Funnel 40/2, Inhalt - Fulbright-Kommission

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18 TITLE TOPIC Alumni Oliver and Petra Steinmetz (left) with Dr. Hoffmann (center) and Reiner Rohr Harper), and complex instrumental selections on violin (Daniella Strasfogel), trumpet and trombone (Amy and Todd Schendel), and piano (Yan Kvitko). Rome grantee Joshua Palay diverted from traditional repertoire with his riveting “Showdown” between violin, clarinet, and live electronics. Audience members at the Maxim Gorki Theater were visibly awestruck by the composition, described by the artist as “techno meets spaghetti western.” A final category of events on the week’s schedule was a list of exciting tours through THE FUNNEL • VOLUME 40 • NUMBER 2 • SUMMER 2004 Berlin. Ranging from Turkish communities to the architecture on Unter den Linden, the tours were led by Fulbrighters who were experts in their subjects. One particular tour, on Monday, March 22nd, seemed designed especially to conform to the theme of the meeting as a whole. Fulbright grantee John Holmes led a group of about twenty conference participants on a tour of Marzahn, which is, he says, Europe’s largest social housing complex. The tour through the massive tangle of uniform rectangular concrete Plattenbau buildings underscored the challenge still facing Germany’s capital nearly fifteen years after the fall of the Wall. What was once prestige housing for East Germany’s elite has become a magnet for the poor, the old, the unemployed, the recently Singing Czech folk songs and accompanying on the Bohemian bagpipe, Michael Cwach, Fulbrighter in the Czech Republic performs Sunday night at the Amerika Haus. immigrated, or, as is increasingly the case, abandoned by all social groups and left empty. Holmes, who graduated from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill in 2003 with a master’s degree in regional planning and is now living in Berlin on a Fulbright fellowship studying urban development at Humboldt University, described how the Berlin city government is attempting to solve the problems. By tearing down some of the empty buildings and renovating others, he said, the city hopes to attract a healthier mix of socio-economic backgrounds. While the week proved a huge success both culturally and academically, Fulbrighters attending did not, of course, neglect the social aspects of the meeting. The Commission itself contributed by providing a seemingly constant flow of food and drink, supplemented by house parties, pub crawls, and late-night debating sessions across the city. The social highlight, however, was the Saturday-night dance hosted by the German Fulbright Alumni Association, that featured music by a range of throwback pop stars such as Blondie, Counting Crows, and Abba—a hit list that got all present out onto the floor. It was, in fact, an event leading to perhaps the only critique of the entire week: dance lessons might not be a bad addition to next year’s program.
Beyond the Transatlantic The word “trialogue” may be a bit odd, but on the fiftieth anniversary of the Berlin Seminar the Fulbright Commission decided to have exactly that by addressing a controversial topic that would include views from Germany, the U.S., and the Islamic World. The topic for this three-way discourse was “The University and Islam: International Exchange and the Dialogue of Cultures.” This discussion, which was generously supported by a U.S. State Department grant, included a diverse group of participants representing American and German students, universities, media, and governments. After Dr. Rolf Hoffmann welcomed everybody and stressed the need for the integration of Europe’s Muslims and the need for dialogue amongst all three regions, Dr. Richard Schmierer, Minister Counselor for Public Affairs, U.S. Embassy Berlin, discussed education and its growing importance as a tool of reform. Ambassador Edward Djerejian, Director of the James Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University, discussed the 2003 State Department report, “Changing Minds, Winning Peace,” written by the United States Advisory Group on Public Diplomacy for the Arab and Muslim World. The report contained recommendations for addressing problems in the perception of the U.S. in the Islamic World such as creating a new White House director of public diplomacy, building libraries and information centers in the Muslim world, translating more Western books into Arabic, increasing scholarships and The Berlin Seminar wraps up its theme “Where Contintents Meet” with a discussion amongst the U.S., Germany, and the Islamic World by David Beffert visiting fellowships, upgrading the American Internet presence, and training more Arabists, Arab speakers, and public relations specialists to work for the State Department. One of the highlights of the day-long seminar was a group of exchange students talking about their experiences. This section featured two German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) grantees to Germany from the Arab world and a German Fulbright alumna of Turkish heritage to the United States. They discussed reactions in their host countries to their being Muslim. They often ran into stereotypes TITLE TOPIC 19 Current and former Fulbright grantees, guests from embassies in Berlin, as well as representatives from higher education join the discussion. but, surprisingly, little harassment. Both of the women, however, do not wear headscarves, which they both felt made people less antagonistic. Maha El Nady, a DAAD grantee from Egypt, and Ganime Ösme, a German Fulbright grantee to the U.S., also defended women’s role in Islam and Islamic countries, saying that media coverage did not present a differentiated enough picture. It was pointed out for example, that in Egypt there are many women professors at the universities. Abdelmalik Hibaoui, a Moroccan DAAD grantee currently at the Oriental Institute at the University of Tübingen, also THE FUNNEL • VOLUME 40 • NUMBER 2 • SUMMER 2004
Page 1: NEWSMAGAZINE OF THE GERMAN-AMERICAN
Page 4 and 5: 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS DEPARTMENTS On
Page 6 and 7: 6 DEPARTMENTS Commission News DR. R
Page 8 and 9: 8 DEPARTMENTS Prizes & Awards Profe
Page 10 and 11: 10 DEPARTMENTS Catching Up With Our
Page 12 and 13: 12 DEPARTMENTS “Now,” a photogr
Page 14 and 15: 14 TITLE TOPIC Where Continents Mee
Page 16 and 17: 16 TITLE TOPIC Fulbrighters Daniell
Page 20 and 21: 20 TITLE TOPIC Dr. Heidi Wedel of t
Page 22 and 23: 22 NEWS & EVENTS „Das Berliner Tr
Page 24 and 25: 24 NEWS & EVENTS Health as Foreign
Page 26 and 27: 26 ALUMNI PROFILES Lucian Kim The F
Page 28 and 29: 28 CITYSCAPES steckt unter dem feuc
Page 30 and 31: 30 FROM OUR FULBRIGHTERS “Si, se
Page 32 and 33: 32 FROM OUR FULBRIGHTERS On strike,
Page 34 and 35: 34 FROM OUR FULBRIGHTERS er: 0.89
Page 36 and 37: 36 FROM OUR FULBRIGHTERS Devora (ce
Page 38 and 39: 38 FROM OUR FULBRIGHTERS The Multic
Page 40 and 41: 40 CONTRIBUTORS CLAIRE ADAMSICK, wh
Page 42: 42 IMPRINT The Funnel is published

Funnel 40/2, Inhalt - Fulbright-Kommission

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