24 July 2008

Fund Helps Threatened Scholars Around the World

Interview with Scholar Rescue Fund’s Jim Miller -- Part 1

Nobel Prize-winning novelist Thomas Mann with his wife, Katia, and daughter, Erika, upon their arrival in New York in 1939.

The Scholar Rescue Fund (SRF) is a program of the Institute of International Education (IIE), an independent, nonprofit organization founded in 1919 that administers the Fulbright Student and Scholars programs on behalf of the U.S. State Department and assists a wide variety of international agencies and corporate and private foundations in their educational and exchange programs.

In the 20th century, IIE provided support and safe haven to scholars threatened by the regimes of Stalin, Mussolini and Hitler. Founded in 2002, the SRF helps scholars find host institutions, access other resources and adjust to life in their host countries.

Scholars in any field and from any country may apply for one-year fellowships (renewable up to one additional year) at safe institutions anywhere in the world.

SRF Executive Director Jim Miller responded recently to some questions posed by America.gov. (See the second half of this interview.)

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Question: How widespread and serious a problem is the persecution of scholars around the globe?

Miller: The problem is severe and widespread. The numbers may say it all: since 2002, IIE’s Scholar Rescue Fund has received over 1,800 requests for assistance from individuals in over 100 countries   Scholars in virtually every discipline have become victim to the ravages of disease, war or economic chaos. SRF has learned that direct threats to scholars often begin on their very own university campuses.  The deliberate persecution of scholars -- ranging widely from censorship to death threats -- generally escapes the world’s attention, but the fact is that scholars are often the first target of repressive regimes, paramilitary groups, terrorists or any individual seeking to silence dissent or opposition in their pursuit of power.

Question:  What impact are you having? Can you give me an example or two?

Miller:  Lives saved -- We have helped scholars escape censorship, violence and, in many cases, death sentences.  SRF has awarded grants to dozens of scholars who were in prison, in hiding, or under house arrest.

As an example, SRF awarded a fellowship to a senior professor of English from the Democratic Republic of Congo who suffered beatings, torture and repeated threats of extra-judicial killing while in prison under false charges [during the former regime – editor’s note].  Amnesty International and other international groups pressured the DRC government for his release.  But even after his release he faced a strong likelihood of subsequent reprisals from his captors.  An SRF fellowship not long after his release allowed him to leave the DRC, resume his writing and teaching in the U.S. and begin a difficult recovery from the emotional and physical trauma which he had suffered.  He often notes that returning to his books was almost therapy enough.

Legal scholar Prosper Nobirabo needed help from the SRF after his writings on indigenous rights led to death threats.

Academic Freedom -- Host universities collaborating with SRF have provided safe and stimulating academic environments to allow scholars to return to their life’s work; to continue teaching, publishing and even advising former students in their home countries. 

One Iraqi physicist and his family fled death threats; after leaving their country, they learned that their family library had been destroyed, and that militia members have occupied their home.  In the wake of all this, the scholar considers himself lucky.  Since receiving an SRF fellowship and joining his host university, he has published extensively in international physics journals, and, while teaching students in his host country, he still manages to advise those he left behind in Iraq.  At a conference in August, he will present his latest paper, which he co-authored with a former student.  Thanks to the scholar, that student is now a professor.

Question: Is the SRF naturally and inevitably part of IIE’s mission?

Miller: For over 88 years, IIE has committed to opening minds to the world. IIE’s Mission Statement includes “Rescuing threatened scholars and advancing academic freedom.” IIE/SRF has only recently begun to formally track organizational efforts in this area, but in the last century, IIE has probably helped 10,000 threatened scholars find safe haven in the midst of war and revolution.  In this century, we have already had close to two thousand requests for help from scholars in over a hundred countries.

Through our efforts to rescue scholars and students and protect academic freedom, IIE has saved some of the world’s great minds. Our long-term impact has been to preserve their invaluable contributions and ideas. In fact, as an example, in the 1940s, the IIE Emergency Committee in Aid of Displaced Foreign Scholars, under the directorship of Edward R. Murrow, assisted over 300 European scientists who might have otherwise been lost. These included some of the world’s best minds, including Nobel Prize winners Thomas Mann (literature), Max Delbruck (Medicine), Felix Bloch (Physics), and James Franck (Physics).

When the international community fails its threatened scholars, it is the responsibility of the academic community to step in and take care of its own.  IIE’s commitment to international education and the exchange of ideas naturally commits us and our partners to provide the resources to fill a gaping need.  Often it might seem  that we  are in a vacuum fighting a battle relatively few have signed up to join,  but then we are reminded that over 125 academic institutions worldwide have partnered with the Scholar Rescue Fund in support of threatened colleagues.  SRF provides vital financial assistance for the scholars, but it is the relationship with the host universities that is paramount.  IIE’s networks and its commitment to raising the resources needed make the day-to-day support by the universities, colleges and research institutes possible.

Fortunately, both the public and private donor communities in the U.S. and in many other countries in the world have recognized the vital work of IIE’s SRF and have contributed financially and with in-kind support of many types as well.

See the second half of this interview.

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