Projects / Macalester College,
Beyond Impasse to Dialogue: A Teaching and Learning Initiative on the Middle East Conflict
PI: Dr. Ahmed Samatar, James Wallace Professor and Dean of International Studies and Programming.
Location: Institute for Global Citizenship.
Building upon two well-established initiatives at Macalester, continuing archeological work in Israel and a 2002 Mideast Peace Summit, this project explores the premise that difficult dialogues can be sustained even as they approach or return to impasse. For over a decade, faculty and students have participated in an archeological excavation at Omrit in northern Israel. There they draw upon the expertise of Macalester alumni in the region to deepen their understanding of the current political climate. Macalester has also hosted a Middle East Peace Summit, inviting leading citizen advocates from the region to campus to hold private talks and make public presentations. This project will increase the student cohort participating in the archeological dig and seminars on Middle East peace in Israel in the summers of 2006 and 2007. It will also support a Middle East Peace Summit on campus in the Fall of 2006 and/or 2007. Students who participated in the dig and seminar in Israel will help plan and execute the Summit. This project also supports the creation of courses on citizenship and leadership for the global citizen certificate program to be offered by Macalester’s newly established Institute for Global Citizenship. Select Macalester faculty will also attend on-campus seminars conducted by Middle Eastern scholars in anticipation of three weeks of travel and study in the Middle East as part of the seventh biennial Macalester Faculty Development International Seminar in 2008.