May 17, 2002

Contact: Mary Jane Dunlap, University Relations, (785) 864-8853; Todd Cohen, University Relations, (785) 864-8858.

KU political scientists attending academic conference in Ramallah

LAWRENCE -- Two political scientists from the University of Kansas will attend an academic conference honoring a former colleague in Ramallah near Jerusalem from May 17 to 20.

Deborah J. Gerner and Philip A. Schrodt, both professors of political science who have studied conflict and conflict resolution in the Middle East, are en route to the West Bank to attend "The Second Transformation of Palestine" conference at Birzeit University.

The conference honors the late Palestinian-American Ibrahim Abu-Lughod, a scholar, author and activist who died May 23, 2001, at his home in Ramallah at the age of 72. Abu-Lughod had been a faculty colleague of both Schrodt and Gerner, and he was a doctoral adviser to Gerner when he taught at Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill.

For more than 20 years, Gerner and Schrodt have regularly traveled to the Middle East to research and teach. Gerner has focused on the Arab-Israeli conflict and Palestinian nationalism. The second edition of her book, "One Land, Two Peoples: The Conflict over Palestine," was published in 1994.

In 1995-96, Gerner and Schrodt each received Fulbright grants to study and teach at Birzeit University in Palestine. They are co-principal investigators of a National Science Foundation-funded project that analyzes crisis behavior in the Middle East, the Balkans and West Africa.

At the conference, Gerner plans to speak on U.S. perceptions of Palestinians and why Palestinians have been unsuccessful in articulating their political positions to Americans. Problems the Palestinians encounter include superficial coverage of the issues by U.S. media; general U.S. ignorance of the history of the region and the present reality; and strong recognition of Judeo-Christian cultural traditions in the United States, Gerner said.

Schrodt noted that U.S. policy perspectives on the conflict are increasingly at odds with many other countries. "In the past, most third-world nations have differed with the U.S. on this issue," Schrodt said. "But in recent weeks, a significant split has also occurred between Europe and the U.S. on how to deal with the conflict."

In an article Gerner wrote for the "Washington Report on Middle East Affairs," she described Abu-Lughod as one of the 20th century's most significant and articulate Palestinian-American intellectuals. Born in Jaffa, Palestine, in 1929, Abu-Lughod fled his homeland under siege in May 1948. He immigrated to the United States; earned bachelor's and master's degrees at the University of Illinois and a doctorate at Princeton University; and taught at Smith College and McGill University before going to Northwestern.

He also worked for UNESCO, advised U.S. officials and was a member of the Palestine National Council. After retiring from Northwestern, Abu-Lughod moved to the West Bank. He served for several years as vice president of Birzeit University and at the time of his death was a professor there. His best-known book was titled "The Transformation of Palestine." Birzeit University's graduate program in international studies has been renamed in Abu-Lughod's honor.