Bowling Green announcement
June 20, 2005
Bowling Green, Ohio - The Robert H. Jackson Center, Inc. and Bowling Green State University have signed an agreement giving Bowling Green students the unique opportunity to study and conduct research at the historical Center in Jamestown, N.Y.
The Jackson Center is dedicated to preserving the memory and advancing the ideas of the former Supreme Court Justice and Chief American Prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials. While on the Supreme Court, Jackson also participated in the unanimous decision in the pivotal 1954 desegregation case of Brown v. Board of Education, and earlier served as chief legal defender of such landmark legislation as the Social Security Act of 1935.
The agreement was signed by BGSU President Sidney Ribeau and Center President Gregory L. Peterson. Representing the University at the Center were Dr. Heinz Bulmahn, vice provost for research and dean of the Graduate College, and Dr. Douglas Neckers, McMaster Research Professor of Photochemical Sciences and executive director of the Center for Photochemical Sciences. The agreement will help promote the Center as an archival resource for study of Jackson's influence and provide a variety of opportunities for BGSU students.
Private funding will be sought to develop an internship program for undergraduate students, and BGSU will establish a graduate assistantship to promote thesis or dissertation research related to Jackson.
In return, the Jackson Center will benefit from Bowling Green's help with evaluating and archiving the collected documents and artifacts to make them more accessible to scholars, educators and students, and from BGSU's providing an outlet for dissemination of scholarly publications based on materials assembled at the documentation center. The collaboration with the Center will foster BGSU President Sidney Ribeau's Scholarship of Engagement initiative, Bulmahn said. The organizers say they see many possibilities arising from the partnership. "This is an extraordinary opportunity for our students, and it should provide some useful work in developing the Center as it unfolds," said Neckers, who is from the Jamestown region of New York State and brought the Center's existence to the attention of his BGSU colleagues. "We're very excited about the opportunities we think will result from this for all concerned. We're hoping this academic/historical center collaboration will be the first of many to come," Neckers said.
The program will enable BGSU graduate students in history, political science, German and Russian to work at the Center as they develop their master's or Ph.D dissertations, Neckers explained. Also, BGSU students participating in the exchange program with the University of Salzburg have easy access to Nuremberg to investigate the archives there, he pointed out. Already a graduate student double majoring in German and political science has expressed interest in developing a thesis related to materials at the Jackson Center.
In addition to the departments of German, Russian and East Asian languages, history and political science, others that will be especially benefited include philosophy and theatre and film. BGSU's Institute for the Study of Culture and Society, with its ability to facilitate dialogue across disciplines and its research cluster focused on the Holocaust, will be a natural partner in the collaboration, according to Bulmahn.
Jackson Center President Gregory L. Peterson commented upon the agreement by saying, “This is the Jackson Center’s first collaboration with a nationally renown institution of higher education for the joint study of Robert H. Jackson and international law.”
“By far the most exciting possibility of working through Bowling Green,” continued Peterson, “is to explore Russia’s involvement at the Nuremberg Trials.”
Jackson, a prominent trial lawyer, also served as U.S. Attorney General and Solicitor General in the first two Roosevelt administrations but viewed as his crowning achievement in public service the new standards in international law that were created when he served as the chief American prosecutor before the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg following World War II, according to the Center's web site at www.roberthjackson.org.
"That individuals who commit war crimes or crimes against humanity could be tried by an international tribunal and be found personally responsible was new law in 1946," says Robert H. Jackson Center Executive Director Rolland E. Kidder. "Jackson's brilliance and courage in bringing Nazi war criminals to justice set a new standard in the field of international law. It remains the standard to which the world looks today."
Founded in 2001, the Jackson Center is located in the former Justice's hometown. President of the Center is Gregory L. Peterson, a partner in the law firm of Phillips Lytle LLP. The executive director is Rolland E. Kidder, also an attorney and a former state legislator.
For more information: Teri Sharp, BGSU (419)372-8587 Rolland Kidder/ Rebecca Robbins, Jackson Center (716)483-6646