2007 International Award Winners:
Vladimir Tismaneanu and Suheil Bushrui

Distinguished International Service Award

Dr. Vladimir Tismaneanu

Professor VLADIMIR TISMANEANU has served in the Department of Government and Politics and as Director of the Center for the Study of Post-Communist Societies at the University of Maryland with great distinction since 1990, when he came here from the University of Pennsylvania. He is the former editor of the journal East European Politics and Societies, and he now serves as chair of the journal's editorial committee. He currently serves on the editorial boards of several other publications and is the author of numerous books and articles. 

In 1980 he received his Ph.D. from the University of Bucharest, with a thesis on the Critical Theory of the Frankfurt School. In 1981 he left Romania for political reasons and is widely recognized as an intellectual leader and key figure in the political resistance movement against dictatorship in that country.
In 2001 Professor Tismaneanu was a Public Policy Scholar at the Wilson Center.  His fellowships are many and varied. At the University of Maryland, he received the award for excellence in teaching and mentorship, the Distinguished Scholar Teacher Award, and the GRB Semester Research Award.  In 2002, the University of the West (Timisoara, Romania) awarded him the title of Doctor Honoris Causa, and, in 2003, he received the title of Doctor Honoris Causa from the National School of Political Studies and Public Administration in Bucharest.

As a public intellectual, Professor Tismaneanu's stature is unquestioned, and he has often been referred to as the father of modern political science in Romania.  In 2006 Romania's President Traian Basescu appointed him Chair of the Presidential Commission for the Analysis of the Communist Dictatorship in Romania. In 2006, President Basescu presented the conclusions of the Commission's Report to a joint session of the Romanian Parliament. In April, 2007 President Basescu appointed Professor Tismaneanu chair of the newly established Presidential Advisory Commission for the Analysis of the Communist Dictatorship in Romania. Currently, Professor Tismaneanu is working on two books: The Devil in History: Communism, Fascism, and the Lessons of the 20th Century, and Two Sisters: Communism, Anti-Fascism and Jewish Identity.

Landmark Award

Dr. Suheil Bushrui

Professor SUHEIL BADI BUSHRUI is a distinguished author, poet, critic, translator, and media personality, well known in the United States, Europe, and the Arab world.  Widely recognized for his seminal studies in English of the works of W.B. Yeats and for his translations of Yeats's poetry into Arabic, he is also the foremost authority on the works of Kahlil Gibran.  In his capacity as the Founder and President of the International Association for the Study of the Life and Works of Kahlil Gibran, he collaborates with a network of international scholars and researchers.

In 2006, Professor Bushrui had the privilege of editing with Professor David Cadman a volume entitled Selected Speeches and Articles of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales.  The book includes an introduction by University of Maryland President, Dr. C.D. Mote, Jr. and was published by the Center for Heritage Resource Studies.
This past June, the prestigious Congress of Protestant Churches of Germany invited Professor Bushrui, along with a distinguished group of international scholars and world leaders (including HH the Dalai Lama, Mikhail Gorbachev, HRH Prince Hassan, and Nobel Laureate Professor Mohamed Younes), to contribute to a book entitled The Power of Dignity & Rethinking Globalization, which was submitted to the recent G-8 Summit meeting.

Professor Bushrui is currently Director of the Kahlil Gibran Chair for Values and Peace Project at the Center for Heritage Resource Studies.  He is the founder of the Bahá'í Chair for World Peace and served as the first incumbent from 1992 until 2005.  He is also Senior Scholar of Peace Studies with the Center for International Development and Conflict Management, Senior Scholar with the Academy of Leadership, and Fellow of the Temenos Academy of London.

Professor Bushrui has received numerous honors and awards, including the Juliet Hollister Award given by the Temple of Understanding (a foremost interfaith organization) and an honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from Franklin & Marshall College in recognition of his international services to scholarship and intercultural understanding.  His most recent award was the Interfaith Bridge Builder Award given by the InterFaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington.