Daniel Terris has been appointed Dean of the Al-Quds Bard College of Arts and Sciences (AQB) in East Jerusalem. Terris has had a long relationship with Al-Quds University (AQU), running programs for more than 20 years that linked Al-Quds and Brandeis University, including workshops for students, projects on improving teaching, women's leadership, and academic administration. In 2016–17, he served as a U.S. Fulbright Scholar in residence at AQU, teaching in the university's M.A. Program in American Studies and has continued to serve during 2017–18 as a visiting professor of American Studies at AQU, advising students on master's theses on topics on education and immigration, and advising the University on developing programs to bring more overseas students to AQU. He is also the creator and leader of the Palestinian American Youth Civic Engagement (PAYCE) project, funded by the Stevens Initiative, which links Palestinian and U.S. university students (including students from AQB) to compare ideas and experiences on young people's political and civic engagement. Terris succeeds Munther Dajani, who served six years as dean.
“We have had a very productive working relationship with Professor Terris since the start of the Al-Quds-Bard program a decade ago, and we are thrilled to have this opportunity to bring to AQB a scholar with such a long, distinguished record of working to bridge the US and Palestinian educational systems,” said Bard Executive Vice President Jonathan Becker.
Daniel Terris received his Ph.D. in the history of American civilization from Harvard University. He is the founding director of the International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life at Brandeis University, where he led the Brandeis Program in Humanities and Professions, which used literary texts to engage thousands of judges and other working professional in issues of values and ethics; and oversaw the development of such signature programs as the Brandeis Institute for International Judges, the Program in Peacebuilding and the Arts, the Educational Network for Active Civic Transformation (ENACT), the Master's Program in Coexistence and Conflict, and the university's Division of Graduate Professional Studies. Dr. Terris has also served as the university's vice president for global affairs, building new connections for Brandeis in Israel/Palestine, India, the Netherlands, and other countries.
An intellectual historian, he has written on race and ethnicity in the United States and international law and justice. His books include Ethics at Work: Creating Virtue in an American Corporation and The International Judge: An Introduction to the Men and Women Who Decide the World's Cases (with Leigh Swigart and Cesare P.R. Romano). His forthcoming book, The Trials of Richard Goldstone, will be published in fall 2018. In addition to his professorial appointment at Al-Quds, he will be a visiting Professor of the Humanities at Bard College.
Rebecca Granato has been named Dean of Academic Outreach of Al-Quds Bard College of Arts and Sciences (AQB) in East Jerusalem. She has been with AQB since its inception in 2009, most recently as Associate Dean. Dr. Granato will continue to serve as a part of the leadership team of the College and will work with Al-Quds Bard and Al-Quds University to advance innovative teaching and curricular approaches throughout the region.
Dr. Granato has also been promoted from Associate Dean of International Studies at Bard College to Associate Vice President for Global Initiatives, helping Bard to promote innovative educational programs in the Middle East and throughout Bard’s international network. “We are extremely pleased that Dr. Granato will continue to work with Bard and Al-Quds and other partners in the region to develop innovative programs centered around the liberal arts and to promote innovative and student centered teaching methods pioneered by Bard’ Institute for Writing and Thinking,” said Jonathan Becker, Bard’s Executive Vice President.
Rebecca Granato received her MPhil from CUNY, MST from Exeter College, Oxford, and PhD in Global History from the interdisciplinary and intercampus program based at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Canada, a consortium between WLU, Waterloo and Guelph. She has taught a range of courses in history, the Core Curriculum and human rights, as well as in the Masters of Arts in Teaching program for in-service teachers in Palestinian schools. Dr. Granato has also been as Associate of Bard College’s Institute for Writing and Thinking since 2004, in which capacity she has developed and delivered faculty trainings at Bard’s international partnership programs, including to secondary school teachers at Bard College in Annandale, Mandalay and Yangon Universities in Myanmar, European Humanities University in Lithuania, the American University of Central Asia in Bishkek, as well as at other institutions around Palestine and in Jordan. As part of her commitment to engaged teaching, Dr. Granato is the founder and co-director of the AQB Center for Teaching & Learning, a lab for innovative pedagogical experiment, where she leads efforts to spread student-centered learning. Her PhD dissertation, entitled A State in Waiting? The Lives of Fatah Political Prisoners, 1967 to 1985, is among the first analyses of the writings of political prisoners and is currently being turned into a book. Prior to coming to AQB, she worked for several years in the Access program at Amideast in Cairo.
