Letter from the Director

Dear Colleagues and Friends of the Center,

The 2023-24 academic year was my first as Director of the Center, and what an intriguing and fulfilling year it was! As always, we brought in a range of important scholars. Ruth Ben-Ghiat of NYU spoke on “Strongmen and How to Push Back Against Them.” Steven Levitsky of Harvard presented “Tyranny of the Minority: Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point.” UM’s new Hanley Center for Democracy and its intrepid director, Greg Koger, partnered with us on both of these events, and we look forward to continuing this active collaboration. Andrew Delbanco of Columbia joined us to explore the question, “Does Humanistic Education Have a Future?” – and the discussions surrounding his visit made abundantly clear that it does have a future, and a vibrant and promising one at that! Our major event for the Rosenstiel Program in Polish Heritage was a talk by Aldona Woś, President of the Institute of World Politics and former US Ambassador to Estonia, on “Polish-Estonian Relations and their Importance in Current Events.” In addition to these events, we hosted nine faculty Book Talks, and, as always, they were fascinating and fun. The Center also took our show on the road a bit. While most of the Book Talks were, as usual, at Books & Books in Coral Gables, one of them, by Pat Saunders of the English Department, took place at the Pérez Art Museum Miami, while we likewise went downtown to HistoryMiami Museum to co-host a fascinating talk on the Tequesta culture by UM anthropologist Traci Ardren. It was my pleasure to hop on the MetroRail yet again to participate in the Miami Book Fair, where I interviewed the dissident Russian journalist Mikhail Zygar on his recent book, War and Punishment: Putin, Zelensky, and the Path to Russia’s Invasion of the Ukraine.

The entire year was a learning experience for me, and I’m deeply grateful to the many good folks who helped educate me in my new responsibilities. I’m thankful to my predecessor, Hugh Thomas, who provided the Center with such excellent leadership over the previous five years, and to Hugh’s predecessor, Mihoko Suzuki, the Center’s founding director. I’ve profited early and enough from their wise counsel and good nature. I likewise owe an enormous debt of gratitude to the Center’s staff, on whom I rely very closely indeed. Our Assistant Director, Christina Larson, provided expert and excellent guidance and support across the full range of our activities, and was and remains a fount of wisdom and good counsel. Ony Dunnam, our Conference Coordinator, was likewise steadfast, supportive, and reliable. After six years of excellent service, Ony recently moved to another job on UM’s campus, in which she’ll doubtless perform her even greater responsibilities with the same efficiency and generosity of spirit. We miss Ony, but we take comfort in the knowledge that she remains a most valuable member of the UM community. I’m delighted to introduce to you our new Office Manager, Elizabeth Hernandez! Elizabeth comes to the Center with much relevant experience in office management and event planning right here in Miami-Dade, and Christina and I are delighted to be working with her. I’m also grateful to Vanessa Barcelos, our UGrow Graduate Fellow, and to Lyric Johnson and Layla-Bleu Jackson Yanez, our Student Assistants, who assisted us very ably and enthusiastically with all the year’s activities.

In the wake of a successful fundraising drive, it was our pleasure to award the first ever Suzuki/Lindemann/Cruz Award to Tim Martin, doctoral candidate in History, to support his archival work in England. This year’s Ruggiero Outstanding Dissertation Award went to E. Paige Miller (English), for her dissertation on literary multilingualism. We’re deeply grateful to all of you who generously contributed to these awards, and we look forward to partnering with you in due course to replenish their funding stream.

As always, we greatly appreciate the ongoing support of Dean Leonidas Bachas and the leadership of the College of Arts & Sciences, especially Associate Deans Jennifer Ferriss-Hill, Josh Cohn, and Caleb Everett. We are grateful to the Provost’s Office for its funding support of the Center. Our Faculty Advisory Board continues to offer crucial guidance.

Thank you ever so much for your robust and ongoing support for the Center, my friends. Knowing we have that support means we also know that the Center will continue to move forward from strength to strength!