Located in one of the world's most culturally diverse cities and itself a major intellectual, cultural and media center, New York University is well positioned to host this symposium and the research and activities that will follow it. The University's Institute of African American Affairs has worked since 1968 to enhance the curriculum and to enrich the intellectual life of the academic and general community. With the establishment in 1993 of the African Studies Program, NYU broke new ground by establishing an interdisciplinary model for Black Studies in the United States, with a focus on Pan-Africanism and the urban experience.        The Institute for Public Knowledge (IPK) brings theoretically serious scholarship to bear on major public issues. Located at NYU, it nurtures collaboration among social researchers in New York and around the world. It builds bridges between university-based researchers and organizations pursuing practical action. It supports communication between researchers and broader publics. And it examines transformations in the public sphere, social science, and the university as a social institution as these change the conditions for public knowledge.  UNESCO is the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Its main objective is to contribute to peace and security in the world by promoting collaboration among nations through education, science, culture, and communication in order to further universal respect for justice, for the rule of law and for the human rights and fundamental freedoms affirmed for the peoples of the world, without distinction of race, sex, language or religion, by the Charter of the United Nations.