Communique Fall 2016

THE DANCE OF HER LIFE 4 How Janet Reineck has navigated her life’s path.

WHAT IS GLOBALIZATION? 10 MIIS faculty members offer their opinions.

Communiqué FALL 2016

The Interpreter In Hiroshima, Lefteris Kafatos (far right) helped bridge cultures, generations, and history. PAGE 3

THE VIEW FROM SEGAL

The Importance of Momentum

A Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Institute Jeff Dayton-Johnson.

ny athlete understands the importance of momentum.

Each time you achieve a goal, it provides a fresh boost of energy and focus and confidence as you prepare to move on to the next one. And while the Middlebury Institute doesn’t compete in any NCAA-approved leagues—regrettably, multilingualism hasn’t yet been recognized as a competitive sport—as an institution, we have a keen appreciation for the difference momentum can make.

At least, that’s what came to mind earlier this fall as I contemplated the fact that the Institute recently surpassed our fairly ambitious goals on two of the most important metrics for any postsecondary educational institution—enrollment and fundraising.

In a year when many smaller schools have struggled to meet their enrollment targets, applications to the Institute rose 17 percent and enrollment was up 8 percent. Those figures suggest another conclusion borne out by the data—at the same time enrollments rose, selectivity actually increased, meaning the Institute is attracting both more and (on average) better students. These results could not have been achieved without a great deal of hard work by staff and faculty, as well as new investments made in our recruiting and outreach activities that have enabled us to be more strategic and

effective in sharing the Institute’s message with the right audiences.

On the fundraising side, the fiscal year ending June 30 was one of the most successful years of fundraising in the school’s 61-year history, with more than $4.2 million raised from the second highest number of individual donors we’ve ever recorded. The annual June challenge—staked by four alumni who collectively pledged $56,000—played an important role in these results, generating a single-month record of 412 gifts totaling $156,000. This effort alone netted $212,000 for the Institute and boosted giving and participation totals significantly.

These funds will go toward scholarships for students, immersive learning opportunities, faculty development, research support, and campus improvements, among other key initiatives, all ultimately aimed at supporting the core of the Institute’s mission: academic excellence. Attracting brilliant students who are determined to make a difference in the world is just the start; then we have to deliver a genuinely meaningful and transformative educational experience.

Every dollar we raise on top of student tuition helps us to improve the student experience here in Monterey, as well as anywhere in the world our students may travel on one of our immersive professional learning opportunities.

At the same time enrollments rose, selectivity actually increased, meaning the Institute is attracting both more and (on average) better students.

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COVER PHOTO OF HIROSHIMA PEACE MEMORIAL PARK FROM GETTY IMAGES

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ABOVE PHOTO BY BRIDGET BESAW

FIVE MINUTES WITH LEFTERIS KAFATOS

Word-by-Word Lefteris Kafatos maci ’10 is an interpreter at the U.S. State Department Office of Language Services, an agency founded

by Thomas Jefferson to facilitate communication with nonEnglish-speaking governments and people. He talks about how a second-generation Greek found himself interpreting for President Obama during his historic visit to Hiroshima, Japan, in May. At the Interpreting Division of the Office of Language Services, we provide inter­ preting services to government agencies needing to communicate with foreign entities. Working as an interpreter here can be really rewarding. You get to meet people from all walks of life and sometimes experience history in the making.

practicum and said, “These are the peo­ ple who will be your colleagues and your greatest network.” I took that to heart and have found that to be the case. There are quite a few graduates from the Institute in my office and I meet former classmates all the time in the field. The connection is very strong.

It was an emotional moment when the atomic bomb survivors met President Obama in Hiroshima. When I was assigned to the visit, I didn’t fully realize the implications of it. Perhaps I still don’t.

That history is steeped in controversy and people were feeling a lot of raw emotions, not just locally but globally. Still, there was a genuineness to that moment that transcended words and certainly my minimal role as interpreter.

You could say I am not the stereotypical Japanese interpreter who, in many peo­ ple’s minds, is usually a Japanese woman. This was not traditionally considered a male industry. But things are changing now.

Being an interpreter in this environment can be stressful; there is a high-stakes element to the work. You have to find healthy ways to relieve stress. For me, the biggest challenge is to set aside my fears, breathe deeply, and focus on my task. When we interpret we provide a service, and I try to remind my­self of that.

Our professors told us to look around at the other students in the interpreting

ILLUSTRATION BY CATH RILEY

My parents are from Greece but I was born in the U.S. They always spoke Greek at home, and my mom taught me to read and write in the language. She actually gave me daily lessons when I was little.

Sometimes it was a chore but it was also an exciting introduction to the world of language that has lasted a lifetime. Greek is not currently my strongest language, but it is closest to my heart.

Being an English native interpreter can be quite a strength at times. When the English speaker has a heavy accent I often have the advantage going into Japanese, just as my Japanese colleagues do when the speaker is speaking in a Japanese dialect. It is important to have diversity in the interpreter community.

Languages are constantly evolving and I keep up by reading a lot. I also listen to podcasts and lectures whenever I can.

All the stuff we were taught to do at the Institute. n

I went to Japan as part of the Japan Ex­change and Teaching (JET) program and ended up staying for nine years.

My teachers at the University of Hawaii, who first introduced me to the beauty of the Japanese language, recommended it to me. I later furthered my studies at the In­ter-University Center in Yokohama. After working as a translator for several years, I decided to make the jump to interpret­ing. Given the considerable financial and time commitments involved, I thought carefully about how to obtain the proper training. In the end, I am very glad I got trained at the Institute.

Fall 2016 3

WHAT I’VE LEARNED

JANET REINECK

Life’s Rich Pageant

J

anet reineck matesol ’92 says her classmates knew her as a “tweener”—someone whose academic program trained her to teach English to speakers of other languages, but who also had a deep interest in development work. Inexhaustibly curious and adventurous, she arrived in Monterey after earning a ba in dance ethnology from ucla and spending four years living in Kosovo, working on her master’s thesis for ucla and doctoral dissertation in anthropology for uc

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berkeley. (She walked in phd ceremonies at Berkeley while a student in Monterey, with her two-year-old son in tow.)

In 1994, Reineck returned to Kosovo for another three years before coming back to California and later founding her own ngo, World Dance for Humanity, which supports grassroots development projects in Rwanda. Here are a few of the lessons she has learned along the way.

Follow your intuition when making job choices. I had planned to teach overseas

after getting my tesol degree and was offered a job directing English language programs in Albania. But I didn’t take the job. Instead, I moved to the Bronx to work with the Kosovo expat community there, hoping this would somehow get me back to Kosovo. That’s when Oxfam called me and asked me to return to investigate the possibility of launching a development program in Kosovo, which led to a threeyear stint directing rural development programs, first for Oxfam, then for the International Rescue Committee (irc).

PHOTO BY CHRIS ORWIG

I’ve followed my gut in every other career choice and in the paths I’ve carved for the nonprofits I’ve worked for, and good things have come of it.

Know the society well before navigating political minefields. When I returned to Kosovo in 1994, Yugoslavia was falling apart, the situation in Kosovo was precarious, and getting permission to work there was very tough. Finally, the Serbian Ministry of Health gave me permission to work on “improving sanitation in primary schools.” They assigned me to the mixed Albanian and Serbian communities in the east of the province. When I got there, I discovered that the populations were barely speaking, all community projects had been at a standstill for years, and the Serbs were watching every move I made.

Despite this, we were able to expand our “sanitation” program into school rehabilitation, health education, and schooling for girls.

Understand what’s going on in the minds of people you’re working with. I was able to navigate the dicey political environment in Kosovo thanks to a savvy local staff, the fact that I had done research for four years in Kosovo before I ever started aid work, and my fluency in Albanian and Serbian. I really felt for the aid workers who were trying to make things happen with almost no knowledge of the culture. It’s so easy to be fooled and led astray if you’re following your own assumptions about the way things work in a foreign culture. I could cut through much of what the locals wanted outsiders to believe, get real with people, and challenge the inherited wisdom.

Development work has to be accomplished from the inside out. It should now be common knowledge in the international development community that if you impose aid on people from the outside, your program will probably fail. You have to create a situation that allows the people you’re working with to “own their change.” The projects need to be theirs, not yours. This means working with trusted leaders within the communities who can help envision and plan projects that make sense to them, ones they believe in and care about.

Sometimes, the work is just about creating hope. My nonprofit, World Dance for Humanity, is working with 7,705 Rwandans in 20 rural Rwandan cooperatives who are still recovering from the 1994 genocide. I was talking recently with one of our local staff about the living conditions in the co-ops (dirt walls and floors, no possessions, bare-bones living). He said, “These are all things they can live with. They’re used to it. The thing that makes it impossible is if they have no hope. They now have World Dance for Humanity as a witness to their lives, as a partner in their progress. Each family has a goat. Each community has cows.

The children are in school. The co-ops are starting their own businesses. Now they have hope.”

Interdependence creates the possibility of reconciliation. In Kosovo during the 1990s, Serbs and Albanians lived in parallel societies, avoiding each other at all costs—and they’ve never truly reconciled. In Rwanda, we’re working with Tutsi, Hutu, and Twa people who, in

1994, committed unfathomable atrocities against each other. About a decade ago, a number of perpetrators and survivors made the courageous move to pool their resources and labor in government-sanctioned “cooperatives” in an attempt to stay alive. They are living, working, planning their future together . . . and setting an example for the world. It’s an extraordinary privilege to work with these people.

Dance is a powerful way to connect. In so many of the cultures we work with, dance is a fundamental part of social life. Dancing together can be an incredible equalizing force, cutting through our cultural differences, creating an immediate bond between us and the people we serve. I grew up dancing, and it’s been a big help to my work in Kosovo and Rwanda. The first time we arrived at one of the communities we work with in Rwanda, the people were already dancing, drumming, and singing with all their might.

We jumped in and never looked back. It’s been like that ever since. Our Rwanda program director once told me, “They expected you to sit on chairs and watch.

They didn’t expect for you to get down in the dust with them. It’s what makes them feel close to you.”

When we’re dancing, there’s no us and them. We’re just people dancing, seeing what we can bring to the experience. I know this is a big part of why our projects work—because we’re “down in the dust” with them, getting real, getting connected, making things happen, together. n

The first time we arrived at one of the communities we work with in Rwanda, the people were already dancing, drumming, and singing with all their might. We jumped in and never looked back.

Fall 2016 5

Q&A

A Conversation with Anna Vassilieva On life in the Soviet Union and the state of U.S.-Russia relations.

Q: Growing up in eastern Siberia, one

of the most geographically isolated and deprived regions of the world, must have come with some challenges. Can you share with us what that experience was like? And what the impetus was for you to leave Russia for the United States when you did?

A: My parents, who are geophysicists, chose to leave their native Leningrad for work in Siberia, an area with abundant mineral resources. Russian poet Joseph Brodsky wrote a poem with words that are very relevant to both my lives—in Siberian Irkutsk and in Monterey: “If you happened to be born in an Empire, it is better to live in province by the sea / far enough from Caesar, far enough from snowstorms, one doesn’t have to be afraid, to kowtow, to rush. . . .”

I consider my childhood to be a very happy one, as I grew up with loving parents, went to an excellent school, and had all the books and music I wanted. Things looked different when I began to learn about the challenges of living in a totalitarian system. The predominant group think, the enforced uniformity of opinions, the fear of doing things that are not prescribed or approved, the all-permeating communist ideology and propaganda were particularly difficult to swallow.

The shock of learning about the horrible truths of Stalin’s purges and other atrocities that occured during the seven decades of Communist rule was such, that despite the promises and the euphoria brought in with Gorbachev’s reforms, I was glad to receive an invitation from what was then the Monterey Institute of International Studies to teach a course on Siberia and the Russian Pacific in the fall 6

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of 1989. When I left for good, I felt a deep relief because I was leaving behind this gigantic country with such a tormented, bloody history and the collective psyche that I knew would take a long time to straighten and heal. And I knew that my sons would have opportunities that the Soviet Union at that time would not be able to provide.

Q: Western media and public discourse about Russia in recent years has in large part been connected to the image and actions of Vladimir Putin. What are we missing when the focus is so narrow?

A:

Let me use the now-famous Kissinger quote that gives a perfect diagnosis of the situation: “For the West, the demonization of Putin is not a policy; it is an alibi for the absence of one.” How did we arrive to the situation when one of the most important countries in the world is being viewed through the prism of our emotional attitude to one person, Vladimir Putin? No one has taken away Russia’s size and its strategic location, its human and mineral resources, its nuclear arsenal, its pride and the strength of its people when it comes to defense of their values and history.

Yet how much does an average American know about life in contemporary Russia, about the phenomenal changes that have occurred in that country in the last 25 years? There is very little knowledge, because it is so rare that Americans can read about “normal” life in Russia in the mainstream media. Yet everyone gets a heavy dose of Putin’s assumed “crimes,” all narrated in very strong language and demeaning, offensive rhetoric. Russophobia has deep roots in the U.S., and Russia bashing has become a darling of liberals

and conservatives in this country. All of that would be quite appropriate if modern Russia were the Soviet Union; it is not. It is a very different country now, and the majority of Russians see Putin as the leader who returned to them and their country the sense of worthiness and the reasons for them to be proud of being Russians.

Q: What role, if any, can education play in stabilizing the bilateral relations?

A:

The underlying truth of it all, I suppose, is that the United States does not have a long-term strategy vis-à-vis Russia.

We do not have a joint plan for combating terrorism; we do not have a plan of joint actions regarding the forthcoming challenges of global warming; we do not have intentions of bringing our youths closer to each other for the purpose of cementing personal friendships and cultivating better understanding between our two countries.

From 1900–1954, the accumulated demographic losses of Russia amounted to 76 million people as a result of the two World Wars, the revolution, purges, and other cataclysms. Seventy-six million people! And that does not include millions of unnecessary deaths in Russia. (The country was losing a million people a year due to the political and economic changes of the 1990s.) So now let’s think, why would people who accumulated such a tremendous collective psychological trauma not welcome stability? It is important for us to understand that mindset changes happen gradually. Russia’s youth is our biggest hope. This is why the United States needs a real strategy regarding Russia, a strategy that would allow future generations of Americans and Russians to live in peace and harmony. n

Anna Vassilieva Job Title Middlebury Institute Professor and Director, Russian Studies Program. Founder and Director of the Graduate Initiative in Russian Studies. areas of research Contemporary Russian politics, Russian politics in Central Asia, Russian culture and society, Siberia, Russians in Japan.

Yet how much does an average American know about life in contemporary Russia, about the phenomenal changes that have occurred in that country in the last 25 years?

PHOTO BY RANDY TUNNELL

Fall 2016 7

Building Community

How lessons learned abroad fuel a new career at home.

L

ena robinson ba japanese ’86 came home to the Bay Area 16 years ago to work for the Federal Reserve Bank in San Francisco. In her role there as community development regional manager for northern California, Robinson helped get banks to invest in projects to benefit lower-income areas.

“The whole community development industry grew out of the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977, created as a response to financial discrimination among banks called ‘redlining,’” she says.

Robinson has recently been hired as director of community development at First Republic Bank, where she is carrying out

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many of the ideas that she once promoted at the Federal Reserve.

It’s a different career path than she envisioned for herself when she first came to miis. She recalls that she studied Japanese at the Institute because she thought it was a good language choice for becoming an international business interpreter, which was her dream at the time. Instead, living in Japan started her journey toward a career in social justice. She taught English to Japanese businessmen and worked at the International Exposition in Japan for the United States Information Agency.

“Japan is a beautiful country and there is a lot that I love about it,” she says. But she never felt like she fit in. “I was more like an

entertainer. As a nonnative, I realized that I was probably never going to advance in my career.”

During the 18 months Robinson lived in Japan, she had many occasions to travel around the region. It was while traveling in the Philippines that she felt like she saw the true face of poverty. “People were living in shacks, with no running water or other basics,” she says—a sharp contrast to growing up in a middle-class home in San Francisco. “Seeing it up close was very touching.” Robinson recalls in particular one day while walking on a rural road in the mountains of the Philippines, on her way to visit the majestic rice terraces, “a little boy around five years old came up to me to ask for money.” Beyond having no shoes, wearing torn clothes, and being covered in grime, what really stood out to her was that he was clearly biracial.

Meeting this little boy, who she speculated was the child of an African

PHOTO BY CRAIG LEE

NUMBERS American soldier, brought up deeper questions about poverty, race, and opportunity.

She began to wonder about the roots of global poverty and how they contributed to the economic condition and social experience of black people throughout the world.

After earning a graduate degree in African studies with an emphasis on rural economic development from Ohio University, Robinson worked on issues related to microcredit in Kenya and Tanzania. She says her time in Africa taught her a lot about the global financial structure and the role of governments. “By deciding how to invest money to benefit the population, governments play the most significant role in the quality of life of their citizens.”

In northern California, the main current economic challenges are related to the high cost of housing and skills mismatch, or when people are unemployed because they lack the education or skills for the available jobs. Investing in affordable housing is often the “go-to” for banks according to Robinson. And while this is important, she is not under the illusion that it is sufficient to resolve what she characterizes as the larger structural challenges of greed, corruption, and prejudice that maintain poverty and inequality.

American poverty is “still more prevalent among people of color” according to a 2009 National Poverty Center brief, The Colors of Poverty: Why Racial and Ethnic Disparities Persist. The authors agree with Robinson when she says it begins early: “The education you get is defined by where you live and where you live depends a lot on race and income.” Disadvantages accumulate and often continue in future generations. “We have to look at the broader issues perpetuating poverty,” she says.

“There are no simple solutions.”

While Robinson worries about rising economic inequality in the U.S., she chooses to be optimistic about the future. Given the right support and opportunities, Robinson says, most people—regardless of race or nationality—will do what it takes to lift their families out of poverty.” n

for more than 30 years, faculty, alumni, and students from the Institute have served as translators and interpreters at the Olympic Games.

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Number of times former language school dean Wilhelm “Bill” Weber has been part of the professional Olympics interpreting service since 1968

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Institute faculty, alumni, and students participating in the Rio Olympics as interpreters and translators

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Approximate number of native languages that translators and interpreters worked with

72

Number of professional interpreters on the official team in Rio

206

Number of countries participating in the Rio Olympics

1984

The first year Institute students were formally invited to participate as volunteer interpreters and translators at the Olympic Games

11,178

Number of athletes competing in Rio

Fall 2016 9

What does “globalization” mean to you?

In the thick of this fall’s U.S. presidential campaign, we asked Institute faculty members this question: “Both major-party candidates have commented on the effects of globalization, without clearly defining what that term means. Using your particular area of expertise as a frame of reference, what does globalization mean to you?”

Globalization is both a process and an outcome of an increasingly networked and connected world, partly due to improved communication, transportation, and trade. It does not always or automatically result in open, equitable, and equal diffusion of knowledge, resources, opportunities, or social capital. Along with genuinely open communities, we also witness increasing gaps between haves and have-nots, as well as a mushrooming of closed networks where members reinforce each other’s fringe ideas and agendas without the benefit of healthy exposure to alternative perspectives. —Mahabat Baimyrzaeva, Associate Professor of Public Administration In the translation and interpretation industry, globalization is a clever business strategy that addresses all the logistical and organizational challenges a business would have when expanding abroad. Globalization involves localization, which is adapting a product or service for a particular country or region, and internationalization, which entails the development of products in such a way that they will be easy to adapt to foreign markets, languages, and cultures. —Cristina Silva, Adjunct Professor of Portuguese In financial markets, the classical view of globalization offers two perspectives: of companies using global markets to expand their product offerings and grow revenues and profits; and as a basis for allowing investors access to internationally diversified portfolios. However, more recently, academic and policy research has been focusing on the destabilizing aspects of globalization. These include international channels for risk transmission and contagion, systemic risks (including environment, social, and governance, or ESG, risks), and the tensions between economic and financial globalization, as well as fiscal and monetary policies. —Constantin Gurdgiev, Visiting Professor of International Trade and Economic Diplomacy Today we live in an unprecedented age of globalization, where factors of production, goods, services, and

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technology are increasingly mobile across national boundaries. This has generated more wealth, efficiency, and cultural exchange among many people in many countries. However, the benefits of globalization have not been evenly distributed and the negative impacts of globalization have not been appropriately addressed due to the limits of global cooperation and governance. When national boundaries continue to exist, globalization is neither inevitable nor irreversible—it is a policy choice. —Wei Liang, Professor and Co-chair of the International Trade and Economic Diplomacy Program Globalization means the flow of goods, services, information, and people across the world and the spread of new technologies and culture. It means that trade flows are increasingly international, and that the rules governing these flows are increasingly important because of the ecological impacts. It means that political leaders should be working to strengthen standards, funding, and enforcement across international institutions like the World Trade Organization, International Maritime Organization, and United Nations, and that consumers need to be better informed about how the products they buy were produced. —Jason Scorse, Professor and Chair of the International Environmental Policy Program, and Director of the Center for the Blue Economy In the language services industry, we understand that word meanings depend heavily on context. In most contexts, globalization refers to interconnection, interaction, interdependence, and similar ideas. However, in our industry’s context, globalization and other terms encompass the following different ideas: translation is transfer from one written language to another; localization is not only translation but also technical or cultural adaptation; internationalization is preparation that makes localization faster, cheaper, and easier; and globalization is internationalization, localization, and everything required to get products to a global market. —Adam Wooten, Assistant Professor of Translation and Localization Management n ILLUSTRATION BY ROBERT NEUBECKER

and developing marine policy. Our state has some of the most progressive fishery laws in the world. I believe it is important to connect consumers back to the ocean, and to the fishermen, and to provide them with the tools to ensure that we can all enjoy California seafood well into the future.

Into the Wild

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alerie termini maiep ’06 made waves earlier this year when she became the first female executive director of the California Fish and Game Commission.

She shares with us some of the major stepping stones along her way.

Roaming: Growing up in rural Massachusetts, I spent most of my days roaming around the woods with my dog. We would frequently be outside, hiking, exploring, and fishing. It instilled in me a deep appreciation for and love of nature.

Volunteering: As a Peace Corps volunteer in Togo, my focus was on environmental conservation. I lived in a rural area and appreciated not living connected to things: clocks, electricity—it was simpler in some senses. One of my favorite things there was being able to teach young kids about the wonders of the ocean. Many of the students had never heard of the ocean or thought about marine life, and they were fascinated. Living in Togo also made me realize that all people want a healthy environment and care about protecting the delicate balance of an ecosystem.

PHOTO BY CRAIG LEE

Seeking: When thinking about which graduate school to attend, I Googled “international ocean policy management” or something along those lines, and the first thing to pop up was MIIS. It seemed perfect for me—the Peace Corps connection, the international focus, the location. It was a great opportunity.

Keeping an open mind: At the Institute there is very much a great spirit of finding ways to work with everyone, to keep an open mind and to try and understand where other people are coming from.

There are a lot of controversial decisions that come before the commission, and it is our job to listen to all sides and find the middle ground. At the end of the day, whether the commission is increasing limits for fishing and hunting or recommending that a species be put on the California endangered species list, we are all people who deeply care about the environment and our role in it. We all have a stake in preserving nature.

Protecting the ocean: At the California Ocean Protection Council, my focus was on working with commercial fishermen

Basing policy on science: The commission sets regulations enforced by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. The population of California is getting close to 40 million, and there are a lot of competing resources and interests to consider. The drought has compounded these issues. For example, there are now many more interactions between people and wildlife, such as the five thousand or so coyotes in Los Angeles. Public opinion on how to deal with this varies wildly, from creating wildlife sanctuaries to killing the packs. We have to ask ourselves what the best way is to manage an entire species and how to do that practically in a major metropolitan city, such as Los Angeles. It is important to find solutions that balance the needs of people, economic considerations, and the environment, and base those solutions on sound science.

Being oddly hopeful: I am very concerned about the impact of climate change on all species, including people. The greatest challenges are how we are going to conserve healthy, intact ecological systems with a warming planet. Fishery stocks are moving north, animals are changing their migratory routes, cities are experiencing 100-year floods every five years.

We have to address these issues head on and not bury our heads in the sand. Yet I am oddly hopeful that we all can make a difference. The people who are working on these issues are all in, and they are working hard to come up with creative solutions and thoughtful policy measures. A healthy, thriving planet is worth fighting for and we have to enact positive change that will leave the environment more resilient for the future. n

Fall 2016 11

IN BRIEF

recent news from members of the institute community in monterey and around the world.

SIGHTINGS ›› The Institute welcomed

Dr. Elaine Korzak as the new head of the Cyber Initiative as of July 1. Designed to provide an interdisciplinary platform to assess the policy impact of cyber issues on security, peace, and communications in international affairs, the Cyber Initiative was launched in spring 2013. Postdoctoral Fellow Korzak arrived fresh from fellowships with the Hoover Institution and the Center for International Security and Cooperation, both at Stanford University.

She earned her PhD from the Department of War Studies at King’s College London in 2014. “When I started my PhD, there were only a handful of people working on cyber,” she says. “There is still a shortage of trained professionals, and I think anybody who comes out of graduate school wanting to shape cyber policy can have tremendous impact.” ›› Professors Laura Burian mati

’98 and Barry Slaughter Olsen maci ’99 led an all-miis team of interpreters supporting a high-level meeting of energy ministers from around the world in San Francisco in June. Described as an effort to “scale up clean energy and drive implementation of the Paris Agreement,” the meeting featured Burian and Olsen as leaders of a team interpreting

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between English and Chinese, French, Korean, Japanese, and Spanish. All interpreters at the meeting were either faculty or graduates of the Institute, or both. ›› A July 15 article in the New York Times highlighted the conclusion of a team of analysts from the Institute’s James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (cns) that said images the Russian government published as part of its investigation into the downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 over Ukraine two years ago had been “significantly modified or altered.” Jeffrey Lewis, Melissa Hanham, Catherine Dill manpts ’13, and Dave Schmerler manpts ’15 of cns analyzed the images using Tungstene, a suite of forensic software to detect alterations to images, which was provided by an anonymous donor. ›› Environmental policy alumnus Cameron Walker maiep ’10 wrote to tell us about his new position working in Yellowstone National Park as park operator Xanterra’s sustainability program manager. Walker is responsible for reducing the impact of 3,000 staff and 4.5 million annual park visitors by leading projects addressing energy and water efficiency, renewable energy, recycling

and waste management, hazardous materials, fuel tank management, leed construction, green procurement, and sustainable food. (In the last case, Walker is working with Idaho’s Bounty Cooperative, whose operations manager is classmate Mike Seaman maiep ’10.) Walker says, “It’s nice to be working in the place I am trying to protect,” and adds, “It’s been fun following (2010 maiep alumnus) Alan Lovewell’s (community-supported fishery) Real Good Fish.”

Professor Wallace Chen mati ’95 shared the news that two of his former students—Cindy Tao maci ’12 and Teresa Wang mat ’10—and former classmate Pearl Lin mati ’95 each played an important role as interpreters between Tsai IngWen, the first female president of Taiwan, and various foreign dignitaries attending her inauguration in May.

PRESENTATIONS ›› Veteran Russian journalist and author Vladimir Pozner offered a candid assessment of U.S.–Russian relations to students, faculty, staff, and community members in a September 7 public lecture in Irvine Auditorium. The host of the top-rated weekly current affairs program on Channel One, Russia’s largest television network, Pozner is a regular commentator on Russia and the history of the Cold War in Western media. He visited Monterey as a guest of the Institute’s

Graduate Initiative in Russian Studies, led by Professor Anna Vassilieva, giving two lectures to students in Russian in addition to his public lecture in English. ›› An enthusiastic crowd of students, alumni, faculty, and staff members welcomed Peace Corps Director Carrie Hessler-Radelet at a September breakfast on campus, among them Congressman Sam Farr, a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer and Summer Intensive Language Program alumnus. Hessler-Radelet traveled to Monterey to meet with the Institute’s large community of Peace Corps volunteers, fellows, and Master’s International students. (Among the many deep ties between the two institutions: Professor Beryl Levinger, Development Practice and Policy program chair, founded the Peace Corps Fellows program.) Said Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Institute Jeff Dayton-Johnson, “It’s hard to imagine an organization whose mission and values are more closely aligned with the Institute’s than the Peace Corps.” ›› May was an especially busy month for cns founding director, Dr. William Potter, who began the month by participating in a two-week Open Ended Working Group on Nuclear Disarmament in Geneva, moderating a discussion on

the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty at a dinner hosted by Japan in honor of Dr. Lassina Zerbo, executive secretary of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization. Soon after that, Potter co-chaired a high-level task force on the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and chaired the Third Annual Diplomatic Workshop hosted by the Vienna Center for Disarmament and Nonproliferation, with guests including Yukiya Amano, International Atomic Energy Agency director general, and Nabil Fahmy, former Egyptian foreign minister. Finally, at the end of May, Potter participated in a high-level meeting in Moscow on the proposed Weapons of Mass Destruction (wmd) Free Zone in the Middle East, organized by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Center for Energy and Security Studies. ›› June

found Nonproliferation Studies Professor Philipp Bleek traveling to Beijing as part of an American delegation led by former Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair for the Track 1.5 China–U.S. Dialogue on Strategic Nuclear Dynamics, the highest-level dialogue the two countries currently have about the implications of nuclear weapons for their relationship.

This was Bleek’s second time participating in that dialogue. Earlier in June, while visiting family, he gave a talk at a Toronto, Canada, public

Institute Alumnus Killed in Kabul Attack Middlebury Institute alumnus Naqib Ahmad Khpulwak, an assistant professor of law at the American University in Kabul, Afghanistan, was among the 16 students and faculty killed in a terrorist attack on the campus on August 24.

Khpulwak studied English at the Institute in spring and summer 2010 as he prepared to begin his graduate education in the United States.

“This is a tragic loss for Naqib’s family, for his country, and for his teachers and fellow alumni of the Middlebury Institute,” said Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Institute Jeff Dayton-Johnson.

Khpulwak came to Monterey in 2010 as a Fulbright student, completing esl and English Preparation for Graduate Studies courses at the Middlebury Institute during the spring and summer before going on to earn his master’s degree in comparative politics and security studies from Old Dominion University. He was also a visiting scholar at Stanford Law School in 2013. He previously earned his bachelor’s degree in law and political science from Nangarhar University in Afghanistan, graduating first in his class.

At the American University in Kabul, Khpulwak taught courses on property rights and family law, and cotaught courses in alternative conflict resolution and international law. He also worked as a counselor and volunteer lecturer for organizations in Afghanistan including nrc Afghanistan and Nangarhar Law School.

“I am extremely saddened by this news,” said Patricia Szasz matesol ’06, assistant dean for language and professional programs. “Naqib was one of the first Afghan Fulbrighters who came to miis, with the intention of taking his professional skills back to Afghanistan in order to make a positive impact on his country’s future. It was a tremendous privilege to be a part of his educational journey, and we, as his teachers, learned much about the triumphs and challenges of Afghanistan from having known him.”

Alumna Nathalie Juniorette mpa ’12, who took English classes with Khpulwak in the summer of 2010 to prepare for her own graduate studies, called him “among the kindest people, sincerest believers, and brightest minds here on earth. It’s a great, great loss.” n

Fall 2016 13

IN BRIEF

Anybody who comes out of graduate school wanting to shape cyber policy can have tremendous impact.

—Elaine Korzak, the new head of the Institute’s Cyber Initiative

school, saying it was “really fun to engage a much younger audience!”

AWARDS AND ACHIEVEMENTS ›› Patricia Sours matesol ’94

recently received the Global Legal Skills Award in Verona, Italy, in recognition of her contributions to the field of Legal English. Sours and fellow professor Alison Riley were honored at the 2016 Global Legal Skills Conference for their years of dedicated teaching and the publication of two coauthored books, Legal English and the Common Law, and Common Law English and Grammar: A Contextual Approach. After over 20 years in Italy, Sours still uses tips and reminders shared by Professors Leo van Lier and Peter Shaw, and has fond memories of her time as a student in Monterey. ›› The Mike Mansfield Fellowship Program— named for the former U.S. Ambassador to Japan—was created to build a corps of U.S. government officials with substantial Japanese expertise and to carry out person-to-person exchanges between the U.S. and Japanese governments. Ben Foster maiep ’09, an energy industry

14

Communiqué

analyst at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s Office of Energy Policy and Innovation, was one of 10 U.S. officials chosen this spring to participate in the yearlong program. Foster left for Japan on July 1 for a seven-week training program in Ishikawa Prefecture, after which he began a 10-month work rotation in Tokyo at Japan’s Agency for Natural Resources.

COLLABORATIONS ›› A collaborative summer

practicum course offered students at both the Institute and Middlebury College what participant Annathea Cook maips ’16 described as “unprecedented access to industry leaders, policy makers, and trade associations” in China during a monthlong in-country immersive learning experience in June. The Engaging China through Field Research course was codeveloped and cotaught

by Professor Wei Liang of the Institute with Professors Jessica Teets and Orion Lewis of the College. Classes on both campuses conducted policy debates and simulations and developed research projects in preparation for the group’s field research trip to China. A total of 22 students participated, 12 from Monterey and 10 from Middlebury.

›› The Institute welcomed foreign language faculty from all over the U.S. in June when the Association of Departments of Foreign Languages (adfl) brought its twice-yearly Summer Seminar to Monterey. The three-day, miis-hosted, Modern Language Association-sponsored conference offered the chairs of adfl member departments the opportunity to share information and consult about issues facing their departments and the field of language instruction. Institute Board of Overseers Vice Chair Karen Stolley, a professor of Spanish at Emory University, is a trustee and 2016 president of the adfl.

Development at California State University Monterey Bay on the nine-month project, and this fall, a cohort of miis students is being trained to do participatory asset mapping. ›› The Institute’s International Trade and Economic Diplomacy degree program now offers a dual degree with the School of International Studies at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, China. Students in the dual degree program study both in Monterey and Beijing and earn master’s degrees from both schools.

PUBLICATIONS ›› The essay of student

›› Graduate School of International Policy and Management Dean Kent Glenzer received a project award from the City of Monterey to complete a “Broad Based Asset Inventory” for the city. Covering human and knowledge capital, physical capital, financial capital, social capital, and natural capital, the inventory is considered to be one of the key elements of a future strategic and investment readiness plan for Monterey. The Institute is partnering with the Institute of Innovation and Economic

Anthony Musa manpts ’17 titled “It’s time to revitalize U.S.–Russian nuclear security cooperation” was published

by Russia Direct in September, while Musa was in New York for a cns internship at the United Nations. ›› Israel’s oldest daily newspaper, Haaretz, published an op-ed piece

by Professor Avner Cohen titled “Nuclear Secrets and Lies: Petition Seeks to Move Israel’s Atomic Policy Out of the Shadows.” Cohen and Laura Rockwood, Vienna

Communiqué EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

Matt Jennings SENIOR EDITORS

Jason Warburg Eva Guðbergsdóttir DESIGNER

Center for Disarmament and Nonproliferation executive director, both contributed to a set of analyses by U.S. and foreign experts of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (i.e., the Iran nuclear agreement) published by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. ›› In July, Professors Tsuneo Akaha and Anna Vassilieva coauthored an essay for the East Asia Forum titled “Cause for optimism in Russia–Japan relations?” Professor Akaha also authored a chapter in a book published to coincide with the Abe-Putin summit in Vladivostok this fall. The book was distributed to the Russian and Japanese delegations at the September summit. ›› Professor Robert Rogowsky,

co-chair of the International Trade and Economic Diplomacy program, published an article in the Brown Journal of World Affairs on “Intellectual Property and the Trans-Pacific Partnership” and coauthored an article with Professor Li Juan Zhang macd ’99 called “Challenges for the wto in the New Global Trade Arena” in the University of International Business and Economics Journal. ›› The U.S. Department of State’s International Security

Advisory Board published the report of a study group chaired by Executive Director for Research Centers and Initiatives Amy Sands titled “Report on International Security and Foreign Policy Implications of Overseas Disease Outbreaks.” The International Security Advisory Board was established to provide the State Department with independent insight and advice on various aspects of arms control, disarmament, international security, and nonproliferation. ›› Professor Netta Avineri

coauthored two articles published in Anthropology News: “Interdisciplinary Collaborations around Language and Social Justice” in July, and “An Anthropolitical Critique of the ‘Language Gap’” in August. Avineri is a member of the Society for Linguistic Anthropology’s Committee on Language and Social Justice.

PASSAGES

from 1976–1980. His long association with miis included many years as a professor of Spanish, as well as stints as associate provost, director of the Summer Intensive Language Program, and dean of the Graduate School of Language and Educational Linguistics. Prior to coming to Monterey, Strolle held administrative and teaching positions at Middlebury College, the State University of New York, Indiana University, and the University of Wisconsin. He received his PhD from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in 1968 after graduating magna cum laude from Oberlin College.

Strolle was an accomplished and widely published scholar of language teaching and learning with a broad range of interests in related fields like distance learning and language policy. He will be missed by his many friends, colleagues, and former students in Monterey and around the world. n

Paul Dahm VICE PRESIDENT FOR COMMUNICATIONS AND MARKETING

Bill Burger

CALL FOR CLASS NOTES:

A new position, relocation, baby, publication, marriage?

We want to hear from you.

Send your update via the alumni website at alumni.miis.edu or email it to alumni@miis.edu.

›› Longtime

Institute faculty member and administrator Jon Strolle passed away on August 17. Strolle enjoyed a 25-year career at the Institute between 1985 and 2010, and prior to that served as the dean of the Spanish School at Middlebury College

Fall 2016 15

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