From July 10-26 the New School’s Transregional Center for Democratic Studies in collaboration with the International Institute for the Study of Culture and Education conducted its 19th Democracy & Diversity Institute in Poland – its second session in the historic and vibrant city of Wroclaw, formerly Breslau. Centered this year on the theme “Citizens Without Borders” the 2010 institute brought together 30 advanced graduate students from the New School and around the world for an intensive study of issues related to migration and immigration, cosmopolitanism, media, deterritorialization, the politics of memory, and globalization. For the second year, Wroclaw proved to be an excellent backdrop for the study of such issues with its rich, multicultural background and complex historical legacy – German, Czech, Austrian, Polish, Jewish -- and its currently dynamic position in Poland and the European Union.

The institute’s four seminar courses were taught by the New School’s diverse faculty members Jeffrey Goldfarb, Andreas Kalyvas, and Elzbieta Matynia, and the distinguished German political sociologist, Claus Offe. Students also attended evening sessions with such Polish intellectuals as Wiktor Osiatynski, legal expert and author most recently of Human Rights and their Limits, and Slawomir Sierakowski, founding editor of the increasingly influential progressive journal Krytyka Polityczna; as well as the New School for Social Research’s own Robert Kostrzewa, Associate Dean of Academic Planning and Administration. One of the high points was a special evening presentation by some of the many TCDS alumni from the region who are now accomplished and influential scholars and key actors in publishing, arts, urban affairs, and civil society.

A sequence of study tours of the city of Wroclaw included the landmark modernist structure Centennial Hall, the Raclawice Battle Panorama, and the Quarter of Mutual Respect, as well as a tour of the region of Lower Silesia, with its famous UNESCO Church of Peace in Swidnica, and the Gross Rosen concentration camp. Extracurricular activities were almost as dense as the academic components of the program, with visits to the old Jewish quarter of Wroclaw, today a trendy neighborhood of restaurants and cafes and exploration of Wroclaw’s museums, arts festivals, and numerous other cultural attractions. The final evening of the institute was unexpectedly enhanced by a spontaneous visit and fantastic concert by Detroit native Daniel Kahn, songwriter and performer, with his Berlin-based klezmer band, The Painted Bird.

Please visit www.newschool.edu/tcds  for information about TCDS activities and next year’s institute in Wroclaw. We’d love to see you there!