HIU and UHart's Presidents' College Partner to Examine Pathways to Peace

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HIU has partnered with the University of Hartford's Presidents' College to offer a four-part course titled Pathways to Peace? Palestine and Israel.

The course will be offered on four Thursdays in the fall from noon to 1:15 p.m. Two sessions (the first and last) will take place at the University of Hartford, and two sessions (the second and third) will take place in the Meeting Room at HIU. 

HIU President Joel N. Lohr will moderate the final session on The Future: Can We Hold Open a Space for Peace?

The course is described this way: 

The world of peacebuilding offers this insight: peace can begin when people see themselves as partners with a shared problem. We find this wisdom promising. What can we learn about possibilities for peace in a situation fraught with violence and loss? Registrants are invited to reframe the conversation around the conflict in Gaza by listening to perspectives about peace. We’ll learn from local, national, and international experts about actual work toward peace – past, present, and future. We’ll see how the media promotes polarization and antagonism that hobble peacebuilding efforts. This series will model difficult, nuanced conversations around obstacles to, and possibilities for, peace. The conversations may provoke strong feelings or state positions registrants disagree with. The goal is to present and share new perspectives, not to argue the case for one side vs. another.

The course, which costs $125 to attend all four sessions, will be limited to 125 advance registrants. All attendees will sign a communication agreement that commits them to active listening and learning. 

REGISTER

Here are the topics and further details for each session:

Session 1: The Past: What Can We Learn about Possibilities for Peace from Past Negotiations?

JEREMY PRESSMAN, Professor of Political Science at the University of Connecticut

Jeremy Pressman is a professor of political science at the University of Connecticut and a non-resident fellow at the Nonviolent Action Lab of the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard Kennedy School. He co-directs the Crowd Counting Consortium. His most recent book is The Sword Is Not Enough: Arabs, Israelis, and the Limits of Military Force (Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2020). In Spring, 2019, Pressman was a Fulbright Fellow at the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo, Norway. Dr. Pressman received his PhD from MIT.

Session 2: The Present: What Is the Present Conversation About Peace?

Moderator: AVINOAM J. PATT, Inaugural Director of NYU's Center for Study of Antisemitism and Maurice Greenberg Professor of Holocaust Studies  

Avinoam J. Patt is the Maurice Greenberg Professor of Holocaust Studies at New York University. Dr. Patt previously held the Doris and Simon Konover Chair of Judaic Studies at the University of Connecticut, where he served as Director of the Center for Judaic Studies and Contemporary Jewish Life. From 2007-2019 he was the Philip D. Feltman Professor of Modern Jewish History at the University of Hartford, where he served as director of the Museum of Jewish Civilization. He is the author of multiple books on Jewish responses to the Holocaust. 

Via Zoom: LIHI BEN SHITRIT, Associate Professor of Israel Studies at NYU and Author of The Gates of Gaza: Critical Voices [Palestinian and Israeli] from Israel on October 7 and the War with Hamas (2024)

Lihi Ben Shitrit is the director of the Taub Center for Israel Studies and the Henry Taub Professor of Israel Studies at the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies. Her research focuses on the intersections of gender, religion, and politics in the Middle East. Her most recent book, The Gates of Gaza: Critical Voices from Israel on October 7 and the War with Hamas (DeGruyter, 2024) gathers reactions by Palestinian and Israeli intellectuals and scholars who are deeply grieving and affected following the horrific attack on October 7, but who unite in their criticism of Israeli government policies. This chronicle of unfolding events, written within months of the Hamas attack, track an emerging discourse in Israel that seeks to hold both Palestinian and Israeli pain and aspirations not as mutually exclusive, but as an impetus for creating a better and more equitable future for all who inhabit the land.   

Via Zoom: DAHLIA SCHEINDLIN, journalist, public opinion expert, international political and strategic consultant and author of The Crooked Timber of Democracy in Israel: Promise Unfulfilled (2023)

Dahlia Scheindlin is a political scientist, a public opinion expert, and a political consultant. She has advised nine national election campaigns in Israel since 1999 and has worked in fifteen other countries as well. In Israel, her research focuses on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, foreign policy, democracy, human rights and civil rights, political analysis, and comparative conflict analysis. Dr. Scheindlin has regional expertise in the Balkans and Eastern Europe, post-conflict societies and transitional democracies. She holds a PhD from Tel Aviv University; she is a policy fellow at The Century Foundation, a regular columnist at Haaretz (English), and a foreign affairs analyst on the BBC television program, Context; she is among the founders of +972 Magazine and has co-hosted several podcasts including the Tel Aviv Review of Books and Election Overdose. She lives in Tel Aviv. 

Session 3: How does the Media Shape Perceptions of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict?

Moderator: MARIE SHANAHAN, Head of UCONN Department of Journalism

Marie K. Shanahan is an associate professor at the University of Connecticut and head of the Department of Journalism. Her academic research and teaching focus on the intersection of journalism and digital communication technology. Prof. Shanahan studies trends in digital discourse — particularly, online commenting on news sites and social media, news literacy, misinformation and local news engagement. 

ANNAFI WAHED, Founder and CEO of The Flip Side, an online news aggregator intent on bridging the gap between liberals and conservatives

Annafi Wafid has a broad array of experience spanning the federal government, non-profit, political, and private sectors. In 2016, she left her role as a Senior Consultant at Ernst & Young to join the Democratic campaign. Walking door to door, she saw firsthand how next-door neighbors could be completely isolated from one another by the media they consume. Annafi launched The Flip Side as a passion project in 2017 and has since spearheaded each new stage of the venture. 

AMY MITCHELL, Executive Director, Center for News, Technology & Innovation, former Director of Journalism Research at the Pew Research Center

Amy S. Mitchell is the founding Executive Director of the Center for News, Technology & Innovation. Prior to her role at CNTI, Mitchell served as Managing Director of News and Information Research at the Pew Research Center. In her 25 years with Pew Research, Mitchell helped launch the journalism research program and served as managing director since 2010, responsible for the Center’s research related to news and information, including how the public accesses, engages with and creates news, what news organizations are providing, and the evolving role of technology in the flow of news and information. 

Jewish and Muslim faculty at HIU will share and compare newsfeeds as part of this session.

Session 4: The Future: Can We Hold Open a Space for Peace?

Moderator: JOEL LOHR, President of Hartford International University for Religion and Peace

Joel N. Lohr is President of Hartford International University for Religion and Peace and an award-winning author, scholar of religion, and passionate leader in interreligious relations and higher education. He has held teaching appointments at Trinity Western University in Vancouver, Canada, and most recently at University of the Pacific in Stockton, CA, where he also served as Dean of Religious Life. President Lohr’s teaching and research has focused on the Bible, specifically the Torah/Pentateuch, as well as Jewish-Christian relations and dialogue, interreligious dialogue, and intercultural competence, diversity, and leadership in higher education. 

Via Zoom: MIRA SUCHAROV, Professor of Political Science at Carleton University, expert on Israeli-Palestinian relations

Mira Sucharov is Professor of Political Science at Carleton University, where she has developed courses in Israeli-Palestinian relations, op-ed writing and social media engagement, graphic novels and political identity, and Netflix and politics. She is currently writing a dual travel-memoir with Omar M. Dajani on space, place and emotion in Israel/Palestine, and they are developing a podcast on the past and future of Jaffa, called “The Vacant Lot.” She is also a frequent media commentator, having appeared on CBC, CTV, Global News, Agence-France Press, and NPR affiliate KDNK; and having been quoted in Vox, The New York Times, Buzzfeed, The Globe and Mail, The National Post and Al Jazeera. In 2019, she won the Faculty of Public Affairs award for Excellence in Public Commentary. Dr. Sucharov is a nine-time teaching award winner, including having won the highest university teaching award in Ontario and the founding co-chair of the Jewish Politics Division at the Association for Jewish Studies, and is immediate past co-editor of AJS Perspectives. 

Via Zoom: OMAR DAJANI, Professor of Law, University of the Pacific, legal advisor to Palestinian delegation in 1999 peace talks

Omar Dajani is professor of law at the University of the Pacific and co-director of the law school’s Global Center for Business & Development. Recognized as a leading expert on legal aspects of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, in 1999, Professor Dajani was recruited to serve as a legal adviser to the Palestinian negotiating team in peace talks with Israel, ultimately participating in the summits at Camp David and Taba. He then joined the office of the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process (UNSCO), where he worked on peacebuilding initiatives and played a lead role in marshaling and organizing international efforts to support Palestinian legal and political reforms. His current research focuses on what’s next for the states of the Middle East. He is exploring the status and protection of ethnic and religious minorities and considering the extent to which federalism and other forms of decentralization offer solutions to ethno-national conflicts in the region.