Paper at AIS 2013

Earlier this week I presented a paper at the Annual Association for Israel Studies conference at UCLA. The panel was entitled, Emotional and Philosophical Motivations in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and its Resolution. My paper, in turn, was “Giving Without Receiving? Justifying Unilateral Territorial Withdrawal in Israeli Politics.” If you are interested in the paper or the presentation materials, please let me know. Check out an abstract after the jump.

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Paper and Panel at ISA 2013

Next week, Thursday, April 4 at 1:45 pm, I will be speaking on a panel at the upcoming International Studies Association conference in San Francisco. The panel, entitled “Defending the Homeland: Territory & National Identity,” will explore the idea of homeland as a political, social, and cultural construct and how the definition of such a space impacts state territorial policies.

I am very excited to be joined by six esteemed colleagues from a diverse range of backgrounds, methodologies, and theoretical approaches. After the jump, you can find our panel abstract as well as my own paper abstract. For those of my colleagues, log on to the myISA system and check the annual conference program, or send me an email. Hope to see you in San Francisco!

Panel and Paper at AJS Conference

Next week, I will be making a quick trip to Chicago for the annual conference of the Association for Jewish Studies from December 16-18.

I am fortunate to be joining a panel of very talented academics including Arnon Golan, Rachel Havrelock, Jacob Lassner, and Yael Zerubavel to discuss the place of the Land of Israel in contemporary Israeli national memory and politics. I have included the panel abstract and my paper abstract after the jump. For a full listing of our panel and the AJS conference in general, click here.

Presentations at ISA and MPSA

Over the last month, I have been traveling in the United States visiting friends and family and attending academic conferences. In particular, I spoke at this year’s annual International Studies Association conference in San Diego and gave a poster session at the Midwest Political Science Association meeting in Chicago.

For both conferences, I presented what will hopefully become a chapter of my dissertation. It examines the results of an experiment I conducted last year in Israel on political narratives and popular attitudes toward territorial compromise in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Those with access to the MyISA database can read the paper here. If you do not have access but would like to read it, please contact me by email. If you would like to see the post, contact me by email for a copy in compressed form. The abstract can be viewed after the jump.

Panel and Paper Accepted for ISA 2012 in San Diego

I am thrilled to report that I will be attending next year’s annual International Studies Association Conference in San Diego as a panel chair and presenter. This conference brings me full circle from my first ISA conference in San Diego in 2006, when I was doing my Master’s degree at the University of British Columbia, to what I hope will be my final year as a Ph.D. candidate at Northwestern University in Chicago.

The panel, entitled “Nationalism, International Recognition, and Domestic Legitimacy,” will will take place on the first day of the conference, Sunday, April 1, at 1:45 p.m. Participants include senior and junior scholars as well as advanced graduate students who have an interest in the place of nationalism in global and domestic politics. My paper, “Security or Identity? State and Homeland in Israeli Politics and Public Opinion” will draw on the research I have been conducting over the last year in Israel. I have included abstracts for the panel and my own paper after the jump. My colleagues’ abstracts can be viewed through the ISA conference website panel link here.

Conference: Israeli Sovereignty in Judea and Samaria

On Thursday, I attended a conference put on by the Women in Green in cooperation with Arutz 7,  Professors for a Strong Israel, and the Machpela Visitors’ Center in the Machpelah Visitors’ Center next to the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron. The conference was entitled “Regaining the Initiative: Applying Israeli Sovereignty Over Judea and Samaria” or in Hebrew: היוזמה בידינו: ריבונות ישראל ביהודה ושומרון, meaning “The Initiative is in our Hands: Israeli Sovereignty in Judea and Samaria.” 

The event was attended by hundreds of people from all around the country, largely of a religious demographic, to explore the idea of how and why formal Israeli sovereignty should be extended over the entire contested West Bank. Speakers included Ministers of Knesset Tsipi Hotovely (Likud) and Aryeh Eldad (Ichud Leumi), journalists Caroline Glick (Jerusalem Post) and Eran Bar-Tal (Makor Rishon), former diplomatic Consul to the United States Yoram Ettinger, and Professors Dr. Rafi Yisraeli, Dr. Yitzhak Klein, and Dr. Gabi Avital, and was moderated by Women In Green co-chairs Nadia Matar and Yehudit Katsover.

Quick Update: Conference, Grants, and Bloomsday

Time for another quick update:

I am thrilled to report that our conference, The Middle East in the 1950s – Historical Perspectives: Israel, the Arab World, and the Great Powers, was a huge success. On Sunday evening, the McCormick Tribune Forum at Northwestern was packed to the gills to hear the keynote address by Professor William Roger Louis, a renowned historian of the late British Empire. On the two days that followed, our venue at Hardin Hall was again filled to capacity. Faculty, students, and members of the broader community alike turned out to hear our 17 participants illuminate us with their insights regarding the historical impact of the developments of 1950s on the contemporary Middle East.

In personal professional developments, I am also excited to report that I have received funding from at least three sources to support my research: the new Crown Family Middle East Research Travel Grant awarded through BCICS, the Graduate School’s Summer Language Grant, and the Dispute Resolution Research Center’s Research Grant. With generous support from these Northwestern University institutions, I will be able to spend a considerable amount of time in Israel next year doing fieldwork. More on this as things develop.

Finally, I will be heading out of town this weekend to visit my folks in Spokane, Washington and will be running the annual Lilac Bloomsday Run. I have not done this 12k race in about 9 years, and I thought it was about time I get back in the habit. It should be a great time. With over 50,000 runners, wheelchair racers, joggers, and walkers, I hope I don’t get lost. Thanks as always for reading!