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Joseph Ginat, professor, Departmentof Land of Israel
Studies
Research: Anthropology and Archaeology, Methods and Suggested
Model of Conflict Resolution Between Israel and the Arab
Countries
August 1998-August 1999
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The
1998-99 Israeli program included Joseph Ginat, Ph.D., Professor
of Social and Cultural Anthropology, a widely respected scholar
from the University of Haifa. Dr. Ginat spent a year at the University
of Oklahoma researching and writing about Bisha, the ordeal by
fire practiced in Egypt and the Levant; teaching courses on minorities
and women in the Middle East; editing a book about Syria; giving
public lectures to the academic and local communities; and overseeing
student research projects. Dr. Ginat, a former advisor to Israeli
Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin on Arab relations, is the author
of numerous books and articles on political behavior, dispute
mediation and cultural conflicts in the Middle East.
According to his faculty host, the professor's visit was "a tremendously
enriching and rewarding experience for our university, the Oklahoma
City community, and for me personally." Dr. Ginat's host institution
was so impressed by his efforts that administrators asked him
to remain in Oklahoma to engage in a number of related follow-on
activities. These included developing the University's Center
for Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution, strengthening the institution's
Judaic Studies Program and organizing academic conferences on
the Middle East peace process. His hosts hoped to utilize the
scholar's contacts and knowledge to involve Israeli, Jordanian,
Palestinian, Egyptian, Saudi and U.S. academics in the latter
activity and to initiate exchange relationships with the University
of Haifa in Israel, Bethlehem University under the Palestinian
Authority and Yarmouk University in Jordan.
Dr. Ginat's extended stay has proved productive. The Center for
Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution is currently functioning
successfully and with cooperation from Jordan, Israel and the
Palestinian Authority, as hoped. The center sponsors workshops,
conferences and studies that focus on the Arab-Israeli peace process,
Middle Eastern refugee issues and the exchange of both students
and faculty from participating universities. "The Center is a
unique kind of academic center which has no parallel in the world,"
states Dr. Ginat. "All this would not have happened without the
Fulbright award given to me last year." The center has already
received worldwide attention and media coverage for it's commitment
to "foster a multidisciplinary discussion of contemporary conflicts
among societies, cultures and political entities" around the globe.
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