120+ Convened in Brussels to Share Sustainable Models for Supporting Threatened and Displaced Scholars
More than 120 fellows, alumni, hosts, and other partners from the higher education, government, and non-profit sectors gathered in Brussels, Belgium, on October 10th for the 2024 IIE Scholar Rescue Fund Forum, the first in six years. Speakers emphasized the importance of the international community coming together to protect the lives and careers of displaced and threatened scholars and empowering them to drive positive impacts in their host communities, home countries, and academic fields. With support from the IIE Scholar Rescue Fund (IIE-SRF), threatened and displaced scholars from around the world can continue conducting valuable research and teaching the next generations of students.
“It’s easy to become overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude and ferocity of today’s wars and other crises. But then we look to the remarkable scholars we have the honor of supporting, and they give us hope,” said James Robin King, Senior Director of the IIE Scholar Rescue Fund. “We are grateful to be in the trenches with our scholars and partners as we work together to build better societies that honor human rights and that value academic freedom, scientific inquiry, and international exchange.”
Prioritizing Regional Placements
Mariët Westermann, IIE-SRF Chair, IIE Trustee, and Director and CEO of the Guggenheim Museum and Foundation, delivered the Forum’s opening remarks and led the first panel, which set the theme for the day-long forum: building partnerships. Participants shared best practices and learned about IIE-SRF’s support for placements that create opportunities for threatened scholars to continue their academic work closer to home.
More than 117 million people — including researchers and other academics — have been displaced from their homes and careers due to ongoing global crises such as war, extreme weather, and censorship (UNHCR). In response to these concurrent crises and in alignment with the Global Compact on Refugees, IIE-SRF is prioritizing regional partnerships that enable it to place threatened and displaced scholars at host institutions located in the scholars’ home regions. Last year, 30% of IIE-SRF fellows undertook placements in their home regions.
Fellowships undertaken inside scholars’ home regions allow IIE-SRF to support a more diverse range of scholars, including those who are unable to join institutions in North America and Europe, whether due to language barriers, visa restrictions, or higher costs of living. These arrangements also provide critically needed resources, partnerships, expertise, and solidarity with over-burdened host communities with large populations of displaced people.
Finland and Freie Universität Berlin Receive Beacon Awards
In recognition of its longtime support of academic freedom, the Republic of Finland received an IIE-SRF Beacon Award at the Forum. To date, IIE-SRF’s partnership with the Finnish National Agency for Education (EDUFI) has jointly funded nearly 30 fellowship appointments for 11 IIE-SRF fellows. IIE’s CEO, Allan E. Goodman, presented the award to Finland as well as Freie Universität Berlin. An emerging critical partner in Europe and globally, Freie Universität Berlin has provided support for IIE-SRF fellows from Poland, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela, and Yemen.
IIE-SRF Fellows Lead Initiatives to Improve Home Conditions
The Forum consisted of remarks, three panels, networking breaks, and a closing reception in the mezzanine of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences. Panelists included current and past IIE-SRF fellows as well as representatives from host institutions and partner organizations.
We will help our home countries with all our energy, our hearts, our everything, but we need the help of the international community to take our work to the next level.”
Mustafa Bahran
IIE-SRF Alumnus from Yemen
Previous and current fellows showcased their respective initiatives to improve education and scholarship in their home countries: Mustafa Bahran, IIE-SRF alumnus from Yemen and visiting professor-instructor at Carleton University in Canada; Adil Al-Handal, IIE-SRF alumnus from Iraq and scholar of marine biology; Sweeta Akbari, IIE-SRF fellow from Afghanistan at Tampere University in Finland; and Yevheniia Polishchuk IIE-SRF fellow from Ukraine at Jagiellonian University in Poland. Chemical engineering researcher Dr. Akbari recently contributed to new research in regenerative medicine and founded Scholars in STEM, a non-profit that aims to empower women and advance gender equity in the STEM fields in Afghanistan. Secondary and higher education has been forbidden for women and girls in the country since 2021. Dr. Akbari stressed that progress to support Afghan women and girls can only be made when working together, saying:
We need everyone to join us. We need global engagement, and we cannot do it alone. Let’s stand up and say that we don’t want any more bans on education.”
Dr. Sweeta Akbari, IIE-SRF Fellow
IIE-SRF’s Ukraine strategy has focused on placing Ukrainian fellows at host institutions in Central and Eastern Europe. Dr. Svitlana Chugaievska, a Ukrainian IIE-SRF fellow at Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski Krakow University in Poland, shared that her regional placement allowed her to pursue research on the economic situation of Ukrainians displaced by the war. She also described the positive impact of her placement on her family, including her mother and children, who have been able to integrate into the Polish community while still maintaining connections to Ukrainian culture and society.
Piloting a New Fellowship Model with Cornell University
Nishi Dhupa, Associate Vice Provost for International Affairs at Cornell University, explained a new partnership model co-developed with IIE-SRF to offer additional funding and professional resources for fellows undertaking regional placements. The pilot has expanded the fellowships of two Ukrainian IIE-SRF fellows currently in Eastern Europe; in addition to living and working in safety at their respective host institutions in Europe, they have virtual access to a range of Cornell offerings, including its digital library resources and networking opportunities with academics in North America. IIE-SRF is partnering with Cornell to expand this pilot to include additional scholars, including potentially Sudanese fellows undertaking the fellowship in Egypt and South Africa.
IIE-SRF is confident that the connections made during the Forum will continue to blossom and looks forward to strengthening existing partnerships and establishing new relationships. For a more detailed summary of the event, see the IIE-SRF Beacon newsletter here.
IIE’s Scholar Rescue Fund (IIE-SRF) is the only global program that arranges, funds, and supports fellowships for threatened and displaced scholars at partnering higher education institutions worldwide, including inside their home regions. At the heart of IIE-SRF is the idea that each scholar we support is a beacon of hope in our world. Since 2002, IIE-SRF has supported more than 1,100 scholars from 62 countries in partnership with more than 500 host institutions in 59 countries. Learn more at scholarrescuefund.org.