Robert Barnett, Modern Tibetan Studies Program Director at Columbia University, Speaks at USALI

On Wednesday, October 9, 2013 Professor Jerome Cohen sat down with Professor Robert Barnett, Director of the Modern Tibetan Studies Program at Columbia University, to discuss Columbia's programs and his involvement with Tibet since visiting Lhasa for the first time in 1987.

Over the last twenty six years, Professor Barnett has devoted his work to informing the public about developments in Tibet.  Of his first visit there along with other foreign tourists in 1987, he said. “I suddenly realized it was up to us to collect information and pass it on.” In the late 1980s, Professor Barnett founded the Tibet Information Network, a news agency in London specifically focused on Tibet. In 1998, at the request of Professors James Seymour and Andrew Nathan, he traveled to Columbia University as a visiting scholar. At the time, although many universities still tended to treat Tibetan Studies as “marginal” and “exotic,” over the following years, at the urging of Professor Barnett and his colleagues, Columbia created a Master’s program and a Ph.D program in Modern Tibetan Studies, and is a leading force in the study of the region, including its cultural, religious, social and “geopolitical” dimensions. Professor Barnett oversees these programs.

Please click this link for more information on Columbia's Tibetan Studies Program.

USALI and the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice Host Vietnamese Delegation

On October 1, 2013 USALI and the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice (CHRGJ) at NYU Law met with a five-member ministerial-level delegation from the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences (VASS) to discuss human rights curricula in legal education institutions.

VASS is a research institution under the Government of Vietnam with 37 research institutes and centers, and is comprised of over 900 professors, associate professors, and high-degree holders in the social sciences.  VASS recently established a Graduate Academy of Social Sciences to conduct research, advise the government, and provide master’s and doctoral degrees in the law and social science fields and public policy.  Human rights issues have become an urgent issue in Vietnam. The delegation came to the U.S. to explore and discuss different models of graduate training and research on human rights.

The three main purposes of the delegation visit were to:
1.      Engage in academic exchange of experiences in research and education of human rights;
2.      Build partnerships for cooperation in developing research, education and human rights training, and for formulating policy advice on human rights issues, laws and legal enforcement;
3.      Enhance VASS’ capacity to provide training in human rights at their institute and in Vietnam.  This includes exploring training programs, teaching curriculum, teaching materials/ books and learning about what students are expected to know and be able to do, what amount of training is classroom, thesis writing, faculty mentoring, externship, and so forth, the relationship between teaching and research, and the link between research and policy.

Joined by USALI Program Director Trinh Duong and NYU Law student Wendy Liu ('14), USALI Co-Director Professor Jerome Cohen and CHRGJ Faculty Director Professor Philip Alston discussed their experience with developing human rights curricula and programs for legal education settings. Additionally, Ms. Liu spoke about her experience in the International Human Rights Clinic, and delegation members discussed their interest in corporate social responsibility and environmental protection training.