Interview between Lee Bollinger and Lenka Kabrhelová

Permanent Link:: http://dpanther.fiu.edu/dpService/dpPurlService/purl/FI17082902/00001

Material Information

Subjects / Keywords:: Havel, Václav
Diplomacy and foreign relations
Charta 77

Scope and Content:: Keywords: Charter 77, Diplomacy, Dissent, German Unification, Human Rights, Individual Responsibility, Legacy (Havel), Letter to Dr. Husak, Marx, Morality, NATO, Obcanske forum, Philosophy, Power of the Powerless, Prague, Reconciliation, Velvet Revolution.
Biographical:: Lee Bollinger was born in 1946. He is president of Columbia University in New York City. In 2003, Bollinger met Václav Havel and invited him to Columbia for an artistic residence. Bollinger remembers Havel’s “naturalness” at their first meeting. Havel came to Columbia in 2006 and Bollinger recalls that students and faculty “were thrilled by his presence.” In this Havel Conversations interview Bollinger, a lawyer specializing in matters of freedom of speech, discusses the overlap between his concerns and the late Czech president’s own. He recalls Havel’s attitude towards public life and politics following the end of his presidency, during his time at Columbia (where he wrote the play Leaving). Finally, Bollinger praises Havel’s pragmatism; he argues Havel’s combination of intellectual ideals with political engagement resulted in the Czech “having a huge impact” on world affairs.