Y esto nos llega de Oxford... Cada vez duele mas.

Daniel Chudnovsky. Dphil St Antony’s 1970-73…………

Daniel was my very first DPhil student, back in 1973. I had the privilege of ‘inheriting’ him from his supervisor, Paul Streeten, who was leaving Oxford, and I helped to put the final touches to an innovative and brilliant DPhil, which shaped much of his later thinking, in a career which saw him at UNCTAD during the years of dictatorship in Argentina, then eventually back home, founding a think tank, CENIT, teaching and researching. His death at age 62 from cancer, was with little warning – just five months from diagnosis. He had been at College only a year earlier, giving his usual superb seminar to us all in the Latin American Centre.

His academic profile was distinguished. He published nine book and many articles. Much of his work was designed to reveal the inner working of multinationals and direct foreign investment: his constant critical approach and his respect for hard micro research led to significant contributions to the literature and to our understanding. But he always wanted more: he wanted his work to change the world. This was part of the significance of his creation of CENIT, a think tank that also took academic understanding out to engage with real problems. I saw him having huge impact in the way he worked through CENIT with Argentine business to help make the economic integration processes of Mercosur really work at the micro level.

He loved to come back to Oxford, which was for him a place of education and inspiration and true scholarly work, and also where he formed close friendships that were important to him throughout his life. One such friend, Andrew Glyn, writes of him as ‘a loyal, warm and kind friend’. “I have vivid memories of him striding up and down in my kitchen when he was a grad student, outraged about something somebody in the faculty had said or done….., of [his wife] Alicia trying to teach us how to do the tango…., and of how he stayed so passionate about politics and economics, always identifying himself with the left in some broad sense despite all the shifts in political centre of gravity in Argentina and worldwide.”

Andrew’s recall of that warmth, zest for life and deep progressive commitment will find echo with all his friends as it does with me.

It was a great joy to him to go back at age 55 to the university, to San Andres in Buenos Aires, and part of the joy, says his wife Alicia, was that it was a return to the academic life and values he had loved at Oxford. She describes him as a true ‘research person’ and a brilliant teacher, much loved by his students. The university’s recognition of him and his work after his death meant a great deal to her and to their daughter Marianne. From St Antony’s and from the Latin American Centre, we want to offer the same recognition and to share our affection and respect.

Rosemary Thorp

Retomamos desde Buenos Aires, ahora si....

Frases random que me dan vueltas hace dias en la cabeza y que renovaron/reciclaron el impuslo/causa primera que dio lugar a este espacio:

1. las instituciones se importan pero no se exportan

2. hay que averiguar la causa de la causa

3. para encontrar alguna respuesta, lo mejor es ser un oportunista metodologico

aqui de vuelta, veremos por cuanto tiempo....

como siempre, pequenias reflexiones sobre lo -quizas- sean grandes temas.

meses de silencio

de acomodamiento
de mudanza
de insercion laboral
de miedo
de ahogo
de amor
de dolor
de duelo
de llegada
de aterrizaje
de reencuentro
de mate y sandwiches de miga
de bifes con ensalada
de proyectos de investigacion
de pavor
de eutonia
de dni
de aullido