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The Center for Democratic Performance (CDP) has been in existence for less than six months, but with recent funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), is well on its way to becoming an important international resource concerning democratic political institutions.
Established in the Political Science Department
in September 1999 by newly arrived assistant professor Edward McMahon, the
Center is a rarity -- a university-based organization involved in both research
and applied programming regarding the functioning of democratic institutions.
McMahon notes that "working in both the research, and policy and program
implementation arenas means that both can be enriched by each other."
To his role as the Center's Director, McMahon brings a decade of experience
as a State Department diplomat and USAID official, in addition to nine years
as Regional Director for East and West Africa at the National Democratic
Institute for International Affairs, a congressionally funded non-profit
organization which works to strengthen democratic institutions around the
world.
CDP has undertaken a number of program activities since its inception but the USAID project is its first major project. "This opportunity is a result of a good working relationship we have developed with the State University of New York's International Development Group," said McMahon. "They came to us soon after USAID approached them with the project, which entailed providing an assessment of their legislative support programs around the world. We couldn't have wished for a finer opportunity to draw attention to the Center and the resources we can provide."
The first part of the assessment entails conducting analyses of the evolution of USAID's regional legislative strengthening programs. The Center is also developing a database of these programs as well as a bibliography of written material on the subject. The assessment will be reviewed at an upcoming international USAID conference in Maputo, Mozambique, and then disseminated more broadly. "The successful undertaking of this project is helping to lead to other opportunities for the Center," said McMahon. "For instance, CDP and the Institute for Global Studies were recently informed that the Ford Foundation approved a $120,000 grant to promote dialogue between Latin American and African military establishments on democratic reform. In addition, CDP has an agreement with the World Bank to undertake a project assessing international assistance for legislative development. The word is getting out and the Center is gathering momentum."
The Center is currently developing an Advisory Committee comprised of prominent individuals in the democratic performance field both at Binghamton University and beyond. The Committee will advise the Center in setting long-term strategic goals and assist with outreach programs. "With guidance from the Committee, I see the Center as a way to build bridges between the different constituencies interested in democratic performance," said McMahon. "This includes diverse viewpoints within political science; between academic disciplines; and between academe as a whole, and the policy and program implementation communities." In addition, McMahon envisions the Center as a forum for faculty and students at Binghamton working on democratic issues, to be able to more broadly disseminate their work, through conferences, a Center website and publications. The Center also hopes to be able to attract financial resources to the campus in the form of consulting projects.
Last semester, CDP co-sponsored a research conference on democratic performance, which brought together over 30 researchers. CDP has also contributed to the 1999 Annual Survey of Political Rights and Civil Liberties published by Freedom House, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the promotion of political rights and civil liberties worldwide. In March, CDP will host a series of discussions at which Dr. Shafeeq N. Ghabra, director of the Kuwait Information Office in Washington, D.C. will be featured as guest speaker. "Dr. Ghabra's visit promises to be of great interest for those who follow events in the Middle East. His insight into the current state of democratic development in Kuwait and the region, as well as relations between Middle Eastern countries promise to be of considerable interest to faculty and all students of democratic institutions -- both on campus and off," said McMahon.
Dean Polachek, the Harpur College Law Council and the BU Alumni Association will host an Alumni Law Reception at the White and Case LLP offices in New York City on Wednesday, March 1. All law alumni and Harpur College friends are invited to stop by.
Hosted by Binghamton University alumni at White and Case, the event promises to be a great opportunity for law alumni to reconnect with Harpur College and each other. "This is the second law alumni reception to be held in the NYC area. The first one held in November 1998 brought out 125 law alumni. We hope that this year's event will be even larger," said Lee Nesslage, Alumni and Development Programs Associate. "In an effort to reach out to new graduates, we are also inviting alumni currently in their second and third year of law school. This reception will be a wonderful opportunity for them to make contacts in their field."
Facilitating the event in New York is White
and Case partner and Harpur Political Science graduate, Owen
Pell ('80). "Going to Harpur did a lot for me in terms of securing
a place for myself at an excellent law school," he said. "In the
ensuing years I have met many people from schools with much more highly
developed alumni networks and have come to appreciate the value of such
networks in building a school's reputation. This reception is an opportunity
both to give something back to Binghamton and to help build a network that
will create even greater opportunities for Binghamton alumni in the future."
The event begins at 5:30 p.m. at the White and Case offices located on the 40th floor of 1155 Avenue of the Americas at 44th Street. Those wishing to attend should contact the Office of Alumni and Parent Relations at 607-777-2431 or email acastor@binghamton.edu by February 25. Alumni, students and friends can look forward to an evening of meeting old acquaintances and making some new ones. "The Harpur Law Council's mission is to increase the involvement of law alumni with the University and encourage their support of programs that benefit the students, faculty, and the campus community." said Nesslage. "The Council believes that it is very important to facilitate a variety of venues for alumni and students to develop and nurture professional and personal relationships."
For more details about the law reception or about how you can support the Law Council programs or become involved in upcoming projects, contact Lee Nesslage at (607) 777-4278 or nesslage@binghamton.edu
The University Art Museum will be hosting
an opening reception and lecture featuring artist Leon Goldin on Friday,
March 3 at 7 p.m. in room 258 of the Fine Arts Building.
Leon Goldin received a BFA from the Art Institute of Chicago and a MFA from the University of Iowa. He has received two National Endowment for the Arts Awards, a Fullbright Scholarship in Painting, a Louis B. Comfort Tiffany Grant and a Guggenheim Fellowship in Painting. Goldin's work has been included in national group exhibitions since the 1950s. He's had solo exhibitions at the Oakland Museum in California, the Galleria L'Attico in Rome and is regularly featured at the Kraushaar Gallery in New York. Goldin's work is included in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum, the National Museum of Modern Art in Washington D.C., the British Arts Council, the Los Angeles County Museum, California, and other public and private collections. His work has been published in magazines and journals including Arts, The New York Times and Time. Goldin is a professor emeritus of painting and drawing at the School of Arts, Columbia University, New York.
"Leon Goldin is a close colleague of Art Department faculty member Linda Soklowski," said Jackie Hogan, assistant art director of the University Museum. "They are represented by the same gallery in NYC and a while back, Soklowski invited Goldin to come to Binghamton. We felt it would be advantageous to the students, faculty and all Harpur friends to see work created by an exceptional artist. He is highly regarded in the art world and we hope that his willingness to stage an exhibition on the Binghamton campus will encourage other artists to do likewise."
The exhibition will run through April 7, 2000, at the University Museum. Museum hours are Tuesday through Sunday, 1-4 p.m. The museum will be closed during spring break, March 18-26.
Painting, probability, lust and the future
of the world. All this and more in the Theater Department's first play of
the century, Picasso at the Lapin Agile. Curtain up in the Watters
Theater is at 8:15 p.m. on February 25 and 26 and March 3 and 4, with an
additional performance on March 5 at 2:00 p.m.
This award-winning stage comedy was written by comedian/actor/playwright Steve Martin. It revolves around an imaginary meeting between a passionate Pablo Picasso and a fiery Albert Einstein in 1904 at the bohemian Paris bistro, the Lapin Agile. These two young men on the threshold of fame vie for the attentions of a young lady and each other's respect in a hilarious battle of ideas.
"This is a great 'what if' play," said director Anne Brady. "What if these two geniuses had met? Martin uses this amusing idea to take a playful look at the arts and sciences through the eyes of two of the 20th century's greatest thinkers. Martin sees definite similarities between Einstein's theories that space and time bend and the way Picasso painted, as if space bends. Set at the turn of the century, it is also a play of possibilities much in keeping with our own recent turn-of-the-century celebrations."
Picasso at Lapin Agile was the winner of 1996 New York Outer Critics Circle Awards of "Best Play" and "Best Playwright." The comedy broke box office records and won virtual unanimous critical praise when it played at San Francisco's Theatre on the Square from June 1996-April 1997. It has also been a box office hit in major theaters across the United States, including Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre and the American Repertory Theatre in Boston.
Steve Martin, an award-winning actor and comedian, has written the screenplays for the films L.A. Story, A Simple Twist of Faith, and Roxanne, which was awarded "Best Screenplay" by the Writer's Guild of America and earned Martin a "Best Actor Award" from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. He co-authored the films The Jerk, Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid, The Man With Two Brains and Three Amigos! Martin has also published a collection of short stories and his three one-act plays WASP and Other Plays have been performed at New York's Public Theatre.
Ticket prices for the upcoming performances of Picasso at the Lapin Agile are: general public $13, faculty/staff/senior citizens $11, and students $9. Tickets are available at the Anderson Center Box Office.
They're back on track! After a five year
break in which the University Art Museum underwent extensive refurbishment,
an Art Department tradition has been re-launched -- the annual faculty exhibition.
The Exhibition features nearly 100 works by members of the University's distinguished art faculty, in the fields of studio art, visual art studies, and design. Among the works on view are paintings, sculptures, photography, prints and drawings.
"The faculty exhibition is a milestone of our academic year," said John Thomson, chair of the art department. "It's the one time when we see the latest work of our colleagues, and more important, when others, especially art students, can get some idea of what we do. This exhibit also represents something of a resurgence of the art department. For a brief period due to retirements and the death of Charles Eldred, we lost half our faculty. We have now gained two outstanding new full-time faculty and three first-rate adjunct faculty. And that's the feeling ...we're getting back on track."
The exhibition can be viewed in University Art Museum and will run through February 20. The Museum is open from 1-4 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday.
The eighth lecture in the Harpur College Dean's Lecture Series is scheduled for February 16 in Casadesus Recital Hall at 3 pm. Kitty Sklar, distinguished professor of history, will explore women's entry into public activism as seen through Florence Kelley's book, Some Ethical Gains Through Legislation.
Professor Sklar received her BA from Radcliffe College and Harvard University and was awarded her PhD from the University of Michigan in 1969. She joined the Harpur College faculty in 1988. She is the recipient of fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral and Social Sciences, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Spencer Foundation, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the American Association of University Women. She is the author of Catherine Beecher: A Study in American Domesticity and other studies in the history of American women; editor of the The Autobiography of Florence Kelley: Notes of Sixty Years; and co-editor of U.S. History as Woman's History: New Feminist Essays; The Social Survey Movement in Historical Perspective; and Women and Power in America History.
A reception in the Theatre department Green Room will follow immediately after Dean Polachek recognizes Harpur College faculty and staff who have been promoted within the last five years. Please call the Harpur College RSVP line, 777-4446, if you plan to attend.
Last updated 2/26/00. Written by Gail Glover, Harpur College Public Relations Specialist.