Cultural Publication Correspondence Gains New Focus from Partnership with Council

Contact: Lisa Shields, Director of Communications, (212) 439 7926 or [email protected]

December 20, 2001 – It is a paradox of recent times that while the media has become global, coverage of foreign news and our knowledge of other cultures have shrunk. Now, more than ever before, we need to understand culture’s profound impact on international relations and foreign policy.

Correspondence: An International Review of Culture and Society was launched in 1997 by the esteemed Harvard sociologist Daniel Bell, joined by the distinguished German scholar Wolf Lepenies, rector of the Berlin Wissenschaftskolleg, and noted Japanese playwright Masakazu Yamazaki, director of the Hyogo Prefecture Theatre. The editor of the newsletter is Alexander Stille, a regular contributor to the New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, and The Washington Post. Stille, Bell and others scour periodicals, academic literature, and belle letters from all over the world to find interesting and representative articles on cultural and political cultural issues.

Last year, the Council became publisher of Correspondence to help it evolve from a privately circulated “letter” to a leading publication on international intellectual life. Seeking to overcome the cultural parochialism that has walled off many countries from one another, Correspondence has become a vital source of un- and under-reported cultural news, information, and analysis from a global perspective. Past issues have explored globalization and cinema, culture and diplomacy, the question of “public memory,” and the digital age.

The next issue, due out in February 2002, will explore, among other topics, the debate in other countries over terrorism and the fault lines and solidarities that are developing in response to the U.S. reaction, featuring pieces by Hamid Dabashi, Jean Baudrillard, and Umberto Eco.

Please direct requests for information or complimentary publications exchanges call 212-434-9516.