Meet Justin Frosini, who heads the Center for Constitutional Studies and Democratic Development in Bologna.
In his post below and then an embedded interview, Justin explains what the Center does, how it is associated with SAIS Bologna and why it is relevant to SAIS students.
The Bologna Center is proud of its ties to the CCSDD, which is working in areas of keen interest to many SAIS students.
The CCSDD was jointly founded by the University of Bologna's Faculty of Law and the SAIS Bologna Center. The Center runs research projects, seminars, study trips and summer programs that all mainly focus on countries undergoing a process of democratic and constitutional transition. Every year about 10 SAIS students intern at the CCSDD.
It has been an intense fortnight for the CCSDD. During the first week of February, a group of students went on the tenth study trip to Sarajevo during which they met, among others, the US and Italian Ambassadors to BiH and SAIS alumnus Marco Mantovanelli, now head of mission of the World Bank in BiH.
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| A CCSDD seminar at SAIS Bologna |
This year students got a poignant reminder of the tragic events of the war when they visited the town of Srebrenica, where the worst atrocity in post World War Two Europe took place.
There they had the chance to meet with Snaga Zene, an association founded by Branka Antic Stauber who courageously keeps the memory of what happened alive by witnessing the story of the women of Srebrenica. Local and international institutions based in Sarajevo also opened their doors to SAIS students, as for example the Constitutional Court of BiH and OSCE.
With no time to recover from such an intense experience in the Balkans, the CCSDD offered a new chance for students to go from transition “in the books” to transition “in action” by inviting Javier Couso, a Chilean professor of Political Science and Constitutional Law, who witnessed, first, Chile’s move to authoritarianism in ‘70s and ‘80s and then the transition to democracy of the 90s. This represented a unique opportunity for students to listen to a first-hand account of what is one of the most important events in Latin American history.
Justin Frosini
Justin Frosini
Here are some photographs submitted by Francesco Biagi, who coordinated the Sarajevo Study Trip:
Nelson Graves
8 comments:
maybe you can keep the applicants updated about the admission process?
David
Thank you, David. Good idea -- here's an update. Amina and I are going through the files to see if they are complete and notifying candidates of the status of the applications. We are also organizing the interviews that we will be conducting and telling candidates when they can expect to be interviewed. All of this will take some time. Thanks to all for their patience. If anyone has any questions, do not hestitate to contact us (or to write a comment on this blog). David - Was there something particular you think we should touch on? Do you think we should have a post devoted to the status of the process? By the way, we'll have a post tomorrow on interviews -- with an interview of Prof. Erik Jones. Nelson
Dear Mr. Graves,
I must say that I am really proud to see that some SAIS students visited my city and I am glad to see that there are still a lot of people in the world who are caring about a small country in the middle of the Balkans.
I wish I had the opportunity to show them more of Sarajevo...
I am looking forward hearing from you.
All the best,
Adnan
Adnan - Thank you very much. We have passed your comment along to Justin Frosini. I said that SAIS students were interested in the work that the CCSDD is doing; I should have noted that our professors are also interested. The Balkans and BiH are indeed important and deserve our attention. Nelson
Nelson, I believe that if you update the applicants about the current status of the process would be really helpful for those students who plan to apply other universities as well. For instance, how many applications you have received in total and how many of them have been already assessed. So, people might assume the approximate date of notifications. I've listened to Rebecca's answers about the language proficiency importance and have a feeling that you might accept people with lower English test scores than required in admission and then help them to enhance their proficiency by intensive year long language courses? Did I understand correctly?
David
David - Thank you. You raise some good points. In today's post, I plan to address both the admissions process -- where we stand, what's left to be done -- and your question about English-language proficiency. I hope my post is helpful. Nelson
Dear Adnan,
I am Francesco from the CCSDD and I had the privilege of leading the group of SAIS and UNIBO students to your beautiful city. Here are some pictures of this incredible trip.
Francesco
Thank you, Francesco, for that comment. I have inserted three of your photographs into the post. Thank you, also, for taking the SAIS Bologna students on the trip.
Nelson
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