Yael Warshel's front stage identity is that of researcher, dancer and photographer. She is currently pursuing her doctoral degree in the field of communication at the University of California at San Diego in the U.S.
Her current research investigates how Palestinian and Israeli children read and are influenced by the peace communication television programs' "Rechov Sumsum"/"Shara'a Simsim" (Israeli/Palestinian "Sesame Street") and "Sippuray Sumsum" and "Hikayat Simsim" (Israeli and Palestinian "Sesame Stories"). She began the first phase of research for this project in 1999, and is currently writing up her findings from the final stage of field research.
The research, which Warshel conducted with over 550 people across Israel and the Palestinian Authority, explores the television viewing habits of Israeli and Palestinian children, including what programs they watch on Israeli, Palestinian and international, especially Arab Satellite television stations, and their parents' preferences regarding these television viewing habits. Situated in this larger data, Warshel explores what role the Sesame Street programs, in turn, play in trying to build peace between the children. She explores how these children's experiences with the conflict, constructions of their civic and national identities, perceptions of and attitudes towards their partners in conflict' identities, goals towards (resolving) the conflict, and contact with one another, in turn, interact with the peace communication efforts of the "Sesame Street" programs.
Warshel hopes her findings will prove useful for making policy recommendations about the use of communication in building peace between peoples living in situations of ethnopolitical conflict.
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