Posted on Friday, January 28, 2011
"Building Bridges: Collaboration between Westminster College and Western Galilee College in Israel" will be the focus of Faires Faculty Forum Wed., Feb. 2, at 11:45 a.m. in the Sebastian Mueller Theater of Westminster's McKelvey Campus Center.
The forum is free to the public and will be presented by Westminster College President Dr. Richard Dorman, faculty members: Dr. Michael Aleprete, Dr. Amy Camardese, Dr. William Evans, Dr. Sherri Pataki, Dr. Bryan Rennie, Dr. Yehuda Peled, and Westminster student Rachael Hoffman.
Dorman visited Western Galilee College in Akko, Israel, in May to meet with its president and explore opportunities for collaboration.
Western Galilee College President Dr. Gideon Fishman hosted Dorman for discussions on research collaboration among their respective faculties; student and faculty exchange possibilities; and distance learning opportunities to broaden religious, cultural, and social understanding. Dr. Fishman had visited and lectured at Westminster in 2009.
Accompanying Dorman were Westminster faculty Dr. Michael Aleprete, assistant professor of political science; Dr. William Evans, professor of counselor education and coordinator of the School Counseling Program in the Graduate Program; and Dr. Bryan Rennie, professor of religion and chair of Westminster's Department of Religion, History, Philosophy and Classics.
Western Galilee College is located in northern Israel, near the border with Lebanon. Its diverse student body includes Jews, Muslims, Christians, and Druze.
Dr. Yehuda Peled, an education professor from Western Galilee is teaching as a Fulbright Scholar for the 2010-2011 academic year at Westminster College.
Dr. Amy Camardese, Westminster College associate professor of education, and Dr. Sherri Pataki, Westminster assistant professor of psychology, attended an international faculty workshop at Western Galilee in June.
During the workshop, Pataki gave a panel presentation, "Peace Studies at Westminster College and Its Role in Education Related to Diversity." Camardese and Pataki were among 11 faculty from seven campuses who participated in panels, workshops, and tours of the area. The purpose was to strengthen ties between faculty at Western Galilee College and those in universities and colleges in the Partnership 2000 Central Area Consortium.
Rachael Hoffman, a senior psychology major, is a daughter of Walter and Patricia Hoffman and a graduate of Reynolds High School. She conducted research for her capstone project at Western Galilee over the summer and was accompanied by her faculty adviser, Dr. Pataki.
Hoffman's project is an investigation of implicit and explicit attitudes (i.e., attitudes that a person is not consciously aware of and those that he/she is aware of) toward religious and non-religious individuals. Because she wanted to study this topic in a cross-cultural context, she collected data related to attitudes between religious and secular Jews in Israel. She is in the process of collecting additional data at Westminster.
Faculty Forum was established in 1990 by Dr. Barbara Faires, Westminster professor of mathematics emerita, during her term as Dean of the College and Vice President for Academic Affairs. Faculty members from all disciplines volunteer to present lectures on their current research, artistic productions, and/or scholarship of teaching and learning. Each forum presents new ideas with innovative lecture techniques.
