Cohen, Vanden Huevel Given Doshi Award

BCLA | An influential political/publishing couple are the recipients of the 2019 Doshi Family Bridgebuilder Award.

Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher of The Nation magazine, and her husband, Stephen F. Cohen, who is among the most distinguished scholars of Russian history in the United States, will be honored for their continued contributions to cross-cultural understanding and willingness to engage issues from new perspectives across a variety of media platforms.

“Navin and Pratima Doshi have long had a deep interest in world affairs,” said Christopher Key Chapple, professor of theological studies. “By honoring a leading editor/journalist and a respected professor who do not always share the same views, the Doshi award continues in the grand tradition of building bridges, in this case, with our understandings of Russia, an area of great importance and complexity.”

The award ceremony will be Thursday, Feb. 28, 2019 at 7 p.m. in Roski Dining Room, at the west end of University Hall. An RSVP is requested and a large crowd is anticipated.

Vanden Huevel and Cohen will also take part in a discussion, moderated by Nigel Raab, LMU history professor and Russian history expert, exploring “The New U.S.-Russian Cold War.” During the conversation, Cohen will address “Why It is More Dangerous than the One We Survived,” and vanden Heuvel will consider “What It Means for American Politics.” A reception and book signing will follow.

Cohen is a professor emeritus of politics at Princeton University and professor emeritus of Russian studies and history at New York University. He is internationally recognized for his academic works on Russian and Soviet political history since 1917. For his scholarly work, Cohen has received several honors, including two Guggenheim fellowships and a National Book Award nomination. Cohen is also an expert on Russian-American relations, and has for decades contributed both domestically and abroad in shedding light on the two countries’ political and historical relationship. He is a contributing editor to The Nation and for many years was a consultant on Russian affairs for CBS News. Cohen is the author of several books, which are widely translated. His most recent publication “War with Russia: From Putin and Ukraine to Trump and Russiagate,” argues that we are living in a time of unprecedented perils.

Vanden Heuvel is a frequent commentator on American and international politics for ABC, MSNBC, CNN, and PBS. She writes a weekly web column for the Washington Post and blogs at thenation.com. Her writing has also been featured in the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, Foreign Policy, and the Boston Globe. She is the author of “The Change I Believe In: Fighting for Progress in the Age of Obama”; “Meltdown: How Greed and Corruption Shattered Our Financial System and How We Can Recover”; and co-editor of “Taking Back America – and Taking Down the Radical Right.”

The Doshi Family Bridgebuilder Award, named for its benefactors, Navin and Pratima Doshi, is given annually to honor individuals or organizations dedicated to fostering understanding between cultures, peoples and disciplines. The award ceremony is a celebration of culture and diversity, often times featuring numerous speakers and artistic performances. Navin Doshi, while presenting the Bridgebuilder Award to Thich Nhat Hanh in 2008, remarked: “Here we are at a Christian university giving an award to a Buddhist monk from a Hindu family. Isn’t it wonderful that LMU honors all human traditions?” The award ceremony is jointly sponsored by Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts, the Department of Theological Studies, and the Navin and Pratima Doshi Professorship of Indic and Comparative Theology, held by Chapple.

Past Doshi Bridgebuilder Award recipients include: Pratapaditya Pal, Rupert Sheldrake, Karan Singh, Vandana Shiva, Huston Smith, Greg Mortenson, Thich Nhat Hanh, Zubin Mehta, and Deepak Chopra.

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