Hope in the Shadow of the Israel-Hamas War: Lessons and Insights
Hope in the Shadow of the Israel-Hamas War: Lessons and Insights
How does hope for peace form and proliferate in the seemingly hopeless reality of conflict, and why do despair and fear often prevail? And how does hope manifest itself at the societal level? Dr. Adomi Leshem takes on the bold challenge of answering these questions by merging insights from philosophy and social psychology and investigating hope for peace in an intense political context--the intractable, violent conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. Combining the wisdom of more than a hundred years of scholarship on hope with insights from original data collected in conflict zones, Dr. Adomi Leshem offers a novel conceptualization of hope and a standardized way to measure hope in a wide array of contexts. The talk will address the Israeli-Hamas War and evaluate the role that hope can play during times of intense violence.
Dr. Oded Adomi Leshem is a Senior Research Associate at the Psychology of Intergroup Conflict and Reconciliation Lab and The Harry S. Truman Research Institute for The Advancement of Peace, both housed at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Located at the nexus of political psychology and conflict resolution, Dr. Adomi Leshem’s research explores how beliefs about the future shape the political attitudes and behaviors of people mired in conflict. His work has been published in journals such as PNAS, Political Behavior, and the Journal of Conflict Resolution.