Academic Panels & Roundtables

Panels & Roundtables

Scholars as Bridge Builders works to create complex and nuanced discussions about Israel on campus. It does this by bringing in interesting speakers on a variety of topics related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts such as Women and the Conflict, Public Opinion in Israel-Palestine, Water and Desalination in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and more. Since its inception, the program has held over 55 events and has interacted with over 825 NYC faculty members at faculty-only events including panels on 12 NYC campuses. The campuses include: Hunter College, College of Staten Island, Brooklyn College, New York University, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Fordham University, Queens College, Columbia University, CUNY Graduate Center, CUNY Central Offices, Lehman College, Baruch College, SUNY Global Center, and other locations. Most events were co-sponsored by various academic departments and were organized and attended by faculty and administrators. During the pandemic, Scholars as Bridge Builders held a series of webinars that continued the conversation around Israel-Palestine. Watch them here.

 

A Sample of Our Past Programs:

October 2019 - From Coexistence to Shared Society: The Evolving Political Identity of Arab Citizens in Israel

Discussion events with Mohammad Darawshe, the Director of Planning, Equality, and Shared Society at Givat Haviva Educational Center and a Shalom Hartman Institute faculty member. The events focused on discussions regarding current affairs and analyzing the results of the recent elecctions and their ramifications to Jewish-Arab relations within Israeli society. Events were held at NYU, CUNY Central, and Queens College.

October/November 2018 - 25 Years After Oslo

Discussion events regarding current Palestinian and Israeli public opinion of the peace process with Prof. Khalil Shikaki, Director of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in Ramallah and visiting professor at Brandeis University, and his partner in research Prof. Tamar S. Hermann, Academic Director of the Guttman Center for Surveys at the Israel Democracy Institute and a professor at the Open University. Events were held at Hunter College, New York University, and Brooklyn College.

September 2018 - Diversity and Inclusion in Higher Education: The Case of Palestinian Citizens of Israel

Lecture and dialogue with Prof. Mona Khoury-Kassabri, Dean of the Social Work School in the Hebrew University, and Dr. Sarah Ozacky-Lazar, Director of the Forum for the Promotion of the Arab Society in the Israeli Academia, Van Leer Jerusalem Institute. Events were held at the College of Staten Island, Teachers College at Columbia University, Queens College, and New York University.

May 2018 - Sand Storm

Film screening followed by a discussion about Bedouin and Gender in Israel with Dr. Safa Aburabia, a post-poctoral Fellow in the Anthropology Department at Harvard University and a Fulbright and Israel Institute Fellow. Event was held at the CUNY Graduate Center.

January 2018 – 400 Miles to Freedom: A journey from Ethiopia to Sudan, Israel and NY

Film screening and cocktail dinner, with conversation with the directors Avishai Mekonen and Shari Rothfarb Mekonen about their personal story and racial diversity in Judaism. Event was held at New York University.

November 2017 - Jerusalem Beyond Borders: Deconstructing the Political from the Functional

Lecture and dialogue featuring Nizar Farsakh, former general director of the PLO Delegation in Washington, D.C. and Middle East expert, and architect Karen Lee Bar-Sinai, co-founder and design director at SAYA/Design for Change – and organization which envisions and designs for peace through “resolution planning,” with Professor Jacqueline Klopp, Earth Institute, Columbia University as moderator. Event was held at Columbia University.

May 2017 - Education for Peace in Israel

Discussion events with Dr. Hassan Agbaria, Pincipal of Yad Beyad – Gesher al HaWadi (Hand in Hand – A Bridge Over the Wadi), an Israeli public (bilingual) school with an integrated Arab-Jewish student population; and Mr. Yaniv Sagee, CEO of Givat Haviva – the Center for a Shared Society in Israel. Events were held at Roosevelt House/Hunter College, College of Staten Island, New York University, Columbia University/Teachers College, and Queens College.

November 2016 - Is Peace Possible? The Israel/Palestine Pulse

Featured Professor Khalil Shikaki, Professor of Political Science and Director of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, and Professor Tamar Hermann, Professor of Political Science at the Open University and a senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute. Events were held at the College of Staten Island, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY Graduate Center, New York University, and Fordham University.

October 2016 - Birds Know no Boundaries: Birds as Peacemakers

In the Middle East featured Professor Yossi Leshem of Tel Aviv University. Events were held at the College of Staten Island and New York University.

September 2016 - Women Wage Peace

Featured Vardit Kaplan and Amal Rihan (AbuRamadan) from the Women Wage Peace movement. Events were held at the Roosevelt House at Hunter College, the College of Staten Island, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and Fordham University.

May 2016 - The Future Jerusalem/Al Quds: Urban Design in the Face of Uncertainty

Featured Ofer Manor, Chief Architect, Jerusalem Municipality, Karen Lee Bar Sinai, Architect and Urban Designer and Co-Founder, SAYA/Design for Change, Quilian Riano, Architectural and Urban Designer, City college of New York, Part-time Assistant Professor, The New School and Founder, DSGN AGNC, and was moderated by Jeff Maskovsky, Associate Professor of Anthropology, CUNY Graduate Center and of Urban Studies, Queens College.

October 2015 - The Future Directions for Israelis and Palestinians: Is the Two-State Solution Dead? What is the Alternative?

Featured Professors Shai Feldman, Judith and Sidney Swartz Director of the Crown Center for Middle East Studies and professor of Politics at Brandeis University, and Khalil Shikaki, Director of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in Ramallah and Senior Fellow at the Crown Center for Middle East Studies at Brandeis University. Roundtables were held at Brooklyn College, Hunter College, New York University, and the College of Staten Island.

For more information about Scholars as Bridge Builders, contact our team.