Julia Shufro
JULIA SHUFRO (2020-2021)
I am a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy (MALD) Candidate at The Fletcher School (Class of 2024), with concentrations in International Negotiation and Conflict Resolution, as well as International Law. Additionally, I was the Exchange Student Representative for Fletcher at Sciences Po - the Paris School of International Affairs, where I studied coercive diplomacy and humanitarian law for Fall 2022. During my graduate studies, I was selected for Harvard Law School's Program on Negotiation, in which I gained advanced diplomatic negotiation skills. I was an undergraduate at Tufts University (Class of 2022), majoring in French and in History. On campus, I was the President of La Société Française, on the board of the Tufts Tap Ensemble, and an active member of the Tufts History Society. I participated in the EPIIC Class of 2019-2020: Preventing Genocide and Mass Atrocities, in which I immersed myself into the theory and practice of genocide studies and learned about the complexities of preventing mass atrocity crimes.
Currently, I am a UNA-USA Fellow working in Political Affairs at the United Nations (UN). I worked in the Department of Global Communications as a Congressional Attache in Washington, DC and now focus on biological weapons, nonproliferation, preventing atrocity, and humanitarian law at the Office of Disarmament Affairs at the UN in Geneva, Switzerland. Previously, I worked for the Department of State, in foreign service, focusing on public diplomacy and transitions to diplomatic postings. Additionally, I was an Oslo Scholar for the Human Rights Foundation’s Oslo Freedom Forum. With this program, I interned for the Ufolo Studies Center for Good Governance in Angola. There, I worked with Rafael Marques de Morais on civic engagement and human rights and nonviolence education for police officers.
My current research is about the war on terror and conflict resolution in the Sahel. Upon completion of my Master's thesis about the limitations of international law on terrorism and conflict in the Sahel, I will have regional expertise in francophone Africa. My past research pertains to the creation of an international court of environmental justice, the failure to prevent the Rohingya genocide in Rakhine State, Myanmar, and how to alter international policy to allow for greater intervention without the Security Council Veto. I have always loved the study of history and human rights, and I am passionate about cultural immersions, travel, and foreign languages. My most recent publication was an Op-ed about the coup in Myanmar and about an idealistic end to mass atrocity crimes ensuing there.
I believe in the potency of personal anecdotes in teaching tolerance, respect, and the courage to care. My goal as a future educator and humanitarian is to teach and inspire altruism and to understand the world around me to the best of my ability.
During my sophomore year at Tufts, I enrolled in ‘Education for Public Inquiry and International Citizenship (EPIIC): Preventing Genocide and Mass Atrocity.’ As a French and history double major at Tufts, I studied the Holocaust and contemporary genocides. I was intrigued by the laws and human rights obligations that guided the international community, but I never explored these principles at Tufts. EPIIC was my favorite class that I took at Tufts, and Heather Barry encouraged me to pursue genocide policy, human rights, and conflict resolution. After our symposium, she asked if I’d like to be connected with Sherman. Sherman and I had an immediate, and almost serendipitous, connection, and I began to intern for him at his virtual institute, The Trebuchet. As it turned out, my mother (Tufts/Jackson College Class of 1986) had known of Sherman from her time at Tufts: her friends had taken classes with the infamous Professor Teichman who wore a leather jacket and rode his motorcycle to the Hill. It felt like Sherman and I were meant to be connected!
I worked at The Trebuchet for a year, and, during that time, I planned international webinars, met with activists, and began a People’s Tribunal for Environmental Justice with Sherman's support. With his unyielding confidence in my abilities, I became a LEAP Fellow at the Liechtenstein Institute for Strategic Development, and my passions for human rights and peacebuilding only escalated. Sherman taught me to follow my passions, to be excited about learning, and, ultimately, about the power of altruism. I know that Sherman is always thinking of me, and I feel so appreciative to have a friend and mentor such as him in my life.
New HRF Podcasts: November Recap
New HRF Podcasts: November Recap
Dissidents and Dictators is the Human Rights Foundation (HRF)'s podcast series that serves as a storytelling platform for some of the world's bravest activists, artists, policymakers, business leaders, and technologists. Throughout the month of November, we released a number of new episodes, including:
Episode #62 - The Flames of the Feminist Revolution Have Been Fanned in Iran
In this episode, recorded at the 2022 Oslo Freedom Forum in New York, we hear from Iranian journalist and activist Masih Alinejad, who spearheaded the “My Stealthy Freedom” campaign to protest Iran’s compulsory hijab laws for women and girls. Alinejad talks about the recent murder of Mahsa Amini and the reality of life for women living under the tyrannical Iranian regime.
Episode #63 - On the Frontlines of Freedom
In this episode, recorded at the 2022 Oslo Freedom Forum in New York, we hear from Oleksandra Matviichuk, the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize laureate and head of the Center for Civil Liberties. Matviichuk speaks about the horrors and atrocities of Putin’s war in Ukraine — she says, "You don't need to be Ukrainian to support Ukraine. You just need to be human."
Episode #64 - A Global Movement for Democracy
In this episode, recorded at the 2022 Oslo Freedom Forum in New York, Venezuelan Opposition leader Leopoldo Lópezdiscusses the fight for democracy in Venezuela and globally. “There is no one person, there is no one movement, there is no one country, there is no one company that can be successful in bringing about freedom. It’s only about the ‘We’.”
Episode #65 - All for the Land of Snow: Where is Home?
In this episode, recorded at the 2022 Oslo Freedom Forum in New York, we hear from Tibetan activist and community organizer Chemi Lhamo, who has dedicated her life to resisting the Chinese occupation of her homeland. Tune in to learn how we can rise above tyranny together and elevate the Tibetan cause.
FIRST TO STAND: The Cases and Causes of Irwin Cotler
Human Rights Day World Premiere: Cinéma du Musée
WITH FRENCH SUBTITLES
First to Stand will open on Human Rights Day, December 10 and 11 at 7:30.
The evening will be introduced by Jess Salomon (The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon), human rights lawyer turned stand-up comedian; and followed by a bilingual Q&A with Irwin Cotler, human rights champion; Shaparak Shajarizadeh, pioneer of the women’s right movement in Iran; and Ensaf Haidar, the wife and voice of Saudi blogger Raif Badawi.
Buy advance tickets online here to ensure availability: Cinéma du Musée
1379-A Sherbrooke St. West, Montréal
See you there!
“We spend a lot of energy dealing with the villains, but hardly any time celebrating the heroes. Irwin Cotler is one of the greatest heroes of our time. He’s taken on the most intractable dictators and saved the most unjustly imprisoned hostages. I hope everyone will watch First to Stand and become familiar his inspiring commitment to justice.”
Bill Browder“How does it start? It’s precisely in the schoolyard. It starts with the exclusion of the “other.” How you create a difference until… until you kill.”
Esther Mujawayo
“It begs another question: Are all humans human? Or are some humans more human than others?”
Romeo Dallaire
“It is clear that the challenges to media freedom are urgent, and they are global. But my message to all the ministers who are here is that they must make sure that their laws respect media freedom and they impose targeted sanctions on states that try to silence critical speech by detaining or killing journalists.”
Amal Clooney
“Having nail polish is against the law, or having makeup. For them, everything is seductive. And it’s not the man who has to be healthy and control themself. It’s the women. The women should cover their bodies, so men don’t get tempted.”
Shaparak Shajarizadeh
“Never forget, as Elie Wiesel put it, that indifference always means coming down on the side of the oppressor, never on the side of the oppressed. Wherever people are persecuted, he put it, whether by reason of their race or religion or belief or sex, that must be your place to stand. Each of you here has a voice. You can speak and you can act. You can be the agents of change and bring about the change that you want to see!”
Irwin Cotler
Pictures from the event:
Irwin Cotler in conversation with Shaparak Shajarizadeh (former Iranian political prisoner and women’s rights activist) and Ensaf Haidar (activist and wife of imprisoned Saudi blogger Raif Badawi)
Robin Pendoley
Robin Pendoley is an educator and social impact inciter based in the San Francisco Bay Area. He has served as classroom teacher and administrator in public schools, founder and CEO of an educational nonprofit, and collective impact facilitator. In each of these roles, Robin has worked to develop leaders and institutions that create a more just, equitable, and sustainable society.
After 8 years in nonprofits and public schools serving under-resourced communities, Robin co-founded Thinking Beyond Borders (TBB), an international education institution. The intensive and highly rigorous study abroad programs challenged aspiring social impact leaders to critically examine "do-gooding" as a means of unlocking transformative approaches to contributing to change. Over 13 years, TBB became an industry leading gap year brand with programs spanning 14 countries.
Today, Robin serves in his home community to advance racial equity in the public education system. As a collective impact facilitator, his work supports educational, social service, and community leaders to overcome the barriers to effective collaboration and system change in the service of local youth and families. His work includes supporting the development of a comprehensive educator of color pipeline to diversify the local education workforce, and facilitating the development of Community Schools. Ultimately, this work aims to reshape how power is held and wielded in the community, most notably by ensuring BIPOC youth and families are essential decision makers in partnership with system leaders.
With a BA in International Development from UCLA and Master's in Education from Harvard Graduate School of Education, Robin has advanced expertise in social impact theory and practice, as well as how to develop high impact, values-centered leaders. He's a skilled executive leader, having ensured effective governance and oversight on boards, engaged in rigorous financial oversight, led data-informed strategic planning, and developed a culture of learning and development. Robin believes that meaningful value creation requires a commitment to critical engagement with our values and privilege at each step of the journey.
I have known Robin since 2007 when Harvard University's Ford Foundation Professor of the Practice of International Education Fernando Reimers asked me to advise him and his friends on the creation of Thinking Beyond Boundaries. This program created a vital gap year experience for graduating high school students and I became their first advisor. The program took students to destinations around the globe with service projects dedicated to addressing themes that ranged from environmental degradation to poverty, health, and malnutrition. He chose the name of their initiative, Thinking Beyond Borders, from the mantra that I had chosen for my Tufts Institute – Thinking Beyond Boundaries: Acting Across Borders. I have always been impressed by Robin's concern about not only the quality of education but also his emphasis on inclusion and the equality of access to education. He is a superb mentor.
Fernando Reimers
Fernando Reimers is the Ford Foundation Professor of the Practice of International Education and Director of the Global Education Innovation Initiative at Harvard University. An expert in the field of Global Education, his research and teaching focus on understanding how to educate children and youth so they can thrive in the 21st century. He was a member of UNESCOs Commission on the Futures of Education which wrote the report ‘Reimagining Our Futures Together. A New Social Contract for Education’. He was a member of the advisory committee of the UN Education Summit. He has developed curriculum aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals which is in use in many schools throughout the world. During the COVID-19 pandemic he led numerous comparative studies examining the educational consequences of the pandemic and identifying options to sustain educational opportunity and to build back better.
He directs the Global Education Innovation Initiative, a cross-country research and practice collaborative focusing on education for the 21st century. He has written or edited 45 books and over 100 articles and chapters, including Education to Build Back Better, Primary and Secondary Education during COVID-19, and University and School collaborations during a pandemic. He has also authored several children’s books focused on inclusive values.
As part of his commitment to advancing educational opportunity, he serves on multiple advisory boards and committees at Harvard, particularly focused in advancing the global mission of the University and enhancing the effectiveness of the university’s programs to address climate change. He also serves on the boards of a range of education organizations focused on the improvement of education and the promotion of peace, inclusion and sustainability. He has served on the Harvard faculty since 1998. Previous to that he worked at the Universidad Central de Venezuela, the Harvard Institute for International Development and the World Bank.
Fernando has been a friend for several decades. I respect Fernando as my own mentor given the quality and scope of his activity regarding global education, particularly in the creation of Global Education Innovation Initiative. We both spoke at each other's conferences over the years, and we have also interacted on a variety of projects; the most noteworthy one led to the creation of a significant gap year beginning in 2007, Thinking Beyond Borders (TBB). This occurred when Fernando introduced me to Robin Pendoley and several of his peace corps volunteers, his students who had returned to pursue their master’s at The Harvard Graduate School of Education.
They were seeking a way to create a vital experience for graduating high school students and I became their first advisor. The program took students to destinations around the globe with service projects dedicated to addressing themes that ranged from environmental degradation to poverty, health, and malnutrition.
From their mission statement -The global community faces complex challenges that require more than simple responses.
Thinking Beyond Borders provided the skills and experience needed to help gap year students find sustainable solutions, living alongside local families and learning from local leaders, students joined communities where young people found their voices and prepared for lives of informed social action.
They chose the name of their initiative, Thinking Beyond Borders, from the mantra that I had chosen for my Tufts Institute – Thinking Beyond Boundaries: Acting Across Borders.
TBB closed down after the impact of several Covid years and I remained in contact with Robin, who is a member of Convisero mentors.
I was pleased to see a number of my Tuft’s graduating seniors join his programs to secure their Masters.
Cem Yilmaz
Cem Yilmaz is the Director, Strategy for Samsung Electronics America. Previously he was the Associate Principal for Samsung's Global Strategy Group in Seoul, South Korea. Prior to that he was a Senior Consultant at Booz & Company. He graduated the Columbia Business School with an MBA, and previously received a BA in economics from Koç University in Istanbul, Turkey, his home country. His expertise is in consumer technology and international business. While his core professional interest is in tech empowerment, he is fascinated by urban architecture, contemporary art and the history of commerce. He is an avid traveler and photographer and published this book, with images from 30 countries from my 10 years of travel.
I had the wonderful pleasure of meeting Cem, who was part of my son, Nathaniel's academic cluster at Columbia. I have learned to appreciate his intellect, warmth, incisiveness, and wit, and yes, his passion and remarkable skill at strategic board games, which he and my son and daughter-in-law Kelly insist sharpens their management and diplomatic skills. I have also witnessed his dancing prowess at my son's wedding where he was an honored groomsman.
Cem is an invaluable and wonderful intellectual companion. At the time I insert this description he and I are preparing for a Thanksgiving conversation on Originalism’s Charade on the Constitution and the Supreme Court. He defines for me the word cosmopolitan and is acutely aware of both the world’s goodness and cruelty. Our interactions are very varied and he recently has connected me with significant Ukrainian contacts.
We are both book omnivores and he has tasked me with helping him build his library. We are in a friendly competition to see what and who reads the most annually. At the time of this entry his most recent books include: The Science of Can and Can't by Chiara Market to and Fabric of Reality by David Deutsch.
I yield! Mine are: Spineless: The Science of Jellyfish and The Art of Growing a Backbone by Juli Berwald, This Is How They Tell You The World Ends: The Cyber-Weapons Arms Race by Nicole Perlroth, and The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen.
Cem sent me this wonderful commentary:
https://fs.blog/the-antilibrary/
The Antilibrary: Why Unread Books Are The Most Important - Farnam Street
How can we navigate the unknown — the vast chasm between what we know and what we don’t know, and come to grips with what is unknowable?
***
This week, I caught myself feeling guilty as I walked into my office and looked at the ever-growing number of unread books. My bookshelf, which seems to reproduce on its own, is a constant source of ribbing from my friends.
“You’ll never read all of those,” they say. And they’re right. I won’t. That’s not really the point.
It is our knowledge — the things we are sure of — that makes the world go wrong and keeps us from seeing and learning.
— Lincoln Steffens
Some questions are only asked by people with a fundamental misunderstanding. The friends who walk into my office and ask, “have you read all of these” miss the point of books.
In his book, The Black Swan, Nassim Taleb describes our relationship between books and knowledge using the legendary Italian writer Umberto Eco (1932-2016).
The writer Umberto Eco belongs to that small class of scholars who are encyclopedic, insightful, and nondull. He is the owner of a large personal library (containing thirty thousand books), and separates visitors into two categories: those who react with “Wow! Signore professore dottore Eco, what a library you have. How many of these books have you read?” and the others—a very small minority—who get the point is that a private library is not an ego-boosting appendages but a research tool. The library should contain as much of what you do not know as your financial means … allow you to put there. You will accumulate more knowledge and more books as you grow older, and the growing number of unread books on the shelves will look at you menacingly. Indeed, the more you know, the larger the rows of unread books. Let us call this collection of unread books an antilibrary.
Taleb adds:
We tend to treat our knowledge as personal property to be protected and defended. It is an ornament that allows us to rise in the pecking order. So this tendency to offend Eco’s library sensibility by focusing on the known is a human bias that extends to our mental operations. People don’t walk around with anti-résumés telling you what they have not studied or experienced (it’s the job of their competitors to do that), but it would be nice if they did. Just as we need to stand library logic on its head, we will work on standing knowledge itself on its head.
A good library is filled with mostly unread books. That’s the point. Our relationship with the unknown causes the very problem Taleb is famous for contextualizing: the black swan. Because we underestimate the value of what we don’t know and overvalue what we do know, we fundamentally misunderstand the likelihood of surprises.
The antidote to this overconfidence boils down to our relationship with knowledge. The anti-scholar, as Taleb refers to it, is “someone who focuses on the unread books, and makes an attempt not to treat his knowledge as a treasure, or even a possession, or even a self-esteem enhancement device — a skeptical empiricist.”
My library serves as a visual reminder of what I don’t know.
Michael Maso
Michael Maso has served as the managing director of Boston’s Huntington Theatre Company since 1982. He has produced more than 200 plays in partnership with four artistic directors and is one of the most well-regarded managing directors in the theatre industry. Under his tenure, the Huntington has received over 160 Elliot Norton and IRNE awards, as well as the 2013 Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre. Mr. Maso received the 2016 Massachusetts Nonprofit Network’s Lifetime Achievement Award, as well as TCG’s 2012 Theatre Practitioner Award, the Huntington’s 2012 Wimberly Award, StageSource’s 2010 Theatre Hero Award, the 2005 Commonwealth Award (the state’s highest arts honor), and the 2000 Norton Prize for Sustained Excellence. In 2004 the Boston Herald honored him as Theatre Man of the Year. Mr. Maso led the Huntington’s 10-year drive to build the Stanford Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts, which opened in September 2004, and most recently led the redevelopment and renovation of the Huntington Avenue Theatre, which reopened in October, 2022. He previously served on the Boston Cultural Planning Steering Committee, and as a member of the board for ArtsBoston, Theatre Communications Group (TCG), and StageSource. From 1997 to 2005 Mr. Maso served as the president of the League of Resident Theatres (LORT). In 2005, he was named as one of a dozen members of the inaugural class of the Barr Fellows Program. Prior to the Huntington, he served as the managing director of Alabama Shakespeare Festival, general manager of New York’s Roundabout Theatre Company, business manager for PAF Playhouse on Long Island, and as an independent arts management consultant based in Taos, New Mexico.
Michael, while being an extraordinarily accomplished professional, is modest to a fault. He has a wonderful, quirky, and fun side to him. We are comrades in slipping off to see movies that our spouses would cringe at going to (i.e. the Marvel Universe films). And, apparently, he cried at Top Gun: Maverick. We are traveling buddies; recently to pre-COVID Cuba, and soon, Israel/Palestine. In retrospect, it appears we are attracted to dictatorial and seriously flawed democratic countries.
Wonderfully guileless, this is as genuine and sincere a friend as one could have. And thoroughly erudite, I have met my match in terms of somebody who loves to read and devour books. He joyously introduced me to the cartoon, Mr. Peabody & Sherman, and is appropriate, I am hardly the genius, and had I known, I might have named our pup Remi Mr. Peabody. We live five minutes from one another in both Brookline and Truro. Michael has promised to play pool with me - if the advocacy of his wonderful, ebullient wife Lisa prevails on my wife Iris - and I will finally get one in our home. How wonderful it will be to celebrate my 80th birthday in the Maso Studio at the Huntington Theater that he has magnificently led the campaign to renovate.
Kristina Hare Lyons
Kristina Hare Lyons, MPH, MALD,
Kristina is a humanitarian, filmmaker, consultant, entrepreneur, writer and mother with a particular interest in impact media and global public health. She currently sits on the governing boards of 3 public health-oriented non-profits: The Population Media Center, The Population Institute and Rehearsal for Life. She started her own business in 2007, Portobello Road, a retail concept that emphasized local, ethical and sustainable products. Previously, she worked at Physicians for Human Rights on a landmark study on war-related sexual violence in Sierra Leone and to eliminate conflict diamonds from the marketplace through the Kimberley Process, at Elle Magazine as West Coast Editor, as an Associate Producer at Frontline, and with filmmaker Oliver Stone on numerous projects. More recently, she consulted with the Ministry of Health in Liberia through the Harvard Ministerial Leadership program on efforts to address tragically high rates of maternal mortality and is developing content at her film company, Lyonshare Pictures. Kristina holds a Masters in Public Health and Population from Harvard, a Masters in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School, and a BA from Tufts. Her passions include travel, tennis, nature, reading, social justice, photography, art and design.
Kristina, a friend for decades, ranks in the top tier of my delightful alumni. She was my student as a senior at Tufts in 1986/87. In my EPIIC colloquium/symposium: The West Bank and Gaza. I almost lost her then. She came to my office to drop the colloquium, seemingly frustrated at her lack of precursor knowledge compared to her fellow students, some of whom were from the region or religiously and culturally related to the region. I knew she was fascinated by and cared about the topic and I refused to let her leave. Instead, I think she will well remember a several-hour private tutorial where I obliged her to sit and take notes as I covered a huge series of blackboards surrounding the second-floor classroom of Miner Hall. Luckily for me, I convinced her to remain and she thoroughly captured the subject and subsequently visited the region.
At the symposium, Kristina helped introduce Palestinian resistance activist and University President, Gabi Barambki, and the Palestinian student who he brought from Beirzeit. Most noteworthy, she helped convene the private Friday evening session of the symposium, when my students met with the remarkable women they had attracted to the forum: Palestinian lawyer Mona Rashmawi, now Chief of the Rule of Law, Equality, and Non-Discrimination Branch Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Naomi Chazan, Knesset member and Professor Emeritus at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Professor Galia Golan, now a leading figure for Combatants for Peace (on whose academic advisory board I serve). The students wondered what they, as young women themselves and these prominent women, could create to protest the occupation and enhance the possibilities of peace. It incubated what a year later, in the context of the first Intifada became Israel's Women in Black. Now part of a global movement.
Impressed by Kristina's determination and intelligence, I introduced her to my friend Susannah Sirkin, now a Director Emeritus of Physicians for Human Rights who supervised her research and interviewing PHR work in Sierra Leone and Kristina's subsequent contributions to a PHR Report "War-related Sexual Violence in Sierra Leone". Over the years, she participated in a variety of Institute activities, including creating a long mural, documenting the Institute's first ten years of activities, participating in EPIIC Outward Bound weekends. In 1995, having been a Representative to the U.N. Conference on Population and Development in Cairo and leading the Women’s Forum at Fletcher, including the creation of a conference on FGM, she co-led a workshop, "Beyond Beijing: The Global Empowerment of Women" as part of the Institute's 10th anniversary symposium, "2020 Visions of the Future."
We have sustained a warm friendship. I had the privilege recently of recommending her to Harvard University's Public Health and Population Master's program. Most recently, Kristina and her husband Patrick helped convene a fundraiser at Patrick's restaurant in the Charles Hotel, Bar Enza, for a fellow EPIIC alum, Patrick Schmidt, running for the 2022 House of Representatives from Kansas.
Khuyen Bui
Khuyen (Kasper) is the author of the book “Not Being - the Art of Self-Transformation”, published Jan 2022. It is about the human’s journey from being an atomized, isolated, separate self to a wider, bolder, more intimately connected way of being in the world.
He is currently pursuing his PhD in Management at Bayes Business School in London. He researches and works with 1) founders who care about developing themselves and their teams and wholesome human beings, 2) social impact leaders in transition phase and 3) community builders who are bringing together the many worlds they are in.
Graduated cum laude from Tufts University studying Computer Science and Philosophy, he thrives in bringing analytical rigor into his fascination with human messiness.
After Tufts, he lived in Vietnam, building communities of change-agents,
organizing festivals, teaching Movement Improvisation as a way to bring people more aligned with themselves, going beyond the rational intellect, into the passion of the heart and the aliveness of the body.
Khuyen enjoys writing & storytelling and has won several awards, notably Peter Drucker Challenge and The Moth Boston.
Khuyen was a Synaptic Scholar since 2013. He secretly wishes to have Sherman as his uncle.
His eyes lit up upon beautiful questions.
Here is one, embodying his lifelong pursuit:
“What is it like
to be together
and to work shoulder by shoulder
so that our fires
burn brighter,
our love
keeps on changing lives, shaping worlds,
and our self
becomes quieter inside?“
Find him at khuyenbui.com
I met Khuyen in his freshman year in 2016. He was one of the most introspective, inquisitive and searching of my former students.
He was chosen as a 2017 Synaptic Scholar in 2016.
Here he describes the Scholars program, that I initiated in 2009 as "such a sexy name for the action-oriented nerds like him!"
Despite my leaving Tufts, we kept in contact, and I always enjoyed his restless spirit and eclecticism
He will make an exceptional giving mentor, something I witnessed when he was such for the Compass Fellowship (see page 95), a group aimed at helping freshmen get more exposure to social entrepreneurship begun by my Institute’s Empower students.
Alison Sanders
Alison Sander serves as the Director of BCG’s Center for Sensing and Mining the Future (CSMF) and brings more than 25 years’ experience working with senior teams on complex challenges. The Center develops BCG’s global Megatrend databases and provides guidance to companies and organizations seeking to better understand trends that will shape their future.
Alison has designed significant growth strategies for clients across many sectors and has used Megatrends to help clients form powerful visions and to find the next areas of growth. The Center tracks more than 100 trends that cut across the latest technological developments, demographic shifts, industrial shifts, economic requirements, environmental shifts, and consumer shifts, among others. BCG's Megatrend knowledge has been used by more than 1,500 organizations.
Alison has an MBA from Harvard Business School, a JD from Harvard Law School, and a BA in political science with honors from the University of Chicago. Prior to BCG Alison gained experience at Cambridge Transnational Associates (Founder & CEO), and Goldman Sachs. Alison served for 11 years on the Board of the World Resources Institute (www.wri.org) among other organizations.
Announcing the 2022 Winners of the Tällberg-SNF-Eliasson Global Leadership Prizes
YEVGENIA ALBATS, GLADYS KALEMA-ZIKUSOKA AND SAM MULLER
AWARDED TÄLLBERG-SNF-ELIASSON GLOBAL LEADERSHIP PRIZES
Stockholm and New York, November 9, 2022—Today the Tällberg Foundation announced the winners of this year’s Tällberg-SNF-Eliasson Global Leadership Prizes, awarded annually to well established leaders working in any field and any country whose leadership is courageous, innovative, rooted in universal values and global in application or in aspiration.
The 2022 laureates:
Yevgenia Albats, Russia, for her passionate commitment to reporting truth in the face of repression and corruption, and for forcefully asserting her—and every Russian’s—personal responsibility to work for a democratic future in their country.
Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka, Uganda, for her persistent, innovative leadership in developing new approaches to human/wildlife interaction at a time when the danger of zoonotic diseases is rising worldwide.
Sam Muller, Netherlands, for his innovative work in creating and implementing new, concrete concepts and ways of working for law practitioners that focus on solving people’s real needs and thereby reinforce their commitment to democracy.
“Converging crises are challenging all our societies. If we ever needed great leadership it is now,” said Alan Stoga, the Tällberg Foundation’s chairman. “What these three extraordinary individuals—working in dramatically different contexts on different kinds of problems—demonstrate is the power of courageous, creative, persistent leadership.”
The Prizes are made possible by the financial and moral support of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF). SNF Co-President Andreas Dracopoulos said, “What each of the most serious challenges humanity faces—such as climate change, the erosion of democracy, unmet mental health needs, the risk of future pandemics—requires is sound, selfless leadership. SNF is proud to support the Prizes in recognizing leaders whose practical optimism unlocks human potential to meet these critical challenges."
The Tällberg Foundation is deeply committed to the idea that great leadership comes in many different flavors. “What do a journalist, a veterinarian and a jurist have in common? Great leadership skills and the willingness to challenge the status quo with innovation and energy. The world needs as much of that as we can find,” concluded Stoga.
The winners receive a $50,000 cash award and the opportunity to participate in the Tällberg Foundation’s global leaders’ network. They will be honored in a virtual celebration on December 13. To register to participate, go to tallberg-snf-eliasson-prize.org.
The Tällberg Foundation separately recognizes and honors emerging leaders whose work has less track record and more potential. This year’s emerging leader laureates will be announced on November 16.
Prize winners are nominated through an online process open to anyone anywhere and are ultimately selected by a global jury. The Tällberg-SNF-Eliasson Global Leadership Prize was established in 2015 and has honored 27 global leaders.
8th Newsletter for Our 2022 Program
October 2022 Newsletter
The 50:50 Startups 2022 Cohort concludes the program!
Join us in congratulating all participants and expressing utmost gratitude to those who made their journey happen.
Demo Day 2022
On September 28th, we held the concluding event of the 50:50 Startups program - the 2022 Demo Day!
Seven ventures pitched their deck, and two got the prizes. My Family presented by Jafar Mahfouz won the first prize consisting of $10,000 pre-seed investment🏆! And Abe's events presented by Ibrahim Handal and Ibrahim Tomizeh won the second prize - pre-seed investment of $7000 🏆
A huge thank to the amazing, and highly experienced Judges who joined us:
Rosa Azhari - President, Azrieli College of Engineering Jerusalem.
Shirley Shahar - Co-Founder at DANA Accelerator.
Aiman Abu Ammar - Senior Lecturer at Azrieli College of Engineering.
Haytam Kasem - Researcher at Technion - Israel Institute of Technology.
Many thanks to Azrieli College of Engineering Jerusalem and AtoBe Startup Accelerator for their incredible hospitality. And lots of gratitude to Michal Zur and Miriam Malis for supporting us throughout this journey.
We are thrilled to share that Northeastern University will be giving a substantial scholarship, and bringing one of the 50:50 alumni to join their MBA program, after they got inspired by the 50:50 participants this year.
''I have followed your 50:50 program and could not be more impressed. What a thrill that the students were finally able to come to Northeastern" - Associate Director of Admissions at Northeastern University
To learn more about their journey in Boston? Check out this Article!
2022 Cohort Testimonials
Hear what the participants of our third 50:50 Startups cohort share about their journey!
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We are happy to see our alumni grow and always support their development after completion of the 50:50 Startups program! To learn more please visit Q-Fi
Stay Tuned!
Applications for 50:50 Startups 2023 are coming soon...
We are excited that the application round for our next 50:50 Startups cohort will start soon! If you are interested to apply and spread the news to potential applicants, tune in for our further communications on the matter. We will announce all the relevant to the application round information soon on our website. We are excited to start for our fourth cohort in 2023!
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Visit https://www.5050startups.org/ to learn more about 50:50 Startups!
Asad Badruddin
Asad Badruddin was a student of Sherman’s at Tufts University, taking the EPIIC program in 2010 and 2011. After graduating he started a non-profit that created entrepreneurship programs in Pakistan with more than a thousand participants. He has also worked at software companies including most recently at LinkedIn. His current role and work specializes in negotiations, inter-cultural communication and public private partnerships.
He is also a podcaster and writer: Asadbadruddin.com
The VIIF Frontline Report #7
Police raid a bar in San Salvador, El Salvador, looking for gang members on July 14, 2018. Photograph by Kimberly dela Cruz, who is a member of the VII Mentor Program.
Dear friends,
With the worldwide rise of populism, neo-nationalism, and autocracy there is much to do to challenge the emergence of anti-democratic forces and safeguard a world where ordinary citizens are treated with dignity and respect by their governments. This challenge is especially acute for anyone involved in journalism.
As my colleague David Campbell writes on VII Insider in an essay that details the shocking global anti-democratic trend, “addressing the challenge of democratic decline ….. demands much, much more than just arms-length coverage of the issue. Only journalism has the reach to demonstrate what is at stake if authoritarians take power. We need the practice of journalism to stand for democracy and be actively engaged in the fight for democracy. Now.”
Of course, Churchill reminded us democracy is flawed, but the alternatives are worse, as anyone living in a de-facto dictatorship, or a country run by kleptocrats, religious fundamentalists, or a military junta will attest.
The VII Foundation, through VII Academy, has trained over 700 majority world students from over 80 countries, in nine languages in three years. Many of our students live and work under regimes that suppress the media and extinguish the free flow of information and other fundamental human rights. Their bravery and their existence are essential. They are the ones bearing witness to invasion, violence, corruption, the impact of climate change, and the pillage of natural resources firsthand. Their work informs all of us.
Most of our training has taken place online throughout the pandemic. With the opening of our new campus in Arles – named after our late colleague Alexandra Boulat, and funded by our board member Jennifer Stengaard Gross and her family – we are now able to invite the most accomplished of our students to study with us in person. We are launching our first intake of students in 2023 and we can’t wait to see them here.
Gary Knight
CEO
The VII Foundation
Speak Out!
What kind of peace do young Bosnians live in today? What is their experience of the past, and what is their hope for the future? Are they afraid of a new war? How do they see their role in preserving peace?
Inspired by the lessons in the “Imagine: Reflections on Peace” book, eight young individuals from all across Bosnia and Herzegovina came to the National Museum in Sarajevo and worked with Nikola Vučić to improve their communication skills for debating difficult topics.
The discussion was broadcast on N1, a major national television channel in Bosnia, on September 27 and can be viewed here. We are grateful to The Foundation for Systemic Change (FSC) for making this event possible.
Preparations for the first collection bearing Yves Saint Laurent's name, January 1962. Photograph by Pierre Boulat.
Yves Saint Laurent by the Boulats
“Yves Saint Laurent by Alexandra and Pierre Boulat” is a special exhibition opening in Sarajevo on November 4 at the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Alexandra Boulat was one of the founding members of the VII Photo Agency, and our campus in Arles, France, is named in her honor. This exhibition showcases the work she and her father did covering Yves Saint Laurent over nearly four decades. Pierre Boulat produced his first story on Yves Saint Laurent for LIFE Magazine in 1962 when the designer created the first fashion collection in his own name. This cover story with 12 pages of photographs took a month to make and began a long association. This culminated in Alexandra Boulat taking over from her father and photographing Yve Saint Laurent’s presentation at the 1998 FIFA World Cup for Paris Match.
The exhibition has been made possible by the foundation leading a collaboration with the French Embassy in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the French Institute, Fondation Pierre Bergé Yves Saint Laurent, the Association Pierre et Alexandra Boulat, and the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
From Ismar Čirkinagić's "Herbarium" project.
Herbarium
The foundation has collaborated with visual artist Ismar Čirkinagić to produce new work for his ‘Herbarium’ project and exhibit it in Bosnia for the first time.
Čirkinagić, who was born in Prijedor and now lives in Copenhagen, began “Herbarium” in 2004. The project is based on a classical herbarium that classifies flora with the difference being that all the plants have been collected from the site of mass graves in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The plants are gathered, dried, and mounted behind glass along with information about the mass grave site. Čirkinagić has made 70 new pieces specifically for the exhibition in Sarajevo after traveling to Prijedor in April this year and collecting the last plants in August.
“The exhibition will open at the National Museum 30 years since the war started, a round number. Thirty years is not a little time. We are still living in the war in many ways. There are still traces of the war around us; we are still looking for bodies of people missing, discussing certain topics. There is, again, a new cycle of nationalism. We obviously didn't leave those demons from the past behind,” said Čirkinagić.
We are grateful for the support of our partners, the Danish Arts Council, Memory Module, KUMA International, the Museum of Contemporary art Ars Aevi, and The National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The exhibition opens at the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo on 13 November.
School students from Arles and region at VII Academy's Alexandra Boulat Campus. Photograph by Florent Demarchez / Workflow.
Visual literacy lessons in Arles
VII Academy’s Alexandra Boulat Campus in Arles recently welcomed school children for La Rentrée en Images, organized by Les Rencontres de la Photographie. Throughout September and October 11 classes – comprising nearly 300 school children aged 10 to 18 years from Arles and the region – participated in workshops and guided tours to teach them about the complexity of a journalistic image. Using Alexandra Boulat’s “Modest” – portraits and stories of women in the Middle East – students were instructed on how to better read and understand images. Philip Blenkinsop of VII Photo Agency showed his Southeast Asian reportage to emphasize, among other elements, the importance of captions.
Kiley Knowles rides her horse through the Shell River (Anishinaabe Akiing/Minnesota, USA) during a women water protectors demonstration against Line 3 – commonly referred to by activists as “The Black Snake,” July 15, 2021. Photo by Chris Trinh.
Apply for the Foundry workshop
The Foundry Photojournalism Workshop is coming virtually to the USA! This tuition-free workshop, hosted by VII Academy in partnership with PhotoWings, has met in over a dozen countries around the world, teaching people how to better document their own communities and interests and develop skills to help them in work and life.
Foundry alumni have won the Pulitzer Prize and their images have graced the pages of major publications including National Geographic, The Washington Post, and The New York Times. In 2021, participants gathered virtually from all over the world in Foundry’s first online workshop. We laughed, we cried, we debated — and we had a great time. In 2022, as usual, there are no tuition fees. Classes will be taught by Andrea Bruce, Vanessa Charlotte, Michael Robinson Chavez, Alan Chin, Danny Wilcox Frazier, Alison Morley, Christopher Morris, Brian Palmer, Nina Robinson, and Maggie Steber. Guests and portfolio reviewers include editors from print publications, curators, consultants, and agents.
Applications are open now. They close on November 4, 2022, at 2359 EDT. Residents of the United States with two years or more of experience as working photojournalists may apply. Applicants from underrepresented communities will be prioritized. Applications will be evaluated on a rolling basis, so although applicants won’t hear if they’ve been successful until after the application deadline, early birds will get their first choice of instructor.
To apply, please complete this online form.
VII Academy mentee Farshid Tighehsaz has won the third edition of the prestigious 6 Mois Photojournalism Award 2022. Farshid is a documentary photographer based in Tabriz, Iran. Farshid's work focuses on the experience of being human and the structural, cultural, environmental, and interior aspects that determine our lives. Farshid's prize of €10,000 will enable him to continue his project "Labyrinth" on the psychological situation of young people in Iran, a story of undoubted significance given the current protests in Iran.
Trump followers rally at the Washington Monument listening to President Trump addressing them on January 6, 2021. Photograph by Christopher Morris / VII.
We published a major article on the VII Insider blog this month on "Visual Journalism in the Age of Authoritarianism – What Can and Should You Do?" Written by managing editor David Campbell, it poses a crucial challenge:
"The decline of democracy and the rise of authoritarianism are global phenomena...I want to challenge existing and emerging visual journalists to think about how best to respond to these anti-democratic developments. It is something we all have to think hard about because...everything we do as journalists, photographers, artists, and critics depends upon having the cultural space to think, create and work freely."
VII Insider’s online community continues to provide an open platform for public debate and discussion, including on the war in Ukraine. On the VII Insider blog, you will find David's article along with the latest in the series on South American photographers by Arturo Soto.
Members of the VII Insider community get access to weekly live presentations and can view the video collection, which contains more than 120 recordings of educational discussions. Don't forget to check out the upcoming events.
VII Insider is a program of The VII Foundation in partnership with PhotoWings and VII Agency.
Rachel Korberg
Rachel Korberg is the Executive Director and co-founder of the Families and Workers Fund, a coalition of more than twenty diverse philanthropies working together to build a more equitable U.S. economy that uplifts all. Co-chaired by Ford Foundation President Darren Walker and Schmidt Futures CEO Eric Braverman, the more than $60 million fund invests and builds strategic partnerships to advance good jobs and deliver equitable, effective public benefits.
Previously, Rachel served in program leadership roles at the Ford Foundation and Rockefeller Foundation where she worked to advance economic opportunity, mobility, and equity. Earlier, she was vice president of a boutique investment firm and also a global development and humanitarian aid worker serving in communities coping with disasters. Her commentary has appeared in, or her work has been profiled by, the New York Times, Washington Post, TIME, and more. She has been a featured speaker at the Federal Reserve, United Nations, National League of Cities, Aspen Institute, and many universities. In 2021, she received Crain’s New York’s award for notable leaders in philanthropy for her leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic as well as a “Stevie Award” for female nonprofit executive of the year.
Rachel is President of the Board of the Stonewall Community Foundation, one of the largest funders of LGBTQIA+ causes. She has a Master in Public Policy from Yale University, executive training in human-centered design from Stanford Graduate School of Business, and a BA in International Relations from Tufts University. Rachel also brings lived experience to her leadership of the Families and Workers Fund as a working parent, survivor of workplace sexual harassment, and a family member who has supported loved ones in navigating the inadequate public benefits system and a job market that too often writes off those who don’t hold college degrees.
Kim Berman
Kim Berman is an NRF-Rated scholar and Full Professor in Visual Art at the University of Johannesburg (UJ) and Executive Director of Artist Proof Studio (APS), a community-based printmaking centre in Newtown, Johannesburg which she co-founded APS with the late Nhlanhla Xaba in 1991. Born in Johannesburg in 1960, Kim Berman has been an activist artist for over twenty years. Beginning with her study with Paul Stopforth at the University of Witwatersrand, (B.F.A), and continuing through her graduate work at Tufts University/the School of the Museum of Fine Arts (M.F.A, 1990), Berman has addressed the politics and social conditions in South Africa in her art both realistically and metaphorically. Her work was her artistic response to Apartheid and the anti-Apartheid struggle, the establishment of a democratic government, the testimonies of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and the ongoing challenges of poverty and disease.
In addition to serving as Senior Lecturer in Printmaking at the University of Johannesburg, Berman has founded three projects that have proven her faith in the vital role visual art can play in social transformation. The Artists Proof Studio, founded in 1992 in Johannesburg, now supports and educates over 100 young artists. Phumani Paper, a nationwide project using hand papermaking for poverty alleviation, employs several hundred people. Paper prayers, a nationwide paper and embroidery project for AIDS awareness, continues its grassroots work to support a population universally affected by the pandemic.
As she wrote in 2003: “In the 80s, while living and studying in Boston I was consumed by the drive to bear testimony to the aggression and violence of the apartheid regime. After 1990, the leadership of Nelson Mandela personified the concept of ‘ubuntu’ of the people working together. It is this spirit that has pulled South Africa from the brink of dehumanization into humanity and democracy- and it is this inspiration of reaching out to re-imagine a new identity for ourselves that is the challenge for South Africans.”
Kim is an extraordinary human rights activist. She is he author of Finding Voice: an autobiographical account of her work in “disenfranchised communities as a tool for political and social transformation in South Africa…She “documents the visual arts as a crucial channel for citizens to find their individual voices and to become agents for change in the arenas of human rights and democracy.”
I met Kim my very first year at Tufts in 1985 when she was a graduate student at the Museum School. We both were deeply concerned with apartheid in South Africa, and met in the context of her politics and I began to appreciate her extraordinary graphics and artistic skills. I asked her to create the graphics for the first 3 posters of my symposium efforts. Most notably International Terrorism, but subsequently the next three: the West Bank and Gaza strip, Foreign Policy Imperatives for the Next Presidency, and Covert Action. and Democracy. We maintained a close friendship over the years, and it was my privilege to honor her with a distinguished alumni award and to participate in a major exhibition of her work. On the occasion of my retirement and becoming Emeritus in 2016 she surprised me with an original print of the 1985-86 poster:
For Sherman, (from: State of Emergency 1985/EPIIC Terrorism) with my deep gratitude and respect for your EPIIC legacy that reaches across the world…
Berman’s art exemplifies this idealism but does not flinch from the enormous challenges the country continues to face. There are many ways I could seek to describe the uniqueness of Kim, whose friendship I cherish but there is no better way for people to understand her character and courage than in the words of Justice Albi Sachs:
I had the pleasure of meeting Albi and on several occasions cheering him on as he ran and completed the Boston Marathon.
I had the privilege and honor of honoring Kim in the context of the EPIIC program on the Politics of Fear as an example of fearlessness.
In 2014 on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Institute, my students surprised me by raising nearly nearly a half a million dollars and endowing the EPIIC colloquium in my name. They created this large plaque to commemorate the occasion and presented it to me at the gala.
This was the print created by one of Kim’s students, which arrived too late to be superimposed on the plexiglass.
Kim further surprised me by giving me several of the large prints that sit at the Constitutional Court of South Africa, which show the women in the struggle against Apartheid. This hangs in my home in Truro.
My Duty to Not Stay Silent: A Documentary by Vladimir Kara-Murza
Dear Sherman,
On October 18, 2022, at 5:00 PM (EST) the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights (RWCHR) will host a screening and discussion of My Duty to Not Stay Silent, a film by courageous Russian defender of democracy and human rights, and global advocate for justice and accountability, Vladimir Kara-Murza about Soviet dissident Father Georgy Edelstein.
Evgenia Kara-Murza, Vladimir Kara-Murza’s wife and Advocacy Coordinator for the Free Russia Foundation, will introduce the documentary and lead the discussion with RWCHR International Chair Irwin Cotler. The film screening will be taking place following a day of high-level meetings and advocacy. Professor Cotler and Evgenia Kara-Murza will also appear before the Foreign Affairs Committee.
We hope that you can join us for this important event in support of the case and cause of Vladimir Kara-Murza, who was arrested and has since been imprisoned in Moscow for his public opposition to Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine.
-About the Film:
“If we stay silent, we participate in the evil that is happening in our world. I must say what I think – and the results do not concern me.” This is the story of a remarkable man in a remarkably difficult era. It is a film about true tolerance and true faith, the relationship between Jewishness and Christianity, the collaboration between Church leaders and a totalitarian state, and the importance of speaking the truth – no matter the consequences. The documentary won two special awards at the 26th Stalker International Film Festival (Moscow, 2020).
The film will be screened in Russian with English subtitles.
Date: October 18, 2022
Time: 5:00PM
Location: 180 Wellington Street, Room 325, Ottawa, ON
Sincerely,
The RWCHR
Opportunities for Young Professionals in Arms Control
The Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation (VCDNP), the Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI), and International Student/Young Pugwash (ISYP) cordially invite you to the event “Engagement Opportunities in Arms Control, Disarmament and Non-Proliferation for Young Professionals and Students.”
The event is dedicated to young individuals interested in learning more about youth-led groups and youth-oriented initiatives in the field of nuclear arms control, disarmament, and non-proliferation.
The event will be held on Wednesday 19 October 2022 from 15:00 to 17:00 CEST / 09:00 to 11:00 ET / 23:00 to 01:00 ACT, online via Zoom.
The event will feature representatives of several youth-led and youth-oriented initiatives, including International Student/Young Pugwash, Pugwash National Groups, the EU Non- Proliferation and Disarmament Consortium, Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation/Istituto Affari Internazionali, the Emerging Voices Network, Project on Nuclear Issues, Youth for Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, Youth for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and Reverse the Trend. Participants will also have the chance to interact and ask questions to representatives in breakout sessions.
A tentative agenda can be seen below.
Please register for the event here.
The URL to join the event will be shared in the confirmation of registration email. We kindly ask you not to share the URL to join the event as the event is invitation-based only.
For any questions, please contact: office@isyp.org.
New York meeting on assessing the NPT Review Conference
On 11 October 2022 Pugwash organized a side event on the margins of the meeting of the First Committee of the UN General Assembly, with the co-sponsorship of the Mission of Brazil to the UN. The meeting was held at the Brazilian Mission to the UN with the topic of “Assessing the NPT 10th Review Conference”.
Panelists were the Permanent Representative of Indonesia to the UN and the Head of the delegation of the United Kingdom to the Conference on Disarmament. Participants discussed the outcome of the Review Conference and prospects for the forthcoming new review cycle.
Stefan Forbes
Stefan Forbes is the Emmy-nominated director of Hold Your Fire, produced with Fab 5 Freddy, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival.
Forbes also directed the award-winning one-hour documentary One More Dead Fish, about environmentally friendly handline fishermen in Canada who seized a federal building and barricaded themselves inside for 26 days.
Forbes also directed Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story, about controversial political operative Lee Atwater, a Critic's Pick in The Washington Post, NY Times, and London Sunday Times. The Washington Post called it "One of the greatest political movies ever”. Boogie Man won the National Edward R. Murrow Award for Best Documentary, the George S. Polk Award for Excellence in Journalism, the IDA Emerging Filmmaker Award, and was nominated for the WGA Award.
With his socially conscious production company InterPositive Media, Mr. Forbes has written and directed Emmy-nominated national PSA campaigns featuring Gwyneth Paltrow, Charlize Theron, Mike Myers, Susan Sarandon, Matthew Broderick, and others, as well as producing and directing many music videos. Formerly a cinematographer, he shot five feature films and created a look for several hit TV shows.