goldstone, Justice of theConstitutional Court, South AfricaKerry Kennedy Cuomo, founder,Robert F. Kennedy Center for HumanRights, VirginiaIsmat Kittani. Special Advisor to theSecretary-General of the UnitedNations, IraqTommy Koh. Ambassador-at-Large,Ministry of Foreign Affairs, SingaporeGabrielle Kirk McDonald, formerPresident, International CriminalTribunal for the Former Yugoslavia,New YorkSari Nusseibeh. President, Al-QudsUniversity. JerusalemJudith Schneider, psychologist,New YorkGeorge P. Shultz, former United StatesSecretary 0r State, CaliforniaPaul Simon, former United StatesSenator, IllinoisStephen J. Solarz, former UnitedStates Congressman, VirginiaJoshua Steiner, partner, QuadrangleGroup, New YorkLiv Ullmann, film director and writer,Norway

-he Ethics Center has selected six’ ’ Brandeis University sophomoresi I and juniors as Student Fellows for

the coming year. These students will bethe third group of Brandeis undergraduatesto undertake fieldwork in troubled areas ofthe world on behalf of the Ethics Centerand in service of the cause of peace andjustice.

Sarah-Bess Dworin and Sophia Moonwill work at two sites in NorthernIreland,-The Rural Community Networka membership organization that serves as a

voice for rural communities-and TheCorrymeela Community-which is com-mitted to reconciliation work through fam-ily and community.

Andrew Slack may join Sarah-Bessand Sophia at these organizations inNorthern Ireland, or may travel instead toIsrael to work with the Israel/PalestineCenter for Research and Information. Thisorganization was founded as the firstIsraeli/Palestinian attempt to create an insti-tution for ongoing sustainable cooperation,problem solving and conflict resolution..

Tova Neugut will travel to Grenada,where she will continue Brandeis’ pres-ence with G R E N E D , the GrenadaEducation and Development Programme.Tova will be working on a documentaryhistory project covering the period of theUnited States intervention in Grenada.

Nakisha Evans and Zachary Sherwinwill join Ikamva Lubantu, a non-profitorganization that supports democracy inpost-apartheid South Africa by providingeducational and economic resources tocommunity members in the townships.

The mandate of the BrandeisInitiative in Intercommunal

_ i Coexistence is to engage Brandeisstudents, faculty, and staff in the theoryand practice of coexistence and, in theprocess, to contribute to the emerging fieldof coexistence.

Considerable attention has beendevoted this year to the development of aleadership team for the Brandeis commu-nity. The six undergraduates, three gradu-ate students, five members of the staff, andtwo members of the faculty met for a two-day retreat in January. Supported by facili-tators and a consulting artist, they sharedstories about the aesthetic inheritancesthey bring to Brandeis. Leadership teammembers also practiced listening skills andexplored issues of power in relation totheir various roles in the institution. Sincethe retreat, the group has continued to meeton a weekly basis and will develop anaction plan for the next two years.

Scholarly work on coexistence ques-tions has continued to explore the theme“Human Rights and Conflict Resolution:Reconciling Two Approaches toCoexistence.” Following this year’s facul-ty seminar series, the Center will beginwork on a publication that illustrates thetension between human rights and conflict

resolution positions and that offers modelsof work integrating elements from the twofields. In addition, members of the facultyhave been awarded stipends to pursue thequestions raised by the seminar seriesthrough scholarly work that links theirown disciplines to coexistence literature.Among those to receive stipends from theBrandeis Initiative are:

1. Dessima Williams, Sociology, for aproject engaging Grenadian citizens inexploring structures and processes for rec-onciliation in the aftermath of the U.S.intervention nearly twenty years ago

2. Avigdor Levy, Near Eastern andJudaic Studies, for a work reviewing coex-istence literature in light of his research onTurkish-Jewish-Ottoman relations

3. Andreas Teuber, Philosophy, fordeveloping a coexistence and conflict res-olution component in his Human Rightscourse

4. April Powell-Willingham and JohnCapitman, Heller School, for research onthe intersections of theory in SustainableDevelopment, Conflict Resolution, andHuman Rights.

The Brandeis Initiative inIntercommunal Coexistence is supportedby a generous grant from the Alan B.Slifka Foundati0n.W

Coexistence Leadership Team:Bill Thompson, Attila Klein

Coexistence Leadership Team:Marco Barreto, Roxanne Morel

2000 Ethics and CoexistenceStudent Fellows Sarah-BessDworin, Andrew Slack, Tova

Neugut, and Sophia Moon, withBrandeis president Jehuda

Reinharz. Not pictured: ZacharySherwin and Nakisha Evans

M i c h a e l by institution building, by creating statesIgnatiefi journal- strong enough and legitimate enough toist, historian, recover their monopoly over the means ofnovelist, and tele- violence, imposing order and creating thevision commenta- rule of law. And let us be explicit: democ-tor, spent three racy alone is no solution, for democracydays at Brandeis too often becomes simply a legitimizationin January as a of ethnic majority tyranny. See Croatia.D i s t i n g u i s h e d See Kosovo.

Visitor of the Center and of the AndreiSakharov Archive and Human RightsCenter The following is excerpted from“Human Rights Culture: The Political andSpiritual Crisis, I’ a lecture given in AndreiSakharov’s honor on Tuesday, January 25,2000. The Center will publish the lecturein its entirety later in 2000.

We need to promote not just democra-cy, but constitutionalism and the rule oflaw and, to be frank, we may have tochoose between constitutionalism anddemocracy. Authoritarian order whichprovides some measure of procedural fair-ness and due process is better than eitheranarchy or pure tyranny of the majority.

The real human rights crisis of the lastfifteen years has followed from the col-lapse of states into civil war and ethnicconflict. These are the situations of war ofall against all which produce most of thehuman rights abuses of the present day.These abuses cannot be stopped by inter-

Where all order has disintegrated,when ethnic groups are fighting for theirvery survival against a repressive state, itis fruitless to dispatch human rights moni-tors or to expose the violators to intema-tional condemnation. The only effectiveaction is military intervention.

taken since the end of the Cold War, whocan say that we have been successful? Wepromised to create safe havens for theBosnian Muslims. Because we did notdeploy our peace-keepers with sufficientarmor, with robust rules of engagement,and with a chain of command capable ofdelivering timely close-air support, tens ofthousands of civilians in Srebrenica whohad entrusted their lives to us-“the inter-national community”-- perished at thehands of Serbian execution squads. Whatdefenseless civilian in his right mind willever trust the international communityagain?

Rebuilding the credibility of humanrights intervention means getting humanrights activists to talk to the military, andfor both of them to devise credible formsof military deployment which can reliablyprotect civilians in ethnic wars. Themutual distrust between human rightsactivists and military people must beovercome if peace-keeping in any form is

national human rights activism alone, but 1 Looking at the interventions we have 1 to be salvaged. H

Selected Highlights of Spring 2000 EventsJanuary 26 “Virtual War: A Public Conversation” with writer Michael lgnatieff and respondents Thomas Doherty

(Brandeis University) and Andreas Teuber (Brandeis University)

February 24 “Public Schools for a Democratic Society” with Jay R. Kaufman, Sarah Cannon Holden, and TheodoreR. Sizer of the New Public Education Project

March 14 “Traditional Ethiopian Approaches to Reconciliation” by Tsehai Berhane-Selassie, Visiting Scholar andanthropologist

March 22 “Dislocating Selves and Cultures: Perspectives from a South Asian Feminist” by Dr. Uma Narayan,Professor of Philosophy, Vassar College.- ~~~

March 29 “The Japanese American Internment: Monuments and Memories” with Valerie Nao Yoshimura,Japanese American Citizens League; Kanan Makiya, Brandeis University; and Jennifer Clark, FacingHistory and Ourselves

March 29 “Strangers and Neighbors: Contemporary Issues Between Blacks and Jews” with John Bracey andMaurianne Adams, UMass, Amherst and Jyl Lynn Felman, Women’s Studies Program, BrandeisUniversity

~_~~~ ..~April 5 “Modern Griot and Storyteller: An Evening of Traditional Stories and Dance” with Dr. Raouf Mama,

Master Storyteller, Benin, West Africa

evin Clements, Secretary-GeneralKtion and a range of preventive mecha-

of International Alert and formeri! d i rec tor

nisms, and expand the latter for non-coer-of G e o r g e M a s o n cive, non-violent responses to signs of

University’s program in conflict resolu- incipient tension. So all of those mecha-tion, came to campus for two days in nisms can be exhausted before you evenFebruary. He led one of the Coexistence contemplate sending troops. . . .Initiative’s faculty seminars, met with stu-dents, and gave a public talk. The follow-

Revisiting the Kosovan experience

ing is excerpted from his public lecture,one year later, it seems to me that none of

‘NATO’S Decision to Bomb: Revisitingthe fundamental underlying problems

Kosovo One Year Latel; ” given onhave been resolved. Indeed, new ones

February 14, 2000. have been created. Far from engendering of racism, it has sent the message that

The question that needs to be asked is,heightened respect for the international with sufficient determination groups that

could anything have been done differentlyrule of law, there is now heightened dis- are interested in eliminating minority

to have prevented this catastrophe? Inrespect for the international rule of law populations from certain areas can do so

other situations when you have clear indi- because it seemed to benefit the strong with relative impunity as long as they can

cations that gross violations of human and disadvantage the weak. Far from appeal to the international community in

rights are going to occur, what should you heightened respect for the United different kinds of ways.

do? Michael Ignatieff, as we know, is Nations as the central body capable of So it seems to me that the decision toinclined to suggest that the only thing that adjudicating such issues, the Kosovan bomb and the whole Kosovan experience isgroups that are intent on committing gross intervention undermined and challenged a challenge to international order and hasviolations of human rights are likely to the authority of the United Nations and not in fact provided a good basis for think-understand is the deliberate and rapid left Kofi Annan floundering. Far from ing about such interventions in the future.application of superior force. I think that being a good example of humanitarian We need to develop a whole new way ofis a kind of counsel of defeat, and I would intervention, it represents a bad example conceptualizing of what a culture of preven-like much more effort to go into heighten- of military intervention. Far from pre- tion might look like if we are to avoid suching and expanding the culture of preven- venting ethnic cleansing and the scourge interventions in the twenty-first century. H- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Mary E. Davis, director of theBrandeis Seminars in the Humanities,has renewed the Center’s work .in thefield of juvenile justice. On March 22ndshe led a full-day seminar with the assis-tance of Judge Susan Ricci of theWorcester Probate and Family Court. InApril Brandeis hosted three additionaljuvenile justice seminars funded by the

State Justice Institute, and ProfessorDavis and Stephen Arons traveled toMadison to teach judges from theWisconsin State Supreme and AppellateCourts. Professor Davis also spokeabout “Ten Years of Progress TowardGender Equality in the MassachusettsCourts” during an April celebration bythe Massachusetts TrialCourt.. . .Excerpts of a speech deliveredby Ethics Center administrator, MarciMcPhee, at the Relief Society Women’sConference at Brigham YoungUniversity were published in a recentlyreleased book entitled The Arms of HisLove. The talk is based on her experi-ences working as a Mormon at Brandeis,a Jewish-sponsored, non-sectarian uni-versity . . . .Wendi Adelson, 1999 Ethicsand Coexistence Student Fellow, hasbeen awarded a prestigious TrumanScholarship. In recognition of Wendi’s

outstanding leadership potential, theaward will support up to $30,000 in grad-uate studies and enable her to pursue acareer in public service. Each year theTruman Foundation awards one scholar-ship per state and up to thirty-two at-large scholarships.. . . BrandeisInternational Fellows Dragan Popadicfrom Yugoslavia, Judith Green fromIsrael, and Mirha Kratina from Bosniavisited Brandeis in February to consultwith Ethics Center staff in compiling ananthology of stories collected from theBrandeis International Fellows. . . .Eldad Elnekave, 1998 Ethics andCoexistence Student Fellow, is continu-ing his post-graduate work as a HartLeadership Fellow of Duke University.Eldad has moved to the Arab village ofTamra in Israel, and is working onresearch on communication betweenfemale patients and their doctors.

In November 1999, Dr. Hizkias Assefa presented a series qf talks during his week-!ong residency entitled “‘Doing Jr$ice and LovingMercy: Perspectives on Coexistence and Reconciliation from an A$-ican Peacebuilder.” Dr. Assefa is coordinator of the -4fricanNetwork for Peacebuilding and Reconciliation in Nairobi. The following is taken from his <first lecture, entitled “Conflict in Africa:Causes, Dynamics and Implications for the Emerging Global Order. ”

TJ

nder colonialism and slavery, African traditional institu-tions of governance disintegrated and disappeared. Theglues of African societies became loose. Ethnic groups

were pitted against each other for the purpose of weakening themin favor of the colonial master. In some instances, an ethnic hierar-chy was created, in which some ethnic groups were made to ruleover the others.

Then, toward the end of colonialism, came the modernizationprocess. The economic, political and educational systems that wereput in place destroyed whatever was left of the systems that Africansocieties had evolved over generations. Education was used as aninstrument to supplant everything that was African, instead ofenhancing it, or adapting it to the emerging needs of African soci-eties. This is not at all to imply that nothing good has come out ofthe modernization process, or anything that is traditional is good.No. There are many bad things about African traditions, and a lotof good things have come out of the modernization process.However, let me emphasize that prior to the colonial period, all tra-ditional societies in Africa had developed values and institutionsthat enabled them to make sense of their lives, to coexist with eachother, to cope with their environment, and to manage theirresources, slowly, over time.

When a system such as this is brutally dismantled as duringslavery and colonialism, and then what is left is discredited anddenigrated, then a deep trauma and disorientation happen. Thistrauma has significant impact on conflicts at a personal, psycho-logical, and social level.

I also want to touch on the global context in which Africanconflicts play out, and the role it plays in contributing to or gener-ating conflicts.. . The affluent society that constitutes 25% of theworld population controls over 75% of the world resources, anddominates the global political and military power. There are somepolicies that are emerging from the prevailing global order that arefomenting or feeding conflicts in Africa, specifically structuraladjustment and privatization policies that are being pushed on thepoor and conflict regions in Africa. Even though the long term ben-efit of these policies can be debated, what we are observing is thatit is generating an increasing gap between the rich and the poor.

So we see that some of the causes and problems that underlieconflicts in Africa seem to emerge out of unique African situations,while others seem to be shared by all of us, as members of the glob-al order, or the human race. I have told stories of slavery and colo-nialism, not to point accusing fingers, or inculcate guilt, but to warnall of us of the immense capacity that we all have for evil. I wantto challenge us to hold hands together, to examine our conscienceto dismantle the values, practices, and institutions that we still havetoday that enslave people and colonize their minds, even if theymay not be called slavery or colonialism. If we do not use the taleof this suffering that we share to challenge us to bring about thistransformation, then indeed, the experience of African suffering has

been in vain.There is increasing evidence that the polarization between rich

and poor is also happening within industrially advanced states.Maybe therein lies hope for global partnership across borders --among those that have been alienated by the emerging order -- to.contribute to the creation of a much more compassionate and inclu-sive global system. n

Hizkias Assefa with Forsan Hussein, 1998 Ethics and CoexistenceStudent Fellow

The Japanese AmericanInternment: Contemporary

Questionsetween January and March Brandeis University facultyand students, area school teachers, and members of the

I/ Japanese American community gathered to discuss theinternment of Japanese Americans during World War II.

The seminar series represents a collaboration between theInternational Center for Ethics, Justice, and Public Life andFacing History and Ourselves, a nationally regarded organiza-tion dedicated to training teachers to explore issues of preju-dice in their classrooms. The project was initiated by Professorof Romance and Comparative Literature, Erica Harth, who isediting a book about the internment and the issues that emergefrom it.

Led by university scholars and teaching specialists, eachseminar focused on a different multi-layered theme. Theinsights gathered as a result of the seminar series will be incor-porated in a symposium about the Japanese American intern-ment to be held in 2001. That event will bring together con-tributors to Professor Harth’s book, educators, scholars, andmembers of the community to further discuss what we havelearned about such subjects as loyalty, bearing witness, and his-torical memory.

numla Gobodo-Madikizela, a psychologist who served on: 2 the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa,

I’- has been with the Center and the Coexistence Initiative asa Visiting Faculty Associate during 1999-2000. During thespring term, she offered a course for undergraduates and gradu-ate students, entitled “The Rupture of Silence: The Truth andReconciliation Commission in South Africa. ” Ms. Gobodo-Madikizela’s recent work has focused on the complex nature ofempathy in post-apartheid South Africa. The following is anexcerpt from a talk entitled “‘Hearing the Cry of Apartheid’sCrusadel; ” delivered on the Brandeis campus on February 10,2000. It describes herfirst encounter with Eugene De Kock, thearchitect of some of the most brutal violence perpetrated by theapartheid regime.

As I approached the prison gate I parked the car and pon-dered the implications of being face to face with this murderousman, “Prime Evil,” who was the personification of evil in theeyes of so many South Africans, black and white. After a brief-ing by the head of the maximum-security prison, I was taken toa small consulting room where de Kock was waiting for me.

When I entered into this consulting room de Kock wasdressed in orange overalls. I was seeing him for the first time. Ihad seen his face many times in newspapers, and I had alwayswondered about the boyish fear on his face. As I entered thedoor, this again was the impression that I got of him. He got upand kind of balanced himself against the wall. His legs werechained. I remember feeling very offended or very uncomfort-able about the idea of interviewing someone in chains. AlreadyI was beginning to feel for this person. And I couldn’t understandwhat was going on with me. Why wasn’t I angry? Why wasn’t Ifeeling the feelings of repulsion about this man called PrimeEvil?

When I asked him to tell me about the meeting with thewomen whose husbands were killed by a bomb put togetherthrough his instructions, his face immediately dropped. Sittingdirectly across from me, his heavy glasses on the table that sep-arated us, he shifted his eyes uncomfortably. His feet shuffled,and I could hear the clatter of his leg chains. His mouth quiv-ered, and there were tears in his eyes. As he started to speak hishand trembled, and he became visibly distressed. With a break-ing voice he said, “I wish I could do more than just say I’m sorry.I wish there were a way of bringing their bodies back alive. Iwish I could say, ‘Here are your husbands.“’

AS he said this, he was demonstrating with his hands,demonstrating a desperation expressed with a feeling of needingto bring their bodies back. He was gesturing with his arms out-stretched, but he said, “Unfortunately I have to live with it.” Ashe said this, the table between us seemed to collapse. And reach-ing to him the only way one does in such human circumstancesseemed natural.

Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela

When I touched his clenched hand, it was cold and rigid. Ifelt as if he were holding back. This caused me to recoil for imoment and to reflect on the spontaneous act of humanity a:something incompatible with a circumstance with a perpetratoof such serious atrocities. However, other than his clenched fistI could find nothing incongruous between his show of emotionand my response.

I had held back tears but let go of them the moment I entererthe car for the drive back to Johannesburg. I was angry, but iwasn’t de Kock who was the object of my anger, but white people. Why did they continue to enjoy the fruits of apartheid antthe oppression of black people, instead of speaking out againsit? Why did they allow humanity to be destroyed in the way thade Kock’s was? That moment of shared humanity between d,Kock and myself seemed to open up a window into thekinds ohuman possibility that would have been possible for de Kock haahe not been brought up under a system that encouraged humacorruption. Throughout the drive, frightened, angry, and confused, I blamed white society. I put myself in de Kock’s shoeand turned his experience in my head over and over again, an’wondered ‘where I would be had our roles been reversed. n

n ambitious new project that aims to shapepublic policy debate on education inMassachusetts began under the Center’s aus-

“A New Public Education” isdesigned to engage educators, politicians, and thepublic in a disciplined and deliberative process torenew public education in Massachusetts.

The project brings together a unique and talentedleadership team: director Jay R. Kaufman, a sittingMassachusetts state legislator; associate directorSarah Cannon Holden, a lawyer/mediator with exten-sive local school committee experience; and associ-ate director Theodore R. Sizer, founder of theCoalition of Essential Schools and one of the best-known thinkers and practitioners in American educa-tion today.

At a time when .questions of quality, governance,and finance raise serious doubts about the prepared-ness of schools and school-aged children for the 21st

The Internutionul Center forEthics, Justice, and Public LifeBrandeis UniversityMS 086 l?O.Box 9110Waltham, MA 02454-9110 USA

---

century, the project proposes to rebuild the founda-tions of public education to better reflect the valuesand social realities of our time. Unlike other recentefforts at education reform, which have focused onfine tuning the current system, this three-phase proj-ect seeks to address a set of fundamental and criticalpedagogical questions.

Work on the project began this spring, focusedon a new Brandeis Course, ED 150, “Public Schoolsand Democracy.” Undergraduates and graduate stu-dents have assisted with research on designing newpublic education systems for the 21st century. Overthe course of the next twelve months, the projectstaff will be conducting conversations and publicmeetings around Massachusetts, with an eye towardsdeveloping specific policy recommendations.

“A New Public Education” is funded by the Leoand Julia Forchheimer Foundation. n

Non-ProfitOrganizationU.S. Postage

PAlDBoston, MA

Permit No. 15731

Tel : 781-736-8577 l F&C: 781-736-8561 l E-mail: ethics@brandeis.edu

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