Education for Public Inquiry and International Citizenship (EPIIC) 2023

EPIIC is a carefully integrated, multidisciplinary program. Through its innovative and rigorous curricula and projects, EPIIC prepares young people for informed activity in their communities, whether locally, nationally or globally.

The Course
At EPIIC's core is the year-long, multidisciplinary course -- The Sherman Teichman Education for Public Inquiry (EPIIC) Endowed Colloquium -- on a global theme. Undergraduate and graduate students of diverse nationalities, viewpoints, experiences, and interests participate in this rigorous colloquium that stresses critical, analytical, and normative thinking. Students are encouraged to confront the ambiguity and complexity of EPIIC's annual, global theme through a multi-disciplinary examination of the issues and controversies that the topic reflects. They are taught the subject under investigation by a broad range of distinguished academics and practitioners and as active participants in defining the issues through classroom discussions, extensive readings, and independent research. There is an emphasis both on individual progress and on the collaborative effort -- in essence, on growing as an intellectual team. Students produce tangible outcomes of their studies through their individual research papers or projects, the international symposium in late February, and the Inquiry simulation for high-school students in early April, as well as other activities.

In 2011, on the occasion of the 25th Anniversary of EPIIC - Education for Public Inquiry and International Citizenship, the core program of the Institute for Global Leadership, the alumni of EPIIC endowed the colloquium in honor of their teacher and mentor, the Institute's Founding Director, Sherman Teichman. Their funds contribute to covering the expenses for the colloquium's guest lecturers, teaching assistants, seminar mentors, an annual Outward Bound weekend, syllabus materials, subsidies for text books and other EPIIC expenses. The endowment helps ensure the high standard and quality of this preparatory course of the annual EPIIC symposium and enables all Tufts students to partake fully in its activities.

Symposium
The Norris and Margery Bendetson International EPIIC Symposium is an annual multi-day public forum featuring scores of international practitioners, activists, academics, public intellectuals, and journalists. EPIIC's symposia -- consisting of presentations, panel discussions, topical forums, informal gatherings, multimedia and dramatic presentations, and workshops -- are intellectually wide-ranging and accessible. The perspectives of the participants are intentionally diverse, often competing, anda at times adversarial, providing a continuum of viewpoints on the issues being discussed.

EPIIC Colloquium

At EPIIC's core is the year-long, multidisciplinary course on a global political theme. Undergraduate and graduate students of diverse nationalities, viewpoints, experiences, and interests, participate in this rigorous colloquium that stresses critical, analytical and normative thinking. Students are encouraged to confront the ambiguity and complexity of EPIIC's annual global theme through a multi-disciplinary examination of the issues and controversies that the topic reflects. They are taught the subject under investigation not only by a broad range of distinguished academics and practitioners, but also as active participants in defining the issues through classroom presentations and discussions, extensive readings, and independent research. There is an emphasis both on individual progress and on the collaborative effort -- in essence, an intellectual team. Students produce tangible outcomes to their studies through their individual research papers or projects, the international symposium, and the Inquiry simulation.

Lecturers and | Advisers

Mitchell Orenstein

Professor and Chair of the Department of Political Science at Northeastern University

Mitchell A. Orenstein is Professor and Chair of the Department of Political Science at Northeastern University in Boston and an associate of both the Center for European Studies and the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University. Professor Orenstein is a scholar of international politics focusing on the political economy of transition in Central and Eastern Europe, pension privatization worldwide, and the role of policy paradigms in economic reform. His research lies at the intersection of comparative politics, international political economy, and global public policy, employing a problem-driven research approach based on asking big, policy-relevant questions and answering them through carefully designed, in-depth field research.

Oxana Shevel

Associate Professor of Comparative Politics at Tufts University

Professor Shevel's research and teaching focus on the post-Communist region surrounding Russia and issues such as nation- and state-building, the politics of citizenship and migration, memory politics, and the influence of international institutions on democratization. She is the author of "Migration, Refugee Policy, and State Building in Postcommunist Europe" (Cambridge 2011), which examines how the politics of national identity and strategies of the UNHCR shape refugee admission policies in the post-Communist region, leading countries to be more or less receptive to refugees. The book received the 2012 American Association of Ukrainian Studies (AAUS) book prize. At present, Professor Shevel is working on a new book project - comparative study of the sources of citizenship policies in new post-Communist states. Articles based on this project were published inComparative Politics in 2009, and in Post-Soviet Affairs in 2012. Oxana Shevel's research has also appeared in the East European Politics and Societies, Europe-Asia Studies, Slavic Review, Political Science Quarterly, Nationality Papers, and in edited volumes.

Robert Legvold

Professor Emeritus in the Department of Political Science at Columbia University

Robert Legvold is Marshall D. Shulman Professor Emeritus in the Department of Political Science at Columbia University, where he specialized in the international relations of the post-Soviet states. He was Director of The Harriman Institute, Columbia University, from 1986 to 1992. Prior to coming to Columbia in 1984, he served for six years as Senior Fellow and Director of the Soviet Studies Project at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. For most of the preceding decade, he was on the faculty of the Department of Political Science at Tufts University. He received his Ph.D. from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in 1967. 2008-2010 he was project director for “Rethinking U.S. Policy toward Russia” at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. From 2009-2012 he was director of the “Euro-Atlantic Security Initiative” sponsored by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and co-chaired by Sam Nunn, Wolfgang Ischinger, and Igor Ivanov.

(Original biography from: Columbia University)

Callouts

ALLIES

The Alliance Linking Leaders in Education and the Services (ALLIES) is an undergraduate organization dedicated to improving civilian-military relations.

TILIP

The Tufts Initiative for International Leadership and Perspective (TILIP) is a program that seeks to foster cross-cultural team building through intensive, intellectual inquiry and practical study.

[EXPOSURE]

[EXPOSURE] is the Institute for Global Leadership's undergraduate-led program for photojournalism, documentary studies and human rights.

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