Michelle I. Gawerc joined Loyola in 2011. She earned her Ph.D. in Sociology at Boston College in 2010. Prior to her doctoral studies, she pursued and completed an M.S.W. at Boston College and a M.A. in International Peace Studies from the University of Notre Dame. Her B.A. consisted of an individually structured major designated as, 鈥淧rejudice and Intercultural Communication鈥� from the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Michelle has a strong scholarly interest in the ways in which people accomplish working
across difference and inequality to advocate collectively for justice and peace. Much
of Michelle鈥檚 past research has focused on joint Palestinian and Israeli coalitions,
movements, and organizations working to advance a just peace in Israel/Palestine.
Her research has considered how Israeli and Palestinian peace activists cultivate
(and sustain) a sense of solidarity and collective identity across lines of conflict
and occupation, and what enables some alliances to survive when others are not. More
broadly, her research explores the sustaining importance of diverse alliances, from
when and why they form, to how they develop and sustain themselves across ethno-national,
ideological, and cultural divides.
Michelle's current research focuses on truth commissions for racial and indigenous justice and transformation in the United States. She's exploring how truth commissions in the United States reckon with the past in a context of 400+ years of systemic racial violence and settler colonialism, and what are their possibilities and limitations for promoting racial justice and social transformation. She recently had of truth commissions in the Global North published in Sociology Compass.
Michelle is a recipient of several honors and awards, including a Fulbright Fellowship,
a Harvard Law School Program on Negotiation Graduate Research Fellowship, and a United
Nations Memorial Fellowship Award from the American Sociological Association's Peace
War and Social Conflict Section.
Michelle鈥檚 intellectual work has been driven by her dedication to peace, justice, and understanding. She has been involved as a facilitator in people-to-people dialogue with teachers and high school students in Israel/Palestine; in German-Polish-Jewish interchanges with young adults in Osweicim (Auschwitz), Poland; and in diversity dialogues with university and secondary school students in the United States. Beyond her involvement in peacebuilding and fostering dialogue across divides, Michelle has worked as a community organizer in New York City, and has lived and served on both the Dine (Navajo) Reservation and in Bahia de Kino, Mexico.
At Loyola, Michelle teaches courses in sociology and global studies including: Introduction to Sociology; Globalization and Society; Conflict and Peace Studies; Social Movements and Social Protest; Israel/Palestine: Conflict Narratives, Media Framing, and Peace-building; and Conflict Transformation and Reconciliation in Divided Societies. She believes strongly in active learning and participatory methods.
Courses Taught
- SC 100 - Introduction to Sociology
- SC 203 - Globalization and Society
- SC 339 - Conflict and Peace Studies
- SC 376 - Israel-Palestine: Conflict Narratives, Media Framing, and Peace-Building
- SC 377 - Social Movements and Social Protest
- SC 441 - Seminar: Conflict Transformation and Reconciliation in Divided Societies
Publications
Book
- , Rowman and Littlefield Publishing Group - Lexington Books division; 2012.
Articles and book chapters
- Sociology Compass 18(2), 1-18; 2024.
- Peace and Change: A Journal of Peace Research 48(10), 1-20; 2023.
- "Constructing a Sense of 'We' Across the Lines of Conflict and Occupation: Joint Peace Movement Organizations in Israel/Palestine" in the , edited by Fatma M眉ge G枚莽ek & Gamze Evcimen. I.B. Tauris; 2022.
- Contention: The Multidisciplinary Journal of Social Protest 9(2), 20-48; 2021.
- co-author David S. Meyer, Contention: The Multidisciplinary Journal of Social Protest 9(2), 64-86; 2021.
- Sociology Compass 15(3), 1-14; 2021.
- Sociology Compass 14(1), 1-15; 2020.
- Bringing Down Divides: Special Issue of Research in Social Movements, Conflicts, and Change Commemorating the Work of Gregory Maney 1967-2017 43, 39-61; 2019.
- Research in Social Movements, Conflicts, and Change 42, 87-112; 2018.
- Peace Review 30(3), 55-363; 2018.
- Social Movement Studies 16(5), 520-534; 2017.
- Mobilization: An International Quarterly 21(2), 193-212; 2016.
- co-author Ned Lazarus, Peace and Change: a Peace Journal 41(3), 386-397; 2016.
- Peace Review 28(1), 108-113; 2016.
- co-author Ned Lazarus, Journal of Peacebuilding and Development 10(2), 68-73; 2015.
- International Journal for Peace Studies 20(1), 35-50; 2015.
- Research in Social Movements, Conflicts, and Change 36, 167-202; 2013.
- Conflict Resolution Quarterly 31(2), 219-225; 2013.
- Peace and Change: A Peace Journal 31(4), 435-478; 2006.