The second annual Gaza symposium, this year jointly organized by MIT and Harvard, will host a series of panels on the role of U.S. and international actors, as well as human rights and international humanitarian law in the wake of recent events in Gaza. Bringing together experts in the fields of human rights, history, political science, U.S. foreign policy and law, the two-day symposium will include a range of views from US, Israeli, Palestinian and UN/NGO perspectives.

Monday, March 30, 2009
U.S. Foreign Policy and Gaza
Wong Auditorium, MIT Bldg E51, 70 Memorial Drive, Cambridge (Map)

1:30 - 3:30 PM
Welcome and Introduction
John Tirman, Executive Director of the Center for International Studies, MIT
A View from Gaza:
Congressman Brian Baird, Representative, Washington State (D-03)
Moderator: Nancy Kanwisher, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at the McGovern Institute, MIT
Gabriel Piterberg, Professor of History at UCLA
Irene Gendzier, Political Science Professor at Boston University
Karma Nabulsi, Lecturer in International Relations at Oxford University and former PLO representative 
 

4:00 - 6:00 PM
Going Forward
Moderator: Leila Farsakh, Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts Boston
George Bisharat, Professor of Law at UC Hastings College of Law
Meron Benvenisti, former Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem
Barry Posen, Director of the MIT Security Studies Program
Henry Siegman, Director of the U.S./Middle East Project 
 

Tuesday, March 31, 2009
International Organizations and Gaza 
Austin Hall, Harvard Law School, 1515 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge (Map) 
 

1:30 - 3:40 PM
Welcome and Introduction
Hilary Rantisi, Director of the Middle East Initiative, Harvard Kennedy School
A View from Gaza
Sami Abdel Shafi, Writer and co-founder of the Emerge Consulting Group in Gaza
Rami Khouri, Director of the Issam Fares Center at the American University of Beirut
International Law & Human Rights
Moderator: Susan Akram, Clinical Professor at Boston University School of Law
Richard Falk, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories
Anat Biletzki, Former chairperson of B'Tselem—Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories and Professor of Philosophy at Tel Aviv University
Craig Mokhiber, Deputy Director of the New York Office for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights 
 

4:00 - 6:00 PM
Reconstruction of Gaza 
Moderator: Steven Caton, Director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard
Sara Roy, Senior Research Scholar at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard
Husam Zomlot, Visiting Fellow at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard and Palestinian Diplomat
Andrew Whitley, Director of the Representative Office of UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA)
William Corcoran, President of American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA)

The official web site for the second annual Gaza symposium, including all updates, is located here. 

Sponsors at MIT: The Center for International Studies and its Program for Human Rights and Justice
Sponsors at Harvard: The Middle East Initiative at the Harvard Kennedy School; The Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Faculty of Arts and Sciences; University Committee on Human Rights Studies Human Rights Program at the Harvard Law School