March 22, 2016
AUCA faculty Medet Tiulegenov (ICP), Görkem Atsungur (ES) and Saniia Toktogazieva (IBL) were invited to visit Bard College on January 31 – February 7, 2016. They participated in two Human Rights workshops hosted by the Center for Civic Engagement of Bard College, New York.
Firstly, “How to Be Authoritarian” interdisciplinary seminar was organized jointly by Bard College and St. Petersburg State University, Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences (FLAS) on February 1-3, 2016 in New York. Scholars from Bard High Education Support Program (HESP) networks’ institutions such as Bard College, Bard College Berlin, Al-Quds Bard, European Humanities University, Smolny College, and AUCA discussed the nature and theory of authoritarianism. During the first day, Saniia Toktogazieva presented on “Abusive and Sham Constitutionalism as a New Face of Authoritarianism” in the Legal Norms session. On the second day, Görkem Atsungur presented on “The Role of Political Youth Movements in the Democratization Process of the Contemporary Russia” in the People’s Attitudes: Support and Resistance session. And Medet Tiulegenov presented on “Authoritarian Discourse on Human Rights: Localizing Norms” in the Meanings of Authoritarianism session of the workshop.
After the inter-disciplinary workshop on authoritarianism, AUCA faculty visited Bard College – Annandale-on-Hudson from February 4 to 7, 2016. They attended the workshop on “Rethinking the Human Rights Cannon” with Bard HESP Networks faculty. They discussed the main debates about Human Rights such as the conceptualization of Human Rights, Citizens, Refugees, Social Justice, etc. Furthermore, AUCA faculty had a meeting with current AUCA-Bard exchange students (Aliya Rysimbetova, Kamilla Yusupova, Basira Mir Mahamad, Kanykei Djusupova, Anna Zaltsman) and former AUCA faculty (Mike Thicke, Michelle Hoffman) at Bard College.