Shahar Sadeh, a visiting scholar at New York University and an adjunct professor at Columbia University, will present the spring 2017 Ruth Ellen Steinman and Edward J. Bloustein Memorial Lecture, “Environmental Peacemaking in Israel,” on Thursday, March 2, 2017.
The event is cosponsored by the Bloustein School and The Allen and Joan Bildner Center for the Study of Jewish Life. It will be held in the Governor James J. Florio Special Events Forum, 33 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ. It will begin at 4:30 p.m.
Since its establishment, Israel has gone through extensive landscape changes due to rapid development, mass immigration, and population growth. Conflicts and wars have added further challenges in the form of borders, fences, minefields, and scattered military camps. Dr. Sadeh will discuss how creative approaches to environmental challenges can serve as opportunities for cross-border collaborations, diplomacy, and peace-building between Israel and the Arab world.
Dr. Sadeh is a scholar-practitioner in the fields of Environmental Diplomacy and Environmental Peacemaking. She received her Ph.D. from Tel Aviv University and is currently a Visiting Scholar at NYU and an adjunct professor at Columbia University where she teaches environmental politics in Israel. She is an alumnus of the Sustainability Leaders Fellows Program at the Heschel Center for Environmental Learning and Leadership.
Dr. Sadeh is also the Director of the Faculty Engagement Program at the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York (JCRC-NY). She is developing academic relations with NYC faculty members, creating Israel-related events on campuses and leading academic faculty study tours to Israel.
Dr. Sadeh’s interest in the Environmental Peacemaking field is not mere academic; she has been part of the environmental movement and the peace camp in Israel for many years. In 2007 she co-founded and coordinated the “Van Leer Jerusalem Forum on Environment and Regional Sustainability”, which focused on creating and enhancing cooperation between Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian environmental experts, building capacity and deepening the knowledge on shared environmental problems and opportunities.
Shahar worked with many NGOs in Israel and played a part in various environmental initiatives both in local and in regional scale.
The Ruth Ellen Steinman and Edward J. Bloustein Memorial Lecture was established to honor the memory of these two extraordinary individuals. For nearly 19 years, the Blousteins dedicated their enormous energies to Rutgers University. The fund was created in 1988 after Ruth Ellen died following a long and heroic battle with illness. Sadly, there was cause to broaden the purpose of the fund when Edward Bloustein, Rutgers’ beloved president, died suddenly a year later in December 1989. The endowment supports an annual lecture series that is intended to celebrate the values and interests Ruth Ellen and Ed cherished and cultivated throughout their lives, namely the preservation of animal species and the natural environment; the celebration of love, happiness, and laughter as tools of clinical medicine; and the exploration and promotion of humane values.
The event is free and open to the public. Space is limited and RSVP is required by February 20. Click here to RSVP.