Boston-Based Professor to Give Talk on ‘Political Reconciliation’ in the Middle East

WORCESTER, Mass. – Nir Eisikovits, who teaches at Boston University in its Core Curriculum and is a fellow at the Brookline-based International Institute for Mediation and Historical Conciliation, will give a talk titled "Political Reconciliation — Cases from South Africa and the Middle East" on Feb. 14 at 4 p.m. in the Rehm Library at the College of the Holy Cross. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Professor Nir Eisikovits will discuss theoretical lessons from his study of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa and elaborate on their relevance for the Middle East.

Eisikovits’s research focuses on the moral and political dilemmas that arise in post-conflict settings. His research interests include the possibility of sympathy between enemies, the feasibility of forgiveness in politics, and the comparative benefits of truth commissions and war crime tribunals for societies emerging from prolonged conflict.

Eisikovits has published several articles, including "Forget Forgiveness: On The Benefits of Sympathy for Political Reconciliation" and "Moral Luck and the Criminal Law." He has also written numerous op-ed pieces on the Middle East conflict for various American newspapers and weeklies.

The event is the fifth of a six part series titled "Islam and the West: A Clash of Civilizations or a Search for Common Ground." The series is sponsored by Holy Cross’s Peace and Conflict Studies.