Sammy Smooha

Sammy Smooha is the Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Haifa. His USIP project will explore five states that have national minorities and, while they see themselves as Western democracies, also consider the state to be the exclusive homeland of the ethnic majority. The project will consider how such states keep the peace; whether they are stable; whether minority acquiescence is temporary; whether their regime is changing to another type; and what are the implications of internal conflict for the region. Smooha’s project is based on extensive fieldwork in Israel, Estonia, Slovakia, Macedonia and Northern Ireland.

Smooha is an expert in comparative ethnic relations, democracy, nationalism, immigration, comparative politics, management of ethnic conflicts and Arab-Jewish relations in Israel. He has been teaching at University of Haifa since 1990, in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, and has been Dean of Faculty of Social Sciences since 2006. He has also been instrumental in organizing the University of Haifa’s new Masters Program in Peace and Conflict Management Studies. He has also been a Visiting Professor at UCLA (2005), University of Michigan (2004-2005), Brown University (1987-1989, 1992, 1994) and SUNY Binghamton (1980-1981).

Smooha received his PhD and MA in Sociology from UCLA and his BA in Psychology and Sociology from Bar-Ilan University.

Publications:

• Index of Arab-Jewish Relations in Israel 2004. Haifa: The Jewish-Arab Center, University of Haifa, 2004.
• Autonomy for Arabs in Israel? Beit Berl: The Institute for Israeli Arab Studies, 1999 (Hebrew).
• Arabs and Jews in Israel, Vol. 2: Change and Continuity in Mutual Intolerance. Boulder and London: Westview Press, 1992.
• Arabs and Jews in Israel, Vol. 1: Conflicting and Shared Attitudes in a Divided Society. Boulder and London: Westview Press, 1989.
• The Fate of Ethnic Democracy in Post-Communist Europe. Budapest: Open Society Foundation, 2005 (co-editor, with Priit Jarve)