Amani Mansour, S-CAR MS Student

Amani Mansour, an S-CAR MS student, was recently awarded the El-Hibri peace education scholarship in October 2014. The award is given to graduate students who demonstrate a commitment to the field of peace education and conflict management. She was one of three people who received a scholarship in the amount of $5,000.

Amani joined S-CAR as an undergraduate student and decided to continue and get a graduate degree, as S-CAR matched her passion and ambition for wanting to help build mutual understanding within polarized communities. In her first year at S-CAR,  Amani took the Dialogue and Difference course and it taught her a lot about the effective role dialogue could have in helping people to understand each other, "to break down harsh enemy images." Amani's research focus is on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and theories involving dialogue, identity, power imbalances, and intractable conflict, that can help resolve the conflict peacefully. "I would like to work on peacebuilding activities in Israel and Palestine when I graduate from S-CAR."  

Amani also wants to help build trust between the U.S. government and governments in the Middle East, while encouraging grassroots efforts to implement people-to-people contact projects in order to build trust between the citizens of both regions. One of Amani's passions, is to continue to research about conflict theories and introduce new resolution tools. "In my past research projects, I have found literature to be a valuable tool in building understanding between different groups. In the end, I hope to work with others to implement a positive step towards the widespread use of active listening, open-mindedness, and understanding. "