Prof. Manuel Hassassian is a Professor of International Politics and Relations. Between 1996-2006 Professor Hassassian served as the Executive Vice President of Bethlehem University. In November 2005 Prof. Hassassian was assigned as the Ambassador of the Palestinian General Delegation to the United Kingdom. His areas of specialization are: comparative politics with emphasis on Middle East politics and Armenian nationalist movement and political theory. He published extensively in both areas, and his latest books are: Palestine: Factionalism In the National Movement 1919-1939 and The Historical Evolution of the Armenian Question and the Conflict over Nagorno Karabagh, Citizenship in the Middle East published by Syracuse University Press (2000). He also published in academic journals on the PLO, the peace process, democracy and elections, refugees and civil society in Palestine.

Professor Hassassian is a member of the editorial board of the Arab Political Science Journal as well as the Palestine-Israel Journal, in addition he was editor in chief of Bethlehem University Journal. Professor Hassassian is a board member of the Center of Non-Violence in Palestine, he is a also member of the Arab Association for Human Rights. Professor Hassassian was appointed by the PA as General Secretary of the Bethlehem District Elections commission 1996. Furthermore, he had been appointed consultant to the Palestinian Ministerial Higher Commission on Church Affairs. He had been participating in second track diplomacy, and had been visiting scholar to many American universities, lecturing on models and practices of conflict resolution and management. In September 1996, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the “Université de Reims”, France, for his academic contributions in the field of political science.

Professor Hassassian is the head of the Jerusalem Task Force in the Negotiations Affairs department. He is the President of the Rectors’ Conference at the Palestinian Ministry of Higher Education. He is also the president of the Palestinian/European Academic Cooperation in Education (PEACE) since 2001.

Organizing Committee

Reinhard Bernbeck, Coordinator of the International Steering Committee
Professor
Department of Anthropology
State University of New York at Binghamton

Brian Boyd
Adjunct Professor
Department of Anthropology
Columbia University

Joan M. Gero
Professor Emeritus
Department of Anthropology
American University

Morag Kersel
SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow
Department of Anthropology
University of Toronto

Susan M. Pollock
Professor
Department of Anthropology
State University of New York at Binghamton

Hamed Salem
Assistant Professor
Department of History and Archaeology
Birzeit University

Yorke Rowan
Senior CAORC Fellow
American Center of Oriental Research

Adel H. Yahya
Director
Palestinian Association for Cultural Exchange

Mahmoud Hawari
Professor
Department of History and Archaeology
Birzeit University, Birzeit, Palestine

Lynn Swartz-Dodd
Visiting Assistant Professor
School of Religion
University of Southern California