Melissa Stimell (LGLS) will assume the role of Interim Director of the International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life on Sept. 1, succeeding Dr. Daniel Terris who accepted a job as dean of the Al-Quds Bard College of Arts and Sciences earlier this summer, according to the Brandeis website.
Stimell, a professor of the practice in legal studies, told The Brandeis Hoot in an interview that the Ethics Center’s work includes running a variety of programs that focus on three main areas: Peacebuilding and the Arts, International Justice, and civic transformation. The range of programs includes courses taught at Brandeis, a recurring conference for international judges, and other lectures, conferences, and projects, which take place both on and off campus.
“[The Ethics Center] really encompasses a wide range of issues that are so important to students today,” Stimell said.
As Interim Director, Stimell told The Hoot that she plans “to continue all the great things that we’re doing and, because I am so closely involved in ENACT, we’re in the process of expanding that program to include two new pilot programs.”
The Educational Network for Active Civic Transformation (ENACT) is a program which focuses on “engaging undergraduates at colleges and universities in state-level legislative change by learning to work with legislators, staffers, and community organizations to advance policy,” according to the Brandeis website.
“[ENACT] started with a class I taught, or still teach, Advocacy for Policy Change,” Stimell told The Hoot.
“That course—which is funded by the Ethics Center—teaches students how to make legislative change at the state level,” she said. “Students choose an actual bill and try to get it passed at the Massachusetts State House. They meet with legislators and advocacy organizations to help them understand the legislative process and to lobby their bill.”
In the coming months, ENACT, which has programs at 29 colleges and universities, will be expanded to include the ENACT labor network and the health policy initiative, according to Stimell.
She explained that both programs “will offer research mentorships to students interested in those areas and will be offered to students across the country.”
Stimell also noted the Ethics Center’s management of the “Brandeis Institute for International Judges,” a conference which, according to the Brandeis website, “provides members of the international judiciary with the opportunity to meet and discuss critical issues concerning the theory and practice of international justice.”
This year the conference was held in Oslo, Norway and was attended by two Brandeis students who had the opportunity to talk and work with international judges, according to Stimell.
In a post announcing the appointment of Stimell as Interim Director, the Brandeis website notes Stimell’s history as a public-interest attorney specializing in conflict resolution, criminal law, discrimination and child welfare.
Stimell directs the Brandeis in The Hague study abroad program, which places students in The Hague, Netherlands where they have access to the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Court, the Peace Palace, and special war-crimes tribunals as part of their abroad experience, according to the Brandeis study abroad website.
The Brandeis website quotes Stimell as saying “The Ethics Center’s mission, to develop effective responses to conflict and injustice by offering innovative approaches to coexistence, strengthening the work of international courts, and encouraging ethical practice in civic and professional life, has been central to my commitments at Brandeis and before.”
Al-Quds Bard College of Arts and Sciences, where former-Director Terris accepted a job as dean this summer, is part of Al-Quds University in Abu Dis. Created in a partnership between Bard College and Al-Quds University, the school’s website states that the partnership “seeks to raise the level of Palestinian education, as the best means of preparing young Palestinians to assume the responsibilities of leadership and self-governance in a future democratic state.”
