Petra Hejnova, a Maxwell doctoral student from the Czech Republic, was 13 when Czechoslovakia’s communist regime collapsed in 1989. Her perspective on the ensuing transition to democracy was understandably narrow. “I remember that we were finally free to visit my aunt in Austria,” says Hejnova. “It was awesome.”

Martin Oravec of Slovakia, a master’s candidate in I.R., also watched his world change through the eyes of youth. “You cannot imagine, at age 11, that your whole society can work in a different way,” he explains. “So you focus on small things, like British retailers moving into your local mall.”

Today, however, Hejnova and Oravec are exploring the broader implications of these revolutionary transitions, and they are among a growing number of Maxwell students whose gaze is fixed on Central and Eastern Europe.

Hejnova’s political science dissertation focuses on female dissidents from the Czech Republic—women who fought for political change, then dropped out of politics when it occurred. “So far, my sense is that these women view political life as a continuous struggle for power. They prefer to pursue actual work, such as journalism,” says Hejnova, who, before Maxwell, was among a group that established the first gender studies program in the Czech Republic (at Charles University in Prague).

Oravec’s academic focus is economic development in emerging markets. But he also takes every chance to promote understanding of Central and Eastern Europe. With fellow student Luciana Maxim, he is trying to organize a course on EU enlargement for next fall. 

Eric Persons from Buffalo, pursuing an M.P.A./M.A. (I.R.) degree, has worked in Prague, focused his I.R. studies on Central and Eastern Europe, and makes it his mission to raise the region’s profile at Maxwell. With Mitchell Orenstein, director of Maxwell’s new Center for European Studies, Persons recently organized the Central and Eastern European Interest Group, which imports speakers, facilitates dialogue with Cornell and SUNY Binghamton scholars, and provides a forum for student presentations. The group casts a broad net, reaching 220 people in diverse disciplines. It’s as likely to promote an exhibition of Ukrainian photo as a lecture by Romania’s defense minister.

The student-propelled interest group seems a natural extension of Maxwell’s Global Affairs Institute, its recently funded Center for European Studies, and the three-year-old Maxwell European Union Center. The EU Center funds student internships; interns have worked in the European Parliament, for example, and done relief work in Bosnia.

“The EU Center has meant an influx of European-focused speakers, scholarship, and funding,” reports Doreen Allerkamp, a German Fulbright scholar and doctoral student in political science. Last summer, Allerkamp used a grant from the center to study peacemaking efforts in the Balkans. “I traveled to all the Balkan capitals and met the EU officials there,” she reports. “The funding and the networking have meant a real upswing for my research.”

—Denise Owen Harrigan

This article appeared in the Fall 2003 print edition of Maxwell Perspective; © 2003 Maxwell School of Syracuse University. To request a copy, e-mail dlcooke@maxwell.syr.edu.