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Peter Levine, Mr UD’s Friend, and Co-Organizer of the Tufts Summer Institute of Civic Studies…

… is interviewed in this article about scholars traveling to dodgy parts of the world. He talks about one of this year’s institutes, in Ukraine.

Some U.S. colleges with overseas-study programs won’t touch Ukraine. Tufts University, on the other hand, is drawn to the turmoil in the former Soviet republic, which the U.S. State Department deemed dangerous for travel.

The potential to help activists and scholars, Tufts professor Peter Levine says, outweighs the risks posed by an unstable country. He is leading a conference in Ukraine next month on civics studies, in part because the country exemplifies the struggles of a fledgling democracy.

“American universities, at our best, have people who should be getting on a plane to go to a country that’s in crisis,” Levine said. “Sometimes they do a lot of good.”

Indeed at the end of this week Mr UD and Peter meet in Warsaw (where Mr UD has been reconnecting with many Soltans) and then fly together to Lviv (“also known as: Leopolis, Lwów, Lvov, Lemberg, לעמבערג, Լվով, İlbav, Leopoli, Léopol”) and then rent a car or get driven to (can’t remember which) Chernivtsi (the summer school will take place in the “phantasmagorical university building“.)

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Background on the civic studies initiative here.

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Ah. And UD has just received this comment from Peter himself:

I am in lovely L’viv with the above-mentioned Mr. UD. It is of course completely safe here. I am actually quite embarrassed by the AP article; I tried to emphasize that we weren’t facing any risks. When I talked about American professors going to danger zones, I didn’t mean to include us. It would be a shame if the article dissuaded Americans from visiting western Ukraine for pleasure – it’s an excellent destination.

Margaret Soltan, July 28, 2015 4:35PM
Posted in: snapshots from home

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5 Responses to “Peter Levine, Mr UD’s Friend, and Co-Organizer of the Tufts Summer Institute of Civic Studies…”

  1. dmf Says:
    July 28th, 2015 at 6:46PM

    ah small world Peter was a childhood neighbor, lovely fellow tho a bit overly optimistic on these matters of politics/ethos from my perspective.

  2. Polish Peter Says:
    July 29th, 2015 at 2:08PM

    People have no idea how wide Ukraine is. Not to go to L’viv, Chernivtsi, or even Kiev because of the fighting in Donest’k is like saying don’t go to Greece because there’s a war in Syria. There’s a lot of real estate in between, along with a huge river, the Dnieper. I’d be more concerned about the potholes on the road between L’viv and Chernivtsi.

  3. Margaret Soltan Says:
    July 29th, 2015 at 2:15PM

    Polish Peter: All true.

  4. Peter Levine Says:
    August 1st, 2015 at 1:09PM

    I am in lovely L’viv with the above-mentioned Mr. UD. It is of course completely safe here. I am actually quite embarrassed by the AP article; I tried to emphasize that we weren’t facing any risks. When I talked about American professors going to danger zones, I didn’t mean to include us. It would be a shame if the article dissuaded Americans from visiting western Ukraine for pleasure–it’s an excellent destination.

  5. Margaret Soltan Says:
    August 1st, 2015 at 1:16PM

    Peter: Wonderful to hear from you. I’ll update the post with your comment in it. L’viv really does look beautiful. Margaret

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