Monday, 12 October 2015
Stephen Wordsworth, Executive Director of CARA (the Council for At-Risk Academics), will be talking about how CARA has worked for more than eighty years to help academics and scientists fleeing from discrimination, persecution, suffering or violence in some of the world’s most dangerous places.
CARA’s roots go back to 1933, and the Nazis’ expulsion of many academics from their posts. Leading UK academics and scientists, appalled at the suffering of their colleagues, founded what is now CARA, to help them to escape and to continue their work. Their aim was “the relief of suffering and the defence of learning and science” – saving the individuals but also saving, for the good of all, the knowledge that they carried in their heads. Both parts of this mission are just as valid today, as CARA works on (with the support of over 100 UK universities, including MMU) to help desperate academics and their families to escape to safety, where they can either prepare for eventual return or build a new life.
Stephen will be accompanied by a current CARA Fellow, who will speak at first-hand about their experiences.
Stephen Wordsworth joined CARA in 2012, after a long career in the Diplomatic Service, mainly focussed on Russia and the Balkans. His last two posts were Deputy Head of Mission in Moscow (2003-2005) and Ambassador in Belgrade (2006-10). He is also a Trustee of the British and Foreign School Society.