The Peace and Conflict Studies Department houses innovative thinkers, professors, and students navigating the tumultuous landscape of contemporary news and history. This past semester, I took a course entitled “Contemporary Israel Palestine” with Professor Atshan, the chair of the Peace and Conflict Studies department. Though this is a new department, it is grounded in deep Quaker and Swarthmore history engrained in Quaker ideals of peace. Additionally, Swarthmore was the first higher education college to offer a Peace and Conflict Studies course; “Elements of International Law with special attention to the important subjects of Peace and Arbitration” was offered by Professor William Penn Holcomb in 1888.
My first Peace and Conflict Studies course taken was “Contemporary Israel Palestine,” this past semester. This course provided me and my peers with an interdisciplinary perspective on contemporary Israeli and Palestinian societies and peace movements. Through ethnographic explorations, Professor Atshan emphasized the heterogeneity of these communities and how politics, violence, religion, economics, psychology, and culture shape everyday lives in Israel/Palestine. In addition, my personal analytical and critical thinking skills were greatly challenged, particularly in understanding debates on salient issues that animate the region and interrogating worldviews from across the ideological spectrum. By the end of this course, I left with a more nuanced knowledge of this region, its history, and my personal role in upholding imperialistic thoughts. As an Israeli Jewish student in this class, I learned, relearned, and sat in discomfort while being in this course. Professor Atshan deliberately made every student feel safe and welcome, but also welcomed questions of all perspectives in class.
This class became so formative for me because I underwent a wholly introspective experience, rethinking my thoughts on this region and where my family and its history stood in upholding systemic violence and anti-Palastinian hate. Professor Atshan and I had countless chats in his welcoming office hours and he also brought in a spectrum of speakers for our class, and the greater community of Swarthmore, to hear different voices in this region. As a part of a panel, Professor Atshan brought in speakers who were security specialists, history scholars, art and music teachers, and cultural figures from both overlapping cultures and religions.
After completing this course and registering for a class with Professor Atshan this spring semester, I have had time to look back at the course from a broader perspective. One of the conclusions I have come to regarding this course and the importance of its presence at Swarthmore is that Swarthmore does not shy away from topics seeming to be contemporarily salient or divisive. Swarthmore leans into personal discomfort and hard-hitting topics to create well-rounded and inquisitive students, who can fully say that they have had the chance to meet and converse with students with unalike opinions and thoughts. I am very lucky to have been able to take this course, especially given the current state of this region, and I am extra lucky to have been taking this course at Swarthmore, where this kind of discourse and dialogue is institutionally supported and fostered. This department is an inherently unique one, grounded in interrogation and justice. It is an integral aspect of Swarthmore’s community values and history of civil rights.
