Roland Hsu (TEC) on Human Rights, Gender Equality, Roma Schools, and Reconciling Post-atrocity Communities with the Arts

Roland Hsu, Associate Director of The Europe Center at the Stanford Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies was interviewed by the Media Project on the subjects of The Europe Center's research, and its sponsorship of the United Nations Association International Film Festival.  Hsu was asked to discuss the research and policy implications of the subjects of key films in this year's international documentary film festival.  Among the subjects that Hsu underlines:

International Law and Human Rights: The International Criminal Court and the challenges and strategies of the Court's Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo to bring indictments for crimes against humanity -- even indictments of sitting sovereign leaders.

Cultural Minority Rights: Roma communities in Europe (east and west) and the struggle among political and community leaders, as well as residents and school teachers, to balance the preservation and perpetuation of cultural specificity with the need for adaptation and assimiliation.

Reconciliation: how do victims and perpetrators of atrocities and social repression find ways to process their memories, and to live on as neighbors in reconciled community.  Models for such deep truth and reconciliation include the well-known institutions of Truth & Reconciliation Commissions, and also the mediating influence of cultural production in literature and the visual arts.

Among the research and public outreach projects at The Europe Center discussed by Hsu was “Islam in the West: Conflict and Reconciliation” designed to answer the challenge of social and political integration within the high immigration West.  With an effective focus on the European Union and the transatlantic West, The Europe Center is opening a seminar series on “Islam and the West” with partner The Abassi Program in Islamic Studies (Stanford) and European partners including Oxford University, which seeks to investigate the challenges of social integration.  "The design is based on our years of achievement in this area, delivering insight on EU policy towards its newest members, East-West and transatlantic relations, crime and social conflict, and European models of universal citizenship," says Hsu.

The plan for this series began with the book Ethnic Europe: Ethnicity in Today’s Europe: Mobility Identity, and Conflict in a Globalized World” (edited and with an essay by Roland Hsu.)  Hsu explains, "This book was developed from the Center’s international conference on the topic, and reveals path breaking data and proposals for immigration, integration, and a ‘civic Islam’ in a globalizing Europe."

 
The full interview with additional participants is at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5R17XBFnumY


The United Nations Association Film Festival is at: http://www.unaff.org/2011/index.html