The SAIS Bologna Seminar Series: an intellectual buffet

SAIS Bologna students hunger for knowledge. To help sate their appetite, they supplement course work with seminars and lectures on a wide range of topics.

Here are some of the subjects that speakers will tackle in December and January at SAIS Bologna:

• economic integration in Asia
• economics and global warming
• the peace movement in Germany in the 1980s
• Rio +20
• war, technology and the rise of the West (1450-2011)
• the Middle East and human trafficking
• the fall of the Celtic tiger
• "theory" at SAIS
• anticipating global challenges
• Mitterrand and German unification
• building Bosnia-Herzegovina
• Libya after the fall of Qaddafi

For a peek at the list of speakers for December and January, click here.

For the full list of events at SAIS Bologna for this academic year, go here. For an RSS feed of upcoming events, click here.

Finally, for reports on our speakers, you can turn to the Bologna Institute for Policy Research (BIPR). Interns at BIPR, who are students at SAIS Bologna, churn out the reports, which include a summary of each seminar, a recording of the event as well as a brief interview with the speaker. A tidy way to keep informed.

I attend as many seminars as I can, both for the intellectual content and to observe the widely differing styles that speakers adopt. Call it a form of continuing education.

We consider the seminar series to be a crucial and valuable element of a SAIS education. We think you would too.

Nelson Graves

Thanksgiving in Bologna

SAIS Bologna celebrated the Thanksgiving holiday last week with a dinner for some 200 students, family members, faculty, staff and children at the Bologna Center.

Below, Briana Thompson, a U.S. national from the state of Massachusetts, shares her thoughts on what it meant to her to spend Thanksgiving here in Italy.

Thanks to the Student Government Association for organizing the feast, to those who prepared the food and to Julie Aaserud of Norway for supplying the photographs for this post.


I have spent almost every Thanksgiving Day in or near Plymouth, Massachusetts -- the site of the original meal between the Pilgrims and Native Americans. From a very young age, I learned all about the struggles of the settlers in this new land and their new friends, and went on countless field trips to see Plymouth Rock, the Mayflower and Plymouth Plantation.

Briana Thompson at the
SAIS Bologna Thanksgiving dinner

The lessons were simple and emphasized sharing, friendship, appreciating different cultures and of course being thankful for what you have. However, when I was younger it was very easy to simply associate Thanksgiving with football, turkey and a long weekend off from school.

Luckily, as I’ve matured, the holiday has become more meaningful. On the one hand, Thanksgiving (Eve, in particular) means reconnecting with hometown friends, regardless of the time and distance that you’ve been apart. I have come to appreciate just how special these people are, and I defer to a quote from the television show "The Wonder Years" to explain: “After all, if growing up is war, then those friends who grew up with you deserve a special respect. The ones who stuck by you shoulder to shoulder in a time when nothing is certain, when all life lay ahead, and every road led home.”

On the other hand, the fundamental aspect of Thanksgiving -- giving thanks for the blessings in one’s life -- has become increasingly important as I’ve gotten older. It is for this reason that spending Thanksgiving here in Bologna was not entirely different.

I will readily admit that I missed my family fighting over drumsticks, monopolizing the gravy, perpetually relegating my adult cousins and me to the kids' table, cuddling up on the couch in various states of delirium from food comas, etc. But I am so grateful that I have them and my friends to miss.

At the same time, sharing a meal with 200 plus SAIS students, faculty and staff this past Saturday was really an attestation to the unique family we’ve become here, and I’m incredibly thankful for that. For me, the spirit of the holiday was present more so this year than ever before as the emphasis was placed on all those lessons I learned as a kid (sharing, friendship, appreciating different cultures, being thankful) and less on football and stuffing my face.

I can’t say I’ll be adding pasta to my Thanksgiving Dinner menu from now on, but the post-meal dance party might just become a tradition.

The Gathering

Matthew Melchiorre

Polina Bogomolova

Geoffrey Levin

Rositsa Georgieva
and
Lachezar Manasiev

Petra Vujakovic
and
Nicholas Borroz

Julie Aaserud
and
Jemilatu Abdulai

Nelson Graves

Poll: Will the euro zone survive?

Here's our latest poll (in the upper right-hand corner of the blog):

Will the euro zone be intact one year from now?

Possible answers:

• Yes, with the same number of members
• Yes, with fewer members
• Yes, with more members
• No

We ran this poll during our online information session earlier this month, and the distribution of answers more or less mirrored the results of a survey of market professionals conducted the same week. Expert prospective applicants, I'd say.

Answers to our polls are entirely anonymous. It's simple to participate: simply click on the button next to the answer you select.

We look forward to seeing what our readers think.

Nelson Graves

Quiz: Who Was This Man?

It's Friday and once again we can't resist the impulse for a quiz.

Who was this man and why was he important?

Send in your answers via the comment section below. The winner gets a SAIS Bologna tee shirt.

Nelson Graves

Meet Prof. Mark Gilbert

History. How old fashioned, right?

Well, no.

Just try to make sense of what is happening in the euro zone without knowing some history. How many of you are convinced you have a firm understanding of how the Arab Spring came about without some knowledge of history?

As SAIS, there is no history concentration per se. History is intertwined with just about everything that is studied. It is a thread that stretches through every concentration.

Prof. Mark Gilbert grew up near Lincoln in England. He teaches intellectual and political history at SAIS Bologna. He is the latest professor to be profiled in this blog.

What courses are you teaching?
"Intellectuals & Politics" and "The End of European Imperialism" in the Fall Semester; "Peace & War" and "Europe in the Cold War" in the Spring Semester

Your degrees?
BA in Politics from Durham University; Ph.D in contemporary history from the University of Wales

Where have you taught?
Dickinson College (Pennsylvania), University of Bath (UK), University of Trento (Italy)

How long have you been teaching at SAIS Bologna?
Since 1999 as an adjunct at varous times; since September 2010 as a full-time member of staff

A link to a recent publication/oped/academic work by you?
http://www.amazon.com/European-Integration-Mark-F-Gilbert/dp/0742566641

Anything special about SAIS Bologna?
The sense of community, definitely. And not just between current faculty and students. The alumni really care about the Center's future and are a pleasure to meet.

Anything special about Bologna?
The warmth and generosity of the Bolognesi, which belongs to another age. The reds and ochres of the walls at sunset. Mind you, it is less clean and tidy than it used to be.

Your favorite book?
"War and Peace" or "Homage to Catalonia". I can never decide between the two. Anything by Tom Wolfe. Jane Austen, C.P. Snow, Tolkien, Leonardo Sciascia's "Candido", Vaclav Havel. Biographies. The first volume of Robert Skidelsky's biography of Keynes is a marvel. So is Michael Ignatieff's biography of Isaiah Berlin, which is a book I should have loved to have written myself.  

Hobbies?
Mountain walking, snowshoeing, listening to jazz, theatre, squash before my knees caved in, cycling since. Travelling, of course.

A quote?
I'm doing this from memory, but Giovanni Guareschi, the author of the Don Camillo stories, says somewhere that "people in the city rush everywhere, hastening to save every single second and don't realize they are throwing a lifetime away." I think this is true and it is worse now than when he was writing (the 1950s).

The cost of graduate school: Investing in your future

Graduate school is an investment. The question for you is whether it is worth it.

Let's look at the costs and benefits. First, the costs.

Every graduate student, whether or not they pay tuition, shoulders an opportunity cost of foregoing job earnings for education. If you go to graduate school next year, you will not be pocketing the money you would be earning if you were working a full-time job. I cannot quantify that. Some of our students give up high-paying jobs to come to SAIS. Others not so. But every student could have chosen to work.

In most cases, the opportunity cost of studying far outstrips the price tag of school. And every student bears that cost.

Then there are the outright costs: tuition, books, living expenses, travel. We provide an estimate for incoming students. Here is the estimated budget for 2011-12 at SAIS Bologna.

If you add the opportunity and the real costs, it comes to a chunk of money. No one would deny that. The question then becomes: Is it worth it?

The return on your investment can take many forms. Some are straightforward: SAIS is a professional school, and most of our students use it as a springboard to a career in the international sphere. You may not know what job you will have when you leave SAIS, but you know the choices are exciting. Our alumni are leaders in many fields -- from the private to the public, from corporations to international organizations, from governments to NGOs.

Take my own experience. I was a high school teacher before starting SAIS. I yearned for a job on the global stage. When I finished SAIS, by virtue of my studies there, I was able to make a credible pitch to cover international finance as a journalist in Washington. That led to an unexpected but fulfilling career as a foreign correspondent.

I cite this because it is not atypical of SAIS graduates: There are doors leading to places many can only dream of.

Even before leaving SAIS, when one is at one's studies here, the experience can be gratifying. This blog has featured many students describing the learning experience in and outside the classroom, of deepening their knowledge through course work and by sharing experiences with the diverse student body.

Many readers know that one of my favorite adages is, "It's not the destination that counts but the getting there." At SAIS, the destination does count -- we want our graduates to land the jobs that inspire them. But the "getting there", or the time spent at SAIS, is also extremely satisfying. So the return on investment starts on Day One, not just at graduation.

If we continue to attract top students from around the world, it is because they recognize the benefits of the investment and also know how to make the best use of it.

How do they pay for it? Almost all students combine a mix of resources to make ends meet.

Most receive financial aid from SAIS, and in many cases the aid cuts the tuition cost substantially. For more information on financial aid and fellowships, click here.

Many land scholarships outside SAIS's control from national, international or local foundations. Some of these are well known, others less so. For a partial list of such sources, go here.

Most SAIS students have worked before starting their studies, and they may have set aside some savings to help defray the costs. Many work part-time jobs while studying. Even eight hours a week can help pay a large chunk of the rent.

Finally, some students take out loans. This is very common in the United States where subsidized student loan programs have existed for many years. But not only U.S. students. SAIS Bologna students who are citizens of EU member states are eligible to take out a fixed-rate loan from UniCredit Bank for up to 15,000 euros per year. For more information, click here.

Financing graduate school, wherever one goes, is a complex matter that extends well beyond the headline tuition figure and the size of financial aid packages. For some students it is daunting because it marks their first foray into the full complexities and challenges of personal finance.

But it can be done. You may not feel fully on top of the financial challenge at this point. My recommendation would be to think big: Why do I want to go to graduate school? How will it benefit me? Will it help me be where I want to be in 5, 10, 15 years?

Once you've tackled those questions, the nitty gritty of costs will tend to fall into place because you will see them as an investment that yields benefits far into the future.

Nelson Graves

Open Day at SAIS Bologna on Dec 9

Are you interested in learning more about SAIS Bologna? In getting an up-close view of who we are and what goes on here?

Then you might be interested in attending Open Day.

Every year we throw our doors open to prospective applicants. This year Open Day is on Friday, December 9. It offers a unique chance to experience what studying at SAIS is like. The registration form and the program are here.

In a previous post, Byron Sacharidis, a current MA student from Greece who attended Open Day last year, offered his thoughts on what it meant to him: "Right away, the feeling of belonging and the discovery of a rare, close-knit community, where diversity and camaraderie thrive, fueled my enthusiasm about what this beautiful city has to offer."

Open Day is a unique opportunity to see the campus; speak to students, professors and staff, and attend classes. You are about to embark on a long journey, and you need to know which ship you might get on.

We understand that many prospective candidates may not be able to attend. Some are too far away and others will have conflicting commitments. If you can't make it and you want to learn more about SAIS, do get in touch. We'll do our best to answer your questions. We are available for chats on the phone (+39 051 29 17 811) or Skype (jhubc.admissions). You can also contact us by email.

Some readers know that we've been holding online information sessions. The next one is scheduled for Tuesday, December 13 at 12 noon Italy time (1100 GMT) to accommodate prospective applicants in Asian time zones. Please send us an email if you'd like to participate.

We hope to see many of you on December 9.

Amina Abdiuahab