Event Details

The program will begin with 30 minutes of drinks and light appetizers before the moderated conversation with our scholars begins at 6:30.

The engaging dialogue will delve into the challenges scholars like Sharif Hozoori and Serap Kavas face as they navigate the complexities of their scholarship while fleeing persecution and creating new lives for themselves and their families. Vice Provost Wendy Wolford will guide the conversation, providing valuable insights into Cornell’s ongoing work to support Scholars Under Threat and the importance of academic freedom.

Cornell has worked with the Institute of International Education’s Scholar Rescue Fund (IIE-SRF) for over a decade to provide yearlong fellowships for displaced academics and human rights defenders.

We look forward to welcoming you to an evening of intellectual exploration and meaningful conversations.

Sharif Hozoori                        Serap Kavas                      Wendy Wolford

Sharif Hozoori is an Institute of International Education Scholar Rescue Fund (IIE-SRF) fellow and visiting scholar at the Einaudi Center’s South Asia Program. His area of research includes Afghanistan politics and foreign policy, cultural studies, South Asia and Middle East Studies.
 
Hozoori earned his doctorate in International Relations from the Center for International Politics, Organization, and Disarmament at the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. He was an administrator and taught both graduate and undergraduate students at the University of Afghanistan until the Taliban takeover in August 2021.

Cornell Chronicle: For Afghan Scholar, Cornell is a Step on a Longer Journey

Serap Kavas is a visiting scholar at the Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy and an Institute of International Education Scholar Rescue Fund (IIE-SRF) fellow. Her research interests center around the exploration of family demography, gender, and migration.
 
Kavas earned a PhD in Sociology from the Middle East Technical University (METU) in Turkey and was an assistant professor in Istanbul for five years before the failed coup in the summer of 2016 and subsequent political turmoil in Turkey. 
 
While at Cornell, Kavas is engaged in research and teaching at both the undergraduate and master’s levels. Her research aims to analyze social inequality and change, pose new questions, and inform policy decisions, utilizing qualitative, historical, and quantitative research methods. In collaboration with Professor Kelly Musick, Kavas is working on a project that examines the participation of women in the labor force in Turkey, among the lowest in OECD countries.

Wendy Wolford is the Robert A. and Ruth E. Polson Professor of Global Development in the Department of Global Development. As vice provost, she is responsible for strengthening the university’s global connections and worldwide interdisciplinary initiatives. Her research focuses on international development, land use and distribution, social mobilization, and agrarian societies with a regional concentration in Latin America—particularly Brazil. For 20 years, she has worked with one of the most important grassroots social movements in Latin American history: the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST), or the Movement of Rural Landless Workers. Part of Cornell’s faculty since 2010, Wolford served as the faculty director of economic development at the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability, where she co-led CARE-Cornell and Oxfam-Cornell collaborations.

 

DATE: Wednesday, February 7, 2024
TIME: 6:00 – 7:30pm EST
LOCATION: The Cornell Club (Ivy Room), 6 East 44th Street, New York, NY
COST: $60 general registration or $30 for recent alumni (Cornell Classes Between 2013-2023)
REGISTRATION DEADLINE: Sunday, February 4, 2024
QUESTIONS: Contact Christian Shaffmaster chs86@cornell.edu