Institute of Current World Affairs - long-term fellowships in countries throughout the world

Welcome

Since its founding in 1925, the Institute of Current World Affairs has provided more than 150 young men and women with long-term fellowships in countries throughout the world. They have immersed themselves in foreign cultures, mastered languages, and gained deep national and regional understanding, while pursuing study programs of their own design for at least two years. The Institute aims to foster the growth of such world citizens, who return to the United States to share what they have learned.

Institute fellows have been teachers, journalists, archeologists, composers, physicians, economists, business leaders, foresters, artists, political scientists, farmers, chemists, playwrights, bankers, city planners, and novelists. They have gone on to excel in these and other fields, armed with a wealth of experience and knowledge gained during their immersion abroad.

Our fellowship program continues to thrive, just as the need for deep understanding of foreign cultures and political systems grows ever more obvious. This website provides information about our purpose, history, fellowship opportunities, application procedures and more.

The Institute of Current World Affairs is a 501(c)(3) exempt operating foundation, supported by contributions from like-minded individuals and foundations. [about us]

A Look Inside the ICWA Archive

Through the eyes and ears of its fellows, the Institute has collected 83 years of world history, in the form of newsletters submitted as part of the fellowships.

MEXICO

Subcommandante Marcos on the March to Mexico City, 2001

“Who is Marcos? Standing in the audience at 10 of the 77 public events that were part of the ‘March for Dignity and for the People who are the Color of the Earth,’ I asked myself that over and over… In an attempt to understand the Zapatista movement, many have compared it to the civil-rights movement in the United States. The analogy does not quite fit, though Rosa Parks – and many more like her – had been clamoring for civil rights for years before she refused to move to the back of the bus. Marcos showed up in the Chiapas jungle in 1983, and learned from people who have been resisting colonialism for half a millennium.”

—Mexico Fellow Wendy Call

...read newsletter

News From ICWA

Our South Africa Fellow, Eve Fairbanks, has published the following article in The New Republic on race relations in post-Apartheid South Africa, focusing on the black South African Jonathan Jansen, appointed as leader of the University of the Free State last year with a mission to integrate the divided campus.

The Healer: Can Jonathan Jansen succeed where Mandela failed?
www.tnr.com/article/world/75261/the-healer

Trustee and Former Fellow Pramila Jayapal has published an Op-Ed jointly with Gloria Steinem on immigration with the Women’s Media Center:

Immigration is a Woman’s Issue
womensmediacenter.com/blog

Honoring and Remembering Edwin S. Munger
A tribute to former ICWA Fellow and Honorary Trustee Edwin “Ned” Munger delivered by Executive Director Steve Butler at the memorial service for Ned on June 24th, Pasadena, California. (Tribute)

Honoring and Remembering Albert Ravenholt
A tribute to former ICWA Fellow and Honorary Trustee Albert Ravenholt delivered by Executive Director Steve Butler at the memorial service for Albert on May 30th. (Tribute)

The Wheel of Life Turns at Rajprasong

By Jeffrey Race

Many sense something important is changing in Thailand. Actually it's just repeating. If we understand what's the same this time…

madtomsalmanac.blogspot.com/2010/05/trying-to-untangle-mess-that-is.html

Jeffrey Race has lived in Thailand for the past 30 years. He is a research scholar and author of War Comes to Long An: Revolutionary Conflict in a Vietnamese Province (University of California Press, 2010) and numerous other studies in the fields of political and technological change, available at pws.prserv.net/studies/publ_01.htm. Jeffrey was a Fellow of the Institute of Current World Affairs in Thailand (1973-76).

Former Fellow, Nicholas Schmidle has published two articles in The New Republic discussing recent events in Pakistan. Also, on May 8 Nicholas took calls from the public on C-SPAN's Washington Journal.

Flop House
Two theories for why terrorists take credit for botched attacks.

www.tnr.com/article/world/flop-house

In a Ditch
The growing--and murderous--divide between old and new guard jihadists in Pakistan.

www.tnr.com/article/world/ditch

The Graffiti Prophet of Bois Verna

Our Haiti Fellow, Pooja Bhatia, has written an Op-Ed piece for The New York Times on the graffiti artist Jerry:

www.nytimes.com/2010/04/12/opinion/12bhatia.html

You can read her earlier Institute of Current World Affairs Newsletter on Jerry by clicking here: PAB-6 “Jerry’s World”

Opinion: Hello, NATO, goodbye

Despite predictions of a "global NATO," the alliance’s days of growth are numbered.

By David Binder — Special to GlobalPost
April 7, 2010

www.globalpost.com/dispatch/worldview/100404/NATO

David Binder was a member of the Washington Bureau of The New York Times from June 1973 until his retirement in 1996. He continues to work, specializing in coverage of Central and Eastern European affairs, while also reporting on events involving United States foreign policy. He was a fellow of Institute of Current World Affairs in Germany from 1957-1959.

Environmental Threat to Lake Baikal

Elena Agarkova, our Fellow in Russia, has published the following article about the environmental threat to Lake Baikal.

www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/04/07/91779/putin-about-face-on-paper-mill.html

The Answer Is Not Blowing In the Wind

By Dr. Donald Perry

www.prudentbear.com/index.php/guestcommentaryview?art_id=10350

The environment everywhere is under threat, even in New York by a business thought to be green.

Dr. Perry is a biologist, author and inventor. He was an ICWA Fellow in Costa Rica (1986-88). Read Donald’s ICWA Newsletters

Ex-Guatemala President to Be Tried in U.S.

By Ezra Fieser

www.time.com

Ezra Fieser is a freelance reporter in Central America and a recent former fellow of the Institute of Current World Affairs in Guatemala (2008-2010).

Former Fellow Andrew Tabler (Syria, 2005-2007) analyzes recent developments involving Syria:

www.independent.co.uk

www.newsweek.com/id/233723

www.foreignpolicy.com

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CURRENT FELLOWS

	Pooja Bhatia HAITI • December 2008 - 2010 Pooja attended Harvard as an undergraduate, and then worked for the Wall Street Journal for a few years. She graduated from Harvard Law School. She was appointed Harvard Law School Satter Human Rights Fellow in 2007 and worked as an attorney with the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux, which advocates and litigates on behalf of Haiti’s poor. As an ICWA Fellow, Pooja will explore Haiti more deeply and write more broadly about the country.

	Elena Agarkova RUSSIA • May 2008 - 2010 Elena will be living in Siberia, studying management of natural resources and the relationship between Siberia's natural riches and its people. Previously, Elena was a Legal Fellow at the University of Washington's School of Law, at the Berman Environmental Law Clinic. She has clerked for Honorable Cynthia M. Rufe of the federal district court in Philadelphia, and has practiced commercial litigation at the New York office of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP. Elena was born in Moscow, Russia, and has volunteered for environmental non-profits in the Lake Baikal region of Siberia. She graduated from Georgetown University Law Center in 2001, and has received a bachelor's degree in political science from Barnard College.

	Eve Fairbanks SOUTH AFRICA • May 2009 - 2011 Eve Fairbanks is interested in societal transformation. She writes about how individuals fit themselves into the new and still-changing South Africa. A former staff writer at The New Republic, she covered the 2008 presidential race; her book reviews have also appeared in The New York Times. She graduated with a degree in political science from Yale, where she also studied music.

FORMER FELLOW SPOTLIGHT

Pramila Jayapal

PRAMILA JAYAPAL
India (1995-1997)

Pramila is the founder and Executive Director of OneAmerica (formerly Hate Free Zone), a nonprofit organization whose mission is to advance the fundamental principles of democracy and justice through building power in immigrant communities in collaboration with key allies. Since its creation in 2001, OneAmerica has grown into one of the largest and most influential immigrant rights organizations in Washington State and in the country, providing leadership on national and statewide campaigns around immigration reform, due process and civil rights issues, and immigrant integration. OneAmerica is the recipient of numerous awards for its courageous community organizing and policy work, including City of Seattle's Civil Rights Award, the Washington Bar Association's Access to Justice Community Leadership Award, the Unitarian Universalists Holmes-Weatherley Award, and the Ecumenical Leadership Award from the Washington Association of Churches. In 2008, Pramila was appointed by Washington Governor Chris Gregoire to serve as Vice Chair of the Washington New Americans Policy Council, which advises the Governor on immigrant issues.

Pramila appears frequently on local and national radio and television shows and is a featured speaker around the country to diverse audiences on issues of immigrants and immigration. She is the author of Pilgrimage to India: A Woman Revisits Her Homeland (Seal Press, 2000), and her articles and essays have been published widely in numerous magazines and newspapers. Her previous work includes over twenty years in both social justice and private sector fields.

An activist and writer, Pramila has been actively involved in international and domestic social justice issues for over 12 years, working across Africa, Asia and Latin America as well as domestically with immigrant and refugee communities in Washington state. From 1991-95, she was the Director of the Fund for Technology Transfer at PATH Seattle, overseeing a $6 million revolving loan fund for socially responsible health projects in developing countries. From 1995-97, Pramila was awarded a fellowship from the Institute of Current World Affairs to live in India and write about development and societal issues. From 1997-2001, Pramila was a consultant to several organizations on immigrant and refugee issues, including the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Making Connections Initiative. Prior to that, Pramila also spent several years on Wall Street in investment banking. She currently serves on several boards, including as Vice Chair of The Rights Working Group and the Executive Advisory Board for Seattle University’s School of Theology and Ministry.

Pramila has a Masters in Business Administration from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, and a B.A. from Georgetown University in English and Economics. Pramila was born in India, and raised in India, Indonesia and Singapore. She is the proud mother of a 12-year old son, born in India during her ICWA fellowship.

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