Background Combines International Affairs, Administrative Expertise and Public Service

 (Newark, N.J., Aug. 11, 2008) –  A scholar whose wide-ranging research interests have included the protection of refugee camp populations, the use of slave labor in wartime Germany, and multinational corporate behavior, is the new director of the Division of Global Affairs (DGA) at Rutgers University in Newark. The appointment of Simon Reich, which was announced by Rutgers-Newark Chancellor Steven Diner, was effective Aug. 1. Reich previously was director of the Ford Institute for Human Security in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh, where he also was a professor of international affairs.

In his new position, Reich oversees a highly regarded academic unit that administers graduate programs in global affairs, conducts research on global issues, and serves as the focus of the University's outreach to professional communities with global concerns. The Ph.D. program at the DGA was ranked fifth in the nation in the Benchmarking Academic Excellence survey of Top Universities in Social and Behavioral Sciences Disciplines for 2006-07, in the combined category of International Affairs and Development.

“Simon Reich will be a worthy successor to Richard Langhorne, founding director of our global affairs program, who is returning to our faculty, and to Yale Ferguson, co-director of DGA, who is retiring,” stated Diner in announcing the appointment.   “His background makes him an excellent fit for the division’s multidisciplinary approach to global affairs.”

Commenting upon his appointment, Reich stated, “Assuming the directorship of the Division of Global Affairs represents an exciting challenge. I hope to build upon the marvelous work of Yale Ferguson and Richard Langhorne.” Reich added that he wants to “take advantage of the DGA’s excellent scholarly reputation, its high quality of students and wonderful location to further enhance and expand the unit’s capacities.”

Reich’s career has been characterized by both scholarly research and public engagement. His current teaching and research interests focus on the protection of civilians in conflict as well as immigration policy and the integration of minorities in Europe and the US. The new DGA director is currently co-editing a book, Child Soldiers: Children and Armed Conflict, due out next year.  It is one of several he produced in the last two years on human security issues such as immigration and security, and on human trafficking in the aftermath of war. He also authored The Fruits of Fascism: Postwar Prosperity in Historical Perspective (Cornell University Press, 1990), and co-authored others, including The Myth of the Global Corporation (1999), published by Princeton University Press. His work has been translated into Dutch, German and Japanese.

He has received numerous prestigious fellowships, including those from the Council on Foreign Relations, the Kellogg Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies, as well as research grants from several major foundations.

But Reich’s professional activities have also included a significant public service component. He worked for several years in the U.S. Congress before being appointed as director of research and analysis at the Royal Institute of International Affairs at Chatham House in England, a leading British foreign policy think tank and twin organization of the Council on Foreign Relations. Furthermore, Reich has regularly served as a consultant, working with several national governments as well as intergovernmental organizations such as the United Nations on issues relating to the protection of children in war.

Reich holds a bachelor of arts from the University of Essex, masters of arts degrees from both Brandeis and Cornell universities, and a Ph.D. from Cornell.

 

For more information, please contact Carla Capizzi, 973/353-5262, email: capizzi@rutgers.edu, or Helen Paxton, 973/353-5262, paxton@andromeda.rutgers.edu

 

 

 

Media Contact: Carla Capizzi
973 353 5262
E-mail: capizzi@rutgers.edu