Dukakis Center: 15 Years of Public Service
The Dukakis Center will celebrate fifteen years of public service initiatives during the spring 2014 semester. Several events are planned, including the annual Diplomatic Academy, three round tables on various topics, a conference on threats to democracy in the EU, and residencies on campus by Andreas Akaras and Alan Cafruny (Hamilton College). Students at ACT, IB, and Anatolia will have opportunities to undertake long- and short term internships throughout the semester.
The Dukakis Center again hosted a series of activities of the highest quality during the fall 2013 semester for the benefit of the larger Anatolia community.
On November 27 journalist Popi Asteriadou of TV100 shared a documentary she produced on the Holocaust in Greece (see accompanying article). Holocaust survivor Heinz Kounio and members of his family were special guests.
Thanks to the timely intervention of Eleni Godi, Coordinator of English at ACT, on December 9 ACT hosted Athens-based photographer Dimitris Bouras ACT alumnus '94, who shared photographs from his series "Making the Victim the Perpetrator".
Other speakers in the Dukakis seminar series included journalist Klearchos Tsaousidis, Leon Saltiel of the Geneva-based United Nations Watch, and Periklis Kortsaris, Senior Protection Officer and Officer in Charge of UNHCR Mogadishu, Somalia. The ACT Young diplomats attended several events at City Hall during the fall, and planted trees on the ACT campus in December.
During the fall the Dukakis Center hosted Francesca Kareivis, a senior in Public Service at Rutgers-Newark, for a formal semester-long internship on the meaning of public service in the current Greek context. Ms Kareivis conducted a research project which led her to interview key public figures in Thessaloniki. She also staged a debate on public service in Greece and the US, featuring Greek and American students.
Thessaloniki-based photographer Chryssa Nikoleri hosted a series of creativity workshops in the context of the sophomore honors program. Ms Nikoleri will oversee a student exhibition of photographs of public service activities, to be staged in May 2014.
In November 2013 the Dukakis Center hosted Washington, DC-based civil rights lawyer Andeas Akaras as Dukakis Fellow and Professor of Practice. Mr Akaras engaged in outreach during his two-week residency and was the featured speaker at a round table discussion on innovation and the Greek crisis. The Dukakis Center will again host Mr Akaras for a return visit in the spring.
Several ACT faculty in the field of International Relations attached to the Dukakis Center published books during the fall 2013 semester. Titles include Dr. Maria Kyriakidou, Female Beauty in Art: History, Feminism, Women Artists (Cambridge Scholars); Dr. Filip Proedrou, Ανάπτυξη και Ευημερία στον 21ο αιώνα: Η προσέγγιση των οικολογικών οικονομικών και η περίπτωση της Ελλάδας (IWrite); and Dukakis Center Director David Wisner, Still at Aulis: Essays on Crisis and Revolution in Greece and the Eurozone (available in Kindle ebook format at Amazon.com).
