American Academics Focus on Givat Haviva
By Lydia Aysenberg
August 29, 2008
Eight academics on a Fulbright-Hays program in Israel spent a few hours on campus at Givat Haviva as guests of the Jewish-Arab Center for Peace and the International Department.
The Fulbright-Hays Seminars Abroad project provides short-term study and travel seminars abroad for U.S. educators in the social sciences and humanities for the purpose of improving their understanding and knowledge of the peoples and cultures of other countries.
There are approximately seven to ten seminars with a dozen or so academics in each seminar annually supported by Fulbright-Hays. The academics receive funding for the seminars abroad by way of a transfer of funds from the Department of Education through the State Department to Fulbright commissions in various countries who organize the seminars in their countries, all of which are outside of Western Europe.
The Fulbright-Hays group was received by David (Dudu) Amitai, Givat Haviva spokesperson and director of Yad Ya’ari Archives, Miryam Degan-Brenner, director of the Noa-Nuah Women and Gender Studies department and Galit Kelner, director of the Arabic language center.
Jewish-Arab Center for Peace facilitators in the Face To Face teen encounter program, Abed Shaib and Yiftach Ron also met with the guests from North America, who showed great interest in the make-up of and complexities of running peace education projects on and off the Givat Haviva campus. The academics fielded many sensitive questions regarding staff, relationships, facilities and character of different programs and projects running consecutively on campus.
The Fulbright-Hays interest group consisted of the following participants from universities in Idaho, Washington and Hawaii:
Michael Hayes, Professor of Education focusing on globalization, social theory and issues of inequality and human rights; Melissa Saul, Professor of Education with focus on peace and human rights education, grassroots efforts in Israel and Palestine and social studies education; Morgan Cooper, MA in Women Studies focus on Palestinian and Israeli social justice and Brian Wolf, Professor of Justice Studies and Sociology, focus on conflict and terrorism.
Rula Awwad-Rafferty is Professor of Art and Architecture, director of Building Sustainable communities, focus on cultural identity connected to place and sustainable building and communities, whilst Joe Overton is Professor of Political Science with a focus on the Middle East and Asia. Professor of Middle Level Education Paul Deering lays his focus on social studies, equity and diversity whilst Jason Albrecht teaches Middle Level social studies with a focus on conflicts and geography and Kristina Lawyer, an elementary school teacher, focuses on peace and human rights education.
The academics were also accompanied by 3 students, all of whom studying education with a focus on history and social studies.
Hopefully the Fulbright-Hays seminar participants found their visit to Givat Haviva of use in their pursuit of better understanding of the Middle East conflict and of the necessity for many more programs dealing with peace education in order to make a difference in the region.