Samuel Rubin Young Fellowship Programme

The Samuel Rubin Young Fellowship Programme aims to provide support, resources and a transnational environment for talented, socially committed young scholar-activists in the hope that TNI may contribute, albeit modestly, to the production of a new generation of influential leaders and changemakers. The programme is named in honour of the man with the original foresight to finance such a project. In keeping with TNI’s characteristic approach, the programme is transnational in composition and orientation. It is biased in favour of scholaractivists from the Global South, particularly women. The programme has a modest fund thanks to contributions from the Samuel Rubin Foundation and the Dutch Ministry for Foreign Affairs. Beneficiaries may be individuals
or collectives, must be under the age of 35, and produce a project proposal with at least one substantive product. They hold the title of TNI Young Fellow for the duration of their grant.

2006/7

Ben Hayes (30), UK, has been a researcher with the civil liberties group Statewatch since 1996, specialising in the development and implementation of EU Justice and Home Affairs policy. He is joint co-ordinator of the European Civil Liberties Network. Ben wrote "Arming Big Brother", a briefing on the European Union’s Security Research programme for TNI in 2006 and has received a TNI Next Generation award to write a book on the European Security State for TNI, to be published in 2007.

Jan Hanrath (29), Germany, works for NAVEND, Centre for Kurdish Studies in Bonn, after graduating in political science at the University of Duisberg, focussing on EU-Middle East relations. He had previously studied in Ghana and undertook an internship in Lebanon. He speaks German, English, French and Arabic. Jan is a founding member of the Euro-Mediterranean Young Scholars’ Network. He was supported to work on two TNI publications, concerning political violence and Middle East politics, under the guidance of TNI fellow Dr Jochen Hippler.

Carlos Aguilar Sánchez (26), Costa Rica, works for the Hemispheric Social Alliance, originally formed in opposition to the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas. He has
been working with TNI on EU-Latin America relations, participating actively in the Enlazando Alternativas co-organised by TNI in Vienna in 2006. Carlos was supported
by TNI to develop research and analysis in support of Central American social movement strategies towards negotiations for an EUCentral America agreement, which
includes insights into the strategic interests of the EU in Central America.

2005 Samuel Rubin Young Fellows

Maria Cecilia Olivet (29), Uruguay, has a BA degree in International
Relations from Universidad de la República in Uruguay and an MA in International Politics and East Asia from Warwick University, UK. Her area of specialisation is regionalism, with a particular emphasis on Latin America-East Asia interregional relations. Cecilia came to TNI via our partner in Uruguay, REDES (Friends of the Earth). She received a Young Fellowship grant for work with the TNI Alternative Regionalisms Programme during the 6th WTO Ministerial Meeting in Hong Kong in December 2005, where she also reported for Real World Radio (RWR). Cecilia continues to work with TNI’s Alternative Regionalisms programme, staying on to help organise the Enlazando Alternativas II summit in Vienna in 2006.

Diana Siller (29), Mexico, has an MSc in Urban Planning and Development from the University of London at the Development Planning Unit (DPU) and an MA in Environmental Management from the University of Amsterdam. Under the mentorship of Daniel Chavez, TNI Fellow and Public Services programme co-ordinator, Diana developed an updated overview of the process of public services privatisation in Mexico, which was published as part of TNI´s Public Services Yearbook. She now works as a researcher at the Centre of Demographic, Urban and Environmental Studies of Colegio de Mexico.

Alessandra Galie (26), Italy. A former intern and 2004 Young Fellows Awardee, TNI continued to support Alessandra while she was working at the Humanitarian Group for Social Development (HGSD) in Lebanon. Alessandra worked with the Alternative Regionalisms
Programme maintaining a web portal. She also contributed a chapter on public services in Lebanon and Syria to TNI’s Public Services Yearbook.

Oscar Reyes (27), UK, has a BA degree in English Literature from the University of Oxford and an MA in Ideology and Discourse Analysis from the University of Essex. He was a lecturer at the University of East London and Goldsmiths College, University of London, and co-producer of a weekly social and ecological justice radio show on London’s Resonance FM. He is co-editor, with TNI Fellow Hilary Wainwright, of Red Pepper magazine in the UK. He was awarded a Young Fellowship in 2005 to undertake work on the Eurotopia magazine supplement for TNI’s New Politics programme. He now works for TNI as its Communications Officer.

In 2004, the following Young Fellowship awards were made:

Claudia Torrelli (29), Uruguay, is a graduate of International Relations from the University of Montevideo, and has a background in gender and international trade issues. She works for REDES, a sustainable development network and Friends of the Earth International affiliate, in Montevideo. Prior to being awarded her Young Fellowship, she was attached to the TNI Alternative Regionalisms project under the mentorship of project co-ordinator and TNI Fellow Brid Brennan, and her organisation has subsequently become a partner in this project. Claudia received a Young Fellowship award to continue her work on regional integration in the Southern Cone of Latin America (Mercosur) and relations with the European Union. She has travelled to South Africa to participate in a Mercosur-Southern African Development Community People's Exchange, and has received many invitations to speak in Europe and elsewhere on the strength of her work for TNI.

• Claudia Torrelli Mercosur for Sale? The EU's FTAA and the Need to Oppose it TNI/CEO Info Brief, August 2003

Delaraíz, a collective of thirteen people aged between 23 and 32 from Uruguay, is concerned with progressive social policies and cultural integration in the Mercosur region. The group includes a number of economists, journalists, cultural workers and students, many with a common background in working with local housing and labour movements. The team is led by Rodrigo Arim Ihlerfeld (32), studying for a doctorate in economics; Alberto Aldo Marchesi (32), a history teacher, and Damián Osta (28), who works on trade and sustainable development with Friends of the Earth International. Delaraíz was awarded a collective Young Fellowship to produce a paper on the socio-economic situation in Uruguay and an evaluation of Brazilian social policies under the Lula government in Brazil, as well as a video documentary for a co-operative television channel. The group organised two public seminars and a round table on the financial crisis in Uruguay; an international seminar on participatory budgeting; and published a comparative study of social policies in Brazil and the Southern Cone. They also created simplevisión, a multimedia production company conceived of as an open space concerned with media democratisation and independent communication alternatives in Uruguay; produced a video documentary on the Uruguayan activist youth; and another on the Empire of Non-sense, based on interviews with TNI Fellows and other international figures. Damián Osta was able to travel to South Africa for the People's Dialogue between Mercosur and Southern African regions. In 2005, TNI will continue to work with Delaraíz through its New Politics and Public Services programmes.

• Leticia Pérez y Ivonne Martínez Desde el Sur, apuntes para un borrador. Sistematización comparada de nuevas experiencias en PPSS implementadas en Argentina y Brasil TNI, Montevideo, Uruguay, 25 de enero de 2005

Naima Bouteldja (31), France, is a freelance journalist and activist in Britain. She has an MA in International Economics and Finances from Toulouse University and did her dissertation on the structural adjustment programmes imposed on Ghana and the Ivory Coast by the IMF and the World Bank. In 2004, Naima published articles on the G8, the anti-war movement, the Social Forum processes (which is her main area of expertise) and on issues related to the presence of Muslims in the West. She worked for three months as a Babels (translation) project manager for the European Social Forum in London in October 2004 and also attended the World Social Forums in Porto Alegre and India. She was awarded a Young Fellowship to produce an essay in French and English on Muslim participation in broader social movements in the UK and France.

Heidi Bachram (32), UK, has a degree in Anthropology and is currently studying for an MA in Visual Anthropology. A video-maker, writer and activist, Heidi is currently particularly concerned with the impact on poor people of climate change and pollution trading. Bachram's 2003 video "Green Gold" was screened in Johannesburg during the World Summit on Sustainable Development and at the annual Next 5 Minutes International Festival of Tactical Media in Amsterdam. She was awarded a Young Fellowship to continue her work on carbon trading, which resulted in a paper published in the journal "Capitalism, Nature, Socialism" and the development of the Climate Justice Network. Heidi has been employed by TNI in 2005 to lead TNI's Environmental Justice programme.

• Heidi Bachram Climate Fraud and Carbon Colonialism. The New Trade in Greenhouse Gases [PDF document] Capitalism Nature Socialism Vol. 15, No. 4, December 2004
• Heidi Bachram The Sky is Not the Limit. The Emerging Market in Greenhouse Gases (Co-author with Jessica Bekker, Lisa Clayden, Christina Hotz and Adam Ma'anit. TNI Briefing Series 1, January 2003

Tamra Gilbertson (32), USA, has degrees in marine biology and zoology and is photographer and writer, fluent in Spanish and English. The support given to Tamra by the Young Fellowship Programme enabled her to mount a multimedia exhibition concerning Brazilian monoculture eucalyptus plantations in South Africa, The Netherlands, Germany and Spain. She was also able to attend the Renewable Energy and Social Change seminar in Spain that developed and expanded the scope of TNI's Climate Justice project and encouraged cross-fertilisation of existing networks. Tamra has since been employed by TNI to work on its Environmental Justice Programma. Tamra is currently based in Spain.

Alessandra Galie (26), Italy, a recent graduate of Anthropology of Development at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London an fluent in Arabic, with a special interest in gender and water in the Middle East. On completing a 6-month internship at TNI, working with the Alternative Regionalisms project led by TNI Fellow, Brid Brennan, Alessandra was awarded a Young Fellowship to do work on the Asia Europe People's Forum meeting in Vietnam in 2004 and to produce a paper on the impact of the Euphrates Development Project on Syrian women. She is currently setting up work in Lebanon and Amsterdam.

In 2003, awards were granted to two young scholar-activists. Carolina Rudas from Colombia, who undertook a comparative study of the US and Spanish anti-war movements of 2003, and Dr. Antonio Carmona Baéz from Puerto Rico, who compiled an international database of political parties open to redefining relationships with social movements.