More on IREX

[Tony Anemone]

Colleagues,

I have attached a message I just wrote to Dr. Mark Pomar, the president
of IREX, in response to his request that I consider contributing to the
IREX Scholar Support Fund.  I would hope that other scholars in the
"non-policy-relevant" community would consider making their feelings
about this issue known to him as well.  You can email IREX at
irex at irex.org.  Or write to:

  Dr. Mark Pomar, President
  IREX
  2121 K Street NW
  Suite 700
  Washington, DC 20037
  TEL: (202) 628-8188

FYI: Dr Ben Rifkin, the president of AATSEEL, has, at my request, put
this issue on the agenda of the AATSEEL Executive Committee, which will
take place at the National Convention in Philadelphia this December.
More on this in the new year.

Tony

Dear Dr. Pomar,

I am writing to you in connection with your recent request for support
for the IREX Scholar Support Fund.  As a former IREXer, a scholar of
Russian literature and culture, and someone who has supported IREX in
the past, I understand the value of scholarly research in Eurasia and
the critical role that IREX has played for almost 4 decades in
nurturing and fostering scholarly exchanges between the countries of
Eurasia and the US.  Although my experiences on several IREX programs
were absolutely crucial in my education and my career, I will not
contribute to IREX as long as you fund only research which is
"policy-relevant."  In fact, it seems rather crass of IREX to solicit
support from scholars in the humanities which you no longer support.

As I understand it, IREX was forced to eliminate its support for
research in the humanities as a result of government cuts and post-9/11
funding priorities.  Government short sightedness in the area of
funding pure research is, of course, nothing new and hardly surprising.
  What is surprising is the lack of response by IREX and the Slavic
academic community to such ill advised and counter-productive policies.
  Without specialists in language, literature and culture, who, I
wonder, will train the next generation of "policy" specialists?  Who
better to raise these issues with the funding agencies than IREX?

If and when IREX changes its policy or makes a serious commitment to
replacing lost grants with private money in order to fund research in
fields which the government no longer supports, I will certainly be
willing to contribute.  Until then, however, not only will I not
contribute to IREX, but I will urge my colleagues in the
"non-policy-relevant" community to do the same.

Sincerely,
Tony Anemone

*       *       *       *       *       *       *       *
"This is the patent age for new inventions
        For killing bodies, and saving souls,
  All propagated with the best intentions."

Lord Byron
*       *       *       *       *       *       *       *
Tony Anemone
Associate Professor of Russian and Chair
Dept. of Modern Languages & Literatures
College of William and Mary
P.O. Box 8795
Williamsburg, VA 23187-8795
757-221-3636 (office)
757-221-3637 (fax)


*       *       *       *       *       *       *       *
"This is the patent age for new inventions
        For killing bodies, and saving souls,
  All propagated with the best intentions."

Lord Byron
*       *       *       *       *       *       *       *
Tony Anemone
Associate Professor of Russian and Chair
Dept. of Modern Languages & Literatures
College of William and Mary
P.O. Box 8795
Williamsburg, VA 23187-8795
757-221-3636 (office)
757-221-3637 (fax)

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