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Dr. Sherri Pataki Speaks at International Women's Day Conference in Haifa, Israel.

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Posted on Friday, April 28, 2017

Dr. Sherri Pataki, associate professor of psychology at Westminster College, was invited to speak at the International Women's Day conference entitled “Education for Gender Equality in the Arab Sector as Leverage for Social Change” at the Arab Academic College in Haifa, Israel on March 13. During her visit, Pataki taught several classes of students working towards their master’s degree in education and met with students to discuss ongoing collaborative research projects between the Arab Academic College and Westminster.

Pataki and longtime colleague and collaborator Dr. Randa Abbas, dean of academic affairs at the Arab Academic College, presented research related to balancing work, family, and community roles among Arab women and stereotypes of the “other” between U.S. and Israeli Arab women. 

“Dr. Abbas and I have collaborated on research and teaching for many years, and we continue to teach at each other’s schools whenever we travel between the U.S. and Israel for a conference,” mentioned Pataki.

As a visiting scholar in residence at Westminster in the fall semester of 2013, Abbas co-taught "Psychology of Women" and "Educational Psychology" alongside Pataki and gave multiple talks and classroom presentations. Abbas returned to Westminster as a guest lecturer in "Psychology of Women" and "War and Peace" courses in March of 2017.

Over the years, Pataki has taken four psychology students from Westminster to Israel to collect cross-cultural data for their capstone research and create summer internship experiences for two other psychology majors. 

“I hope to be able to support more faculty and student exchange in Israel in the future,” added Pataki.

For more information, contact Tom Fields at fieldste@westminster.edu or 724-946-7190.