Academic Research is a central focus at the Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace. Each year, over 70 researchers fill the halls of Truman studying the Middle East and different aspects of the Israeli Palestinian conflict. The Truman Institute supports not only veteran academics well known in their fields, but students working on their doctoral dissertation, and post-doctoral students working on new and innovative projects. Through the varied interests of our fellows, much of the work done here is multidisciplinary and even stretches across the traditional barriers of countries and regions to initiate and maintain contacts with other universities, similar institutes as well as individuals. See below a partial list of Truman fellows and researchers.
Research Fellows
Dr. Alexandra Herfroy-MischlerResearch Fellow
Areas of Expertise: Journalism practices, transitional justice, conflict resolution, framing, Terror organization
Dr. Amit SheniakResearch fellow
Areas of Expertise: Science technology and society (STS), innovation processes of emerging/disruptive technologies, international relations and national security policies, cybersecurity
Prof. Amnon CohenResearch Fellow
Former Academic Director
Prof. Arie ArnonResearch Fellow
Areas of Expertise: Israeli-Palestinian political and Economic conflict; History of Macroeconomics; Monetary Theory and Central Banking; Peace economics
Prof. Avraham SelaResearch Fellow
Former Academic Committee Chairman
Areas of Expertise: Arab-Israeli war 1948; Narratives and apology in Israeli-Palestinian conflict; foreign fighters in comparative historical perspective; Palestinian Hamas
Prof. Aziz HaidarResearch Fellow
Areas of Expertise: Palestinian Arab society in Israel (society, economy, politics) and Israeli society, the Arab-Palestinian middle class in Israel
Dr. Batia SiebzehnerResearch Fellow
Areas of Expertise: Religious transformation in Latin America, conversion to Islam, religious "return" in Judaism
Prof. Camelia Suleiman
Research Fellow
Areas of Expertise: Islam and gender; language in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; Muslim poets
Dr. Chen BramResearch Fellow
Areas of Expertise: Anthropology of ethnicity and collective identity, migration studies, intergroup relations, Israeli 'mixed' cities, central Eurasia
Prof. Christian BadenResearch Fellow
Areas of Expertise: Dynamics of public debates; consensus/dissensus formation; conflict narratives; news coverage of violent conflict
Research Fellow
Areas of Expertise: Iran nuclear, sanctions and regional security portfolios; counter proliferation; arms control and dissarmament; counter terrorism; cyber and arms exports.
Dr. Deby Babis
Research Fellow
Areas of Expertise:Migrant workers, onward migration, migration and social media, non profit organizations
Dr. Dikla CohenResearch Fellow
Areas of Expertise: Modern history of Egypt, Palestinian issue, Islamic Jihad in Palestine, Yom Kippur war, Terror organizations
Dr. Fahima Abbas
Research Fellow
Areas of Expertise: Arab middle-class ,strategies for integration in urban spaces such as metropolitan structures and divided cities, spatial inequality, migration and commuting
Mr. Gideon RemezResearch Fellow
Areas of Expertise: USSR/Russia in Middle East, USSR/Russia and Arab-Israeli Conflict, Cold War
Dr. Giora ElirazResearch Fellow
Areas of Expertise: Indonesia, Malaysia, foreign policy, democracy, radicalization, political culture, Southeast Asia, Singapore
Prof. Hagar SalamonResearch Fellow
Areas of Expertise: Personal stories, ethnography, Israeli-Palestinian everyday relations, Israeli-Palestinian relations in material culture
Dr. Henriette Dahan-KalevResearch Fellow
Areas of Expertise: Democracy and Feminism in Israel, Political History of Mizrahim, Peace Activists in Israel-Palestine Conflict, Global climate crisis and ecofeminism
Dr. Ibrahim Hazboun
Research Fellow
Areas of Expertise: Journalism, intergroup conflict, asymmetric conflict, social media and conflict resolution
Ibrahim.hazboun@mail.huji.ac.il
Dr. Isabella GinorResearch Fellow
Areas of Expertise: USSR/Russia in Middle East, USSR/Russia and Arab-Israeli Conflict, Cold War
Dr. Laila Abed - RabhoResearch Fellow
Areas of Expertise: Islam, gender, women rights, Palestine, history , justice
Dr. Leonardo SenkmanResearch Fellow
Areas of Expertise: Inter ethnic relations, religious conversion among non-Catholic minority groups
Dr. Limor Yehuda
Research Fellow
Areas of Expertise:Peace; Ethno-national conflicts; Israeli Palestinian conflict; Democracy; Human rights; Power sharing; International law; Collective equality; Political justice; Nationalism; Northern Ireland; Bosnia; Cyprus
limor.yehuda7@gmail.com
Dr. Lior LehrsResearch Fellow
Areas of Expertise: Peacemaking, diplomacy, mediation, foreign policy, North island, Foreign Policy, Israeli-palatine conflict
Dr. Matthew Simonson
Research Fellow
Areas of Expertise:intergroup contact, cross-ethnic friendships, experiments, social networks, genocide, Balkans, Africa, statistics
matthew.simonson@mail.huji.ac.il
Dr. Mauricio DimantResearch Fellow
Latin American Studies, The Hebrew University
Areas of Expertise: Latin American contemporary political and ethnic history, Latin America and the Israeli-Palestinian dynamics, interregional Latin-Middle East exchanges, global south-south cooperation
mauricio.dimant@mail.huji.ac.il
Dr. Maya de-Vries
Research Fellow
Areas of Expertise: Social media, Israeli -palestinian conflict, digital activism, inter group relations
Dr. Menahem MerhavyResearch Fellow
Areas of Expertise:Iran, Islamic Republic, nationalism, Islamic movements
menahem.merhavy@mail.huji.ac.il
Prof. Moshe MaozResearch Fellow
Former Academic Director
Areas of Expertise: Islam, The Middle East,The Abraham Accords,Hamas, Syria, Temple mount, minorities in the Middle east, Israeli-Palestine conflict
Prof. Naomi ChazanResearch Fellow
Former Academic Director
Prof. Nissim OtmazginDean, Faculty of Humanities
Professor, Department of Asian Studies, The Hebrew University
Member of the Israeli Young Academy of Science and Humanities
nissim.otmazgin@mail.huji.ac.il
Research Fellow
Areas of Expertise: Autoethnography and international relations; emotions and security; critical security studies; the politics of today; deviance and punishment in world politics
Oded.lowenheim@mail.huji.ac.il
Ofer Hadad
Research Fellow
Areas of expertise: News coverage, journalism, media in conflict; Journalism in conflict and war; dilemmas in news coverage in conflict and in war
Ola NabwaniResearch Fellow
Areas of Expertise: Male participation in household duties, work family integration, working from home, Arab women's careers
Dr. Orna CohenResearch Fellow
Areas of Expertise: Arab citizens of Israel, Jewish-Arab relations in Israel, Arab politicians in Israel
Prof. Raphael IsraeliResearch Fellow
Areas of Expertise: Islam: in history, in the Middle East, in the Far East and in the world of Terror
Rawan NasserResearch Fellow
Areas of Expertise: Mental health among indigenous peoples, Nakba studies, historical and continuous trauma
Prof. Raya Morag
Research Fellow
Areas of Expertise:Post-traumatic cinema and ethics; cinema, war, terror, genocide, femininity and masculinity; perpetrator trauma; Israeli and Palestinian second Intifada cinema
Dr. Ronni ShakedResearch Fellow
Areas of Expertise: Hamas, Palestinian society, Palestinian authority, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Palestinian terrorism, ethos of conflict of the Palestinian society, holy places in conflict
Dr. Samira Alayan
Research Fellow
Areas of Expertise: East Jerusalem community, education in East Jerusalem, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in the curriculum, higher education opportunities for students in East Jerusalem
Dr. Shafiq Masalha
Research Fellow
Areas of Expertise: Arab-Jewish encounter in therapy, dynamics of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in psychological terms, dilemmas and coping methods of lecturers with the entry of the political conflict in the lecture hall, parental competence: cultural aspects, empathy and brain activity in the Arab-Jewish encounter
Research Fellow
Areas of Expertise: Visual culture of civil wars, Ethnic minorities and national identity in Latin America, Cultural production of Arab migrants to Latin America, Jewish narratives and Jewish presence in the Iberian Pensinsula
silvina.gesser@mail.huji.ac.il
Dr. Tajread KeadanResearch Fellow
Areas of Expertise: Islamic studies, gender and Muslim law studies, multiculturalism
tajread.keadan@mail.huji.ac.il
Prof. Tsfira Grebelsky Lichtman
Research Fellow
Areas of Expertise: Leadership; gender; conflict management; verbal/nonverbal communication; persuasion; negotiation
tsfira.grebelsky@mail.huji.ac.il
Dr. Yiftach Ron
Research Fellow
Areas of Expertise: Psychology of intergroup conflict, narratives and life stories in conflicted societies, intergroup communication, peacebuilding and intergroup dialogue
Coordinator of the Abba Eban Center
Ambassador (ret.) of Israel to Serbia and Macedonia
Areas of Expertise: Iran
Dr. Yusri HazranResearch Fellow
Areas of Expertise: Modern Lebanon, modern Syria, Middle Eastern minorities, Druze in the Middle East, Shia and Arab society in Israel, Hamas
Dr. Yuval Benziman
Research Fellow
Areas of Expertise: Negotiation; Social perception of conflicts; narratives of societies in conflict
Dr. Zeev LevinResearch Fellow
Areas of Expertise: Central Asia, Caucasus, USSR history, USSR-Russia in the Middle East, Jewish-Muslim interactions
Prof. Zehavit GrossResearch Fellow
Associate Professor, The Hebrew University
Doctoral and Postdoctoral Fellows
Ambreen Ben-ShmuelDoctoral Fellow
Areas of Expertise: Gender, environment and peace organizations
ambreen.benshmuel@mail.huji.ac.il
Bar Rapaport
Doctoral Fellow
Areas of Expertise: Cross-border cooperation in conflict zone, geopolitics of renewable energy, climate and sovereignty, integration of energy systems
Eli Adler
Topic: Using a multimethod approach (questionnaires, behavioral and neural measures) to examine political differences and assess the impact of psychological interventions aimed at promoting conflict resolution and depolarization.
Email: adler20@gmail.com
Eyal Sagui Bizawi
Doctoral Fellow
Topic: Khawaga Cohen – representations of Jews as local-foreigners in Egyptian cinema: 1934-2019
Email: eyalsb@gmail.com
Tal Orian HarelDoctoral Fellow
Areas of Expertise: Social psychology of conflict, social media in conflict, political polarization
Dr. Itschak Trachtingot
Postdoctoral Fellow
Areas of Expertise: Israeli-Arab conflict, ultra-Orthodox society in Israel, acculturation - psychology of groups, intercultural psychology
Lee Aldar
Doctoral Fellow
Areas of Expertise: Political psychology, psychological interventions, intergroup conflict
Maayan Partuch
Doctoral Fellow
Areas of Expertise:Judaism, Nom Orthodox Judaism, Identity, State and religion, Hegemony, Recognition, Dominant Idelogy, Marginalization
maayan.partuch@mail.huji.ac.il
Netta Porzycki
Doctoral Fellow
Areas of Expertise: Labor economics, gender, East Jerusalem economy
netta.porzycki@mail.huji.ac.il
Nitzan Attias
Topic: Who do they think we are? A novel trait theory approach to decrease intergroup hostility by correcting intergroup meta-perceptions
Email: nitzan.attias@mail.huji.ac.il
Nir HassonDoctoral Fellow
Areas of Expertise: East Jerusalem, informal spaces, divided cities, polarized cities, Israeli-Palestinian relations in Jerusalem.
Inbal Moscovich
Doctoral Fellow
Areas of Expertise: Intercultural student cooperation within the academy, multicultural pedagogical teaching practices, readiness for outgroup social contact
Inbal.Moscovich@mail.huji.ac.il
Dr. Ofir Hadad
Postdoctoral Fellow
Areas of Expertise: Law and Politics; National Security; Violent Conflicts; Divided Cities
Email: hadad.ofir@gmail.com
Paz Yaacov
Doctoral Fellow
Areas of Expertise: Urban identity, ethno-national tension, resilience in conflict, mixed cities in conflict
Perle Nicolle-Hasid
Topic: Unraveling the dynamics of radical activism in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict after October 7th
Email: perle.nicolle@gmail.com
Keren Winter DinurDoctoral Fellow
Areas of Expertise: Journalism practices, transitional justice, conflict resolution, framing, peace agreement
Rony Ohad
Doctoral Fellow
Areas of Expertise: Site-specific performance in Jerusalem, political performance, theatre
Dr. Roy Weintraub
Postdoctoral Fellow
Areas of Expertise: History education, historical thinking, historical ethical judgments, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
Nur Kassem
Doctoral Fellow
Areas of Expertise: Palestinians in Israel, language in minority-majority relations, emotion, empathy, diversity
Tali Jaffe-Dax
Topic: How dare you even compare?! Classificatory taboos in national and academic culture
Email: talidax@gmail.com
