Van C. Tran (Faculty)

Featured on the GC Thought Project (ep. 74) where Prof. Tran talked about his academic journey and research. Read his interview with the GC: “Former Refugee Who Went from Hostos to Harvard Joins The Graduate Center.”

John Torpey (Faculty)

Wrote a piece in Forbes titled “From Surveillance Communism To Surveillance Capitalism And Beyond”

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Thirty years ago this Saturday, the Berlin Wall “fell” unexpectedly when East Germany’s communist government lost control over its citizens’ freedom to travel.  Soon after the East Germans gained the liberty to leave and the opportunity to criticize their government without fear of reprisals, the government was pushed to hold free elections. All this presaged the unraveling of the German Democratic Republic and, within a few more years, of Soviet Communism itself.

Having acquired the freedom to protest openly, one of the first things the East Germans did was to descend upon the headquarters of the Ministry for State Security, universally known by its German acronym, the Stasi.  The Stasi was the “sword and shield of the party,” as its motto had it, and was widely hated for its frightening control over people’s lives. Everyone knew, or at least thought, that the Stasi was spying on ordinary East Germans all the time, and that they had to constantly be on their guard about what they could say and where.  To many people, the secret police were the essence of Communist rule.

Read more here.