Clark University recently became a member of the Scholars at Risk network, an international network of institutions and individuals working to promote academic freedom and to defend the human rights of scholars worldwide. A launch event, titled “Academic Freedom in the Middle East and Beyond: Supporting Scholars at Risk,” will feature a panel discussion, from 5 to 7 p.m. Monday, Apr. 11, in the Rose Library of the Cohen-Lasry House, 11 Hawthorne Street.

Panelists will include Clark University history professor Taner Akcam, Kaloosdian/Mugar Chair in Armenian Genocide Studies and a leading international authority on Armenian genocide, and Syrian human rights researcher and advocate Radwan Ziadeh.  Ziadeh was a major player in “Damascus Spring,” a period of intense debate about politics and social issues and calls for reform in Syria after the death of President Hafez al-Assad in 2000. He was a Senior Fellow at U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C., and he is the founder and director of the Damascus Center for Human Rights Studies in Syria as well as co-founder and executive director of the Syrian Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Washington D.C.

The Scholars at Risk Network (SAR) is an international network of universities and colleges responding to attacks on scholars because of their words, their ideas, and their place in society. Through temporary academic positions, SAR members help scholars to escape dangerous conditions and to continue their important work. Clark joins over 200 other universities around the world as a member of the SAR.

This event is sponsored by the Office of the Provost, the Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, the departments of Political Science, Sociology, and International Development, Community and Environment,  the International Studies Stream, Women’s and Gender Studies, and Peace Studies.  It is free and open to the public. For more information, please call 508-793-8897.

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