Human Rights Amid Violent Conflict: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Events in Israel and Gaza is a panel discussion that will try to provide an academic space and context for those seeking to think and learn, as we are all witnessing heart-breaking violence and response in Israel and Gaza. Our goal is to offer academic contexts and input for thinking about the current moment, asking each forum participant to speak about: What sets of academic knowledge and frameworks are you drawing on as you follow the news from afar? What scholarly expertise can help us understand better the complexity of actors, institutions, interests, and international structures shaping events on the ground and what happens next?
Panelists include: Julia Santucci, Senior Lecturer in Intelligence Studies, Director of the Johnson Institute for Responsible Leadership and Frances Hesselbein Leadership Forum at Pitt's Graduate School for Public and International Affairs (security and human rights and the challenges policymakers face);
Michal Friedman, Assistant Teaching Professor & Jack Buncher Professor of Jewish Studies, History at Carnegie Mellon University (human rights activism within Israel);
Mohammed Bamyeh, Professor of Sociology at the University of Pittsburgh (Gaza, & its diverse actors and challenges & human experience );
Catherine Koverola, Director of the Center for African Studies (trauma and the course of violent conflict)