Yael Warshel

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Doctoral Candidate in Communication, UC San Diego
Dissertation Title: How do you teach Children that Terrorists, Armies and the Police Can Live Together Peacefully?
Advisor, Daniel Hallin. Expected Completion Date: 2008

MA in Communication, Annenberg School, University of Pennsylvania

BA study in Still Photography, USC School of Cinema-Television

BA In Interdisciplinary Studies, UC Berkeley

Yael Warshel examines the relationship of communication technology to identity conflict, and asks what the field of communication can contribute to the management of conflict. Regionally, her research emphasizes Africa and the Middle East.

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.

“It’s all about Tom and Jerry, Amr Khaled and Iqra, Not Hamas’s Micky Mouse: TV Viewing Among Palestinian Children and Their Parent’s Related Preferences.” Paper to be presented to the Middle East Studies Association, Washington D.C., 2008

“How Contact Alters Mass Communication Efforts to Teach Peace,” Paper Accepted to the International Conference on Education for Peace and Democracy, sponsored by the Israel-Palestine Center for Research and Information (IPCRI), Antalya, 2006.

"Designing and Evaluating Peace Communication Curricula to Help Overcome Challenging Times," Paper presented to the International Studies Association-West Annual Meeting, Las Vegas, 2006.

“Coverage of the Arab-Israeli Conflict: Lessons Learned from Western European and American Journalistic Practices During the Oslo Period,” Paper accepted to the Association of Israel Studies, Banff, 2006.

Participant in the Israeli Oasis of Peace & Palestinian Center for Conflict Resolution and Reconciliation media professionals peace-building workshop, Dead Sea, Jordan, 2005 (by invitation).

"New Measures for Evaluating the Efficacy of Using ICTs to Manage Conflict," Paper presented to the Israeli Communication Association, Be'er Sheva, 2005.

"'Where is the Arabic?' : Television Programming for the Arab/Palestinian Child Minority in Israel," Paper presented to the Association for Israel Studies, Arizona, 2005.

"Jewish-Israeli Childhood Constructions of Arab and Palestinian National Identity." Paper presented to the 20th meeting of the Association for Israel Studies, Jerusalem, 2004

"Peace Building Television, Children and Stereotype Formation in the Arab Israeli Conflict." Paper accepted to the 3rd meeting of the Global Fusion Consortium, Austin, 2003.

"Israeli-Jewish Children Use Palestinian-Israeli Sesame Street to Escape." Awarded paper presented to the International Communication Association, San Diego, 2003.

"Balancing Digital Justice and Security." Paper presented to the 2nd Meeting of the MIT/USC/UCSB Race in Digital Space Initiative, LA, 2002.

"Early Innovations in Technology: Communication Through the Talking-Drum." Paper presented to the 42nd Meeting of the African Studies Association, Philadelphia, 1999.

"Channeling Conflict." Paper presented to the 20th meeting of the International Association of Mass Communication Research, Leipzig, 1999. (PDF)

"Zimbabwe: The Baobab and Democracy." Collection of photographs exhibited in Berkeley, 1996.

Books:
Elihu Katz w/ Yael Warshel (Eds.). Election Studies: What's Their Use? Boulder, Co: Westview, 2001.

Articles:
Donald Ellis and Yael Warshel. The Contributions of Communication to Peace Education, To appear in Gavriel Salomon and Edward Cairns (Eds.). Handbook of Peace Education. NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

"'As Though There is Peace:' Opinions of Jewish-Israeli Children About Watching Rechov Sumsum/Shara'a Simsim Amidst Armed Political Conflict." In Lemish, D. and Gotz, M. (Eds.) Children and Media at Times of Conflict and War, Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, 2007.

"Surrogate Languages: Alternative Communication" in Phillip M. Peek and Kwesi Yankah (eds.) African Folklore: An Encyclopedia. New York, NY: Routledge, 2004.

"'Dear BBC'; Children, Television Storytelling, and the Public Sphere", by Maire Messenger Davies (book review)." The Journal of Communication 53 (4), December, 2003.

"Concerns of Indigenous People are Focus of UN Panel," UNESCO News, October 1996.

Visiting Fellow, Center for Research on Peace Education, University of Haifa

Visiting Fellow, Department of Communication, Tel-Aviv University

Research Assistant, Department of Communication, UCSD (directed by C. Padden)

Research Assistant, Annenberg School, University of Pennsylvania (directed by E. Katz)

Program Researcher, Center for International Development and Conflict Management, University of Maryland, College Park (directed by E. Wilson III)

UC Berkeley-Stanford University John Gardner Fellow, Truman Institute for the Advancement of Peace, Hebrew University of Jerusalem (directed by E. Kaufman and G. Wolfsfeld)

UN Intern, UNESCO (directed by A. Hamad & A. Radolf)

Translator, Discovery Channel (directed by A. Savranskaia)

Photojournalism Intern, Zimbabwe-Inter-Africa-News-Agency (directed by L. Mhaka)

Lecturer, Department of Communication, UCSD

Peace Communication (COSF 175), 2 quarters

Children, Conflict and Media Research Methods: The Israeli Palestinian Case, (COGN 198) 1 quarter

Teacher’s Assistant, Department of Communication, UCSD

Methods of Media Production (COGN 21), 4 quarters

Introduction to Communication (COGN 20), 1 quarter

Malcolm R. Stacey Memorial Full Fees Scholar (two-time recipient)

Award for Outstanding Graduate Research in African Studies from the UCSD African and African-American Studies Research project (AAASRP)

UCSD Department of Communication Dissertation Fellowship

Association for Israel Studies and the Institute for the Study of Israel in the Middle East Dissertation Workshop participant (by juried selection)

Palestinian Studies Fellow (Palestinian American Research Center)

Association for Israel Studies Travel Award (three-time recipient)

Top Student Paper Award in International Communication. Presented by the Intercultural and Development Communication Division of the International Communication Association.

Dorot Foundation Graduate Research Travel Grant (three time recipient)

Annenberg Full Tuition, Travel and Thesis Scholarships

UC Berkeley-Stanford University John Gardner Fellow for Public Service

UC Berkeley Dramatic-Art Dance Fellow