Guilherme Silva, a doctoral candidate in international relations, and Bob Berkes, son of Ross Berkes.
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Seeing the World
The Ross N. Berkes Scholarship
By Katherine Yungmee Kim
Ross Berkes was the director of the school of international relations
from 1949 to 1976 — the longest serving director of an academic
discipline in the history of USC College. Hundreds of his students
became ambassadors, political advisers to presidents and legislators in
different countries. Berkes’ legacy is continued through the Ross N.
Berkes Scholarship Fund.
“Our family has been involved in the school of international relations
for the better part of 60 years,” his son Bob said. “It was important
for us to continue supporting the program, and giving students the
opportunity to study abroad.”
Berkes said his father was heavily involved in the establishment of the
overseas programs to Germany and England. “It’s a natural interest that
has been worth perpetuating,” he said.
This year, Guilherme de Araujo Silva, a fifth-year Ph.D. student from
Rio de Janeiro, was awarded the Berkes Fellowship. Silva used the
scholarship as a pre-dissertation award to conduct a feasibility test
in Brazil to narrow down his area of research.
The award allowed him to travel to São Paolo and Rio de Janeiro to
conduct a preliminary investigation into the foreign investment
relationship between Brazil and Angola. After his trip, Silva "decided
to focus instead on the power, economic and social structural relations
underlying the overall process of globalization — what I call global
relations."
His dissertation will now map the concepts and terms that form the
grammar of global relations that is recognized by such global players
as multinational corporations, state officials and non-governmental
organizations, which he said, “ultimately justifies their behavior and
policy-making.”
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