Two field trips
In recent weeks the students in the Peace and Conflict Management Program had the opportunity to enjoy 2 field trips, which provided insights into some of the complex conflicts in the region:
On 4th of January, the students from the class Community Conflict and Civil Society, with the professor Harry Frey were on an academic visit to the city of Akko, very close to Haifa, where they had the opportunity to explore and experience the territory from the perspective of local leaders and habitants of the area. Akko is a mixed Jewish-Arab city and the purpose of the visit was for the students to identify the opportunities and challenges that this community has in relation to the social development of the city. The students were invited to reflect on how they, as future peace builders, would face the different challenges that they identify in order to improve the quality of life from all the different populations that live and share the city of Akko.
A few days later, the students from the Peace and Conflict Management Program MA and Diplomacy MA accompanied by Professor Edward (Edy) Kaufman, had the opportunity to walk and experience the city of Haifa from an academic point of view. The tour was carried out with the objective of getting to know the different dynamics and cultures of the people who live in this city and the interaction between them. The field trip leads them to visit the Ahmedian Mosque and talk with one of the leaders, the Beit Hagefen, a well known and a great example of a Community Center in Israel that shares and strive for shared living, working with Arab and Jewish population, a guide tour though Wadi Nisnas neighborhood their history and context. The students and academic companions were also able to stop by the Municipality in Hassan Shukri and get to hear more from their historical main aspects and actual context of the city. Finally, the day ended at the Baha'i World Center, having the complete experience with a walking tour through the gardens, seeking for an open dialogue with some volunteers from the Baha'i faith, sharing their beliefs and identifying shared values that we all have as human beings.
As part of the holistic formation that the Peace and Conflict Management Program is seeking for their students, the field trips are created to help students apply what they learn in the classroom and have the opportunity to identify complex social conflicts in the real and tangible context, having a more rounded approach and developing their leadership, empowered to think how they can add value if intervening as a Peacebuilder/ Conflict Specialist.
On November 21, 2022, the Program in Peace and Conflict Management at the University of Haifa held a conference on the occasion of the release of a study conducted by Dr. Rolly Rosen under the supervision of Dr. Keren Sharvit and Dr. Ran Kuttner, entitled “Breaking Down the Walls: Municipal response to the May 2021 riots in Haifa and lessons for managing a shared city”. The study, conducted in collaboration with Abraham Initiatives, a central NGO focusing on Jewish-Arab relations in Israel, aimed at understanding the dynamics that led to the outbreak of the violent events and their decline; and formulating recommendations to prevent the occurrence of similar events in the future. The conference included a presentation of the study, an academic panel, and roundtables in which participants discussed the recommendations and took part in thinking about future steps. An upcoming follow-up project will include convening key stakeholders from relevant organizations and the public for the joint implementation of the recommendations, thus offering a model for building infrastructure and capacities in mixed Jewish-Arab cities to prepare and better manage possible future escalations. To read the complete study, in Hebrew and Arabic (summary in English in the last 18 pages) Press Here
As part of the extra-curricular activities of the MA Program of Peace and Conflict Management, there are some specific spaces generated for guest-lectures, experts in different topics and fields related to the challenges and applicability of the topics learned during the semester. On Monday 11th of December, the professor Edward Kaufman, led the lesson of Continuity and Change in the Field of Conflict Resolution/ Management/Transformation: A personal reflection. The purpose of the lecture was to point the transition from a new groundbreaking field into a well established discipline & profession, offering an introspection of the lessons learnt and also best practices developed over time.
Dr. Sharvit joined The Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Haifa in 2010, as part of the process of creating the new MA Program in Peace and Conflict Management (PCM). Since then she has served as a faculty member in the PCM program as well as in the School of Psychological Sciences, and was the head of the PCM program between 2014 and 2021. Prior to joining the University of Haifa, Dr. Sharvit spent one year as a postdoctoral fellow at the Swiss Center for Conflict Research Management and Resolution, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and two additional years as a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park. Her research focuses on social-psychological processes involved in intergroup conflicts, especially intense and protracted conflicts. Some of her specific research topics include the roles of emotions and their regulation, moral reasoning, categorization processes and societal beliefs and ideologies in situations of conflict, as well as the individual and collective implications of being victims and perpetrators of violence.
