More on IREX

[Benjamin Rifkin]

Dear SEELANGers:

The AATSEEL Executive Council will be discussing this matter at our annual
meeting in late December (in Philadelphia) and will undoubtedly communicate
with Dr. Pomar on behalf of the association shortly after the 1st of
January.  If you would like to contribute your thoughts to our AATSEEL
discussion, you may send them by e-mail to me or to our executive director,
Kathleen Dillon (aatseel at earthlink.net).

Sincerely,

Ben Rifkin
President of AATSEEL



On 11/30/04 5:58 AM, "Tony Anemone" <aaanem at WM.EDU> wrote:

> 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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*************
Benjamin Rifkin
University of Wisconsin-Madison

Professor and Chair, Slavic Dept.
1432 Van Hise, 1220 Linden Dr.
Madison, WI 53706 USA
(608) 262-1623; Fax (608) 265-2814
http://polyglot.lss.wisc.edu/slavic

Director, Title VI Center for Russia, E. Europe & Central Asia (CREECA)
210 Ingraham Hall, 1550 Observatory Dr.
Madison, WI 53706 USA
(608) 262-3379; Fax (608) 890-0267
http://www.wisc.edu/creeca






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